Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1883 — Old Clocks. [ARTICLE]

Old Clocks.

The old brass clocks went only thirty hours, and were set in motion by a weight attached to a chain which passed over a sheave having spikes in. the groove which caught in links of the chain and required to be drawn up every day. There was a counterpoise at the other end of the chain, and sometimes a single weight was contrived to serve both the going and the striking parts, and there was occasionally an alarm. On the introduction of the long pendulum, clocks seemed to have assumed a different character. Catgut was substituted for the chain, and barrels were introduced on which the catgut was wound up, and, a greater length of line being employed, clocks were made to go for eight days instead of thirty hours, and a chime of bells playing every quarter of an hour was often added; the weights and long pendulum hung down, and, as there was danger of their action being interfered with, tall -wooden cases were made to protect them, on the top of which the movement was placed. This was probably the origin and date of the tall, upright clock cases, which were often made of ornamental woods and enriched with fine marquetry. We have one in mind, an early marquetry case, made in 1690, by Thomas Tom-, pion, with a beautiful set of chimes and it is an admirable timekeeper! though it has only the original iron wire for the pendulum rod; and simi- ; lar instances are numerous. The earlier cases are made of oak and walnut, the mahogany cases being of the following century, when the wood was introduced. The brass “button and pillar” clocks seem to have gone out of use about this time, and probably few were made at the end of the seventeenth century.