Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-03-26
ANCIENT TIME-MARKERS.
the Hours Before the Days Of
Clocks.

the Hours Before the Days OF
Clocks.
In the United States the oldest time
piece is the famous Endicott sundial,
made in London in 1880, and 1t was
brought to this country the same year
by Governor Endicott at the time he
brought the fleet of ships laden with
immigrants to settle in and around
Salem.
The dial stood for a great number of
years in front of the Endicott mansion
in Salem and was in the hands Of the
family until sixty or seventy years
ago, when it was placed in the care or
the East India Marine society of Sa-
lem. The society held it in trust until
1869, when it came into the possession
of the Essex Institute, where 1t now
rests in a glass case in the museum.
Being unable to reclaim the original,
members of the family have on differ
ent occasions had replicas made In
bronze and placed near their resi-
dences.
The sundial Of King Ahaz, who lived
742 years before Christ, Is the first
dial on record in the world. This dial
was graduated instrument having
degree marks of some kind which
showed the daily course Of the sun.
The Old Testament tells US that 1t
was known in Jerusalem as early as
seven centuries before Christ and the
manner Of it's mention indicates that
it was a novelty in that city at that
time. The sundial took many forms.
| the art of dialing involved mathemat-
| ical problems of considerable COM
plexity, and it is very likely that this
contributed to the knowledge Of math-
ematics which the world possessed at
that early period.
Imperfect sundials were common In
Rome about a century and half be-
fore the Christian era, so common in
deed that, as new inventions nowadays
afford material for the paragrapher,
they were targets for the funny men
Of the period.
The Romans later perfected a SUM-
dial suitable to their latitude, which
was much more accurate. The dial was
later adopted and improved by Europe
an nations, and some very accurate ones
were made by clockmakers throughout
Europe.
A dial, or rather a series Of dials OF
every conceivable description forming
structure, was erected in Whitehall,
London, in 1869, by order Of King
Charles II. 1t was the invention Of
Francis Hall, a Jesuit and professor
of mathematics at Liege. Vertical
dials, inclining dials and dials for
showing time, as computed by various
nations at different periods, were all
included and ranged on platforms.
| Of these bowls or brackets appear
to be have been the most attractive.
One on the first platform to show the
hour by fire, consisted Of little glass
bowl filled with clear water. This
bowl was about three inches in diam
eter and was placed in the middle OF
another sphere, about six inches In
diameter, consisting Of several rings
or circles, representing the hour cir
cles in the heavens.
The hour was known by applying the
hand to these circles when the sun
shone, and that circle where the hand
felt burned by the sunbeams passing
through the bowl filled with water
showed the true hour.
King Alfred measured time by burn
ing candles, marked with circular lines
to indicate the hours. Ingenious de-
vices were adopted to prevent draughts
from striking the flame, and thus, as
it were, make time speed on Its
flights" by melting the tallow Of the
candle before it was burned, but this
was a very imperfect method Of time
keeping.
The ghomon, the predecessor OF the
sundial, was probably one Of the earli-
est devices for the reckoning Of time,
and it may reasonably be concluded
that the Egyptian pyramids, with their
great altitude, formed part Of a design
for timekeeping by the shadow thrown
on the desert sands. The obelisk, too,
in all probability, served the purpose,
for as a matter of history an obelisk at
Rome was actually used for a sundial
in the time of Emperor Augustus.
| n,;Cip nd Of q
the changes of the moon were undoubt-
edly the first records Of time kept by
man, the shepherd of the early ages
reckoning time by full moons.
| The lengthening of a trees shadow
gave warning that night was ap-
preaching, when another day or period
of time would be at an end.
If we could step on board of Malay
prao we should see floating in buck
ct of water a cocoanut shell having a
small hole in the bottom through which
the water by slow degrees finds its
| way into the interior. The hole In the
shell is so proportioned that the shell
will fill and sink in an hour, when the
man on watch calls the time and sets
| it a1loat again.
The Chinese have a water clock in
use at the present time which invention
they ascribe to Hwangti, who lived,
according to their chronology, more
| than 25 centuries before Christ.
a water clock, or time-recordlng
machine, very similar to the Chinese
instrument, and named the clepsydra,
was used by the ancient Greeks in de-
termining the amount of time speak
ers in court should take to make their