"Oh! oh! I have you now. Get out, file to the left, turn thy dial, and go."
And the pickpocket withdrew.
The young watch-maker, perfectly astonished, went immediately to the mayor. They counted twenty-two watches; and the grateful proprietors handsomely indemnified him for his trouble, while at the same time he found himself, by this one stroke, with twenty-two good jobs and a patronage.
Had I time, I could extract many more interesting things from this little work.
For example, a description of a watch made by the grandfather of the present Bregnet—the perpetual watch, so called because it winds itself through some simple movement inserted by the maker. And I could give, also, good advice to wearers of watches.
Where to put them at night.
The manner and time to wind them, and the management of the little needle that makes them go slower and faster.
Then, again, the injury done watches by trotting horsemen, especially physicians, who thereby lose an accurate guide for the pulse of their patients.
Then I should like to consider how Abraham Bregnet made the sympathetic clock, upon which it is only necessary to place before midday or midnight a pocket repeating-watch, advancing or retarding it a little to allow for the time consumed, and by simple contact it regulates the pendulum.
If M. Claudius Saurrier wants something curious for his almanac of the coming year, he has only to take the chapter on clock-making from The Arts of the Middle Ages, by Paul Lacroix. There he will see the three primitive methods of measuring time, namely, the sun-dial or gnomon that Anximandre imported from Greece; the clepsydra, where the flowing water indicated the flying minutes; and the hour-glass, where the sand took the place of the water.