The San Francisco call., 1909-11-20

STRASSBURG G,CLOCK-Subscriber City. SAT-
an answer in Answers to Queries about the Stras-
burg clock few days since. What kind OF a
clock is it?
1t is a very remarkable astronomical
clock, constructed about 1870 and now
in the cathedral of Strassburg. Alsace-
Lorraine. 1t was in three parts. the
lower one had a universal calendar
the central part an astrolobe and the
upper part was the three magi and
the virgin AT every hour the magi
came forward. and bowed to the vir-
gin; at the same time a chime was
played and a mechanical rooster came
out of niche, tapped his wings and
crowed. The clock stopped in the
early part of the sixteenth century.
have a new clock made, and after
much deliberation and frutless sug-
gestion the designing of the work was
given to a then noted astronomer, and
the execution was intrusted to
skilled mechanic, Isaac Habrecht, who
took four years to complete the work.
There is a mythical story to the eff
feet that the city fathers of the place
named. in order to prevent him from
building a similar clock for another
city, caused him to become blind The
clock worked all right until 1889,
when it stopped; all attempts to re-
pair it failed. In 1898 a clock maker
named Schwilgue started to remodel
the internal machinery and completed
his work In 1872 A perpetual calen-
dar, forming a ring around a dial 80
feet in circumference, occupies the
central part of the lower division. On
December 81 the clock regulates itself
for the new year, for 365 or $50 days,
as the case may be. even the omission
of the bissextile year being provided
for. The disk within the calendar
shows the eclipse of the sun and the
moon, calculated for all time to come.
On one side Apollo points with an ar
row to the date and name OF the saint
for the day. On the opposite side is
the goddess of night. Above the cal
endar is niche, in which each day
of the week appears. different myth
illogical deity representing that day.
Above that is a dial marking the
mean time in hours and quarters with
two genii, one on each side, one strik-
ing the first stroke of every quarter,
the other turning over the hour glass
on the last stroke of the last quarter.
Then follows an orrery. showing the
revolution of the seven visible planets
around the sun. and above a globe
giving the phases of the moon. Still
above this in niche four figures re-
volve around the figure of Death.
Childhood strikes the first quarter of
the third and old age the fourth.
Death strikes the hour. In a higher
niche is hgure of our Savior. At II
o'clock the IL apostles pass In review
before him and he raises his hands in
blessing. st. Peter closes the pro-
cession and as he passes the mechan-
ical rooster flaps his wings and crows
three times.
BETWEEN MERIDIANS-S. City. Is the dis
tance between two meridians exactly equal?
Any accurate rule for calculating dis
tances of separation of two meridian
lines at different points between the
equator and the poles measured on
parallels of latitude is above ordinary
arithmetical calculation, owing to the
fact that the form of the earlh is not
a perfect sphere. but an ellipsoid Of
decidedly irregular configuration. The
following trigonometrical rule Is suf-
fieiently exact for most purposes:
Lengths of degree of longitude are to
each other as the cosines of their lati
tude" Trautwine gives the following
table of distances between two merid-
ians one degree of longitude. apart
for different parallels: