Note 34 — Front matter

C. B. Drover, "A medieval monastic water-clock," Antiquarian Horology, 1954, vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 54-58, 63. Because this water clock uses wheels and strikes bells one must reject the evidence of literary reference, such as by Dante, from which the mention of wheels and bells have been taken as positive proof of the existence of mechanical clocks with mechanical escapements. The to-and-fro motion of the mechanical clock escapement is quite an impressive feature, but there seems to be no literary reference to it before the time of de Dondi.