The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-11-16

a Scientific Man Tells What He Know
About Clocks and Watches.

"A Sclent1uC man IelS w nhb he hhOh
About Clocks and Watches.
Professor Alexander, in Kansas City Journal.
Few people e1 cept philosophers and as
tronomers, who hold that time and space
are merely categories, are aware that a knowl-
edge of "the exact time" for which inquiry
is often made, is unattainable. There are no
clocks or watches which tell the precise
truth. Even the time ball, which is dropped
by electricity, is a few tenths of a second
last or slow. One watch or clock may be
worse than another, but the time-piece that
gives us the exact time has yet to be made.
So recourse must be had to the science of
astronomy.
do people generally agree to such a state
ment?'
"If this fact were to be generally accepted
a vast deal of anxiety and unhappineSs
would be saved. AS it is, every man who
has what he calls a good watch puts implicit
faith in it, and, as he is constantly betrayed,
he suffers great mental agony. There is
something very remarkable about the fas-
c~ination which watches exert over their
owners. A man who prides himself on his
watch identifies himself with it. If he I'M
dertakes to tell a friend the time, instead of
saying 1T is 1880 by my watch he remarks,
4 am 1880 The watch becomes a part OF
himself"
do you suppose they actually feel sop
"Of course the victim of a good watch
never admits that it can be wrong. 1t is al
ways the other watches and clocks that are
wrong. None of those ever agree precisely
with his watch, except by accident. When,
after remarking, L don't vary a quarter of a
second in six MONTHS he draws out his
watch and finds that it differs some five miu-
utes from the watch with which he COM
pares, he boldly asserts the latter is wrong.
| No argument can move such men. The in
fallibility of their watches is the firmest ar
ticle in their faith; and they would go - the
stake sooner than admit that they could be
mistaken.
Meanwhile, every man in bis own breast
doubts his watch. He gives an intellectual
assent tothe doctrine that his watch is infal-
lible, but in the silence of the night he con-
fesses to himself that perhaps it needs regu-
lating. The conduct of all men proves that
they are unwilling to risk anything of conse-
quence upon the accuracy of their watches.
They profess to believe that railroad time is
much faster than any other time, and hence
when they are about to take a train they
make 1t a point to arrive at the station at
least five minutes earlier than would be nee
essary were their watches infallible. This is
q practical proof of their secret conviction
| that watches are not infallible, and thnGGgu
they would die sooner than admit the fact,
this conviction renders their lives miser-
able
rs it possible to make clocks agree?'
IueT0 nave DeeI men WHO nave DeCOulG
so infatuated with the desire to have the ex-
act time that they have placed clocks in every
room in the house, and gave their whole en-
ergies to securing concord between them.
The result has been uniformly failure and
misery, No two clocks can be made to per-
fectly agree; and when the number is in
creased the confusion and discord increase in
geometrical ratio. l once read of a man who
provided himself with thirteen distinct
clocks, all of which he attempted to keep in
perfect agreement with his watch. He
spent his whole time going from one
to another, putting this one forward
and putting that one backward. Every day
at IL o'clock he found that each clock gave
him an independent estimate OF the time, and
all his exertions only succeeded in making
their statements diverge more widely from
each other. 1t is not more than three months
since he was removed to the lunatic asylum,
where he imagines that he is an English
chronometer, and daily tries to wind himself
up with the latch key"
Then, who can be happy in the possession
of a time-piece?"
1.-The only men who really enjoy life are
those who carry cheap silver watches, war
ranted never to tell the exact time. He who
owns a watch of this kind always assumes
that it is five minutes out of the way, and
takes the pains to compare it with a standard
clock when he has the opportunity. He
never is betrayed through Boosting of the ac-
curacy of his watch, and is not compelled to
indulge in wholesale attacks on the ~veracity
of all other timepieces. He is satisfied to be
guided by some one who knows where time
is derived from, ana obtains it as near as pos
sible." So.
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EIUnDE ITAND Nv AZ