David Abbe mentions about the fish smell of the watches he cleans. I ran across this article in the Dec. 19, 1907 Mansfield News, Mansfield Ohio, I thought it was interesting about the watch oil used back then.

I have to post it in sections to make it readable.

Tom

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Very interesting article, Tom! I wonder how long it took them to come up with the formulations that they did. Can only imagine what the factories where they made it must have smelled like. Glad we have the non-fish smells oils today.

That's interesting about the oil. Wonder why they didn't use petroleum based oil? Maybe they couldn't figure out how to make the axel grease thin enough. Hanging fish heads out to drip seems like an awful way to collect oil. As for the electrical storms starting old clocks,all of my old clocks have weighted pendulums,some several feet long,and even if there were power left in the mainspring when it stopped,I don't see how lightning or any other electrical disturbance could get that pendulum moving. I have a couple of old clocks with what is called a floating balance,which actually has a balance wheel like a watch,although the balance wheel is horizontal,while the clock is vertical,and maybe by some weird electrical disturbance one of these might be magnetized or demagnetized,and maybe stop or start,but I think these were made much later than this article was written.