PeOCEEDINGS of the rOLYTECHMC ASSOCIATION. 1045 



Pacilicus, arcli-Lleaeuii of Yerona, made tiie Urst wheel-cluck aljout 

 850. 



Gcrbert, a Benedictine monk, and afterward Po];e Sylvester II, 

 made the fir^t wheel ch)ck and set it up in his cathedral in 'JOG. 

 Father Gerbertmade use of tlie noi'th star to set liis horologia ; hence 

 man_y claim that it was notliing more than a sun-dial. The other 

 makers of the first clock c(mld be just as easily disposed of, for, I 

 think I may safely assert that Alfred the (-rreat knew what was goini;' 

 on in liis day and generation, and would not have been likely to use 

 candles to measure time 25() years after Sahiuianus commanded clocks 

 and dials to be set up in churches. As to the clock sent to the King 

 of France in 75G, it is asserted that the fir.-^t clock seen in Paris wa-. 

 the one made for Charles V, in 1370. 



There is no doulit that the invention of the clock t<;) go Ijy vreights 

 took place al)out the year 1,(H)0, and, judging from the great learning 

 and mechanical skill of Gerbert, I see no reason v/hy he may not 

 have been the inventor ; and if a monk made himself a clock-maker, 

 he was, certainly, worthy of being made a p(>pe. 



William Marlot, in speaking of Gerbert's clock, makes nse of au 

 expression that in plain English means, " Admirable horologinm, 

 fabricated by the instrumentality of the de\'il."' 



William of ]\Iahnesl)ury says tiiat in his time (about 1100), there 

 was to 1)0 seen in the church at Phiems a mechanic;;! clock whicli 

 Gerbert had made and " h^'draulic organs where the wind, pushed in 

 a wonderful manner by water, made them give sounds modulated 

 like flutes of l)ra5s,'' An interesting point in this connection is tluit 

 toothed wheels had been in use for more than 1,300 years, and had 

 been used on clepsydra for 1,200 years before Gerl)ert made his clock. 



Peed, in his treatise says : " The college Gerbert attended in Si)ain 

 had Arabians and Saracens among its })rofessors, and was at that time 

 the only place in Europe where any learning or science was to lie 

 found,'' and tliat the western Christians were indebted to him for 

 liaviug transmitted to tlieui the system of arithmetic we now use. 



In justice to the xVrabians I must not attempt getting out of this 

 confusion without giving them credit for their share in inventing the 

 first clock. We are told that they made clocks to strike the hours in 

 SOI, and put them in churches in 013, and, I think it (piite likely that 

 Gerliert got all his ideas about a clock from the Arabian i)r;jfessors at 

 the college he attended in Spain. 



If the Pomish clergy were not the inventors of the clock, they 



