Meridian Gun

Louis XVI, amateur watchmaker, once produced an invention of his own in the garden of the Palais-Royal: a cannon rigged with an adjustable burning glass over the touchhole to go off just at noon each sunny day. From 1786 to August 1914, when it was silenced by General Joseph Gallieni lest it frighten war-worried Parisians, the meridian gun barked on. Fortnight ago Minister of Education Anatole de Monzie decided Louis' idea was still a good one. Reconditioned, the meridian gun will bark noon again in the Palais-Royal garden. But since Paris is on daylight saving time, it will now only bark 11 a. m.

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