The De Soto County news. [volume] (Arcadia, Fla.) 1898-1924, 1905-10-27

sci on a balance. every pound indicat.
ing a certain fraction OF an hour Az
about the same time there was set up
I'm the capital city of Persia on the ter
race OF the royal palace a somewhat
similar clock, consisting OF balance
containing twelve metal balls, one Of
which fell every hour upon n great
gong. This wonderful instrument Is
said TO have been sent by the king or
Persia to Charlemagne as gift.
The Chinese, whose ideas on the sub
feet deserve respect by reason of their
priority, do not number the hours as
we do. They have names for them, the
twenty.four hour period being divided
by the people OF the middle kingdom
into twelve equal parts, each of which
fs designated I'm their written language
by n character. In this point, again,
they were far ahead of the Europeans,
for whom the invention of the modern
clock seems actually to have been de-
layed some centuries by the difficulty
of splitting night or day into even frlc.
tIons. To the ancient Greeks and Ro-
mans. for example, this problem ap-
peared insuperable owing to the wab-
Ling of the earth, which Increases the
length OF the day at one season and di-
miulshes It at another. For relative
" latter day gentleman named Hip
parchus was It reserved TO offer the
suggestion that the time from dawn TO
dawn might be broken into twenty
four equal parts.
lao nN n
difficulty, the final solution Of which
has appeared in the modern clock, In
it's highest development, chronometer
that Keeps time within a fraction of
second per week. On the main street
In any city Of the United States busl-
ness men may be seen daily setting
their watches by such infalllble time
pieces in the windows Of jewelers.
shops, and even I'm the China Of today
It Is the custom for a gentleman to
carry two Watches which he examines
anXlously az frequent intervals. in or
der 90 make sure that they ngree OK
actly
And yet even to this day there sur
wives in China and Japan, to show the
persistence of such things, a method
generally pursued by the natives OF
keeping time by the burning OF so
called incense sticks" which will
burn slowly for half day without
fame They are divided into lengths
for the hours and, being made of saw
dust mixed with certain proportion
Of gum, may be counted on to resolve
themselves into agreeably scented
smoke at n reasonably uniform rate
per inch. Such incense sticks are suf-
1ciently familiar in this country, but,
clocks being plentiful, are not COM
monty utilized for timeleeplng pur-
poses.
The Montagnals Indian Of Canada,
vixen travelling ahead of party, sets
up a tall stick in the snow, making
with his foot a mark to show how far
the shadow reaches. By the change In
the angle Of the shadow his friends
on arriving at the spot know exactly
how far ahead is their guide.
To keep time with reasonable accu-
racy must have been one OF the earliest
necessities OF man; hence the re-
markable ingenuity of many primitive
inventions for this purpose, the utillza-
ton Of shadows-an idea which had Its
fnal development In the sun dlal-be-
ing probably the earliest, as 1t was the
most obvious. The first sun dad must
have been a tree, which may be said
to have stood at one end OF the path
of evolution in timekeeping apparatus,
the modern chronometer representing
at the other end the final development
Of such csntrlvances.-New York Her
aid.