© 1953 National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc. Reproduction prohibited without written permission.
Civil and religious meetings were rimed by an hour-glass usually placed on
a desk or beside the pulpit and somecimes held in an iron frame placed so that
all presenr could observe the sand running. The sexton, a tithing man or clerk
was charged with the duty of turning it. His manner may have been ostentatious,
but it seldom persuaded the ministet to cunail his sermon, which went on for
two or three hours. If the younger element became unruly the tithing man wrrs
supposed to keep them quiet.
The Boston N etas Letrer of September L7, 1716, carried an advettisement
olfering to make or repair all kinds of hour-glasses, and later Netus Letter also
bore notices of makers ready to furnish them in varying durations from one
quarter-hour to two hours. An instance to control private activities is preserved
in the atchives of the French regime in Canada. In 1678 it became necessary to
complain about young people who spent all houts of the night at cards and liquor.
The taverns then were obliged to close at curfew, nine o'clock, but the authorities
were lenient and ruled that everyone be given until half-past nine to get started
for home, the half-hour to be measured by a sand-glass.
The Explorer ond Novigolor
At sea the sand-glass was an important piece of ship's apparatus. It was the
means of ordering the duties on board before and long after the invention of the
watch and chtonometer, although for navigational purposes it was far too inaccurate and the use was limited to timing the turns of the watches, work of the
crew and judging the ship's speed by the common log-line and log-chip
junction with a twenty-eight seconds glass.
in
con-
Here we may digress to explain in substance the process of timing a ship's
speed. The log-line or cord wound on a log-reel is knocted at intervals of 47
feet and 3 inches and this distance divided into the lengch of a nautical mile is
equivalent to twenty-eight seconds divided into one hout. Hence, the expression
of "knots per hour." In other words, a mean degree of meridian is taken at
69.09 statute miles of 5280 feet each. The nautical mile is taken at 6080 feer
and the distance between the knots spaced 47 feet 3 inches apart bears the same
relation to 6080 feet as twenty-eight seconds does to one hour, or 3600 seconds.
The end of the line with the log-chrp atrached is rhrown from the stern of the
ship, wirh some additional length called the stray-line to allow for enough clearance to avoid the ship's wake. Irom a poinr at the end of the stray-line marked
by a bit of bunting the series of spaced knots begins and when the bunting reaches
rhe watcher's fingers the glass is turned and the count begins. When the tw€ntyeight seconds of sand have run, the number of knots which have passed indicate
the speed. If five knots of the line pass in twenry-eight seconds the ship has
sailed 5 x 47 feet l inches or ac the rare of 5 x 6080 feet in an hour. In the logglass the time is measured by the running sand. Sometimes a thirty-seconds glass
Pitteen
© 1953 National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc. Reproduction prohibited without written permission.
was used and rhen the line was knotted ar intervals
of 50 feet 7 inches, or equal
to l/120th paft oI a nautical mile. When the speed was known to be better
than six knots per hour, a smaller glass of fourteen seconds was used and the
indicated speed was doubled. The log-chip, or log-ship as it was sometimes
called, was a small wooden slab
in quadrant
shape, about one-half inch thick, and
with a radius which may have varied from five to eight inches. It was weighted
at the circumference and artached ro rhe log-line in such manner that it rode
upright in the sea to creare rhe necessary resisrance.
The accuracy of the method was on occasion found wanting, with etrors of
as much as three to four seconds in a glass presumed ro bc for twenty-eight seconds. Irregularities in the glasses used for timing the lcg were due in part to
the sand particles adhering ro each other from dampness or inequalities in their
surface. Improved glasses for the purpose were made towards the end of the
eighteenth century, with rhe sand particles more globular in shape, and glasses
which could also be opened and cleaned. To compensare for known inaccuracies
some navigators shorrened the glass, or mrher its timing, or made rule of thumb
adjustments to rhe line- In ships of the Royal Navy and those vessels engaged in
long runs, it was customary to heave the log every hour. On short runs every
t.igd htiurs was considered sufficient. Accuracy of the glass was tested on shipboard by means of a crude pendulum in the form of a plumb line of about thirw.
nine inches to vibrate at the rate of one second. Inventories of ship's stores which
are dated during the reign of Henry VIII have been found in which the glasses
are designated as "running glasses."
The origin of the common log is ancient. The invention of a mechanical
log with gears is traced back to the sixteenth century when it was published in
1578 in Bourne's Inaentions and, Detticas. In 1668 Dr. Robert Hooke of horological fame had an idea for a rorating device for the purpose of measuring e
ship's speed, but as was a habit of his, he apparently failed to develop the idea.
Vhen America was discovered, the only means of apportioning time on
shipboard was by hour-glasses! or as Columbus called them, "ampollema" or "relo]
de arena." Made in Venice for half-hour duration, they were delicate, often
broken and an ample supply was carried. Magellan, who sailed a few years later
on the voyage of circumnavigation, is known to have had eighteen on his ship
The ship's boy, called "gromet," was charged with the duty of turning the glass
whenever the sand had run out. Stormlz weather or humidiry could affect the
flow of sand or the "gromet" mighr be inattentive. Columbus was unable to
keep his hour-glass time weil enough to compare with his changes of position.
accuracy was impossible and his daily enries show his riming out as much as
half an hour when able to make a noon observation of the sun.
An American naval officer named Meigs has made research on ancient
customs of the sea and says that hour-glasses were used at sea as eatly as 1400
© 1953 National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc. Reproduction prohibited without written permission.
His statement may be based on the sea-glass pteviously mentioned which is
in the inventory of Charles V in 1380. He says futher that probably r
bell was struck at each half-hour turn of the glass until eight bells had been
recorded
sounded, because the illiterate sailors couldn't count higher than eight, and thls
is still the top count of bells in the system of timekeeping at sea.
As early as 1130 the idea had been conceived of using ciocks as an aid ro fix
the longitude, but in those days they were too inaccurate and it was suggested to
use a sand-glass or clepsydra {or colrections. Barents, the Dutch navigator who
tried to find a northern passage ro the East late in the sixteenth century, carried a
twelve-hour glass, and his voyage is believed to have been the first in which
a mechanical timepiece was used in an attempt to find the longitude. Due to the
extreme Arctic cold congealing the clock's oil, it stopped and the expedition
then had to rely on a sand-glass for timekeeping. In 7597 Barents died in a hut
on Nova Zembla and in 187i the hut was found and in it'was the clock which
is now preserved in a Dutch museum. Ar this period no clock had been made
good enough to have served rhe purpose.
An insrance of great inaccuracy, or more iikely gross negligence, is given in
an accoun. of a sea voyage made in 1703. In Soatenirs d,e Duguay-Trcuin a
Freoch naval oficer relates that his vessel was caught in a fog lasting nine days
Although the hour-glass was turned every thirty minures, when an observation
by the sun could again be made an error of eleven hours was disclosed and
schedules were so disarranged that the crew was lrungry at bedrime and sleepy
at mealtime. It was the duty of the steersman to turn a rhirty minutes glass eight
times to measure his four hour watch. To hasten the time for relief it was a
frequent practice to turn the glass before all the sand had run down. The custom
was called "eating the sand" (nzanger le sable) and very likely may have been
ptacticed by Columbus' seamen and so account for some of his ptoblems.
Naval actions were noted in terms of "glasses" as entries in log-books of the
Revolutionary \flar show. An engagement lasting through three glasses denoted
a battle of one and one-half hours'durarion measured by a thirty minutes glass.
In the Marine Museum at Norfolk is an hour-gldss marked "Aural Log Timer."
It is made entirely of netal and Iilled with lead shot so that the fall could be heard
in the dark. It is pierced, perhaps by a bullet hole, and part o{ the shot has been
lost. Sometimes the name of the vessel was inscnbed or an officer might carve
his name on the wood {rame. For ship's use sand-glasses were made for two hour
and foq hour periods, with quite heavy substantial frames. It is noted that in
1770 thirty-minute glasses were specially made for the French Navy, where the
sailors called each half-hour period a "clock," thus dividing the day into fortyeight clocks. In the British Navy the sand.glass was used as late as 1839 to time
the duration of turns of the watches.
Seaen een
© 1953 National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, Inc. Reproduction prohibited without written permission.
Brockels ond Stonds
An
accessory
to the puJpit hour-glass so that all could
to keep ir from being thrown over
see
the glass, or possibiy
if
the preacher's gestures became too active,
was a bracker or stand ro hold it. Sometimes it was a plain upright iron bar witn
a basker or cage ar the top and fastened to either side of the pulpit ot to the
nearest pillar. Occasionally a sign with appropriate motto was attached. Fancy
examples of the ironworker's art wefe made, some had a handle and pivoted
holder to grasp when reversing the glass, but nicely rurned wood-worked holden
also extsted. Mote otnate ones wefe made in keeping with the decorative scheme
of the place where used. $Ttought iton, more or less elaborately fashioned, was
the customary matetial, sometimes painted or gilded. Brass, too, was used and
sometimes silver embellishing touches were added. A fancy stand in an English
church was a tall spiral column. On top the glass was contained in an enclosed
arched cubic cofnpartment with corner stauettes of angels and trumpets, all of
brass. An hour-glass stand.in the time of Charles II had the pillars covered with
silk tibbon of variegated bright colors. On another pulpit a sheet-iron arm and
hand extended holding the glass, but this is believed not to have been part of the
original installation. The British Arcbeological Jownal for 1847 states that by
around 1800 many btackets or stands were still attached to the pulpits of old
churches, but the hour-glasses had disappeared. Many glasses and stands werc
desttoyed in ill-considered restorations which took place dur.ing the early Victorian
period.
Although the hour-glass and water-clock rernained in parallel service during
sevetal centuties,
it is interesting to note that the water-clock
was abandoned
soon after the watch and clock became dependable timekeepers, while the hour
glass continued in daily use for more than another cenury. To this day it doe;
service in timing egg boiling and telephone conversarions, while for technical
purposes to time reperetive processes it is stili being manufactured in graduated
sizes.
Liierqlure
The literatute of the subject is scant. Horological books are silent or at best
only a few words. !?ith respect to historical origin, with very few exceptions,
they are content with references to legends or the ill-founded attribution of the
Mattei Palace sculpture. An early reference is iri Sebastian Munster's Rudimenta
Mathematica oI 1561 in which a sand-glass in the modern form is illustrated.
A little book written in 1665 by Maria Radi, an Italian, is the only early book
devoted entirely to sand-clocks, although the descriptions are of contraptions
which possibly nevet existed, and in any event could have been of very doubtful
efficiency- Shifting pos.itions of the sand in the glass globes were supposed tc
change the center of balance and cause thern to tutn. Domepico Martiaelli, also
say
Eigbteen