Chap. 8.] Ancient Hour-Glasses-Chinese Sand and Water-Clocks.

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545 clepsydræ which modern nations continue to use. Nieuhoff observes of Chinese water-clocks, they bear a resemblance to some great hourglasses in shape;" and he says, in several sand was used instead of water. On an ancient bas-relief at Rome, representing the marriage of Thetis and Peleus, Morpheus holds an hour-glass; and from Athenæus we learn that the ancients carried portable ones about with them somewhat as we do watches.

In another variety of clepsydræ, the sides of the vessel from which the fluid escaped were graduated, somewhat like chemists' measuring glasses, and the hours announced as the descending surface of the fluid reached the marks. If the vessel was of a cylindrical or cubical figure the distance between the marks was not uniform, because the water escaped fastest at first, in consequence of the greater pressure of the column over the orifice, which pressure constantly diminished with the efflux; the surface of the fluid could not therefore descend through equal spaces in equal times. When such formed vessels were used, the relative distances of the marks were probably determined by experiment, although they might have been by calculation. Sometimes the vessels were funnel-shaped, the angle of their sides being so adjusted that an equal distance could be preserved between the marks-unequal quantities of the fluid escaping in equal times. These instruments were generally made of glass, and a cork or some floating image, to which a needle was secured, pointed out the hour as the water sunk. Pancirollus says, the small holes were edged with gold.

In some clepsydræ the fluid was received into a separate vessel to raise a floating image that pointed as an index to the hours. Sometimes a boy with a rod, Time with his scythe, and Death with a dart. In this variety of the instrument, it was desirable that the quantity of fluid discharged into the vessel should be uniform at all times; and to effect this, the floating siphon, No. 239, was sometimes used. Such we presume was the clepsydra of Orontes, which was made " in the form of a small ship floating on the water, and which emptied itself by means of a siphon placed in the middle of it." Dr. Harris, not aware of the property of a floating siphon, could not perceive how the hours were made equal by this contrivance, which, he observes, Orontes devised to remedy the unequal flow of water from an open vessel.-(Lex. Tech.)

Nieuhoff noticing the numerous towns in China, upon the greater part of which, he observes, were clepsydræ, says, 66 upon the clock-house turrets stands an instrument which shows the hour of the day by means of water, which running from one vessel into another raises a board, upon which is portrayed a mark for the time of day; and you are to observe, there is always a person to notice the time, who every hour signifies the same to the people by beating upon a drum, and hanging out a board with the hour writ upon it in large letters." (Ogilby, Trans. 196.) Montanus says these letters were a foot and a half long." See also Purchas' Pilgrimage, 499.

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In another class of ancient clepsydræ, the water dropped upon an overshot wheel, which turned an index in the centre of a circle, round which the hours were marked; hence our clock and watch dials. "The Chinese have other instruments to know the hour of the day, being somewhat like our clocks with wheels, and they are made to turn with sand as millwheels are with water.' (Nieuhoff.) At last solid weights were introduced in place of water, and by means of cords gave motion to the index, and thus opened the way still more for the introduction of modern clocks. It would appear from the description of clepsydræ by Vitruvius and

other writers, that the ancients had carried these machines to very great perfection; and as regards ornament, they probably excelled many of our mantel time pieces. They were even combined with music. Thus Plato had one that, during the night, when the index of the dial could not be seen, announced the time by playing upon flutes. Athenæus also constructed one that indicated the hours by sounds, produced by the compression and expulsion of air by water-the same principle as Plato's. Petrarch in enumerating the spoils of Asia which Pompey exhibited at his third triumph, besides cups, chests and beds of gold, a mountain of the same metal, with statues of harts, lions and other beasts; trees, and all kinds of fruits formed of pearls suspended from golden branches, &c. continues, "Of the same substance, there was a clocke, so cunningly wrought that the woorkmanshyp excelled the stuffe, and which continually moved and turned about a right woonderfull and strange sight." ("Phisicke against Fortune," translated by T. Twyne. Lond. 1579, F. 120.)

The want of uniformity in the going of ancient water-clocks was noticed by Seneca, and compared to the differences of opinions entertained by philosophers; and Charles V. after shedding rivers of blood to make men believe the dogmas he wished to impose, amused himself in his retirement in the construction of watches, and was surprised that he could not make two go alike.

No. 272 represents one of the improved clepsydræ of Ctesibius, from Perrault's Translation of Vitruvius.b It presents several interesting particulars relating to the state of the useful arts upwards of twenty centuries ago, and is better calculated to impart information to mechanics respecting the ingenuity, and even the workshops and tools, of their ancient brethren, than reams of letter-press. Besides carving, turning, founding, &c. &c.—it shows the practical application of water to move overshot wheels-the art of transmitting motion and of changing its direction by toothed wheels-it exhibits the same principle of measuring time as practised by our clock and watch-makers, viz. by proportioning the number of teeth on wheels to those on the pinions between which they work. The application of the siphon is also interesting, being the same as is used to illustrate the action of intermitting springs. Upon this instrument the renewal of the diurnal movements of the machinery depended: its effect being similar to that of winding up an ordinary clock.

This clepsydra consisted of a cylindrical column placed on a square pedestal, within which the mechanism was concealed. The hours for both day and night were marked upon the column; their inequality at different seasons being measured by unequal distances between the curved lines and by the revolution of the column round its axis once a year. On the pedestal are seen the figures of two boys, one of which was immoveable, but the other rose and pointed out the different hours with his wand. Water (supplied from some reservoir by a concealed pipe) continually dropped from the eyes of the figure on the left, and falling into a dish was conveyed, by a horizontal channel, under the feet of the other figure, where it trickled into a deep vessel, or large vertical tube, whose lower end was closed. In this tube a float was made to rise and fall with the water, and being attached to the feet of the figure with the wand caused it to rise also, and thus to indicate the lapse of time. At the end of 24

a There was another ancient philosopher of the same name, Ctesibius of Chalcis. In Barbaro's Vitruvius, Venice, 1567, there are figures of two others equally ingenious, but rather more complex.

Chap. 8.]

Water-Clock of Ctesibius-Hydraulic Organs.

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hours the tube would be filled, and the figure near the top of the column. It was then that the siphon came into play. Its short leg, as represented

in the cut, was connected to the lower part of the tube that contained the float, and its bend reached as high as the upper end of the tube. When the latter therefore was full the siphon would be charged, and the contents of the tube discharged by it into one of the buckets of the wheel. The figure with the wand would then descend, having nothing to support it. The wheel having six buckets only, performed a revolution in six days. To its axis was secured a pinion of six teeth that worked into a wheel with sixty, and on the shaft of this wheel a pinion of ten teeth drove a wheel of sixty-one teeth, which last wheel by its axis turned the column round once in 365 days.

As the accuracy of such a clock depended upon the size of the orifices in the weeping figure, whence the water escaped, to prevent their enlargement by the friction of the liquid, Ctesibius bushed them with jewels.

About the year 807, the Caliph Haroun sent some valuable presents to Charlemagne, and among them a water-clock, which struck the hours by means of twelve little brass balls falling on a bell of the same metal. There were also twelve figures of soldiers, which at the end of each hour opened and shut doors according to the number of the hour. (Martigny's Hist. Arabians, iii. 92.)

There is a very simple clepsydra in Kircher's Mundus Subterraneus, tom. i, 157. M. Amontons devised another. Mém. Acad. Science, A. D. 1699, p.51. See also Phil. Trans. vol. xlv, p. 171, and Fludd's Simia. Decaus has given a clepsydra in the fifth plate of his Forcible Movements. A water pendulum is figured in Ozanam's Recreations, p. 388.

Hour-glasses were formerly placed in coffins and buried with the corpse, probably as symbols of mortality-the sands of life having run out. See Gent. Mag. vol. xvi, 646, and xvii, 264. Lamps found in ancient sepulchres were possibly interred with the same view-to indicate the lamp of life having become extinguished.

Garcilasso mentions a dial by which the Peruvians ascertained the time when the sun entered the equinox: whether these people or the Mexicans had water-clocks we have not been able to ascertain.

Hydraulic Organs do not appear to be of so high antiquity as clepsydræ, but their origin is equally uncertain. Perhaps they were derived from musical water-clocks.

The first organs were probably nothing more than simple combinations of flutes, pipes, and other primitive wind instruments. What the circumstances were that led to the idea of uniting a number of these, and supplying them with wind from bellows instead of the mouth can hardly be

conjectured. The first step was probably bag-pipes, and the second the addition of keys or valves. In process of time, the instruments, instead of being made of reeds or other natural tubes, were formed of metal; and their number, variety, and dimensions increased until organs became the most powerful and harmonious, and consequently the most esteemed of all musical machines. The organs mentioned in the Bible were probably portable ones, similar to the modern regal. The ancients divided them into two classes-pneumatic and hydraulic, or wind and water organs. The difference consisted merely in the modes of supplying the wind-in one it was by means of water, while in the other bellows were worked by men.

Water was employed in various ways in ancient hydraulic organs.

1. By falling through a pipe, it carried down air into a reservoir, as in the trombe or shower bellows, (No. 198.) Here it not only furnished the air but forced it through the pipes. According to Kircher, it was then discharged on a wheel, and gave motion to drums on whose peripheries were projecting pins, which depressed the keys of the instrument, as in the modern barrel organ.

2. It was discharged upon an overshot wheel, and by cranks and levers merely worked common bellows. This may seem strange to some readers, but it must be remembered that these instruments were often of enormous dimensions. Even so rude a people as the Anglo-Saxons, had organs that required "seventy strong men" to work the bellows.

3. Sometimes water was only used in an open tank or cistern, into which a smaller one constituting the air-chamber was inverted. The air was then forced by ordinary or piston bellows into the latter, and displacing the water caused it to rise in the outer vessel, where its constant pressure urged the air through the organ.-See No. 110, and p. 245.

4. The vapor of boiling water or steam was also used, and which of course supplied the place of both wind and bellows. The extent to which steam was used is unknown. It was probably confined chiefly to the temples.

The details of the mechanism of ancient organs that have come down are very imperfect. Their description by Vitruvius and Heron is obscure, and in some parts unintelligible; and they admit that the construction was too complex to be easily comprehended except by those familiar with

them.

The earliest distinct notice on record of any thing like a water-organ, is the musical clepsydra of Plato. There is no reason to suppose it was invented by him, but rather the contrary, for he contemned all mechanical speculations. He probably met with it in Egypt, and having introduced it to his countrymen, was (as usual with them) considered its author. Tertullian, in a Treatise on the Soul, speaks of an organ invented by Archimedes, but of its construction little is known.

From Vitruvius' account of hydraulic organs, and from the last two Problems in Heron's Spiritalia, we learn that they were very elaborate machines. Decaus has amplified some of Heron's devices for producing music by water.

Plutarch in comparing Cato and Phocion, after observing that their severity of manners was equally tempered with humanity, and their valor with caution; that they had the same solicitude for others, and the same disregard for themselves; the same abhorrence of every thing base and dishonorable, &c. observes, that to mark the difference in their characters would require a very delicate expression, like the finely discriminated sounds of the organ. This is supposed by Langhorne to have been a

Chap. 8. Nero's Water-Organ-Others in the Middle Ages.

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water-organ. The elder Pliny refers to them in book ix, cap. 8. Speaking of dolphins, he observes, they are fond of music, especially "the sound of the water instrument, or such kind of pipes." We noticed, page 245, a representation of an hydraulic organ on a medal of Valentinian. The silver Triton, mentioned in the chapter on Fountains, that by machinery was made to rise out of the lake and sound a trumpet, may be considered a modification of these instruments, and so may the whistling clock of Athenæus mentioned in the last one.

Suetonius, in his Life of Nero, mentions an hydraulic organ which that emperor took particular pleasure in. It must have been a magnificent affair, since even Nero deemed it of sufficient importance to form the principal object vowed by him, when the empire was in danger from the rebellion of Vindex. Inviting some of the chief Romans to a consultation on public affairs, "he entertained them the rest of the day with an organ of a new kind, and showing them the several parts of the invention, and discoursing about the nature and difficulty of the instrument, he told them he designed to introduce it upon the theatre, if Vindex would permit him.” In this passage Suetonius does not state that the machine was a waterorgan; but in a subsequent one he observes,-"Towards the close of Nero's life, he publicly vowed that if the empire was secured to him (by overcoming the rebels) he would bring out at the games, for his obtaining the victory, a water-organ, a chorus of flutes and bag-pipes," &c.

The author of a letter, attributed to St. Jerome, speaks of a large organ at Jerusalem, the sounds of which could be heard at the distance of a thousand paces, or to the Mount of Olives. It consisted of two elephant skins, or rather perhaps resembled two of those animals. There were twelve large bellows and fifteen brass pipes. The two animals were said to represent the Old and New Testaments-the pipes the patriarchs and prophets, and the bellows the twelve apostles. The particulars of its construction are not known.

Organs were used more or less throughout the dark ages, during which several were brought into Europe from the East.

In 757, the Greek emperor Constantine sent two organs to Pepin, king of France. Mezeray says, they were the first seen in that country. Another was sent from Constantinople to Charlemagne in 812; but nothing is known of their construction, except that the last imitated the sounds of thunder, the lyre and cymbal.

In the ninth century, Louis Debonnaire had a water-organ made for his palace at Aix-la-Chapelle, by a Venetian priest named George. Another organ, in which water is supposed not to have been employed, he erected in one of the churches of that city, and its sounds are said to have been so ravishing, that a woman died in ecstacy under their influence. (See Preface to L'Art du Facteur D'Orgues; Arts et Metières, folio edit. 1778.) At page 401, we mentioned an organ made by Gerbert, in which steam was employed instead of air.

We find, says Fosbroke, organs with pipes of hox-wood, of gold, and organs of alabaster and glass; and some played on with warm water. Brass pipes and bellows are mentioned by William of Malmsbury. "The monks of Italy, of the orders devoted to manual labor, applied themselves to the fabrication of organs; and in the tenth century, a maker was sent into France, whence they insensibly spread over all the western churches." Of modern hydraulic organs it is unnecessary to enlarge. Several have been noticed in the chapter on Fountains. They have become nearly extinct. See Kircher's Musurgia Universalis, Fludd's Simia, Decaus' Forcible Movements; Misson, Blainville, Breval, and Keysler's Travels.