The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-04-20
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsIxIN. Director.
BIZ Washington, ID. 9.
ABOUT YOUR WATCH.

paratus with which the average per-
son is on familiar terms. Some of its
screws are SO tiny that it is said a
thmble would hold 100000 of them.
| Its springs and pivots are so fragile
that if the watch falls only to the end
of its chain they may be injured Yet
most of us are no more careful OF the
sensitive temperament and complex
mechanism of our timepieces than we
are of a jack-knife, purse. or anything
else that goes in our pockets.
| We are inclined to smile pityingly at
the poor old. Mad Halter in Alice in
Wonderland' when his watch refuses
to go after a liberal dose of butter.
1T was the best butter" he remarks
sadly. This broad exaggeration seems
| altogether humorous, but at the same
! time our own watches may be as glar-
ing examples of unsuitable treatment.
We are told not to drop baby on
| its head, but there is no part of a
watch's anatomy on which it can fall
with safely. II you can count the
number of jars and knocks Jour time
keeper has stood, you know one good
reason why you have to reset the
hands SO often.
Handle With Care
Then, a good watch doesn't take
kindly to being used as a combination
tooth cutter and rattle by the baby.
| 1t isn't keen on playing tennis and it
is apt to get sulky and keep bad time
if you go swimming with it on your
wrist. Every three years it needs to
| be cleaned up and given an oil rub by
4 a capable repairer-not by an anna
teur with a pin. To- various indlg-
mites it will submit for a time, ac-
cording to its workmanship, but
! eventually it will Nstrike-figurative
saR Il
| the trusty timepiece has suddenly
gone back on you.
The degree of care your watch de-
! serves depends on its value as a time
keeper. If you merely like. to know
| about what time it is, say within an
hour, your watch will stand a certain
| degree OF rough handling, and con-
tinue to tell you the approximate time
Unfortunately, however nobody can
tell you just how much you can knock
1t about before it will succumb.
| III you really wan your watch to
keep correct time. it will pay you to
/ see that your treatment of it follows
the rules set down by the time section
of the bureau of standards. The first
| and most important of these is regu-
larity. You should wind it at definite
| times, preferably in the morning tho
\ if night is more convenient, it will do
| almost Is we'll. Winding in the morn
ing is advocated on the ground that
the spring can better stand the
changes and jolts of daytime use when
it is recently wound, but whatever
system you choose, stick to it. The
habit of absently giving the stem a
| few twirls whenever you look at the
time is bad.
Along the same line of keeping your
watch on a. schedule is the effect of
varying positions. The worst place to
wear watch, if it is worn for practi-
cal purposes. is on a swinging chain.
where it will bounce about and bang
against the furniture. On the wrist is
as good a place as any for woman's
| watch, the Bureau of Standards says.
| A man will get the best results by
carrying his timepiece in his pocket,
in a chamois case to prevent it from
turning over.
Likes Regular Habits.
Theoretically, the best place for a
watch is horizontal says Mr.. Beal,
time expert of the Bureau of Stand
ards, but no one can carry his watch
that way in the daytime. The impor-
tant thing is ito keep the treatment
| uniform-so many hours in a pocket
| each day and so many hours flat each
| night. II the treatment is systematic,
and the watch will run uniformly,
to a small rate of daily change, and
it will stay content
"a watch will run off several
minutes in few days for two rea-
| sons" he continued. First, If il
possesses a large difference of rate
in different positions. and second, if
it is not kept the same number OF
hours each day in it's customary posi-
tons, the error will accumulate.
"A good watch will have about ten
or twelve seconds variation between
the slowest and fastest rate in any
| ioI oil
cal position except with the stem
down. Quite frequently We are asked
to test watches for which the position
error is considerably above one hun
dred seconds a day"
The bureau of standards says that
| few people buy a watch intelligently.
Americans are obsessed with the idea
that accuracy and the number OF
jewels are the same thing. AS mat
ter of fact, Mr.. Beal points out, the
quality of timepiece depends on the
amount OF special work put on it, and
not entirely on the number of jewels
Jewels in a watch are bearings for
the shafts of the wheels. precious
stones being used for this purpose be-
cause of their extreme. hardness. In
some watches only the most importan,
bearings are jewels, but higher-priced
models are usually fun jeweled-that
is, all 81 the bearings are tiny garnets
rubies, sapphires, or diamonds.
What of the Jewels?
| This part of the mechanism is i'm
portant, but no more so than some
other parts.
"a well made seventeen jewel
watch can keep better time than a
twenty-three jewel one" Mr.. Beal
says, but most of the twenty three
jewel watches made in the United
States receive more attention by ths
manufacturer than seventeen jewe1
watches. In fact, the only watches
that receive the attention necessar ~
to make them really accurate time
pieces are the large-sized watches
usually sold as railroad watches.
The accuracy of which a watch /,
capable depends to a large extent OF
the assembling of the parts. The bal.
ance wheel must be carefully poised
for example. and the hairspring &C,
curately shaped to a certain ideal. L
il difficult to make a small watch 81