e weights?"

"Yes, their driving power was a big lead weight. The clock at Bath has
a thirty-two-pound weight of lead which drops monthly six feet."

"Is it only wound each month?"

"That's all. Some of these tall clocks made by Tompion ran a year
without winding. Nor must you get the impression that clocks and watches
were the only things this remarkable mechanic produced, for at Hampton
Court is a barometer of his construction, proving him to be a master of
more intricate science than the mere art of time-keeping. In fact many
of his clocks show the days and the months, as well as the difference
between sun time and mean time."

"I don't quite understand what mean time is. Isn't all time alike?"

"Mercy, no! Sun time and our time are two quite different things. Some
day I will tell you why. Of this Thomas Tompion, although he lived long
ago, was well aware. You see, therefore, he was no ordinary uneducated
clockmaker. What wonder that he and George Graham, one of the
illustrious pupils he trained, should have been buried together at
Westminster Abbey!"

"You haven't told me anything about Graham."

"He was a nephew of Tompion and a very clever craftsman whose clocks did
honor to his teacher. _Honest George Graham_, he was called--not a bad
way to come down through history. Personally I would rather have that
handle before my name than to have _Lord_ or _Duke_ precede it and I
fancy George Graham was of a type who felt that way too! So devoted were
he and Tompion and so closely linked was their work that when Graham
died, the grave of Tompion was opened in order that the two men might be
buried together. Then a stone was made reading:

Here lies the body of Mr. Tho. Tompion who departed this life
the 20th of November 1713 in the 75th year of his age.

* * * * *

Also the body of George Graham of London watchmaker and F.R.S.
whose curious inventions do honour to ye British genius whose
accurate performances are ye standard of Mechanic Skill. He died
ye XVI of November MDCCLI in the LXXVIII year of his age.

"Now a bit of interesting history is attached to this stone. Several
years after it had been put in place a younger generation came along who
knew very little of either Tompion or his pupil Graham, and seeing the
large tablet, some of them decided to take it up and put instead smaller
stones with only the inscriptions:

Mr. T. Tompion 1713