The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-10-23
FIRST PUBLIC CLOCK,
1t Was One of the Wonders of
the Fourteenth Century.
THE PEOPLE WERE PUZZLED
Parisians Couldn't Understand How
the Bells Were Runs Without Being
Struck by the Watchman-The Era
of Automaton Ringers.

OF Nuron1atO1 nihSCfS.
In primitive times man was sta
toned al the top of the belfry to ring
the bells at the indicated hours, day
and night. This Waterman was called
the horoscopus-that is to say, the OBJ
server of the hour. He had recourse
himself in order to fulfill his duty to
the study of the astral system, to the
number Of prayers he was to recite. to
the quantity of wax a candle had con-
sumed, to the clepsydra. or water
clock, and to the hourglass. The trade
of the horoscopus was inevitably one
of the first which the progress of
mechanism was to cause to disappear.
The first clocks with bell known in
France date back to the fourteenth
century. Particular mention is made
of one which was esta blished at Caen
in 1914 by Beaumont and that of the
Palais de Justice in Paris which King
Charles V. had constructed in 1870 by
the German clockmaker Henri de Vie
This machine seemed so marvellous
that the inhabitants of Paris-so goes
the egend-asked permission of the
king to go on guard at the door of the
tower to assure themselves that it was
the clock and not the Waterman that
rang the hours.
This establishment of the people at a
period when mechanism was but just
born may well be conceived In pres
ence of a machine capable of calculat-
ing and striking the hours without the
assistance Of any human being. with
os.-;1 boz T.
cised by the most vigilant horoscopus.
The custom was perpetuated until
the seventeenth century and still ex-
lists In certain cities of Europe Of plac-
ing alongside of the clocks various au-
tomatons which ring the hours. 1t is
due to nothing else than the thought of
recalling to memory the recollection Of
the ancient Waterman. And also the
clocks with automatons catered to the
popular taste of that epoch. The peo-
pie of that period preoccupied them
selves but little with the more or less
exact measurement of time. Railroads
were not in existence, and the exigen-
cies of life. We're not so great as they
are now. A cock which crowed and
tapped his wings some apostles who
marched by, striking blow for each
hour. filed them with admiration, and
in this respect no other clocks aroused
so much enthusiasm as those of Lyons
and Strassburg. 1t was a clock of this
character that Henri Deux placed over
the superb portal Of the chateau of
Anet <,"
Nevertheless this timepiece' was dis
tinguished from other clocks with au-
donations by the originality of the fig
ures that it set in movement. Here
no longer was a woman or a man who
struck the hours with rusty arms. 1t
was a majestic stag, standing erect
surrounded by four bloodhounds of
natural size, which appeared to be
holding it at bay, that one saw on the
summit of the portal. One of the
stays legs was movable, and as it was
lifted it seemed to strike the hours.
The four hounds opened their jaws at
each striking Of the quarters, and their
voices were initiated by bells Of differ
ent notes whose clappers were connect
ed by wires with their lower jaws,
causing them to open and shut as long
as the bell ringing mechanism con-
tinued.
This curious clock exists no longer
1t was sold at auction with it's finest
dials for the sum of 500 when the
chateau of Anet was confscated as
national property and sold with it's
furniture in the year 2 Of the first re-
public.
This ancient clock was replaced in
1856 by one entirely modern and made
by Wagner. The stag and the hounds
in bronze were also carried away.
Those seen today are in bronZed terra
Gotta and play no other part than to
recall to memory the ancient ones and
to add to the decorative portion of the
portal Of the chateau whose architec-
ture, the work Of Phllibert Delorme, Is
one of the purest and most delicate
constructions of the renaissance.
Besides the functions that we have
enumerated, the clock of the chateau
of Anet possessed on the side of the
rourt of honor magnificent dial,
which indicated the position of the
signs of the zodiac. the months, the
days of the mouth and the moons
age.-LHorlogere.