Perth Amboy evening news., 1921-11-03

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31:-Horol-
ogy is going to be added to the list
of professions. BY getting it recog-
nized as a learned vocation, on the
same plane as pulling teeth or de-
Tending and prosecuting criminals,
the Theological Institute of America
hopes hat some embryo dentists
and lawyers will be DETECTED to
horology. 1t is promised that they
will find less competition, and more
chance If service in this neglected
field.
Perhaps it should be explained
hat an hOrologist is not a crystal
gazer, but a matchmaker. The term
is going to become more familiar in
the future, because the new Horo-
logical Institute has decided hat it
is a title preferable to hat of watch
maker.
1t might also be explained hat a
matchmaker is not a man who
makes watches. AT M time he was.
But now, when watches are made IN
a factory, the employe who makes
a certain wheel for thousands of
timepieces generally has no claim to
the title of matchmaker. That name
is reserved for the man who knows
the anatomy of a watch as a surgeon
knows the human body. The watch
maker repairs watches and designs
new models.
The country needs 1000 more of
these horologists than it has, and
the public is suffering accordingly,
though it may not realize it.
You may have noticed hat getting
a watch repaired of late years is a
difficult undertaking. You take the
watch to a watch doctor, and he
returns it in time-generally a much
longer time han you expected. 1t
might have been fixed. Or, again it
might not. In this latter case, you
try this doctor again, oil you try an
other. Watchmakers who can cor
rectly diagnose the trouble in a
watch without proceeding by the
trial of error method are scarce.
This is a serious situation because
the time we carry is inevitably less
accurate than it would be if the
country had the proper number of
expert watch repairers. In the ag-
gregate we are wasting enormous
amounts OF time through the decline
of punctuality.
With many individuals a close ac-
curacy in a timepiece is not regard
ed as necessary, though almost
everyone has to catch trains and
meet important engagements at
times. With the railroad man, on
the other hand. a watch that is un-
reliable may death or injury
to scores of persons.
Railroad Time Vital
There are 1000, 900 of these rail-
road timepieces hat have TO be
kept to no more than 80 seconds err
ror in a week. At the recent horo-
logical conference it was pointed out
that while there are some excellent
horologists, there are far too few
who are capable of repairing a time
piece so important as a railroad
watch. And there are undoubtedly
some doing this work who are not
qualified.
To improve conditions In the hor-
illogical industry, the Neurological
Institute of America has been form
ed. 1t has just held its second con-
ference, and agreed ON its program.
1t has desired that watchmakers go
back to the standards Of former
years when the designer and repair
err of timepieces was regarded as an
artist and a learned man. Watch
making was recognized as a difficult
art and it consequently attracted
many promising young men.
@OM lnt Ivy vi Bill WIZ wants d
career rarely thinks of this old art.
Horology requires more study and
receives less financial reward than
other professions, and so it is passed
over. At present it is not classed
with the professions, and students
refuse to spend two years or more
mastering a vocation that is general
ly classed as a trade.
Most people do not realize that
the man who fixes their ailing time
pieces is, or should be, a highly
trained technician. To repair a rail-
road watch a matchmaker should
not only be thoroughly familiar with
its mechanism and himself an expert
craftsman, but he should know
something of physics and metal
lurgy. knowledge of these subjects
and also of astronomy and trigo-
nometry can be used by the expert
matchmaker in his work.
Fewer and fewer students are en-
tering the schools of h~orology. One
watch factory in New England ex-
perimented with the idea of filling
the depleted ranks of the watch
makers from the high schools. Stu
dents in the senior year were offered
the chance of spending half of their
time in the watch factory, with
credit for study there.
This was intended to interest stu