To aid in
such an understanding of the matter we have translated from "L'Almanach
de l'Horologerie et de la Bijouterie" the matter contained in the
following chapter.
CHAPTER IV.
HISTORY OF ESCAPEMENTS.
It could not have been long after man first became cognizant of his
reasoning faculties that he began to take more or less notice of the
flight of time. The motion of the sun by day and of the moon and stars
by night served to warn him of the recurring periods of light and
darkness. By noting the position of these stellar bodies during his
lonely vigils, he soon became proficient in roughly dividing up the
cycle into sections, which he denominated the hours of the day and of
the night. Primitive at first, his methods were simple, his needs few
and his time abundant. Increase in numbers, multiplicity of duties, and
division of occupation began to make it imperative that a more
systematic following of these occupations should be instituted, and with
this end in view he contrived, by means of burning lights or by
restricting the flowing of water or the falling of weights, to subdivide
into convenient intervals and in a tolerably satisfactory manner the
periods of light.
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