Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1902-07-29
a WATCH FACE AS a COMPASS.

IL YOU ever get lOSl III Il loresI VI uiil
out to sea in your sail boat the face of
your watch will serve as a compass to
help you find your way home, provided
YOU can see the sun. You have only to
hold the watch flat in your hand with
the hour mark then indicated as the
time of day pointed directly at the sun
and a point half way between that hour
mark and MI. will be opposite to due
south in the sky.
For example, supposing that it is 10
O'Clock in the morning, hold the watch
so that the mark y. points straight at
the sun and the mark NJ. half way be-
tween y. and MI. will be pointing
toward the south.
Or supposing it is 1 O'Clock in the
afternoon, hold the watch so that I'LL.
points straight at the sun and the mark
III. half way between I'LL. and NIL, will
be pointed toward the south.
This rule is infallible, as you may find
by testing it at any hour of the day, for
it is based on a very simple scientific
principle. The entire circle of the
heavens, as traversed by the sun in "a
hours, is reckoned $50 degrees that is,
the sun travels Il degrees every hour.
Now, if your watch dial represent the
circuit of the heavens, each of the II
hour spaces standing for 80 degrees,
each half hour space, therefore, would
stand for - degrees.
This article, now going the rounds of
the papers. is strictly correct as far as 1t
goes, but there is one point in connection
with it which needs to be noted, as the
writer recently discovered by accident.
We were going up Moosehead Lake in
a steamer, and amid surroundings new
to me. the points of compass were for
the time as if they had never been. Ask
inc my nearest neighbor something
about the direction, he replied by asking
me where | should locate north, and l
took out my watch and applied the
above rule. 1t was between 80 and
p. NJ, and pointing the hour hand toward
the place where the sun showed dimly
through the clouds,'I located the south,
according to the rule, between IN and
Y, and pointed in the opposite direction
for north.
you are pointing just about due
SOUTH" said my neighbor.
| put nv watch back in my pocket,
thinking that must have wrong recol-
lection of the rule. OF course any fool
would know, as did when | stopped to
think, that at that time of day the sun
was approximately in the west, and
very slight application of common sense
would have shown me that | was point
ing in the wrong direction; but people
who are lost in the woods, with night
coming on. are not apt to have their COM
mon sense under the fullest control.
The trouble is simply this, and it need
be noted only during the long days OF
summer: The rule may be applied at
any time between q A. NJ. and p. NJ, by
taking south as halfway between the
hour hand and the MI, Through the short
er arc.
Before 6 A. NJ. and after 6 p. NJ. the
rule needs to be reversed, and if the
hour hand points directly at vi, Tor at
the place where the V would be it it
was there), you will have to consider
whether it is morning or evening, and
exercise a trifie of mathematical calcula'
ton and little bit of common sense, to
settle the question.
And after all is said, the man who has
had little training at it doesn't need to
spread his watch out, but by noting the
time and glancing at the sun he will Tx
his points about as we'll as if he had g
compass.