, 1897-12-09
THE CLOCK WINDER,
A NEW fOEk MAN W,;J AXE HIS
LIVING AT ms CALLING.

"'hims Of Some Of His Patron, Who's.
1imepieces He Locks Arter-My.iery of
the Clcck TIA. E;oold Not 70 en- Friday,
Twen:y Clocks In One House..
CLOCK win ing Sc ms a siE.-'c enough
task to be performed by owners for
their respective ~tin!ericces, but there are
many people who Ind it sufficiently
burdensome to make them delegate it to
some enc else. Ecnce has arisen the
profession OF clock windcr, which as
yet claims probably fewer members
than any other calling in the city. For
some years jewellers have attended to
the repairing of clocks which they sold
and have even looked after the winding
where this was especially desired, but
they never tried to obtain this kind of
business, Il it was lone merely rs an
accommodation to their customers. Now
there is at least cue man in New York
there may be more, though not MANY
whose only occupation is the wind
ing, regulating and occasional cleaning
of clocks for numerous families. He
makes daily rounds so as to cover his
entire route, but he never visits the
same house OftonCr than uuCe Il week.
On that day his coming is expected. and
he has free access to all the rooms,
whether they are occupied at the time
or not. Through the various halls and
apartments he goes, from the top of the
house to the bottom, winding the clocks
and giving n touch here and there TO Il
regulator where he finds it necessary.
Of course he does not pay any attention
to the little nickel alarm clocks, which
run for only one day. His care, being
given weekly, is spent upon the eight
day clocks of more expensive design and
workmanship.
The clock winGcr whom The Tribune
reporter saw had several stories To tell
about the pursuit of his occupation
"Somc people are very particular about
the striking Of their clocks, - he said.
"They will ask me if l emit arrange to
have all the timopiCc,s i'll the house
strike together. Now, as Il general
thing. that is an impossibility, and I'll
tell You why. some clocks are arranged
to strike just haif a minute before the
hour, some for Il quarter of II minute
before, some for "A few seconds after the
hour and so on. You see if | fixed them
so that they would strike together they
would not be exactly together in point
of actual time, which is more important.
In II house on my list the family owns
90 clocks. OF these l suppose 3 or C.
perhaps mCre-strikc III unison, and
the others all within Il minute. My Or
ders in this house are to have all the
clocks except one at precisely the cor
rect time. This odd one is the timcpiece
i'll the bedroom of the mistress of the
house, and she wishes it kept three
minutes fast. | think that is the only
instance arnong my customers of any
body who wants II clock perpetually
fast, and 1 am very certain there is no
IL who asks me to keep IL slow.
when l undertake the care Of tho
clocks in Il house, nobody else is allow
ed to touch them, and the servants i'll
particular have orders never to move or
interfere with them i'll any way. Some
times this is done accidentally. and it
is hard to find out how the clock has
been injured. \ few months ago / lost
IL of my best houses because there was
one clock which l could not seem TO
put in proper order. | would take it
away, clean it thoroughly and look to
every smallest part Of the mechanism.
Apparently it made no difference. The
clock positively refused TO run right.
Finally l gave it up, and that family
had q mighty poor opinion of my abil-
tiles rs Il clock rcpaircr.
"Some weeks after that l came across
a clock in another house which acted III
exactly the same way. l was puzzled
for awhile. Finally l noticed that it al
ways stopped On Fridays. That was
quecrer than ever, until by chance l hit
upon the solution of the mystery. The
servant, while busting the room on that
day, was in the habit of passing her
cloth along the mantle under the clock.
This would have made no difference
with many timepieces, but this one had
an open bottom. through which the tip
of the pendulum projected. The busting
cloth just touched this enough to stop
it. The girl did not know what she had
done, aud thus the family We're mysti-
fed anew each week by finding that the
clock would not go OIL Friday.
81 clean all my clocks regularly once
in two years, and iu that way keep them
in proper running order. Most people
think that it is just a well to let n
clock run until it stops, fairly clogged
up with dirt, but that isn't 80. BY that
time it may be Sc bad that it will be
impossible ever to make it u as accu-
rately as it did before.
II am usually paid by the month to
tax. entire charge of all the clocks in n
house, it being understood that make
weekly visits. Sometimes, though, l
am employed by the year. In the case
of tho house I was telling you of, where
they have 20 clocks, they pay me 800
annually for the work. 1t takes a good
deal of my time III the course OF IL
months, and I don't fill my pockets as
fast as some folks seem to think l
onght," concluded the clock winder
with q smile. New York Tribune.
Scarcity Of Material.