) I . j ^ ^ Herald - Lantern - Dispatch 1 lanuary '85

SHEAR DELIGHT V T SALONC - BEAUTY •-[ .w SALON ELDREDCE & BAYSHORE RD„ DEL HAVEN Himjiv Wed A Thun 44 SO. |ii. 9-7. Sat « HM 886"5243 The world of gymnastics Come to our OPEN HOUSE January 11th 12-5 Free Refreshments and * Gymnastics Exhibition

"Customer Courtesy Center, How Can We Help You?" You are cordially invited to the neighbors. — While you're there. ' grand opening, of Atlantic Electric s you can - newest Customer Courtesy Center. • Sign up for the Budget Payment Plan located in Rio Grande, on Friday. • Find out about Weatherization January 24 Programs We're Opening this second Courtesy • Have your bill explained Center as part of our on-gping commit- ' • Make payments ■* ment to provide our customers with the and much more! best service in the utility industry. You may also continue to mail your The Center will be open Monday payments directly to Atlantic Electric 1 1 through Friday, from 9.00 a.m. until or use any of our Bank Payment 5:30 p.m. starting December 30. Please Agencies located in the Cape May stop in, we'd like to meet our new County area. Please come to our Grand Opening on January 24 and enter our drawing for a microwave oven! The Customer Courtesy Center is located in the "Village Shoppe§ of Rio Grande" shopping center. Routes 9 and 47. Rio Grande. Atlantic electric People Meeting Your Energy Needs

Antiques 1

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By Arthur H. Schwerdt «

Another year. Time passes so swiftly that we are almost compelled to collect antiques just to catch a piece of it as it whooshes by. There is a magnificent old clock in the John Craig House on Columbia Street in Cape May City. It is a heavy black marble clock in the Empire style, and is enthomed on the white marble mantel in the forj mal dining room. It is one of the original furnishings of the inn, which owners Chris and Dave Clemmens chose to keep in their intelligent interior decorating scheme for the house. I THIS CLOCK got some I special attention when we 1 helped Chris and Dave wi^h their Christmas decorations this year. A sunburst of rod-like purple dried flowers radiates from behind the clock; and tiny gilded starfish rise up on a firmament of greens on either side. The effect is somewhat cosmic, But, after all, Time plays as important a role as anything during the holiday season. Christmas puts the whole world on a deadline. And midnight on Dec. 31 will find us all looking at some clock or other

t as we measure off the final i seconds of another passing i year. > For centuries, Euro- » peans counted the time of - day as the Romans had'!— * by the changing of the > guard. A bell was rung at » approximately three hour > intervals starting at about - 6 a.m. Each bell had a r name, and the one that i struck at midday was called nona (nine) from which ; we get the word "noon." ; Together they were called i horae or hours. Intervals of time were t measured by the passing of 1 sand in an hourglass, or i sometimes by elaborate r water clocks called clepi sydras. Sundials also i helped to. measure solar time, which, as those who t own one know, can be off i from true time by about ; twenty minutes during the course of a year, i HISTORIANS place the i invention of today's clock i at about the year 1300. They divided time into hours of sixty minutes with

sixty seconds in each minute as the Summerians and Babylonians had many centuries before. These new clocks were called horologia and the craftsmen who made them were scientists called horologists. The word, "clock" is Dutch for "bell," a^nd some collectors will tell you that if it doesn't have a bell, it is simply called a "timepiece." The five basic elements of a clock are rather simple and even poetic. We should be well aware of them when choosing to buy or collect. The POWER SOURCE is first, and includes spoiled spring, a leaded weight, and today's electric power. The ESCAPEMENT lets the power escape at regular intervals, and is therefor responsible for the clock's accuracy. This is usually a series of interlocking gears. THE FACE is what tells us the time. We take the round face with 12 numbers for granted today, but there have been many other kinds over the centuries. The digital face is popular on today's clocks. The ADJOINING MECHANISMS include any coo-coos or figurines 'which are operated from the clock's power source. The CASE is most often the reason why we choose one clock over another, and there are as any different styles as there have been styles of furniture. Because clockmaking was special craft, there were too few of them for ordinary people to be able to afford. Most people relied on the clocks on public building. The British excelled at making these clock towers, as their pride in Big Ben will testify. THIS CRAFT was brought with them to New England where, in Connecticut, America's oldest public clock stands. It is in the city of Guilford, and was designed by Ebenezer Parmele and built in 1726. Connecticut is generally considered the birthplace of American clockmaking. Thomas Harland was its

premier craftsman, but his apprentice Eli Terry was to turn this craft into a major industry. In 1807, Terry went into business with a couple of partners and massproduced hundreds of tall clocks with pendulum escapements. By 1876, the popular song, "My Grandfather Clock," was to give these clocks the name we call them today. By 1820, Terry was able to market a shelf clock which every family could afford. It was called the pillar and scroll flock. This clock was made of wood, with a scrolled top, two pillars on either side and a glass door on the front, which was opened with a key for fixing the time. THE CLOCK we choose to have in our homes can become a special and intricate part of our lives. As a testament to this is a note found in the case of an old Grandfather clock. It reads in part; "You are a friend to all of us, a regulator of the speed of our lives, and a faithful link between a generation now gone and a generation yet to come. . . You have the special power to lift the past into the present, to make that which has lived be alive again. You are the voice of my home. " This New Year's Eve, after kissing our loved ones and wishing our friends well at midnight, let us all toast the clock which brought us there, and promise ourselves the time of our lives in 1986. Happy New Year to all! (Arthur Schwerdt. coowner of The August Far- . mhouse. on Route 9 in Swainton. invites Questions do this newspaper.)

<>a <;Pom ** ^ - SULLIVAN'S DEPT. STORE 2170 Dune Dr., Avalon • 967-3189 Open Daily 7 a.m. • 5 p.m.