JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PRINTERS.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| TIME AND TIME-TELLERS | [1] |
| MODERN WATCHES: THEIR VARIETIES AND MODES OF MANUFACTURE. | [72] |
| KEYLESS WATCHES. | [101] |
| HOUSE CLOCKS. | [104] |
| TURRET CLOCKS. | [127] |
| THE GREAT CLOCKS OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 1862. | [174] |
INDEX TO THE ILLUSTRATIONS.
| PAGE | ||
| 1 | [FRONTISPIECE] | |
| 2 | [VIGNETTE] | |
| 3 | THE POCKET RING DIAL | [14] |
| 4 | SILVER POCKET DIAL AND COMPASS | [16] |
| 5 | THE CLEPSYDRA OR WATER CLOCK | [19] |
| 6 | THE BOOK-SHAPED WATCH | [35] |
| 7 | ANCIENT TABLE WATCH | [36] |
| 8 | ANCIENT WATCH WITH DIAL | [39] |
| 9 | OLD ENGLISH ROUND WATCH | [40] |
| 10 | OLD OVAL WATCH | [41] |
| 11 | ANCIENT ROUND ORNAMENTAL WATCH | [42] |
| 12 | OLD ENGLISH CALENDAR WATCH | [43] |
| 13 | MARY QUEEN O' SCOTS WATCH (DEATH'S HEAD) | [44] |
| 14 | ANCIENT WATCH CASE (SCRIPTURAL DESIGN) | [45] |
| 15 | DITTO TABLE WATCH (DITTO) | [46] |
| 16 | GRETTON'S WATCH | [48] |
| 17 | ANCIENT BOX WATCH | [49] |
| 18 | OLIVER CROMWELL'S WATCH | [50] |
| 19 | EARLY ORNAMENTAL ROUND WATCH CASE | [51] |
| 20 | JOHN MILTON'S WATCH | [52] |
| 21 | SMALL EARLY WATCH | [54] |
| 22 | ANCIENT WATCH WITH PENDULUM | [55] |
| 23 | ANCIENT BRASS WATCH WITH LID | [56] |
| 24 | IGNATIUS HUGGEFORD'S WATCH | [59] |
| MODERN WATCHES. | ||
| 25 | HORIZONTAL | [74] |
| 26 | SKELETON LEVER | [74] |
| 27 | FULL PLATE LEVER | [75] |
| 28 | THREE-QUARTER PLATE LEVER | [75] |
| 29 | THE CHRONOGRAPH | [92] |
| 30 | PERPETUAL CALENDAR, KEYLESS | [96] |
| 31 | COMPLICATED DITTO AND INDEPENDENT SECONDS | [97] |
| 32 | THE MERIDIAN WATCH | [99] |
| ESCAPEMENTS TO WATCHES. | ||
| 33 | THE VERGE ESCAPEMENT | [78] |
| 34 | THE HORIZONTAL DO. | [79] |
| 35 | THE DUPLEX DO. | [80] |
| 36 | THE LEVER DO. | [81] |
| 37 | THE CHRONOMETER DO. | [83] |
| BALANCES, ETC. | ||
| 38 | COMPENSATION BALANCE | [85] |
| 39 | OLD BALANCE CLOCK | [108] |
| 40 | CLOCK SPRING | [109] |
| 41 | RACK STRIKING WORK | [113] |
| 42 | BACK OF FRENCH CLOCK | [116] |
| 43 | CARRIAGE CLOCK | [118] |
| 45 | ENGLISH ORMOLU CLOCKS | [120-22] |
| 46 | TELL-TALE CLOCK | [123] |
| CLOCK ESCAPEMENTS. | ||
| 47 | CROWN WHEEL ESCAPEMENT | [147] |
| 48 | ANCHOR DO. | [148] |
| 49 | DEAD BEAT DO. | [149] |
| 50 | FRENCH SINGLE-PIN ESCAPEMENT | [150] |
| 51 | THREE LEGG'D GRAVITY DO. | [151] |
| 52 | DOUBLE DITTO DITTO | [154] |
| TURRET CLOCKS. | ||
| 53 | WELLS CATHEDRAL CLOCK | [135] |
| 54 | OLD ST DUNSTAN'S DO. | [137] |
| 55 | ST JAMES'S PALACE DO. | [138] |
| 56 | ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL DO. | [140] |
| 57 | ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL DO. | [141] |
| 58 | MEMORIAL TURRET CLOCK DIAL | [157] |
| 59 | MODERN TURRET CLOCK MOVEMENT | [164] |
| 60 | ""HOUR WHEEL AND SNAIL | [166] |
| 61 | ""THE RACK | [168] |
| 62 | ""THE PENDULUM ROD | [169] |
| 63 | QUARTER OR CHIME CLOCK | [171] |
| 64 | GAS WHEEL FOR ILLUMINATED DIAL | [172] |
| 65 | NEST OF BEVELLED WHEELS CARRYING HANDS | [173] |
| 66 | HAMMER AND BELL | [174] |
| 67 | BENSON'S GREAT CLOCK. THE EXTERIOR | [175] |
| 68 | """THE MOVEMENT | [176] |
| 69 | SUN-DIAL | [180] |
TIME AND TIME-TELLERS.
Time cannot be thoroughly defined, nor even properly comprehended by mankind, for our personal acquaintance with it is so brief that our longest term is compared to a span, and to 'the grass which in the morning is green and groweth up, and in the evening is cut down and withered.' The ordinary thinker can scarcely carry his idea of Time beyond that small portion of it which he has known, under the name of life-time. The metaphysician classes Time with those other mysteries,—Space, Matter, Motion, Force, Consciousness, which are the Gordian knots of Mental Science. Time is naturally divided into three most unequal parts,—whereof the Past includes all that has happened until now from that far-distant period when 'Heaven and Earth rose out of chaos;' the Present is but a moment, expended in a breath, to be again like that breath momentarily renewed; the Future is, as the Past,—'a wide unbounded prospect,' an 'undiscovered country,' into which Prophecy itself penetrates but partially, and even then bears back to us but small information; for its language catches the character of a grander clime, and the denizens of this lower earth are incapable of understanding its gorgeous metaphors; the brightness is as blinding as the darkness. We may attempt to pierce the Future by the light which History throws from the Past, but History's record is imperfect; her chronicles are of the rudest and most unreliable character; her most valued memorials serve but to make Past 'darkness visible,' her most ancient registers reach back but a short distance compared with those testimonies which geologists have discovered, and given us veritable 'sermons in stones' about. The Past is, indeed, scarcely less of a mystery than the Future; even the Present we only know in part, but we do know that the brief term during which man 'flits across the stage' of time ere he goes hence and is no more seen, is of inestimable value. Most of us soon make the discovery that the world has much to teach which there is little time to learn and still less time to apply to good purpose. Ars longa, vita brevis est, is the general expression of human experience. For every man there are duties and labours for which time is all too short; just as he begins to understand and to perform his work wisely and successfully, the 'spirit of the destinies,' as Mr Carlyle would say, 'calls him away;' but whither he goeth is as great a mystery as whence he cometh. This, however, we do know, no wise man ever disregarded Time, inasmuch as of this treasure there is no laying in a fresh store when life's supply has been exhausted; the wasters, the 'killers' of Time, like the foolish virgins who neglected their lamps, are met invariably with the 'Not so,'—as the door of opportunity is shut in their faces. Like the dial with the inscription 'Nulla vestigia retrorsum' each man's steps are taken never to be retraced, the act once done can no more be recalled than the shadow on the dial can go backward. What wonder then that the most thoughtful of men are particularly careful of their time, regulating their use of it with the utmost precision and weighing it out as scrupulously as a miser would his gold? What wonder that they should sigh and grieve over a wasted day, and with bitter self-reproach should say to themselves as Titus did, 'Perdidi diem,'—I have lost a day? What wonder is it that such should teach themselves to wrestle with Time, even as Jacob wrestled with the angel, for a blessing; and to regard those reckless ones, in whose butterfly existence are counted only the 'shining hours,'—as the bee might be supposed to regard the idle gnats which frolic in the sunbeams heedless both of to-day and of to-morrow.