A clock at Berne which dates from 1527 presents some curious features. Three minutes before the hour a wooden cock crows and claps its wings; in another minute a procession of bears (baren, referring to the name ((Berne') passes around a seated figure of a beirded old man; the codc (above the arch, and to its right) then crows again. The hour is struck on a bell at the top of the tower, by a figure with a ham mer, and at each stroke, the bearded figure raises his sceptre and opens his month, while he turns an hour-glass; a bear inclines his head at the same time. Then the cock crows again.
Another celebrated clock is at Venice, dating back to the 17th century. It has a dial of blue and gold and is surmounted by bronze figures which strike the hours upon a bell. On Ascen sion Day, and for 14 days after, figures of the Magi come forth in procession and salute the Virgui and Child (as shown above dial) when the clock strikes 12.
Yet another is the clock of the English Houses of Parliament at Westminster. It was designed by Lord Grimthorpe (then Mr. E. B. Denison) and was first set going in 1860. The tower is 320 feet high and the dials are 180 feet from the ground. Each of them is 221/2 feet di ameter, of opalescent glass set in an iron frame work. The hour figures are two feet long and the minute spaces one foot square. The works contain three trains —one drives the hands, another the mechanism for striking the hours, the third the chimes. The pendulum is fully 13 feet long and weighs nearly 700 pounds. The going part of the clock requires winding once a week, the striking parts twice. The hour bell weighs 13 tons, the quarter bells collectively eight tons. Though there are clocks with larger dials, this clock is probably the most powerful as well as the most accurate of all large time keepers. It cost more than $110,000.
The United States has produced ntunerous notable clocks, tnost of them, however, smaller than the great clocks of Europe, if we except several that have been erected on great build ings of late years. Among the early American clocks which have become famous is one made by David Rittenhouse, in Philadelphia in 1767, and since then known by his name. It has six dials, each of which marks different astronomi cal events. The °Columbus, Ohio, clock* also records numerous astronomical events and contains many miniature figures, which are made to perform various motions. This clock is 11 feet high by 18 wide. Donaldson, Willces Barre and Hazleton, all in the State of Penn sylvania, have also produced notable clocks.
Felix Meyer of New York, in 1880, after 10 years' work and experimenting, produced a re markable clock, which showed local time in hours, tninutes and seconds, the days of the week and the month, the seasons, the signs of the zodiac, the revolutions of the earth round the sun and on its own axis, the movements of the planets round the sun and the phases of the moon. It shows the difference in time at Wash
ington, San Francisco, Chicago, Cairo, Mel bourne, Constantinople, Peking, London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna and Saint Petersburg. A child strikes the quarter-hour, a youth the half-hour, an old man the three-quarter-hour and death the hour, while Washington rises from his seat and, extending his right hand, presents the Declaration of Independence. A servant opens a door and the other Presidents of the United States, up to the time when the clock was ma&, each dressed in the characteristic costume of his day, come forward, salute the first Pre.si dent of the nation and, passing on, diSappear through 'another door. The Meyer clock is 18 feet high, 8 wide and 5 deep and contains over 2,000 wheels.
One of the notable modern clocks of the United States is that in the tower of the Met ropolitan Life Building in the city of New York, where it was placed in 1909. It has four dials each 26Y2 feet in diameter and situated one in each side of a tower nearly 350 feet above the street. This tower, which is twice this distance in height, is crowned by a lantern which signals, by flashes, the hours and quar ters, the hours being lighted up by 88 white lights and the quarters by 56 red ones, the two giving a total candle power of 16,262. One of the features of this clock is a set of chimes which, among other things, sounds the hours and the quarters from 8 a.m. to 6 PAL An idea of the enormous size of this clock may be gath ered from the fact that the minute hand meas ures 17 feet and the hour hand 13 feet 4 inches. In the office of the director of the building is a clock which controls all the machinery of the larger clock and handles the time service of the whole building. It is driven by electricity and is self-winding. Naturally the great dial, situated as it is at such a height from the city street, is one of the noteworthy features of the clocic. The numbers on it are 4 feet high and the minute marks are 10Y2 inches long. The minute hand is lit up by 16 and the hour hand by 10 incandescent lamps.
The largest clock in the United States is that erected over the works of the Colgate Company, in Jersey City. Its enormous .dial is 38 feet across and it contains within its circle 1,134 square feet. The minute hand is 20 feet long and the mechanism is run by a 2,000-pound weight. The clock itself weighs six tons and its hands are outlined by incandescent lights, while brilliant red lamps mark each numeral. The minute spaces, which are 24 inches apart, are also shown by electric lamps. It has been estimated that the extreme end of the minute hand travels more than half a mile in the course of a day. The second largest clock was built for the Edison Electric Illuminating Com pany, Boston, Mass. Specifications: Dial, 34 feet in diameter; weight of hands, 875 pounds; hour hand, 14 feet 4 inches long; minute hand, 18 feet 6 inches long.