This is one of our most popular questions and there doesn't
appear to be a definitive answer!
The style IV is relative modern form of the roman numeral for
4. IIII was used until 'modern times'
There are several sites that have attempted to analyse the
pedigree. Some claim royal heritage in either England or France.
Others base it on symmetry of the clock face.
Big Ben (the famous London landmark) uses IV
rather than the more usual IIII found on most clocks.
See left.
References
Gordon T. Uber's distillation of alt.horology is at:
website
Donn Haven Lathrop page on the subject is at:
website
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Daylight Saving Time
in USA & Canada starts:
Sunday 8 March 2009
Europe / UK clocks on
Winter Time / standard time until:
Sunday 29 March 2009
