The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-04-24
ODD WAYS OF TELLING TIME.
Many Devices to Keep Track of the
Flight of Time.

Many were the devices Tor record
ing the tiipht of the hours before the
coming of the clock. The most ia
nous, of course, was the hour glass,
which was made of various sizes and
capable of recording, with tolerable
accuracy almost any given interval
of time, although seldom one greater
than an hour.
The burning of candles was anoth-
er favorite device. Lines were
drawn at different elevations for the
fractional divisions of the period
which the candle recorded. There
was also an ingenious water clock
which is now occasionally seen in
museumss The sun dial, for mark
ing true time, was much in use in
early days. In our latitude it would
not be strictly accurate, except on
few days of the year, and its ac-
curacy at other times would be of a
varying quantity.
A watch or a clock was as rare in
Turkey as an aeroplane is in some
countries today. Even at the pres
ent time in the smaller cities and vii
llages of the Ottoman empire time
piece in the house is luxury indulg-
ed in by few of the wealthy class.
Nature is the clock of that land, a
clock that never fails to serve It's
purpose. The crow of the cock is the
simplest, the sun the most depend
able and convenient and the cats eye
the most difficult and to Orientals,
the most humorous of timepieces.
The cock crows regularly morning,
afternoon and evening, and serves
the purpose of the striking clock of a
belfry tower Some times cock
crows at irregular intervals. III that
case he is unfortunate in Turkey,
since superstition demands that his
head be chopped off without delay
for to tolerate an ''ill-crowing'' cock
would be to court disaster!
Still another method of telling
time employed by the Turks is this:
They hold their thumbs touching one
another horizontally, and extend the
forefngers perpendicularly. Then
they divide the thumb and forefinger
of each hand into six parts, nominal
hour points, one hand representing
the morning and the other the after
noon.
Where the thumbs join it is IL
O'Clock, the tip of one finger repre-
senting 6 o'clock in the morning and
the tip of the other will point to the
correct time, as judged by the hours
Inominally marked in the mind. The
hour divisions may be divided into
additional parts, as the quarter hours.
To tell the time by the cats eye
seems an absurd proceeding, but the
Turks do it. The average person is
lperhaps not aware that the shape OF
the cats eye undergoes changes dur
ing the day. In the morning the pupil
lis normally circular, but gradually it
narrows until noon, when only a
narrow streak is left. AS the day
progresses it resumes its normal
shape, becoming oval about 3 o'clock
in the afternoon. In Turkey 1t IS
common for the old folks to call the
cat to their sides in order to asce.-
tain the time.
In illustration of the accuracy
whereby time can be measured by the
shadow cast by the sun there may be
cited a trial in Nebraska a year or
two ago, held in the month of Janu-
Iary. The defendant was acquitted OF
a charge of murder by means Of the
alibi established by the shadow of
church steeple cast upon a photo
graph that contained the two accus-
ling witnesses. These witnesses had
testified that they had seen the de-
fendant between the hours of 2 and 3
lin the afternoon while returning from
church after the picture was taken.
But from the angle formed by the
shadow and the horizontal boards of
the church in the photograph an ex-
pert calculated the time the photo
graph was taken, with the result that
lit was ascertained that the exact mo-
ment was during the afternoon at
3:31:2O, one hour later than the wit
nesses had testified they had met the
accused.
The testimony given by the astron-
omer was so clear and conclusive that
there remained no doubt in the minds
of any one that the accused could
not have committed the crime. 1t
was shown that it would have been
Iimpossible for the witness to have