The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-11-06

planned of his watch. "You complain"
said he, "that your watch gains q
minute month. Well, then, you will
congratulate yourself when you have
heard me. You are aware that in your
watch the balance, which is the regu-
lator, makes five oscillations every
second, which is $4,000 a day;
SO that your watch, exposed to all the
vicissitudes which heat and cold occas-
ion it, the varying weight of
the air, and the shaking to which
it is subjected, has not varied
more than minute month, or two
seconds a day. 1t has only acquired
with each vibration of the balance a
variation of the 216,000th part of a Sec
ond. Judge then what must be the ex-
IRENE perfection of the mechanism of
this watch!"
period without being repaired or cleaned.
At the expiration of q certain time the
oil dries up,dust accumulates, and wear
and tear are the inevitable results to the
whole machinery, the functions becom-
ing irregular and frequently ceasing to
act altogether. A person possessing a
watch of good quality and desir-
GUS of preserving it as such, should have
it cleaned every two years at least. But
care should be taken to confide this
cleaning or repairing to careful hands !;
an incapable workman may do great
injury to watch even of the simplest
construction.
There is in the generality of watches
regulator for fast and slow, with a
movable index. The two words, "Fast"
and "Slow" engraved at each end of
this regulator, leave no doubt as to
which way the index should be moved
in order to make the watch lose or gain.
1t is easily understood that, if the watch
gain, the index should be pushed toward
the slow; and when it loses toward the
fast. This operation should be per-
formed with good deal of care and at
tention, in consequence of the suscepti-
bility and fragility of these regulating
pieces. 1t would be impossible to give
any information as to the effect existing
between the degrees of this regulator
and the variations of the watch; it is,
therefore, only by trial that we can ar
rive at the precise point at which to
bring the time to its fullest accuracy
When watch varies only little, we
content ourselves with pushing the index
one degree. We then wait twenty-four
hours to judge of the effect, and act ac-
cording to the result obtained. In the
event of the variation being greater,
for instance, than ten minutes in ad-
vance in day, we ought to push the
index to the end of the ''slow," even if
we have to retrace our steps the next
day; but if in this state the watch
gained again, it would be necessary for
the matchmaker himself to undertake
the regulation of it.
1t would be useless to attempt to cor
rect variation of one or two seconds in
day, OF minute in a month. Even
suppose the going of such watch did
not vary more than second a day, this
would be perfect enough, as it would be
extremely difficult to produce a cor
rection slight enough for an error so
triiing. The difference of time can
generally be adjusted by comparison
with mean time as registered daily in
nearly every large city; or, as we have
already said, if the watch be regular in
its habits of irregularity, it is virtually
equivalent to perfect time-keeper.-
ChG71lbeTS'S Journal