Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked RecordGreg, Percy
Science
Across the Zodiac: The Story of a Wrecked Record
Greg, Percy
Science fiction
Four times during the revolution of the great circle each large clock
emits for a couple of minutes a species of chime, the nature of which
my ignorance of music renders me unable to describe:—viz., when the
line dividing the green and black semicircles is horizontal at noon
and midnight, and an hour before, at average sunrise and sunset, it
becomes perpendicular. The individual character of the several chimes,
tunes, or peals, whatever they should be called, is so distinct that
even I appreciated it. Further, as the first point of the coloured
strip distinguishing each several _zyda_ reaches the golden indicator,
a single slightly prolonged sound—I fancy what is known on Earth as a
single chord—is emitted. Of these again each is peculiar, so that no
one with an ear for music can doubt what is the period of the day
announced. The sound is never, even in the immediate vicinity of the
clock, unpleasantly loud; while it penetrates to an amazing distance.
It would be perfectly easy, if needful, to regulate all clocks by
mechanical control through the electric network extended all over the
face of the planet; but the perfect accuracy of each individual
timepiece renders any such check needless. In those latitudes where
day and night during the greater part of the year are not even
approximately equal, the black and green semicircles are so enlarged
or diminished by mechanical means, that the hour of the day or night
is represented as accurately as on the Equator itself.
The examination of this establishment occupied us for two or three
hours, and when we remounted our carriage it seemed to me only
reasonable that Eveena should be weary both in mind and body. I
proposed, therefore, to return at once, but against this she earnestly
protested.
"Well," I said, "we will finish our excursion, then. Only remember
that whenever you do feel tired you must tell me at once. I do not
know what exertion you can bear, and of course it would be most
inconsiderate to measure your endurance by my own."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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