About Clocks

"About Clocks" by Elizabeth Gordon is a charming and informative exploration of timekeeping devices throughout history. Aimed primarily at younger readers, the book combines engaging illustrations with captivating narratives that delve into the mechanics and significance of clocks. Gordon presents a variety of clocks, from ancient sundials to intricate mechanical timepieces, while also highlighting their cultural and scientific importance. With a blend of history, art, and storytelling, "About Clocks" invites readers to appreciate the marvels of timekeeping and its impact on society.

• Children
• Short story

								
“Look at my new wrist-watch! Mom gave it to me for my
birthday--isn’t it a beauty?” said the boy named Billy. “Radium
dial ’n all; I can see what time it is in the dark. Handy when
I’m on hikes, no more stopping to scratch matches. Stem winder ’n
everything.”

“Goodness, Billy,” said Big Sister. “Anyone would think to hear
you that there never was a watch like that of yours. We all have
watches.”

Billy grinned. “Well,” he said, “I’ve wanted it so long. A fellow
needs something to tell time by. Who discovered how to tell
time anyhow?”

“The first Caveman, probably,” said Somebody. “He needed to let
the ladies of the family know when he was coming home to dinner,
so he very likely pointed to the sun, and drew a line in the
sand, to tell them that when the sunshine reached that spot he
would be home and that dinner better be forthcoming pronto! That
was the sundial idea, which was the only way of time-telling for
ages. Cleopatra’s needle is supposed to have been one of the
big sun dials. But as it was certainly inconvenient not to be
able to tell the time on dark days, it was only a matter of time
when some more convenient method of recording the hours would be
found. When it did appear it was in the shape of the clepsydra,
or water thief, a brass bowl with a hole in the bottom, which
was floated on top of another bowl full of water, the principle
being that when the bowl had filled itself with water an hour had
passed, then a slave would empty the bowl, and hit it with a rod
to announce the hour.”

“But someone must have sat up all night to watch the bowl and
strike the hours,” said the boy named Billy.

“Precisely,” said Somebody, “so they consulted the stars, and
discovered that they could divide the night into ‘watches’ of so
many hours duration, and then they had different watchmen to sit
up with the clepsydra, and announce the hours.

“The Priests of Babylon were very wise men indeed, and it was
not long until they had figured out how to divide the years into
months and weeks and days and hours and minutes and seconds.

“But it was not until 1581 that a young Spaniard, standing in
the Cathedral of Pisa discovered, by watching a swinging lamp,
the principle of the pendulum. He noticed that when it moved a
short distance, it moved slowly, and that the farther it moved,
the faster became the motion, making the long swing in the same
time as it did the shorter one. And in this way was the pendulum
applied to the making of time-telling machines.

“In the 12th Century there were clocks which struck the
hours, but which had no dials or hands, but after the idea of
time-telling machines started it traveled fast, and in the 14th
Century real clocks began to appear.

“We have not time to go through the whole fascinating story of
how the idea progressed, but we know that in Shakespeare’s time
there were watches that could be carried in the pocket.”

“Why were they called ‘watches’ instead of clocks,” asked the boy
named Billy.

“The clock, or orloge, as they were then called, struck the
hours, and the watch was very probably so named from the silent
‘watches of the night’,” said Somebody. “That last is just a
guess, but it’s as good as anybody’s guess at that.”

“Who made the first clock in America?” asked the boy named Billy.

“Eli Terry did, in the year 1809,” said Somebody, “and after a
time he got Seth Thomas to help him. As soon as people realized
what a very great convenience it was to be able to keep accurate
time, nobody wanted to be without a clock. And then people began
to travel more and needed to have something portable with which
to tell time, and so the convenient watches came to be made.

“‘What time is it?’ you ask. Centuries of scientific progress,
with vast labor and years of patient study, have been necessary
to answer that question. You’ll find that men had to delve into
mathematics, the mysteries of astronomy, the wonders of physics
and chemistry, before they could force the hands on the dial to
tell you when to start for school or to catch your train. As
you look at a clock, remember that every time the minute-hand
passes from one of its marks to the next, it shows that this huge
globe on which we live has covered more than 1,000 miles of its
headlong journey.

“And then along came Madame Curie, the brilliant French
scientist, and discovered radium, the merest shadow of which
makes the dial of your watch luminous for as long as it lasts.

“There is a very famous clock in Strasbourg which not only
tells the time of day, but also the day of week, the month,
and the position of the moon and the planets. At various times
processions of tiny figures cross a stage, including a cock that
crows. The day of week is indicated by a separate little figure
which takes its place on a tiny platform.

“A watch is perhaps the most wonderful little machine in the
world. Packed in a case sometimes no bigger than a twenty-five
cent piece and less than a quarter of an inch thick are from one
hundred and fifty to eight hundred separate parts. And there you
are, Billy Boy!”

“Time for bed,” said Mother. “And don’t linger too long admiring
your new watch or it will be time to get up.”

“Goodnight everybody, and Somebody,” said the boy named Billy,
“and thanks again, Mom, for the watch. I’ve never before had such
a jimdandy birthday gift.”
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