Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 158, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 July 1914 — Old Measurements of Time. [ARTICLE]

Old Measurements of Time.

Sand glasses for measuring time were made as soon as the art of blowing glass had been perfected by the people of Byzantium. Thes* glasses were used for all sorts ot purposes, tor cooking and for making speeches, but their most important use was at sea. In order that one’s position at sea might be figured, it was important in those early days to know the vessel’s speed. The earliest method was to throw over a heavy piece of wood of a shape that resisted, being dragged through the sea, and with a string tied to IL The string had knots in it and the block of wood was called a log. The knots were sc arranged that when one of them ran through, one’s fingers in a half minute measured by a sand glass it indicated that the vessel was going at the speed of one nautical mile in an hone