The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the CuriousStauffer, Frank H.
History
The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the Curious
Stauffer, Frank H.
Literary curiosa
It will now not only give the time of Strasburg, but every principal
city in the world; also the day of the week and month, the course of the
sun and planets, and all the eclipses of the sun and moon, in their
regular order. In an alcove above the dial is an image of the Saviour,
and every day, at noon, figures of the twelve apostles march around it
and bow, while the holy image, with uplifted hands, administers a silent
blessing. A cock, on the highest point of the right-hand tower, flaps
his wings and crows three times; and when he stops, a beautiful chime of
bells rings out familiar and very musical tunes. A figure of Time, in a
niche on one side, strikes the quarter hours from twelve to one, and
four figures—Childhood, Youth, Manhood and Old Age—pass slowly before
him. In a niche on the other side is an angel turning an hour-glass.
_Clock that Strikes Thirteen._
The Duke of Bridgewater was very fond of watching his men at work,
especially when any enterprise was on foot. When they were boring for
coal at Worsley, the duke came every morning, and looked on for a long
time. The men did not like to leave off work while he remained there,
and they became so dissatisfied at having to work so long beyond the
hour at which the bell rang, that Brindley had difficulty in getting a
sufficient number of hands to continue the boring. On inquiry, he found
out the cause and communicated it to the duke, who from that time made a
point of immediately walking off when the bell rang—returning when the
men had resumed work, and remaining with them usually until six o'clock.
He observed, however, that though the men dropped work promptly as the
bell rang, when he was not by, they were not nearly so punctual in
resuming work—some straggling in many minutes after time. He asked to
know the reason, and the men's excuse was, that though they could always
hear the clock when it struck twelve, they could not so readily hear it
when it struck only one. On hearing this, the duke had the mechanism of
the clock altered so as to make it strike thirteen at one o'clock, which
it continues to do to this day.
_Westminster Clock._
The winding up of the going part of the great clock at Westminster,
London, takes ten minutes, the weight of the pendulum being six hundred
and eighty pounds; but the winding up of the striking parts—the quarter
part and the hour part—takes five hours each, and this has to be done
twice a week. The contract cost of winding up the clock is $500 a year.
The error of the clock amounts to only about one second for eighty-three
days in the year, and there is probably no other clock in the world of
which the same can be said.
_Wonderful Clock._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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