J.D. Chevalley, a native of Switzerland, has arrived at an astonishing
degree of perfection in reckoning time by an internal movement. In his
youth he was accustomed to pay great attention to the ringing of bells
and vibrations of pendulums, and by degrees he acquired the power of
continuing a succession of intervals exactly equal to those which the
vibrations or sounds produced.--Being on board a vessel, on the Lake of
Geneva, he engaged to indicate to the crowd about him the lapse of a
quarter of an hour, or as many minutes and seconds as any one chose to
name, and this during a conversation the most diversified with those
standing by; and farther, to indicate by the voice the moment when the
hand passed over the quarter minutes, or half minutes, or any other
sub-division previously stipulated, during the whole course of the
experiment. This he did without mistake, notwithstanding the exertions
of those about him to distract his attention, and clapped his hands
at the conclusion of the time fixed. His own account of it is thus
given:--"I have acquired, by imitation, labour, and patience, a movement
which neither thoughts, nor labour, nor any thing can stop: it is
similar to that of a pendulum, which at each motion of going and
returning gives me the space of three seconds, so that twenty of them
make a minute--and these I add to others continually."
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