Time Telling through the Ages

Alas! Time stays; we go."

And these two thoughts, expressed in many forms, represent fairly the tenor of most of them. There is a story of a lazy apprentice asking a motto for his dial, to whom his master sharply replied: "Begone about your business!" and the fellow, appropriately enough, took that for the motto required. It is at least a familiar sentiment, especially in Puritan times; and equally so during the Middle Ages is that more mystic suggestion, Umbra Dei– "the Shadow of God."

Sun-Dial, Portable – Made in different shapes and upon different plans small enough to carry about. The most common form was the ring dial, consisting of a metal ring with a hole in it through which the light fell upon an inside ring adjustable to the day and month. It required careful orienting to be dependable as a time-indicator.

Sun-Dials, Roman – The first dial in Rome was set up B. C. 293 near the temple of Quirinus by Papirius Cursor. It served ninety-nine years; then one more accurate was set up beside it. Before that, no time was noted except the rising and setting of the sun. Emperor Augustus erected a dial at Campus Martius. A dial captured in Sicily during the first Punic war was set up in the Forum about 263 B. C. and used for years before they learned that it was inaccurate in that latitude, being designed for the latitude of Sicily.

Sunk-Seconds – A dial in which the seconds circle is sunk below the rest of the dial. It allows the hour hand to be placed closer to the face thus making a thinner model possible.

Supplementary Arc – See: "Lifting Arc."

Sweep-Seconds – See: Center-Seconds (#Center_Seconds).

Table Roller – The roller of a lever escapement which carries the impulse pin.

Tell-Tale Clock – A clock by which a record is left of periodical visits of some one as a night-watchman.

Template or Timplet – One of the four facets that surround a cut gem.

Tenon – A projection at the end of a piece cut to fit into a corresponding mortise.

Terry, Eli – The first man to make clocks by machinery in America. When it was learned that he planned to make two hundred clocks he was much laughed at. He was born at East Windsor, Conn., in 1772. His first clocks were made by hand, the movements being of wood. He was the leading maker of wooden clocks in America. He invented the shelf clock which contained distinctly new inventions and he introduced the pillar scroll-top case. He was a mechanical genius and contributed a great deal to developing clock-making in America into a great industry. He died in 1852.

Third Wheel – The wheel in the train between the center wheel and the fourth wheel.

Thales – A celebrated Ionian astronomer, one of the Seven Sages of Greece. He was born about 640 B. C., and is credited by Herodotus with having predicted an eclipse of the sun occurring about 609 B. C. He was the author of several solutions of geometrical problems. He died about 550 B. C.

Thomas, Seth – Born at Wolcott, Conn., 1785. A very successful clockmaker who contributed probably more than any other man toward popularizing the modern cheap clock. The Seth Thomas Clock Co., of today, he started in 1813 with twenty operatives. By 1853 it had nine hundred. He died in 1859.

Three-Quarter Plate – A three-quarter plate watch is one in which there is a piece cut out from the top plate large enough to permit the balance to rotate on a level with that plate. It is the most common form at present in use in both cheap and high grade watches, and found in both "pillar" and "bridge" models.

Time-Candles – Candles in alternate black and white sections were used to mark the passage of time in Europe and Asia for a long time. In England and France they were used to limit the bidding at an auction. The phrase "by inch of candle" meant that the one bidding when the flame expired was the successful bidder. King Alfred is said to have used time-candles and to have inclosed them in thin horn plates to protect them from drafts, thus originating the lantern.

Timekeeper – Any device primarily concerned with measuring and indicating the sub-divisions of the day.

Tompion, Thomas – "The father of English Watchmaking." Born 1638. He was the leading watchmaker at the court of Charles II. He found the construction of the time-keeping part of watches in a very indifferent condition and he left English clocks and watches the finest in the world, although many great improvements were made after his time. He associated closely with such scientists as Hooke, and Barlow, and made practical application of their theories – two notable instances being the cylinder escapement and the balance-spring. Tompion was the first to number his watches consecutively for the purpose of identification though he did not so mark his early ones. There is a famous clock in the pumproom at Bath, England, of Tompion's construction. Little is known of his domestic life but he appears to have been unmarried. He died in 1713 and is buried in Westminster Abbey. Tompion was master of the Worshipful Clockmakers' Company in 1704.

Top Plate – The plate in a watch farthest from the dial. In full plate watches it is circular; in three-quarter plate or half-plate watches a part is cut away.

Tower of the Winds – An octagonal tower north of the Acropolis of Athens spoken of as horological by Vario and Vitruvius. Believed to have had a sundial on each of its eight faces and to have contained a clepsydra fed by a spring.

Train – The toothed wheels of a watch or clock which connect the barrel or fusee with the escapement. In a going-barrel watch the teeth about the barrel drive the center pinion which drives the center wheel and then in turn the third wheel pinion, third wheel, fourth wheel pinion and fourth wheel, escape pinion and escape wheel.

Tripping – The running past the pallet's locking face, of an escape wheel tooth.

Vacheron and Constantin – In 1840 established the first complete watch factory in Switzerland. Not until later, however, was motor power used instead of foot-power; and later still manufacture by machinery. The work in this factory is carried on under a combination of all accepted methods.

Vailly, Dom – A Benedictine monk of about 1690 who made a water clock which Beckmann says was the first to be constructed on a really scientific principle. See Clocks, Interesting Old – Vailly's (#Vaillys).

Van der Woerd, Charles – A prominent man in connection with watch manufacturing in this country. In 1864 he invented an automatic pinion cutter; in 1874 an automatic screw machine. From 1876-1883 he was superintendent of the Waltham factory.

Verge – The pallet axis of the verge escapement. See diagram of Verge Escapement. It carries the balance at its top.

Verge Watch – A watch with a verge escapement.

Vick, Henry de. See De Vick (#de_Vick).

Volute – A flat spiral.

Volute-Spring – A flat metallic spring coiled in a spiral conical form and compressible in the direction of its axis.

Wallingford, Richard – An English mechanic and astronomer of the fourteenth century. He made a clock which is supposed to have been the first that was regulated by a fly-wheel. Several authorities, however, claim that Wallingford's "clock" was actually a planetarium.

Waltham – A town in Massachusetts – the site of the first successful watch factory in America. At present a great watch making center.

Watch – In modern parlance, a small timepiece to carry about on the person. Formerly a timepiece which showed time in distinction to clock which struck time. Derham (1734) uses the term to indicate all timepieces driven by springs. The term may have been derived from the Swedish vacht, German wachen, or Saxon woecca. The spaces of time between the fillings of a clepsydra were also called "watches."

Watch Collections – For list of principal collections, past and present, see Jewelers' Circular files August to December 1915. List compiled by Major Paul M. Chamberlain of Chicago. For list of principal present collections, see Appendix to this volume derived from the Chamberlain Compilation.

Watchmakers' Schools – American. In America these schools usually teach watch-repairing and not the making of watches. Some of them offer courses in making watches but few pupils avail themselves of these courses. List of: De Selins Watch School, Attica, Ind.; Detroit Technical Institute – Detroit, Mich.; Kansas City Watchmaking and Engraving School, Kansas City, Mo.; Needles Institute of Watchmaking, Kansas City, Mo.; Bowman Technical School, Lancaster, Pa.; Ries and Armstrong, Macon, Ga.; Drexler School for Watchmaking, Milwaukee, Wis.; Newark Watchmaking School, Newark, N. J.; Philadelphia College of Horology, Philadelphia, Pa.; St. Louis Watchmaking School, St. Louis, Mo.; Schwartzman's Trade Schools, San Francisco, Cal.; Stone School of Watchmaking, St. Paul, Minn.; Waltham Horological School, Waltham, Mass.; Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, Ill.

Watchmakers' Schools, Switzerland – Usually under government management. Teach very thoroughly and completely the art of making a watch from the beginning.

Watch-Papers – During the 18th century it was a fad in England and America to carry small round papers, which exactly fitted the case of a watch. On these were portraits and verses, the latter of doubtful merit and usually of sinister or gloomy significance.

Waterbury – A town in Connecticut long a center of clock and watch making in America. Home of the original Waterbury watch. Location of principal factory of Robt. H. Ingersoll & Brothers., manufacturers of the Ingersoll watches.

Water-Clock – Any device, as a clepsydra, for measuring time by the fall or flow of water. More commonly applied to the type in which wheels are turned by water or in such as those in which water sets machinery of some form in motion as Vailly's water-clock. See Clock, Vailly's (#Vaillys).

Wick Timekeeper – A wick or rope made of some fiber resembling flax or hemp with knots tied at regular intervals and so treated that upon ignition it would smolder instead of breaking into flame. Early in use in Japan and China. Time was estimated by the burning between the knots.

Wieck, Henry De – See De Vick (#de_Vick).

Willard, Aaron – Born 1757. Probably learned his trade from his older brothers Simon and Benjamin. He made tall, and shelf clocks, later banjo clocks – so-called from their shape – gallery clocks, and regulators. A better business man than his brothers and successful from the start. His clocks did not lack decorative merit but were inferior to Simon Willard's. He made a greater number than his brother because more successful in a business way.

Willard, Benjamin – Older brother of Simon and Aaron Willard. Among the first of American clockmakers. Born 1743. Made, probably, only tall clocks with handsome cases and some with musical attachments. Not so good as the clocks of Aaron and Simon Willard but older and rarer now.

Willard, Simon – Born at Grafton, Mass., 1753. One of the earliest Massachusetts clock makers who disputed the claim of the Connecticut makers for the credit of revolutionizing the clock industry in America. So far as cases go they excelled Terry, Thomas, and others. But to the Connecticut makers belongs the credit for having developed clock making into a great industry. Willard at first made eight-day tall clocks and shelf clocks, later wall clocks which he called "time pieces." In 1802 he practically abandoned the making of tall clocks, and confined himself to his "time pieces" and special orders for tower and gallery clocks. For a detailed list of his productions see his Biography by John Ware Willard. He was an intimate friend of Jefferson, Madison and other leading men of the time. Died 1848.

Worshipful Clockmakers' Company of London, The – Incorporated August 22, 1631, under special charter by King Charles I of England. Was given the sole privilege of regulating the watch and clock trade in and for ten miles around London.

Webster, Ambrose – Mechanical superintendent, and later assistant superintendent, of the Waltham factory until his resignation in 1876. He systematized the work in the shop, standardized the measuring system, and forced automatic machinery to the front. He designed the first watch factory lathe with hard spindles and bearings of the two taper variety. He made the first interchangeable standard for parts of lathes. He invented many machines now in use, among them being the automatic pinion cutter.

Weight-Clock – A clock whose driving power is a weight suspended by a cord wound on a drum or cylinder.

Weights – The first clocks were made with a weight on a cord which was wound around a cylinder connected with the train. The weight descending caused the cylinder to revolve, setting the train in motion. Too rapid unwinding was prevented by the escapement. The weight as a driving power is still used, especially in large clocks.

Wheel, Count – The wheel carrying the locking-plate in a striking mechanism.