The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1911-05-26
EYE OF THE CAT
TELLS time OF DAY
Popular Chronometer in Turkey
Odd Ways Of Determining
the Hour Of Day.

n WtttOn VI a WYNN was aHVut oa
rare in Turkey fifty years ago as an
aeroplane Is in America now, says tn
Los ngees Times. Even To-day In
the smaller cities and villages a
time piece in the house is conven-
ience and luxury INDUCED in by fe
Of the wealthy class.
Nature Is the clock of that land, a
clock which never stops or fails to
serve its purpose. The crow of the
cock is the simplest says Armenia
the sun most dependable and conven-
lent, and the cats eye the most diff
cult and to Occidentals the most
humorous Of timepieces
The cock crows regularly morning,
forenoon, noon, afternoon and even
ing, and serves the purpose of the
striking clock of belfry tower Some
times a cock crows at irregular peri
DDS. Woes unto him! for superstition
demands that his head be chopped off
a demand which is complied with
without delay Tor 10 tolerate an HI
growing cock is TO bring bad luck-so
the natives believe.
1t needs little experience to be able
to tell without it be morning, noon
afternoon or near evening by merely
noting the position of the sun. The
time is more accurately told by judg-
ing the shadows cast by the sun
which is the mode most popular with
the shepherds in the fields.
Still another method, more accurate
Is the following. They hold their
thu0bs touching each other horizan-
tally and extend the forefinger up
perpendicularly Then they divide
into six parts nominal hour points,
the thumb and forefinger of each and
one hand representing the morning
and the other the afternoon.
When the thumbs join being IL
O'Clock, the tip OF one forefinger rep
resenting 6 O'Clock in the morning
and the tip of the other o'clock in
in the aftenooa. By hording the
hands in the described position to-
ward the sun the shadows cast by
one forefinsg upon the other will
point to the correct time, as judged
by the hours nominally marked in
mind. The hour divisions may be di-
vided into additional parts as the
quarter hours
: To tell the time by the cats eye
sounds at first humorous but it can
be odne. The average person perhaps
is not aware that the shape of the
cats eye undergoas changes during
the day. In the morning the pupil is
normally circular, but gradually it
narrows until noon, when ony a mar
row tseak is lett AS the day pro-
crosses it resumes it's normal shape
becoming oval about o'clock in the
afternoon. In Turkey it is common
for the old folks 10 call the cat to
their sides in order to ascertain the
time.
AS an illustration of how accurate
ly time can be measured by the
shadow cast by the sun can be cited
a trial in the courts of Omaha; Neb.,
held in the first week of January,
1911, where man was acquainted of |
the charge of attempted murder |
through teh alibi established by the |
shadow of a church steeple cast upon |
a photograph which contained the |
two accusing witnesses who had tes-
Titled seeing the man between 2 and |
o'clock in the afternoon while re-
.srning from church, Otter the photo
graph was taken.
But from the angle formed by the
shadow and the horizontal boards OF
he church in the photograph Father
Riggs, astronomer at Creighton Uni
fersity calculated the thma the pho
ograph must have been taken and
estified that the exact moment was
Turing the afternoon at 3:21:2S, one
Iour later than the witnesses had tes-
flied they met the prisoner The
estimony given by the Astronomer
vas 80 concise and clear and the inn
OF the witness having seen
he accused maa at the scene of the
rime at the time it was alleged TO
ave bees oitcmmted was shown to be
0 absolute that the accused man was