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Show WATCH DISEASES. JOMETHING LIKETivO?E OF THE HUMAN HU-MAN MECHANISM. A Jeweler Calls the Ailments of a Watch Consumption, Rheumatism and Heart Failure and Explains the Analysis In Each Case. "That's the twenty-third today we're going to have an electric storm," remarked a down town jeweler as he was handed a watch - having a broken mainspring for repair. "How do you mak that out?" inquired in-quired the customer. "Why, by the number of broken mainsDrines. to be sure. " wnstrm rpnlv "There is a regular epidemic to which watches are subject, much as humanity human-ity is to smallpox .an 1 1 'cholera. It is produced by certain electric conditions of the atmosphere. The mj-inspring becomes be-comes magnetized and more brittle, and a slight shock will break it. Occasionally Occasion-ally it will snap with no apparent cause whatever. I have had it happen to watches lying in the showcase or upon the rack there. You inow, of course, that such atmospheric conditions frequently fre-quently disturb telegraph" and telephone lines and even prevent communication. That might be expected, as they are operated by electricity, but the effect j on watches is singular. Frequently even a severe thunderstorm will produce it, but an auroral display, which seems to be an electrical disturbance, is sure to result in many broken watch springs, and no better term could be applied to the trouble than epidemic. "No, there is no reliable protection against it, though many things have been tried and many thousands of dollars dol-lars have been spent. Attempts have been made to temper the-springs by electricity, a sort of inoculation against the disease. Then a sinall plate or disk of soft iron placed within the case to absorb the magnetism, a disinfectant, so to speak, has gi : ls"ptf results. discursive tbne,ffV fatch ifl similar simi-lar in many way ifnan being? It has its diseases lcjV-8, its epidemics, epidem-ics, old age a I 'ally, dissolution. Yes, and each wali aa its individuality individual-ity and special characteristics, and the finer the watch the stronger this personality, person-ality, if it can be so called, exactly as culture develops and strengthens individual indi-vidual character among mankind. "Now, in this epidemic this watch feels the atmospheric condition as you do before a thunderstorm, only more acutely, as does a gouty or rheumatic person, being specially susceptible to such influence, and, perhaps having an innerent weakness at one point in tne mainspring that 6naps, fractures a vital organ. 'Heart failure' it might be termed, for the mainspring of the watch is its heart, its driving force. True, we can replace the mainspring, whidh cannot be said for the human heart, but there is no telling how soon surgery will attain that result. "Then there's the hairspring of the watch, equivalent to its brain. It is affected by proximity to a strong locaL ized ejectric force for instance, the generator or dynamo of an electric plant. It becomes magnetized and stops a sort of paralysis. The nonmagnetic watches have hairsprings made of a composition metal, tin, zinc and other varieties. The soft iron plate or disk I mentioned before gives protection to the hairspring as well as the mainspring by absorbing the magnetism. A few years since a number of railroad companies had these iron disks applied to the watcbes of many of their employees, but they are by no means a complete disinfectant. "The lever of a watch also is subject to elestric influences, and when polarized, polar-ized, having a forked end, it becomes a regular horseshoe magnet and first retards, re-tards, then stops the hairspring a sort of spinal meningitis, you see. "The jewels and bearings are its joints and processes and are subject to sprains and dislocations as well as inflammation in-flammation or too much friction. Any severe shock may result in a sprain or even dislocation to these joints. The latter will stop it and probably haye immediate attention, while the sprain may remain unnoticed, but will render its movement irregular and eventually cause far greater injury than an actual breaking of the joints. At seas on the approach of a storm the ship's chronometers, chro-nometers, of which three are usually carried, are 'putto bed,' as it is called, hej.ng.nacked jiv1 pillows to prevent in- rf ftiirien jar rrotn tne snip's violent vio-lent motion. A few minutes' error in the time of making observations might throw a vessel many miles out of Its course. "Then a watch has a kind of rheumatism. rheu-matism. The oil with which its joints are lubricated dries and forms corundum, corun-dum, which irritates and cuts the pinions pin-ions and bearings, creating friction or inflammation. "Dirt to a watch, like biliousness to humanity, is its most frequent, disagreeable dis-agreeable and least dangerous ailment. It come from all sorts of things small fibers from the pocket, fine dust, microscopic micro-scopic matter from many sources, work through into the case and collectively disturb, retard and finally prevent motion mo-tion altogether. The system becomes clogged, and a thorough cleaning out is the only corrective. In both these latter lat-ter diseases atmospheric conditions materially ma-terially influence the patient's condition, dry, dusty weather hastening the development devel-opment and rendering the attack more acute. Rust or consumption is as deadly dead-ly to a watch as to humanity, and after it reaches a certain stage is incurable. Once in the system its effects are never wholly eradicated, and a warm, moist atmosphere may at any time induce a return of the disease. " Chicago Tribune. |