The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-21


the White House One That For
merIy Belonged to Napoleon BO-
nnparte-0Idest Public Timepiece.
Clocks and watches made in this coun-
try are now shipped to all quarters of
the globe where civilization has made
CIR is making its way. For the most part
they are machine-made goods, with which
the foreign manufacturer cannot COM
pete. 1t is estimated by a manufacturer
that about 600 clocks day are made
in the United tates. The export demand
of the past year was the greatest the
manufacturers have known, and they had
not resources sufficient to supply the
whole of it. The shipments aggregated
q value Of nearly $1,SOO, 900. and the clocks
went to every country-even to switzer-
land, where the cEock-making industry
has long been very active.
There is one concern in Connecticut
that turns out two clocks minute, or
1900 day, or 100000 a year; and another
company which manufactures eight clocks
and cheap watches per minute, or 5000
a day. or 100000 year. In ten months
of 1895 81, 600 worth of clocks and watches
were exported to China and $4,000 worth
to Japan. However, the Japanese are
teaching themselves clock-mal1ing, and in
the corresponding ten months Of the past
year only $4,000 worth of clocks and
watches We're exported to that country.
The demand in China has increased, and
1t is a peculiar fact that nothing but
round or octagon case clocks can be sold
to the Chinese merchants. The Spanish
demand the sharp Gothic" forn-a man
tel clock, with a veneeretS< case and
pendulum movement which was popular
here forty years ago. The Spanish be-
came familiar with them, tried and prov
ed them, and will have no other kind.
OF the $4,000 worth of clocks shipped to
Brazil in ten months of the past year
most were in a similar form, but In
case made for hanging on the wall-not
for mantel, for there are no mantels III
South America. The nickel alarm clock
goes to the mining camps Of Alaska and
the Hudson bay ports of British North
America, and to North Africa and Arabia
even to the tents Of the Bedouins.
1t was an Irishman who went to buy
q clock and when shown one that would
x
'Be iabers, how long would it run if We
wound it?' And it is jolly lrsh lawyer
of Boston, with a handsome resilence
on Beacon street, who has variety Of
costly timepieces in Ills house, no two
OF which agree-the difference in some
cases being hours. When lnterrcgated
in regard to the matter, the owner re-
Piled that 1t was because he did not
want his guests to notice the flight OF
time-which they surely would net as long
as his lively wit had free rein.
LONGTIME CLOCK.
A clock that will run year without
attention is the interesting invention of
an Illinois man. 1t was started going in
1893, and has run ever since. its owner
claims, without any attention from him,
and has kept accurate time. The machine
is the product of many years of labor and
study, and has cost considerable MONEY.
The clock proper is run with a wheel
sixty inches in circumference. From the
outer surface are suspended 120 cups, each
cne-half inch in diameter and one-third of
an inch deep. Each of forty of these
cups, which are successive, contain steel
balls three-eights of an inch in diameter.
Every minute and a half, as this wheel
turns by the weight of these balls, one
of them falls out of it's cup, rolls down an
inclined plane twenty inches long, when,
by it's own weight, it reunites broken
circuit of electricity, and is again ele-
waited by a little car travelling along
steep inclined plane to the top of the
wheel, where it falls into q cup which
stands vertical for short time. After
IL 10
its original station from its own weight.
From the time a bail is dropped into a
cup until it is again dropped into an
other cup it travels thirty-six inches. Thus
the work done by all the balls is equiv
alent to one ball travelling over one mile
a day. The electricity used Is generated
in an ordinary storage battery, which
does not require any attention cor fully
twelve months
The most interesting clock in the White
house from its history, is the clock in the
blue parlor. which was once the property
of Napoleon Bonaparte, who presented it
to Gen. Lafayette, and the latter present.
ed it to Gen. Washington. The frame is
made of alabaster and French gilt
bronze. L has to be wound but once a
month. 1t keeps time today as accurate
ly as when first made. What is known as
the Lincoln clock, purchased when Presi-
an object of interest in the red ROOM
and is of ebony and gold. 1t strikes the
quarters, halves and hours. In Mrs Nc
Kinleys room is a clock which has been
running without intermisson for nearly
thirty years. The clock at the foot of the
stairs leading up to the presidents office
is the one the public generally sees. 1t is
rather modern in construction, of the
regular" pattern, and is very reliable.
The clock in Private Secretary Porter
room is admired for its cathedral gong
rather than anything else but il is a
good clock, and has proved itself such for
the ten or fifteen years 1t has been there.
NUMBERLEss NOVELTIES.
There are numberless novelties IN
clocks put upon the market from time
to. time. A prominent jeweler has In the
front window of his establishment a
clock face which tells the hour of The
day. The hands appear to be connected
in no manner with the works or any rart
of the clock, and yet they move around
the face SO as always to be In the proper
place to tell the time. A look at this
clock conveys to the observer the idea
that there are only dial and two induces
made of aluminium. The minute hand Is
left the natural color of aluminium. the
hour hand Is colored black so as to DIS
tinguish It, A distance is made between
the hour hand in such q position that
it will pass directly over the numerals
on the face of the clock, and the minute
hand is so placed that it will cover a
path further toward the center o. the
dial, and therefore, although being on the
same level the hands do not conflict.
The magical part CT the clock Is the
power which causes these hands to
move around the face OF the dial so as
always to tell the proper time. The feat
is accomplished by having the two imi-