Notices refpeB'uig New Booh, 177 



defcribed by Vitnivius, wbich feems to have furniflied thefirft 

 hint for our nicafurers of time, con (I runted with wheel-work. 

 It was very late before the Romans had real fiiii-dials. They 

 fjiiploved in their (tead obeHilcs,to v,hieh sjood gnomons were 

 applied. The largell of all the tvnomons of modern times 

 was that of Ukig Beioh, erefted at Conflantinople in the 

 l_5th centurv, which was 183 feet in height. The Bononiaii 

 obclilk, 83 fiet hioh, erected by Cadini, that of Paris, and the 

 one which Pope Clement XI. cauied to be conftriifted, are 

 alfo eelebratcd. In the ar.tient gnomons, the hours were 

 indicated bv the fliadow of a ftyie; in the modern ones the 

 lame thing is done by the fun's rays palling through a hole. 

 The Greeks and Romans employed perfons of both fexes to 

 announce to ihem the hours, ai^ indicated by the public gno- 

 mons. Trimahhio cauied the hours to be announced to him 

 bv a trumpeter. This was afterwards culiomary at. the tem- 

 ples. It is not known, however, wljcn portable fun-dials 

 came into ufe. Some of thefe initnmients, after being buried 

 more than J 500 years, were found between 1730 and 1740 

 in the territories of Rome ; of thefe remains of antiquity the 

 author gives a defcription. That Purbach, an aftrononierof 

 Vienna, introduced fun-dials into Germany about 300 years 

 ago is not probable, as the Germans, no doubt, obtained 

 them by their intercourfe with the Romans. In the i6th 

 century anilis look great pains to conftruft fun-dials in a 

 great many ingenious ways ; about the fame period lunar 

 and aftral dials were invented. There is a fun-dial at Befan- 

 yon which is feen only when the lun lliines. This is alfo 

 defcribed, as well as the dial below the roof of the council- 

 houfe at Ingoldftadt. Another at Alcn'^on, iHll more ingeni- 

 ous, is connected with wheel-work, and indicates true and 

 mean time. In the mufeum at Gutlingen there is a collec- 

 tion of fun dials, and other works of art of a fimilar kind, pre- 

 ferved in a box. 



III. OUli/l vutl.'od of iiividing the v'lght. Invention oj 

 iL'uler-cl'jcks mid fiiiul-glaffts^ and the pr'tgicjfive improvement 

 of ihcmlo ihcprefetil tune. — The ciremnlianceof fun-dials be- 

 ing of no ufe in the niabt-time, and during cloudy weather, 

 CHVc oceafion to the uivention and imprf)vement of water- 

 clocks ; traces ot which may be tound among the oldelt na- 

 tions, the Chaldeans and Kgvplians. They were in ufe alfo 

 at an early period ain<tng the Chinefe. Thev were employed 

 by the Egyptian alironomers lor niealuring the diameter of 

 the fiMi. In their (irii liate thev were call'd t/./Zy //■</•, be- 

 caufethe water illued from them drop bv drop. The defe6l, 

 in regard to tin- inecjualitv in llie elllux was at lirll remedied 

 by ihe fniall (iick of the Indians having a hole bored in it. 



Vol. XII. No. 46. M and 



