The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-07-31
WHAT AILs THE WATCH.
Perhaps You have been Riding In
an Electric Car,
New York Journal.l

lNeW hOrk JOurnall
"What is the matter with my watchY'
The speaker, we'll dressed, middle
aged man, laid his handsome gold stem
winder on the showcase of big Broad
way jewelry store and looked daggers at
the clerk.
While the attendant was quietly open
ing the case and giving little twist to
the winder preliminary to fuller exam
ination the angry gentleman continued
to air his grievances
He had purchased the timepiece at that
very establishment, he asserted, about
year before, and had paid good round
price for it, too. That was all right; he
didn't care about the cost, but he did OBJ
ject to firm guaranteeing that watch
was first class in every respect when it
didn't keep as good time'as second hand
hand-organ.
While he had been speaking the clerk
had taken small needle magnet out of
the case and placed it in front Of the
irate watch owner.
"Exeuse me, but where do youtlive,
SIR" asked the clerk as the man stopped
talking for q moment to wipe off his
forehead and regain his breath.
"Live?" said he; "why, at Jamaica, L.
L. and that watch has causedme to miss
four trains out of five during the three
weeks I've been down there"
''Been riding on the electric railway,
haven't you, sir?" said the clerk with a
smile of satisfaction; "for your watch is
about as thoroughly magnetized as any
lever saw"
ELECTRIC RAILWAYS TO BLAME.
For the first time light dawned on the
customers mind.
He was one of a large number of New
Workers who were spending the summer
months on the line of the electric road
that runs between East New York and
Jamaica.
He had never had any trouble with his
timepiece before, and he now remem-
bered that he had heard many like COM
plants of watches going wrong among
his fellow passengers.
When the needle Of the magnet had
become perfectly stationary the clerk
held the works of the watch squarely
above it. Instantly the needle began to
vibrate, first one way and then another,
until the man was convinced that the
clerks diagnosis was the correct one.
"That was the third case of the kind
we have had today" said the jeweler
when the gentleman had gone.
Several workmen, he said, were kept
constantly busy on that kind of repair
ing alone. When watch had been
tested and found to be magnetized it was
at once taken apart and the works, even
to the most minute portions, were then
subjected to an individual test. Then
came the process of demagnetizing, which
usually took from three to five days, ac-
cording to the strength and quantity Of
the magnetic fluid with which they had
become charged.
1t is only those parts which are made
of steel, he continued, that were much
affected, as gold and nickel would not
ordinarily take in sufficient quantity to
cause any trouble.
Numerous other stores were visited by
the reporter, and in every instance the
employees reported that scarcely a day
passed without from one to half dozen
watches being left to be demagnetized.
AN AMUSING INCIDENT.
popularity of magnetized watch"
said one clerk, sis that it will change
from fast to slow half dozen times a
day.
ga rather amusing incident occurred
the other day." said the clerk, when a
young lady, who had just come up from
Asbury park, walked in and said she
Just wanted to see that man who had
told her that he had demagnetized her
watch"
She had been in some two weeks be-
fore, it seemed, and left her watch, and
a few days afterward had received it
from the clerk with the assurance that
it had been thoroughly demagnetized.
"Before night had fallen on that same
day." the clerk went on, "she was once
more passenger on an electric car and
once more was her watch charged with
the electricity"
1t took considerable argument to con
vince her, he said, that demagnetizing a
watch did not make it forever proof
against the ravages of the electric fluid,
as did vaccination against those of small
pox.
The storage batteries ON the Fourth
avenue horse cars were held responsible
by another jeweler for the magnetizing
of many watches. Most people did not
suspect the cause, he said, and it was
only after they had suffered great incon-
venience as a result of the eccentricities
of their Heretofore reliable timekeepers
that they learned from their jeweler
what the matter was.
The more delicate the works the more
susceptible they were, he said, to mag
netic influence. This accounted for the
fact that thelarger percentage of watches
brought to him were those that were of
the finest manufacture and consequently
of the greatest value =