Evening star., 1905-11-05
WORLDS GREAT CLOCKS.
Marvels Of Inventive Ingenuity and
Mechanical Skill

From the Technical World Magazine
About the year 1900 Peter Henlein, a
young member of the locksmiths' guild of
Nuremberg, Bavaria, engaging himself
in improving the timepieces of that period.
and he was veXed at the fact that the wheel
clocks, the only ones then In existence,
which depended for their motive power upon
heavy weights, would perform their duty
only when stationary, but Immediately and
utterly failed in their work when carried
about. At last an idea occurred to him. and
he argued that the spiral catchspring of
a door lock moves the bolt of the lock, 1t
must also be capable, with certain changes
In mechanism, of driving the wheelwork Of
clock This led to the invention of a
handspring, which made possible the port
able clock or watch.
Every visitor to Strassburg, the capital
of the conquered provinces Of Alsace and
Lorraine, makes a pilgrimage al noon of
his first day to the great and famous
astronomical clock in the cathedral This
large clock is in the south transept. and
was constructed In 1882 by Shwilgue, a
clockmaker of Strassburg. 1t replaced a
similar clock by Dasypodius, constructed in
1874, which was in use down to 17S9. and
which, in its turn, formed a substitute for
a still older clock, made In 1352-9. Only
few parts of the interior and some of the
decorative paintings of the old clock were
used in making the present one. The In
terror attracts spectators at all times, but
especially at noon. On the first gallery an
angel strikes the quarters on q bell in his
hand, while a genius at his side reverses
his sand glass every hour Higher up,
around skeleton which strikes the hours
are grouped figures representing boyhood,
youth, manhood and old age, as the four
quarters of the hour. Under the first gal
lery the symbolic deity of each day steps
out of a niche-Apollo on Sunday, Diana on
Monday, and so on. In the highest niche
at noon, the twelve apostles move round
figure of the Savious. On the high
est pinnacle of the side tower, which con-
tains the weights, is perched a cock, which
flaps its wings, stretches its neck and
crows, awakening echoes in the remotest
hooks of the cathedral. The mechanism
also sets in motion a complete panetarium
behind which is perpetual calendar The
most wonderful feature of this piece OF
mechanism is that It is calculated to regu-
late Itself and adapt It's motions to the rev.
olutions of the seasons for an almost I'M
limited number OF years.
1t was badly damaged by the beSieging
troops under Gen. Won Werder during the
Franco -Prussian war of 1S70-T1. For a
time 1t was thought that the injuries
which, were a part of the unavoidable dis
asters of war-were irreparable; but. after
five years of the most expert labor, 1t was
completely restored.
The bear is the heraldic emblem of
Berne, the capital of Switzerland and 1t
figures frequently in all sorts of ways and
all sorts of places. The Zeit gloekenthurn,
the famous clock of the Swiss capital,
which caps the arch of street passage. fs
a very old piece The curious clock on the
west side of the tower announces the ap-
proach of each hour by the growing of
cock, while. Immediately before the hour
is indicated, troop of bears march in
procession before a sitting figure. Nearby,
Bruin appears with shield, sword, ban
ner and helmet