Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-01-10

the meridian Of more than nifty stars Of
the northern hemisphere and the date acl
cording to the Gregorfan. Greek. Mussuls
man and Hebrew calandars. The works
alone took several years to put together
after the clock had been sent to Russia
from Switzerland.
Domestic Making.
In our own country we have some inter-
esting clocks. The best known L. the old.
fashioned timepiece that stands in the Sem
ate corridor Of the Capitol. This massive
clock has been in use since the present
building was erected. 1t was one Of the
few objects which escaped when the Brit
ish sacked Washington in 1914. Uncle Sam
has another wonderful clock at Washing
ton, the only one of its kind in the world.
1t resembles the large timepieces seen in
railroad offices and has diais not only for
the hours, minutes and seconds, but for
the phases Of the MOON 1t has laby-
rfnth of cogwheels, which fit into each
other with admirable nicely, and when the
handle on the left of the case is turned
which winds the clock it turns the mechan-
ism into an automatic astrologer which
predicts events years ahead.
At the White House in the blue parlor is
a. clock which was once the property Of
Napoleon Bonaparte. who presented it to
General Washington. The latter afterward
gave it to General Lafayette. The frame
bronze What is known. as the Lincoln
clock. purchased when that President was
in the White House, is an object of inter-
est in the red room.
Tracing Them Back.
To trace the clocks of the present day
back to their origin is a difficult task, but
we know that the most ancient of all in
struments for ascertaining the time of day
was probably the sundial. II is commonly
believed that the first form of the sundial
was simply column which cast a shadow
of varying length and position. The Endi-
colt Sundial in the Essex institute, Boston,
is the oldest in America We all. remember
studying in our early history lessons about
the candle clock of Alfred the Great and its
conversion into lantern by means of
translucent horn cover. With this candle
he divided the day into three equal portions,
one of which he devoted to religion, one to
public affairs and the third to rest and
recreation. Until the fourteenth century the
word clock was applied to the bell upon
which the hour determined by the horologe
was rung. Even at the present day the
clock at Wells Cathedral England is called
the horologe. The Catholic clergy are cred
tied with the introduction of clocks into
England, and, of course, our British cousins
sent them over to US. The wrongdoing of
one man has been the means Of keeping
generations of other men right up to time.
1 refer to the first Big Ben." the West
minister clock. said to have been erected
from the proceeds of a fine imposed upon
justice of the kings bench.
IHe NTSt CLOCK on record winch approaches
in accuracy of movement the clocks of to-
day was constructed for Charles V of
France. To be sure the mechanism has
been improved, but the essential principle
has remained unaltered. Our ancestors for
several centuries have been familiar with
the same face of clock that We have known
from infancy, with its figures encircling it
and its hands slowly travelling and pointing
out respectively the minute and the hour.
The clock is indeed the most touching and
domestic Of all household furnishings.