ck-Rapid phases of invention-The dawn of science-The great English masters of clockmaking-

e time by the position of its hands upon the dial-plate, or by the striking of a hammer on a bell. P

marked definitely the hours of light and hours of darkness. That was a law over which he had no control. Similarly he watched the seasons-the spring, the summer, the autumn, and the winter; this gave him the annual calendar. It becomes a matter of curious speculatio

Greek measurements of time is too abstruse to be included in a volume of this nature. Nor is it necessary,

tes 4 seconds. Astronomical clocks recording with scientific exactitude this phenomenon are on a plane apart, as are chronometers used b

the measurement of time scientifically and the measureme

ies from 1 to 12-the first series, called A.M. (ante meridian), before midday, and the second series, P.M. (post meridian), after midday

ar day; the starting-point was not always the same. The Babylonians began their day at

eriod of the revolution of the earth on its axis, determined by the interval of time betw

Lunar day is 24 hours 50 minutes, and t

rect clock. The difference between Mean Time and Apparent Time, that is, between the time shown by the clock and the sundial, is

ht. His sundial was of no use at night and of little use on cloudy days. The hour-glass was not a piece of mecha

tem, into twenty-four hours. It is curious to read that "until the eighteenth century in England the hour was commonly reckoned as the twelfth part of

iods of sixty minutes. It was the Babylonians who first divided

rals. Later, again, a new sub-dial was added, and a seconds hand recorded the sixty seconds which made the minute. The term "second" was at first called "second-minute," denoting that it was the second division of an hour by sixty. The learned John Wilkins, Bisho

ock dial as we now know it. Scientific it is, as one of man's most exact recorders of natural phenomena. That an exact timekeeper should be found

judgments as o

, yet each be

his Essay on Cr

rly eighteenth century, but Dickens in Dombey and Son suggests eq

hour every morning, and about another quarter towards

" may be applied to the clock dial. By an Act of Parliament, in spite of science and the earth's revolution on its axis, the hands straightway mean something else. It is well t

time by candle, by the hour-glass, and later by the sundial, was to produce a piece of mechanism which wo

hanism was added to strike a bell with a hammer, showing the hours indicated by the hand. At first the motive power was a weight acting upon toothed wheels. In the fifteent

day of the month, and the festivals of the Church, were produced. In the sixteenth century portable clocks received further attention in regard to minute mechanism, resulting in what we now know as the wat

of clockmaking by applying the pendulum to clocks in order to regulate the movement, "and adapting, some years later, to the balance of wat

t with a cross-bar balanced by weights.

nd forwards across the face of the dial, being only some six inches in length, and more frequent

ight or weights, this was frequently done. So frequently, in fact, that very few of the old

l" or long pendulum, the dom

domestic clock, and from this point a fairly de

to the gaze of everybody. The nobility employed, on the Continent and in this country, great clockmakers to produce these new scientific timekeepers for use in their priv

s mistress. It was a rich and rare jewel of scientific construction, set in crystal, embellished with

e present day. The watch is not the small clock, nor is the clock the large watch. Whatever may have been their common origin, each has developed on lines essentially proper fo

ached to the clock, and similarly the watch has d

fic channels. The scientific clockmaker was the product of this period of restless activity. Science was in leading-strings. Prince Rupert's Drops, so familiar now, were a scientific wonder. Bishop Wilkins and Evelyn, Locke and Dr. Harvey, were all, from different points

ens pendulum was hung by a silken cord, and the arc described by the bob or weight at its end was a segment of a circle. Dr. Hooke invented the thin, flexible steel support of the pendulum, producing more scientific accuracy. In 1658

th, 1675, the discovery of Huygens, who visited England in 1661 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. Dr. Hooke protested. It appears that one of the "ballance double watches" was presented to Charles II and was inscribed "Robert Hooke inven. 1658. T. Tompion fecit 1675." There is the record tha

in July 1704 it was by the Master reported that certain persons at Amsterdam are in the habit of putting the names of Tompion, Windmills, Quare, C

e, by R. Waller, 1705.

f the City of London, by Samuel Elliott Atkins and Henry O

ve we add the following. These men are in the first flight. Ahasuerus Fromanteel (and the family of Fromanteel, of Dutch origin), the first to introduce the pendulum into England; Edward East; Joseph Knibb, father and son; William Du

so that examples coming in the possession of collectors can readily be checked by this list. But the fact that a maker's name is

mariners, or the modern watch, minute in size but recording time with accuracy, or the bracket or table clock, or the long-case

upon him to cast the bell in the chiming movement, or to make the catgut which is wound around the drum carrying the weights. Nor was he an expert in metal design to pierce the hands and employ delicate ornament in so doing. Perhaps we may forgive him employing a special trade to supply him with delicate springs. But the factory system of the middle nineteenth century began to eat into the vitals of clockmaking in this country as a scientific craft. Makers of wheels, makers of chains, makers of e

arts put together with mechanical precision lack-there awaits a glorious heritage. The soul of the living clock must echo the soul of its human maker. The old masters have left to posterity living organisms which will not die. It rests with the public to say whether they prefer the gramophone to the singer, the piano-player to the accomplished pianist. If the clock of tomorrow is to be a mere soulless

old claim to recognition. It is, if it be a fine old English clock by an English maker, a reliable piece of mechanism as a timekeeper. It is in certain periods representative, in its marquetry or lacquered case, of styles of decoration and design now only equalle

century represent two periods when the clockmaker was doing splendid work. The clocks of the intervening period are of val

logy to perfection. During this first period the clock cases and the clock dials came under artistic impulses not since equalled.

recognition at a time when factory inventions and factory-made substitutes commenced to dominate not only the art of the clockmaker but other personal crafts. During this time the case and the dial cannot be

to which possibly the beast could not lay claim. In the former, added touches would counterfeit antiquity: here a pair of apparently old hands, there an antiquated-looking dial, and an enshri

much for the visible. Then there is the movement, that is, the mechanism which makes the clock a clock. This is unseen by the average snapper-up of old clocks, or when seen not understood. There are those collectors who stop short in their requirements. A clock is an ornament to a well appointed home, in the hall, in the smoking-room, or in the dining-room. They are unconcerned as to whether it is

eneration, he places himself not in the hands of a dealer who has sold a thousand clocks, but in the hands of a practical clockmaker who has made one. A trained man having a knowledge of old movements, and to whom they are so

ned for ever by ignorant repairers and restorers. In their little day they have destroyed movements and parts which can never be rep