Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1898-02-12
HOW TINE WAS TOLD.
VARIOUS ExPeDlENTs EMPLOYED BE-
FORE THE DAYS or CLOCKS
lie cieus5dra OF the Time of the Second
saroAsnapalus xAs sundial Gifted with
Iastsng ooallties The Hourglass and
Oaner A.ethods Of Telling Time.


sartlasnapalus xaAe sundial Gifted with
Tasting ooalltics- The Hourgiass and
o,her A.ethods Of Telling Time.
The lIrst c,oek in orr sense of the word
seems to lave ueen (ior we are not sure as
. what clocks they We're which in s72
tie Nonetians invented, of which they sent
a sreeAen to Constantinopio) one made
IA la1 fsr Charles v of France. 1t was
6 Ntsy tie one, weighing several hundred
N.eiaht 90 made by converted Arab,
h@;..tG lserry dc Vic, and those who are
curious may find full details in Froissart.
This clock was put up in the round tower
~ the palace, and for months vast crowds
assembled to watch the novelty's action
uhd details. 1t is not with this, however,
0r any Of the succeeding efforts of clock
makers that we are concerned, but at far
anterior date with the contriyances by
which men measured time and supplied in
some degree the place of the clock And
hack to remotest ages must we go.
The water clock, otherwise the clepsy-
dra, seems, unless the Psychologists find
something fresh in that land of incessant
discoveries from the most far mists of
Time to have been the first scientific effort
ct noting the hours. A good many people
talk glibly about the clepsydra who neither
know its precise construction nor the ma
tion who have the credit of constructing
it. That belongs to the Assyrian, and as
far back as at least over 1900 years ago
the clepsydra was used in Nineveh under
tho sway of the second Sardanapalus. 1t
was q brass vessel of cylindrical shape,
holding several gallons of water, which
could only emerge through enc tiny hole
In the side. Thus the tricl1ling of tho fluid
marked q certain amount Of timo, and the
water was enlptiod about half a dozen
times ger diem. III Nineveh there was one
at tho palace, and one in each principal
district These were all filed by signal
from Waterman on a tower at the mo-
ment Of sunrise, and each had an attend
ant, whose business was to refill the
clepsydra as soon as it was omptied, the
fact being announced by criers, much as
in the last century the Waterman drowsily
shouted the hours at night throughout the
streets of London. Some i've centuries
later an anonymous genius made great
Improvement by Inserting toothed wheels,
which revolving turned two hands or a
dial in clock fashion, thus showing the
progress Of tho time, which froIn one FILL
ing to olnptying averaged az hours. In
this shape the olepsydra, which was then
chiefly proourable in Egypt, became intro
duccd to various other nations, including
Rome, where it fourished with various
splendid embellishments until the end of
the empire.
The sundial stands next In the order Of
time to the clepgydra. 1t was invented at
Alexandria some FIVE centuries and half
B. @. Unlike the water clock, it dourished
through all the centuries, even unto our
own days, where it fifty adorns many
stately or simple old world garden and
smooth shady lawn. 1t was naturally of
greater constant use in other elimos than
those of our bFumous" isle, from the far
larger amount Of sunshine these enjoyed.
But some fine and famous sundials have
long existed within the realm, and the in
scriptions have not been their least charm
of the past.
During the dark ages the clepsydra
seems to have vanished with the Roman
empire. It's reintroduction into Europe is
due to that hero of our young days, the
Caliph Haroun-al- Raschid, the famous DO
tentate Of Bagdad having sent in the year
607 splendid specimen to Charlemagne
But just about or little before this time
France had hit on another mode of mark
ing time by the invention of the hour
glass, destined to as long an existence as
the sundial. Indeed, properly made, this
was a valuable and accurate timepieee,
provided it was regularly turned
We need not do more than allude to the
habit after the reformation, and especial
ly in Scotland, of preachers measuring
their discourses by the hourglass In the
pulpit. These marked an hour exactly.
Those first made in Charlemagne's day
ran for IL hours. Alfred tho Great hit
upon q method Of measuring time which
shows that there was no Saxon one, though
very probably some of tho monasteries
(then the only homes Of knowledge) were
acquainted with water clocks and hour
glasses, if not by practical knowledge at
any ratio by heaTsay. However, the king
dom in general followed Alfred's plan,
which, though ingenious, necessarily lack
ed anything like the accuracy of the other
inventions. Yet the kings idea was hailed
us wonderful effort of genius, which, for
such an era and by comparison with the
general ignorance, it was. AS every school
boy Tin this case literally knows, Alfred
marked timo by flashlights. A long ex-
istence, by the way. has the rushlight en-
loyed, seeing that middle aged people still
remember its use in the nursery at
night, and tho reflection of the circular
holes in tho tall metal shades on the cell
ing. Alfred, says an ancient authority,
THAT no might properly know how the
hours passed, made use Of burning tapers
which were marked with lines, and fixed
in lanthorns, an ezpedient invented by
himself $50, by the way, were in S92 the
lanthorns of soraped horn, which still
some old fashioned rustics prefer to glass;
But tapers, however, were then very ex-
pensive The king might himself use
these, but probably the rushlight was used
by people in general.
OF all primitive methods Of telling the
time, however, the most curious and
among the most ancient existed in China,
and as the "cyole of Cathay" has reyolyed
unaltered for ages no wonder it IS still in
use there Time was guessed by recourse
TO the harmless necessary cat. BY exam
ination of her eye the Chinaman could
and can make fair shot at the hour by
inspection of the creature S pupil. At noon
1t is said completely to contract, so that
thin hairlike perpendicular line only de-
notes tho pupil, which again after noon
begins to dilate. The floral clock Of Lin
neus is, Of course comparatively modern.
London Standard.