Horology, and the music of early powered flight

[AccuTron]

Next time you want to surf the net just long enough to eat that big sandwich, then easily move on to some other activity, research what a regulation railroad watch really is.  Was, somewhat, as the quartz/digital age opened up the styles but the stringent tests for accuracy remain.

 

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In the mental and material mayhem of the passing of generations, there was a small paperboard jewelry box of my paternal grandfather's two (non-railroad) pocket watches.  He died when I was seven, and I knew him little.  

 

He was a successful General Practitioner in a big city, then the Great Depression wiped out his success, and he went to whiskey in a bad way.  The man I saw was propped up, all cleaned and starched, a shell who moved or spoke but little.  I liked him as I knew him.

 

 

I was vaguely aware of those two watches.  They long sat in a lower drawer in one US State, unwound in perhaps decades, and a generation later, sat unwound in a different lower drawer in a different State.  

 

Something made me think of those watches and I actually looked at them.  I wound them both a little.  I felt the resistance of dried waxy lubricant.  A day later, one was on time, one was two minutes slow.  

 

I took them to a watch shop in town.  A great place and watchmaker.  He recently gave my 1968 watch it's first service.  It's my, ahem, Accutron.  I discovered that my (approx) 1910 Gruen and 1900 Elgin were very special pieces.  

 

The next three nights I researched horology, which really has no downside, and is thus good with food.

 

It also occurred to me, these watches were made when the Wright Brothers were achieving powered manned flight.  Right there, that's a Wow, What Am I Holding In My Hand.

 

So what did the Bros have for watches?  Two railroad types, not brands that I had seen before.  They also used a now cracked stopwatch, and there's a pic of that on a Smithsonian site about the Wright Brothers.

 

 

This site also has music of the time.  Music was jumping on the flying bandwagon.  

 

https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/wright-brothers/online/music/music_content.html

 

Most of it sounds the same to me.  (How many future generations would say the same thing about later music?)  Right there, a look into how the workaday music sounded, and it's apparent limitations.  (I guess I am spoiled by fuzz bass guitar.)

 

Also, the cover art for the sheet music is of interest.  For aviation buffs, there's how artists interpreted these new machines.  Some are quite accurate.  But I notice that it took awhile to figure out how to draw moving propellers.   (I don't claim that I would've figured it out.)  Some look nice but would slice the craft into pieces.

 

 

Lyrics and cover art together, one thing becomes clear.  A major theme is taking a gal up in the aeroplane.  It's like a flying touring car, with lots less armor and luggage space, but many more clouds.

 

It's fantasy, it's fun, and eventually somebody's gonna name their daughter Amelia.  But I take a step back and picture somebody's daughter up in what is a very dangerous contraption.  Miraculous, yes, but unforgiving.  We're talking ~1904-1914.  "Not with my kid, you don't!  And stop singing that song!"