1044 TjiAXSACTioxs OF THE Ameeican Ixstitute. 



fulfilledj and to properly apportion the time, he caused candles to be 

 made that burned four hours each, or six to the twenty-four hours. 

 But when the winds blew, the air rushed in through the crevices of 

 his habitation and caused his candles to gutter and waste. Then the 

 king caused a lantern to be made with very thin horn sides, and his 

 candles burned steadily. Thus he devoted two candles to religious 

 duties, two to public business, and two to recreation and sleep. It 

 required a constant attendant to warn him of the waning wick, 



Wiien wlieel clocks driven by weights were introduced, is very 

 hard to say. The clepsydra seems to have been brought to such a 

 state of perfection that the transition was very slight and unimpor- 

 tant, and they are so intermingled that it cannot be told where one 

 leaves off and the other commences. We read of the clepsydra up 

 to the twelfth century, and wheel clocks as early as the sixth. 

 Attempts have been made to trace the latter back to Archimides, 

 200 B. C. 



In the fifth century three bishops made a pilgrimage from Britain 

 to Jerusalem, where they were received and entertained with great 

 honor, and on their departure were each presented with a valuable 

 gift. " The last, but not least of these gifts, was conferred on the 

 blessed Teilo. It was a bell, greater in fame than in size, and in 

 value than in beauty. It convicts the perjured and cures the infirm, 

 and, what is more wonderful, that it did sound every hou.r without 

 being touched, until it was prevented by the sin of men who handled 

 it with polluted hands, and it ceased from so delightful an oftice." 

 If we remove the superstitious drapery thrown around this state- 

 ment, we may reasonably find a striking clock underneath, but 

 whetlier clepsydra or not, is a question. It. is known that the clep- 

 sydra had been in use in Britain for at least 500 years in some foi-ra, 

 and we must infer that those using them had the skill to repair 

 when out of order, hence many authors suppose this clepsydra was a 

 wheel, striking clock. 



We find the name of Bothias mentioned as having made the first 

 wheel clock, in the year 510. In 606 died S, Gregory, surnamed 

 the Great, being the third year of Focas, fifty-ninth Emperor of 

 the Romans, who was succeeded by Sabinianus, the sixty-third Pope. 

 He commanded clocks and dials to be set up in the churches to dis- 

 tinguish tlie hours of the day. 



In 750 the first clock was sent to Pepin, king of France, by Pope 

 Paul I. 



