POLTTECENIC ASSOCIATION PROCEEDINGS. ^^\ 



the tooth nearly on end. The pitches all through continually 

 remind me of the donkey — 



" Who made unto himself a law 

 That he would neither be drove — nor draw." 



As different authol's ilse the terms " driving " and " leading," as 

 applied to pinions in a different sense, I will add that I have been 

 accustomed to and still call a driving pinion one that carries a wheel 

 forward, and leading one that is carried forward by a wheel. 



Neither of the clocks mentioned keep fine time. Trinity does 

 the beet of the five, the Dutch Reformed next. The others are 

 like the white man, " very uncertain." Trinity, St. Paul's and St. 

 John's are very erratic in their motions, sometimes barely escaping, 

 and act as if just giving their last dying kick and confession, and 

 then ao:ain banking; against the wheel as if determined to clear the 

 "way of all obstructions. This is easily accounted for. Clock trains, 

 with the imperfections I have mentioned, run in a dry, clear atmos- 

 phere with about one-quarter less power than when it is damp and 

 muggy. The weights are heavy- enough for all emergencies. 



During the late heavy snow storm, the north window in the clock 

 room at St Paul's got open, the movement got partially covered, 

 and it drifted down into the pendulum box until up to the top of 

 the ball, yet the old clock waded through it with all the glee of a 

 school boy, and the pendulum stowed the falling snow away on 

 this and then on that side, and pelted it with such pertinacity that 

 by the next morning it had got fifteen minutes ahead of time. Tht> 

 very first warm, muggy day after, it stopped — fainted. 



I hope none will think I have used the term English in a mannei' 

 unworthy of a descendant. I have spoken of Englishmen, as a 

 rule, as a class, as a nation. Exceptional Englishmen (and there are 

 very many of them) do cut aloof from these snobbish notions; do 

 come out into a higher strata of thought and ideas, and do make 

 some of the finest and best clocks the world ever produced; and 

 certainly no more thorough, practical or elaborate work has been 

 written on any branch of mechanics than Thomas Reid's Treatise 

 on Clock and Watch Makiuo^, originally published about 1823, and 

 goue through six or more editions. I admire the candor with which 

 he discusses the claims of others to old inventions, and his seemina: 

 well content with the glory honestly earned by his countrymen, 

 without grasping for those of his Geiinan, French and Italian 

 co-laborers. 



[iNST.l 61 



