LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XXVll 



shew me the inside of his watch : and though he 

 was an entire stranger, he immediately opened the 

 watch, und put it into my hands. I saw the spring- 

 box with part of the chain round it, and asked 

 him what it was that made the box turn round : 

 he told me that it was turned round by a steel 

 spring within it. Having then never seen any 

 other spring than that of my father's gun-lock, I 

 asked how a spring within a box could turn the 

 box so often round as to wind all the chain upon 

 it. He answered, that the spring was long and 

 thin : that one end of it was fastened to the axis 

 of the box, and the other end to the inside of the 

 box ; that the axis was fixed, and the box was 

 loose upon it. I told him I did not yet thoroughly 

 understand the matter : Well, my lad, says he, 

 take a long thin piece of whalebone, hold one end 

 of it fast between your finger and thumb, and 

 wind it round your finger : it will then endeavour 

 to unwind itself; and if you fix the other end of 

 it to the inside of a small hoop, and leave it to 

 itself, it will turn the hoop round and round, and 

 wind up a thread tied to the outside of the hoop. 

 I thanked the gentleman, and told him that I 

 understood the thing very well. I then tried to 

 make a watch with wooden wheels, and made the 

 spring of whalebone ; but found that I could not 

 make the watch go when the balance was put on, 

 because the teeth of the wheels were rather too 

 weak to bear the force of a spring sufficient to 

 move the balance ; although the wheels would run 



