Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 127.djvu/69

Rh dial, a third the wheels, a fourth the pendulum, so that on one clock many hands are employed. Under this system, within a radius of sixty English miles, the number of clocks or watches turned out annually is nearly seven hundred thousand. Figures convey but small impressions to the mind, but if it is remembered that five thousand men are working at this trade, and that there are only about two thousand five hundred inhabitants in Furtwangen and fifteen hundred in Tryberg, it will be seen how strong a hold this trade has upon the people of the Schwarzwald.

It chanced that towards the end of the seventeenth century a family named Kreuz, more enterprising or clever than their neighbours, lived in the village of Neukirch. They made a rude clock, works and frame of wood, with a weight, and this was given or sold to the parish priest. This idea was not lost upon others of the enterprising Schwarzwalders, and the example was soon followed, and not long afterwards the farmhouses of the district began to be adorned with other wooden clocks. Two men were very apt at the work, they may almost be called the fathers of the art; their names were Lorenz Frei, called "the Woodworker," and Solomon Henniger, of St. Märgen. The germs now rapidly developed; the simple carving of wooden stands or frames gave place to the more elaborate work of ornamental clockmaking; the wood, the want of other occupations, the uncommon industry, acuteness, and union of the people, the freedom from political and other disturbing causes, all promoted this quick growth. Hawkers sold the clocks throughout Germany, and the Schwarzwald soon became celebrated throughout the empire.

The clocks were at first very simple in construction, wooden wheels and carved frames. It was not until between the years 1730 and 1740 that the first cuckoo clock—which is one of the class called Spiebihren, or clocks of amusement—was introduced, by Franz Ketterer, of Schönwald, a small hamlet on the hill above Tryberg, who is the real originator of the description of clock for which the Black Forest is most noted. This was novel enough for a time, but more minds set to work, and forty years later Anthony Duffner devised the first flute clock. Soon a real, noteworthy advance took place, in the introduction of the first pendulum clock. Then the fancy of one Kirner, a Schwarzwalder, who had become court painter to the king of Bavaria, suggested that very pleasant instrument, the trumpet clock. There were now five hundred persons engaged in the clock-trade in the Black Forest, and it had become the recognized occupation of the people. The work was all done by hand; not for some years was machinery used. But instead of the primitive fashion of each family working for themselves, masters and workmen began to appear; and as time went on, the change became more and more complete, till in 1849, the Grand Duke Leopold was asked to assist in founding a clock and watchmakers' school. The government of Baden at once acceded, and they gave ten thousand florins for the purpose of defraying some of the building expenses and to carry on the work of the institution—the community of Furtwangen gave wood and materials—and in 1850 the Clockmakers' School at Furtwangen was opened. Thus almost before the workmen of England had begun to think of technical schools, the peasants of a distant German province had already set one on foot. It has given new impetus to the work, and by the introduction of a special literature and instruction, in no small degree aided the general education of the people of this and the neighbouring villages, as well as the actual technical branch which it was created to improve. The school has two main objects. Firstly, the education of the young by literary and theoretical teaching in the elements on which the art of clockmaking is composed, that is, in the general principles common to any scientific manufacture, and in the more intricate details belonging specially to this one branch. Secondly, the improvement of the trade by a practical school or workshop, where the theories already taught can be carried out, where new improvements and methods can be tried, and where practical instruction can be given. Two important principles are acted upon in carrying out these aims,—the instruction is free, and it is not in the place of, but subsidiary to, and based on, that which is given in the Folkschule, or public elementary schools. This is important to notice, because there is too great a tendency in England to begin at the wrong end, not only in the lower branches of technical instruction, but also in those of a higher and more intellectual grade, and make technical supply the place of general teaching. Briefly put, these are some of the details connected with the school. The age of admittance is fourteen, and the pupil must have 