that point, the Crier of the Consuls proclaimed Noon.

M. VALERIUS MESSALA brought a dial from Sicily, which was placed near the Rostrum; but this instrument, calculated for the latitude of Catana, which differed from that of Rome, was obviously inaccurate.

About 11 years afterwards, a dial was set up by LUCIUS PAULUS; and QUINTUS MARCUS PHILIPPUS near the same period constructed one that was more correct than any which had been then made.

But as a sun-dial, in its most perfect state, is useless when that luminary is not visible, they were at a loss in Rome, to know the hour, whenever the sky was overcast; aud to ascertain it at night, no method had been then devised by human ingenuity.

In the year of Rome 595, and 157 B. C. SCIPIO NASICA introduced the

Clepsydra, or Water Clock,

which acted in all weathers, and at night as well as during the day. This, also, was beyond doubt, an invention of the East. VITRUVIUS attributes it to CTESIBIUS of Alexandria, who lived under PTOLEMY EUERGETES, about 245 B. C. The CLEPSYDRA of SCIPIO NASICA is thus described by PANCIROLLUS,

"They took," says he," a vessel made of glass, in the bottom of which was a narrow hole done about with gold, lest the water should wear it away; on the other part of the vessel was drawn a right line having the twelve hours set upon it, after which they filled the vessel with water, which issued drop by drop out of the little hole: in the water was a cork with a pia stuck into it, and the point of that pin turned to the first hour when the glass was full, and to the other hours in proportion

to the decrease of the water. This, by a Greck derivation was called a clepsydra, and with us an hour glass”

But the Romans afterwards made several alterations, and reversed its original method of shewing the time, making the water which escaped into the lower receptacle, the horologe, instead of that in the top-glass.

The Roman advocates were restricted to a limited time in their harangues, and clepsydra of different sizes, at the discretion of the judges, were placed in view, so as to admit of longer or shorter periods of pleading. In criminal cases the accused was allowed half as much more time as his accuser.

JULIUS CAESAR brought sun-dials and clepsydræ to Britain, where they were used for several ages; but ALFRED THE GREAT invented a new method of measuring time, by the burning of wax-candles, three inches of which lasted an hour. They were placed in 'horn lanthorns-also introduced by that monarch.

There are clepsydra on the continent at this day very accurately constructed, with dial-plates, and bells that strike the hours.

Hour Glass.

The idea of the hour-glass, or as it is more correctly termed, the sand-glass, was taken from the clepsydra. It was formerly a custom with seamen, to describe the lapse of time, by the number of "glasses," instead of " hours." Strictly speaking, there never were any glasses used in the navy adapted for the precise period of an hour. The glasses in use were WATCH GLASSES running four hours.

HALF WATCH Glasses running two hours.

HALF HOUR Glasses, for keeping the time day and night.

HALF MINUTE, and QUARTER MINUTE Glasses, by which the knots are counted when the log is heaved.

Clock.

The next improvement was the clock-of which the Romans were entirely ignorant. This was, at first, absurdly called a nocturnal DIAL, to distinguish it from the sun DIAL.

PACIFICUS, archdeacon of Verona, who lived in the ninth century, is esteemed by many the inventor of clocks, worked by wheels - others attribute the discovery to BOETHIUS, about the year 510.

But the first clock of which we have any authentic account, is that mentioned by DAN1 E, who died in 1321. That clock struck the hours; and one was, about the same period, fixed to the famous CLOCK-HOUSE, near WESTMINSTER HALL, the expence of which was defrayed out of a fine imposed on the chief justice of the Court of King's Bench in 1288. In 1292 a clock was constructed for the Cathedral Church at Canterbury.

Mr. WARNER, in the description of Glastonbury Cathedral, contained in his "Walk through the Western Counties," says:

"The Northern transept contains a curious old specimen of the ars horologica, or ancient clock-making. It is a DIAL constructed by a monk of Glastonbury called PEter Lightfoot, about the year 1325; of complicated design, and ingenious execution. On its face the changes of the moon and other astronomical particulars are contrived to be represented; and an horizontal frame work at the summit of the body, exhibits by the aid of machinery, a party of knights armed for the Tournay, pursuing each other on horseback with a rapid rotatory motion."

Pendulum Clocks.

PENDULUM CLOCKS are but of recent date. The honour of the invention is disputed by HUYGENS and GALILEO-the former declaring that it was first put in practice in the year 1657. BECKEN De nová Temporis dimetiendi Theoria, anno 1680, relates, that one TRESLER, clock-maker to the then GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY, made the first Pendulum clock at FLORENCE by direction of GALILEO GALILEI. The Academy DEL CIMENTO say expressly, that the application of the pendulum, was first made by his son Vincenzo Galilei, in 1649. HUYGENS, however, insists, that if ever GALILEO thought of such a thing, he never brought it to any degree of perfection. The first pendulum clock made in ENGLAND was in the year 1662, by Mr. FROMANTIL, a Dutchman.

The word Clock, was originally applied to this species of machine, by reason of its striking the hours upon a bell the old German name of which was clock. A clock, or time piece, which does not strike, is called a dial.

Watch.

This minute piece of portable mechanism was originally called a dial, as shewing the hours of the day only. For this reason, the face, on which the hours are marked, on both clocks and watches, is yet technically termed the dial-plate. The name of watch, is thought to have arisen from the word being antiently applied to the por tion of time during which centinels were on duty; whence, also, our civil guardians of the night are stiled the watch, or watch-men. On ship-board, the term watch is still used to signify

the divisions of nautical duty,-morning watch, mid-watch, &c.

Watches that strike spontaneously, are called striking-watches; those which only do so on the pressure of a spring, are termed repeaters. Striking-watches, which were in fashion about a century ago, have fallen into disuse. They are said to have produced an inconvenient, and somewhat ludicrous effect in churches, when generally worn-chiefly by females-as from the variation of the different watches of the congregation, there was an incessant striking for many minutes about the hours of 11 and 12.

A watch is distinguished from a clock, not only as its motion is regulated by what is termed a balance-wheel, instead of a pendulum, but principally from its being portable.

The first watches were made by PETER HELE at Nuremburgh, in 1490, and were called" Nuremburgh Eggs," from their oval form. Most of the antient watches, in the collections of our antiquaries, are of that figure. In 1500, GEORGE PURBACH, a mathematician of Vienna, had a watch that described seconds, which he applied to astronomical observations; so that this curious machine must have then attained con

siderable perfection. The Emperor CHARLES Vth. is said to have had several watches (or as some affirm, small table-clocks) with which, after his resignation, he amused himself, by trying to keep them all in an exact agreement of time. King Henry VIIIth, the contemporary of Charles, is said by Derham, in his PhysicoTheology, to have had a watch that kept time correctly. Yet it is now contended, that watches