HOW TOWER-CLOCKS 


ARE WOUND.



THE oldest tower-clock in New York is in St. Paul's steeple. It was made in 1778, by John Thwait, of London. The clock in St. John's Church was put in the tower in 1812. The Trinity clock was put in its lofty station, two hundred feet from the pavement, in 1846, by James Rogers. 

In dry weather this clock runs well; but in damp, chilly weather it sometimes stops, owing to the gathering of moisture on the wheels. Originally, two men were required to wind it, each of the three fifteen-hundred-pound weights having to be lifted over fifty feet. Some time ago the winding-gear was changed, so that one man can now wind it.

Describing the operations of winding, the clock-keeper said, "The crank is about twenty inches long; and when I turn it around, I make a sweep of thirty inches. It's a good deal harder than turning a grindstone; but the machine has a ratchet, so that I can stop and rest when I want to. The crank has to be turned seven hundred and fifty times to turn the barrel twenty-one times. Around the barrel is wound the wire rope that holds the fifteen-hundred-pound weight. The weight is simply a box with pieces of iron in it. That is very old-fashioned. Now we have iron weights so molded that they can be added to or subtracted from, and the weight can be graded to a nicety. 

A new wire rope was put to the chimes' weight the other day. The rope is what is called tiller-rope, and is two hundred and eighty feet long and three-quarters of an inch thick. 

It takes me an hour and a half to wind up the clock."

St. Paul's clock has a single back-gear, and two weights of one thousand pounds each. It takes three-quarters of an hour to wind it. St. John's clock is wound in less than an hour, while the modern clock of St. George's, in charge of the same keeper, is wound in fifteen minutes.




 Selected.




A MAN once took a piece of white cloth to a dyer to have it dyed black. 

He was so pleased with the dyer's skill that some time after he took a piece of black cloth to have it dyed white. But the dyer said: "A piece of cloth is like a man's reputation; it can be dyed black, but you cannot make it white again."