Is This True

[L Verge]

A visitor to Surratt House yesterday was/is a craftsman with watches and clocks. He told our guide that, during the years when shop keepers displayed a symbol of their business outside, those in the clock and watch business would hang out a model of a clock or watch -- and the time was always shown as 7:22. Has anyone ever heard this?

[historybuff22]

Laurie,

I don't know about 19th century customs, but I recall when the first digital clocks came out - lage 1960s to early 1970s? - they were all set to 7:22 AM.

Rick Brown
HistoryBuff.com
A Nonprofit Organization

"Not everything you read on the Internet is true." Abraham Lincoln

[Jim Page]

Hi, Laurie--

I've heard this story about the 7:22 analog clock and watch settings being out of respect for Lincoln's time of death all my life. I've also heard that the time is just set that way as it shows off the clock/watch to its best advantage, as the hands usually don't obscure text on the dial face when set that way.

But most clock/watch sales- and repair-persons I've met believe in the Lincoln version.

As for digital watch settings, I had one of the first digital red-number Bulovas, back when folks would stop you on the street to ask to look at it, but it was running when I got unwrapped it, and I suspect most of the ones sold back then were sold that way.

--Jim

[Thomas Kearney]

I don't know

[Eva Elisabeth]

Dave once posted this:
http://rogerjnorton.com/LincolnDiscussio...ight=clock