Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-11-05
A Romance
of Progress
BY ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE
PETER HEILE-And the Capt
uring of "Time"

A Nuremberg clockmaker, Peter
Heile Cor Henleine) by name, startled
all Europe in the year 1440 by invent.
ing clock that could be carried
about in the hand or even in the
pocket; in other words, a watch. This
was regarded as the last and crown.
ing triumph of timepiece making.
Though Heile's watch weighed some
. thing over pound and was as large
as strongbox, yet it was stared at
as one of the wonders of the world.
Were modern genius to devise
watch, perfect in every detail, and no
larger than a pinhead, the feat would
attract far less amazed admiration.
For Heile had at bound abridged
the vast chasm between the huge,
cumbersome, old-time clock, with its
weighty, awkward mechanism, and
the compact timepiece that could
readily be borne from place to place.
For fully 1000 years our forefa-
theirs had been wrestling, in slow,
unprogressive way, with the problem
of computing time. And that long
struggle is one of the most interesting
conflicts in the history of progress. In
earlier men 'told time" by ythe posi-
ton of the sun in the heavens. That
art is still possessed, in a wonderful
degree of accuracy, by woodsmen in
many parts of America. Later, the
sun dial was invented by some up-
known genius and for centuries was
looked on as the only possible way Of
determining the hours
But at night or in cloudy weather
the sun dial was utterly useless and
in the course of events the clepsydra
(water clock) took it's place. The
earliest clepsydra
ancestors OF was a crystal vial
mooern C'ocKs' with a very small
hole at the bottom. This bottle was
filled with water, and by the period
required for the liquid to escape, time
was computed. The hour glaBs, u
variation on this idea, was also in use.
1t consisted of two glass hemispheres,
connected by narrow tube. One Of
the hemispheres was filled with sand.
The tube was of such size that ex-
actly one hour was required for the
pouring of the sand from one compart-
ment to the other.
The clepsydra, however, was the an
cestor of the modern clock, for in
time it was developed into. an appa-
ratus fitted up with a dial and with
an indicator that was moved from
point to point by the varying pressure
Of the water. Archimedes, it is said,
was the man to whom it first occurred
to substitute weights for water. An
improvement was later made on this
eontrivance by placing balls of metal
in such a position on the clepsydra
that at the end of each hour they
should fall against a gong. Thus the
striking clock" originated.
Alfred the Great, king of England,
invented variation on the clepsydra.
He computed the size a candle must
be to burn from dawn to dawn. Then,
by cutting notches at regular dis
tances in this candle, he divided the
Gay and night into regular intervals.
velopment of his idea.
1t was in the far east that clocks
had their real origin. The Saracens
evolved the theory of weights and
wheels and striking apparatus, con-
nected with the marked dials and in
dicators. The Crusaders, after their
Palestine wars, carried back many
90 or To al
king, among others. Great clocks
some of them still in existence-were
constructed in various monasteries
and churches, to be gaped at by the
populace as uncanny, even super
natural. Monks made improvements
in such clocks now and then. In fact,
many features of the modern clock
makers art are due to these friars.
England and France, in those times,
were fonder of war than of invention.
So it was in Germany that clockma-
king fourished most. Instead of using
a striking apparatus for clocks, some
of these Germans constructed with
bellows tiny roosters that crowed the
hour, the ROSTERS crow being popu-
larly supposed to usher in the day.
From this comes the cuckoo clock.
Heile of Nuremberg conceived the
idea of a portable clock. But great
difficulty stood in his way. The mo-
tive power of clocks mechanism, de-
pended on heavy
no~ .he n.s weig hts. Such
Problem Was weights could not
ooiVeo' be logged about
with any degree of ease. Some other
power, he decided, must therefore
take the place of these cumberous
Jumps of metal. At last he hit on the
idea. He coiled long ribbon of steel
about a central spindle. The unroll-
ing of this powerful coil, he found aft
er many disappointing experiments,
would supply the motive power need
full to the clocks mechanism. From
this discovery arose the theory of
handspring, hairspring and countless
other triumphs of latter-day machin-
cry.
Heiles first watch was a cylindrical
metal box gorgeously ornamented and
with one side hinged. Inside this
primitive case were the dial, spring
and wheels, the dial face being visible
through the fretwork on the surface
of the hinged side of the box.
f A ridiculously awkward continuance,
and one that would wake the laughter
of any Notwithstanding school boy.
Germany has erected a statue to
Heile. But far more lasting monu
ment to The old Nuremberger's genius
is carried in every mans watch
POCKET. -