NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
L + C,watches etc.
From: Dick Savage
Date: 2004 Jan 5, 21:38 -0800
From: Dick Savage
Date: 2004 Jan 5, 21:38 -0800
George,this is Doug Royer useing my friend's
terminal.
I will tell you what I know on this subject after
reading Steven Ambrose's excellent account and what it was like in small town
America.
Andrew gave many good points and I will not go over
them again.
1st the question of watches.I grew up in
Gettysburg,Penna.The town clock had and still only has hour and minute hands.It
rang every 30 min. and chimed each hour up to 12.The chimes could
and can be turned on and off after a certain time of day.All the town clocks in
the area were of the same build.The town clock in Lancaster,Pa. was built in
1789.The one in Gettysburg in 1822.To this day they still only have hr. and min.
hands.The chimes from the clocks could be heard miles from town and this is how
most farmers and settlers kept time along with the sun.I could hear these same
chimes when I was a kid liveing 3 miles outside of town.
Watches back in those days were cost prohibitive to
the comman man.In 1845 a good pocket watch would cost $7.00.The average weekly
pay of the middle class was $5.00.In 1864 around $4.00 per watch with the wage
being higher at around $7.00 per week.Household clocks were somewhat cheaper to
make so many more of them were in use in the home or businesses.One payed a
higher price for the portability of the time back then.
I've seen common watches from the 1850 era and most
don't have second hands or wheels.Remember also;the common people back in those
days had the barest of public schooling if any.Readin,Ritin,rithmatic
most likely to a 3rd grade level at best.So,I think that would be the average
schooling for enlisted personnel.Army officers would need to have more
schooling,but I'm not so sure about that after reading stories of some of the
army's general officer's schoolastic acheivements of this time period.I beleave
the Navy had higher standards for it's line officers than did the army of
this time frame.
At the time of 1848 to 1865 only the officers had
or used watches for the most part.And in only 2 branches of the U.S. Army
were watches with second hands used regularly.The Engineer Corp and the
Artillery.In the army bugles were used to tell time.In the navy bells were rung
for all hands to tell the time.I truely believe most enlisted personnel and
junior officers used the sun to tell time.It was good enough for thier daily
routine.
They Corp of Discovery was 1st and formost a
military expedition and secoundly a scientific one.It was staffed by mostly
officers and enlisted personnel of the army.Although the corp was to undertake
scientific experiments two of the main reasons for the expidition was to
find or debunk the "Northwest Passage" and to "plant the flag".Capt. Clark was
trained mostly in the mechanics of sight takeing and it was planned(per Mr.
Ambrose's research)that astronomers and such would do the main body of
calculations of the raw data when the corp returned to Washington D.C.Mr.
Ambrose also states that the corp had at least 1 chrono and it was guarded,cared
for and protected along with the sextants at the expence of other
items.
