Abstract
WITH reference to your notice of the Japanese clocks purchased for this Museum, and described by Mr. A. Rambaut, it may prove of interest to point out in somewhat fuller detail the conclusions at which he has arrived as to the cause of the peculiarities in their construction It was on account of these, to me, unintelligible peculiarities, that I invited Mr. Rambaut to undertake their explanation, and this, I venture to think, he has very thoroughly accomplished as follows. The three clocks agree in having a dial on which the time is indicated by a pointer attached to, and descending with, the weights. In other respects they differ, though all are made more or less on the same principle. The largest of the three appears the most important, and the greater part of the paper is occupied in explaining its construction. The dial of this is divided by vertical lines into six equal spaces, which are crossed by a series of thirteen graceful curves. An examination of these curves leads to the conclusion that they were intended to divide the day and night, at all seasons of the year, into six equal portions each. This system was common enough in ancient times, but the peculiarity of these clocks is that they show the day to have been reckoned, not from sunrise till sunset, but from the first noticeable streak of morning twilight until the sun had reached a corresponding distance below the western horizon. This distance is equal to 13°, and the form of the curves leads to the conclusion that the clock was constructed in a latitude of about 34° 7′, very little less than that of Miako, formerly one of the principal cities in Japan. An examination of the two other clocks, although they differ very much in detail, supports the conclusions derived from a study of the first.
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BALL, V. Japanese Clocks.. Nature 40, 151 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040151b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040151b0
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