Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1898-11-12
cHR0N0GRAPH WATCHES.
They Are Used by Nurses as Well as Sports.
men and Are About Perfect.

l
men and Are About Perfect.
The properly equipped TRAINED nurse,
whether at the seat of war wearing
the badge of the Red Cross or waiting
upon the afflicted at home, carries a
| chronograph watch; not the large,
| split-second timing piece associated
with the sports sof the turf and field,
but a handsome little single chrome
| graph. cased like other gold watches
! designed for women's use. These
watches are especially made to enable
trained nurses to take accurately the
pulse of their patients. The moment
the pulse has been taken the large
sweep secondhand can be stopped by a
slight pressure upon the stem of the
watch; If there is fiuctuation in the
pulse. the second hand can be thrown
quickly back to the starting point and
the pulse taken over again withou:
! in any way interfering with the other
mechanism of the watch. So much de-
| Ponds upon accurate knowledge of the
pulse that these chronographs are an
| invaluable auxiliary in the work of
| the sickroom. While these watches are
| an entirely recent idea, many physic-
| ians and surgeons carry regular chro-
| nographs for the same purpose. The
| watches for nurses sell at $50: those
| for physicians ranging from 500 up
ward.
While ordinary watches have been
| made for several centuries, the timing
watch and its rapid development 20
it's present high state of perfection are
the product of our own time. The first
timing watch was made some 40 or 80
years ago. 1t was not designed for
timing horse races or other sports, for
it was called surgeons pulse" which
proves that one of the present uses of
the watch by physicians is really go
ing back to first principles. This orig
inal watch was a very crude affair.
1t simply had large second hand that
made circuit of the dial every min
ute. jumping second at a time, and
there was no way OF stopping or other
wise controlling it, The subsequent
development of the split chnon-
ograph and it's use in horse racing and
other sports have since caused timing
watches to be associated more with
horse racing than any other single in
terest. They are now about as near
perfection as can be attained by hui
man skill and ingenuity. The fact
should not be lost sight of that a watch
is. after all. merely piece of mechan-
| ism. and. like any other machine, IL
great deal depends on it's handling.
| A highly adjusted watch is an excel
lent indicator of the character of the
-wearer. particularly as regards his
daily habits. for, while one watch
may run within a second u day with one
man, ii may vary many seconds with an
other. customer the other day brought
| his watch to a famous New York jeweller
and told him that in the previous six
months DIT had gained just nine seconds;
| in the next three months it lost two sec
OndS, so that in the nine months it had
varied just seven seconds. OF course. this
was really a phenomenal case. but it dem
| onStrates what a very superior watch has
| done under the most favorable circum-
| stances. The owner of this watch is a
very methodical man. with a disposition
| that is never ruffled. He Is punctuality
| itself, winds up his watch at the same
hour each day, walks at about the same
| gait and the same distance daily attend
| ing to his business affairs. goes to bed
at the same hour each night, and on re-
| firing leaves the watch in his waistcoar,
| hung over a chair Thus for the same
number of hours each day the watch
rests in the same position. Give this same
| timepiece to a nervous. excitable person.
| who runs and jumps off cars, whose habit
| is to wind his watch on retiring, and who
| retireS at all hours, and the result would
| be very different. 1t has also been noticed
| that watches vary more or less. as the
| case may be. between Saturday and Mon
| day, than in an equal length of time dur
| ing the week, for the reason that the
average man is less active between Sat
| urtlay and Monday than on other days.
| OF course this applies chiefly to the finely
| adjusted watches.
With the improvement in watches gem
orally the cost of production has also
| been materially reduced. SO that today, a
| gold watch is practically within the reach
| of all. Nowadays jewellers sell a much
| handsomer and neater open-face woman
| gold watch for $25 than could be bought a
| few wears ago for $40. The womanfs
/ the richly decorated and jewelled wo-
| mems watches the prices range anywhere
from SIS to $1,000 and upwal.. The same
: is true of the monographs or timing
watches. You can now buy man S
handsome single chronograph marking
| fifths of a second in an 1S-carat gold
| case for $lO0. The split-second chrono-
| graphs, in 1S-carat gold cases. range from
| SIPS to 5000. The cases of all these are OF
| the same high standard 1S-carat gold, the
| prices being governed entirely by the
equipment and finish of the movement.
| The $3.50 watch is considered perfection in
| horse timers. In addition to the split
second hands, this watch has a quarter
| jump second hand and minute marker.
| With this watch you can take with the
| accuracy of d quarter-second the exact
| time for each quarter or other fractional