, 1889-09-11
WONDERFUL WATCHES.
THE INGENIOUS cHRoNoMETeRs OF
THE PAST 200 YEARS.

For years old DR.. Allan, the Scottish
physician, was suspected of being a wiz
ard, an opinion which was considered
all but confirmed when, in 1880, he pro-
vided himself with a silver watch of the
regulation size and style. CHANGING to
stop with a neighbor over night and it
being somewhat cold, he laid the watch
neal his body and covered it with the
bed quilts so that the chilly weather
would not affect the works. Next morn
ing he arose rather abruptly and left the
house without removing his treasure
from its coy nest in the bed.
In Kidding up the room the servant dis
covered ''the Internal chattering thing"
and Immediately concluded that it must
be the old doctors familiar spirit" con-
illusions which were hardly arrived at
before she had fed wildly from the room.
Other servants were called and the whole
array charged the ''chattering thing" in
the bed. Clubs and tongs were freely
used, but the case was strong and the
thing still chartered defiantly. One of
the girls, more courageous thar the
others, finally agreed that she would
take the tongs and carry the thing to the
moat and drown it, a proceeding fraught
with danger, but at last decided upon.
The others followed at a respectable dis
lance with hoes, clubs and shovels, with
which they proposed to pounce on the
thing should it attempt to attack the
heroic girl. When the old doctor re-
turned for his watch he was informed of
what had been done, one of the servants
leading the way to where the thing had
been drowned. 1t was found hanging on
a bush on the bank of the moat. The
failure to beat or drown the thing. to
death fully convinced the servants that
it was in reality the old wizards spirit,
and they could not be persuaded to
touch it.
This story is related simply to show
what rarities watches must have been
even at that late period of the Seven
tenth century.
A MARVEL IN ITS WAY.
In 1859 one of the admirers of George
IL caused to be made for that monarch a
watch which was a marvel in its way.
1t had a calendar hand which pointed to
the days of the month and of the year.
Instead of making a revolution every
month, like the calendar watches of to-
day, it took the whole 365 days to get
once around. The dial plate was only
two inches in diameter, therefore, the
figures must have beer very minute,
otherwise the 1856 numerals could not
nave been arranged around the border.
The annual dial calendar was but one
of a number of extras with which this
watch was provided. Amovable diamond
performed diurnal revolutions as regular
as did the great orb after which it was
modelled; it struck the hours, the half
hours and the quarters, while an inside
dial plate revolved in a manner clearly
exhibiting the variations of the seasons.
The English house of commons, fol-
lowing a suggestion of Sir Isaac Newton,
appointed a committee June II, 1714,
with power to offer a reward of eco, 900
to any one who would invent an accu-
rate time keeper for use at sea in deter
mining longitude. After many years of
labor and study the invention was an
nounced as perfected. However, the in
ventor, one John Harrison, did not re-
ceive the reward for his labor until Sept.
IS, 1884.
Keyless watches have been known for
the past 100 years, but not until within
the past twenty-five have they come into
general use.
1t would take columns to enumerate
all the dainty and wonderful little time
pieces that have been made during the
past 400 years. They have been made
not larger than pease, and set in rings
for physicians to facilitate the counting
of the pulse. They have been fixed in
bracelets, brooches, eye glasses, tops of
umbrella handles and even on the ends
of lead pencils, where they occupy the
same position as the rubber on the aver
age Faber.
In 1888 a matchmaker of Dresden ex-
hibited a watch made entirely of paper.
The paper was chemically prepared, and
the maker claimed that it would be as
serviceable as if made of the material
ordinarily used.
The same year, at a fair held at Wor-
cestershire, England, the Crowthers Bros.
& Co. exhibited one made entirely of
iron.
woNDER OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
An ingenious prisoner at Kariaus, Bo-
hemia, recently constructed a watch,
eight centimeters in diameter, with no
other tools or material except two nee
uleS, u SpODl OF bnredu, d newspaper huu
some rye straw. The wheels, posts and
cogs are all made of the rye straw,
which, it is well known, is quite coarse
and tough. 1t runs six hours without
winding and keeps good time. 1t is now
in possession of the project of Kariaus,
who considers it the greatest marvel of
the Nineteenth century.
The most ingenious, perfect and COM
pick watch ever manufactured was sent
out from the works of Patek, Philippe
& Co., of Geneva, Switzerland, in July,
1877, and is now in the possession of
Baron Nicholas. 1t is what is known as
the full sized hunter" On one side
there is a dial of the regulation kind, TX
hibiting the hour, minute and second
hands, also an independent chrome
graphic hand which marks the fifths
of seconds. The same dial has repeat
ing mechanism, which strikes the hours,
quarters and minutes.
The opposite dial has hands pointing
to the months, weeks and days. An