Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 August 1891 — TOLD TIME FOR PRINCES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

TOLD TIME FOR PRINCES.

Bern* Bar* Clocks and Watches In aa Auatrton Palace—Tro sure* W .rth Seetot. For many centuriei the "Burg,” as the palace of the Emperor at Vienna is designated, has been the home of Austria’s rulers. It is a rambling, old-fashioned building, without pretense to architectural beauty, which contains so many quaint corners and quiet nooks that it is a constant snrErise and pleasure to the person who i so fortunate as to obtain the entree to its almost sacred portals. The treasury of the imperial house is worthy of many visits, as it contains a wonderful collection of antiques of inestimable value. The collection of old watches and clocks alone numbers 101, and is, without doubt, the most unique and valuable in the world.

The first watch that attracts attention is one of Turkish manufacture, in a case of plain silver. A small circle on the dial plate, with the Turkish figures, marked the hours and half hours. A large golden circle marked the days of the month; a red disk marked the phases of the .moon; a hollow on the right side contains the names of the month on a movable silver disk, and in the hollow on the left the names of the days of the week are designated in the same manner. The watch now actually marks Dschumma, Bth, muharren, 30th, 12 o’clock noon (1045 Mohammedan era), or Friday, Aug. 1, 1664, the day of the battle of St. Gotthard. It is attested by documents accompanying it that this watch was captured from a Turkish pasha during that battle. Another watch that possesses more than passing interest is one of gold, in the form of a book, entirely covered

with arabesque work. The principal dial indicates not only the hours and the minutes but the time of sunset. The smaller or upper disk set on the age of the moon will indicate its phases and the time of its riring and setting. The watch also contains an alarm. On the inner side of the ca-e or cover is a sun d al and a compass. It was made in 1575. One of the most noticeable clocks in the collection is an obelisk of agate, ornamented by three circles of garnets, and supposed to be the first in which the pendulum was used as a regulator. It was manufactured by J. Burgi, of Prague, in 1606. Right and left two watches of oval form are joined. The covers of these watches, if they can be called such, are of rock crystal, surrounded with plates of smoky topaz. The watch on the left points the minutes and hours, and strikes the latter as well as the quarters ; the clockwork of the quarters is to the left, and that of the hours to the right. The large hand of the watch on the right points the davs of the week, and the small hand the age of the moon and its phases. The signs of the ; odiac are engraved on the inner part of the dial-plate. Probably the most wonderful timepiece is a cylindrical case of cut rock crystal, containing the clock-work. This rests on a silver hemisphere, which contains a crystal globe, and is qu turn supported by an octagon pedestal of porphyry, ornamented with golden foliage and caryatides of the same precious metal. The clock points the hours, minutes and seconds on three

dials, placed one above the other, in front, and on an opposite dial the ages pf the moon and its phases. On the ■Bata] globe the signs of the zodiac

and ecliptic are visible. It is said that it is possible to solve, with this globe,' every astronomical problem. This' work of art was completed about the year 1000, for the Emperor Rudolph IL, by the same J. Burgi who made' the clock described above. Burgi was born in 1552 and died in 1632, and from, all accounts he was not only a mel chanician and clockmaker, but one of the most celebrated mathematicians of his age. His supporters claim that he was the discoverer of logarithms, the use of the pendulum as a regulator, thd proportional circle, and many other things of almost equal value to the world, but that, through his careless-] ness and lack of business methods in most instances he lost the credit of priority.

TURKISH WATCH.

THE BOOK WATCH (1575).

THE OBELISK CLOCK (l606).