Chapter III: Part 3

The WATCH-CASE, which used to be of various materials, such as tortoiseshell, pinchbeck, or one of the precious metals, is now almost universally of gold or silver. Silver cases are invariably of the standard required by the law and stamped accordingly; gold cases vary in fineness,--some being made and stamped of 9 carat gold, but the best for wear, and as such preferred by the best makers, are of 18 carats, and are stamped as such with the hall mark, usually in three or four places,--on the bow, the pendant, and the inside of the case. Much depends upon the care with which this part of a watch is finished, for an ill-fitting case admits dust which renders frequent cleaning necessary, and prevents accurate time-keeping. After the casemaker has constructed the case it has to pass through several hands before it is completed,--for instance, it is one man's work to fit the works to the case by making the joint at the 12 o'clock and the bolt at 6 o'clock, and to supply the wheels to propel the hands; it is another's to perform the part of engine turner, and to mark the case with those curiously intricate lines whose wonderful precision cannot be secured by mere hand-work, but by a combination of mechanical and human labour; another's to finish the joints, or, as the uninitiate would perhaps call them, the hinges; and last of all the fitter of the case with springs, and polisher to give the necessary finish. In the same way has each part of the mechanism of the interior passed through a series of workmen's hands. Nearly every wheel and pinion has been separately made by men whose entire time is given to the perfecting of their several branches of labour, the subdivisions of which and their ramifications would need many lengthy chapters of description, to do them justice. The escapement is of itself a distinct department requiring a number of co-operating hands, from those which first shape the metal to the balance-maker working in brass, steel, or gold, and the final adjustment of the escapement-maker. The chain, the spring, the jewelling, the brass-work, the engraving, the gilding, have each their separate history, some of them being brought from one district and some from another, to be put together in the watch manufactory, which is finally to produce them unitedly as an entire watch. Division of labour provides a larger amount of skilled work, and a more satisfactory result, than any other method. The workman whose entire life is spent in making the head of a pin or in fixing it on, will do his work better than the man, however clever he may be, who should attempt to make the whole pin; and not only is the work thus better done, but it is done by combination much more expeditiously and cheaply. All that the watch-manufacturer can do by way of choosing his materials is, however, of course, but antecedent to his own work of actual construction, of finishing, examining, and regulating. He is to the watch what the architect is to a house; the latter is none the less the rearer of the structure because he did not himself make the bricks, or saw the timber, or mix the mortar. Each subordinate brings certain materials to the hand of the constructor, and he combines them, and gives them their places, he turns them into shape and produces them as a perfect whole. So the watch-manufacturer, instead of going himself back through the various stages of work which in Nuremberg-egg time had, perhaps, all to be done by one pair of hands, chooses, adapts, combines the labours of hundreds of busy collaborateurs, all of whom have made portions and pieces,--he alone makes the Watch.

COMPLICATED WATCHES are so called because besides the ordinary watch movement they possess other mechanism more or less complicated, by means of which they can indicate special portions of time,--as for instance the _Chronograph_, which marks on its dial the fifth of a second; the _Quarter_, and _Half-Quarter_, and _Minute Repeaters_, which furnish the time in the dark to within a minute, and are invaluable to invalids and blind persons; the _Clock-Watch_, which strikes the hours even in the pocket; the _Clock-Watch Repeater_, which strikes and repeats; the _Independent split Centre Seconds, and Fifth Seconds Watch_, which shows (by comparing the one with the other) the lapse of time to the fifth of a second; the _Perpetual Calendar Watch_, which shows the day of the week and of the month, the name of the month, the phases of the moon, &c.; the _Perpetual Calendar Repeating Watch_, which in addition to the calendar shows by a repeater the hour, quarter, and minute; and the _Meridian Watch_, which shows the time of day in any given number of places in any part of the world. A few words descriptive of the peculiarities of each of the above complicated watches will be necessary here, and observing the sequence as above, the following brief particulars will perhaps be sufficient for ordinary reference, or for being kept in memory.

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The CHRONOGRAPH is undoubtedly the most perfect instrument yet invented for marking the exact time occupied by certain rapid movements or events or performances,--and is therefore well adapted for astronomical and medical observations, for timing machinery, for indicating the speed of a race, and of similar quick events even to the tenth of a second. It consists of an ordinary quick train lever movement on a scale sufficiently large to carry the hands for an 8-inch dial. The peculiar feature of the chronograph is its second hand, which is double, consisting of two distinct hands,--the one lying over the other. The lower of the two is furnished at the tip with a small reservoir having an extremely small orifice below; over this orifice the point of the upper hand is bent so as to fall exactly upon the puncture, and to convey through it, as with a pen, the ink held in the reservoir. The mode of operating with the chronograph at a race has been thus described. 'The chronograph is held firmly in the left hand of the operator, who watches the starters, but need not trouble himself to keep at the same time an eye upon the dial. At the moment of the start he presses the finger or thumb of his right hand gently upon the button of the pendant, and instantly a black dot is deposited on the dial, and--the operator being ready to touch the button at the precise moment of the finish, and thus to complete what we may call the chronogram of the event--the exact length of the race is registered, even to a decimal fraction of a second, and an indisputable record written by the instrument itself in black and white. The chronograph, it should be mentioned is, apart from its chronographic mechanism, an excellent time-keeper, and may be worn as an ordinary watch, being the same size as a gentleman's lever watch.

REPEATING WATCHES are now made so as to require no key. They are constructed with a lever or chronometer escapement, and are known according to their method of repeating,--the ordinary _Repeater_ strikes the hours and quarters,--the _Half-quarter Repeater_ strikes the hours, quarters, and half-quarters,--the _Minute Repeater_ strikes hours, quarters, and minutes. The first tells the time in the dark or to the blind person to within a quarter of an hour, the second tells it within seven minutes and a half, the third tells it to the minute.

The CLOCK WATCH and CLOCK REPEATING WATCH are also made so as to need no key. They strike the hours and quarters while being worn in the pocket, and have not only the two trains of wheels for going and striking as in a clock, but a third train provided for repeating purposes. Both mainsprings are wound up by the same winder by a forward and backward action of the pendant. They are constructed with either Lever, Duplex, or Chronometer Escapements, and some are provided with compensation balances adjusted to act equally at extremes of temperature.

THE INDEPENDENT CENTRE SECONDS WATCH is peculiarly adapted for the use of the medical profession. By means of its two trains it carries, besides the ordinary hands denoting hours, minutes, and seconds, a long seconds hand which can be stopped without stopping the watch. It is made with a stem winder, and therefore requires no key.

THE SPLIT CENTRE SECONDS is not quite so complicated as the last named. It has two centre second hands revolving round the dial, the one directly over the other, as also, in another part of the dial, a small hand revolving five times in a second. Upon pressing a stop-piece one of the long second hands is stopped, and another pressure will stop the other--the space between the two hands will then indicate precisely the time occupied by the event which it is desired to measure. Another push to the stop-piece will make both hands again fly together, and enable the operator it may be to make a new experiment or observation.

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THE PERPETUAL CALENDAR KEYLESS WATCH, shows on its dial the year, the month of the year, the day of the month, the day of the week, the phases of the moon, as well as hours, minutes, and seconds. It requires no setting, as the old-fashioned Calendar Watch did at certain intervals, but, by a very ingenious contrivance, the changes from month to month, as for example from February 28th to the 1st of March, or from 30th or 31st of other months to the 1st of the next, are all performed by the watch, which also of itself marks the extra day for Leap Year. When to all the above are added, as is sometimes done, the Minute Repeating Work to repeat the hours, quarters, and minutes, it may be said that the power of complication can no farther go within the limits of the small box which is called a watch case,--for these watches are provided with either Lever, Duplex, or Chronometer Escapements as may be preferred, and with compensation balances adjusted to serve in extremes of temperature. But in the examples set forth in the following illustrations, it will be seen that superadded to all the foregoing are a thermometer, and an index showing the calendar by the old and new style, as indicated by the words Gregorian and Russian,--the former referring to Pope Gregory who decreed the alteration to the new style, and the latter to the fact that the Russians still reckon by the old style.

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THE COMPLICATED PERPETUAL CALENDAR AND INDEPENDENT SECONDS KEYLESS WATCH, is another example of this kind of mechanism, which, without being re-set from time to time for leap year and other changes, keeps a perpetual register of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, shows Old and New Styles, the phases of the moon, and variations of heat and cold. It has also two separate trains of wheels and two mainsprings, both of which are wound up by the button at the pendant. It will be seen that the dial has two hour circles with hour and minute hands showing separate time. Below the centre is the sunk seconds dial with two seconds hands, the one over the other, and each working independently, so that the one may be stopped by a push at the button of the pendant and yet the other go on, to be in its turn stopped, so that the operator may use it as a stopwatch. Underneath the hour hands of each circle is the hand showing the month and the day of the week. The two centre hands, with the letters G and R, are pointing to the days of the month, and showing the Gregorian and Russian day. In the small square space just below the centre is the year, and below this and lying over the second hands is another hand pointing to the degrees of temperature to which the watch is exposed; near the top of the dial is a small plate showing the phases of the moon,--the position indicated in this illustration is that of full moon.

The MERIDIAN WATCH shows the time of day in any number of places in any part of the world. It is set to Greenwich time, and marks the difference between this and the time of all the great metropolitan cities in both hemispheres,--as St Petersburg, Constantinople, New York.

The name CHRONOMETER,--derived from the

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Greek, and meaning a time-measurer,--is chiefly applied to marine time-pieces and to watches which have been carefully made with chronometer or detached escapements and compensating balances serving to equalize the effects of heat and cold. MARINE CHRONOMETERS are the chief instruments for discovering the longitude at sea, and are therefore subjected to special tests at Greenwich observatory and elsewhere before being sent on board ship. They have dials of three or four inches in diameter, hour, minute, and second hands, besides a hand to indicate the day upon which the instrument was last wound up,--and they are made to go from two to eight days. Being well mounted on gimbals inside of an air and water-tight brass case they do not toss about with the motion of the ship but always preserve their equilibrium. For extra protection they are generally kept enclosed in a mahogany case. Chronometers have for their motive power, like watches and spring-clocks, a mainspring acting on the fusee by the chain,--as the chain winds upon the fusee the force of the spring is so equalized that it is exactly the same whatever the position of the chain. When marine chronometers are sent to the Greenwich observatory they are subjected, under the directions of the Astronomer Royal, to extreme degrees of heat and cold, and up to the year 1835 prizes were awarded to those makers whose instruments best stood these tests; but such prizes are no longer given. It has even been found that chronometers which are most capable of withstanding extremes of temperature are not the most perfect in medium climates, and this discovery brought about new endeavours and a new suggestion known as the Auxiliary or Secondary Compensation.

MARINE TIME-PIECES FOR SHIPS AND YACHTS. These instruments possess the character rather of clocks than of chronometers, inasmuch as they are designed to hang against a bulk-head, and they would not appear unsuitable to house purposes. They are portable and useful clocks, and having a lever escapement with compensated balance, the motion of the vessel does not affect them. Some yacht time-pieces are constructed so as to chime the quarters or tunes, and to strike the ships' bells as well as the hours. They are also sometimes placed in very handsome cases of bronze or ormolu, decorated with special designs to illustrate the name of the ship or yacht to which they belong. Their movements are not as accurately adjusted as those of Marine Chronometers, but they, nevertheless, are made to keep time excellently.

KEYLESS WATCHES.

The keyless mechanism to a watch is one of the great modern improvements in watch work; it does away with the old-fashioned key, with which so many persons have ruined their watches, the watch is wound by turning a knurled knob, placed on the handle or bow (see illustrations, pp. 96-7) instead of by the ordinary means: the hands are set in the same way, with the addition of pressing a small projection on the side of the case. The advantages of these improvements are obvious; the case, which never need be opened in winding, is made air tight and dust tight, thus preserving much longer the fluidity of the oil, and greatly prolonging the intervals between the necessary cleaning of the watch. Besides which, the keyless mechanism being attached to the watch, the key can never be lost or mislaid, or worn out.

_Strict attention to the following simple Directions is necessary for the proper Management of a Watch._

1st.--Wind your watch as nearly as possible at the same time every day--the morning is the best. Care should be taken to avoid sudden jerks.

2nd.--Be careful that your key is in good condition, free from dust and cracks. It should not be kept in the waistcoat pocket, or in any place where it is liable to rust or get filled with dust.

3rd.--Keep the watch while being _wound_ steadily in the hand, so as to avoid all circular motion.

4th.--The watch, when hung up, must have support, and be perfectly at rest; or, when laid horizontally, let it be placed on a soft substance for more general support, otherwise the action of the balance will generate a pendulous motion of the watch, and cause much variation in time.

5th.--The hands of a duplex or chronometer watch should never be set backwards; in other watches this is a matter of no consequence, but to avoid accidents it is much better to set them always forward.

6th.--Should the watch vary by heat or cold, as when worn or not worn in the pocket, the hands may be set to time, but the regulator should not be altered; but when it is found necessary to alter the regulator, it should be done gently, and very little at a time.

7th.--_The glass should never be opened in watches that are set and regulated at the back._

8th.--Keep your watch-pocket free from dust or nap, which generally accumulates in the pocket when much used.

9th.--Be cautious to whom you give your watch for repair; the best watches being frequently irretrievably damaged by inexperienced workmen. Never allow your watch to go longer than two years without being cleaned.

HOUSE CLOCKS.

Between the small wooden Dutch Clock of the value of but a few shillings, and the carefully-made Regulator Clock which costs ten times as many pounds, there is necessarily a wide difference; but both may be considered as within the general designation, 'House Clocks.' The former sometimes go for many years with a fair amount of regularity, and are found to be useful to the humblest classes, whose hours for early morning labour are frequently regulated thereby. The latter are made with such accuracy as to correct the time of other clocks, such as turret and church clocks, which are more exposed to the influence of the weather, and are necessarily made upon a coarser scale. In large mansions there is no handsomer or more necessary appointment for the hall or vestibule than a fine eight-day clock, 'to welcome the coming, speed the parting guest,' and to give the time of day to the entire household.

It would be worth while, did our purpose admit of it, to write a chapter on the longevity of Clocks, by way of showing the comparative cheapness of the solid, well-built piece of mechanism whose every item has been carefully put together of the very best and most durable materials by the most skilled horologers. For generation after generation such a sound, well-made time-piece shall keep accurate time, and put to shame by both its performance and the insignificant expense of keeping it in order, the instruments of, it may be, more showy appearance, but less careful construction. Such a clock descends from father to son until its own age is scarcely to be remembered, and is regarded as one of the family heir-looms,--nay, as more,--almost, we would say, as a friend familiar with all the scenes and experiences which have made up family history. It was of such a clock that Longfellow wrote--

'By day its voice is low and light,
But in the silent dead of night,
Distinct as a passing footstep's fall,
It echoes along the vacant hall,
Along the ceiling, along the floor,
And seems to say, at each chamber-door,
For ever--never,
Never, for ever.'

It was such an one that Dickens apostrophized in that wonderfully-genial style which won for him so much love and fame:--'My old cheerful, companionable clock. How can I ever convey to others an idea of the comfort and consolation that this old clock has been for years to me!... What other thing that has not life could cheer me as it does! what other thing that has not life (I will not say how few things that have) has proved the same patient, true, untiring friend! How often have I sat in the long winter evenings feeling society in its cricket voice! how often in the summer twilight, when my thoughts have wandered back to a melancholy past, have its regular whisperings recalled them to the calm and peaceful present! how often, in the dead tranquillity of night, has its bell broken the oppressive silence, and seemed to give me assurance that the old clock was still on guard at my chamber-door!'

The Hall clock is often a plain, simple, undecorated instrument, where all others are perhaps somewhat ornamented. Bracket clocks for the staircase or landings, Mantelpiece clocks for the drawing and dining rooms, for the study, the boudoir, and the best bed rooms, have each their separate shape and character specially designed, and are to be found in simple black-stained wood or real ebony, in marble of different colours, in bronze, in buhl, and in ormolu, with or without enamel ornaments, and with or without miniature figures at base, sides, and top. Until lately most of our ornamental mantelpiece clocks were imported from the continent, although French workmanship is generally inferior to our own, but preference was shown by the public to the former on account of the greater attention given by the French to external decorations and variety of pattern. I am endeavouring to provide that for the future this branch of clockmaking shall not be abandoned entirely to our continental neighbours, whose exports of this kind to our country yearly are very considerable. Henceforth by means of new designs specially made for me and by me, and of a sufficiently skilled staff of artistic workmen, selected for the purpose of working under my superintendence, on my own premises, I shall be able to compete on equal, nay, as to mechanism, on superior, terms with the best specimens of decorated clocks from foreign _atéliers_. There is no reason why the admitted superiority of English mechanism should not be coupled with the best designs for decorated clock-cases; there is every reason why handsome clocks should be made which will keep time well, and add not only by their beauty but their usefulness to the enjoyment of domestic life. If the proverb, 'handsome is that handsome does,' applies to clocks, English workmanship should soon obtain pre-eminence, for it is well known that the principle upon which French clocks are generally made renders them less durable time-pieces.

The most ancient clocks differed in many respects from those now in use. Clocks of the earlier period had, as we have said, instead of the pendulum now in use, a _balance_, vibrating on the top of the clock, as the regulating medium. The escapement was of the verge construction, a sketch of which will be seen below, which represents a clock of a most ancient character.

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Without entering into any very minute detail of the manner in which motion in a clock is successively communicated from one toothed wheel (G or R) or pinion (_e_ or _g_) to another, which, indeed, would only tend to perplex the mind of the general reader, it will be sufficient to state the following. S is a square piece of steel fixed to and forming part of the pinion P. In winding the clock the key is placed upon this square, and being turned round continuously in one direction, the pinion P turns with it. This communicates its motion to the wheel R, which is fixed to the cylinder B, and which in its revolution coils or winds up the cord to which is attached the weight A. While this takes place the wheel G is held in check by another wheel, called the 'ratchet,' and a click (neither of which is seen in the sketch), but when the operation of the winding is completed, and the weight A begins to descend, the cylinder B, together with the wheel G, turn on their common pivots V, V, and the motion is thus communicated from wheel to pinion until it reaches the escapement-wheel I. The teeth of this wheel, in its revolution, act alternately on the pallets _i_, _h_, which project from and form part of the spindle or verge K, M, and thus produce a vibratory or backward and forward motion of the balance L, L.

Were it not for this detention, the duration of which is much increased by the swing of the balance, the weight A would descend with gradually accelerated speed, till, in a few moments, the cord would be entirely unwound from the cylinder, and the clock be at rest.

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The SPRING CLOCK as ordinarily made is thus constructed. The frame consists of two oblong plates of brass pinned together by short pillars, and pierced with holes, in which run the arbors of the various wheels. Next, the mainspring, the moving or motive power of the clock, which is a riband of steel, highly tempered, and enclosed in a cylinder or barrel. In the middle of this barrel is the spring or barrel arbor, to which the spring is hooked at one end, the other end being fixed to the circumference of the barrel. Outside the frame or plate, and at the end of the arbor, is the ratchet, a wheel with saw-like teeth. This is acted upon by a click, which, falling into the ratchet teeth, prevents the recoil of the mainspring, so that the spring has no means of uncoiling itself, except by the moving of the train of wheels. This click is screwed to the outside of the oblong plate. The power of the mainspring is transmitted to the train of wheels by means of a chain or gut, one end of which is fastened to the outer edge of the barrel, and the other end to the fusee, which is of conical shape, securely fastened to the arbor or axis of the main wheel; on this same arbor is the square, on which the key is put for winding. When this square is turned in winding, the fusee draws the chain or gut from off the outer edge of the barrel, and coils up the spring within it. The spring when fully wound, and consequently at its greatest power, acts by means of the chain or gut on the small end of the fusee, which in turning drives the train of wheels. As the spring becomes gradually uncoiled, and the power exerted less, the leverage is increased in the same proportion by the increased width of the fusee on which it acts.

To prevent the straining of the spring, a little contrivance called the stop-work is introduced. It consists of a piece of steel somewhat in the shape of a bayonet, which is so fixed and contrived that the last turn of the gut or chain on the fusee forces the stop into contact with a projection on the end of the fusee, which abutting against it, forms the check felt when the clock is wound up. On the same arbor with the fusee is fixed the main wheel, which with the before-described contrivance of click and ratchet, permits the turning of the fusee or winding-up of the clock, while it itself remains stationary. This wheel acts in the centre pinion (a pinion is a little wheel playing in the teeth of a larger wheel, and has six, eight, ten, or twelve teeth, or, as they are called, leaves), which is fixed to the centre arbor, and carries the minute hand. This pinion is so constructed in relation to the other parts of the clock as to make one revolution in an hour; the centre wheel being firmly riveted on the pinion, it must also revolve once an hour. The centre wheel acts into another pinion, which is called the third wheel pinion, upon the arbor or axle of which is securely fixed the third wheel, which again acts in the escape-pinion carrying the escapement-wheel. On the top of the back plate is firmly screwed the back cock, or the support of the pendulum, which is suspended from it by a flexible spring, as before described. This pendulum receives impulsion from the wheel-work by means of the crutch, a small part attached to the arbor of the pallets, and which projects downwards about three inches, parallel with the pendulum rod. To the lower part of the crutch is screwed or riveted at a right angle a piece of steel, in such a direction as to penetrate the pendulum rod, which has a slot or hole cut to receive it; impulsion is thus given to the pendulum. Between the frame and dial-plate is the motion work, consisting of three wheels; the first, called the minute wheel, is attached to the arbor of the centre wheel, which, it will be recollected, makes one revolution an hour, and acts in a wheel of the same size, whose axle carries a pinion serving to drive the hour wheel. This hour wheel is supported by a bridge screwed over the minute wheel. The dial is pinned on to the front plate; the hour hand is fixed on a socket communicating with the hour wheel, and the minute hand on the arbor of the centre wheel.

When a clock is intended to strike, a separate train of wheels has to be introduced into it,--one train of wheels serving to keep the time, and another train for the striking part. It may be as well to add that a greater amount of labour is required to make the striking than the going part of a clock.

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There are only two kinds of striking parts now in use, and these are characterized by the terms 'Rack' striking work, and 'Count-wheel,' or 'Locking-plate,' striking work. The Rack striking work (see next page) is the best and safest ever introduced, because with it the clock may be made to strike any number of times within the hour. A, the minute wheel revolving in the direction of the arrow, and driving the wheel B, which is of the same size, and has the same number of teeth. C, a pin fixed in the wheel B, and acting on the lever D, which has its centre of motion in the point E. L, the click, the lower point of which acts in the teeth K of the rack M. S, the rack-spring, which acts upon the lower end of the rack, or, as it is called, the rack-tail, and brings it in contact with the snail P. Q and R are the jumper and its spring, by which the snail P, fastened to the star-wheel O, is kept in its place. Y, the centre of motion of the rack, on which it acts freely. In the wheel A is fixed a pin U, which, as the wheel A rotates, gradually forces before it a tooth of the star-wheel O, which carries with it the snail P, until at last the second step of the snail is opposite the rack-tail. While this is going on, the wheel B, driven by the wheel A, is advancing in the opposite direction, and, by means of the pin C, is pushing before it the end of the lever D. It is obvious that the other end, F, of the lever will be gradually raised, and this will lift the lower point of the click L out of the teeth of the rack. The latter being now free will yield to the action of the spring S, which will force its lower end into contact with the second step of the snail, and throw back the head of the rack to a corresponding extent. By this action the striking train of wheels is released, and the two wheels, G and I, seen in the upper part of our cut, begin to rotate, but are stopped by H, a pin that is caught by a stud which projects from the end F of the lever. As the wheel B advances, the pin C gradually frees itself from the long arm of the lever D, which drops by its own weight into its original position, and frees the wheels G and I, which immediately commence once more to rotate. At the centre of the wheel I is fixed the gathering pallet, that, as it revolves with the wheel, gathers up one by one the teeth of the rack, which is prevented from falling back by the lower end of the click L, and thus gradually draws it forward until the last tooth is reached, when the end of the gathering pallet abuts on the end of the rack head, and the train of wheels is once more at rest. It is obvious that for every tooth of the rack which is gathered up, there is one revolution of the wheel I, and this communicates with the tail of the hammer, causing at each revolution a blow on the bell. There is, as will be at once seen, an important connection between the various parts. When the second step of the snail is presented to the rack-tail, the head of the rack is thrown back a distance corresponding to the width of two of its teeth. This requires two revolutions of the gathering pallet to return it to its place; and these two revolutions of the pallet and the wheel which carries it govern the two blows on the bell which signify the hour. At three o'clock the third step of the snail will be presented to the hammer-tail, and so on.

On the next page is an illustration of the back part of a French Clock, as seen upon opening the door of the case. At the right hand side will be observed the count-wheel A, fitting tightly upon a prolonged square arbor of the second wheel in the train, and having twelve openings of unequal length around its outer edge, 1, 2, &c. Just above the wheel towards the right will also be seen the 'Dog,' or 'Detent,' F, which falls into these notches, and is a part of the locking similar to that which is represented at the stud and the pin H. So soon as the stud is lifted the pin becomes disengaged, the wheel-work revolves, and the count-wheel being firmly fixed to the prolonged arbor of one of those wheels, advances with it in the direction indicated by the arrow, the detent resting upon the plain part of the locking-wheel. When the required number of hours have struck, the notch approaches the detent, the gravity of which allows it to fall therein.

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In connection with this detent is also another projecting piece, which is carried inside the frame, and when it falls presents a broad surface to a pin fixed in the rim of one of the wheels. Thus the motion of the wheel-work is stayed until this piece is again lifted by the going parts from the pin, and held in that position by the outer rim of the locking-wheel A, until again the next notch is presented to the detent. When it falls, the stud is carried with it, against which the pin becomes engaged. The number of strokes depends on the distance which the count-wheel has to revolve before being stopped by the detent F. The chief objection to the locking-plate being used for striking, arises from the fact that, if ever the clock is allowed to run down, or if the clock gets otherwise stopped, it strikes wrong afterwards, until it has been properly re-set to the hour.

Clocks are made of all manner of shapes, patterns, and sizes, for all manner of places, positions, and persons.

BRACKET CLOCKS, which are intended to occupy but a small space, say on a staircase, or lobby, or landing, are sometimes made with extreme finish, care, and elegance, sometimes are simply plain and devoid of embellishment. They are constructed with or without striking work.

CHIME CLOCKS are a great addition to the attractions of a house. They are usually made to go eight or fifteen days; to strike the hours and quarters on four or eight bells or gongs.

MUSICAL CLOCKS are constructed so as to play several tunes at certain intervals with the greatest finish and perfection. The mechanism for time-keeping being easily disconnected from the musical mechanism, the latter may be stopped without any interference with the clock as a time-keeper.

CARRIAGE CLOCKS are made so as to be unaffected by the motion of the vehicle. They are usually of a small and squarish shape, enclosed in leather, so as to protect the case from scratches; but they vary in size,--measuring usually from four to seven inches high by two-and-a-half to four inches in breadth and the same in depth. Some are made without striking movement, some to strike hours, half-hours, and quarters, some with repeating work, and some with an alarm added to them.

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LIBRARY and DINING-ROOM CLOCKS are frequently seen decorated with highly elegant ornaments, in bronze, marble, ormolu, and with miniature figures, as well as objects of still life, but these clocks are usually not so conspicuously ornamental as those which are designed for the drawing-room.

SKELETON CLOCKS are so named from their movements being all bare and uncovered. When watches were comparative novelties it was not at all an uncommon desire on the part of their possessors to watch the operations of a mechanism which was regarded as wonderfully resembling life itself. Watch cases were consequently made of crystal, and were found strong and serviceable. In skeleton clocks the escapement is sometimes made a peculiarly interesting feature to the non-professional eye delighting in noting the amazing accuracy with which each piece of the mechanism works and combines to produce the result required.

REGULATOR CLOCKS are, as we have said, the most perfect time-pieces which can be manufactured.

TELL-TALE CLOCKS are of great service in securing the attention and watchfulness of persons left in care of premises or property. They are made with a number of pins projecting round the edge of the dial, and coming into contact once every quarter of an hour with a pin fixed at the top part of the dial, over the part which in an ordinary clock is occupied by XII. The dial revolves completely once every twelve hours, and presents one of the projecting pins to the index every quarter of an hour; the watchman should then be ready at hand to pull a cord, by means of which the projecting pin is pushed in; otherwise the dial shows the exact time of his absence and neglect of duty.

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ELECTRICAL CLOCKS have been several times planned and made by different ingenious inventors, and obtained considerable notice, but they have not been hitherto as successful as was expected. Electricity has been applied to the direct movement of the pendulum itself, and subsequently to the raising a small weight to act upon the pendulum in the style of a gravity escapement. In perhaps the latest of these instruments, called a Magnetic Clock, an electromagnet was used to relieve the pendulum from the influence of the spring by which impulsion had been given, and to make the return or reflex vibration. Electric clocks are now seldom made; electric dials without any clock-movement in connection with them are made to show the standard time by means of a galvanic current sent from the Greenwich Observatory clock at intervals of a minute or half-minute it may be,--even as Electric Timeballs show to distant towns and out-ports, by means of such a current, the exact Greenwich time once a day.

The ELECTRO-CHRONOGRAPH is a new and useful invention for timing with great precision the quickest of events. It is applied to a central seconds clock with a dial three feet in circumference showing the hours, minutes, seconds and fifths of seconds. This clock erected in a prominent position, say on a raceground, and worked by electricity, enables the starter of a race to set the works in motion; by means of a tape held up at the winning post and connected with the batteries, the winner upon breasting the tape stops the hand of the clock.

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The following simple directions will be found of great use in the management of a Clock:--

When the Clock is unpacked it should be carefully handled with a silk handkerchief or piece of tissue paper, to prevent the moisture of the hands soiling the case. Unscrew the bell and take it off, then put on the pendulum by passing it through the fork, and hang it upon the two small brass pins, _with the hook from you_. Screw on the bell with the convex part outwards, taking care that it does not touch the pendulum.

The stand or bracket should be both steady and level before the Clock is placed upon it; for, unless the Clock is quite in proper beat--that is, unless the beats or ticks occur at equal intervals, it cannot go regularly.

In order to set the Clock to the hour of the day, the minute-hand should be turned on carefully forward with the finger and thumb, the setter pausing as he reaches the XII. and the VI., to allow the Clock to strike each hour and half-hour.

If the striking should at any time be wrong, and it should strike the hour at the half-hour, or the half-hour at the hour, the error can be rectified by moving the minute-hand on to 5 minutes before the hour, or half-hour, and then back until it strikes.

Or, if it should strike a wrong hour--_e.g._, supposing the Clock should strike 3, and the hour-hand point at 7, then the hour-hand may be moved back to 3, and the Clock afterwards set to the hour of the day in the usual manner.

If, at any future time, the Clock should require regulating, the small steel square above the XII. is the regulator, and turning it a _little_ to the right (half-turn of key) will make the Clock go faster, and to the left, slower. This should be repeated until the desired effect is obtained.

The bell-stud, or arm to which the bell is screwed, is purposely made of soft metal, so that it can be bent up or down so as to obtain a heavy or light blow of the hammer as may be desired.

Both squares in the dial should be wound once a week.

TURRET CLOCKS.

A Church tower without a clock and bells seems an unfurnished edifice, which must be fitted and filled before it can serve the purpose for which it was built;--like a form without life, a body without a soul. A good Church clock is useful to everybody; it is the friendly monitor alike of rich and poor,--the regulator of every private time-piece,--the standard of time for a whole parish or township. By it the artisan or mechanic trudges off to his daily labour; by it the tradesman opens and closes his shop; by it the schoolboy is admonished as 'with shining morning face he creeps like snail unwillingly to school;' by it the law itself regulates its penalties,--(enacting, as it does, house-breaking between nine at night and six in the morning to be the heavier crime of burglary;)--by it, in a word, are all the multifarious transactions of everyday life more or less regulated and measured, and when the church clock stops, it produces a social discomfort and anarchy throughout a whole neighbourhood, to an extent scarcely credible. A good public clock is a benefit to all,--a faulty one is a general nuisance and a continual source of irritation. A public clock is in its way as necessary as the public highway, the public market, the public law itself. It is the product and the symbol of advanced civilization, the one everwakeful watchman and trusty friend of all, by whose chimes the sleepless merchant has often planned his ventures or sighed o'er apprehended losses and dangers; the student busied with researches has consumed the midnight oil; the sick have counted their hours of pain, longing in the night for the dawn, in the daytime for the night. On the other hand, when one like Mr Justice Shallow is reminded of the mad days of his London youth, he very aptly associates them with the Bacchanalian memories which Falstaff appeals to,--'We have heard the chimes at midnight.'

To have lived 'where bells have knoll'd to church' was according to Shakspeare to have been blessed by humanizing influences comparable with those produced by having--

'Sat at good men's feasts, and wiped our eyes
Of drops that sacred pity has engendered.'

Cowper can find no better words to describe the utter desolation of the island where the shipwrecked Selkirk bemoaned his absolute solitude 'out of humanity's reach,' than by putting into his mouth the language--

'But the sound of a church-going bell
These valleys and rocks never heard,
Never sigh'd at the sound of a knell,
Nor smiled when a Sabbath appear'd.'

In our everyday experience we can each testify to the truthfulness of the poet who points to the close association which exists in most minds between the church clock and the varying times and seasons, with their different joys and sorrows, and we can most of us say, with Southey,--

'I love the bell that calls the poor to pray,
Chiming from village church its cheerful sound,
When the sun smiles on labour's holy-day
And all the rustic train are gather'd round,
Each deftly dizen'd in his Sunday's best,
And pleased to hail the day of piety and rest.

And when, dim shadowing o'er the face of day,
The mantling mists of eventide rise slow,
As through the forest gloom I wend my way,
The minster curfew's sullen voice I know,
And pause, and love its solemn toll to hear,
As made by distance soft it dies upon the ear.'

It is but a short step from the sentimental consideration of such reminiscences to the practical inquiry how is the public time kept, and yet it is one which probably is seldom taken with a view to more or less thorough investigation. Without traversing the distance which divides us from that antique time when Archimedes measured the shadows of the Pyramids by his walking-stick, or when the 'dial of Ahaz' was constructed as one of the first of historical time-measurers, we can discover the principles upon which an instrument such as a thoroughly serviceable public clock of the present time, with all the newest improvements both in time-keeping and in wearing qualities, should be produced.

It is of some consequence, in the first place, to know that the introduction of steam-machinery has added to the accuracy of clockwork and at the same time considerably diminished its cost; fifty or sixty years ago there would have been charged as much as £800 for a turret clock inferior to that which may now be procured for £150; and the result is to be seen in the largely increased numbers of public time-pieces. It is obvious, however, that there is none the less need of care in the choice of a Clockmaker, for upon his skill and trustworthiness will depend whether the money be well spent or not, and whether the instrument furnished by him prove to be valuable and serviceable. It is not a purchase wherein the buyer can usually of himself judge of the merits of his bargain, he must rely upon the reputation established by previous works of the same kind. If the Clockmaker be not merely a clock-seller (as is too often the case, for Turret Clockmakers are but few), he will be able to point to similar instruments made and set up by himself in different towns and cities, in proof of his ability, but there will still be a necessity for explaining to the purchaser the chief points upon which the accuracy of such a time-keeper must depend.

In the first place, it is necessary to say that Turret Clocks are not merely house clocks upon an enlarged scale, differing from the latter merely in size and weight, but that the extra strength of the machinery requires greater weight of materials 'in a ratio as much higher as the cube is higher than the square of any of its dimensions,' and that increased weight means increase of friction. Besides this point which is peculiarly the province of the Turret Clockmaker, there are important questions to be considered by architects and their employers as to the proper method of constructing a Turret Clock chamber, so as to prevent too much atmospheric variation,--heat and cold, wind and damp, being each likely in some degree, as the seasons change, to affect the public time-keeper,--as witness the clock of St Paul's Cathedral, popularly believed to be an exemplary piece of mechanism, and yet often forced by the wind to vary its time so as to damage its own reputation among those who narrowly watch its behaviour under what may be called trying circumstances. It is not wise to build a tower without careful consideration for the tenant which is to occupy it, or having regard merely to architectural notions of external proportion, for usually it happens that when clock and bells occur as an afterthought, there is often some difficulty and extra expense in planning the room for them. Plenty of length and breadth to allow of the proper fall of the clock-weights and the swing of the pendulum save much in the cost of fixing, and are necessary to secure good time-keeping with the least trouble, for it is obvious that where numerous bevelled wheels with rod-work are employed for the purpose of moving the hands over the dial, if the probabilities of unvarying accuracy are not lessened, the cost must be much increased. Works which have to be placed at some distance from the dials must be more powerful than if they could be put in their proper place, and a little forethought in the architect will save much money both in the original price of the machinery of a clock and in its subsequent repair. Then again, there is always the question for and against the illumination of dials to be considered, and of course with this is unavoidably mixed up not only the arrangements as regards space for the proper working of the time-keeping, striking, and lighting machinery, but the vexed question of ventilation above referred to,--some horologers asserting that chambers as nearly air tight as may be should be devised, and others that there ought to be a draught through the clock-room. There are in fact so many opinions more or less excellent, according to the circumstances of each case, that there is no laying down any arbitrary and unvarying rule, much must be left to the discretion of the Turret Clock manufacturer,--upon whom as has been already stated it is necessary also to rely for the essentials of a good clock, viz., the soundness of the materials, the quality of the workmanship, and the scientific accuracy with which the instrument has been planned and put together. Now before considering the present advanced state of the art of Turret Clockmaking and the various improvements which have to be carefully studied and applied by the makers who would bear the highest reputations as manufacturers, it will be necessary to bear in mind what has been said of the step-by-step progress in horological science of which we have already endeavoured to give the chief particulars. From 1288 A.D., the date of the oldest historical clock--that mentioned as having been set up near Westminster Hall by means of funds derived from a fine levied by the Lord Chief Justice of the period--till now when Big Ben reigns in its stead, is a long interval, with many wonderful incidents, and some great historical names. Henry de Wyck's Paris invention, Galileo's discovery of the pendulum, Huygens's practical application of that discovery, Dr Hooke's 'anchor' escapement, and Graham's dead-beat escapement, Harrison's 'gridiron' pendulum, and the latest applications of electricity and eccentricity, have each and all their peculiar attraction for horological students, but we need not recur to these branches of this highly interesting subject elsewhere treated of. We will proceed to mention a few memoranda about several old public clocks whose ingenious mechanism gained for them a well-deserved fame,--not, perhaps, so much for accuracy in time-keeping as for the grotesque devices with which old clockmakers amused their contemporaries? To them time, as such, was perhaps of not so much consequence as it is to us in these days of telegraph and steam communication. We moderns seem to think it a task sufficiently difficult to set up a sound public time-piece without connecting therewith the wonder-working machinery of a wax-work exhibition.