WASTE-BOOKWATELET. 



885 



king, according to the same authority, lived in a 

 large palace, had 150 wives, 10,000 slaves, and a 

 large army See Riley's Narrative (New York, 

 1817). 



WASTE-BOOK. See Book-Keeping. 



WAT TYLER, oa WALTER THE TYLER; 

 famous in history as one of the leaders of the revolt 

 of the lower classes in England, in 1381. (See 

 Richard //.) It has been suggested that this name 

 was merely assumed, as those of the other leaders 

 of the revolt (Jack Straw, Hob Carter, and Tom 

 Miller) appear to have been, to denote their mean 

 origin, or to conceal their real rank.* The imme- 

 diate cause of this insurrection is said to have been 

 the insolence of a collector of poll-tax, who, under 

 pretence of ascertaining the age of the tiler's beau- 

 tiful daughter, offered her intolerable indignities. 

 The tiler, brought into his cottage by the outcry 

 of the girl's mother, felled the tax-gatherer to the 

 ground with a mortal blow. The villeins, and 

 other poor people of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Sus- 

 sex, were roused by the cry of the men of Kent, 

 in which county lay Dartford, the scene of the oc- 

 currence above described, and, declaring there should 

 be no more bondmen, assembled at Blackheath, in 

 May, to the number of 60,000, and took possession 

 of London. Their demands were, the abolition of 

 bondage, the liberty of buying and selling in markets 

 and fairs, a general pardon, and the reduction of the 

 rent of land. At an interview between Tyler and 

 the king, in Smithfield, the former was murdered 

 by some of the attendants of the latter, under pre- 

 tence that the rebel leader seemed about to seize 

 the king's bridle. The revolt was extinguished 

 with circumstances of great cruelty ; more than 

 1500 wretches perishing by the hand of the hang- 

 man. These commotions were not confined to 

 England ; and they indicate the growing light of 

 knowledge, which rendered the people impatient of 

 personal slavery, then general (see Villenage), and 

 of the chains which a haughty nobility had imposed 

 upon them. Their concurrence with the attempts 

 towards religious reform (see Wicklijfe} must not 

 be overlooked. " A foolish priest of Kent," says 

 Froissart, " had preached to the peasants that, in 

 the beginning of the world, there were no bondmen. 

 ' Why,' said he, ' should they be kept under, like 

 wild beasts? and why, if they laboured, should 

 they have no wages ? 



When Adam delved, and Rve span, 

 Where was then the gentleman ?' " 



" Two verses," says Hume, " which, in spite of 

 prejudice, one cannot but regard with some degree 

 of approbation." 



WATCH AND CLOCK MAKING. A clock 

 or a watch movement is an assemblage of wheels 

 and pinions, contained in a frame of two brass 

 plates, connected by means of pillars, the first or 

 great wheel of which, in an eight day clock move- 

 ment, has concentric with it a cylindrical barrel, 

 having a spiral groove cut on it. To this cylinder 

 is attached one end of a cord, which is wrapped 

 round in the groove, for any determined number of 

 turns ; and to the other end of the cord is hung a 

 weight which constitutes a power or force to set 

 the wheels in motion. Their time of continuing 

 in motion will depend on the height through which 

 the weight has to descend, on the number of teeth 



* The case, of the celebrated Jack Cade presents a similar 

 instance. His real name was John Aylmere, and lie was a 

 ill. \Virian. as appears from Ellis's Letters Illustrative of Eng- 

 lish History, second series. 



in the first or great wheel, and on the number of 

 teeth or leaves of the pinion upon which this wheel 

 acts, &c. The wheels in spring clocks, arid in watches, 

 are urged on by the force of a spiral spring, contained 

 in a hollow cylindrical barrel, or box, to which one 

 end of a cord or chain is fixed, and lapping it round 

 the barrel for several turns outside : the other end 

 is fixed to the bottom of a solid, shaped like the 

 frustrum of a cone, known by the name of the fusee, 

 having a spiral groove cut on it : on the bottom of 

 this cone, or fusee, the first or great wheel is put. 

 The arbour, on which the spring barrel turns, is so 

 fixed in the frame, that it cannot turn when the 

 fusee is winding up : the inner end of the spring 

 hooks on to the barrel arbour, and the outer end 

 hooks to the inside of the barrel. Now, if the 

 fusee is turned round in the proper direction, it will 

 take on the cord or chain, and, consequently, take 

 it off from the barrel. This bends up the spring ; 

 and, if the fusee and great wheel are left to them- 

 selves, the force exerted by the spring in the barrel 

 to unbend itself, will make the barrel turn in a con- 

 trary direction to that by which it was bent up. 

 This force of the spring unbending itself, being 

 communicated to the wheels, will set them in mo- 

 tion, and they will move with considerable velocity. 

 Their time of continuing in motion will depend on 

 the number of turns of the spiral groove on the 

 fusee, the number of teeth in the first or great wheel, 

 and on the number of leaves in the pinion upon 

 which the great wheel acts, &c. The wheels, in 

 any sort of movement, when at liberty, or free to 

 turn, and when impelled by a force, whether it is 

 that of a weight or of a spring, would soon allow 

 this force to terminate ; for, as the action of the 

 force is constant from its first commencement, the 

 wheels would be greatly accelerated in their course, 

 arid it would be an improper machine to register 

 time or its parts. The necessity of checking this 

 acceleration, and making the wheels move with a 

 uniform motion, gave rise to the invention of the 

 escapement, or 'scapement, as it is commonly called. 

 To effect this, an alternate motion was necessary, 

 which required no small effort of human ingenuity 

 to produce The escapement is that part of a clock 

 or watch connected with the beats which we hear 

 it give ; and these beats are the effects of the mov- 

 ing power, carried forward by means of the wheels 

 in the movement to the last one, which is called 

 the swing wheel in a pendulum clock, and the balance 

 wheel in a watch. The teeth of this wheel act on 

 the pallets or verge, which are of various shapes, 

 and which form the most essential part in a 'scape- 

 ment ; they drop from each tooth of the swing or 

 balance wheels, on their respective pallets, giving 

 one beat or impulse to the pendulum or balance, in 

 order to keep up or maintain their motion ; and, 

 were it not for the pallets, which alternately stop 

 the teeth of the swing or balance wheels, the mo- 

 tive force would have no check. Hence it is, that, 

 by this mechanism of the 'scapement, the wheels in 

 the movement are prevented from having their re- 

 volutions accelerated, which would take place to 

 such a degree as to make the machine run down in 

 a minute or two; whereas, from the resistance op- 

 posed by the pallets, it is kept going for twenty-four 

 or thirty hours, for a week or a month, or even for 

 twelve months. In the clocks or watches, how- 

 ever, which as a matter of curiosity, have been 

 made to go so long, it was not possible to have an 

 accurate measure of time. See Clock. 



WATELET, CLAUDE HENHY; a French writer 



