i8o 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



PKIMITIYE CLOCKS. 



By FEEDEEIC G. MATHEE. 



THE story is that King Alfred had no better way to tell the time 

 than by burning twelve candles, each of which lasted two hours ; 

 and, when all the twelve were gone, another day had passed. Long 

 before the time of Alfred, and long before the time of Christ, the 

 shadow of the sun told the hour of the day, by means of a sun-dial. 

 The old Chaldeans so placed a hollow hemisphere, with a bead in the 

 center, that the shadow of the bead on the inner surface told the 

 hour of the dav. Other kinds of dials were afterward made with a 

 tablet of wood or straight piece of metal. On the tablets were marked 

 the different hours. When the shadow came to the mark JN. y it was 

 nine o'clock in the morning. The dial was sometimes placed near the 

 ground, or in towers or buildings. You see, in the picture, two sun- 



dials that are on the Gray and Black Nunnery in Ottawa, the capital 

 of Canada. The old clock on the eastern end of Faneuil Hall in Bos- 

 ton was formerly a dial of this kind ; and on some of the old church- 

 towers in England you may see them to-day. Aside from the kinds 

 mentioned, the dials now in existence are intended more for ornament 



