Year: 1879

Aristotle described time as a mulClLuue OF
parts of motion" Another writer says that
time is seen not, felt not, and that it is but
a shadowy name, q succession Of breathings
measured forth by night with the clank of a
bell, by day with shadow crossing along a
dial stone" When the interval called day,
and containing twenty-four hours, really be-
gins and ends, is rather uncertain, for some
nations begin the day at sunrise, some at mid
day and some at midnight. 1t is not exactly
known when the present mode of beginning
the day at midnight first came into use, but
it appears to have been an ecclesiastical in
vention. The natural day obviously COM
mences at sunrise, and ends at sunset, when
the natural night begins, and this seems to
have been the earliest system of reckoning.
Afterward the day and night became each
divided into four parts and long after this
the division into hours was introduced, to cor
respond with the division of the year into
months, and the first hours were therefore
twelfths of the whole interval from the COM
mencement of one day to that Of the next ;
and probably the subdivision into twenty
four hours arose from dividing both the natu-
raj day and night into twelve equal parts.


1t may be inferred that hours, uniforml y Of
sixty minutes, were not used until some me-
chanical means of measuring time, as by the
wheel-clock, had been generally introduced ;
for although the sun dial and water-clock are
of great antiquity, they formerly represented
hours Of length varying with the season ;
and the latter was adjusted to furnish hours
of fifty to seventy minutes each, in order to
suit the changing lengths Of day and night.


The general name of every instrument that
in any way measured the motion of time was
anciently horologium, and this name was used
whether it referred to sun dial, clepsyda or
water.clock, sand glass or clock. One Of the
earliest means of marking the hours was the
sun dial. 1t is mentioned in the second book
of Kings, chapter 20, verse H. "And Isaiah,
the prophet, cried unto the Lord !; and he
brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by
which it had gone down in the dial Of Ahaz. "


Wster.clocks are known to have been in
use long before the Christian era. The prin-
ciple of these mechanical contrivances was
very simple In those of the common kind
the water issued, drop by drop, through a
small hole in the vessel that contained it, and
fell into receiver, in which some light float
ing body marked the height of the water as
it rose, and by these means the time that had
elapsed. The admission pipe for the water
was made either of gold or perforated gem,
in order that it might not wear away or be
liable to get foul. These water clocks seldom
indicate the true time of day, for they had
two great defects-the one being that the wa
ter ran out with greater or less facility as the
atmosphere was more or less dense and the
other that the water flowed quicker when it
had nearly ran out than when first permitted
to flow. A mechanician of Alexandria, two
centuries before the Christian era, is said to
have constructed waterclock in which the
fall of water turned some toothed wheels,
which gave motion to column the water
thereby raised or lowered small statute that
pointed with truncheon to the months and
hours engraved upon the column. Water
clocks were used in the Roman courts to reg
ulate lawyers in their pleadings. "This, D
says an ancient writer, "was to prevent bab.
bling, then as such as spake in court ought to
be brief in their speeches." Charlemagne
had curious clock worked by water. The
dial was composed Of twelve small doors,
which represented the division Of the hours
each door opened at the hour it was intended
to represent, and out of it came a number
of little balls, which fell one by one, at equal
distances of time, on brass drum. 1t might
be told by the eye what hour it WAS by the
number of doors that were open; and by the
ear by til, number Of balls that fell. When
it was twelve o'clock, twelve horsemen, in min
iature, issued forth at the came time, and
marching around the dial shut all the doors


The hour-glass, in which sand took the
place of water, was modification of the wa.
ter.clock.


Candle-clocks were among the various
methods which were adopted in past ages to
measure and apportion the time. Alfred the
Great is said to have procured six wax can
dies, each twelve inches in length, with the
divisions of inches distinctly marked upon it
! These being LIGHTED one after another regll.