Colour Clock

More widgets here

How To Make A Woman Happy

HOW TO MAKE A
Woman Happy

It's not difficult to make a woman happy. A man only needs to be:

1. a friend
2. a companion
3. a lover
4. a brother
5. a father
6. a master
7. a chef
8. an electrician
9. a carpenter
10. a plumber
11. a mechanic
12. a decorator
13. a stylist
14. a sexologist
15. a gynecologist
16. a psychologist
17. a pest exterminator
18. a psychiatrist
19. a healer
20. a good listener
21. an organizer
22. a good father
23. very clean
24. sympathetic
25. athletic
26. warm
27. attentive
28. gallant
29. intelligent
30. funny
31. creative
32. tender
33. strong
34. understanding
35. tolerant
36. prudent
37. ambitious
38. capable
39. courageous
40. determined
41. true
42. dependable
43. passionate
44. compassionate

WITHOUT FORGETTING TO:

45. give her compliments regularly
46. love shopping
47. be honest
48. be very rich
49. not stress her out
50. not look at other girls

AND AT THE SAME TIME, YOU MUST ALSO:

51. give her lots of attention, but expect little yourself
52. give her lots of time, especially time for herself
53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT:

54. Never to forget:
* birthdays
* anniversaries
* arrangements she makes

HOW TO MAKE A MAN HAPPY

1. Show up naked
2. Bring food
3. Bring Booze

,_.___ .

Funny titles for Porn Movies

A Beautiful Behind Womb Raider Schindler's Fist Shaving Ryan's Privates Glad he ate her Driving Into Miss Daisy Riding Miss Daisy Batman in Robin Blowjob Impossible Dyke Hard Star Whores Sorest Rump Edward Penishands

Gangbangs of New York On Golden Blonde How Stella Got Her Tube Packed In Diana Jones and the Temple Poon Saturday Night Beaver Sick Degrees of Penetration Legally Boned Throbin Hood (Prince of Beaves) When Harry Ate Sally Romancing The Bone Lord Of The G-Strings White Men Can't Hump Ocean's 11 inches

American Booty Pulp Friction Swollow Hal Spankenstein Breast Side Story Blown in 60 Seconds Buffy The Vampire Layer Buttman and Throbbin' Rambone Sperms of Enderarment School of Cock Free My Willy Sperminator

Condom Slogans

1) Cover your stump before you hump 2) Before you attack her, wrap your whacker 3) Don't be silly, protect your Willie 4) When in doubt shroud you spout 5) Don't be a loner, cover your boner 6) You can't go wrong, if you shield your dong 7) If your not going to sack it, go home and whack it 8) If you think she's spunky, cover your monkey 9) It will be sweeter if you wrap your peter 10) If you slip between her thighs, condomize 11) She won't get sick if you wrap your dick 12) If you go into heat, package your meat 13) While your undressing Venus, dress up your penis 14) When you take off her pants and blouse, suit up your mouse 15) Especially in December, gift wrap your member 16) Never ever deck her, with an unwrapped pecker 17) Don't be a fool, vulcanize your tool 18) The right selection, is to protect your erection 19) Wrap it in foil, before you check her oil 20) A crank with armor, will never harm her 21) If you really love her, wear a cover 22) Don't make a mistake, cover your snake 23) Sex is cleaner with a packaged wiener 24) If you can't shield your rocket, leave it in your pocket 25) No glove, no love 26) If you think she'll sigh, cover old one eye 27) Even If she's eager, protect her beaver 28) No one likes a horses ass, protect yourself at climax 29) Shield her from the hunt until you shoot her in the cunt 30) Avoid a frown, contain your clown 31) Harness the pygmy man before entering the bearded clam 32) Constrain the little head before you stick it in the shed 33) Put a condom on your dink before you dart it in her sink 34) The weasel you must surround before you please her on the ground 35) Cloak the joker before you poke her 36) Encase that torch before you paint her porch 37) Cape your throbber before you bob her 38) After detection sheath your erection 39) Before you penetrate hide your magistrate 40) Don't surprise her plug your Geyser 41) Cover that lumber before you pump her 42) Protect her wrinkle before you sprinkle 43) She won't bristle if you wrap your whistle 44) House your noodle then release your strudel 45) Put your dog in the pound and make her yelp like a hound 46) Shelter your jerky then nab that turkey 47) Cage that snake then shake and bake 48) Cover your peter it will be much neater 49) Coat that Labrador then allow him to explore 50) It's always funky to cage your monkey 51) It won't be funny with a coatless dummy 52) It won't be fun with an unwrapped thumb 53) It's not much money to catch your honey 54) Don't be a fool cover your tool 55) Hood that match then scratch that thatch 56) Stitch that switch then itch her niche 57) Wrap that tool to catch the drool 58) It ain't no jibe to protect her hive 59) Contain that sputum before you use him 60) Restrain your log then plow her bog 61) Glove your pecker before you check her 62) Coat that slimmer before you prime her 63) Condomize then womanize (or sodomize) 64) Cover old pete then grind her meat 65) Guard your peter before you meet her 66) Check your list before you tryst 67) Wrap your bate before you mate 68) Can your worm before you squirm 69) Cover your pipe you dumb ass wipe 70) Contain your lizard then tickle her gizzard 71) Bag the mole then do her hole 72) Cuff your carrot before you share it 73) Jail your number then call the plumber 74) Cover your vein then drive her insane 75) Wrap that pickle then slip her a tickle 76) Protect your dink then fluff her mink 77) Restrain your lantern then stick it in her cavern 78) Hide ole harry then take her cherry 79) Wrap that spout then bore her out 80) Conceal your train don't cause her pain 81) Guard your bridge then do her ridge 82) Shroud your trout then make her shout 83) To make her squat like a turkey, cover your Jerky 84) Box your blister then poke her in the whiskers 85) Wrap your spout to catch the trout 86) Plug your funnel then enter the tunnel 87) Cover your steamer before you ream her 88) Protect that fish then dip it in the dish 89) Contain that bass for a swim in her glass 90) Be sure to wear it to feed her ferret 91) Clothe the boner before you hone her 92) Got no protection? Can't use your erection! 93) Cork your pump or you don't hump 94) No unwrapped stags get between my legs 95) Dress that erection to make a deflection 96) Contain that shanker before you spank her 97) Cap that seeder before you breed her 98) Stop the stream before you cream 99) Secure that ladder then drain your bladder 100) Protect your screw to catch that glue 101) Package your meat for a real neat treat 102) Holster your gun then shootings more fun 103) Canvas that trailer before you nail her 104) Garage the tractor then attack her 105) Net that grass hopper before you pop her 106) Sock that wanger before you bang her 107) Pen that rooster, she'll be much looser 108) Trim your hardwood then do her real good 109) Garnish your oak then give her a poke 110) Pouch your associate then go fornicate 111) Smother your affiliate before you ejaculate 112) Confine your fascinate before it regurgitates 113) Catch that goat before it bloats 114) Ensnare that barbarian then do her abdomen 115) Restrain your hammer then wham bam her

116) Prune that stalk then make her squawk 117) Wrap that rod then please her bod 118) Sheath that knife she ain't your wife 119) House that bottle then mash her throttle 120) Sash that hash then thrash that gash 121) Cover your diddle then fiddle her middle 122) Can your knob then throb her swab 123) Contain old Doug then clean her rug 124) Cover your limb before you swim 125) Retain your bailer then impail her 126) Rope your dope then make some soap 127) Net your salamander then make salad in her 128) Cap your flapper then sniff her snapper 129) Wrap that Steed then trample her weeds 130) Hat that chef then scramble her cleft 131) Cover your stone before you bone 132) House your hose then curl her toes 133) Saddle your penis then straddle her mean ass 134) Blanket your twitch then hump that bitch 135) Shield your rocks then pond her box 136) Cover old sly then do her dry 137) Wrap your rail then fill her pail 138) Glove your chimney before you come in me 139) If your nude tube your dude 140) Cloak your hitter then go split her 141) Wrap your nipper before you dip her 142) Can your spam then bam that mam 143) Corral your ram then slice her ham 144) Sheath your sliver then jab her liver 145) Twist your wick then stick that prick 146) Cover old Bart then dart her tart 147) Shed old spot then do her slot 148) Drawer your pip then split her lips 149) Contain that leach then mash her peach 150) Bag your elm then take the helm 151) Constrain your gem to catch the flem 152) Catch that head cheese or I won't spread these 153) Constrain that agate you ain't no faggot 154) Survey your land then plant her stand 155) Before you drive her protect that diver 156) Sack that slimy smelt then tan her beaver pelt 157) Wrap that stiffer then let him sniff her 158) Cover you post then slice her roast 159) Blanket old juicy then plug old loosey 160) Balloon your baboon the moon tune her poon 161) Contain that viper before you pipe her 162) Wrap your whopper, then go bop her 163) Protect your cock with the sock. 164) Slip it on before you slip it in. 165) Don't leave it to God, cover your rod. 164) Do a good deed, don't spill your seed. 165) Tub that sub then rub her hub 166) Wrap Mr. Clean then introduce her spleen 167) Dam your giver then fill her quiver 167) Wrap your wang before you bang 168) instead of your dick use a stick 169) instead of a sticky make a quickie 170) jack that slacker then you can whack her 171) Wrap it before you tap it 172) Wrap your meat before you beat 173) Don't excrete, wrap your meat 174) If you take her to bed, protect your head 175) Pack it in plastic, it'll be fantastic 176) if you'r not Shaq O'neal you might as well wrap your real 177) You Cover before you shove her 178) Protect your meat before you cram it in her seat 179) Suit up your eel, before you make a deal 180) Cover your fluid-ray or you'll have to pay 181) Don't be a fool, wrap your tool 182) if you think shes spunky, cover your monkey! 183) Wrap it before you slap it 184) Conceal your mushroom shape before you part her beef drapes 185) Don't be uncertain protect yourself before entering her meat curtain 186) Cover your rock-o before sour creaming her taco 187) use a shield before you sew her field 188) Put on your hat before you give her a splat 189) cover your snitch before you ram the bitch 190) hide old nick, before you jab her ribs 191) Flag your pole 192) Before a late night wrap it up tight 193) don't have sex without latex 194) Cover Billy then make her silly 195) wear a helmet to go to war 196) wrap the cock let it drop 197) cover your meat and make some heat 198) wrap your stump before you hump 199) Cover your shooter, then shoot in her pooter 200) Garnish your beef, then dive her reef 201) Shield your funnel and engage her tunnel 202) Cover your mound, and prepare to pound 203) Sheath your blade, then give her the spade 204) Wrap your shaft before you break her in half 205) Roll your oat, then paddle her boat 206) Cover your yam then pound her ham 207) Armour the tank before you enter the flank 208) sWrap the goat before swimming in her moat 209) Leash your pet before launching your jet 210) Baton down the hatch before feeding her snatch 211) Chain the beast before presenting the feast 212) Before you tap it, wrap it 213) Cap your tinkle before you visit the fish wrinkle 214) Save her cunt, from shit loads of spunk! 215) Wrap your dill before you spill 216) Dont be a Fool, wrap your tool 217) Wrap that gator, no regrets later 218) Wrap your meat and get her in the sheets! 219) Don't forget the diaper when you're laying piper 220) when you nail her accsessorize your sailor 221) Put on a rubber before you sub her 222) Don't trust Jesus cover your penis 223) Dress him up before you mess her up 224) Holster your Pistol before you whip her 225) before you bang cover your wang 226) No matter what kind of meat you put in your sandwich you still have to wrap up your hoggie 227) Put a cover on yer hammer then ram her and ram her 228) Clothe the boner before you own her 229) Before you make a disaster put the saftey on your blaster 230) protect ur pole before u battle with the hole 231) No shirt, no flirt! 232) Wrap it before you tap it

Exotic Cars

Bugatti Veyron

Lamborghini Reventon

Lamborghini Murcielago

Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera

Ferrari Enzo

Ferrari F430

Can it really rain frogs?

When frogs fell from the sky in the book of Exodus, it was a sign of deep, deep trouble for biblical Egypt. And that was only plague No. 2 out of 10. If you've ever woken up to a few inches of frog carpet outside your door, you know it's not­ a pretty picture.

Of course, you probably haven't woken up to such a grisly scene. You probably haven't been driving around in a storm and had your car pelted with what you thought was hail but turned out to be frozen frogs. But other people have. While it's not the most common weather phenomenon in the world, it's not as rare as you might think. It happens all over the world, at least since the first century A.D. -- when the Roman naturalist known as Pliny the Elder described the event -- and as recently as 2005 in Serbia.
You might hear a report of raining frogs -- and other unexpected objects, some not even organic -- at least once a decade or so. Amphibious rain seems to be picking up in frequency. In the last 20 years, newspapers have found more opportunities than ever to write about frogs falling from the sky. For unknown reasons, Britain appears to be especially susceptible in recent years. The cause of frog rain in general is less mysterious, although still a bit of a brow-furrower at times. It's also just as gross as many of us imagine. That final scene in the 1999 film "Magnolia," which left most movie goers jaw-droppingly disgusted and a little impressed, is apparently a pretty accurate portrayal of the phenomenon, according to newspaper accounts.
In this article, we'll find out what's actually going on when frogs rain down and what happens when they fall from the sky. Incidentally, frogs aren't the most common creatures to accompany rain. You'll understand why when we look at the process of frog rain on the next page.But our first question is the most obvious one: How in the world do the frogs get up in the sky in the first place?

Frog Rain Causes: The Flight of the Amphibians

It's hard to get a good mental picture of frog­ rain that doesn't have Moses standing off in the distance. The biblical image of a slimy, surprising hail is tough to avoid. However, there's act­ually a pretty simple explanation for the whole thing: It involves whirlwinds and low-weight creatures­.
­­­­Frogs can weigh as little as a few ounces. But even the heavier ones are no match for a watery tornado, or a waterspout, as it's called when a whirlwind picks up water. The series of events that can lead to frog rain go something like this:
­­­A small tornado forms over a body of water. This type of tornado is called a waterspout, and it's usually sparked by the high-pressure system preceding a severe thunderstorm.­
As with a land-based tornado, the center of the waterspout is a low-pressure tunnel within a high-pressure cone. This is why it picks up the relatively low-weight items in its path -- cows,­ trailer homes and cars get sucked up into the vacuum of the vortex. But since a waterspout is over water and not land, it's not automobiles that end up caught in its swirling winds: it's water and sea creatures. ­
The waterspout sucks up the lower-weight items in the body of water as it m­oves across it. Frogs are fairly lightweight. They end up in the vortex, which continues to move across the water with the high-pressure storm clouds. When a particularly powerful storm hits land, the waterspout might go with it.When the storm hits land, it loses some of its energy and slows down. The pressure drops. Eventually, the clouds release the water they're carrying. As the rain falls, the vortex eventually loses all the pressure that's keeping it going, and it releases whatever it has picked up in its travels. Sometimes, this cargo includes frogs.­The end result is frog rain. Sometimes it's a few dozen frogs -- or a couple hundred or even thousands.

The Mystery Airship of 1896

Eighteen ninety-six was marked by a strange occurrence, an amazing phenomenon that those that saw it probably never forgot. People, by the thousands, living across North America, from San Francisco to Chicago, observed strange lights in the sky. The lights, reportedly an airship, crossed the continent from west to east while the country watched.

The excitement started on November 17, 1896 in Sacramento, California. It was a rainy, dismal night. Then, through the dark clouds, appeared a bright light. It moved slowly west appearing to be about a thousand feet above the rooftops. Hundreds of people saw the light including George Scott, an assistant to the Secretary of State of California. Scott persuaded some friends to join him on the observation deck above the capitol dome and from there they thought they could see three lights, not one. Above the lights was a dark, oblong shape.

The most detailed report of the evening came from one R.L. Lowery, a former street railway employee who said he heard a voice from above call, "Throw her up higher; she'll hit the steeple." When he looked up he saw two men seated on a bicycle-like frame, peddling. Above them was a "cigar-shaped body of some length." Lowery said that the thing also had "wheels at the side like the side wheels on Fulton's old steam boat."

The story was in the newspapers the next day :

-----------------------------------

CLAIM THEY SAW A FLYING AIRSHIP

-----------------------------------

Strange Tale of Sacramento Men Not Addicted to Prevarication

Viewed an Aerial Courser as it Passes Over the City at Night.

-----------------------------------

What Was it?

-----------------------------------

The title "airship" soon stuck. Other papers were more reserved and reported a "mysterious light" or "wandering apparition." A few ridiculed the stories suggesting that the whole thing had been a hoax or the result of a natural effect like glowing swamp gas. The story soon faded.

An eyewitness sketch of the "airship" over Sacramento on November 17, 1896.

Then, five days after its first appearance, the "airship" came back.

It was Sunday night and weather conditions were as before: dark and overcast. The light appeared from the northwest and when straight over the town, running against the wind. One witness, Jacob Zemansky, had a small telescope and reported the lamp was "an electric arc light of intense power." He also observed that the light didn't move in a straight line, but seemed to bob in the wind up and down. Another witness with field glasses, Edward Carragher, reported seeing a dark body above the light.

It took thirty minutes for the thing to cross the city and disappear to the southwest. During this time thousands of people observed it including the city's deputy sheriff and a district attorney.

That same night the "airship" also appeared above San Francisco some 90 miles away. There it was observed by hundreds, including the mayor. It cruised as far as the Pacific Ocean, above the famous Cliff House, where its searchlight, a beam that stretched out over 500 feet, reportedly frightened the seals on Seal Rock sending them plunging into the safety of the sea.

Over the next few days airship sightings were made not just in California, but from as far away as Washington State and Canada. The newspapers went wild, some supporting the idea of an airship, some ridiculing it. Stories began to suggest that the airship was the work of a mysterious inventor who was testing his device at night lest his ideas be stolen. This didn't seem outrageous to most people. Balloons capable of carrying people had been around for almost a hundred years and it seemed that the key to powered flight might soon be discovered.

One San Francisco attorney, nicknamed "Airship" Collins, claimed that he was representing the eccentric and wealthy inventor who had constructed the thing at a secret location in Oroville, just sixty miles north of Sacramento. According to Collins the airship was 150 feet long, and could carry 15 passengers. "It was built on the aeroplane system and has two canvas wings 18 feet wide and a rudder shaped like a bird's tail," he told people, "I saw the thing ascend about 90 feet under perfect control." When the mysterious inventor never appeared Collins found himself the object of ridicule and he backed off his earlier claims.

Another San Francisco attorney took his place, though, claiming that there was not one airship, but two, and they would be used to bomb Havana. William Henry Hart, a former attorney general, stated, "From what I have seen of it I have not the least doubt that it will carry four men and 1,000 pounds of dynamite." Hart's airship never was made public either and by early December the lawyer, as well as the lights in the sky, had disappeared from the scene.

Everything was quiet for two months. Then, on February 2, 1897, the "airship" showed itself over the town of Hastings, Nebraska. On February 5th it was seen forty miles further south near the town of Invale. Reports started to flow in from all over the state. On February 16th it was sighted over Omaha. More stories appeared. A farmer claimed he'd encountered the airship on the ground, under repair. "It is cigar shaped, about 200 feet long and 50 feet across at the widest point, gradually narrowing to a point at both ends," the farmer said.

Soon the airship had been sighted all over the mid-west including in Texas, Kansas, Iowa and Missouri. More stories about encounters with the crew on the ground appeared. Finally in April the excitement reached it's zenith when the "airship" arrived in Chicago. On April 11th a photograph of the thing was reportedly taken, probably the first UFO photo in existence. Some experts pronounced the photo to be fake.

On April 15, near Kalamazoo, Michigan, there were reports that the airship had crashed and exploded. "They declare the report to have been like that of heavy ordnance and to have been immediately succeeded by a distant sound of projectiles flying through the air," a newspaper story proclaimed.

Despite this, airship sightings continued for a few more days. Some expected the thing to continue on to the east coast, but instead reports about it suddenly faded and by the end of April the flap was over.

So what was it? What was this thing that had apparently been seen by thousands of people across the west and mid-west? There were no airplanes then. The Wight Brothers didn't make their first, short flight till 1903. Neither did a working model of a powered dirigible, which airship descriptions most closely resemble, exist.

One likely culprit is the planet Venus. At the time the sightings started it was prominent in the sky. When the sightings stopped it was becoming increasingly less visible. Venus is the brightest object in the sky, except for the Sun and Moon, and under unusual atmospheric conditions can appear to move, blink, or look like multiple colored lights. It well may have been responsible for many of the reports.

What about the many stories with people meeting the crew or seeing the airship crash? It's hard for us to imagine, in our day and age of radio and television, how much a part of 19th century entertainment centered on the tall tale and the hoax. Journalistic hoaxes, even in the largest newspapers, were standard fare. Readers were expected to guess about which stories were true and which were fictional. Almost every small town had a "lair club" where tall tales were swapped. (Alexander Hamilton's famous "Cownapping" story came out of the airship flap). As a result of these two institutions almost any unusual tale in a 19th century newspaper can be in doubt.

In addition, as today, practical jokers did not hesitate to send balloons lighted with candles into the sky, or kites with lanterns, if they thought they could put one over on the public. Others may have created "crash" sites complete with debris. One newspaper, the Peoria Transcript, sent up lighted, colored, paper balloons to "test" people's imaginations. A number of "airship" sightings was the result.

So if we remove the misidentifications and hoaxes from the airship phenomenon is there anything left? Could it have been an extra-terrestrial spaceship? One of the most striking things about the airship flap was that almost none of the stories surrounding it have anything to do with extra-terrestial beings. (The story of a crash of a Mars airship at Aurora, Texas, was an exception). The airship was piloted by "plain" Americans and designed by the human mystery inventor.

So what about the final possibility? Was there really a mysterious inventor who secretly built an airship and flew it around the country? Certainly the public had been primed to accept such a story. Science fiction in this era often used the "mystery inventor" as a character. Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea featured a mystery inventor, Captain Nemo, who constructed a submarine. Verne's later book, Robur the Conqueror, featured a mystery inventor that built an airship and the similarities between the book and some of the airship stories are uncanny. Robur was published about ten years before the wave of airship sightings.

If there was a real airship genius why didn't he ever make his invention public? Could he have really kept the construction of a flying machine out of the press? Was he really ten years ahead of his contemporary inventors?

If he did exist he certainly was successful in hiding his secret. It remains unknown even today.

Creative Photos

These photos have been taken by Chema Madoz

Lincoln - Kennedy coincidences

1) Lincoln was elected in 1860, Kennedy in 1960, 100 years apart
2) Both men were deeply involved in civil rights for African Americans.
3) Both men were assassinated on a Friday, in the presence of their wives.
4) Each wife had lost a child while living at the White House.
5) Both men were killed by a bullet that entered the head from behind.
6) Lincoln was killed in Ford's Theater. Kennedy met his death while riding in a Lincoln convertible made by the Ford Motor Company.
7) Both men were succeeded by vice-presidents named Johnson who were southern Democrats and former senators.
8) Andrew Johnson was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908, exactly one hundred years later.
9) The first name of Lincoln's private secretary was John, the last name of Kennedy's private secretary was Lincoln.
10) John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839 [according to some sources] Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939, one hundred years later.
11) Both assassins were Southerners who held extremist views.
12) Both assassins were murdered before they could be brought to trial.
13) Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and fled to a warehouse. Oswald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a theater.
14) LlNCOLN and KENNEDY each has 7 letters.
15) ANDREW JOHNSON and LYNDON JOHNSON each has 13 letters.
16) JOHN WlLKES BOOTH and LEE HARVEY OSWALD each has 15 letters.
17) A Licoln staffer Miss Kennedy told him not to go to the Theater. A Kennedy staffer Miss Lincoln, told him not to go to Dallas.

More Absolut Ads

As I have written before, this blogger does not have any links with Absolut Vodka, these pictures have been posted just for their aesthetic value. The blogger does not endorse alcohol consumption as it is injurious to health.

The Catalan Atlas

History
The Catalan Atlas, is the finest work to come from the Majorcan cartographic school of the fourteenth century. Most probably produced in 1375 (the date that appears on the perpetual calendar accompanying the maps) and attributed, though without certainty, to Cresques Abraham , the atlas was already recorded in Charles V's library, in the inventory drawn up by Gilles Malet and copied by Jean Blanchet in 1380 (" une quarte de mer en tabliaux faicte par manière de unes tables, painte et ystoriee, figuree et escripte et fermant a iiii fermoers ").

Cosmographical diagram: perpetual calendar. (BNF, Esp 30), The Catalan Atlas, Spain, Majorca 14th century.

Description

The Catalan Atlas was originally composed of 6 vellum leaves folded down the middle ; the leaves are now cut in half. They are painted in various colors, gold, and silver ; each half-leaf is mounted on one side of five wooden panels, the first half of the first leaf and the second half of the last leaf are mounted on the inner boards of a brown leather binding. Each leaf measures approximately 65 x 50 cm, for an overall size of 65 x 300 cm.
The first two leaves contain a compilation of cosmographical, astronomical, and astrological texts translated into Catalan. These texts emphasize the earth's spherical shape and the state of the known world ; they also provide useful information to sailors on tides and how to reckon time at night. The texts are accompanied by several illustrations : a tide table, a perpetual calendar, the figure of a man marked with the signs of the zodiac, and a large, circular chart framed by the four seasons which gives information on the zodiac, the seven known planets, and a diagram of the constellations:

Cosmographical diagram: the Earth, personified by an astronomer holding an astrolabe, is situated in the center of the Universe. It is surrounded by concentric circles representing the four elements, the seven planets (the spheres and their personifications), the signs of the zodiac, the positions and phases of the moon. The diagram is framed by the personifications of the four seasons.

The four remaining leaves make up the actual map, which is divided into two principal parts. The map shows many illustrations of cities, whose political allegiances are symbolized by a flag. Christian cities are marked with a cross, other cities with a dome. Seas and oceans are symbolized by wavy blue vertical lines. And as is usual for nautical charts, place names of important ports are transcribed in red, while others are indicated in black.
Unlike many other nautical charts, the Catalan Atlas is meant to be read with the north at the bottom ; thus the maps are oriented from left to right, from the Far East to the Atlantic. The assemblage of plates giving an overall view of the document is presented as it is meant to be read, in other words with the south uppermost ; but to facilitate consultation, excerpts from the Atlas are shown with the north uppermost.
The two last leaves form a fairly standard portolan chart of the same type as Angelino Dulcert's 1339 map. However, at the westernmost point, near the first wind rose (compass card) ever drawn on a portolan chart, is a commentary concerning the mythical " Iles Beneventurades, " the Fortunate Islands described by Pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville, as well as an illustration of the no less mythical" Insula de Brazil ". Also worthy of note is the repetition of the islands of Corsica and Sardinia on two successive leaves creating an area of 'overlap' in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, (this feature does not occur in the oriental portion of the Atlas). In Africa several sovereigns are portrayed (including the king of Mali, " Musse Melly, " Mansa Musa, who wields a scepter ornamented with a fleur-de-lys, and the king of Organa, an armed Saracen). " Tenbuch " (Timbuktu) is also represented, as is the ship of Jaume Ferrer who set sail in 1346 for the " Riu del Or " (River of Gold) in quest of a sea route around the Atlas mountains, which impeded travel to the African interior where the Genoese and Catalans hoped to find gold and ivory.
The first two leaves, which form the oriental portion of the Catalan Atlas, illustrate numerous religious references as well as a synthesis of medieval mappae mundi (Jerusalem is situated virtually at the document's center) and the travel literature of the time, notably Marco Polo's Book of Marvels and the Travels and Voyage of Sir John Mandeville. For example in the land of 'Catayo' (China), the map shows the city of 'Chambaleth' (Beijing) where the Great Khan resides, Sumatra (" Illa Trapobana "), and a coastline edged with a multitude of many-colored islands that recalls the circumfluent ocean of the Orbis Terrarum. To the east of the Caspian Sea, the map is based on biblical and mythological references, as well as on borrowings from travelers' narratives : Moses' passage of the Red Sea, Mount Sinai, Mount Ararat, the Tower of Babel, the Magi following the star, Christ the King, Mecca, Babylon, the Queen of Sheba, " Illa Jana, " home of the mythical realm of the Amazons (" Regio Femarum " (sic)), Sirens, the kingdom of Gog and Magog, Alexander the Great, Pygmies battling storks (whose presence in the mountains of Asia was attested by Pliny the Elder, but refuted by Marco Polo), etc.
Despite the map's rather approximate cartographical design, many Indian and Chinese cities can be identified. The explanatory texts report customs described by Marco Poloand catalogue local economic resources, real ones or supposed ones. This, indeed, is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the Catalan Atlas : to the east of the well-defined Mediterranean world lie immense regions whose economic importance is clearly understood, but which remain mysterious and unexplored. This world of spices, silks, and fabulous riches described by Marco Polo is the one that Christopher Columbus would attempt to reach by a western route 117 years later.

The Majorcan Cartographic School
The oldest sea charts in existence, linked to the emergence of the compass, are of Genoese or Venetian origin ; the earliest examples date from the late thirteenth century. They generally show the Mediterranean basin (" Mare nostrum " ) drafted with astonishing cartographic precision, considering the technical means available to the mapmakers of that time.
In 1137 the kingdom of Aragon incorporated Catalonia, a trading partner of North Africa where mapmaking was a strong tradition, and later annexed the Balearic Islands in 1229. These circumstances fostered the rise of a highly important and flourishing cartographic school, owing in particular to the contributions of Arab and Jewish scholars. What characterized this school was its lavish, vividly colored illustrations (of cities, significant geographical features, portraits of foreign rulers, rich toponymy, etc.). Even before the first map was produced in Majorca, the Catalan scholar Ramon Llull included the sea chart among navigational instruments, on a par with the compass. In 1354 King Peter of Aragon decreed that two charts should be carried on all the ships of the realm.
The portolan chart drafted in 1339 by Angelino Dulcert (BNF, Res Ge B 696), was the first map known for certain to have been produced in Palma, on Majorca. It is thus one of the " prototypes " of Catalan maps drawn in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. All of the typical features are present : colors, place names, drawings of topographical details (mountains, rivers, lakes, major cities, ports or inland towns, personalities, etc.), as well as keys and explanatory notes written in Latin, all features not usually found on Genoese or Venetian portolans. Moreover, this document marks a departure from the strictly " Mediterranean " frame of reference of earlier portolans, for it attempts to represent northern Europe and include more information concerning Africa.
The Catalan Atlas, dated 1375 and attributed to Cresques Abraham, presents important similarities with Dulcert's portolan chart in the drawing of its occidental portion, augmented with a great number of explanatory legends. Its originality lies in the addition of an oriental half which is not based on the experience of Mediterranean sailors, as was the case with portolan charts, but makes use of all manner of sources, including the account of Marco Polo's voyage in the late thirteenth century.
The portolan drafted in 1413 by Mecia de Viladestes (BNF, Res. Ge AA 566) is another interesting example of the Majorcan school. It reproduces the geographical framework of Dulcert's portolan chart, the rich array of paintings and explanatory legends of the Catalan Atlas, and it reflects the same fascination with African gold and knowledge of the overland routes leading to it.
The Majorcan cartographic school significantly changed the way nautical charts and land maps were produced : Catalan cartographers skillfully incorporated the most up-to-date information into their maps, thus altering the traditional framework of nautical charts.

The Origin Of Booze

A historical look at the stuff that gets us hammered. Who’s ready for the first round?

Beer

To quote Homer Simpson, is there anything it can’t do? Most likely invented in Persia circa 7,000 B.C.E., beer’s gone on to become hugely important in almost every ancient society it’s touched. Back in Sumerian culture, the drink was considered positively divine - a fact confirmed when archaeologists dug up the 4,000-year-old "Hymn to Ninkasi." The ode to the goddess of brewing actually doubles as a recipe for a barley-based beverage
guaranteed to make people feel "exhilarated, wonderful and blissful."

The epic of Gilgamesh tells us a similar tale; one of the main characters, Enkidu, is said to have had "seven cups of beer, and his heart soared." After seven rounds we can definitely see why. In ancient Egypt, wages were often paid to the poor in beer, or as they called it, hqt. It was sort of light beer, apparently, and not very intoxicating, which explains how construction workers of the day managed to drink three daily rations of it and still build their masterpiece: the not-at-all-leaning pyramids of Giza.

Wine

A wine snob will happily tell you, for hours on end, how difficult it is to make a decent wine and how many complicated steps are involved. This may be true, but it’s ridiculously easy to make basic wine. The beverage in its roughest form probably goes back thousands of years to primitive cultures who mistakenly left grapes in the sun for too long and then attempted to eat them. As it turns out, all the yeasts needed to ferment grapes actually grow on grape skin. (No additives necessary!)

Around 5,000 B.C.E., the people of present-day Georgia and Iran started making wine in clay pots. By the time of ancient Greece, wine had acquired a religious significance; perhaps in homage to Dionysus, the Greeks planted vines in all their colonies, including France and Egypt. (We’d love to know what the French make of the fact that they have the Greeks to thank for their vaunted grapes.)

California winemakers should also praise God, literally, for the fruits of their labor: when Christian missionaries arrived there, they planted the region’s first vines so they’d have something to transmogrify into
the blood of Jesus when they took Communion.

Champagne

As you probably know, bubbly comes from the Champagne region of France, a longtime center of trade (and also a region in the path of rampaging hordes: Attila the Hun, among others, left footprints there). As you may also know, Dom Perignon was in fact a real person - his first name was Pierre - and, in a sense, he’s the inventor of the sparkly stuff. A Benedictine monk, the Dom served as treasurer of an abbey in the Champagne region starting in 1688.

The region had slightly chilly weather that year, and the growing season was unusually short anyway - which meant grapes spent less time fermenting on the vine and more time fermenting in cellars. Essentially, it was this process that led to carbon dioxide being trapped inside the bottles.

At first the Dom was horrified; this was a sign that he’d failed in his duties as treasurer (which included, for some reason, winemaking). Try as he might, he couldn’t get rid of the bubbles. Finally, resigned to dealing with them, he blended grapes to make a light white wine, which suited the effervescence far better than a heavy red.

He also realized he’d have to solve another problem caused by trapped carbon dioxide: a considerable number of his bottles exploding. So, instead of stopping them with wood and oil-soaked hemp, he started using a soft material from Spain: cork.

This lovely story, by the way, doesn’t sit so well with the natives of Limoux, France. They allege that they were making sparkling wine in their backyards as early as the 1500s, and that Perignon stole their idea. We’ve got to side with the Dom on this one: After all, the guy was a monk.

Vodka

Believe it or not, the name really does come from the Russian word for "water," which is "voda," and the Russians have a pretty good claim to inventing the stuff. Production from grains has been documented there as far back as the 9th century. It wasn’t, however, until around the 14th century that vodka became known as the Russian national drink, and for good reasons; it was served everywhere, even at religious ceremonies.

Poland likes to boast that its own vodka production goes back even further than Russia’s, to the 8th century, but what was going made in that region at the time was more like grappa or brandy. Later Polish vodkas were called "gorzalka," or "burnt wine," and were used as medicines, as were all distilled liquors in the Middle Ages. Vodka was also used as an ingredient in early European formulations of gunpowder.

By the way, for those of you who turn your noses up the fruit-infused vodkas that have recently hit the market: they’re the original. Early vodkas were not quite as palatable as your average Grey Goose, so makers often masked the taste with fruits and spices.

Gin

If you’re unsurprised that vodka used to be given as medicine, you probably won’t be shocked to learn that gin was invented specifically for that purpose. 14th-century Europeans distilled juniper berries in hopes of fighting the plague (then again, almost everything they did was in hope of fighting the plague).

But gin as we know it didn’t come along until the mid-1600s. That’s when one Dr. Sylvius concocted the first formulation in the Netherlands, hoping it would serve as a primitive type of dialysis for kidney patients. (We’re guessing he didn’t particularly care about its effect on the liver.) By the end of the century, gin had become popular in Britain because it was sold at cut-rate prices, despite a very widespread rumor that it could induce abortion, which lead to it being nicknamed "mother’s ruin." Later, when the Brits started to occupy India, they found it useful in yet another medical mixture: the gin and tonic. The quinine in the tonic water was effective in fighting malaria.

Tequila

As vodka was to Russia, tequila was to Mexico; it’s been made there since at least the 16th century and was originally used in religious rituals. (Having drunk a little too much tequila once, we can testify to its ability to cause drinkers to beseech God for mercy.) The name comes from a town founded in 1656. And while José Cuervo didn’t exactly invent the drink, he was the first to commercialize it. As for its migration northward, a fellow named Cenobio Sauza brought the stuff to the U.S. in the late 1800s; we can’t help but wonder if this is why frat boys on spring break still refer to this stuff as "the sauce."

Rum

Yo-ho-uh-oh and a bottle of rum - the drink tastes great, but its history isn’t so sweet. The story, as far as we can tell, starts in India, where in 300, B.C.E., Alexander the Great saw some sugarcane and memorably called it "the grass that gives honey without bees."

All well and good, until Christopher Columbus went and brought sugarcane to the Caribbean. There, it flourished and became the engine of the slave trade. Africa sent slaves to the Caribbean, which sent sugar to New England, which sent rum and other goodies to Africa, which sent more slaves to the Caribbean. Known as the triangular trade, pondering the implications of it all is enough to make a person want a stiff drink. But not, preferably, one steeped in rum.

Whisky

Are the origins of whisky Scottish or Irish ? Naturally, opinions about this question are drastically opposed depending on the native country of the person to whom you ask.

Nevertheless, it seems that more and more people tend to agree on the hypothesis of an Irish origin. It would be no one else than Saint-Patrick himself, the patron of the Irish, who would have introduced the still in his country at Vth AC, holding it himself indirectly from the Arabian. Irish monks would have then spread from Vth before J.C. the art of distillation at the same time as Christian civilization, in their own country to start with, then in Scotland.

In any case, what one knows for sure is that the art of distillation is very old and dates back too much more ancient time than the first origins of whisky. The Egyptians are known to have practised the distillation of perfumes 3000 years before J.C. As a matter of fact, the word alcohol is directly derived from the Arabic al-koh'l, koh'l being a dark powder from pulverized antimony and used as an eye make up.

From XIIth onwards, distillation of water of life or aqua vitae spreads progressively through Europe, notably in Ireland and in Scotland under its Gaelic name of Uisge Beatha or Usquebaugh, which will eventually transform into Uisge then Uisky, until becoming Whisky. Some virtues, literally miraculous which were justifying its name, were attributed to the water of life. Curing virtually any pain, it was then a medicinal potion which was prescribed as well as an ointment as a remedy to be drunk. It was a long way from possessing the flavours and the subtlety of the one drunk today, and was consumed for its mere virtues as opposed for pleasure.

Hail of Stones from Nowhere

THE CATALOG OF unexplained events includes many strange instances of stones falling from the sky - or somewhere. Showers of stones, often from clear skies and in areas where rockslides from mountains cannot be blamed. Hails of stones pummeling rooftops and people, often causing damage and injury. Investigations of these events usually end with unnerved victims and with officials scratching their heads in puzzlement or, out of desperation, inventing "explanations" that are sometimes as outlandish as the events themselves.
Reports of this particular type of mystery go back centuries and come from all over the world. One of the earliest written accounts was by Robert Kirk in 1690, who attributed the throwing of "great stons" to subterranean inhabitants that he called the "invisible wights." And an unexplained stone-throwing incident that took place in New Hampshire was recorded in a pamphlet entitled "Lithobolia, or the Stone-throwing Devil," published in London in 1698.
In some of these bizarre cases, the rain of stones occurs in connection with other paranormal phenomena, such as a haunting or poltergeist activity.
n the famous Bell Witch haunting of 1817, which included a host of strange goings-on, neighbors of the beleaguered Bells were pelted with stones thrown by an unseen entity.
The phenomenon is defined by the inability of investigators to identify any assailants or vandals, and usually by the lack of any motive for such an assault. So the questions arise: Where do these phantom stones come from? Who or what is responsible for throwing or dropping them? Are there natural explanations for the phenomenon? Consider these remarkable cases and draw your own conclusions:
• Harrisonville, Ohio, 1901 - The stone attack on this small village began on the Sunday afternoon of October 13 when, as the Buffalo Express reported, "a small boulder came crashing through the window of Zach Dye's house." No culprit could be found around the isolated house... and this was just the beginning. The next day, dozens of stones rained down in the heart of the village, breaking windows and striking citizens. Were mischievous kids to blame? The next day, all of the male children of the village were gathered together (how could girls do such a thing?), and stones fell for a third day. None of the villagers could detect where the stones were coming from.
• Sumatra, 1903 - W. G. Grottendieck wrote about how small black stones, hot to the touch, came raining down in his bedroom as 1 a.m. The most bizarre aspect of this case is that the stones seemed to come through the roof without making holes in it, and they fell, he said, in a motion that was slower than would be normal.
• Marcinelle, Belgium, 1913 - For four days in January one house was besieged by an invisible stone thrower with remarkable accuracy. Police officers began to watch the house in an attempt to catch the vandal, but one wrote in his report: "I have seen a stone arriving in the middle of a large window-pane and then came others in spiral round the first point of impact.... I even saw, in another window, a projectile caught in the fragments of the glass of the first hole it made, and subsequently ejected by another passing through the same point." No stone-thrower was ever seen, although an estimated 300 stones struck the house.
• Ardeche, France, 1921 - Most of these events are short-lived, lasting only a few days at most. But beginning in September, a farmhouse in France was victimized for four months. The stones dropped at all hours of the day, sometimes striking the family's children and a clergyman who was called in to investigate. In this case, apples were also thrown and, again, with inhuman accuracy: apples came speeding in through small holes in the shudders made by previous apples.
• Sumatra, 1928 - One of the most astonishing cases was experienced and reported by the renowned paranormal investigator Ivan T. Sanderson. While sitting on the veranda of an estate house as a guest one evening, a shiny black pebble dropped onto the veranda out of nowhere. Dozens more followed. Sanderson, who was familiar with the phenomenon, tried an experiment. He ordered the stones gathered up and marked with chalk, paint or whatever else could be used. They then threw the stones back out randomly into the garden and shrubbery. "We must have thrown over a dozen such marked stones," Sanderson wrote. "Within a minute they were all back! Nobody, with a powerful flashlight or super-eyesight, could have found those little stones in that tangled mess... and thrown them back on to the veranda. Yet, they came back, all duly marked by us!"
• Oakland, California, 1943 - In August of that year, Mrs. Irene Fellows finally called the police after two weeks of stones pelting her house at various times of the day. At first skeptical, the police inquiry became serious when their investigation clearly identified the pockmarks of the falling stones on Mrs. Fellows' roof and walls, and by the litter of stones on her lawn. Mrs. Fellows and members of her family were frequently hit by the stones, although to no serious injury. The thorough police investigation could offer no explanation for the stones, which seemed to materialize out of nothingness.
• Brooklyn, Wellington, New Zealand, 1963 - Stones and apples are one thing, but what about money? Why would a vandal throw money? On March 24, a guest house was inexplicably battered by a hail of stones and a few coins. Police were called and unsuccessfully searched for the perpetrator of the assault, which lasted for seven hours. Windows were smashed and people were struck, but none injured. The coins included New Zealand pennies and a large copper coin. The mysterious attack occurred again for two more nights, then stopped.
• Skaneateles, New York, 1973 - Most often, a particular house is the target for this phenomenon, but in this highly unusual case, two fisherman became the victims of the falling stones - a paranormal storm that followed wherever they went! The rain of pebbles began as they were finishing their fishing expedition and followed them as they made their way to their car. The shower ceased for a while, then resumed when they stopped briefly on their way home. Deciding they needed a drink, they went to a bar, and when they came out some time later, the rain of pebbles began again. As they were about to go their separate ways in their hometown of Liverpool (about 25 miles northeast of Skaneateles), the little stones dropped on them one last time.
• Arizona, 1983 - The attack on the Berkbigler family began in September, just as they moved into their new home. Large rocks crashed down on the house every night, usually between the hours of 5:30 and 7:00 p.m. The local sheriff's department could determine no assailant, even with helicopter surveillance. The authorities became reluctant to visit the Berkbigler home when they too were struck by the falling rocks. This went on for weeks, culminating on December 4 while two newspaper reporters were interviewing the family. Rocks slammed into the side door of the house for two hours. What's most mysterious here is that to strike this door, the rocks had to pass through the garage where a van was parked, through a narrow two-foot space.
This is just a small sampling of the hundreds of such cases that have taken place over the last century. There is no easy explanation for these rains of rocks and stones. Something supernatural is most definitely taking place, and most researchers theorize that it is a form of poltergeist phenomena - a physical manifestation caused most likely by the minds (or powerful electromagnetic brain activity) of the victims themselves. But this meager explanation poses more questions than it answers, especially in the cases in which the very physical stones seem to materialize out of thin air.

History Of Time Measurement

Pre-historic man did not have a need for clocks, but as civilization evolved, that all chnaged. The historical record reveals that approximatley 5000 to 6000 years ago great civilizations in the Middle East and North Africa began to make clocks to augment their calendars. With their attendant bureaucracies, formal religions, and other burgeoning societal activities, these cultures apparently found a need to organize their time more efficiently.
A clock (from the Latin cloca - bell) is an instrument for measuring time and for measuring time intervals of less than a day - as opposed to a calendar. Those used for technical purposes, of very high accuracy, are usually called chronometers. A portable clock is called a watch. The clock in its most common modern form (in use since at least the 14th century) displays the hours, minutes and, sometimes, seconds that pass during a twelve- or twenty-four-hour period.
One of the key drivers of inventing methods of keeping track of time were the farmers needs to determine the best time to plant. Archaeologists have discovered bones with inscriptions that are believed to have been used to track lunar cycles.
The clock is one of the oldest human inventions, requiring a physical process that will proceed at a known rate and a way to gauge how long that process has run. As the seasons and the phases of the moon can be used to measure the passage of longer periods of time, shorter processes had to be used to measure off hours and minutes.
China

Incense Alarm Clock
Candles and sticks of incense that burn down at approximate predictable speeds were also used as to estimate the passage of time. The image above of an ancient Chinese dragon shaped device was constructed with a sequence of bells tied to a horizontally mounted burning incense. When the burning incense burnt and broke the threads, the bells fell down at preset interval to give an alarm.
Hourglass

An hourglass filled with fine sand, poured through a tiny hole,at a constant rate, indicated a predetermined passage of time.
An hour glass is basically 2 bubbles of glass with a narrow middle; wood is used to close off the sand. The sand is measured and sealed and the hour glass is turned over and over. This type of clock was the first one to not be dependent on the weather. It's used for short periods of time such as speeches, sermons, watch duty, cooking, and at sea to calculate one's position.
To calculate the speed at sea, one would throw a piece of wood overboard tied with a knotted rope. When a knot ran through one's fingers in 1/2 a minute measured by the hour glass, it indicated that the vessel was going at the speed of 1 nautical mile an hour. The knots were very wide apart and one just counted the knots. Hence the phrase "knots an hour".
The center of the hour glass would get clogged. Course sand wore away at the center and made the opening wider. An hour glass had to be on a flat surface in order to work properly.
Sundial

Sundials were another early method for marking time.
The sundial, which measures the time of day by the direction of shadows cast by the sun, was widely known in ancient times.
Sumer
The Sumerians used sundials. They divided the day into 12 parts and each part was about 2 hours long. They measured the length of shadows to determine how much time had passed. No one is really sure why the Sumerians kept track of time; maybe it was for religious purposes. Sundials were dependent on the weather; it would be useless on a cloudy day and the winter and summer shadows would not correspond with the markings. In order for the sundial to work correctly, it had to be positioned correctly.
Egypt
The Egyptians, by 2100 BC, had invented a means to divide the day into 24 hours using sundials or shadow clocks to measure the time of day. The Sundial indicates the time of day by the positioning of the shadow of some object on which the sun's rays fall. The shadow clock consists of a straight base with a raised crosspiece at one end. A scale with time divisions is inscribed on the base. The clock is set east-west and is reversed at midday.
The Egyptians also divided the day into 12 parts as well. They used huge granite columns called Cleopatra Needles, a trio of obelisks, to keep track of time periods. They had 12 marks on the ground that equalled 12 parts of the day. When the sun touched the top, a shadow was created and the length and position of the shadow told the Egyptians how much daylight remained. They invented a portable piece called a sundial. It contains 3 parts: a circular dial, a needle and a style (gnomon) to keep the needle in place. Cleopatra's needles were inconvient and impractical for the average person.
Merkhet

The 'merkhet', the oldest known astronomical tool, was an Egyptian development of around 600 B.C. A pair of merkhets were used to establish a north-south line by lining them up with the Pole Star. They could then be used to mark off nighttime hours by determining when certain other stars crossed the meridian. The Merkhet, known as the "instrument of knowing" was a sighting tool made from the central rib of a palm leaf and was similar in function to an astrolobe. The merkhet was used for aligning the foundations of the pyramids and sun temples with the cardinal points, and was usually correct to within less than half a degree.
Rome
The Romans divided time into night and day. According to the writer Pliny, criers announced the rising/setting of the sun. In 30 B.C, they stole Cleopatra's Needle but were unable to adapt. Al-Battani realized that the gnomon (pointer) had to point towards the North Star and the length and size of the gnomon varied with the distance from the equator.
In the quest for more year-round accuracy, sundials evolved from flat horizontal or vertical plates to more elaborate forms. One version was the hemispherical dial, a bowl-shaped depression cut into a block of stone, carrying a central vertical gnomon and scribed with sets of hour lines for different seasons. The hemicycle, said to have been invented about 300 B.C., removed the useless half of the hemisphere to give an appearance of a half-bowl cut into the edge of a squared block. By 30 B.C., Vitruvius could describe 13 different sundial styles in use in Greece, Asia Minor, and Italy.
Water Clock
Water clocks were among the earliest timekeepers that didn't depend on the observation of celestial bodies. Water clocks were used in ancient Babylon, Mesopotami, China, Korea, Egypt, Greece, India, Arabia, Muslim and civilizations.
One of the oldest water clocks was found in the tomb of Amenhotep I, buried around 1500 B.C.
Later they were named clepsydras ('water thief') by the Greeks, who began using them about 325 B.C. These were stone vessels with sloping sides that allowed water to drip at a nearly constant rate from a small hole near the bottom.
Other Egyptian clepsydras were cylindrical or bowl-shaped containers designed to slowly fill with water coming in at a constant rate. Markings on the inside surfaces measured the passage of "hours" as the water level reached them. These clocks were used to determine hours at night, but may have been used in daylight as well. Another version consisted of a metal bowl with a hole in the bottom; when placed in a container of water the bowl would fill and sink in a certain time. These were still in use in North Africa this century. The need to track night hours lead to the invention of the water clock by 1500 BC, the Egyptians. This clock uses the steady dripping of water from a vessel to drive a mechanical device that tells the time. It was basically a bucket of water with a hole in the bottom. A water clock showed the passage of time but it didn't keep exact hours in a day. Egyptians were the people most likely to have invented them but the Greeks had the most advanced ones.
The historian Vitruvius reported that the ancient Egyptians used a clepsydra, a time mechanism using flowing water. Herodotus had mentioned an ancient Egyptian time-keeping device that was based on mercury. By the 9th century AD a mechanical timekeeper had been developed that lacked only an escapement mechanism.
In 250 B.C, Archimedes built a more elaborate water clock; he added gears and showed the planets and moon orbiting.
In order for a water clock to work properly, someone had to keep an eye on it; to make sure that no pebbles were in the bowl to increase talking time. These clocks were never exact; each clock had its own pace. And they couldn't be used in winter.
These clocks were used for nearly 3,000 years and grew more and more sophisticated. Water clocks were designed with ringing bells, moving puppets and mechanical singing birds.
More elaborate and impressive mechanized water clocks were developed between 100 B.C. and 500 A.D. by Greek and Roman horologists and astronomers. The added complexity was aimed at making the flow more constant by regulating the pressure, and at providing fancier displays of the passage of time. Some water clocks rang bells and gongs, others opened doors and windows to show little figures of people, or moved pointers, dials, and astrological models of the universe.
Greek astronomer, Andronikos, supervised the construction of the Tower of the Winds in Athens in the 1st century B.C. This octagonal structure showed scholars and marketplace shoppers both sundials and mechanical hour indicators. It featured a 24-hour mechanized clepsydra and indicators for the eight winds from which the tower got its name, and it displayed the seasons of the year and astrological dates and periods. The Romans also developed mechanized clepsydras, though their complexity accomplished little improvement over simpler methods for determining the passage of time.

In the Far East, mechanized astronomical/astrological clock-making developed from 200 to 1300 A.D. Third-century Chinese clepsydras drove various mechanisms that illustrated astronomical phenomena. One of the most elaborate clock towers was built by Su Sung and his associates in 1088 A.D. Su Sung's mechanism incorporated a water-driven escapement invented about 725 A.D. The Su Sung clock tower, over 30 feet tall, possessed a bronze power-driven armillary sphere for observations, an automatically rotating celestial globe, and five front panels with doors that permitted the viewing of changing mannikins which rang bells or gongs, and held tablets indicating the hour or other special times of the day.
Early Mechanical Clocks
The first clock used gravity pulled weights which moved gears, which moved the hands of the clock. The problem with this device was someone had to constantly reset the weights.
14th century clocks show the four key elements common to all clocks in subsequent centuries, at least up to the digital age:
the power, supplied by a falling weight, later by a coiled spring
the escapement, a periodic repetitive action that allows the power to escape in small bursts rather than drain away all at once
the going train, a set of interlocking gear wheels that controls the speed of rotation of the wheels connected between the power supply and the indicators
indicators, such as dials, hands, and bells
No clocks survive from medieval Europe but various mentions in church records reveal some of the early history of the clock.
Medieval religious institutions required clocks to measure and indicate the passing of time because, for many centuries, daily prayer and work schedules had to be strictly regulated. This was done by various types of time-telling and recording devices, such as water clocks, sundials and marked candles, probably used in combination. Important times and durations were broadcast by bells, rung either by hand or by some mechanical device such as a falling weight or rotating beater.
The word 'horologia' (from the Greek hora, hour, and legein, to tell) was used to describe all these devices but the use of this word (still used in several romance languages) for all timekeepers conceals from us the true nature of the mechanisms. For example, there is a record that in 1176 Sens Cathedral installed a 'horologe' but the mechanism used is unknown.
In 1198, during a fire at the abbey of St Edmundsbury (now Bury St Edmunds) the monks 'ran to the clock' to fetch water, indicating that their water clock had a reservoir large enough to help extinguish the occasional fire.These early clocks may not have used hands or dials but ³told² the time with audible signals.
The word 'clock' (from the Latin word for "bell") which gradually supersedes 'horologe' suggests that it was the sound of bells which also characterized the prototype mechanical clocks that appeared during the 13th century.
Between 1280 and 1320 there is an increase in the number of references to clocks and horologes in church records, and this probably indicates that a new type of clock mechanism had been devised. Existing clock mechanisms that used water power were being adapted to take the driving power from falling weights. This power was controlled by some form of oscillating mechanism, probably derived from existing bell-ringing or alarm devices. This controlled release of power - the escapement - marks the beginning of the true mechanical clock.
These mechanical clocks were intended for two main purposes: for signalling and notification (e.g. the timing of services and public events), and for modelling the solar system. The former purpose is administrative, the latter arises naturally given the scholarly interest in astronomy, science, astrology, and how these subjects integrated with the religious philosopy of the time.
Astrolabe

The astrolabe was used both by astronomers and astrologers, and it was natural to apply a clockwork drive to the rotating plate to produce a working model of the solar system.
Simple clocks intended mainly for notification were installed in towers, and did not always require dials or hands. They would have announced the canonical hours or intervals between set times of prayer. Canonical hours varied in length as the times of sunrise and sunset shifted.
The more sophisticated astronomical clocks would have had moving dials or hands, and would have shown the time in various time systems, including Italian hours, canonical hours, and time as measured by astronomers at the time. Both styles of clock started acquiring extravagant features such as automata.
In 1283 a large clock was installed at Dunstable Priory; its location above the rood screen suggests that it was not a water clock.
In 1292, Canterbury Cathedral installed a 'great horloge'. Over the next 30 years there are brief mentions of clocks at a number of ecclesiastical institutions in England, Italy, and France.
In 1322 a new clock was installed in Norwich, an expensive replacement for an earlier clock installed in 1273. This had a large (2 metre) astronomical dial with automata and bells. The costs of the installation included the full-time employment of two technicians for two years.
The first major advance in clock construction occurred in Europe during the 14th century. It was found that the speed of a falling weight could be controlled by using a oscillating horizontal bar attached to a vertical spindle with two protrusions on it which acted like escapements, (cliff like ridges). When the protrusions meshed with a tooth of a gear driven by the weight, it momentarily stopped the revolving wheel and weight. These oldest type of mechanical clocks can still be seen in France and England.

The Strasbourg Cathedral was the first clock tower built (1352-54) and still works today.
As Europe grew, each town had to find a way to tell time; there was an emphasis on productivity and work.
14th Century
Near the end of the 14th century, the spring had begun to replace the weight in some clocks. This advancement allowed for clocks which could be carried. One problem with a spring clock is that the escapement mechanism must always be operated with a constant force. The problem was that as the spring unwound, it lost power. To solve this, the stackfreed was introduced. This is an extra spring that works against the motion when the watch is fully wound.
15th Century
Spring-driven clocks were developed during the 15th century, and this gave the clockmakers many new problems to solve, such as how to compensate for the changing power supplied as the spring unwound.
The first record of a minute hand on a clock is 1475, in the Almanus Manuscript of Brother Paul.
16th Century
In 1504 the first portable time piece was invented in Nuremberg, Germany by Peter Henlein. Replacing the heavy drive weights permitted smaller (and portable) clocks and watches. Although they slowed down as the mainspring unwound, they were popular among wealthy individuals due to their size and the fact that they could be put on a shelf or table instead of hanging from the wall. These advances in design were precursors to truly accurate timekeeping.
In 1577 the minute hand was invented by Jost Burgi for Tycho Brahe; he was an astronomer who needed accurate clocks to track stars.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, clockmaking flourished, particularly in the metalworking towns of Nuremberg and Augsburg, and, in France, Blois. Some of the more basic table clocks have only one time-keeping hand, with the dial between the hour markers being divided into four equal parts making the clocks readable to the nearest 15 minutes. Other clocks were exhibitions of craftsmanship and skill, incorporating astronomical indicators and musical movements.
The cross-beat escapement was developed in 1585 by Jobst Burgi, who also developed the remontoire. Burgi's accurate clocks helped Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler to observe astronomical events with much greater precision than before.The first record of a second hand on a clock is about 1560, on a clock now in the Fremersdorf collection.
However, this clock could not have been accurate, and the second hand was probably for indicating that the clock was working.The next development in accuracy occurred after 1657 with the invention of the pendulum clock.
17th Century
By 1656, the pendulum was incorporated into clocks, which lead to better paced and more accurate clocks. Although fairly accurate, clocks accuracy was dramatically improved by the introduction of the pendulum. Galileo had the idea to use a swinging bob to propel the motion of a time telling device earlier in the 17th century. Although Galileo Galilei, sometimes credited with inventing the pendulum, studied its motion as early as 1582, Galileo's design for a clock was not built before his death.

Christiaan Huygens' pendulum clock was regulated by a mechanism with a "natural" period of oscillation. Huygens' pendulum clock had an error of less than 1 minute a day, the first time such accuracy had been achieved. His later refinements reduced his clock's errors to less than 10 seconds a day.
Around 1675 Huygens developed the balance wheel and spring assembly, still found in some of today's wrist watches. This improvement allowed 17th century watches to keep time to 10 minutes a day. And in London in 1671 William Clement began building clocks with the new "anchor" or "recoil" escapement, a substantial improvement over the verge because it interferes less with the motion of the pendulum.
In 1670, the English clockmaker William Clement created the anchor escapement, an improvement over Huygens' crown escapement. Within just one generation, minute hands and then second hands were added.
A major stimulus to improving the accuracy and reliability of clocks was the importance of precise time-keeping for navigation. The position of a ship at sea could be determined with reasonable accuracy if a navigator could refer to a clock that lost or gained less than about 10 seconds per day. Many European governments offered a large prize for anyone that could determine longitude accurately.
Christiaan Huygens, however, is usually credited as the inventor. He determined the mathematical formula that related pendulum length to time (99.38 cm or 39.13 inches for the one second movement) and had the first pendulum-driven clock made.
The pendulums swinging ensures that the protrusions move the gears wheels tooth by tooth while the motion of the protrusions keeps the pendulum moving. It was improved further by the Englishmen Robert Hooke who invented the anchor or recoil escapement.
During the 16th and 17th centuries the need for accurate clocks while sailing across the oceans arose. While springs made clocks portable, they were not accurate for long periods. Hooke realized that a spring would not be affected by the ship's motion as a pendulum would, but the available mainspring devices were not accurate enough for long periods of time until 1675, when the balance wheel, a very thin spiral hairspring (separate from the mainspring) whose inner end was secured to the spindle of a rotatable balance and whose outer end was fixed to the case of the timepiece. The spring stored or released energy during the rotation of the balance. John Harrison's chronometer no. 4, was in error by only 54 seconds after a sea voyage of 156 days.
The balance wheel, hairspring, and mainspring, together with the anchor escapement, or improved escapements, still make up the basics of even todays modern watches. Introduction of jewels as bearings have further improved on this basic system.
This improved the functioning of the gear train. Infact, this method is still used today. The greatest benefit of this method was that it allowed for very long pendulums with a swing of one second. The out growth of this invention was the walled pendulum clock where the weights and pendulum are completely enclosed in a case. Of course, most people are very familiar with these clocks with the most common being the 'Grandfather Clock'.

The reward was eventually claimed in 1761 by John Harrison, who dedicated his life to improving the accuracy of his clocks. His H5 clock is reported to have lost less than 5 seconds over 10 days.
The excitement over the pendulum clock had attracted the attention of designers resulting in a proliferation of clock forms. Notably, the longcase clock (also known as the grandfather clock) was created to house the pendulum and works. The English clockmaker William Clement is also credited with developing this form in 1670 or 1671. It was also at this time that clock cases began to be made of wood and clock faces to utilize enamel as well as hand-painted ceramics.
18th Century
In 1721 George Graham improved the pendulum clock's accuracy to 1 second a day by compensating for changes in the pendulum's length due to temperature variations. John Harrison, a carpenter and self-taught clock-maker, refined Graham's temperature compensation techniques and added new methods of reducing friction.
By 1761 he had built a marine chronometer with a spring and balance wheel escapement that won the British government's 1714 prize (of over $2,000,000 in today's currency) offered for a means of determining longitude to within one-half degree after a voyage to the West Indies. It kept time on board a rolling ship to about one-fifth of a second a day, nearly as well as a pendulum clock could do on land, and 10 times better than required.
On November 17, 1797, Eli Terry received his first patent for a clock. Terry is known as the founder of the American clock-making industry.
19th Century
Alexander Bain, Scottish clockmaker, patented the electric clock in 1840. The electric clock's mainspring is wound either with an electric motor or with an electro-magnet and armature. In 1841, he first patented the electromagnetic pendulum.
Over the next century refinements led in 1889 to Siegmund Riefler's clock with a nearly free pendulum, which attained an accuracy of a hundredth of a second a day and became the standard in many astronomical observatories. A true free-pendulum principle was introduced by R. J. Rudd about 1898, stimulating development of several free-pendulum clocks.
20th Century
One of the most famous, the W. H. Shortt clock, was demonstrated in 1921. The Shortt clock almost immediately replaced Riefler's clock as a supreme timekeeper in many observatories. This clock consists of two pendulums, one a slave and the other a master. The slave pendulum gives the master pendulum the gentle pushes needed to maintain its motion, and also drives the clock's hands. This allows the master pendulum to remain free from mechanical tasks that would disturb its regularity.
Watches run by small batteries were introduced in the 1950s. The balance of such an electric watch is kept in motion electromagnetically by a coil that is energized by an electronic circuit.
The development of electronics in the twentieth century led to clocks with no clockwork parts at all. Time in these cases is measured in several ways, such as by the vibration of a tuning fork, the behavior of quartz crystals, the decay of radioactive elements or resonance of polycarbonates. Even mechanical clocks have since come to be largely powered by batteries, removing the need for winding.