People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1893 — HARD ON WATCHES. [ARTICLE]

HARD ON WATCHES.

The Electricity Building Is a Bad Place for Valuable Timepieces. When Franklin sent his kite aloft and drew lightning from the clouds and Morse harnessed it and made it obedient to the commands of man they doubtless had no idea of the mischief they were making for succeeding generations. But here the law of compensation comfcs in, for had nature’s greatest force not been captured by these estimable gentlemen it is doubtful if frictional electricity would have been developed to its present perfection. If nature makes the only genuine lightning, man manufactures a very clever imitation. Unlike lightning, it is not referred to as a “fluid,” but as a “force.” Manufactures hall and Electricity building are full of the machines by which this subtle force is turned out in quantities to suit, and in both of these great buildings it is used for a multiplicity of purposes. Transmitted from a dynamo to a motor it furnishes motive power to run machinery of all imaginable kinds, and taken direct from the machine where it is made it heats the filaments in the electric light bulbs up to the incandescent point and makes the exposition buildings a blaze of glory three nights a week. But the dynamos which perform thia excellent service also do a lot of damage. They ruin by magnetism a good many valuable watches. Since tte ex position opened more than one costly timepiece has been carried into Electricity building a thing of beauty and usefulness and, after even a brief stay, has been brought out a total wreck so far as its timekeeping qualities are concerned. The disturbing element works noiselessly but in a most insidious manner. Whenever a dynamo is running an invisible quantity known as the magnetic fluid is reaching out after hairsprings, and once the electric demon has fastened its fangs on the delicate bit of coiled steel the latter is worthless as a regulating medium. A magnetized watch, like a dead man, tells no tales. There are methods of demagnetizing, but they are only partially effective. The best method, if you wear an expensive watch, is to examine dynamos when they are not running. An electrical expert was asked the other day as to the probable number of watches which had been ruined in the exposition grounds by being brought into close proximity to active dynamos. “It would be impossible to approximate the damage,” he replied, “but I have no doubt that it has been considerable. Audit is strange that in.this day of general information people are not better posted on the evil effects of inspecting these powerful dynamos at too close range. The damage is done before they know it.”