The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-12-08
Speaking watches.
From La Nature.

To get up anything new in the way Of
watches seems difficult. The precision of
the present construction leaves little margin
to progress, and the indications that it has
been possible to give these small instru-
ments are so numerous and interfere 50
little with the perfect runningof them that
we might consider perfection as having
Mr. Swan, a French matchmaker, estab-
lished at Geneva, has, nevertheless, sue
ceeded in stepping outside of the beaten
track in deyising chronometer that speaks
the hour. instead Of striking them, through
an ingenious application of the phonograph.
The ordinary repeating watch carries
detent through which it is possible to free
small movement that aetuates little ham,
mers which strike spring bells. 1t is thus
possible to strike the hours, quarters and
even the minutes at will This bell device,
which is essentially monotonous, requires,
moreover, close attention on the part of
the owner of the watch, who is obliged to-
count the strokes and to distinguish the
intervals between the hours, quarters and
minutes. There are no such inconveninces
in the Swan watch The spring bells are
replaced by yulcanized rubber disk pro-
vided with grooves upon which the ham
mers bear, through a point.
When the detent is pressed, the rubber
disk begins to revolve, the point that fol-
lows its sinuosities vibrates, and the vibra-
tions are manifested by such expressions as
1T is eight clock, 1t is half-past
twelve, etc. The grooves, in fact, are
the exact reproduction, upon pane, of.
the helicoidal groove produced by human
voice upon phonograph cylinder
Naturally, watches are not the sole
pieces of wheelwork to which this inge-
nious system is applicable. All clocks may
be provided with it, and, for the moment,
Mr.. Swan is already constructing alarm
clocks which, instead of the strident and
ear-piercing bell that every one is acquain-
ted with, have speaking disks One can
thus have himself awakened by the crow
ing of the cock, or by the vigorous accents
of well known voice. The inventor is
constructing some alarms which, with a
disk of 6 or centimeters, cry out to you
from one room to another, through closed
doors, such phrases as Get upr' 'sCome,
wake up!' loudly enough and long enough
to snatch you from the arms of Morpheus.
In addition to the difficulty resulting
from the disproportion between the small
ness of the grooves and the force that is
necessary to give the sound, Mr. Swan
has had several Others to surmount. 1t
was necessary, in the first place, to intro
duce the system into a watch case without
exaggerating the latter's dimensions, and
afterward to find plastic, although resist
ant, material for the disks. These obsta-
cles have been happily surmounted. Mr.
Swan watches resemble the ordinary re-
peaters; and their disks, despite the pressure
of the point, are capable of speaking sew
eral thousand times without showing any
appreciable wear.
Further, by retouching the photographic
grooves. suppressing some of them, and
exaggerating Others. the inventor has sue
ceeded in giving the words pronounced the
peculiar accent characteristic of such or
such locality Amateurs who may not
be content with ordinary disks will thus be
able TO order Others that will be true family
souvenirs. There is no limit to the variety
of the combinations of which the realization
becomes possible with this system.
There is one thing, however, that it will
be necessary to see to, and that is, that
in houses that possess several speaking