Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1906-10-19
MYSTERY IN WATCHES.

Wild animal personality has come in
tor pretty thorough exploitation in fiction.
Machinery, too, has had queer pranks
and whims saddled On it by the fiction
wesvers. Bot not all the strange ma
chinery stories have beer told. Story
writers like large machine for fiction
purposes. The locomotive is favorite.
But most uncanny of all machines is the
smallest and oldest--the watch. a
ieweler might write the ideal story OF
watch personality. Notes for it contin-
ually appear in the technical journals OF
that trade. Watches may be accurately
tested and adjusted at q factory so that
they will run alike in boiling water or
frozen in the heart of an ice cake. Yet
when they are sold and worn their me-
chanical movements are Immediately sf-
fected by the individuality and habits of
the wearers. A woman's watch is joke
to everyone but jeweler. To him it is
a mystery. Irregular winding wont ex.
plain all the vagsries of woman's watch
and the cause must be sought in Its fair
owners habits. Probably wheu woman
learns to eat her meals regularly and
keep Office hours her watch will run on
time.
Men of irregular habits have trouble
with watches, TOO, and one oi the prin-
cipal factors to be taken into account
when new watch is being adjusted to
its wearer's personality is the owners
occupation. Some men have work that
calls for eccentric movements of the body,
and these often cause trouble with
watches. Often a jeweler trying to ad-
Just new watch to such q wearer will
give it to another psrson 10 the same oc-
cupstion, when it goes all right. Per-
sonality enters into the equation in
mysterious way. Some men never have
to have watch adjusted, but can carry
even che ap dollar affair for years and get
from it better service than other men get
from costly Swiss movement. Motor
men, sire ,t car conductors and workmen
employed 10 the neighborhood of electri-
cal machinery usually carry cheap dol
lar watches. For the fu' t watch may
be subtly shocked at any moment, and
after that is almost worthless. Nobody
knows when the shock will come. 1t
may occur without the wearer of the
watch being conscious of it. Suddenly
the mechanism runs wild or stops and is
permanently out of business. The dol
lar watch, which is really small clock
mechanically, will also be ruined by
electrical shock, but the loss is nominal.
Jewellers tell of men who, when given
q number of watches OF different values,
movements and nationsl'ties, never sue
ceed 10 finding one that will run for
them; any watch carried by these indi.
viduals stops. A man came into New
York jewelers. sometime ego and band |
over his watch, saying that three me-
chanics had laE ,rt d over it without avail,
and that if this jeweler could not trans
form it into an effective timepicce he
would throw it away. On examination
the mechanism looked all right, and
when the watch was kept for two weeks
by the jeweler it ran to the second. But
when the owner got it again it stopped
within two days. His wife carried it
and it went again, but as soon fs her
husband took the timepiece it st,pped.
In conversation it was learned that this
man had gone to Hot Springs, Ark, a
few months before, where he took treat
ment for rheumatism. Since that time no
pieces that had given faithful service to
others for years would stop when he bor-
rowed them. The eccentricities are
caused by vague influences, probably
more mechanical than occult. Some
jewellers attribute them to electricity In
magnetism" and others to electricity in
he atmosphere" They are so delicate
however, as to defy he subtlest analysis
end investigation.