Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-02-21
FREAKS OF WATCHES.
Thousands of Main Springs Break
ing When the Aurora Borealis
Appears.

ing When the Aurora BoreaIis
Appears.
watches are queer things" said d.
II. Hopkinson, Of the New York Je1OeL-
lerS' Circular, seated in the easy chair
of his editorial sanctuary. They pos
sess some unaccounJa able pecuharities.
For instance, some time ago about the
beginning of last summer, when there
had been a succession of fine displays
of the aurora borealis, it was estimated
that in q single night in the city of New
York the main springs of not less than
5000 watches broke. This estimate is
based on actual inquiries. Fine sensi-
tive watches are particularly liable to
be affected by electrical atmospheric
disturbances. During the months of
June, July and August, when these
phenomena are most frequent, there
are more main springs broken than
during all the remaining months of the
year. They break in variety of ways,
sometimes swapping into as many as
twenty-seven pieces.
1T is fact that since the introduce
ton of the electric light has become so
general q large number of watches,
some of them very fine ones, have be-
come magnetized. While in this con-
dition they are useless as time keepers.
| This defect used to be considered in
durable, and because of it thousands of
watches have been thrown away after
much money had been spent on them
in vain attempts to persuade them TO
keep good time. Among the methods
| resorted to were washing the parts in
garlic juice, reinishing and passing
them through the fire. But all these
devices were entire failures or only in
part effective I know of q man who
had a fine and valuable movement
which kept excellent time. He trans
| ferred it from silver case to a second
| hand gold one. Immediately it lost its
characteristics of steadiness and relia-
| biIity, and, in fact, did not keep time
at all. When replaced in the silver
case it kept good time again. The
owner, jeweler, puzzled himself and
| experimental in vain to discover the
cause of this strange partially on the
| part of the watch for silver. At length
he sent it to an expert. He discovered
that the lifting-spring of the gold case
had become magnetized. On substitu-
ting another for it the watch kept as
good time in the gold case as in the
| silver case.
''Ihere are occasions when it is a
very serious matter to have your watch
| maonetizad The most striking in
stance in point is one which lately
came under my notice. Captain w. +.
Smith commands the steamer Della
ware. which plies between New York
| orJ NoxIy TonJOp RofOra Y,I1ttipO To
sea on recent voyage, he was invited
| to inspect an electric light dynamo
machine, and examined its parts close
ly. Soon after getting on board the
steamer he observed that the compass
became strangely affected when he APP
| preached it. Whether he stood on the
right or the left, or Immediately in
| front Of the compass, the needle would
| invariably point to him. The compass
| was worse than useless when he came
near it. 1t was dangerous and might
wreck the ship. You can imagine that
| this phenomenon alarmed and puzzled
| Captain Smith not little. At length
| he recalled his visit to the dynamo
| machine and the true solution of the
| eccentric behavior of the needle flashed
upon him. His watch had become
magnet zcd. When he removed it the
needle resumed its constancy to the
polar star. On his return to the city
he took the watch to Mathey Brothers
81 Mathey, who demagnetized it for
MIN. This firm has invented some
machine the mechanism of which is
secret, by which they demagnetize a
magnetized watch speedily and cffeetu-
ally. They get watches sent them
from all parts of the world to be thus
treated.
'Watches frequently get magnetized
in iron mines or in machine shops,
where they are incautiously brought
near swiftly running belts. [ knew g
workman who used to hang his watch
between the parts of running belt.
He expended small fortune on main
springs.
st is a well-known fact among
hOrolOgists that no watch will keep the
same time with two people. The cause
has not yet been definitely ascertained,
! but it would seem that in some mys-
| terious way watch is affected by the
| temperament of the wearer. The mere
physical differences in gait and move
ment between different people are not
sufficient to az count for all the yaria-
tons that nave been observed"
Some Odd Things.