James Arthur

“ If we take the year 1660, we find that it represents the center of modern improvements in clocks, a few years before and after that date includes the pendulum, the anchor and dead beat escapements, the minute and second hands, the circular balance and the hair spring, along with minor improvements. Since the end of that period, which we may make 1700, no fundamental invention has been added to clocks and watches. This becomes impressive when we remember that the last 200 years have produced more inventions than all previous known history—but only minor improvements in clocks! ”

“ Curse on us like a hawk upon a bird.
Silence is fitting here—the dead have ears
That never sleep; they wreak their dark designs
Without restraint, nor do they brandish spears
Fashioned from ore of any earthly mines. ”

“ Now I have a big question to ask—the central note of interrogation in this little scientific conversation with you,—does the man live who can make the earth automatically record its rotation? Do not be alarmed, for I am prepared to make a guess as to this possibility. A direct mechanical record of the earth's rotation seems hopeless, but let us see what can be done. You are aware that some of the fixed stars have a distinct spectrum. It is not unreasonable to suppose that an instrument could be made to record the passage of such a star over the meridian. ”

“ Men notice their shortening and lengthening shadows to this day. When the shadow of a man shortens more and more slowly till it appears to be fixed, the observer knows it is noon, and when it shows the least observable lengthening then it is just past noon. Now, it is a remarkable fact that this crude method of determining noon is just the same as “taking the sun” to determine noon at sea. Noon is the time at which the sun reaches his highest point on any given day. ”

“ So we have a complete striking clock made by a man so poor that he had only his anvil, hammer and file. The weights are hung on cords as thick as an ordinary lead pencil and pass over pulleys having spikes set around them to prevent the cords from slipping. The weights descend 7 ft. in 12 hours, so they must be pulled up—not wound up—twice a day. The single hour hand is a work of art and is cut through like lace. Public clocks may still be seen in Europe with only one hand. ”

“ At the present time science is just about ready to say that a time measurer consisting of wheels and pinions—a driving power and a regulator in the form of a pendulum or balance, is a clumsy contrivance and that we ought to do better very soon; but more on this hoped-for, fourth method when we reach the consideration of the motion on which we base all our time keeping.
It is remarkable how few are aware that the simplest form of sundial is the best, and that, as a regulator of our present clocks, it is good within one or two minutes. No one need be without a “noon-mark” sundial ”

“ Look at a time map of the United States and you will see the zones divided by lines of the wildest irregularity. Now question one of the brightest “scientific chaps” you can find in one of the great railroad offices whose lines touch, or enter, Canada and Mexico. Please do not tell me what he said to you! So great is the confusion that no man understands it all. The amount of wealth destroyed in printing time tables, and failing to explain them, is immense. The amount of human life destroyed by premature death, as a result of wear and tear of brain cells is too sad to contemplate. ”

“ We are constantly correcting their errors and never entirely succeed in getting them to run accurately to periods of time which exist entirely outside of such little things as men and clocks. So a clock is better as it approximates or bears a regular relation to some motion in nature. The sidereal clock of the astronomer does run to a regular motion; but our 24-hour clocks do not, as we shall see later. Now consider the year, or the sun's apparent motion in the Zodiac, from any given star around to the same one again. ”

“ As we cannot conceive of no time, the statement that there is only one day on the earth at Greenwich noon is not strictly permissible. Since there are always two days on the world at once let us suppose that these two are December 31st and January 1st; then we have two years on the world at once for a period of 24 hours. Nine years ago we had the 19th and 20th centuries on the world at once, etc. As a mental exercise, you may carry this as far as you please. Suppose there was an impassable sea wall built on the 180° meridian, then there would be two days on the world, just as explained above ”

“ When we say “6 o'clock” we mean a point of time marked by the striking of the clock. We have no names for the hour periods. We must say “from 5 to 6” or “between 5 and 6” for an hour period. The “twelfth hour” of the New Testament, I understand to mean a whole hour ending at sunset; so we are dealing with an oriental attitude of mind towards time. I think we get that conception nearly correct when we read of the “middle watch” and understand it to mean during the middle third of the night. Secondly, why do the Japanese use no 1, 2, 3 on their dials? ”

“ Astronomers claim an accuracy to the twentieth part of a second when such transits are carefully taken, but over a long period, greater exactness is obtained. Really, the time at which any given star passes the meridian is taken, in practical life, from astronomical tables in the Nautical Almanacs. Those tables are the result of the labors of generations of mathematicians, are constantly subject to correction, and cannot be made simple. Remember, the Earth's rotation is the only uniform motion, all the others being subject to variations and even compound variations. ”

“ Using popular language, the seasons are marked by four points,—Spring equinox—longest day—; Autumnal equinox—shortest day. This would be very simple if the equinoctial points would stay in the same places in the star sphere; but we find that they creep westward each year to the extent of 50 seconds of arc in the great celestial circle of the Zodiac. This is called the precession of the equinoxes. The year is measured from Spring equinox to Spring equinox again; but each year it comes 50 seconds of arc less than a full revolution of the earth around the sun. ”

“ Those interested in the improvement of clocks are constantly striving after light action and small driving weights. Conversely, the inferior clock has a heavy weight and ticks loud. The “gravity escapement” and others giving a “free” pendulum action would require too much space here, so we must be satisfied with the few successful ones shown out of hundreds of inventions, dozens of them patented. The pendulum stands at the top as a time measurer and was known to the ancients for measuring short periods of time just as musicians now use the metronome to get regular beats. ”

“ It is easy to see that each tooth of the wheel will give a little push to the pallet as it escapes, and thus keep the balance swinging. This escapement is a very poor time-keeper, but it was one of the great inventions and held the field for about 600 years, that is, from the days when it regulated bells up to the “onion” watches of our grandfathers. Scattered references in old writings make it reasonably certain that from about 1,000 to 1,300 bells were struck by machines regulated with this verge escapement, thus showing that the striking part of a clock is older than the clock itself. ”

“ A civil, or legal, day ends at the instant of 24 o'clock, midnight, and the next day commences. The time is continuous, the last instant of a day touching the first instant of the next. This is true for all parts of the earth; but something in addition to this happens at a certain meridian called the “date line.” Refer again to Fig. 47 which is drawn with 24 meridians representing hours. As we are taking Greenwich for our time, the meridians are numbered from 0°, on which the observatory of Greenwich stands. ”

“ Any one restoring old clocks for amusement and pleasure will be astonished at the high-class mechanics displayed in them—nearly always by unknown inventors. Here is an example: The old clock-maker found that when he wished to drill a hole in a piece of thick wire so as to make a short tube of it, he could only get the hole central and straight by rotating the piece and holding the drill stationary. By this method the drill tends to follow the center line of rotation; and our great guns as well as our small rifles are bored just that way to get bores which will shoot straight. ”

“ Continue till you look down on New York at 12 noon, then it is 17 o'clock at Greenwich (leaving out fractions for simplicity) etc. If you will make a simple drawing like Fig. 47 and cut the earth separate, just around the inside of the annulus, and stick a pin at the North Pole for a center, you may rotate the earth as per small arrow and get the actual motion, but the result will be just the same as if you went by the big arrow. We thus see that every instant of the 24 hours is represented, at some point, on the earth. That is, the earth has an infinity of local times ”

“ Call and see this clock and you will find that the City Hall officials sustain the good name of Philadelphia for politeness. Generally, we give no attention to the hour numerals, even of our watches, as the following proves. When you have taken out your watch and looked at the time, for yourself, and put it back in your pocket, and when a friend asks the time you take it out again to find the time for him! Why? Because, for yourself, you did not read hours and minutes, but only got a mental impression from the position of the hands ”

“ It is useless multiplying examples; all difficulties disappear, as if by magic, the moment we can free our minds of local time and the association of the same hour with the same portion of the day at all places. The great interest at present manifested in the attempts to reach the North Pole calls for some consideration of universal time in the extreme north. Commencing at the equator, it is easy to see that the day and night ring, Fig. 46, would represent the days and nights of 12 hours at all seasons. ”

“ Clocks are often regulated by electric impulses over wires. Electricians inform me that they can do this by wireless; but that owing to the rapid attenuation of the impulses it cannot be done commercially, over great distances. In the history of invention the first step was to do something and then find a way of doing it cheaply enough for general use. So far as I know, the watch in the wearer's pocket has not yet been regulated by wireless; but I am willing to risk the statement that the editor of Popular Mechanics can name more than one electrician who can do this. ”

“ Mathematicians moving in the ethereal regions of astronomy lead us to conclude that it must become gradually slower, and that it is slowing; but the amount may be considered a vanishing quantity even compared with the smallest errors of our finest clocks; so for uncounted generations past—and to come—we may consider the earth's rotation uniform. ”

“ When the clock strikes six, at sunset, the top balance is thrown out of action and the lower one, which is the fast one, is thrown into action and measures the short night hours. At sunrise this is thrown out and the top one in again to measure the next day's long hours. As the days vary in length, the balances, or foliots, can be made to swing faster or slower by moving the weights inwards or outwards a notch or two. The balance with small weights for regulation is the oldest known and was used in connection with the verge escapement, just as in this clock, by the Dutch about 1364. ”

“ Suppose we set up 1,410 clocks at uniform distances on the equator, then they would be about 17 miles apart and differ by minutes. Now make it 86,400 clocks, they would be 1,500 feet apart and differ by seconds. With 864,000 clocks they would be 150 feet apart and vary by tenths of seconds. It is useless to extend this, since you could always imagine more clocks in the circle; thus establishing the fact that there are an infinity of times at an infinity of places always on the earth. ”

“ When we remember that the earth is not far from being as heavy as a ball of iron, and that its surface velocity at the equator is about 17 miles per minute, it is easy to form a conception of its uniform motion. ”

“ The clock hand is the heavy arrow and sweeps the dial once in a whole day, same direction as our clocks. This circle of the months moves along with the hand, but a little faster, so as to gain one number in a month. As shown on the figure it is about one week into the sixth month. Next outward is the broad band having twelve curved lines for the hours ending outwardly in a ring divided into 100 parts, marked off in tens by dots. These curved lines are numbered with the Japanese numerals for hours which you must now be able to read easily. ”

“ That is, we can now liberate the greatest forces by the most infinitesimal, by steps; the little force liberating one greater than itself, and that one another still greater. A good example is the stopping of an electric train, from a distance, by wireless. The standard clock in Philadelphia, previously referred to, is a delicate instrument and its most delicate part, having the least force, moves a little valve every minute, and by several steps liberates the air pressure, 200 feet higher in the tower, to move the four sets of great hands. ”

“ We must find a little space for striking clocks. The simplest is one blow at each hour just to draw attention to the clock. Striking the hours and also one blow at each half hour as well as the quarter double blow, called “ting tong” quarters, are too well known to need description. The next stage after this is “chiming quarters” with three or more musical gongs, or bells. One of the best strikers I have has three trains, three weights and four bells. It strikes the hour on a large bell and two minutes after the hour it strikes it again, so as to give you another chance to count correctly. ”

“ In the early days of the clepsydra in China, a certain time was allowed to dip up the water from the lowest jar, each morning and evening about five o'clock of our time, see Fig. 8 (Chapter 1) . During this operation the clepsydra was not marking time, and the oriental mind evidently considered it in some sense outside of the regular hours, and like many other things was retained till it appeared absurdly on the earlier clocks. This wonderful feat of putting an interval between two consecutive hours has always been impossible to modern science ”