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+--- Thread: Set the clock, Lincoln (/thread-53.html)
Set the clock, Lincoln - Dave Taylor - 07-10-2012 08:18 PM
This is hardly relevant to Lincoln at all, but I still thought it was interesting. While researching for an upcoming post on my blog, I came across a completely unrelated article from 1942:
[attachment=5]
Click image and select "Open" to read
First off, I didn't even know there was an agreed upon time to set clocks at for display purposes. Secondly, I find it funny that the time that you are supposed to display a clock at was believed by "many" to be based on Lincoln's assassination. Even though incorrect, this shows me that Lincoln’s legacy is engrained in the most random things.
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - J. Beckert - 07-10-2012 09:24 PM
Also being an old watch enthusiast, I've heard that rumor before, Dave. The best explanation I've found is that the 10:20 setting allows for all features of the watch face to be observed.
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - Dave Taylor - 07-10-2012 10:08 PM
Well at least that would be the right time, Joe. This article states that any time between 8:17 - 8:25 provides the most amount of space for advertising above the hands. While they debunk Lincoln as being the reason, they don't correct the time that he was shot and imply it was around 8:19.
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - LincolnMan - 07-21-2012 05:29 PM
That is very interesting! Yet another Lincoln-related tid-bit that I've never heard before.
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - Dan Pearson - 07-26-2012 08:29 PM
I don't know if this a regional thing, but when I was growing up in the '60s, display clocks here in the Midwest were routinely set at about 7:20. My father was a good friend to a fellow who ran a jewelry store, and I recall asking him about it, and he told me the Lincoln story as well. I routinely see clocks now set at about 10:10 in stores, no doubt for the display and visibility reasons.
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - RJNorton - 07-27-2012 05:33 AM
Dan, I grew up in the Chicago area, and that's the way I remember it, too.
Snopes deals with this issue here.
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - LincolnMan - 08-27-2013 09:46 AM
I recently got a call from a representative of an estate firm. A gentleman had passed away leaving his estate to be liquidated through the firm. He had hundreds of clocks in his home. The estate representative had found my Lincoln blog and noticed I owned the Lincoln/FDR/Washington clock. Well, she wanted to know if I wanted to purchase another one! I'm sure you know what my answer was. Yes, now I own two of them. I didn't notice what time the hands were set at when it arrived.
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - Eva Elisabeth - 08-27-2013 11:10 AM
Probably most of you know this (I just came across this recently), so, for the rest it might interesting, too:
http://www.retronaut.com/2012/01/secret-message-in-lincolns-pocketwatch-1861/
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - Gene C - 08-27-2013 12:50 PM
What an interesting web site.
Thanks Eva!
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - Eva Elisabeth - 08-31-2013 07:21 AM
Does anyone know wherein the American habit of placing month before day when writing the date origins?
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - LincolnMan - 08-31-2013 10:00 AM
Eva: I don't know the answer to your question, it's interesting for me to note (as a veteran) that in the Army we would use the sequence of the day/month/year.
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - L Verge - 08-31-2013 11:43 AM
I told Eva much the same thing, being raised in the military. Between remembering to reverse it to please teachers and having to figure out the 24-hour military time system as opposed to A.M. and P.M., it was a tad confusing to my little brain.
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - BettyO - 08-31-2013 02:50 PM
Quote:Does anyone know wherein the American habit of placing month before day when writing the date origins?
Eva, I did a bit of research and here is what I found out to be one of the best answers online - apparently we Americans just like to be different! But this does make sense in a somewhat silly way!
A good deal of our "backward-ness" stems from the time of the Revolutionary War, at which time we were ardently trying to break away from the British and wean ourselves out from under the rule of the monarchy. So in utter rebellion of common English ways, a good lot of English traditions were done backwards, in sorts, to mock the crown.
One way was to run horse races counterclockwise, as opposed to clockwise, another was to switch the order of a written date to month-day-year; although, most of Europe tends to write the date in the same manner....
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/46354.html
We also drive our cars "on the wrong side of the road!" One usually drives a carriage sitting on the right side of the driver's seat - so....we had to be different and use the LEFT side of the car....and therefore the "Wrong side of the road!"
Therefore, the Brits are correct in using the old holdover from carriage driving - we just changed things around apparently.....
RE: Set the clock, Lincoln - Eva Elisabeth - 09-01-2013 03:26 AM
Thanks, Betty, that makes sense. I assumed something similar (symbol of independence), but was not sure. As for the Brits' left-side driving, there exist many different explanations wherein that origins, IMO this is the most likely one:
In the Middle Ages you kept to the left for the simple reason that you never knew who you'd meet on the road in those days. You wanted to make sure that a stranger passed on the right so you could go for your sword in case he proved unfriendly.(For the same reason most ancient spiral staircases wind up clockwise, so it was easier to defend your castle from the top.)
This custom was given official sanction in 1300 AD, when Pope Boniface VIII invented the modern science of traffic control by declaring that pilgrims headed to Rome should keep left.
The papal system prevailed until the late 1700s, when teamsters in the United States and France began hauling farm products in big wagons pulled by several pairs of horses. These wagons had no driver's seat. Instead the driver sat on the left rear horse, so he could keep his right arm free to lash the team. Since you were sitting on the left, naturally you wanted everybody to pass on the left so you could look down and make sure you kept clear of the other guy's wheels. Ergo, you kept to the right side of the road. The first known keep-right law in the U.S. was enacted in Pennsylvania in 1792, and in the ensuing years many states and Canadian provinces followed suit.
( http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/634/why-do-the-british-drive-on-the-left )
Have you ever experienced meeting a British car on the road with a huge dog on "the driver's (= their passenger) seat"?