Show Primitive Sand Glass Now and then tho explorer among a primitive people happens upon a find which strikingly illustrates that necessity neces-sity is not only the mother of invention but that there isa strong family likeness among the inventions An English naturalist nat-uralist while visiting Great Sangir one of those islands of the Indian ocean known as the Celebes or Spice Islands lodged at the house of a rajah In front of the house was a veranda in a corner of which stood a sentry whose business was to keep the time for the village by the aid of a primitive sandglass Two bser bottles were firmly lashed together mouth to mouth and fixed in a wooden frame made to stand upright in reversible positions A quantity of black sand ran from one bottle into the other in just half an hour and when the upper bottle was empty the frame was reversed I Twelvo short sticks marked with notches from one to twelve were hung upon a string A hook was placed between be-tween the stick bearing the number of notches corresponding to the hour last struck and the one to be struck next The sentry announced the time by striking strik-ing the hours on a large gong Youth s Companion |