CLOCKS, Historical and Celebrated. The most ancient form of clock was the clepsydra (q.v.) or water-clock. The clepsydra having been developed into a device with a dial and indicator operated by the current of water, the next improvement was the substitution of a weight for the water to operate the index. Archimedes is credited with this device. The necessity of some contrivance to regulate the descent of the weight led to the invention of the escapement and pendulum, a rude form of which is said to have been produced by Gerbert of Auvergne, afterward Pope under the name of Sylvester II, who died in 1003. In an old chronicle it is related that Charlemagne received a clock from Harun Al-Rashid in 809, to which small bells were attached and in which figures of horsemen, at the hour of 12, came forth through doors and retired again. There is in more exact description of this work of art n the Franconian annals, attributed to Eginhard, in which it is particularly said to have been a clepsydra and that at the end of each hour little balls of metal fell upon a bell and pro duced a sound. In the 12th century clocks were made use of in the monasteries, which announced the end of every hour by the sound of a bell put in motion by means of wheels. From this time forward the expression "the clock has struck' is often met with. The hand for marking the time is also made mention of. Of abbot of Hirsehati, who died at the end of the llth century, his biographer relates that he invented a horologium similar to the celestial hemisphere. Short as this account is, it still appears probable that this abbot was the inventor of clocks. In the 13th century there is again mention of a clock given by the Sultan Saladin to the Emperor'Frederick II. This was probably put in motion by weights and wheels, as it marked the hours, the course of the sun, of the tnoon and the planets in the zodiac. In the 14th century there are stronger traces of the present system of clock-work. Dante mentions clocks. Richard, abbot of Saint Albans, made a clock in 1326 which indi cated the course of the ',tin and moon, is well as the ebb and flow of the tide. Lare( clocks on steeples were first made use of in the 14th century. In 1340 a monk named Peter Light foot made for Glastonbury Abbey a clock with an escapement and regulator for securing equable motion. At the time of the Reforma
tion it was removed to Wells Cathedral where part of it still remains. In 1835, the mechan ism being entirely worn out, the clock was sup plied with new works and the dial somewhat remodeled and a minute circle and index added. At the base of the arched pediment which sur mounts the squal, 0" the dial An octagonal projection from which rises a panelled turret. Around this, fixed to two rings of wood, are sets of horsemen *which formerly revolved in opposite directions as the hour was struck.
Of all horological machines, the successive clocics at Strassburg Cathedral have perhaps at tracted the most attention as mechanical curiosi ties. These have been three in number. The first was constructed about 1352, the second in the latter part of the 16th century. Early in the 19th century it was evident that recon struction was necessary, and this was ultimately entrusted to Charles Schwilgue, who entered on his task in 1838 and completed it about the mid dle of 1842. On the 2d of October of that year the new life of the resuscitated marvel was solemnly inaugurated. 'On the floor level is a celestial globe indicating sidereal time, and the rising, setting and passage over the meridian of Strassburg of all stars visible with the naked eye. Behind this is a calendar showing months, days of the month, dominical letters and all feast days. Above the calendar is a gallery- with allegorical figures representing the days of the week (Sunday, Apollo drawn in a chariot by horses; Monday, Diana drawn by a stag; Tues day, Mars; Wednesday, Mercury; Thursday, Jupiter; Friday, Venus; Saturday, Saturn), which pass in order from left to right. Above this is a dial for showing ordinary time, a planetarium and a globe showing phases of the moon. Next come movable figures represent ing the four ages of man, whith strike the sec ond stroke of each quarter on a bell. A genius seated beside the ordinary dial strikes the first note of each quarter with a sceptre; the genius on the opposite side turns an hour-glass at each hour. Death strikes the hour with a bone. Above, a procession of the 12 Apostles passes at noon before Christ, bowing at his feet, while he makes the sign of the cross. During the procession a cock perched on the top of the left-hand turret flaps its wings, ruffles its neck and crows three times.