Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 90.djvu/220

 204

��Popular Science Monthly

���The watch in the center is the largest in the world. At the left below is an ordinary-sized watch and on the right the smallest ever made

The Largest and the Smallest Watches in the World

THE ordinary watch is a simple, com- fortable time-piece to be dropped negligently into a convenient pocket and to be referred to casually and without incon- venience. But all watches are not thus easily handled. The largest watch in the world, for instance, could hardly be carried conveniently at the end of a fob, since it weighs one hundred and fifteen pounds, while the smallest watch in the United States could be easily lost, in a vest-pocket of change, since it is scarcely larger in circumference than a dime. Aside from their unusual sizes, these big and little watches differ in no respect from their broth- ers of normal development. They keep excellent time and perform in all respects as an orderly, well balanced time- piece might be expected to do.

The watches, contrasted here, were built originally for advertising purposes.

The smallest watch has a diameter of only seven-tenths of an inch, and a circumference of two and one-fifth inches.

��Its weight is .113 ounce Troy. The big brother of the smallest watch weighs one hundred and fifteen pounds; it has a diame- ter of seventeen inches and a circumference of fifty-three and two-fifths inches. Both watches are stem-winders, though to wind the smallest one it is necessary to use a pair of little tweezers.

The larger watch has twenty-three

��jewels, dollars.

��It cost more than ten thousand

���Directing Newport's Traffic from a Portable Platform

TRAFFIC Policeman Freeborn Cogge- shell, of Newport, R. I., has solved the traffic stand problem all by himself. He has constructed a platform which meets the peculiar conditions of the difficult post he holds, which is situated in a five-cornered plaza to which traffic converges at an average of twelve hundred vehicles of all descriptions an hour.

Two streets have a grade of about thirty- five degrees, and all are narrow and dan- gerous. Only at one point may a police- man stand in order to have a clear view to regulate traffic, and there it is that Police- man Coggeshell and his platform are

located.

Since Cogge- shell has been directing "itraffic in the square he has stopped one hundred and three runaways. That is the main reason he has equipped his platform with a mirror to show him what takes place behind him. In the mirror he ob- tains a view of the square and several streets. The umbrella insures a most welcome protec- tion from the sun, rain, and

���The policeman wheels his platform to the point at which all five streets cross, and with the aid of a mirror watches the traffic in every direction

��snow. In stormy weather a burlap apron is fastened around the stand to protect the officer. When the day's work is done Coggeshell wheels his platform to a nearby store.

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