A singular kind of clock was registered in 1849 by Mr. Tanner, for shewing time adapted to places in five different longitudes. There is one large dial plate, with four smaller dials disposed equidistant upon it. The large dial has hour and minute hands, figures, &c., like an ordinary clock; while each small dial has its own set of figures and hands. The large dial shews Greenwich time ; while the four small dials may be made to shew the time at four different places in any part of the world : differing from Greenwich time according to the differences of longitude. The mechanism of the clock is so adjusted as to shew Green wich time on the large dial, while a train of toothed wheels and pinions transaaits motion from the central clock to each one of the four small dials : the index hands being arranged ' fast' or slow,' according as the place to which the small dial refers lies east or west of the meridian of Greenwich.
An ingenious clock was made by Ratren hofer of Vienna, in 1840, which shelved' the time for 73 towns in different parts of the world, according to their longitudes. It had a dial-plate 14 inches in diameter, in the centre of which was the dial for Vienna; and around this dial were arranged 72 very small dials for the other towns ; the Vienna dial or clock was set to work by the descent of a 4 lb. weight ; and the other 72 dials were moved by wheels connected with the Vienna dial ; sr that one winding up set the whole in motion. All the 73 dials shewed different time, accord ing to the longitudes of the towns to which they were respectively adjusted.
From a Report made by M. Francceur to a committee on the Mechanic Arts of the So Societe d'Encouragement, in 1839, it appears that the French clock makers have endeav oured to produce church clocks at a much lower rate than they could be constructed in former times, by the adoption of the manufac turing system rather than the handicraft sys tem: that is, by making considerable numbers of each kind at once. There is at Moret a
manufactory of what are called Jura Clocks, in which all the pieces of the mechanism are made in the large way and all made to fit ; wheels, weights, bells, dial plates, hands, hammers, &c., are made, set up, and delivered in the market for about forty francs the set. One of these low-priced clocks is taken, and a few changes made in it to fit for the tower of a church, by using larger hammer, bell, dial, and bands. According to the report of M. Francmur, as quoted in the A nnales des Mines, the result is much cheaper than if a single clock were made throughout on the usual system.
French clocks, many of which exhibit great beauty of form (though we believe they are scarcely considered to equal English clocks in solidity and durability of construction) were imported in 1849 to the value of 65,0001.
The Clock and Watch Manufacture exhibits many remarkable features. The large clocks for public buildings are made by a very small number of firms, on account of the demand being limited and the duration of the clocks considerable. Nearly all the watch-makers of London live in one district—Clerkenwell ; but even these, great as is their number, do not make the wheel-work for the watches ; these works, or movements, as they are called, are nearly all manufactured in Lancashire, where they can be produced cheaper than in London. There are no watch-factories in Clerkenwell; but there are thirty or forty distinct classes of tradesmen, comprising perhaps three times that number of minor subdivisions, all living and working at their own homes, most of them having aid from apprentices or 'ourneymen, and all employed at some one or other of the numerous parts of a watch. A Watch Manu facturer, in the Clerkenwell sense of the term, makes none of these parts, but puts them all together when others have made them.