CHICAGO, 1909

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

[HISTORIC OUTLINE]

Time as an abstraction. — Ancient divisions of day and night. — Night watches of the Old Testament. — Quarter days and hours of the New Testament. — Shadow, or sun time. — Noon mark dials. — Ancient dials of Herculaneum and Pompeii. — Modern dials. — Equation of time. — Three historic methods of measuring time. — “Time-boy” of India. — Chinese clepsydra. — Ancient weather and time stations. — Tower of the winds, Athens, GreecePage 13

CHAPTER II

[JAPANESE CLOCKS]

Chinese and Japanese divisions of the day. — Hours of varying length. — Setting clocks to length of daylight. — Curved line dials. — Numbering hours backwards and strange reasons for same. — Daily names for sixty day period. — Japanese clock movements practically Dutch. — Japanese astronomical clock. — Decimal numbers very old Chinese. — Original vertical dials founded on “bamboo stick” of Chinese clepsydra. — Mathematics and superstition. — Mysterious disappearance of hours 1, 2, 3. — Eastern mental attitude towards time. — Japanese methods of striking hours and half hoursPage 25

CHAPTER III

[MODERN CLOCKS]