Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1901 — The Latest in time tellers [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Latest in time tellers

An inventor of New Haven, Connecticut, is making an effort to have the clock face that all humanity has been consulting for centuries changed for one made suitable for the progressive people of the twentieth century. In stating his objections to the present system of telling time the inventor points out that there is a bewildering, brain-trying number of figures which are never necessary at one time for one hour indications on the face of the clock of today, and he further says that some of these figures are right side up while others are upside down, some repose on their sides, while others are placed at various angles. This, as can be readily seen, creates confusion and often renders it difficult to tell the exact time at a glance. In the latest system there are never more than four figures shewn on the

dial of the clock at once, and they so indicate the time that no mistake is possible, and indicate it so accurately that valuable minutes need never be lost. Under many ordinary circumstances a minute over or under time will cause a great inconvenience or trouble, but there are many conditions when even the loss of few seconds means the loss of millions of money, or even the wrecking of lives. The inventor by his new system has evolved not only a singular time indication for clocks, but he has also developed clock mechanisms radically different from present practice, which will probably in a short while absorb much of the business in time indicators and become the standard system of the twentieth century. The inventor says: “When the hour of the old-fashioned timepiece is dang-

ling in one direction between VI and VII and the minute hand is losing itself in another direction somewhere between -XI and XII, the new timepiece will read simply and conclusively 6-58. in another minute the last figure magically disappears and 9 takes its place, and in sixty more seconds all the figures vanish and in their place appear 7.00. To state the system clearly and tersely, time will be told as the railroad time table tells it. And with the general introduction of this system would be done away with such bungling expressions—entailed by the old circular dial plate with its wreath of figures—as 20 minutes past 9, 14 minutes of 12. Instead we shall adopt the crisp, accurate terminology of the time table, and say nine twenty, eleven forty-six, etc. The invention has lately been patented .

THE TIME INDICATED BY THE NEW STYLE CLOCK IS 12:25:35 (SEE SECOND DIAL) OR 25 MINUTES AND 35 SECONDS AFTER 12 O’CLOCK.