HOKOhKNKA 



HOROLOGY 



7K3 



work. The |K mil ion of these works IB outaide the 



glad-. Tln-ic \\ere giMd examples ill tin* old forti- 

 !ir;it inns uf Stiashiirg. See also FORTIFICATION. 



Horoth'llklU a town of Austria in Host Galicia, 

 106 miles SK. of LemlH-rg. l'u|>. (18SK); 11,162. 



Horology (Lat. horologhint, <Ir. horologion, 

 ' a sun-dial, ' a water doek ;' (!r. hum, ' a season,' 

 ' ivn lidiir,' ami /<////, tVuni /<//'///, 'to tell ; ' com- 

 paie old Kng. horologe, Fr. /////, 'a clock'), the 

 science which treats of the construction of machines 

 tor idling the time. Although it is easy to look 

 back t<> a period when time, according to the 

 mud, -HI eonception of it, as measured by hours and 

 minutes and seconds, was unknown, yet we find 

 progress early made in the measurement of larger 



C-rlods of time, hy observations of the heavenly 

 ulies. Thus, time was early divided into years 

 according to the apparent motion of the sun 

 among the constellations; into months by the 

 revolution of the moon round the earth ; and into 

 days by the alternate light and darkness caused 

 liy the rising and setting of the sun. It was long, 

 however, before any accurate measure was found 

 for a division of the day itself. The earliest meas- 

 ure employed for this purpose that we can trace 

 is the shadow of an upright object, which gave a 

 rough measure of time by the variations in its 

 length and position. This suggested the invention 

 of sun-dials ( see DIAL ). Another means early 

 adopted for the measurement of short periods of 

 time was by noting the quantity of water discharged 

 through a small orifice in the containing vessel. 

 The instrument for the measurement of time on this 

 principle was called a Clepsydra ( q. v. ). The running 

 of fine sand from one vessel into another was found 

 to afford a still more certain measure, and hence 

 the invention of the Hour-glass ( q. v. ). King Alfred 

 is said to have observed the lapse of time by noting 

 the gradual shortening of a lighted candle. 



It is not very easy to trace to its source the 

 history of the invention to which the modern 

 clock owes its parentage, as there are many 

 vague allusions to horologes from a very early 

 period ; but whether these were some form of 

 water-clock or wheel-and- weight clock is uncertain. 

 But there seems little reason to doubt that Ger- 

 bert, a distinguished Benedictine monk (afterwards 

 Pope Sylvester II.), made a clock for Magdeburg 

 in 996, which had a weight for motive power ; and 

 that weight-clocks began to be used in the monas- 

 teries of Europe in the llth century; though it 

 is probable that these only struck a bell at certain 

 intervals as a call to prayers, and had no dial to 

 show the time. St Paul's Cathedral had a 'clock- 

 keeper ' in 1286, and presumably a clock ; and 

 Westminster possessed one about 1290, and Canter- 

 bury Cathedral about 1292. An entry in the 

 patent rolls of the eleventh year of Edward II. 

 (1318) proves that Exeter Cathedral had a clock 

 in that year, and St Albans, Glastonbury, Padua, 

 Strasburg, and many other places possessed them 

 in the first half of the 14th century. The St 

 Albans clock was a famous astronomical one 

 made by liichard de Wallingford, who was son of 

 a blacksmith of St Alhaits, and afterwards became 

 abbot there (1326-34). The clock made for 

 Glastonbury Abbey by Peter Lightfoot, a resident 

 monk (about 1325), was removed in the reign of 

 Henry VIII. to Wells Cathedral, and is now 

 preserved in South Kensington Museum ; as is 

 also an old clock from Dover Castle, bearing the 

 date 1348, and the initials R.L. in monogram. 

 The original great clock at Strasburg Cathe- 

 dral was made in the years 1352-70 (remodelled 

 and reconstructed in 1571-74). A clock much 

 superior to anything preceding it was that made 

 by Henry de Vick (or Wick) for the tower of 



Charles V.'s palace at Paris in 1370 79. It was 

 said to be on the bell of this clock that the 

 signal was given for the massacre of St Bartholo- 

 IIK -u, I"i7'2. Hy successive improvement* clocks 

 have gradually de\,-|op,-d into the iM-aulifnl piece* 

 of mechanism of the present day. Many curious 

 and interesting s|>eeimeiiH, Hitch HH that of Stras- 

 burg (q.v.) (1594), Lyons Cathedral (1598), St 

 Dnnstan'.s, London (1071; removed to a house in 

 Regent's Park, 1831 ), and many others, have an 

 hi-.iiiiiral interest. Many curiosities of mechani-m 

 are still constructed in the name of clocks, but 

 generally eccentricity i their only feature. Those 

 interested in the subject will find much information 

 in Wood's Curiosities of Clocks and Watches ( I860). 



The date when portable clocks were first made 

 cannot be determined. They are mentioned in 

 the beginning of the 14th century. The motive 

 power must have been a mainspring instead of a 

 weight. The Society of Antiquaries of England 

 possesses one with the inscription in Bohemian that 

 it was made at Prague by Jacob Zech in 1525. It 

 has a spring as motive power with fusee, and is 

 one of the oldest portable clocks in a perfect state 

 in England. 



Illuminated duck dials, to shine at night, were 

 introduced in the first quarter of the 19th century. 



Clocks are of many and various kinds striking 

 and non-striking turret-clocks big enough to 

 carry hands 6 to 10 feet long and to ring a bell 

 to be heard at 20 miles' distance, the good old- 

 fashioned eight-day clock with its long case, the 

 ornamental drawing-room spring clocks, Dutch 

 clocks, American clocks, and an infinity of others. 

 Technically, those which strike are called clock*, 

 and those which do not strike, timepieces, irrespec- 

 tive of size. But, however much they may vary 

 in size and appearance, they are all founded on 

 the same principle, and it will 

 answer our present purpose to 

 illustrate that principle in its 

 more ordinary form of the 

 household clock. 



Fig. 1 represents a diagram 

 of a non -striking timepiece. 

 A weight, by turning a barrel, 

 a, on which its cord is wound, 

 sets in motion a train of 

 wheels, b, c, terminating in the 

 crown-wheel or escapement- 

 wheel, d. These wheels are 

 set between two plates which 

 are fixed together by four pil- 

 lars, one at each corner ; the 

 pillars are riveted into the 

 back plate, k, and fastened 

 with movable pins into the 

 front plate, k. The dial, 

 removed in the fig., is also 

 pinned on to the front plate 

 by four short pillars or feet. 

 The teeth in the pinions 

 and wheels are so arranged 

 in number that, while the 

 crown-wheel revolves in 60 

 seconds, the centre wheel, 6, 

 takes an hour to do so. To 

 regulate the speed at which 

 the clock shall move, an 

 arrangement called an escape- 

 ment, e (to be afterwards 

 more fully described), com- 

 municates by means of its 

 crutch (at /) with the pen- 

 dulum, v. which is suspended 

 by a spring from the cock 

 at h. The arbor of the barrel 

 extends in a square form to the dial at t, where 



Fig. 1. 



