Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/61

* CLOCK. 45 CLOCK. enUiir are figures drawn in ehariois, (inc appear- ing each day. On Sunday A|iollii ajiijcars, drawn by horses of the sun. On Monday Diana, em- blem of the moon, drawn by stajjs. a]ii>ears. Slie is succeeded in turn by ilars, ilcroury. .Tui)it('r, Venus, Cupid, and Saturn. Above Ibesc lijjnrcs is the dial which tells the time of day. On each side of this dial sits a figure, one of which strikes the quarterdiours. and the other hidds an hour- glass, and turns it every sixty niintes. The next .story is devoted to a planetarium, and the next is a globe for showing the phases of the moon. Above this are movable figures, which iu svicces- sion strilce the quarter-hour. The first figure is an infant, which strikes the bell with a rattle; the second is a youth ; the third an old man ; the fourth is a figure of death, which strikes the bell with a bone. In the highest compartment is a figure of Christ. Each day at noon a ]iroces- sion of the Apostles passes before Him; while a cock, perched above, appears and flaps its wings and crows three times. The clock at Beauvais, France, is almost as wonderful a piece of mechanism as the Strass- burg clock. It is composed of 14 diflerent movements, includes 90.000 different pieces, and weighs .3.5,000 pounds. There are about 50 dials for indicating difl'erent astronomical events. The clock is .36 feet high, 16 feet broad, and nearly 9 feet deep. The clock in Lyons Cathedral is much like the Strassburg clock. The old clock of Prague was built by one Harausch; and so jealous were the citizens of Prague lest he should build a similar dock in some other city — so the story goe.s — that they put out his eyes. This clock also eon- tains various mechanical figures. The hour is rung by a skeleton, with the liell-rope in his hands. Another monumental clock is that in the elock- tower on the Piazza San ilarco, Venice. A Jladonna sits on a platform between two doors overlaid with gold. When the time for certain religious festivals occurs, an angel comes out from one of these doors, blows a trum|)et. bows to the Virgin, and passes out at the other door. The hour is struck by two giants. Belfry clocks with automatons began to wane in popularity during the seventeenth century, and very few have been constructed since. House- clocks with automatons were first made in the fifteenth century; hut the height of their popu- larity was during the Renaissance, when won- derful skill and great artistic talent were cx]icnd- ed in their construction. A favorite design for these clocks was that of a ship, whose crew per- formed niuiierous automatic functions. Perhaps the most beautiful as well as famous of these automatons is the ship-elock of Charles V. of France, now in the Cluny ^luseum. This clock was mounted U])on rollers, on which its mecha- nism caused it to advance and recede. Another favorite design was a mounted huntsman, who, at the stroke of the hour, moved his head and arms, while the head and tail of the horse also moved. During the eighteenth century clocks with mechanically singing birds were popular. Within recent years automaton house-clocks have come to be regarded as interesting examples of mechanical ingenuity and skill, to be occasion- ally produced and admired, rather than as neces- sary' or desirable articles of furniture. The United States has produced its share of automaton clocks, tlu)igh most of them have been smaller than the great tower-clocks of Eu- rope. Tlu' Hittenhouse clock," made in 1767 by David Kittenliouse. of I'liiladelphia, has six dials, each marking ntV different astronomical events. Tlu^ '('oluml)us dock," made by a citi- zen of Columbus, Ohio, is 18 feet wide and 1 1 feet high. Like the clocks already described, this one records many astronomical events; in addition, miniature figures perform various movements. Three towns of Pennsylvania — Donaldson, Hazleton, and Wilkesbarre — have possessed citizens who have added to tlu'ir fame by their remarkable clocks. In 1880 a clock was ]daccd on exhiliition in New Yorl-c that was a striking iiluslration of the elaborateness to which clockwork may be carried. It was the work of Felix Meyer, who spent more than ten years in its construction. The clock is 18 feet high, 8 feet wide, and 5 feet deep. It has 2000 wheels, runs by 700-pi)und weights, and is woxuid up once in twelve days. When the clock is in operation, it shows the local time in hours, minutes, and seconds; the dilTerence in time at Chicago, Washington. San Francisco, Melbourne, Pekin, Cairo. Constanti- nople. Saint Petersburg, Vienna, London, Berlin, and Paris; the day of the week, calendar day of the month, month and season of the year, the signs of the zodiac, revolutions of the earth on its own axis and around the sun; also the phases of the moon and the movement of the planets around the sun. The (|uarter-hour is struck by an infant, the luilf-hour by a youtli, the three-quarter b.y an old man, and the hour by death, as in the Strassburg clock. As the hour strikes, a figure of Washington rises from a chair and extends its right hand, presenting the Declaration of Independence. A door is opened by a servant, and all the Presidents, as far as and including Hayes, each dressed in the costume of his time, advance across the platform, salute Washington, and retire through another door. Tower-Clocks. As already pointed out,' the earliest European clocks were all tower-clocks — the house or 'chamber' clock being a later in- vention, closely connected with the invention of watches. Among the early clock-builders, inge- nuity and complication of meclianism. as dis- played in the automatons, was considered of more importance than accuracy as a timekeeper; but within recent years much scientific skill has been used to construct tower-elocks which, in spite of their enormous size and great heiglit, with the accompanying atmospheric disturbances at so great a distance from the earth, shall still be accurate timekeepers. One of the largest clocks in the world is the 'Westminster clock,' in the British House of Parliament, which was put in operation in 1860. Its four dials, situated 180 feet aliove the ground, are 22i-> feet in diameter. Each minute-liand is 14 feet long, and the hour-figures on the clock are 2 feet long. The pendulum is 13V{; feet long, and weighs 700 pounds. There are o bells, weighing respectively 21 cwt., 20 ewt., SS^A cwt., 78 cwt.. and 13 tons 11 ewt., for striking the first, second, and third quarters and the hour. These bells are hung from massive wrought-iron framing, in a chamber above the dial. The larg- est, the hour-hell, popularly known as "Big Ben.' is feet in diameter, and is struck by a hammer