Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1895-09-27
HAVE YOU THE TIME 2
THE ODDS ARE TWENTY TO ONE
THAT YOU HAVE NOT.

the Way-HOw Correct Time Is Receiv-
ed Daily From Washington.
Ninety-nine men ont Of a hundred
keep incorrect time. Ninety-nine men
out of hundred are just in the act Of
regulating their watches in front of
window that has a thermometer in it.
If Won ask a man the time, and his
watch is wrong, he is invariably going
to the matchmaker that very day to
have it put in order. No one has any
idea Of keeping the correct time. All
believe that they have it in their peck
cts, and none ever gets it except at the
moment of setting his watch.
If you have friend ia tho railroad
business and stop him in the street with
a friendly "Hello, old fellow, what's
the timer You always have it correct, "
he will haul out his timepiece with an
important air and give the honr in a
voice that shows he knows what time 1t
is and that he is never wrong. A
square or two farther ON you chance to
meet another friend in the same line Of
business. You ask him the time, receive
an answer, smile to yourself and pass
on. There was ten minutes difference
between them. Every time the state
house bell strikes a hundred men pull
out their watches With q confident air
Of being correct and put them back
with an expression Of extreme surprise.
We all live, flourish and die in time,
but no one keeps the correct immediate
record of the moments that beat ont
slowly and surely the limit Of longevity.
An experienced jeweler and watch
maker, when asked the reason why so
few people kept good time, said that
nine-tenths Of the causes of bad running
watches was due to carelessness and
irregularity in winding. A watch
should be wound at the same time
every day, and it ought to DO regulated
on one day every week at the noon
hour, when both hands come together
The finest watches cannot be made per-
feet, and the best way to detect any
difference between the two hands is to
reset them at 10 O'Clock, and if they
are not exactly together make them so
by holding the longer and winding the
hour hand up to it.
An expensive jeweled watch ranging
from $500 to $1,000 is very seldom in
good running order simply because the
owner is afraid to let jeweler tamper
with it and does not dare touch it him
self.
In large city correct time, absolutely
correct time, is matter between some
dozen or two Of men who follow almost
every stroke of the pendulum and cor
rect their chronometers with as much
daily regularity as Captain Cutie did his
famous timepiece. Women are said to
be the most careless in the attention to
watches. A lady has a watch presented to !
her by q gentleman friend and volun-
tarily promises to keep it in the very |
best rnnning order. The gentleman |
friend has his misgiYings on that score, |
but he gets the jeweler put it in good |
shape q couple Of weeks ahead and there
upon hands it over TO the lady. Now, |
that watch has been running like chro-
nometer until the fair owner gets hold |
Of it. The first thing she does is to no
.ice the time in store window, and as |
her watch does not agree with it she sets |
It accordingly, putting the regulator
away over to one side. That night she |
forgets to wind it up, the next morning |
she winds it up only half way for fear
Of breaking the main spring and sets it
by another clock in the afternoon. Then |
it runs down inside of eight hours, and
she thinks it is stunning wild-as it very
likely is, since she has put the regulat-
ing lever back and forth no less than six
times in the course Of "a week. After
this she wonders why the watch is al
ways wrong and blames the jeweler.
Correct time comes into Philadelphia
every day at noon by telegraph from the
United States time observatory at Wash
ngton, where the "drop BALI makes
IN electric contact that sends the signal
vi over the country. The first clock in
he city communicating with the Observ-
ltory wire is at the Maritime Exchange
At SO minutes after II the hands Of the
lock automatically click into place by
he action of the magnet and the little
rain Of wheels attached to it. Thus the
Washington Tins ball becomes at once
he authority for all clocks aud an in
allible adjuster. The statehouse clock
$ wound and regulated weekly by an
xpert chronometer maker, who sets his
,wn watch by Washington communicate
d time and carries 1t Immediately to
hall Many large manu-
acturers and business places where it
S necessary ON account Of the number of
men employed to have strictly conscien-
ious time employ a man to wind, keep
n order and regulate their clocks the
ear round. Clocks kept closely to the
mark in this way are very seldom in
iced of extensive repairs, and like intel
igently regulated watches have less
endency to 90 wrong.
The Washington observatory clock
uns for years together and has never
aried more than six seconds for any
ne year.
It is kept true by continual quadrant
on the altitude Of the sun
t its meridian. As the earth revolu
ions become slower only by the fraction
f a second in a thousand years it may
10 said that we are unable to take adj
antaRe Of the natural means afforded
or absolute time regulation in spite
f the care that has been exercised in
he making of timepieces For $4,000
ears, since the first recorded mention
any instrument to measure time, in
saiah xxxviii, s, men have been al
FORK constructing appliances of all de- ,,
criptions, all of them more or less
lulty, to tell them when to eat, sleep
nd get up again. Is there no one to
went fin de steele watch that shall be
bio 60 keep up with the earth in point
Observation-Disclosures Times
An Ample Apology.
Germans are not given to doing things
? halves. When they study they do it Z
it'll thoroughness. Even in their apollo
es they go to the root Of tho matter
Il