Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877 by Various, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . A Clock Collector. here A Clock Collector. One of those odd geniuses, who spend their lives and means in collecting curious and rare articles, lately died. His name was Sylvester Bonaffon, a retired merchant of Philadelphia. His elaborate collections were sold at auction, and their oddity has attracted general attention. His chief mania was for clocks, which literally covered every portion of available space in his apartments, whether they were placed on chairs, tables, shelves, or hung against the wall. Some of these timepieces were of unique construction. One clock was made to run for 400 days after one winding; another was set in the dashboard of his carriage, and he used Mr. Bonaffon also had an especial fondness for electrical apparatus. His windows were provided with ingenious burglar alarms, his rooms with fire alarms, and he ignited his gas always by electricity. His place of business, his stable, the Continental Hotel where he dined, were all connected with instruments in his room; and he even had perfected arrangements so that he could set at home and send his own messages to California. Besides the clocks and electric apparatus, there was an immense collection of of every conceivable variety, which was sold at the auction—as is usually the case—at prices much below those paid by its late owner. bric-a-brac About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Various (2006). Scientific American, Volume XXXVI., No. 8, February 24, 1877. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/19406/pg19406-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

THE DIAMOND FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA

Combined trunk and rocking chair

Did you enjoy this story? Share your thoughts about this book or others like it here.

Read My Stories

Too Long; Didn't Read

Make resilience your competitive advantage

A Clock Collector

About Author

Comments

TOPICS

THIS ARTICLE WAS FEATURED IN

Related Stories

Untitled Story

To Manufacturers of Knitted Goods

10 Websites That You Should Know About

1000 Stories To Learn About Hackernoon Books

10 Cybersecurity Books Every Business Owner Should Read

10 books I wish I read before starting up

To Manufacturers of Knitted Goods

10 Websites That You Should Know About

1000 Stories To Learn About Hackernoon Books

10 Cybersecurity Books Every Business Owner Should Read

10 books I wish I read before starting up

Light-Mode

Classic

Newspaper

Dark-Mode

Neon Noir

Minty

HN StartUps