By Bruce Shawkey
Was Jonathan Swift. the English satirist and author of "Gulliver's Travels, " the first to conceive the idea of a waterproof watch? Remember his description, written in 1699. of the effect of Gulliver's watch on the "'Lilliputians": "Out of the right fob hung a great silver chain. with a wonderful kind of engine at the bottom ... which appeared to be a globe, half silver and half of some transparent metal. For, on the transparent side, we saw certain strange figures circular drawn, and thought we could touch them, until we found our fingers stopped by that lucid substance. He put his engine to our ears, which made an incessant noise like that of a watermill, and we conjecture it was either some unknown animal, or the god that he worships. But we are more inclined to the latter opinion, because he assured us (if we understood him right, for he expressed himself very imperfectly) that he seldom did anything without consulting it. He called it his oracle and said it pointed out the time for every action of his life." It is amusing to presume that Swift had imagined a waterproof watch for his hero. After all, Gulliver had escaped from a shipwreck, spending hours swimming in the salty sea, before reaching the Lilliputians.
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