Fig. 41—Musical Watch, Repeating Hours and Quarters
Fig. 42—Syrian Dial
Our boys' watches costing one dollar keep much better time than this type of watch. Comparing the Syrian dial, [Fig. 42], with that on [Fig. 35], it is evident that the strange hour numerals on both are a variation of the same characters. These, so-called, “Turkish watches” were made in Europe for the Eastern trade. First-class samples of this triple-case type are getting scarce, but I have found four, two of them in Constantinople. [Figure 36] shows the double-case style, called “pair cases,” the outer case thin silver, the figures and ornaments being hammered and punched up from the inside and called “repoussé.” Before we leave the old watches, the question of art work deserves notice, for it looks as if ornamentation and time-keeping varied inversely in those days—the more art the worse the watch. I presume, as they could not make a good time-keeper at that date, the watch-maker decided to give the buyer something of great size and style for his money. In [Fig. 37] four old movements are shown, and there is no doubt about the art, since the work is purely individual and no dies or templates used. In examining a large number of these watches, I have never found the art work on any two of them alike. Note the grotesque faces in these, and in [Fig. 39] which is a fine example of pierced, engraved work. [Figure 38] is a fine example of pierced work with animals and flowers carved in relief. [Figure 40] is a “Chinese” watch but made in Europe for the Chinese market. In [Fig. 41] we have what remains of a quarter repeater with musical attachment. Each of the 24 straight gongs, commencing with the longest one, goes a little nearer the center of the large wheel, so a circle of pins is set in the wheel for each gong, or note, and there is plenty of room for several tunes which the wearer can set off at pleasure. [Figure 43] is a modern watch with Hebrew hour numerals. [Figure 44] is a modern 24-hour watch used on some railroads and steamship lines. I have a pretty clean-cut recollection of one event in connection with the 24-hour system, as I left Messina between 18 and 19 o'clock on the night of the earthquake! Dials and hands constitute an important branch of the subject. The general fault of hands is that they are too much alike; in many instances they are the same, excepting that the minute hand is a little longer than the hour. The dial shown on the left of [Fig. 24] was designed by me for a public clock and can be read twice as far away as the usual dial. Just why we should make the worst dials and hands for public clocks in the United States is more than I can find out, for there is no possible excuse, since the “spade and pointer” hands have been known for generations. [Figure 45] is offered as a properly designed dial for watches and domestic clocks, having flat-faced Gothic figures of moderate height, leaving a clear center in the dial, and the heavy “spade” hour hand reaching only to the inner edges of the figures. For public clocks the Arabic numerals are the worst, for at a distance they look like twelve thumb marks on the dial; while the flat-faced Roman remain distinct as twelve clear marks.
Do you know that you do not read a public clock by the figures, but by the position of the hands? This was discovered long ago. Lord Grimthorp had one with twelve solid marks on the dial and also speaks of one at the Athenæum Club, both before 1860. The Philadelphia City Hall clock has dials of this kind as shown on right side of [Fig. 24]. It has also good hands and can be read at a great distance. Very few persons, even in Philadelphia, know that it has no hour numerals on its dials. Still further, there is no clock in the tower, the great hands being moved every minute by air pressure which is regulated by a master clock set in a clock room down below where the walls are 10 ft. thick. Call and see this clock and you will find that the City Hall officials sustain the good name of Philadelphia for politeness. Generally, we give no attention to the hour numerals, even of our watches, as the following proves. When you have taken out your watch and looked at the time, for yourself, and put it back in your pocket, and when a friend asks the time you take it out again to find the time for him! Why? Because, for yourself, you did not read hours and minutes, but only got a mental impression from the position of the hands; so we only read hours and minutes when we are called on to proclaim the time.
We must find a little space for striking clocks. The simplest is one blow at each hour just to draw attention to the clock. Striking the hours and also one blow at each half hour as well as the quarter double blow, called “ting tong” quarters, are too well known to need description. The next stage after this is “chiming quarters” with three or more musical gongs, or bells. One of the best strikers I have has three trains, three weights and four bells. It strikes the hour on a large bell and two minutes after the hour it strikes it again, so as to give you another chance to count correctly. At the first quarter it repeats the last hour followed by a musical chord of three bells, which we will call one triple blow: at the second quarter the hour again and two triple blows and at the third quarter, the hour again and three triple blows. Suppose a sample hour's striking from four o'clock, this is what you hear, and there can be no mistake. “Four” and in two minutes “four”—“four and one quarter”—“four and two quarters”—“four and three quarters,” and the same for all other hours. This is definite, for the clock proclaims the hour, or the hour and so much past. It can be set silent, but that only stops it from striking automatically, and whether so set or not, it will repeat by pulling a cord. You awake in the night and pull the cord, and then in mellow musical tones, almost as if the clock were speaking, you hear—“four and two quarters.” This I consider a perfect striking clock. It is a large movement of fine workmanship and was made in the department of the Jura, France. When a clock or watch only repeats, I consider the old “five-minute repeater” the best. I used this method in a clock which, on pulling the cord, strikes the hour on a large bell and if that is all it strikes, then it is less than five minutes past. If more than five minutes past it follows the hour by one blow on a small bell for every five minutes. This gives the time within five minutes. It is fully described and illustrated in “Machinery,” New York, for March, 1905. Just one more. An old Dutch clock which I restored strikes the hour on a large bell; at the first quarter it strikes one blow on a small bell; at the half hour it strikes the last hour over again on the small bell; at the third quarter it strikes one blow on the large bell. But this in spite of its great ingenuity, only gives definite information at the hour and half hour.