The Press., 1906-05-16
THE DAYS AND HOURS
ORIGIN OF OUR SYSTEM OF THE
 DIVISION OF TIME.


 Was Adopted by the Greeks and
 Has Survived Through All Changes.
 If you pull your watch out of your pocket you will have in your hand one of the most wonderful pieces of ma chinery ever constructed. Think how it works throughout the day and night and how it keeps it up year in, year out. Think how the second hand points to $500 divisions of time during every hour. It never sleeps.
 If it is like the average watch, 1t will be built up of no fewer than 175 differ ent pieces. These pieces will have passed through more than 2,4OO sep arate operations, each being a distinct form of manufacture.
 The fourth jewel wheel screw is so very small that it Is almost invisible. To the naked eye it appears to be but speck of dust. When examined under magnifying glass it will be seen to be perfect screw, having 26O threads to the inch, each thread being well cNt. Actually the diameter of this screw is so little as the four one-thou- sandth part of an inch, and it would take no less a number than 100000 similar screws in order to fill an or dinary thimble as used by the ladies.
 Each screw has a double head and has to be hardened. After the harden ing process the screws are arranged in frames, being placed in with the heads upward. This delicate operation is done by the sense of touch alone in- stead of by sight, and great rapidity marks the skillful operator. Some where about a hundred screws are placed in each frame, and the frames are attached to a machine which pol ishes the heads of the screws 10000 at a time
 It will be seen how marvellous these screws are, yet one of them forms but one tiny piece of a watch. Still, this will show the remarkable nature of that everyday article. When special watches are considered there is indeed room for wonder.
 For instance, take the watch which was presented to Catherine I. on her coronation as empress of Russia. This watch was one of the most remarkably constructed instruments ever made.
 On the opposite side of the works of this extraordinary timekeeper there was an exact representation of the holy sepulcher, with a carved image of the Roman guard stationed outside it. AS soon as the watch case was opened the imitation rocks would roll away from the mouth of the sepulcher, the soldier would kneel, angels would appear at opposite sides of the opening, and sweet strains of music would be heard. This remarkable watch took nine years uninterrupted labor in or der to construct.
 The first clock in any way resem- bling those in use at present was made by Henry Wick in the year 1870, and it was made for Charles V. of France. This monarch was surnamed the Wise, but his education was imperfect in many respects, and he knew 1t we'll. AS a result he was very obstinate in his claim to know everything. He showed this obstinacy when Wick brought the new timepiece for his ap- proval. The king could not find any fault with it's working, so he criticised the figures on the dial.
 He told the maker that he had made a grievous error, as, the figures to de- note the hour of should be four Is. Poor Wick ventured to tell the king that he was wrong. "I am never wrongv' thundered the irate monarch. '"Take the clock away and correct the mistake at once upon pain of my dis pleasure!'
 Wick had to do as he was told, with the result that all our timepieces have ", as should be the case if the correct numeration were followed.
 How many people have the slightest notion why sixty seconds make min ute and why the hour is divided into sixty minutes, and so on? Why are there not ten hours to the day and ten to the night?
 The reason is very simple. It is be- cause the people of Babylon reckoned not only by decimal system of nota- lion, but also by a seXagesimal sys- tenn. That is to say, they not only 'eckoned by tens, but also by sixties. The Babylonians were very clever peO- ole, and they saw that the decimal sys- ,em was by no means the best.
 They knew that no number had SO many diVisors as has sixty.
 How about the division of the day nto hours? The Babylonians began by comparing the progress made by the Jun on it's daily journey to the distance covered by a good walker, this being lone at the time of the equinox. The divided the suns Journey nto twenty-four parsangs, whence our hours.
 The Babylonian system was adopted 0y the Greeks. It is one of the most remarkable facts of history that the system has survived through every change made since the days of Baby onia. When the the French revolu- donized all weights and measures, go- ng so far as to alter the days of the week, still they left the old system of so far as regarded the reckon. ng of the flight of time. Even our own OV0rS O1 Lue uCCluQd4 uOLdUlOu uO UOC 'uggest that the old sexagesimal meth )d of reckoning time should be altered. Weekly.
 British Sailors Qualifications.
 We are so often told that the service 8 going to the dogs that it is quite re- 'reshing to find naval matters, even in Nelson's day, in a hopeless muddle. This one gathers from a satirical list of qualifications for an admiralty appoint nent at the end of the eighteenth cen Jury:
 "Hc should know nothing of ship.
 "He should never have been to sea.
 "He should be ignorant of geography.
 "He should be ignorant of naval tac- dcs.
 ''He should never attend office until n the afternoon.
 "He should be unfit for business 0very day.
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