The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-03-17
ANCIENT ME-MARKERS.

Tn the United States the oldest time-
 piece is the famous Endicott sundial
 made in London in 1880, and it was
 brought to this country the same year
 by Governor Endicott at the time he
 brought the fleet of ships laden with inn
 migrants 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 of the
 East India Marine Society of Salem.
 The society held it in trust until 1869,
 when it came into the possession of the
 Essex Institute, where it 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 residences.
 The sundial of King Ahaz, who lived
 seven hundred and forty-two years be- fore Christ, is the first dial on record in
 the world. This dial was a graduated instrument having degree marks of some kind which showed the daily course of the sun. The Old Testament tells us that it was known in Jerusalem as early as seven centuries before Christ, and the manner of it's mention indicates that it was novelty in that city at that time The sundial took many forms. The art of dialllng, in volved mathematical problems of con siderable complexity, and it is very likely that this contributed to the knowledge of mathematics which the world possessed at that early period,
 Imperfect sundiaIs were common in Rome about a century and a half before the Christian era, so common indeed, that, as new inventions nowadays af- ford material for the paragrapher they were targets for the funny men of the period.
 The Romans later perfected sun dial suitable to their latitude. which was much more accurate. The dial was later adopted and improved by Euro- pean nations, and some very accurate ones were made by clock makers throughout Europe.
 A dial, or rather a series of dals of every conceivable description forming a structure, was erected in Whitehall, London, in 1869, by order of King Charles II, It was the invention of Francis Hall a esuit and professor of at Liege. Vertical dials, | dials and dials for showing time, as computed by various nations 1t different periods, were all included | and ranged on platforms.
 Of these bowls or brackets appear to l have been the most attractive One, i on the first platform to show the hour ,y fire, consisted of a little glass bowl | filed with clear water. This bowl was | lbout three inches in diameter, and was | placed in the middle of another sphere, l bout six inches in diameter consisting if several rings or circles, representing | he hour circles in the heavens.
 The hour was known by applying the | land to these circles when the sun hone, and that circle where the hand cit burned by the sunbeams passing trough the bowl filled with water howed the true hour.
 King Alfred measured time by burn ng candles marked with circular lines 0 indicate hours. Ingenious devices we're adopted to prevent draughts from trking the flame, and thus, as it were. nake time speed on it's flight" by melt ng the tallow of the candle before it vas burned, but this was a very imper- ect method of time keeping
 The gnomon, the predecessor of the undial, was probably one of the earli- st devices for the reckoning of time, nd it may reasonably be concluded hat the Egyptian pyramids, with their reat altitude, formed part of design or time-keeping by the shadow thrown II the desert sands The obeisk, too, l all probability, served the purpose. or as matter of history, an obelisk { Rome was actually used for a sun ial in the time of Emperor Augustus.
 The rising and setting of the sun and { 1e changes of the moon were undoubt- dly the first records of time kept by | { lan. the shepherd of the early ages time by full moons The lengthening of a trees shadow ave warning that night was approach lg, when another day or period of time ould be at an end. If we could step on board of a Malay rao we should see floating in bucket