Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 54546-h.htm or 54546-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/54546/54546-h/54546-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/54546/54546-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/timeclocksdescri00cuny Transcriber’s note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). However, to improve readability, italics notation has been omitted from equations. If the variables are in italics in the surrounding text, they were in italics in the equations. TIME AND CLOCKS. [Illustration: [_Frontispiece._ NUREMBERG CLOCK. CONVERTED FROM A VERGE ESCAPEMENT TO A PENDULUM MOVEMENT.] TIME AND CLOCKS: A Description of Ancient and Modern Methods of Measuring Time. by H. H. CUNYNGHAME M.A. C.B. M.I.E.E. With Many Illustrations. London: Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd. 16 James Street Haymarket. 1906. Bradbury, Agnew, & Co. Ld., Printers, London and Tonbridge. CONTENTS. PAGE INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I. 7 CHAPTER II. 50 CHAPTER III. 90 CHAPTER IV. 123 APPENDIX ON THE SHAPE OF THE TEETH OF WHEELS 187 INDEX 199 TIME AND CLOCKS. INTRODUCTION. When we read the works of Homer, or Virgil, or Plato, or turn to the later productions of Dante, of Shakespeare, of Milton, and the host of writers and poets who have done so much to instruct and amuse us, and to make our lives good and agreeable, we are apt to look with some disappointment upon present times. And when we turn to the field of art and compare Greek statues and Gothic or Renaissance architecture with our modern efforts, we must feel bound to admit our inferiority to our ancestors. And this leads us perhaps to question whether our age is the equal of those which have gone before, or whether the human intellect is not on the decline. This feeling, however, proceeds from a failure to remember that each age of the world has its peculiar points of strength, as well as of weakness. During one period that self-denying patriotism and zeal for the common good will be developing, which is necessary for the formation of society. During another, the study of the principles of morality and religion will be in the ascendant. During another the arts will take the lead; during another, poetry, tragedy, and lyric poetry and prose will be cultivated; during another, music will take its turn, and out of rude peasant songs will evolve the harmony of the opera.