New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1911-12-27
old snip CLOCKS.
Crude Devices Mariners Used In
Reckoning Time.

Reckoning Time.
sANDGLAss MOST POPULAR.
n Il Wers Carefully Attended 70 ths
Skipper Could Tell the DAYS Fairly
We'll, but II Was Often Jusslsd-Ths
First chronometsrs.
To ascertain the time when at sea Is
now matter of the utmost simplicity.
But such was not the case In the old
sailing days. and in. order to acquire
even the vaguest idea of longitude and
| time the seaman had recourse to curl
GUS devices.
| Crude as these devices appear COM
pared with present day instruments,
they save the mariner from chaos and
destruction, and even il he could not
name the hour with any degree of Ger.
taiDty he at least knew the day of the
week. IA @tsff
|, Eclipses Of the moon and the posi-
lions Of the stars afforded little guide
to the skipper. who was, nevertheless.
greatly handicapped by his lack Of as
Economical knowledge and the inferior
quality of his spyglass. Moreover.
eclipses could not be arranged for ev-
cry night in the week, and there We're
dark nights when the stars could not
be seen. so various devices had to be
pressed into service.
The most popular form of old sea
clock was the sandglass. Many Of
these glasses were timed to run TWEEN
ty flour hours. and prior to the ship
leaving land the glass was set exactly
at noon. If it were carefully watched
and turned as soon as the sand rain
down the skipper could reckon the
days with fair accuracy.
Side by side with the large glass were
placed half hour and minute glasses.
The man at the helm carefully watch
ed this old sea clock and announced
the time at regular intervals by strik-
ing a bell. 1t was customary to esti-
mate the duration of any incident by
so many glasses. ITO fog the glass"
was an operation very congenial to
lazy seamen. 1t consisted in turning
the glass before all the sand had run
down 80 that the watch was appre-
ciably shortened. &'"
When the twenty-four hour glass
was employed a little juggling was in
dulged in for the purpose Of finding
the longitude. The difference between
the twenty four hour glass and the
time by the sun was estimated and
this difference was held to represent
the longitude east or west. according
a. the SUMS time might be before or
after the time returned by the glass.
Taking the sun" was weird and
wonderful operation. Clumsy quad
rants were utilized. and toward mid
day the captain appeared on deck to
perform his solemn duty. After much
screwing Of eyes and waggling OF the
quadrant the captain would bawl out
to the mate. Make it 49, bellsv' the
number varying according to personal
idiosyncrasies.
A demand for q more satisfactory
device for estimating time at sea was
responsible for experiments being
made with pendulum clocks. though
with little success, The interest of
inventors was aroused when the Eng
lish government in 1714 offered E1O,-
900 to any one inventing method Of
reckoning longitude to within a de-
gree. or sixty miles; $4,000 If within
forty miles and 100000 If within thirty
miles.
John Harrison, an obscure Yorkshire
who had achieved local
reputation by repairing and cleaning
clocks. came forward with chronom-
eter which at once attracted attention.
Through the influence of DR.. HALEY he
was enabled to make voyage in q
government vessel to Lisbon, where be
in determining the longitude
TO within degree 80 minutes.
For this achievement he was grant
ed $500 to enable him to proceed with
his invention. After thirty years. hard
toll he produced chronometer on
which the present marine chronometer
Il based. His invention was shaped
nike large watch, and In 1891 Har-
Rison's son embarked for Jamaica in
order to carry out tests. On the voy-
age out the chronometer was only 81
seconds in error, and during the whole
trip from Portsmouth to Jamaica and
back the variation was only ! minute
as seconds.
The accuracy Of the chronometer
thus enabled the longitude to be deter
mined within eighteen miles, a result
which exceeded the admiralty's most
sanguine expectations. After further
demonstrations an act Of parliament
was passed in 1895 awarding Harrison
10000. half of the money to be paid
a. soon as he explained how his time
keeper was constructed and the re-
when the government was
convinced that these timekeepers could
be made by others. Despite the full
illment of these conditions, Harrison