The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1895-09-24
HAVE YOU THE TIME ?
THE ODDS ARE TWENTY TO ONE
-ftiAT roy HAVE NOT.

Somo of tho Reasons Why Most Time
the Wny-IIow Correct Time Is Receiv-
ed Daily From Washington.
Ninetyninc mon out of hundred
keep Incorrect time. Ninety -nino men
out of hundred are Just in the act of
regulating their watches in front of
window that has Il chronomctcr in it.
If you ask man the time, and his
watch is wrong he is invariably going
to the matchmaker that very day to
have it put i'll order. No one has any
idea of keeping the correct timo. All
believe that they have it in their pocli-
cts, and none ever gets it except at tho
moment of setting his watch.
If you have IL friend in tho railroad
business and stop him in the street with
II friendly "Hello, old fellow, what's
the timo? You always have it correct, 4"
he will haul out his timcpieco with an
important air and give tho hour in a
voice that shows he knows what time it
is and that he is never wrong. A
square or two farther on you chance TO
meet another friend III tho same limo of
business You ask him tho time, receive
al answer, smile to yourself and pass
on. There was ten minutes difference
between them. Every time the state
house bell strikes Il hundred men pull
ont their watches with II 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 ono keeps tho correct immediate
record Of tho moments that beat ont
slowly and surely the limit of longevity.
An experienced jewclcr and watch
maker, when asked the reason why so
few people kept good time, said that
nlne-tcnths OF the causes of bad running
watches was due to carclessncss and
irrcgularity in winding A watch
should DO wound at tho same time
every day, and it ought to DO regulated
on ono day every week ut the noon
hour. when both hands como together.
The finest watches cannot he made per-
feet, and tho best way to detect any
difference between the two hands is to
reset them at - o'clock, and if they
r arc 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
Na0od running order simply because the
oW&er is afraid to let II jeweler tinper
with it and docs not dare touch it him
self
In Il large city corlec 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 timepicce. Women AFRO said to
be tho most careless in the attention to
watches. y lady has watch presented to
her by u gentleman friend and yolun-
tarily promises to keep it in the very
best running order. The gentleman
friend has his misgivings on that score,
but he gets the jeweler to put it in good
shape Il couple of weeks ahead and there
upon hands it over to the lady. Now,
that watch has been running like chro-
nometor until tho fair owner gets hold
of it. The first thing she does is to no
tice the time i'll IL store window, and as
iiSl NdtCli uOCo hOo tSiSC W LUZ IL SHb SclS
it accordingly, putting the regulator
away over to ono 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 III the afternoon. Then
it runs down inside of eight hours, and
she thinks it is running 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 q 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 timo observatory at Wash
ington, where the drop BALI makes
an electric contact that sends the signal
all over tho country. The first clock in
the city communicating with the obse,v-
atory Wire is at the Maritime Exchange
At 56 minutes after / / the hands of tho
NQlpck automatically click into place by
the action of the magnet and the little
train of wheels attached to it. Thus tho
Washington time ball becomes at once