The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-08
CURIOIJS CONFERENCES
 USED FOR KEEPING TIME

,,ros and the scientists of that establish ment. thinking it worth while to 'ese them. have discovered that they are very inaccurate some of them varying Iroih correctness by as much as seven or eisn' minutes in the hour, one way or tiio other The obvious. though rather eurious exclamation of this fact seems to pc tnat when they were made they were timed py inc candle, clocks not having been as yet invented and no better standard being obtainable. Such candles, like any others were sure to burn more slowly al the oe- ginning than later on. and hence their lack of reliability.
 Candles of this sort were shielded rom the wind by a screen of horn. and at this very day one may buy them, exactly like those of long ago, In England and else
 where in Europe. Curiously enough, the sayages of the South Pacific employ Tor the same purpose device very similar in character, which consists Of number of the oily nuts of the candlenut tree strung close together on the mid-rib or palm leaf The string thus prepared IS hung up, and the topmost nut being ig- nited. 1t burns slowly downward. Being of nearly uniform size the nuts burn for inst about ten minutes apiece, taking nre one from another in succession, ana thus six of them are consumed in just apout an hour It is probable that this prim- itive method of time-keeping is quite as accurate as the graduated candle or tne mediaeval sand glass.
 Some of the old-fashioned sand glasses were quite elaborate, being arranged in batteries of half dozen or more, to record the passage of an hour, half hour, a quarter hour, five minutes, and so on. Very expensive ones were man. ufactured in Nuremberg, and, the nnest instruments of the kind were owned by clerical and other dignitaries, the sand used for the purpose being of round- grained sort, which could be counted to flow easily and with regularity through the aperture provided. To show that faith in the usefulness of such contriv- ances has not even yet passed away the writer may mention that in his own family, only the other day. a newly em- ployed cook, being provided with sand glass for timing eggs. boiled the glass with the eggs, for no reason that she was able to explain except that she was, as she understood 1t, "obeyin' orders.'
 The two oldest things, perhaps, in the collection of ancient tmekeepers at the Smithsonian Institute are a time lamp and water clock of a pattern almost un- heard of. As might be supposed without explanation, the former apparatus con tains oil, the burning of which, through the medium of 8 wick, marks the passage of the hours. The oil, 1t should be said, is contained in a small glass receptacle, so graduated as to show by the height of the fluid the quantity that has been con stunned, and hence the time that has gone by. As for the water clock, some me- diaeval Edison must have invented 1t, so wonderful Is the ingenuity of it's con- struction. It consists of hollow metal cylinder divided into compartments by partitions which radiate from the center and suspended by two strings wound about the ends of an axis running through the middle of the cylinder.
 The cylinder, which Is hung by the strings from a sort of arch, is partly filled with water and Is wound up to the top of the arch by revolving 1t upon It's axis. Then, being released, 1t would ] promptly run to the bottom but for the circumstance that the water 1t contains, trickling through small holes from one compartment to another. detains it, gray ity being opposed by the weight of tho fluid. which has to be carried upward and around as the cylinder revoiyos. So art full is the arrangement that the cylinder goes round with an exceeding slowness, being compelled to do so by the perco- lation of the water from one compart-