Notes On Literature, Science And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE AND ART .

BY BRO . GEORGE MARKHAM TAVEDDELL , Fellow of the Royal Society of Northern Aiitiijiiaries , Copenhagen ; Corresponding Member of the Roval Historical Society , London ; Honorary Member of the Manchester Literary Club , and of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society ,

THE origin of almost all important inventions are involved in impenetrable obscurity . Had any one been bold enough to assert , even as late as the clays of the " Nuremberg living egg , " that it Avonld not only be possible , but would one day

become common , to manufacture accurate time-tellers small enough for the most delicate young lady to hide in her mouth Avithout difficulty , he would have been universally regarded as fit onl y for " a Avhip and a dark room "— -the then

pre-, valent mode of treating poor lunatics . Yet in all ages men have done their best to ascertain how the time Avas passing , Avhether they might spend their lives wisely or no . "All the ancients Avho

were reported as skilful in mechanics seem to have obtained a modicum of credit as clock inventors , " says Mr . James W . Benson , in his neatly-illustrated book on " Time and Time-tellers" alluded to iu the January " MASONIC MAGAZINE . " "

Archimedes and Posidonius before the Christian era , Boethius in the fifth century , Pacificus about the middle of the ninth , Gerbert at the end of the tenth , Wallingford near the beginning of the fourteenth , and Dondi at the end of the fourteenthhave each in

, their turn been asserted to be the inventors of the clock . The sphere of Archimedes , made 200 B . C ., as mentioned b y Claudian , was evidently an instrument Avith a maintaining power , but Avithout a regulator , and therefore could not measure time in

any other manner than as a planetarium , turned by a handle , measures , or rather exhibits , the respective velocities of the heavenly bodies ; and the same may be said of the sphere of Posidonius , as mentioned ty Cicero ( 'DeNatura Deorum' ) The

. clock of Boethius Avas a clepsydra , as Avas also that of Pacificus , according to some , ' ° r Baill y , in his History of Modern Astronomy asserts that Pacificus Avas the

inventor of a clock going by means of a Aveight and a balance , and , if so , the invention must be ascribed to Pacificus ; but Bailly gives no authority for his assertion . Gerbert ' s horologe is said to have been merely a sun-dial . Wallingford's horologe , called the Albionmust have as much

, resembled a planetarium as a clock , for the motions of all the heavenly bodies appear to have been conducted by the maintaining poiver , whatever that Avas , Avithout controlling mechanism . This instrumentmade in 1326 is also described

, , as having shoAvn the ebb and flow of the sea , the hours , and the minutes . There , are , however , still earlier data as to clocks in England than this of Wallingford's , for Ave find that , in 1288 , a stone clock-toAver was erected opposite Westminster Hall ,

Avith a clock which cost 800 marks , the proceeds of a fine imposed upon Ralph de Hengham , Chief Justice of the Queen ' s Bench . The toAver mentioned Avas still standing in 1715 , and in it was a clock which struck the great bell knoAvn as Tom of Westminster , so as to be heard by the people in all the laAv courts . In Queen Elizabeth's time , the clock Avas changed for

a dial upon the clock tower , Avhich , hoAVever , bore upon its face the same Yirgilian motto , 'Discite justitiam monti' [ 'Being warned , learn justice' ] referring to the fine inflicted upon the Chief Justice for making an alteration in a record by which a poor dependent Avasmade to pay 13 s . 4 d .

instead of 6 s . Sd . A dial Avith this motto Avas still to be seen in Palace Yard , Westminster , Avithin the last dozen years , but Avas removed with the houses which Avere then demolished , to make Avay for the ilded palings Avhich have since been

g erected betAveen Palace Yard and Bridge Street , Westminster . " The clepsydra , or AA-ater-clock , alluded to in the foregoing extract , Avas' used , no doubt Avith many variations and improvements , by theancient ChaldeansEgyptiansGreeksand Romans

, , , , and Avas in use in India as late as the tAvelfth century . The name of Clock , as Mr . Benson observes , " may be derived either from the French la cloche , a bell , or from the German die glolce , or die Moke . There is no doubt that the Avord cloche Avas

meant to distinguish the instrument which marked the hours by sounding a bell , from the montre , or Avatch , Avhich ( derived from