A History of Inventions, Discoveries, and Origins, Volume I (of 2)
TekstCLOCKS AND WATCHES
A paper on this subject was read by Professor Hamberger, in the year 1758, before the Society of Göttingen; but as the publication of the Transactions of the Society was interrupted, it was never printed. I however procured the manuscript from the professor’s son, Secretary Hamberger, at Gotha, and I here insert it, corrected in a few places, where necessary, but without any other alteration1040.
“Weidler1041 and Chambers1042 are, doubtless, both mistaken when they place the invention of automatous clocks about the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century. The latter says, ‘It is certain that the art of constructing clocks, such as those now in use, was first invented or at least revived in Germany about two hundred years ago.’ The same account is given by Weidler, whom Chambers perhaps copied. But, however flattering this opinion may be to the ingenuity of the Germans, it is so apparently false in regard to the time, that one cannot assent to it; nor is it even probable in regard to the country, though it must be allowed that the art of clockmaking flourished very much in Germany, particularly at Nuremberg, about the beginning of the sixteenth century.
“As these two authors make the invention of clocks too modern, others, on the contrary, carry it back to a period too early. Without entering into any dissertation on the machines of Archimedes and Posidonius, which are said to have measured the hours of the day, I shall only observe that a certain writer pretends to have found mention made of a clock in the third century1043. In support of this assertion he refers to the Acts of St. Sebastian, the martyr, where Chromatius, the governor of Rome, says, when about to be cured by him, ‘I have a glass chamber in which the whole learning and science of the stars is constructed mechanically, in making which my father Tarquinius is known to have expended more than two hundred pounds of gold.’ St. Sebastian answers, ‘If you have made your choice to keep this whole, you destroy yourself.’ To which Chromatius replies, ‘How so? do we employ any sacrificial rights in the construction of an almanac or ephemeris, when merely the courses of the months and years are distinguished numerically for every hour; and the full and new moon is, by means of certain calculations, foreshown by a motion of the fingers1044.’ This valuable machine, however, can hardly be called a clock; for if it had been an automaton, it would not have required to be moved with the fingers in order to show the time of full moon. If I understand the author’s words properly, it was not calculated to point out the hours; but to exhibit the sun’s course through the twelve signs of the zodiac, the motion of the rest of the planets, and their relative situation in every month, or at any period of the year. That the signs of the zodiac and the planets were represented on the machine, appears from what follows. St. Polycarp (the companion of St. Stephen) said, ‘There are the signs of the Lion, of Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio and the Bull; in Aries the moon, in the Crab an hour, in Jupiter a star, in Mercury the tropics, in Venus Mars, and in all those monstrous demons is seen an art hostile to God1045.’ But whatever this machine might have been, it was of no use to others, or to posterity: it was broken to pieces by these saints, so that, even allowing it to have been a clock, the knowledge of it must have been then lost.
“We find also, that Bernardus Saccus1046 ascribes the invention of clocks to Boëthius, in the fifth century; but Bernardus seems to have forgotten what he quoted a little before from Cassiodorus1047, respecting the clock of Boëthius, that it determined the hours guttis aquarum. It must, therefore, have been a water-clock, and not a clock moved by wheels and weights. The same Cassiodorus had provided his monks at the monastery of St. Andiol1048, in Languedoc, with machines of the like kind: ‘I am known,’ says he, ‘to have constructed for you a time-piece which the light of the sun indexes; moreover another acting by water which marks the hours both day and night; as frequently upon some days there is no sunshine1049.’ We are to understand also, as alluding to such clocks, what is said by the writer of the life of St. Leobin, bishop of Chartrain, about the year 5561050, when he tells us, that to him (St. Leobin) was committed the duty of regulating the course of the hours and the vigils.
“I come now to the seventh century. In Du Cange’s Glossary we find the word Index, which is explained to be the index or hand of a clock, or the small bell which announces the hours by its sound; and this opinion is adopted by Muratori1051. Du Cange quotes in support of his assertion a monkish work called Regula Magistri, the author of which is not certainly known1052, but which Mabillon1053 asserts to have been written before the year 700. The passages to which he refers are, ‘Cum advenisse divinam horam percussus in oratorio index monstraverit.’ (When the index being struck in the oratory shall have shown that the hour for prayer had come.) ‘Cum sonuerit index;’ and ‘Cum ad opus divinum oratorii index sonaverit1054.’ But Du Cange might have perceived, had he quoted the whole passage from the fifty-fifth chapter, that allusion is not here made to a clock; for it is said, not merely ‘cum sonuerit index,’ but ‘cum sonuerit index ab Abbate percussus.’ (When the index struck by the Abbot shall sound). It was a scilla or skella, perhaps only a board; and Martene1055 seems to understand the word index in the true sense when he explains it the signal by which the brethren were called to divine service.
“That machine which was sent as a present to Charlemagne by the king of Persia, in the year 807, is supposed also to have been a clock like those used at present; and if we follow the Chronicon Turonense, one may easily fall into the same opinion: ‘The king of the Persians sent a time-piece in which the twelve hours were marked by the performance of a cymbal and of certain horsemen who at each hour went out through the windows, and on their return in the last hour of the day shut the windows as they marched back1056.’ The description of it however, to be found in Annales Francorum, ascribed to Eginhard, shows clearly that it was far different from our clocks. The author says, ‘Likewise a time-piece wonderfully constructed of brass with mechanical art, in which the course of the twelve hours was turned towards a clepsydra, with as many brass balls which fell down at the completion of the hour, and by their fall sounded a bell placed under them1057.’ It was evidently therefore a water-clock, furnished with some ingenious mechanism, but having nothing in common with our clocks.
“About the same period lived Pacificus, archdeacon of Verona, who is celebrated for having invented a clock1058. His epitaph, besides relating other services which he did, says, —
Horologium nocturnum nullus ante viderat.
En invenit argumentum et primus fundaverat;
Horologioque carmen spheræ cœli optimum,
Plura alia graviaque prudens invenit.
Scipio Maffei endeavours to prove, that we are here to understand a clock moved by wheels and weights; but, in my opinion, his arguments are extremely weak. ‘This horologium,’ says he, ‘the like of which had been never seen, and which was different from a sun-dial, because it showed the hours in the night-time, could not be a clepsydra or water-clock, for clocks of that kind were not only known to the ancients, but even to the inhabitants of Italy in latter times, so that it could have been nothing but a clock like ours.’ But even if we allow, with this learned man, that water-clocks were known in Italy at that period, it cannot be denied that they were scarce, and used only by few, as may be evidently gathered from what is said of these machines by Cassiodorus. The greater part of the people might have been unacquainted with them at the above-mentioned time; and there is no necessity for adhering so closely to the words of the epitaph, ‘nullus ante viderat,’ as Maffei has done. Besides, Maffei himself destroys the foundation on which he rests his opinion; for he relates that a horologium nocturnum was sent to Pepin, king of France, by pope Stephen II. This appears from the pope’s own letter; but Maffei is under a mistake respecting the name, for it was Paul, and not Stephen. The letter, which may be found in the Codex Carolinus1059, is dated in the year 756. Maffei thinks that this machine was of a construction different from that of a water-clock; but if it pointed out the hours in the day-time, as well as in the night, according to his supposition, there is no reason, as Muratori observes, why it should have been called horologium nocturnum. In my opinion, we ought here to understand a clepsydra, or water-clock, such as that used by Cassiodorus for the like purpose, and which Hildemar recommended in the ninth century to the monks, who were obliged to observe the hours. Hildemar says, ‘He who wishes to do this properly, must have horologium aquæ1060.’
“That these water-clocks however were then scarce, as well as in the following centuries, we have reason to conclude from their being so little spoken of in the writings of those periods. In the ancient customs of the monastery of St. Viton, at Werden1061, written as is said in the tenth century, no mention of them occurs; and the monks regulated their prayers by the crowing of the cock; for it is said, ‘Cum lucem ales nunciaverit, dabuntur omnia signa in resurrectione Domini nostri,’ &c. I find as little mention of them in the eleventh century, even in passages where they could not have been omitted, had they been known. Thus, in a little work by Pet. Damiani, De Perfectione Monachorum, where the author speaks of the significator horarum, he does not so much as allude to a clepsydra. That the reader may know what he means by significator horarum, I shall here quote his own words: ‘He could not find time for idle fables, nor hold long conversations, nor finally could he trouble himself about what was done by the laity, but always intent on the duties of his office, always provident, always anxious, he felt a desire to construct a voluble sphere that should never stop, should show the passage of the stars and the flight of time. He also had a custom of singing to himself whenever he wished to have a notion as to the quantity of time; that, whenever the brightness of the sun or the position of the stars was obscured by the weather he might form a certain time-measurer by the quantity of psalmody he had accomplished1062.’
“Some ascribe the invention of our modern clocks to Gerbert, who, in the tenth century, was raised to the pontifical chair at Rome, under the name of Sylvester II., and who was reckoned to be the first mathematician and astronomer of his time1063. This opinion however is supported only by mere conjecture, and appears to be false from the account of Dithmar, who says, ‘Gerbert, on being expelled from his country, sought the emperor Otho, and after a long conversation with him, made the time-piece in Magdeburg, constructing it correctly by taking as guide the polar star1064.’ No mention is made here of wheels or weights, and this horologium seems to have been a sun-dial, which Gerbert fixed up by observing the polar star. It appears, indeed, that Gerbert was acquainted with no other kind of horologia; for those who speak of his book De Astrolabio, in which he explains the method of constructing dials for various latitudes, produce no further proofs1065. Some, according to the testimony of Kircher, consider this horologium to have been a portable dial, which showed the hour when properly set by the help of a needle touched with a magnet; but even this opinion is not warranted by the words of Dithmar.
“The anonymous author of the Life of William, abbot of Hirshau1066, who lived in the eleventh century, and who was a very learned man for his time, says, ‘Naturale horologium ad exemplum cælestis hæmispherii excogitasse.’ Though this passage is so short, that no idea can be formed from it of the construction of the machine, it is evident that it alludes neither to a sun-dial nor to a water-clock, but to some piece of mechanism which pointed out the hours and exhibited the motion of the earth and other planets. As more frequent mention of horologia occurs afterwards, and as, in speaking of them, expressions are used which cannot be applied to sun-dials or water-clocks, I am induced to think that the invention of our clocks belongs to this period. In the Constitutiones Hirsaugienses, or Gengebacenses, of the same William, it is said of the sacristan, ‘eum horologium dirigere et ordinare.’ In the like manner Bernardus Monachus, a writer of the same century, says, in the Ordo Cluniacensis, ‘apocrisiarium horologium dirigere et diligentius temperare.’ The same author, in the Ancient Customs, &c. of the Monastery of St. Victor, at Paris, written also about the same time, says that the registrar (matricularius), the sacrist’s companion, ought ‘horas canonicas nocte et die ad divinum celebrandum custodire, signa pulsare, horologium temperare.’
“The unequal hours then in use rendered this regulating of the horologia necessary. The days and the nights consisted of twelve hours each; but were sometimes shorter and sometimes longer. The reason of this is explained in the sixty-fourth chapter of the before-mentioned Customs, where it is said, ‘From the solstice of summer to the solstice of winter, the time-piece is regulated thus: as much as that space of night which precedes the matins gradually increases according to the increments of the nights through the several months, it, slowly increasing, makes that space in the winter solstice which is before matins to that which follows, twice. On the contrary, from the winter solstice to that of spring it is thus regulated: it decreases that space which it had got in advance according to the decrease of the nights through the several months, until scarcely decreasing, it at length in the summer solstice passes over in the same time that space which is before matins and that which follows1067.’ Such was the regulating of the horologia, and I much doubt whether it could be applied to water-clocks.
“These horologia not only pointed out the hours by an index, but emitted also a sound. This we learn from Primaria Instituta Canonicorum Præmonstratensium1068, where it is ordered that the sacristan should regulate the horologium and make it sound before matins to awaken him. I dare not however venture thence to infer, that these machines announced the number of the hour by their sound, as they seem only to have given an alarm at the time of getting up from bed. I have indeed never yet found a passage where it is mentioned that the number of the hour was expressed by them; and when we read of their emitting a sound, we are to understand that it was for the purpose of wakening the sacristan to morning-prayers. The expression ‘horologium cecidit,’ which occurs frequently in the before-quoted writers, I consider as allusive to this sounding of the machine. Du Cange, in my opinion, under the word horologium, conceives wrongly the expression ‘de ponderibus in imum delapsis,’ because the machine was then at rest, and could rouse neither the sacristan nor any one else whose business it was to beat the scilla.
“I shall now produce other testimony which will serve further to confirm what I have here said of the origin of clocks. Calmet, in his Commentary on the Regulæ S. Benedicti, quotes from a book on the usages of the Cistercians, three passages which I shall give as he has translated them, because I have not access at present to the original. ‘We read,’ says he, ‘in chap. 21 of the first part of their Customs, compiled about the year 1120, that the bells will not be sounded for any service, not even for the clock, from the mass of Holy Thursday, to that of Holy Saturday; and in chap. 114, the sacristan is ordered to regulate the clock that it may strike and wake him during winter before matins or before the nocturns; and in chaps. 68 and 114, that when the brethren have risen too early the sacristan give notice to him who reads the last lesson to continue it until the clock strikes, or till signal be made to the reader to leave off1069.’
“The use of these machines must have been continued from that period, for we find them mentioned in the thirteenth century, in the commentary of Bernardus Cassinensis (Bernard of Cassino) on the unpublished Regulæ S. Benedicti, from the eighth chapter of which Martene gives the following quotation: ‘But the eighth hour being already come, there was sufficient interval, – from the middle of the night, when he who had care of the clock rose to strike it and to light the lamps of the church which might have gone out on account of the length of the night, and to ring the bells in order to wake the sleeping brothers, – that he was able to get through half the eighth hour before the brothers had risen1070.’ It is said also in the Chronicon Mellicense, in Du Cange, ‘Some one, deputed by the superior who had the care of the striking clock, struck; and also carried light to all the cells1071.’
“As all arts are at first imperfect, it is observed of these clocks that they sometimes deceived; and hence, in the Ordo Cluniacensis Bernardi Mon., the person who regulated the clock is ordered, in case it should go wrong, ‘ut notet in cereo, et in cursu stellarum vel etiam lunæ, ut fratres surgere faciat ad horam competentem.’ The same admonition is given in the Constitutiones Hirsaugienses.
“From what has been said I think it is sufficiently apparent that clocks moved by wheels and weights began certainly to be used in the monasteries in Europe, about the eleventh century. I do not, however, think that Europe is entitled to the honour of this invention; but that it is rather to be ascribed to the Saracens, to whom we are indebted for most of the mathematical sciences. This conjecture is supported by the horologium, which, as Trithemius tells us, was sent by the sultan of Egypt, in the year 1232, to the emperor Frederic II. ‘In the same year,’ says he, ‘the Saladin of Egypt sent by his ambassadors as a gift to the emperor Frederic a valuable machine of wonderful construction worth more than five thousand ducats. For it appeared to resemble internally a celestial globe in which figures of the sun, moon, and other planets formed with the greatest skill moved, being impelled by weights and wheels, so that performing their course in certain and fixed intervals they pointed out the hour night and day with infallible certainty; also the twelve signs of the zodiac with certain appropriate characters, moved with the firmament, contained within themselves the course of the planets1072.’
“The writers of this century speak in such a manner of clocks that it appears they must, at that period, have been well-known. Gulielmus Alvernus, disputing against those who deny the existence of the soul, after producing various arguments, thus obviates one which might be used against him. ‘Neither,’ says he, ‘do the motions of those clocks which are moved by water or weights give you uneasiness, both kinds of which move but for a short and moderate time, require frequent repair, the arranging of their parts, and the perfect skill of the astronomer who has a thorough knowledge of his art. But in the bodies of animals and vegetables the motive power is entirely internal, which moderates and regulates the movements of their parts and renders it in all ways perfect1073.’ And Dante, the Italian poet, says1074,
E come cerchi in tempra d’ orivoli
Si giran, si che ’l primo, a chi pon mente
Quieto pare, e l’ ultimo che voli, &c.
“In the fourteenth century mention is made of the machine of Richard de Wallingford, which has been hitherto considered as the oldest clock known. The description of it I shall give in the words of Leland: ‘Being chosen superior of the monastery, as he was now enabled by his ample fortune, he resolved to show by means of some glorious work a miracle not only of genius, but also of excelling knowledge. He therefore with great labour, with greater expense and with the utmost art, constructed such a clock as, in my opinion, exists nowhere else in Europe; whether we observe the course of the sun and moon, or the fixed stars, again, whether we consider the ebb and flow of the tide, or the lines together with the figures and demonstrations various almost to infinity: and when he had brought to perfection this work so worthy of eternity, he drew up rules for it, as he was the first man of his age in mathematical learning, which he published in this book, lest so excellent a machine should fall into disrepute through the mistakes of the monks, or should become silent from the law of its structure being unknown1075.’ This machine, if I remember right, was called by the inventor Albion (all by one).
“Clocks hitherto had been, as it were, shut up in monasteries; but they now began to be employed for the common use and convenience of cities, though no instance of this is to be found before the above period. Hubert, prince of Carrara, caused the first clock ever publicly erected, to be put up at Padua, as we are told by Peter Paul Vergerius: ‘He caused to be built at the top of the tower, a clock, in which, during day and night, the four-and-twenty hours pointed themselves out1076.’ It is said to have been made by James Dondi, whose family afterwards got the name of Horologio1077. In remembrance of this circumstance the following verses were inscribed on his tombstone: —
Quin procul excelsæ monitus de vertice turris
Tempus, et instabiles numero quod colligis horas,
Inventum cognosce meum, gratissime lector.
“John Dondi, son of the former, acquired no less fame by a clock which he constructed also, and which is thus described: ‘In which was the firmament and all the planetary globes, so that the movements of all the stars were comprised as in the heavens; it shows the days appointed for festivals and many other things wonderful to be seen: so great was the admirable construction of this clock, that after his death no one knew how to correct it, nor to assign the suitable weights. At length a skilful artist from France, attracted by the fame of this clock, came to Pavia, and employed many days in arranging the wheels, which he succeeded in putting together in proper order, and gave it the right motion1078.’
“We are informed by the Chronica Miscella Bononiensis, that the first clock at Bologna was fixed up in the year 1356: ‘On the 8th day of April the great bell of the tower, which was in the palace called della Biada, belonging to Giovanni, lord of Bologna, was removed; and was conveyed into the Corte del Capitano, and was drawn up and placed on the tower del Capitano on Holy Wednesday; and this was the first clock which the state of Bologna ever possessed, and it began to strike on the 19th of May, which Messer Giovanni caused it to do1079.’
“Some time after the year 1364, Charles V., surnamed the Wise, king of France, caused a large clock to be placed in the tower of his palace, by Henry de Wyck1080, whom he invited from Germany, because there was then at Paris no artist of that kind, and to whom he allowed a salary of six sols per day, with free lodging in the tower.
“Towards the end of the century, about the year 1370, Strasburg also had a clock, a description of which is given by Conrad Dasypodius1081.
“Courtray, about the same period, was celebrated for its clock, which was carried away by the duke of Burgundy, in the year 1382. This circumstance is thus related by Froissart, a contemporary writer: ‘The duke of Burgundy took away a clock (which struck the hours), one of the best to be found, either here or beyond the sea: and he caused this clock to be taken to pieces and placed upon carriages and the bell also. This clock was conveyed to the town of Dijon in Burgundy; and was there put together again and set up; and there it strikes the four-and-twenty hours in the course of day and night1082.’
“We are told by Lehmann1083, that a public clock was put up at Spire in the year 1395. ‘That year,’ says he, ‘the clock was erected on the Altburg gate. The bell for calling the people together to divine worship was cast by a bell-founder from Strasburg. – The works of the clock cost fifty-one florins.’
“The greater part however of the principal cities of Europe were at this period without striking clocks, which could not be procured but at a great expense. Of this we have an instance in the city of Auxerre. In the year 1483, the magistrates resolved to cause a clock to be constructed; but as it would cost a larger sum of money than they thought they had a right to dispose of by their own authority, they applied to Charles VIII. to request leave to employ a certain part of the public funds for that purpose.
“The great clock in the church of the Virgin Mary at Nuremberg was erected in the year 1462.
“A public clock was put up at Venice in the year 14971084.
“In the same century an excellent clock, which is described in a letter of Politian1085 to Francis Casa, in the year 1484, was constructed by one Lorenzo, a Florentine, for Cosmo I. of Medici.
“Towards the end of this century clocks began to be in use among private persons. This appears from a letter of Ambrosius Camaldulensis to Nicolaus, a learned man of Florence: ‘When I received your letter I immediately made ready your clock, and should have sent it had any one been at hand to have taken it. I have caused it to be cleaned, for it was full of dust, and thus as it could not go freely it was retarded; and because it could not thus run correctly, I gave it to that illustrious youth Angelo, who is most skilful in these things1086.’
“About this period also, mention is made of watches. Among the Italian poems of Gaspar Visconti, there is a sonnet with the following title: ‘Si fanno certi orologii piccioli e portativi, che non poco di artificio sempre lavorano, mostrando le ore, e molti corsi de pianeti, e le feste, sonando quando il tempo lo ricerca. Questo sonetto è facto in persona de uno inamorato, che, guardando uno delli predicti orologii, compara se stesso a quello, &c.’1087
“It appears, therefore, that Doppelmayer is mistaken when he says that watches were invented by Peter Hele, at Nuremberg, in the sixteenth century; and that because they were shaped like an egg, they were called Nuremberg animated eggs. I. Cocleus, in his Description of Germany, speaking of this Hele, says, ‘This young man has performed works which the most skilful mathematicians may admire. For he makes small watches of steel with numerous wheels, which, as they move without any weight, both point out and strike forty hours, even though they are contained in the bosom or in the pocket1088.’”