Origin of The Name
There are two theories of the origin of the name 'lantern clock'. One is that the name derived from the shape; the clock resembles a rectangular lantern of that period, and like a lantern was hung on the wall. The other is that it refers to brass, the main metal of which lantern clocks are made. Copper alloys, of which brass is one, were often called latten in earlier times and 'lantern' could be a corruption of this old word. In inventories of deceased clock makers, lantern clocks are usually referred to as 'house clocks', 'chamber clocks' or simply 'clocks', since in 17th century England they were almost the only type of domestic clocks that existed. It was only after a century had passed, when other types of domestic clocks began to be used in British houses, that more descriptive names for it appeared. Other names used for these clocks are bedpost, birdcage or Cromwellian clocks. 'Sheep's head clock' was a nickname term for a type of lantern clock that had an extremely large chapter ring covering almost the entire front.
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Famous quotes containing the words the name, origin of and/or origin:
“There is the name and the thing; the name is a sound which sets a mark on and denotes the thing. The name is no part of the thing nor of the substance; it is an extraneous piece added to the thing, and outside of it.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Someone had literally run to earth
In an old cellar hole in a byroad
The origin of all the family there.
Thence they were sprung, so numerous a tribe
That now not all the houses left in town
Made shift to shelter them without the help
Of here and there a tent in grove and orchard.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Each structure and institution here was so primitive that you could at once refer it to its source; but our buildings commonly suggest neither their origin nor their purpose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)