Putnam patriot., 1923-07-13

co i over and started t running again. These hour-glasses were very satisfactory They ran steadily, did not need refilling, and would not freeze or spill over. The poorest peas ants could have them as they were eheaply made and did not wear out.
 How Orientals Told Time
 Queer as it may seem. the early Chinese and Japanese told time by ire. They would make a rope of some slowlburning material, knot it at reg ular intervals. and let it shoulder away, telling by the number of burn ed-away knots how many hours had passed. A later development of this same method was King Alfred's can dle-cloek. He had vowed to give eight hours of the day to acts of re- ligion. eight hours to public affairs, and eight hours to rest and recrea- tion. He had six tapers made. each twelve inches long and divided into twelve parts. eolored alternately black and white. Three of these parts were burned in one hour, making each inch represent twenty minutes, so that his candles, lighted one after the other by ntH ehAPtAAttct Wouid bhth iuf hNtHNN- four hours.
 The spread of Christianity through Europe caused the foundation of many religious communities. The monks in the monasteries were very strict as to the amount of time that | they gave to their tasks-fixed hours must be set aside for prayer, for la bor. and for refreshment. This di- vision of their day forced them tl seek an instrument by which 10 meas ure time. In the year of 605 one of i the Popes deereed that bells should be rung seven times in the twenty | four hours at regular intervals, and ] the ringing of these bells came to be known as the seven "canonicali' hours 1 Up to this time, however. no wheel systems of time pieces were in exist i enee.
 After the downfall of Rome the l barbarian hordes overwhelmed the preceding civilization and many of | the discoveries of the previous ages were lost through the years called the dark ages During this time the monks in the monasteries were the ones who kept the intellectu. al interests alive. and it was from them also that progress in science and invention came. One of the monks Gerbert, was accused of practieinR sorcery through league with the devil and was bpnished from France.
 Wheel-Cioek Appears
 IL cannot be said with certainty who invented the clock movement, as nearly all of the early records that we have are those of tradition. Cred it was given to Gerbert, but similar tales have been told of previous phil osophers and the Chinese are sup posed to have discovered many of our most important mechanical and scien- tifie principles away of upon the oth. CT side of the world before America was even dreamed of About all that can be said with certainty Is that some form of the wheel-elock was used in the monasteries during the eleventh century.
 During the thirteenth century clocks were common in the ehurches and abbeys. Dante and Chaucer have spoken of clocks in their works, but 1 they evidently meant the bell thai 1 clocks had neither dials nor hands They told time only by striking tho hour Sometimes in the great tower ] clocks there were automatic figure representing men in armor whici would beat upon the bell at eact hour. These figures were called jacks O the clock" and they may still be seen in the old museums oi :. Europe.
 Clock Dates Back to 1864
 The oldest clock that resembles those that we have today is deVick's which was invented in 1264 It i. similar to modern clocks in mechani cal principle. but. like many early clocks, was hand-wrought and had only one hand-the hour hand. There have been almost endless minor in. ventions and developments in the clock. but deViek's was the ancestor of all the present timepieces whicf warn us solemnly from our towers chime to us from our mantels, or. nes ting snugly in our pockets or clingini to our wrists. help us to maintain th, efficiency that is so necessary in oul lives today.