> Atop a tower in the town square hung a big bell. At each side of the > bell was a large iron statue of a man. Each statue held a hammer in > its hands. > > Suddenly, one of the statues seemed to...
Water clocks and sand clocks
Measuring time by the sun or the stars is all very well, but people soon needed a better way. And this need led to the invention of the water clock. The first water clock was just a large clay or...
Sun clocks
A clock certainly seems nothing like a ruler. Yet, a clock and a ruler do the same kind of job. They both measure something. A ruler measures length and a clock measures time. People of long ago...
Suns and moons, winters and summers
If you want to know what time it is, you look at a watch or a clock. If you want to know the date, you look at a calendar. A clock measures time during a day. It lets you know when to turn on a...
Fancy fingers
Have you ever seen a clock like the one in the picture below? The marks on the face of this clock are called Roman numerals. The Romans were people who lived in Italy long ago. We still use their...
Now you hear it, now you don’t
A ticking clock sounds loud when you put your ear close to it. But as you walk away, the ticking gets softer and softer---until you can't hear the clock at all. Why does the sound get softer? The...
Shadow time
> At sunrise your shadow on the ground is very long---longer than you > are! At sunset your shadow is long again, but it points the other way. > And in the middle of the day, when the sun is high in...
Putting machines to work
Turn the key at the back of the alarm clock once . . . twice . . . three times. At first the key turns easily. But as you keep winding, the key turns harder and harder. Finally the clock is wound as...
A PALACE FOR LAWMAKERS
Queen Elizabeth II of England opens a session of Parliament. There is a palace where you could have a lot of fun playing. It has a hundred stairways to climb, passageways to run through, and a...
The Duel
> by Eugene Field The gingham dog and the calico cat Side by side on the table sat; 'Twas half-past twelve, and (what do you think!) Nor one nor t'other had slept a wink! The old Dutch clock and...
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