Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-08-27

Anaconda Standard: Seth Lon,
abaugh, a prospector and miner ~
Butte, has in his possession prshqlI,.
enc of the most valuable relics in M
country 1t is "A timepiece in the Sba7s
! OF a watch, and bearing the name ana
date of Joseph Davis, London. 1921
( The genuineness of the article is nm.
questioned, and its great value lies IN
! the fact that the earliest record of
! pocket timepiece is 1894, ana of a Svyiss
7 inakemake. The Davis watch has baan
/ an heirloom of the Swan family for
nearly two hundred years. 1t finally
/ came Into the possession CT Franz
SVEN, one of the family, who lives In
/ Nevada He did not appreciate The
/ value Of the watch and gave it to his
| children to play with, ana when Mr.
! Longabaugh first saw it, about Il
years ago, the hands had been broken
off and one Of the three cases within
which the works were inclosed was lost
| He recognized its value and secured If
from Swan. The watch was examined
| by Tucker, the San Francisco jeweler
and, after making researches, he pro-
nomced it genuine. More recently
/ Hight & Fairfield, of Butte, made
search in the misty past. but the EARL.
| est date they could find in the existence
of watches was in 1900.
The watch in question doubtless rep
resented the labor of many years, as
it was made entirely by hand. and the
tool marks throughout all its parts are
| plainly visible, and the watch was prob
ably the only one made by Mr. Davis.
of London. The machinery consists Of
Il large steel balance wheel. which
with a pendulum like u lever, and in
| place of the modern hair spring Is n
/ long steel chain which winds and I'M
winds upon pulleys. Another large
wheel, the purpose Of which is not ap-
parent looks like a belt wheel ON
/ the shug machine. The works are pro
tected and held together by a fine or
namutal network Of brass carved out
( by hand and riveted together with
( brass rivcts. which show plain hammer
marks On the back Of the works is
| polished steel face similar to the sec
ond dial en- modern watch, but the
| figures running from one to six. The
object of it has never been figured out
by any of the jewellers who have ex-
amined it. The face of the watch is
of polished steel and the hours are
marked by raised Roman numerals.
Around the edge of the faces are figures
from to 60, to represent either sec
0nds or minutes. In the center of the
dial is the British coat of arms in raised
| brass, consisting of the crown, lion and
unicorn The whole works are enclosed
in n silver hemisphere, the silver being
hammered and sharpencd by hand, the
indentures Of the hammer showing dis
tinctly. On the outside of the silver
the evidence is plain that at one time
there was Still third case on the out.
side of these two. The watch was
wound up with some kind of key,
the keyhole being protected by rude
trap or sliding door. The watch has
stem nearly TWO inches long, and a
ring on the end large enough to hitch a
horse to. The stem is of solid silver
and in the middle is nearly half worn
away, which alone is slight indication
Of its extreme age The watch is said
to have been in running order up to
20 years ago. 1t weighs about four
ounces, and in shape looks like a base
ball cut in halves. Mr.. Longabaugh has
at different times been offered several
small fortunes for his relic, but he says
it is not for sale. He viii have it on
exhibition at the worlds fair