Galveston News Reviews: Rosenberg Library's March Treasure

Antique Pocket Watches

Today’s watches - worn on the wrist - are increasingly high-tech, providing not only the time and date, but also GPS navigation, fitness tracking, and internet access. However, for most of history, people carried simple watches in their pockets in order to tell time. Also called “pocket clocks” pocket watches were used until WWI when the wrist watch was developed.

During the month of March, Rosenberg Library will exhibit an assortment of antique pocket watches from its museum collection.

Pocket Clocks

By the late 1400s, small, spring-driven clocks were being manufactured in Italy and Germany. The earliest European watches only had an hour hand; the minute hand did not appear until the late 1600s. Typically, the watch face was covered by a hinged brass plate rather than with glass. These watches were often worn on a chain around a neck, and only later were watches carried in a pocket. Pocket watches were usually attached to a chain to prevent them from being dropped or broken.

Pocket Watch Styles

There are three main types of pocket watches: open-face, hunter, and demi-hunter. An open-face watch lacks a protective cover over the crystal but is covered by a thick piece of glass. Conversely, hunter watches have a thin glass face but are protected by a metal cover which opens with a springed hinge. This keeps the watch from getting dirty or scratched. A demi-hunter also has a springed hinge cover, but it features a glass panel on the outer cover so that the time can be read without opening it. Cases for pocket watches were most often made from metal, though less durable ceramic and glass cases were also manufactured.

American Watch Makers

Although early Americans owned watches imported from Europe, pocket watches were not manufactured in America until the 1830s. Even then, American-made watches were only produced on a small scale and many people could not afford to purchase them. However, by the mid-1850s, innovative American companies (including Elgin, Waltham, and Hamilton) had developed machine-made, interchangeable watch parts and had begun to utilize assembly-line production. This enabled American watch makers to offer mass-produced watches at a low price to consumers.

In 1896, the mail order firm of R.H. Ingersoll and Bros. began selling wholesale watches for $1 apiece. Dubbed “The Watch that Made the Dollar Famous” Ingersoll’s dollar watches became wildly popular and within 20 years, 40 million units had been sold. Despite this initial success, Ingersoll and Bros. declared bankruptcy in 1921 during the post WWI recession.

For higher-end consumers, the iconic American jewelry firm Tiffany and Co. also produced pocket watches. Tiffany partnered with Patek Phillipe, a prestigious Swiss watchmaking firm which produced a line of luxury, handcrafted watches for the Tiffany brand in its Geneva factory.

The Emergence of the Wristwatch

During WWI, the trench watch was developed. This was a transitional design combining elements of both the pocket watch and the wrist watch. Military personnel found it more convenient to wear a watch on the wrist than to carry it in a pocket. This trend spread to the general public, and by the 1940s, wrist watches had become the much preferred timekeeping accessory.

Galveston News: Researchers Find New Gene Interaction Associated With Increased MS Risk

A person carrying variants of two particular genes could be almost three times more likely to develop multiple sclerosis, according to the latest findings from scientists at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and Duke University Medical Center.

One of these variants is in IL7R, a gene previously associated with MS, and the other in DDX39B, a gene not previously connected to the disease.

The discovery could open the way to the development of more accurate tests to identify those at greatest risk of MS, and possibly other autoimmune disorders, the researchers said.

The findings are published in the latest issue of Cell.

A disease in which the body’s own immune system attacks nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain, MS is a major cause of neurological disease in younger adults, from 20 to 50 years of age, and disproportionally affects women. While treatable, there is no cure for MS, which can lead to problems with vision, muscle control, balance, basic body functions, among other symptoms, and could lead to disability.

Available treatments have adverse side effects as they focus on slowing the progression of the disease through suppression of the immune system.

Thanks to the collaboration between scientists at UTMB, Duke, University of California, Berkeley, and Case Western Reserve University, researchers found that when two particular DNA variants in the DDX39B and IL7R genes are present in a person’s genetic code, their interaction can lead to an over production of a protein, sIL7R. That protein’s interactions with the body’s immune system plays an important, but not completely understood, role in MS. 

“Our study identifies an interaction with a known MS risk gene to unlock a new MS candidate gene, and in doing so, open up a novel mechanism that is associated with the risk of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases,” said Simon Gregory, director of Genomics and Epigenetics at the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute at Duke University Medical Center and co-lead author of the paper in Cell.

This new information has potentially important applications.

“We can use this information at hand to craft tests that could allow earlier and more accurate diagnoses of multiple sclerosis, and uncover new avenues to expand the therapeutic toolkit to fight MS, and perhaps other autoimmune disorders,” said Gaddiel Galarza-Muñoz, first author on the study and postdoctoral fellow at UTMB.

It can sometimes take years before an MS patient is properly diagnosed allowing the diseases to progress and resulting in further damage to the nervous system before treatment begins. 

With more accurate measures of risk, health care providers would be able to screen individuals with family histories of MS or with other suspicious symptoms. It could lead those with certain genotypes to be more vigilant.

“One could envision how this type of knowledge will someday lead to diagnose multiple sclerosis sooner and, now that we have promising therapies, a doctor could start the appropriate treatment more quickly. It is not out the realm of possibility to imagine a path for screening for other autoimmune diseases such as Type 1 Diabetes,” said Dr. Mariano Garcia-Blanco, Professor and Chair of the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at UTMB, and co-lead author of the paper.

For Garcia-Blanco the fight against MS is personal. He was already working on research related to MS when in 2012 he found out his daughter, then in her late 20s, had been diagnosed with the disease. Garcia-Blanco said this refocused his efforts on his MS related work.

“I’m much more aware now of how the work we do in the lab could someday lead to something that can be used to help those who have to live with MS”, Garcia-Blanco said.

Other study authors include Farren B.S. Briggs, Irina Evsyukova, Geraldine Schott-Lerner, Edward M. Kennedy, Tinashe Nyanhete, Liuyang Wang, Laura Bergamaschi, Steven G. Widen, Georgia D. Tomaras, Dennis C. Ko, Shelton S. Bradrick and Lisa F. Barcellos.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, National MS Society Pilot Award, Duke University Whitehead Scholarship, Ruth and A. Morris Williams Faculty Research Prize funds from Duke University School of Medicine, start-up funds from UTMB and funds from Mr. Herman Stone and family for MS research.