Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1912-01-11
OLD snip CLOCKS.
Crude Devices Mariners Used In
Reckoning Time.
SANDGLASS MOST POPULAR.
II II Were Carefully Attended 20 the
Skpper Could Tell the DAYS Fairly
Well, but II Was Often Jusslud-The
First Chronometers.

now Il matter OF the utmost simplicity.
But such was not the case in the old
sailing days. and in order to acquire
even the vagucSt idea Of longitude and
time the seaman had recourse to >uri-
Gus devices
Crude aS these devices appear COM
pared with present day Instruments,
they save the mariner from chaos aud
destruction. and even il he could not
name the hour with any degree of Ger,
tainty he at least knew the day of the
week.
EcltpScs OF the moon aud the posi-,
tons of the stars afforded n 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 he arranged for ev-
cry night in the week. and there were
dark nights when the stars could not
be seen, 50 various devices had to be
pressed into service
The most popular form OF old sea
clock was the Sandglass Many OF
AANNV NltNStS NttC lllItO W run tNSU-
ty-four hours. and prior to the ship
leaving land the glass was set exactly
at noon. II II were carefully watched
and turned as soon ms the sand ran
down the skipper could reckon the
days with fair accuracy
Side by side with the large glass were
placed half hour and minute glasses.
| Tho ~ fhn hnlIn IA
Ell this old sea clock and announced
the time at regular intervals by strik.
ing bell. 1t was customary to csti.
mate the duration of any incident by
so many glasses. ITO fog the glass"
was an operation very congeuial to
lazy seamen. 1t consisted In turning
the glass before all the sand had run
down so that the watch was appre-
ciably shortened.
When the twenty-four hour glass
was employed 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
as the suns 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 -- BELLS! the
number varying according to personal
idiosyncrasies.
A demand for 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 TIA offered f10,-
600 to any one inventing Il method Of
reckoning longitude to within de-.
gree, or sixty miles, E15,OOO II with /
forty miles and 100000 If within thir' :,
miles
John Harrison, an obscure Yorksh ,
carpenter. who had achieved n 10 .rl
| Wy anu tltdn y ,
clocks, came forward with chronon
eter which Mt once attracted attention
Through the influence Of Or. HALEY / :
was enabled to make a voyage In Il
government vessel 10 Lisbon. where -
succeeded in determining the IongituC
to within | degree 30 minutes
For this achievement he was grant
| a III 4, 4,
his invention. After thirty years hard
toll he produced chrouomcter on
which the present marine Chronometer
Is based His invention was shaped
like large watch, and in 1861 Har-
ris0n's son embarked for Jamaica I'm
order to carry ont 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
54.5 seconds.
The accuracy of the chronometer
thus enabled the longitude to be deter
mined within eighteen miles, result
which exceeded the admiralty's most
sanguine expectations After further
| DEMONSTRATIONS an act OF parma ncnl
was passed in 1865 awarding Harrison
100000, half OF the money to be paid
as soon as he explained how his time
keeper was constructed and the re-
mainder when the government was
| convinced that these timekeepers could
| be made by others. Despite the full
| fillment OF these conditions. Harrison
had 70 wait several years before the
money was paid over
| Larcum Kendall. who had been liar.
risons apprentice and who was ulti
| matey his successor, followed on the
lines laid down by his master and pro
duced chronometer which was used
| by Captain Cook during his daring
| voyage In the Resolution. or this
thermometer Cook wrote. Our lonH-
tude can never be erroneous while We
have so good a guide as Mr. KendaFs
watch"
Various horologists have introduced
so many improvements that little trace