CELEBRATED CLOCKS. 



645 



Fig. 3.— Parisian Clock. 



once in about three months ; Venus, once in seven months ; the Earth, 

 once in a year ; Mars, once in nearly two years ; Jupiter, once in nearly 

 twelve years ; Saturn, once in about twenty-nine years ; Uranus, once 

 in eighty- four years ; and Neptune, once in one hundred and sixty-five 

 years. Besides giving the golden num- 

 ber, the dominical letter, and other inter- 

 esting things, this clock gives the time 

 when it is high tide at various points in 

 Europe. A clock made by a Parisian 

 consists merely of a glass dial, and two 

 hands, which are balanced each with a ball 

 on the other side of the center. These 

 balls (Fig. 3) are only about an inch in 

 diameter, and yet they contain all the 

 machinery that turns the hands about. 

 The back of the dial is a perfectly smooth 

 surface. You may turn the hands round 

 and round with your cane, and when you 



let them alone they will swing back and forth for a while, and then 

 they will stop at exactly the right spot to show the true time. A 

 clock in Brussels is so placed over a chimney (or pipe through which 

 the air goes upward) that the draught keeps it wound up all the time. 

 The most artistic clocks for mantels are, for 

 the most part, made in Paris or Vienna. One 

 variety has a tuning-fork for controlling the 

 escapement. Another hides the working parts 

 of the clock within a base that shows only the 

 dial (Fig. 4). Upon this base stands a female 

 figure holding a pendulum which vibrates with- 

 out any cause that any one can see. But if the 

 figure is taken off from its base it will be dis- 

 covered that it rests upon a pivot which is con- 

 nected with the escapement in such a way that 

 it is swayed to and fro just a moment before 

 the pendulum has reached the limit in the 

 opposite direction. This sends the pendulum 

 back again, just as you reverse the motion of 

 a rocking-chair by leaning forward just be- 

 fore you have rocked back as far as you are 

 going. Sometimes the female figure (Fig. 4) 

 holds above her head a great ball, which is 

 balanced by a pendulum that swings near her 

 feet. The ball contains the clock, and inside 

 of it is a small pendulum, controlled by a spring in such a way as to send 

 the large pendulum back and forth after the manner of a rocking-chair. 

 There are also clocks that are run by electricity instead of by weights. 



Fig. 4. — Parisian Clock. 



