1. The great divisions of time, noted by uncivilized men, are those
which are indicated by the changes of the moon, and the annual and
diurnal revolutions of the earth; but the ingenuity of man was very
early exercised in devising methods of measuring more minute periods
of duration.
2. The earliest contrivance for effecting this object was the
sun-dial. This instrument was known to the ancient Egyptians,
Chaldeans, Chinese, and Bramins. It was likewise known to the Hebrews,
at least as early as 740 years before Christ, in the days of Ahaz the
king. The Greeks and the Romans borrowed it from their Eastern
neighbors. The first sun-dial at Rome was set up by Papirius Cursor,
about 300 years before Christ. Before this period, the Romans
determined the time of day by the rude method of observing the length
of shadows.
3. The sun-dial, as it is now constructed, consists of a plate,
divided into twelve equal parts, like the face of a clock, on which
the falling of a shadow indicates the time of day. The shadow is
projected by the sun, through the intervention of a rod or the edge
of a _plate stile_ erected on the plane of the dial. But, since the
dial was useful only in the clear day, another instrument was
invented, which could be used at all times, in every variety of
situation; and to this was given the name of _clepsydra_.
4. This instrument is supposed to have been invented in Egypt; but, at
what period, or by whom, it is not stated. Its construction was
varied, in different ages and countries, according with the particular
modes of reckoning time; but the constant dropping or running of water
from one vessel into another, through a small aperture, is the basis
in all the forms which it has assumed. The time was indicated by the
regularly increasing height of the water in the receiving vessel.
5. The clepsydra was introduced into Greece by Plato, near 400 years
before Christ, and, about 200 years after this, into Rome, by Scipio
Africanus. It is said that Pompey brought a valuable one from the
East, and that Julius Cæsar met with one in England, by which he
discovered that the summer nights were shorter there than in Italy.
6. The use which Pompey made of his instrument, was to limit the
length of speeches in the senate. Hence he is said, by a historian of
those times, to have been the first Roman who put bridles upon
eloquence. A similar use was made of the clepsydra in the courts of
justice, first in Greece, and afterwards in Rome.
7. A kind of water-clock, or clepsydra, adapted to the modern
divisions of time, was invented near the middle of the seventeenth
century; and these were extensively used, in various parts of Europe,
for a considerable time; but they are now entirely superseded by our
common clocks and watches, which are far more perfect in their
operation, and, in all respects, better adapted to the purposes to
which they are applied.
8. The invention of the clock is concealed in the greatest obscurity.
Some writers attribute it to the monks, as this instrument was used in
the twelfth century in the monasteries, to regulate the inmates in
their attendance on prayers both by night and by day. Others suppose
that a knowledge of this valuable instrument was derived from the
Saracens, through the intercourse arising from the crusades. Be this
as it may, clocks were but little known in Europe, until the beginning
of the fourteenth century.
9. Richard, abbot of St. Alban's, England, made a clock in 1326, such
as had never been heard of until then. It not only indicated the
course of the sun and moon, but also the ebbing and flowing of the
tide. Large clocks on steeples began to be used in this century. The
first of this kind is supposed to have been made and put up in Padua
by Jacobus Dondi.
10. A steeple clock was set up in Boulogne, in 1356; and, in 1364,
Henry de Wyck, a German artist, placed one in the palace of Charles
V., king of France. In 1368, three Dutchmen introduced clock-work into
England, under the patronage of Edward III. Clocks began to be common
both in England and on the Continent, about the end of the fifteenth
century.
11. The clock of Henry de Wyck is the most ancient instrument of this
kind of which we have a description. The wheels were made of wrought
iron, and the teeth were cut by hand. In other respects, also, it was
a rude piece of mechanism, and not at all capable of keeping time with
accuracy. But, rude as it was, it is not likely that it was the
invention of a single individual; but that, after the first rude
machine was put in motion, it received several improvements from
various persons. This has, at least, been the case with all the
improvements made on the clock of Henry de Wyck, to the present day.
12. The application of the pendulum to clock-work appears to have been
first made by Vincenzo Galileo, in 1649; but the improvement was
rendered completely successful, in 1656, by Christian Huygens, a Dutch
philosopher. The laws of the oscillation of the pendulum were first
investigated by Galileo, the great Italian philosopher, and father of
the Galileo just mentioned. His attention was attracted to this
subject by the swinging of a lamp suspended from the ceiling of the
Cathedral, at Pisa, his native city.
13. The clocks first made were of a large size, and were placed only
in public edifices. The works were, at length, reduced in their
dimensions, and these useful machines were gradually introduced into
private dwellings. They were finally made of a portable size, and were
carried about the person. These portable clocks had, for their
maintaining power, a main-spring of steel, instead of a weight, which
was used in the larger time-keepers.
14. The original pocket-watches differed but little, if at all, in the
general plan of their construction, from the portable clocks just
mentioned. The transition from one kind of instrument to the other
was, therefore, obvious and easy; but the time of the change cannot be
certainly determined. It is commonly admitted, however, that Peter
Hele constructed the first watch, in 1510.
15. Watches appear to have been extensively manufactured at Nuremburg,
in Germany, soon after their invention, as one of the names by which
they were designated, was _Nuremburg eggs_. These instruments, as well
as clocks, were in common use in France, in 1544, when the company of
clock and watch makers of Paris was first incorporated.
16. In 1658, the spring balance was invented by Doctor Nathaniel
Hooke, an English philosopher. At least the invention is attributed to
him by his countrymen. On the Continent it is claimed for Christian
Huygens. Before this improvement was made, the performance of watches
was so defective, that the best of them could not be relied upon for
accurate time an hour together. Their owners were obliged to set them
often to the proper time, and wind them up twice a day.
17. After the great improvements had been effected in the clock and
watch by Huygens and Hooke, several others of minor importance were
successively made by different persons; but our limits do not allow us
to give them a particular notice; we will only state that the
repeating apparatus of both clocks and watches was invented, about the
year 1676, by one Barlow, an Englishman; that the compensation or
gridiron pendulum was invented by George Graham, of London, in 1715;
and that jewels were applied to watches, to prevent friction, by one
Facio, a German.
18. Clocks and watches are constructed on the same general principles.
The mechanism of both is composed of wheel-work, with contrivances to
put it in motion, and to regulate its movements. The moving or
maintaining power in large clocks is a weight suspended by a cord to a
cylinder. In watches, and sometimes in small clocks, this office is
performed by a steel spring. In the clock, the regulation of the
machinery is effected by the pendulum, and in the watch, by the
balance-wheel, or spring balance. In either case, the maintaining
power is prevented from expending itself, except in measured portions.
19. The time is indicated by hands, or pointers, which move on the
dial plate. The minute hand is attached to the axle of the wheel which
makes its revolution in sixty minutes, and the hour hand to the one
which makes the revolution in twelve hours. Greater and smaller
divisions of time are kept and indicated on the same principle. The
part of a clock which keeps the time, is called the going part; and
that which strikes the hour, the striking part.
20. The division of labor is particularly conspicuous in the
manufacture of watches, as the production of almost every part is the
labor of a distinct artisan. The workman who polishes the several
parts, and puts them together, is called, among this class of
tradesmen, the _finisher_ or _watch-maker_. Those, therefore, who deal
largely in watches in England, purchase the different parts from the
several manufacturers, and cause them to be put together by the
finisher.
21. Watches are extensively manufactured in various parts of Europe,
but particularly in French Switzerland, France, and England. The
London watchmakers have been celebrated for good workmanship, for more
than a century and a half. This manufacture has not yet been commenced
in the United States, although the machinery, or _inside work_, is
very often imported in tin boxes, and afterwards supplied with dial
plates and cases. This is especially the case with the more valuable
kinds of watches.
22. Brass clocks are manufactured in most of our cities, and in many
of our villages, and wooden clocks, in great numbers, in the state of
Connecticut. These last are carried by pedlers into the remotest parts
of the country, so that almost every farmer in our land can divide the
day by the oscillations of the pendulum.
[Illustration: COPPERSMITH.]