The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-12-02
CARE OF A WATCH.
DELICATE MECHANISM WHICH NEEDS
REGULAR ATTENTION.

Entertaining Talk on the Treatment of
General Interest.
you want to know how to care for q
fine watch, eh ?" said the old matchmaker,
as he took off his glasses and wiped
them with his handkerchief. LET mo
see your watch.
The reporter handed over his time.
piece, and the old man examined it
carefully.
well, my boy" he said, finally,
"bear in mind continually that a watch
is, in its way, almost as delicate piece
Of mechanism as the human system.
As it is necessary for man who wishes
TO keep in good health to take his
meals regularly, so is it necessary to
feed watch at regular intervals. You
feed watch by winding it up. There
fore, have a certain hour for wind
ing your watch, and never deviate
from it.
"In this case there are probably one
hundred watches. Not one of them
is running. On this rack there are
eighteen, and all are going. 1 wind
them the first thing in the morning,
starting with the one in the lower left
hand corner. They get their meals
regularly
"You can regulate your own watch if
You will only study its peculiarities.
See this little arm ? Well. if your watch
is running slow, turn that arm with the
blade of your penknfe a trihe toward
the letter F. If it is running fast,
turn in the opposite direction toward
sS.' Don't move the arm more than q
fraction of an inch, for if that will not
suffice, your watch needs watchmaker's
care.
Don't open the inner case Of your
watch more than is absolutely necessary.
Every time you open it dust sweeps in
upon the works, and it takes very little
dust to put a watch out of order. In
nine cases out Of ten, when a watch is
brought to me to be cleaned, can tell
with my glass the business the owner
Of the watch follows. 1 examined a
watch the other day, and told my GUS
toner that he worked in wool. He ad-
mitted the fact. 1 had found small
particles of wool in the works of his
watch.
''Have chamois case for your watch,
or chamois lining to your watch pocket.
1t preserves the case and keeps it from
getting scratched. 1 have heard men
say that watch with chamois case
will keep no better than one without
such protection, but that is nonsense.
If you work near electric instru.
ments, or ride on electric cars, you
should have your watch demagnetized.
Afew years ago such an operation cost
great deal of money. Unprincipled
jewellers would tell customer that in
order to make athorough job of it every
piece in the watch would have to be
treated independently, first positively,
and then negatively, in order to re-
ceive magnetic or electric equilibrium.
have known watchmakers to charge
twenty-five dollars for demagnetizing q
watch.
1.-The real cost is almost nothing.
There is a machine for the purpose.
You place the watch on the positive
side and then on the negative. There
Is no more work about it than there is
IN the baking of a loaf of bread
Il have heard men say that it was
impossible to take a sick watch to %
leweller without being told that the
trouble lay in a broken handspring.
But how little men who wear watches
Know about mainsprings! Broken
mainsprings come rs sort of cpl
demic. Don't laugh Tn simply tell
ing you fact. A year ago this spring
L was flooded with watches the main
springs of which had snapped. A pc.
eullarlty of the breaking was that each
OF the twenty-five or more turns to the
spring was severed and that the breaks
were in straight line from the centre
to the circumference of the spring.
"Eyery matchmaker in New York had
an experience similar to my own last
spring. We have often compared
notes, but we have been unable to ac-
count for the opidemics, except upon
che hypothesis that atmospheric condi-
mons are the cause. What these condi-
aons are remains to be determined.
1T has been. asserted that when tho
northern lights are the brightest main
springs are most apt to snap. You
probably remember that in February
the aurora borealis was 'phenominally
brilliant, and yet during that period no
watch with broken handspring was
brought to me. / cal't account for the
phenomena, and / don't believe there is
matchmaker in New York who knows
more about it than | do.
Nov let me add "a few words as O.
sort of finale. The best as well as the
cheapest watch movements in the world
are made in America. It's all well
enough to talk about Swiss watches,
but IN point Of accurate timekeeping
there never has been made five hun
dred dollar Swiss watch that was a whit
superior to twenty-f five dollar watch in
America.
Buy American watches with Ameri-
can movements, Wind your watch
nj Ia