HOW RUBIES, SAPPHIRES, AND GARNETS HELPED TO TELL TIME "Well, Christopher, what do you think of the jewelry business?" his father inquired one day after he had been for several months a regular visitor at the store. Christopher smiled. "I like parts of it very much," replied he. "The clocks and watches are all right. There's sense in those. I shouldn't mind a bit becoming a repairer if I could be as good a one as Mr. McPhearson. But the rings, bracelets and all those ruby-emerald-diamond fol-de-rols make me sick." "And yet you could have no fine watches without jewels--remember that." Abashed, the lad colored. "Oh, I know the best watches have their works dolled up with precious stones." "Scarcely _dolled up_, son," Mr. Burton answered. "I thought that was what they were put in for." "Just for ornament?" "Sure! To make the watches handsomer than those carried by common folks--dressier and more expensive." "You actually entertained that notion?" came quizzically from the head of the firm. "Yes, Dad." Mr. Burton gazed at his offspring dumbfounded and reproachful, his eyes saying as plainly as any words could, "That I should live to hear a son of mine give voice to such gross ignorance!" Then when he had conquered his amazement sufficiently to speak he gasped: "I'm afraid there are still facts that McPhearson will have to teach you before you can follow his trade." "No doubt there are a few," returned Christopher audaciously. "This matter of jeweled watches is one. How did it happen you never asked him why precious stones were set in the works of a watch?" "I thought I knew why." "He probably thought you did too; but apparently you don't. However, there is hope for you since you are willing to be honest and confess your ignorance. Indeed, I've no right to blame you. How should you know such a thing unless somebody took the trouble to tell you?" the lad's father amended. "Nevertheless, at first I could not but be surprised at the originality of your theory." "Then the jewels are not for decoration?" "Well, hardly!" responded Burton, Senior, with an amused shake of his head. "Way back about the year 1700 a Genevan watchmaker residing in London struggled to find some hard material in which to set watch pivots so they would not wear the works of the watch, and after much experimenting with different substances he hit upon the plan of drilling a hole in various kinds of gems and setting the pivots into those. Gems, as perhaps you are already aware, are among the hardest minerals we have. Therefore Facio, as the Swiss was called, proceeded to make a watch after this idea and in 1703 obtained a patent on it good for fourteen years. Then, two years later, when he found by experience how excellent and practical was his scheme, he petitioned that this grant be extended to cover a longer period.