Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-08-13
CHRONOMETERS.
An OLD SALT WATER SAILOR CHATS
ABOUT THEM
How the Ocean Navigator Takes Care d
His Chronomster-Lifs or Death In .
Seeond-EGect Of Temper
aturO "Rate."

Il noticed the other day, remarked An
old salt water sailor, who now lives on Kos
suth street, that you had something in The
paper abou. chronomstsra Now, Ihappsn
to have had some experience IN the use Of
ehronomstsrx People see them in the Jew
eler's window, compare their watches and
paA Few stop 70 think Of the relations
they hold to life and property on the ocean.
Time was whom ships were guided to differ
ent parts Of The world without them, but at
. frightful sacrifice Of tina, and often Of
ship, cargo and crew. Then the only
means they bad Of determining their
longitude vas BY dead reckoning, and that
was . very poor thing to depend on
The old way was to get into the latitude OF
the port sailed for and then steer east OF
west As the case demanded. But the chro-
nometer has done away with all that Now
. captain can Leave . port and shade his
course to any part Of the globs. and know
his true position, in clear weather. every
day. There arc two gentlemen, in this city
whose fathers sailed from the shores OF
Massachusetts, bay, around Cape Horn and
cape Of Good Hope without chronometsrs.
but there are very few that would under
take it nov. Some captains own their
chronometsrs, some hire them, others
belong to the ship Some carry two.
and il the captain carries his wife with him
she has good cause to b jealous OK the care
and attention that her husband gives to the
chronometer. She 10 only second in his
thought on shipboard l have known .
captain to take the pillow from under his
wife's head to set the chronomster on during
q heavy sea- have often taken the chro-
nometer out Of its outer box and set it on
kA hADr ~
cargo, to save it from any sudden jar.
All captains have q certain time to
wind their chronometerS generally at
eight bells in the morning. The captains
wife, Is general thing. dare not look at it,
and she feels toward it accordingly. But
there are exceptions to this rule. There are
some captains wives that are first-class nav
igatorx For instance, some years ago the
American ship Ne Plus Ultra left Liverpool
for Bombay, Capt Plummer. He had his
wife and family with him After few days
he was taken with q paralytic shock His
wife navigatsd the ship SUCCESSFULLY to hsr
destination, buried two children on the pas
sage and lost her husband three days after
reaching port She and her only boy came
home in the ship that was in. She looked
fully as noble Is she had proved herself
to be.
"Sailors have to be very careful with their
chronometers A brass plate fits over the
keyhole, and works with string, SO that rs
soon as the key is removed it covers ths hole
on the instrument so that no dust can posi-
bly, get into the works Every chronometer
carries her record with her The cover
forms almost half of the box in which she
sets In that cover is where the rates are
Kept from the tims that she left the makers
hands. II she is o good chronometsr you
will find all her rates there. After each
voyage she Is taken to q chronometer
maker and rerated. and they often run for
years on the same rate. Now, il chro-
nometer gains one tenth Of q second to-day
and loses one-tenth tomorrow, which is a
very small item, she is no use for the pur-
pose for which she was intended, but
she would be just the thing for
jewelers. window. But il, on the other
hand she gained two hours every twenty
four hours, or lost the same, and kept doing
90. then you have a first-class chronometer
This seems strange, but in the first case you
could not keep track Of her, and in the sec
ond case you could. No matter what she
gains or loses Is long as she keeps on doing
the same thing she is all that you want
Some will say, Why are they so particular
shout time at s.a1 But when IL il taken
into cons;dar.t;on NH at nroportion n sac
crd is 10 q mils Il will he MAINLY se.n wbv
=. bava ~ ha On n.,t;cpI.r Thar. ar, f,ftsan
daoraas IN the bour four minuta, Ia the de-
orea Aftaar u,;la. n the minnie and four
second, To the mile. so that An error Of ono
eacond ia one fourth of a mila
GThs trouble with chronomstersiis that
tbsy are SO affected by the tsmperature. The
slower the movement. and the colder it is
the faster she runs We tell the longitude
by the chronometer. This is set to Green
witch time and the calculations are based on