The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1899-06-02
5elrft MisfellunlI.
Rare and Curious Clocks.
BY DR.. WILLIAM PARSON, JR.

To civilized man some exact method
of measuring time is absolutely indis-
pensable, and this is the chief reason,
no doubt, why, from the very dawn OF
civilization, human skill AID ingenuity
have been more persistently and vari-
ously exercised in inventing and con-
structing mechanism for this purpose
than in any other department ofhuman
effort. And the results Of such devils
ing have been, from the earliest ages,
one of the most curious, wonderful and
interesting branches of study and re-
search. From the clypsedras and sun
dials of ancient days down to the most
dainty, beautiful, and marvellous time
piece of modern manufacture, the range
and variety in form, size, complexity
of arrangement, and other features are
almost beyond conception. To anyone
interested in rare and curious mechan-
ical devices there is to-day no place so
worthy of visit of inspection as the
show-rooms of any large manufacturer
and dealer in clocks and watches
There are several such places in New
York city which are veritable art
museums of curious and wonderful
mechanism, and one may spend hours
in them with pleasure and profit.
While the fact of their universal use
has made the production of pieces,
on the whole, profitable field Of enter
prise for inventors and manufacturers,
there has been temptation for inven-
tors of an eccentric turn of mind to put
forth contriyances valuable for nothing
except rs curiosities of mechanism.
Among such must be cassed the Won
derful world clock" eXhibed in New
York about fifteen years ago. 1t was
constructed in Germany, the show-bills
said, "during many years of eNerting
labor" by certain clock-maker. 1t
was truly remarkable piece of work
and it would require almost book to
tell of all the things it would do. 1t
was ten feet high and ten feet wide,
and weighed nearly ton. 1t contained
altogether one hundred and TWENTY-FIVE
movable figures, including group Of
the twelve apostles who struck the
hour on bell, figures representing the
four seasons who appeared at their ap-
prOpriate times, series of pictures
representing the sutterings Of Christ,
and images of the heather gods from
whom the names of the days o. the
week were derived. 1t showed the
revolution of the moon, and the pass
age of seconds, minutes, hours, days,
weeks, and months, and many other
things. The clock was really whole
museum of itself, and was said to be
worth $4,000. What became of it ]
do not know, but it could never be any
thing more than valuable curiosity
\ clock of much the same kind has
been exhibited in Germany recently
the work of Back Forest mechanic
Besides doing everything that CLOCKS
do in the matter of time and calendar,
it shows the time in Berlin, ST. Peters
burg, Madeira, Shanghai, Calcutta,
Montreal, San Francisco, Melbourne,
and Greenwich. Every evening at
eight a young man invites the company
to vespers in an Observation-Disclosures
chapel, where 4 young woman plays
the "Maiden's Prayer" On New
Years eve two trumpeters announce
the fight of the old year and the adj
vent of the new. I'm May a cuckoo