ines should run
parallel with the verge: this may not seem to some necessary, but if the
polished lines run crosswise you can hear it rub distinctly and it would
cause it to stop.

It is very common to hear a clock make a creaking noise, and this leads
inexperienced persons to think it has become dry inside. This is not so,
and you will always find it to be caused by the loop of the crutch wire
where it touches the rod; apply a little oil and it will cure it.

Some think that a clock must be cleaned and oiled often, but if the
foregoing directions are carefully pursued it is not necessary. I could
show the reader several thirty-four hour brass clocks of my first and
second years' manufacture (about twenty-two years since) which have been
taken apart and cleaned but once--perhaps some of them twice. I have
been told that they run as well as they did the first year. Now these
are the directions which I should lay down for you to save your money,
and your clocks from untimely wearing out. If you see any signs of their
stopping--such as a faint beat, or if on a very cold night they stop,
take the dial off, and the verge from the pin, wipe the pin that the
verge hangs on, the hole in the ears of the verge, and the pieces that
act on the wheel; also the loop of the verge wire where it connects with
the rod, and the rod itself where the loop acts. Previous to taking off
the verge, oil all the pivots in front; let the clock be wound up about
half way, then take off the verge, and let it run down as rapidly as it
will, in order to work out the gummy oil: then wipe off the black oil
that has worked out and it is not necessary to add any more to the
pivots. Then oil the parts as above described connected with the verge
and be very sparing of the oil, for too little is better than too much.
I never use any but watch oil. You may think that the other oils are
good because you have tried them; but I venture to say that all the good
they effected was temporary and after a short time the clock was more
gummed up than it was before. Watch oil is made from the porpoise' jaw,
and I have not seen anything to equal it. You may say why not oil the
back pivots? They do not need it as often as the front ones, because
they are not so much exposed, and hence, they do not catch the dust
which passes through the sash and through the key holes that causes the
pivots to be gummy and gritty. The front pivot holes wear largest first.
A few pennys' wo