Old Ways of Keeping Time

1910

Devices That Were Adopted by the Egyptians, Romans and Early English People

As far back as history will take us we find that there was always some crude means of reckoning time. The clock is, of course, a comparatively modern invention, the first mechanical ones that would keep the time even approximately having been made in 1250 A.D.

The early Egyptians divided the day and night each into 12 hours, a custom adopted by the Jews or Greeks probably from the Babylonians.

The day is said to have been first divided into hours in 293 B.C., when a sun dial was erected in the temple of Quirinus at Rome. As early as 158 B.C. the time was called in the streets of Rome by regular public criers.

In the early history of England we are told that the people found a means of measuring time by the use of wax candles. It was reckoned that three inches of candle would last an even hour.

Among most of the nations of the north day began at sunrise, while among the Athenians and Jews it began at sunset. With the ancient Romans it began, as it does with us, at midnight.

Why Sixty Minutes Made an Hour

1910

The hour is divided into 60 minutes simply because in old Babylon there existed, by the side of the decimal system of notation, another system, the sexagesimal, which counted by sixties. There is no number which has so many divisors as 60. The Babylonians divided the sun's daily journey into 24 parasangs, each parasang, or hour, being divided into 60 minutes. The parasang is about equal to a German mile, and the Babylonians compared the progress made by the sun during one hour to the progress made by a good walker during the same time.


Discouraging

On arriving at San Bernardino after a five months' prospecting trip in the desert two California prospector found that one of their packmules had developed a limp. An examination of the mule's hoof revealed a gold nugget, worth probably $50. The prospectors have no idea in what part of the desert the nugget was picked up.


Olive Industry Safe

There is little prospect of the olive industry of this country being overdone, for there are only three localities in this country where the olives will thrive.


Caterpillars Ravage Trees

Washington. — Shade trees of Washington, famed for their number and beauty, are undergoing an attack from a horde of caterpillars. The trees are being stripped of their foliage rapidly. So numerous are the pests that they have baffled the caretakers' efforts to cope with them. Property owners have joined in the attempt to repel the invaders, but it seems that there is little chance to prevail against them. Some fear for the lives of the trees is expressed.