Chap. 7.]

Ancient Fountains for Cattle.

541

made one or more richly gilt fountains, which through secret pipes supplies in the middle of the roome a daintie poole, which is so neatly kept, the water so cleare, as makes apparent the exquisite mosaik at the bottome. Herein are preserved fish which have often taken bread out of my hand."

Sometimes the jet is made to fall into basins filled with flowers, the odor of which is dispersed in the spray. Bell describes the hall of audience at Ispahan as a most magnificent room, lined with mirrors of various sizes, the floor covered with carpets of silk interwoven with branches and foliage of gold and silver. In the centre were two basins in which several pipes spouted water that fell among roses and other flowers and produced a fine effect. Another fountain at the entrance threw the water so high that it fell like a thick rain or dew which concealed the Schah from those on the opposite side.

See remarks on the introduction of portable fountains into private dwellings at page 361.

That ancient farmers occasionally conveyed water through pipes into fields for the use of their stock, as is now sometimes done, appears from the above cut, from a basso relievo preserved in one of the museums at Rome. (D'Agincourt's History of the Fine Arts. Sculp. Plate I.)

It has already been remarked, (pp. 163, 170,) that the old Mexicans and Peruvians had fountains, from which the fluid issued through figures of snakes and crocodiles.

There is reason to believe that three and four way-cocks were anciently employed in fountains: they are to be found in the old water-works of Italy and France.-(See L'Art du Plombier in Arts et Métieres, 4to. edit. p. 560, planche xiii.)

542

Clepsydra-Sun-Dials-Slow Matches.

[Book V.

CHAPTER VIII.

CLEPSYDRÆ AND HYDRAULIC ORGANS: Time measured by the sun-Obelisks-Dial in SyracuseTime measured in the night by slow matches, candles, &c.-Modes of announcing the hours-"Jack of the clock"-Clepsydra-Their curious origin in Egypt-Their variety-Used by the Siamese, Hindoos, Chinese, &c.-Ancient hour-glasses-Indexes to water-clocks-Sand clocks in China-Musical clock of Plato-Clock carried in triumph by Pompey-Clepsydra of Ctesibius-Clock presented to Charles V.Modern Clepsydræ-Hour-glasses in coffins-Dial of the Peruvians. HYDRAULIC ORGANS: Imperfectly described by Heron and Vitruvius-Plato, Archimedes, Plutarch, Pliny, Suetonius, St. Jerome Organs sent from Constantinople to Pepin-Water organs of Louis Debonnaire-A woman expired in ecstacies while hearing one play-Organs made by monks-Old Regal.

CLEPSYDRE and water organs are not strictly included in the general design of this volume; but as they are ancient devices in which water performed an important part, and as they undoubtedly contributed to the improvement of hydraulic machinery, and moreover gave rise to clocks and watches, we were unwilling to omit them.

Sun-dials were the earliest means employed to note the lapse of time. Country people in all ages have marked the passing hours by the shadow of a tree, a post, the corner of a house, or any other permanent object; these were natural gnomons, while the ground upon which their shadows were thrown served as dials. In cities, artificial objects were necessary; hence the obelisks of the Egyptians and other ancient people. These gnomons were placed in open and conspicuous places for public convenience, and many of them from their great elevation threw their shadows to a considerable distance. Sometimes their pedestals formed magnificent buildings. When Dion, after delivering the Syracusans, spake to them on the tyranny of Dionysius, Plutarch says, he stood upon a lofty sun-dial erected by the tyrant : "at first it was considered by the soothsayers a good omen that Dion, when he addressed the people, had under his feet the stately edifice which Dionysius had erected; but upon reflecting that this edifice on which he had been declared general, was a sun-dial, they were apprehensive his present power might fall into speedy decline." "The dial of Ahaz" seems to have been a public building of a similar description. The governors of provinces in China assemble on the "timetelling towers" on public occasion. (Atlas Chinensis of Montanus, p. 594.) The Peruvians had pillars erected for measuring time by the sun. dials were anciently made of brass or other metals and placed upon columns, or were attached to public buildings. Vitruvius has described several in book ix. of his Architecture, and among them one by Berosus the Chaldean.

Small

But dials are only serviceable while the sun shines. During cloudy weather and after sun-set they are useless; other devices are therefore required to mark the fleeting hours. Of ancient contrivances for this purpose there were two whose action depended one upon fire and the other on water, viz: by burning slow matches, powder, or candles, and by water-clocks. The former were used by the Anglo-Saxons, (see p. 350,) and are still common in Japan, and probably other Asiatic countries. Nieuhoff, in his account of the Dutch embassy to China, says, the Chinese

Chap. 8.]

Striking the Hours-Ancient Water-Clocks.

543

have instruments to show the hour of the day which operate by fire and water. Those that depend upon fire "are made of perfumed ashes." (Ogilby's Trans. 1673, p. 159.) This is too vague to convey an idea of their construction; but from Thunberg's account of those he saw in Japan, we at once learn what they were. For the mensuration of time, observes that enlightened traveler, the Japanese use the bark of the skimmi (anise tree) finely powdered. A box, 12 inches long, being filled with ashes, small furrows are made in the ashes from one end of the box to the other, and so on back wards and forwards to a considerable number. In these furrows is strewed fine powder of skimmi bark, and divisions are made for the hours. The powder is ignited at one end of a groove, it consumes very slowly, and the hours are proclaimed by striking the bells of the temples. (Travels, iii, 228.) Time is also measured in Japan by burning matches, twisted like ropes and divided by knots. When one of these after being lighted has burned down to a knot, and thereby denoted the lapse of a certain portion of time, an attendant announces it by a certain number of strokes on bells near their temples, if in the day time; but in the night, by striking two pieces of wood against each other.—(Ibid. 88.) In all ancient devices, the passing hours were announced by men appointed for the purpose, a custom still continued over all Asia. Sometimes it was done by the voice. Thus the Turks have an officer (with strong lungs) on the top of every mosque who, stopping his ears with his fingers, proclaims with a loud voice the break of day, noon, three in the afternoon, and twilight. Martial the Roman satirist, refers to a similar practice, and Athenæus mentions "a mercenary hour-teller." Allusions to the same custom are to be found in the Bible-that which ye have spoken in closets "shall be proclaimed upon the house tops." But the more general mode was that which is still so common in the East, viz. by striking a bell, drum, gong, or some other sonorous instrument, and distinguishing the different hours, as in our clocks, by the number of strokes. In modern ages in Europe before the striking parts of town clocks were invented, men struck the hour on a bell, and long after these officers were dispensed with figures of men were made as ornaments to perform the same duty. Το these "Jacks of the clock," Shakespeare and other writers of his age often refer. Such clocks are still extant: the one attached to St. Dunstan's church near Temple Bar, London, is often mentioned by writers of the last century, and we believe is still to be seen.

Some authors attribute the invention of water-clocks to Ctesibius, and others suppose they were first used under the Ptolemies; but both are mistakes they were doubtless greatly improved by the Alexandrian mathematician, and probably reached the acme of perfection under the successors of Alexander. In India, Egypt, Chaldea and China, clepsydræ date back beyond all records. They were known at an early period in Greece. Plutarch mentions them in his life of Alcibiades, who flourished in the fifth century B. C. when they were employed in the tribunals at Athens to measure the time to which the orators were limited in their addresses to the judges. Demosthenes and his great rival Æschines allude to this use of them. Plato had water-clocks, and to him was attributed their introduction into Greece. Plutarch in his Philosophy, observes, that Empedocles illustrated the act of respiration by a clepsidre water hour-glass." (Opin. of Philos.) Julius Cæsar found the Britons in possession of them. Pliny (book vii, 60.) says, men announced with the voice the hours from the shadow of the sun, and that Scipio Nasica set up the first clepsydra " to divide the hours of both day and night equally, by water distilling and dropping out of one vessel into another."

544

Egyptian, Siamese, and Hindoo Water-Clocks.

[Book V. The ancients had various modifications of water-clocks, some were exceedingly simple, and others elaborately constructed, and the forms and decorations wonderfully diversified; but the principle was more or less the same in all, viz. water trickling through a minute channel from one vessel into another. The instruments were made of various materials from glass to gold, and of sizes differing, like modern clocks, from large ones permanently erected for public use to such as were carried in the hand.

Valerianus, who wrote in the 16th century, says the priests of Egypt divided the day into twelve hours, because the cynocephalus, a sacred animal, was observed to make a violent noise at those times, and to void urine as often. Cicero mentions a tradition of Trismegistus observing the same thing. The Egyptians, therefore, ornamented their water-clocks with figures of apes, and some were of the form of those animals urinating; hence it would seem that this singular people not only derived enemas from studying the habits of the ibis, but were led to construct clepsydræ from noticing those of monkeys.

As it is impossible to give anything like a history of these machines in this volume, we shall notice a few only, but sufficient to give a general idea of their construction and variety. Sometimes an empty basin with a minute opening through its bottom was placed floating in a cistern of water; the fluid gradually entering filled it in an hour, half an hour, or some other determinate time. It was then emptied and allowed to swim as before; as soon as it became filled, a gong or other instrument was sounded for the information of the public.

"The Siamese measure their time by a sort of water-clock, not like the clepsydra of old, wherein the water descended from above, but by forcing it upwards through a small hole in the bottom of a copper cup placed in a tub of water. When the water has sprung up so long that the cup is full, it sinks down, and those that stand by it, forthwith make a noise with basons, signifying that the hour is expired." (Ovington's Voyage to Surat in 1689, p. 281.)

The ghurree al, or clepsydra of the Hindoos, consists of a thin brass cup having a hole in the bottom. "A large vessel is filled with water and this cup placed on the surface; the water rises through the hole, and when it has reached a height marked by a line previously adjusted, the watchman strikes the hour with a wooden mallet on a pan of bell metal.”—(Shoberl's Hind. v, 157.)

In other devices, time was measured by emptying the vessel. Valerianus observes, that the priests of Acanta, a town beyond the Nile, poured water every day into a vessel, by the dropping of which through a small hole they measured the hours.-(Harris' Lex. Tech.)

Dr. Fryer, who visited India in the 17th century, observed the Hindoos measuring time " by the dropping of water out of a brass basin.”— (Travels, 186.)

It is obvious that by adapting the size of an opening in the bottom of a vessel, the entire contents of the latter might be made to flow out in a certain time and with tolerable accuracy; but in refilling it great care was required to introduce precisely the same quantity. To accomplish this, both the vessel and receiver were closed on all sides and connected together, so that when the proper quantity of fluid was once introduced, it could neither escape by leakage or evaporation. Both vessels were shaped like a pear and united at the smaller ends, through which the passage for the fluid was made; and sometimes, sand was used instead of water. Hence the hour-glass of modern days, the only modification of ancient

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

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.)

66

Nieuhoff noticing the numerous towns in China, upon the greater part of which, he observes, were clepsydræ, says, 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.

66

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