Time Telling through the AgesBrearley, Harry Chase
History
Time Telling through the Ages
Brearley, Harry Chase
Clocks and watches -- History; Time measurements
is plainly shown in Greek sculptures antedating the Christian era.
Nowadays the sand-glass has pretty much disappeared, except as a
kitchen timepiece for boiling eggs and the like.
[Illustration]
HOUR HAND—The hand of a watch or clock which indicates the hour: for
long after clocks were first made, the only hand provided.
HOUR WHEEL—The wheel which revolves on the minute wheel or cannon
pinion and carries the hour hand.
HOWARD, EDWARD—Born at Hingham, Mass., October 6, 1813. Having served
a regular apprenticeship in clockmaking he entered into partnership
with D. P. Davis, at the age of 29, to make clocks. He was a clever
mechanic and invented many pieces of mechanism, among them the swing
rest. In 1849 he and Davis with A. L. Dennison and others organized the
American Horologe Company for the manufacture of watches by machinery,
and with the parts interchangeable—the American principle of today.
Though they were not financially successful the American watch industry
owes its present day success largely to this beginning by Edward Howard
and Aaron L. Dennison. The first company developed into the present
Waltham Company, and later Mr. Howard established the E. Howard Co., at
Roxbury, but severed his connection with them in 1882 and retired from
business. He died March 5, 1904.
HUGGEFORD, IGNATIUS—An English watchmaker, one of whose watches was
used to defraud Facio of his patent on the use of jewels in watches.
See _Facio, Nicolas_.
HUNTER, OR HUNTING-CASE—A watch case which has a solid metal cover over
the dial.
HUNTER, GEORGE—Identified with watchmaking in America since about
1860—in the Waltham and Elgin Companies. He was general superintendent
of the latter from 1872 to 1903, after which he was made consulting
superintendent.
HUYGHENS, CHRISTIAN—A celebrated Dutch astronomer and mathematician
born at The Hague, April 14, 1629. Although the honor is claimed
for Richard Harris in 1641 and for Vincent Galileo in 1649 it seems
historically established that Huyghens in 1657 was the first to apply
to clocks the theory of the isochronism of the pendulum which the
great Galileo had discovered. In 1669 he published his important work,
"Horologium Oscillatorium." In 1673 he made the first clock with
concentric hour and minute hands. He died in 1695.
HUYGHENS' CHECKS—The arc of a swinging pendulum is a segment of a
circle. For perfect isochronism it should be a cycloidal segment.
To accomplish this Huyghens fixed curved brass pieces called checks
for the cord to strike against but he caused thereby a greater error
than he remedied. This end was later accomplished by suspending the
pendulum by means of a flat steel strip instead of a cord; a device
credited to Robert Hooke.
[Illustration]
HYPOCYCLOID—A curve generated by any point in the circumference of a
circle which is rolled on the inner side of the circumference of a
larger fixed circle.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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