A railroad chronometer or railroad standard watch is a specialized

timepiece A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...

that once was crucial for safe and correct operation of

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

s in many countries. A system of timetable and train order, which relied on highly accurate timekeeping, was used to ensure that two trains could not be on the same stretch of track at the same time.

Overview

Regulations of the watches used by critical personnel on the railroads (engineer, conductor, switch yard controllers, etc.) were specified almost from the beginning of widespread railroad use in the 1850s and 1860s. These regulations became more widespread and more specific as time went on, with some watches that were "railroad standard" at an earlier time eventually becoming obsolete as technology improved. There was, however, no absolute, universal definition used across different railroad lines. Each company appointed one or more "time inspectors" (typically a

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their par ...

) who decided which watches were acceptable for use. In the United States, the American Railway Association held a meeting in 1887, which resulted a fairly standardized set of requirements, but not all railroads adopted them.

Webb C. Ball

One notable watch inspector was

Webb C. Ball Webster Clay Ball (October 6, 1848 – March 6, 1922) was a jeweler and watchmaker born in Fredericktown, Ohio, who founded the Ball Watch Company. When Standard Time was adopted in 1883, he was the first jeweler to use time signals from the Un ...

. His first job as a time inspector was when he was brought in by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railways in 1891 after a crash and was tasked with bringing their time inspection standards up to industry normals. Ball's career eventually led to his being the time inspector on more than half the United States' railways, leading to a far more uniform set of standards in the U.S.

Typical requirements

A typical railroad's requirements for a watch in the early 20th century might include: * only American-made watches and certain approved Swiss watches may be used (depending on availability of spare parts) * only open-faced dials, with the stem at 12 o'clock post 1908 * minimum of 15 functional jewels in the movement (pre-1895), changed to 17 jewels post 1895 * 16 or 18-size only * maximum variation of 30 seconds (approximately 4 seconds daily) per weekly check * watch adjusted to at least three positions (pre-1895), later changed to five positions: Face up and face down (the positions a watch might commonly take when laid on a flat surface); then crown up, crown pointing left, and crown pointing right (the positions a watch might commonly take in a pocket). Occasionally a sixth position, crown pointing down, would be included. * adjusted for severe temperature variance and isochronism (variance in spring tension) * indication of time with bold legible Roman numerals or

Arabic numeral The ten Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) are the most commonly used symbols for writing numbers. The term often also implies a positional notation number with a decimal base, in particular when contrasted with Roman numerals. ...

s, Arabic numerals only post 1906, outer minute division, second dial, heavy hands, * lever used to set the time (no risk of inadvertently setting the watch to an erroneous time, when winding the watch with the stem) post 1908. Pendent set watches were grandfathered. * Breguet balance spring * micrometer adjustment regulator * single roller escapement (pre-1908), double roller

escapement An escapement is a mechanical linkage in mechanical watches and clocks that gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands. The impulse action transfers energy to t ...

* steel escape wheel * anti-magnetic protection (after the advent of diesel-electric locomotives) The minimum requirements were raised several times as watch-making technology progressed, and the watch companies produced newer, even more reliable models. By

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, many railroads required watches that were of a much higher grade than those made to comply with the original 1891 standard.

Manufacturers

The

Waltham Watch Company The Waltham Watch Company, also known as the American Waltham Watch Co. and the American Watch Co., was a company that produced about 40 million watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time delay fuses, and other precision instruments in the Un ...

and the Elgin Watch Company were both used as early as the 1860s and 1870s as railroad standard watches. Later,

Hamilton Watch Company The Hamilton Watch Company is a Switzerland, Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches based in Biel/Bienne, Bienne, Switzerland. Founded in 1892 as an American firm, the Hamilton Watch Company ended American manufacture in 1969, shifting manufacturing ...

Illinois Watch Company The Illinois Watch Company was founded on December 23, 1870, in Springfield, Illinois, by John C. Adams, John Whitfield Bunn (1831–1920), and various additional financiers. Twenty years later, Jacob Bunn Jr., (1864–1926) took over and ran the ...

and many of the other American watch manufacturers all produced railroad-grade watches like the Ball Watch Company. The

Time Signal A time signal is a visible, audible, mechanical, or electronic signal used as a reference to determine the time of day. Church bells or voices announcing hours of prayer gave way to automatically operated chimes on public clocks; however, au ...

Service of the

United States Naval Observatory The United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is a scientific and military facility that produces geopositioning, navigation and timekeeping data for the United States Navy and the United States Department of Defense. Established in 1830 as the ...

was used to ensure accuracy of railroad chronometers and schedule American rail transport.U.S. Naval Observator
"History"

References

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External links