The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-29
WATCHES AND LOCKS
By Frederic ]. Eiaskin.

1 and before 1t pass the four ages oj
 man. At other times the figures ., Christ appears, bowed down in re. weren't worship, and before him pass n review the twelve apostles in solemn procession. Morning and evening te the accompaniment of chimes ana chords from some choral, six monk. march from their home in the forest to the little church. there to maks their devotiohs. Every one of thest things happen in It's appropriate time and no detail has been overlook A Maryland man has made . clock every part of which Is of slate. Not content with his first effort he Is now at work on another which Is many times larger than the first one. An or day by the opening and closing of flowers. A recent inventor offers an indicator which tells when a watch IS wound tight enough. There are many watches so delicately adjusted that if they were wound too tight the michanism would D more to tight the jured. A patent was recently issued for clock whose face can be seen in the dark. When sleeper wakes up in the middle of the night and wants to know the time all he has 10 do Is to press a little buttson and the dial ts Illuminated.
 A new York jeweler has . light house clock in his show window. It IS rigged up like Dutch windmill, each arm being 8 separate clock. The windmill turns around. indicating New York time on the square dial, and the time of other cities on the diff ferent dials, which constitute the arms of the windmill.
 The most accurate clock in the world Is said to be the one in the basement of the astronomical observatory at Berlin. It ia so constructed that 1t varies less than Q fifteen -thousandth is so constructed as to make 1t afr tight and to remove 1t from ell changes of temperature and barome- tric pressure. Yet this clock is not as accurate as the astronomers would like to have, and they are stilI lock- ing for Something better.
 Speaking of accuracy, the average man does not realize the test to which the railroads put the watches of their trainmen. Many roads require Q watch to vary less than thirty seconds a week. Yet to vary that much 1t can vary only one virbration in 2O,1eo. There are many watches which vary as little as fifteen seconds in . month, At this rate 1t must gain only one LICK III 1fzsoVVs
 Foreign people think that the most wonderful thing in America is the dol- inr watch. Even the Swiss. long the leading makers of cheap watches. ac- knowledge themselves outdone, and ace no possibility of their regaining first place. The smaller the watch the more 1t costs to make 1t. and the Swiss used to call the big dollar watches nothing but clocks. But now AAll kAk. hA~ h s1.k down to regulation size. and America has monopoly of the dollar watch market. It requires thousands of weary miles of travel to get outside of the Kingdom of the dollar watch. In every civilized country on the globe 1t tells the time of day to thous- ands of people.
 The dollar watch Is the result of the introduction of machinery. One machine does the work that dozen men once did. Each watch has In it I26 pieces. As ten thousand complete watches are turned out every day 1t will be seen that 1t means the nak- Ing and assembling of a million and a quarter piecies. Each watch is regu- lated for fourteen days, so that there are always 10000 watches ticking a. way the time in that one factory.
 American watch and clock makers are rapidly extending their markets. Not many years ago the bulk of our time pieces came from abroad. Today only about million dollars worth each of clocks and watches are im- ported, and more than that many are exported. It has heen demonstrated that American watches are sold cheap CT abroad than at home, and AmeFl' can movement are sent to Switzerland. put in cases made there, and brought back to America to be sold as Swiss watches.
 Based On limited returns 1t is figur- ed that there are more than 50,000.00o watches and clocks in the United States, and that the American people have enough money tied up in time pieces to build good sized American city. civilization would be a medley without time pieces. Some inquiring mind has asked what would happen if every clock and watch in the world should suddenly stop. Millions of miles of railroad trafid would be more completely paralized than by any su- man strike that has ever occurred. The shipping of the entire world would be facing dangers more than extra-haz- ardous. In fact. every movement of man would be hedged about with such undertainty that the whole suprestruc- ture of modern civilization would be shaken to its foundations.
 Copyright 1909. by Fredrlc J. Has kin.)