AN IMPROVED MODE OF MEASURING OR DIVIDING TIME, APPLICABLE TO CHRONOMETERS, SEXTANTS, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE INSTRU- MENTS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 10th July 1869.-A communication from abroad by Santoni
Faltorini, Madame la Marquise de Livry, née Louise Appoline
Oudot de Dainville, and Laurent Petit, all of Brussels, in the
Kingdom of Belgium.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF MEASURING OR DIVIDING
TIME, APPLICABLE TO CHRONOMETERS, SEXTANTS, AND OTHER SUCH LIKE INSTRU-
MENTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved system of dividing or measuring
time, applicable to chronometers, watches, sun dials, sextants, compasses,
and such like instruments.
192.
The earliest known attempts at squaring the circle originated in India.
These took ths of the circle, and from this deduced = 288
8. At a
later period Pythagoras transmitted this result to Ptolemy, King of
Egypt, who obtained 10 == 3. The latter prepared a table of quad-

page_text: ratures, which is however very incomplete. Plato, one of the greatest
philosophers of Greece, demonstrated that the diameter of the circle in
relation to its circumference is as 2 to 3. This is exact, but the odd
figures cannot be reduced to an even result, so as to exactly divide the
earth's circle. For this reason, according to the improved system of this
Invention, I take 2, 4, 6, or 8 as a base, and by this means solve the
problem without leaving any remainder. To obtain this result I
take as the base of the calculations the proportions 4: 6: 8:12 and
12:18:16:24. Thus representing the diameter by 2, and doubling
this, I obtain 4, which indicates the diameters intersecting each other at
right angles. Then applying one-half the diameter or the radius to the
entire circumference it will be found to be contained 6 times. In this
manner the two first terms of the proportion are obtained, the two others
being formed by doubling these figures. As the chord is the mean
between the circle and the diameter, by replacing them by their
respective values I obtain 5 as its value. I have above mentioned that
the diameter is represented by 4, and each diameter being divided
into 32 parts if multiplied by two give 64, representing one hour
having 4 minutes more than an ordinary hour. The two diameters form
four radii, the square being composed of 4 chords, and the circle
described being divided into 4 distinct parts by the two diameters, their
respective values when multiplied by four will be,--
The diameter
The chord -
4 times 4 16 minutes.
4 times 520 minutes.
And the circumference 4 times 624 minutes.

page_text: As a proof that the chord is the mean between the diameter and
circumference by adding (1024) to the square of the minutes of the
circumference I obtain 2560, which is double the figure (1280)
representing the square of the minutes of the chord. By multiplying
24 parts of the circumference by 4 and by 2 I obtain 96, 48, and 24,
representing,, and 16 of the entire circumference, while the Archi-
median scale only gives 90, 45, and 22. The difference in value between
the Archimedian diameter (960) and the present one (1024) is 64 minutes
or one hour, and that of the circumference 96 minutes or 1½ hours. In
consequence of these differences it has never been hitherto possible to
exactly divide the circle. By taking of the square of the diameters
(1024: 4) I obtain as quotient 256 minutes or degrees, and by repeating
this operation with the circumference (1536:4) I obtain 384, con-
stituting the improved division of time. As regards the application of
this mode of measuring time I have before mentioned that the hour is
represented by 64 minutes, and each minute by 64 seconds, the difference
of 4 minutes in each hour would give 366 whole days to the year without
any fractional remainder. The dates of the commencement of the
seasons will also be varied.
The Invention herein-before described effects a considerable change in
the mode of measuring time, and the various instruments used for that
purpose would require to be modified accordingly, as, for instance,
chronometers, watches, sun dials, instruments used in navigation, such as
the sextant and compass, those used for levelling, and all others in which
graduations based on the present system of dividing the meridian
are used.