Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-08-19
MYSTERIES IN TIMEPIEcEs
Watches Affected by the Habits a2d
Peouitarities of owners-occxlt
or Mechanicalt


Wild animal personality has come In for
pretty thorough exploitation in fiction. Ma
chinery. too, has had queer pranks and
whims saddled on IT by the fiction weavers,
But not all the strange machinery stories
have been told.
Story writers like large machine for
fiction purposes. The locomotive is q ia
vorite. But most uhcanny OF all machines
is the smallest and oldest-the watch A
jeweler might write the ideal story OF
watch personality. Notes for It continually
appear in the technical journals of that
trade.
Watches may be accurately tested and
adjusted at a factory 30 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 mechanical move
ments are tmmedintely affected by the In
dividuality and habits OF their wearers.
A wonan's watch is q joke to every one
but a joweler. To him It Is q mystery.
Irregular winding won't explain all the
vagaries Of woman's watch and the
cause must be sought in Its fair owners
habits. Probably when q woman learns
TO eat her meals regularly aud keep Office
hours her watch will run on time.
Men Of Irregular habits have trouble
with watches. too, and one Of the prin-
cipal factors to be taken into account
when new watch 10 being adjusted to
its wearer's personality Ia the owners oc-
cupation. Some men have work that calls
for eccentric movements of the body, and
these often cause trouble with watches.
Often a. Jeweler trying to adjust a new
watch TO such a wearer will give II to
another person in the same occupation,
when II goes all right. Personality enters
into the equation in q" mysterious way.
Some men never have to have a watch
adjusted. but can carry even a cheap dol
lar affair for years and get from It better
service than other men get from a costly
Swiss movement. Motormen, street car
conductors and workmen employed In the
neighborhood OF electrical machinery
usually carry cheap dollar watches. For
the finest watch may be subtly shocked
at any moment, and after that is almost
worthless. Nobody knows when the shock
will come. II may occur without the
wearer OF the watch being conscious of
II. Suddenly the mechanism runs wild
or stops and is permanently out Of busi-
ness. The dollar watch, which Is really
a small clock mechanically. will also be
ruined by electric shock, but the loss is
nominal
Jewellers tell OF men who. when Rtven q
number OF watches OF different value,
movements and nationalities, never succeed
In finding one that will run for thsm; any
watch carried by these individuals stops.
man came into q New York jewelers.
some time ago and handed over his watch.
saying that three mechanics had laborsd
ever II without avail and that II this
teweler could not transform Il into an ef-
fectiye timepiece he would throw u away.
On examination the mechanism looked al
right and when the watch was kept for
two weeks by the jewsier II ran to the
second. But when the owner got It again
II stopped within two days Eus wife
carried 1t and II went again. but as soon
as her husband took the timepiees II
stopped. In conversation II was learned
that this man had gone to Hot Springs
Ark, few months before. where he tool,
treatment for rheumatism. Since that no
watch he carried would 20 long. Time
pieces that had given faithful service "a
others for years would stop when he Dor
rowed them. These eccsntricities are
caused by vague influences. probably nor,
mechanical than occult. Some Jewellers
attribute them to personal magnetism
and others to electricity IN the atnos.
phere They are 50 delicate, however. al
to defy the subtlest analysis and invssti.
gation.-Chicago Chronicle.