The Borghesi Astronomical Clock in the Museum of History and Technology Part 6

One of the most interesting of Bertolla's clocks, and probably the last one which he produced, was found in his workshop. This timepiece indicates the hours, minutes and quarters by means of a single hand or index. The weight-driven clock strikes the hours and quarters on two bells with a single hammer. The chapter ring, which is soldered to the dial plate, is marked for the minutes on the outer rim and for the four quarters inside it. Over the center of it, is a semicircular opening in the dial plate through which is visible a revolving disk attached behind the dial plate. This disk is marked with the hours and revolves from right to left, the current hour being indicated by a projection from the minute ring. The bra.s.s dial plate is engraved with simple floral designs in the corners and around the broken arch. There is no comparison between this crude and simple decoration and the extremely fine quality of the engraving on the dial plate of the Borghesi clock, for instance. In the center of the dial plate is engraved the following:

"Questo orologio l'ideai e lo feci nella mia avanzata eta d'anni 80. Bart^{o} Ant^{o} Bertolla"

(I designed and made this clock at my advanced age of 80 years.

Bartolomeo Antonio Bertolla.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] BORGHESI, _Novissimum Theorico-Practic.u.m Astronomic.u.m Authoma Juxta Pariter Novissimum Mundi Systema..._, pp. 8-9.

[2] WENHAM, "Tall Case Clocks," p. 33.

[3] VON BERTELE, "The Development of Equation Clocks," parts 1 through 5.

[4] ENGELMANN, _Philipp Matthaus Hahn_; VISCHER, _Beschreibung mechanischer Kunstwerke..._.

[5] LLOYD, _Some Outstanding Clocks Over Seven Hundred Years, 1250-1950_, pp. 116, 118, 120.

[6] SAN CAJETANO, _Praktische Anleitung fur Kunstler..._.

[7] FRANCH, _La Valle di Non_.

[8] BONOMI, _Naturalisti, Medici e Tecnici Trentini_, p. 16

[9] AMBROSI, _Scrittori ed Artisti Trentini_, pp. 132, 525.

[10] Ibid.

[11] PIPPA, "Antonio Bartolomeo Bertolla," pp. 22-23.

[12] Ibid., p. 22.

[13] Ibid., p. 23.

[14] The abbreviation in the inscription "pLan" is difficult to interpret. According to Father F. X. Winters, S.J., it may represent "sit planetis" or "sit planetarum." The use of an abbreviation was necessary to prevent the addition of another letter I or M, which would have disturbed the formation of the chronogram desired. Literally, "sit planetis" means "May he be eternal ruler _by_ [or _through_] favor of the planets," while "sit planetarum" is to be translated "May he be eternal ruler _of_ the planets." Father Winters considered both versions somewhat overexaggerated and proposed that the best translation might be "Long Live Francis I, Emperor."

[15] The word "Tempe" refers to the Vale of Tempe, in Thessaly, through which the Peneus River flows. It is between Mounts Olympus and Ossa, and is situated between the town of Larissa and the sea. In mythology, it is told that these mounts were originally joined and Hercules separated them to allow the river to pa.s.s between them. The word "Tempe" is also used to mean any pleasant place. Thus, the inscription "Tempe indesinenter clausa, Scaturigo signata" is literally translated "Tempe always closed, A fount of water sealed up" or, freely translated, as "A garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up."

[16] "Phoebi" or Phoebus, called Apollo, the sun G.o.d; Phoebes or Diana, the moon G.o.ddess, sister of Apollo.

[17] PIPPA, op. cit. (footnote 11), pp. 23-25.

[18] PERINI, _Statistica del Trentino, Biblioteca Communale del Trentino_, vol. 2, p. 57 (cons. 6, carta 9); TOVAZZI, _Biblioteca Tirolese_, pp. 406-407.

[19] PIPPA, op. cit. (footnote 11), pp. 24-25.

[20] PIAMONTE, _La Nauna Descritta al Viaggiattore_.

[21] ESPOSTI, "La Sala 'Innocente Binda' al Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica di Milano," pp. 18-21.

Appendix

SYNOPSIS OF THE COMPLETE MECHANICAL WORKS OF THE FIRST CLOCK

[Translated from the section ent.i.tled "Synopsis Totius Operis Mechanici" in Frances...o...b..rghesi's first book _Novissima Ac Perpetua Astronomica Ephemeris Authomatica Theorico-Practica..._.]

I

Of three movable indices, the farthest from the center of the dial is fitted with an index on either side and marked with four segments of a circle. Immediately below are five numbers, divided into the days of setting the measure of the mean-synodic age of the moon, and into signs, degrees of the signs, and of the distance of the moon from the sun.

These, in each revolution, revolve once around the solar disk superimposed on the mean synodic-lunar disk, and also around the lunar disk. The upper indices, meanwhile, in the two external greatest orbits, measure the time continuously, in the accustomed manner of the Germans--the middle index measuring by hours and the uppermost by the first minutes [of hours].

II

Inside these three circles, perpendicular above their center, is a small index of the seconds of minutes. At each first minute of time, being the fastest of all, it describes the smallest orbit. Next to this are two other slightly larger circles divided into 30 degrees, one [rotating?]

from the right, the other from the left. These two indices are arranged in such a fas.h.i.+on that the one rotating from the observer's left completes its period 12 times during one, mean, solar-astronomical year.

The one [rotating] from the right likewise completes its cycle 12 times during the period of one mean-synodic moon. In between these, there is placed another small sphere, divided into 40 arbitrary parts, whose dial does not move automatically, but is moved by hand for speeding up or slowing down the course of the time, or of the perpendicular.

III

Diagonally from the sides of the center of the three larger indices, six other indices revolve: three on the left from one center, and three on the right from another. The uppermost of the three which are on the right of the observer [and which are] decorated with a small disk of the sun, runs its cycle once during a mean solar-astronomical year. The second measures the distance of the sun from its apogee. The third revolves 12 times, with each lunar revolution from one node to the same [repeated] node. Under the point of the uppermost index, first lie the months of the year which are inscribed, and the days of each month, but having only 28 days a.s.signed to February; then the signs of the zodiac, and their several degrees. The circle corresponding to the middle index, extending through the first semicircle from apogee to the lower perigee and returning through the second semicircle to the upper locations of apogee, shows the true equation or eccentricity of the sun, joined with the little equation of the moon in syzygy. [These equations are]

measured by geometric-astronomic proportion for each distance of the sun from its apogee or perigee in degrees, and in sufficiently small parts of degrees, with the t.i.tle added above in their proper places, whether an addition is to be made to the mean location of the sun or a subtraction from the same, so that the true longitude of the sun may be calculated. Three circles are a.s.signed to the lowest index, of which 30 degrees of distance of the moon from its nodes comprise the larger. The middle circle is based on the hypothesis of the mean invariable diameters (that is, of the sun, the moon, and the terrestrial shadow), and is divided into hours and quarters of duration. The last circle is divided by the trigonometric laws into the inches of magnitude of lunar eclipses. Lying between these circles, there is another eccentric circle (black with a spot) exhibiting the shadow of the earth, in which the little moon sinks itself, carried by the lowest index. In any ecliptic full moons, the patent number of inches of immersion somehow affects the minds of the cultured, but also the scheme of maximum obscuration affects the eyes of the illiterate themselves.

IV

Of the three indices which revolve from the left, the uppermost completes its cycle within 12 hours, just as the hour index. The middle one with two pointers on diametrically opposite sides, carries the marks of conjunction and opposition of the luminous bodies, with a movement equal to the course of the sun from lunar apogee or perigee. The lowest index, fitted with a single pointer, indicates the motion of the moon from its apogee or perigee. Under these three indices, there is situated a common circle, divided into 12 parts, each of which are further divided into 30 parts through its outer circ.u.mference. I have said a common circle, for, with respect to the first index, the division represents 12 hours, and the double subdivision representing the double set of minutes of the hours serves for an excitator for anytime at all, at will. For as often as the little index reaches the twelfth hour, first being moved by hand wherever you prefer, a little hammer strikes the little bell many times. But if you observe the second or the third index, the first division provides the signs, and the subdivision of the signs gives the individual degrees of the distance of the sun from the lunar apogee, or of the moon from its apogee, respectively. To this is added two other interior circles from the same center: to the larger is inserted the equation of the center of the moon in its conjunctions and oppositions; and on the smaller the equation of the same moon in its quarters, astronomically-geometrically proportioned to the distance of the moon from its apogee or perigee. In the first case, the equation is to be subtracted from the mean longitude of the moon, descending from apogee to perigee; in the second case, to be added to the mean longitude of the moon ascending from perigee to apogee; and, in the third semicircle of the index, as the rubric directs, common to both equations, added around the center.

V

Perpendicularly under the center of the machine, two other indices are carried about one and the same center. The one nearer to the observer--bearing in one of two points diametrically opposite the small disk of the sun, in the other the disk of the moon--runs a course equal to the motion of the sun from the head or the tail of the dragon (_Draco_). The other, of simple construction, marked with a small moon, signifies in like manner the motion of the moon from the head or the tail of the dragon.

Immediately below, there is a larger circle, common [referring] to both these indices, which is divided into 12 parts. Each of these parts in turn, in the outer periphery, is subdivided further into 30 parts, which are the 12 signs of the zodiac and the individual degrees of the signs of distance of the sun and the moon from the head of the dragon.

In the second circle is read the lat.i.tude of the moon, measured by degrees, etc., on a trigonometric scale, by signs and degrees of distance of the moon from its nodes, that is, from the head or tail of the dragon. When the second index is descending from the head of the dragon to the tail, the lat.i.tude will be to the north of the solar path; that is, the ecliptic. On the other hand, it will be south of the ecliptic when the same index is returning upward from the tail to the head of the dragon as advised by the t.i.tle inscribed on the third circle.

Finally, on the fourth and last circle are seen more prime minutes of the circle for reducing the orbit of the moon to the ecliptic. That the true longitude of the moon may be obtained more accurately, these must be subtracted from the longitude of the moon already calculated in the first and third quadrant of the circle of the second index. On the other hand, they are to be added to the same in the second and fourth quadrant, as is noted in their respective places, according to the theory of right ascensions.

Here, then, [you have] as finally completed, delineation of the great index which was partially described before in this book.