and were four or five inches in diame
ter. A plain watch cost the equivalent
of j?1,&hi in our currency, and after
one was ordered it took a year to make
it.
There is a watch in a Swiss museum
only three-siiteentha of an inch in di
ameter, inserted in the top of a pencil
case. Its ltttle dial not only indicates
honrs, minutes and seconds, but also
days of the month. It is a relic of the
times when watches were inserted in
snuff-boxes, shirt-studs, breastpins and
finger-rings. Some were fantastic
oval, octangular, cruciform, or in the
shspe of pearls, melons, tulips, etc
In tbe Academy of .sciences in at.
Petersburg there is a watch about the
size of an egg, and is said to have beeu
made by a Russian peasant. Within it
is represented the tomb of Christ, with
a stone at the entrance, and the senti
nels on duty. While a spectator is ad
miring this curions piece of mechanism
the stone is suddenly removed, the
sentinels drop, the angels appear, the
women enter the sepnlchre, and a
chant is heard.
Touch watches watches by which
the time can be felt instead of seen
have been frequently made for the use
of the blind. The hour marka on such
are generally raised studs, or pins,
which can readily be recognized by
passing the linger over the dial ; their
position with respect to the pendant
being quite sufficient to indicate the
hour they represent to digits as sensi
tive as those of blind people generally
are. They are not only of use to blind
people, bnt to all who wiaii to aaow
the time at night.
In 1540 a watch was presented to the
Academy of Science at Paris con
structed principally of rock crystals.
