Why do Clocks run clockwise? (20 page)

The first evidence of trees being hoisted atop buildings was in A.D. 700 in Scandinavia, when they signaled that a completion party was about to begin. Black Forest Germans celebrated the nativity of Jesus Christ with the hoisting of Christmas trees. Today, topping-out trees are still most prevalent in northern Europe, particularly Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Indeed, Scandinavia’s greatest playright, Henrik Ibsen, had his protagonist in
The Master
Builder
meet his doom by falling while placing a topping-off wreath on one of his new buildings.

The evergreen has been joined by the stars and stripes as a topping-off symbol in the United States. According to
The Ironworker
magazine, “When the last strands of cable were laid for the Brooklyn Bridge a hundred years ago, the wheel operated by Ironworkers was decorated with American flags. By 1920 ironworkers were again draping their work with American flags, this time while driving the first rivet on the Bank of Italy in San Francisco.” Flags atop buildings today signify not only the patriotism of the construction crew but also, in some cases, that the buildings was financed by public funds.

Submitted by Robert J. Abrams, of Boston, Massachusetts
.

148 / DAVID FELDMAN

Why Aren’t Whitewall Auto Tires as Wide as They
Used to Be?

The sole purpose of white sidewall tires is to look pretty. At one time, whitewalls were all the rage and an option that most Americans bought. A caller on a radio talk show, who posed this Imponderable, questioned why, although he paid a hefty premium for the whitewalls, he got much less white for his money than he did years ago.

Talks with tire experts yielded two explanations. First, as whitewalls are a totally cosmetic option, their appearance is subject to the whims of fashion. Tire design, like high-fashion design, tends to follow the lead of Europeans. Porsche has evidently made a huge impact with its all black tires. Whitewalls are not particularly hip at the moment, so a flashy display of white on the sidewalls at this time is as likely to impress the opposite sex as a panoply of gold chains.

Second, the thickness of white sidewalls has been reduced to conform to a general decrease in the thickness of tires and tire components, part of an industrywide attempt to make tires run cooler in order to meet the requirements of high speeds on interstate highways and of federal high-speed safety standards.

The extra charge for whitewalls actually does reflect higher expenses in manufacturing them. According to Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, white rubber is slightly more expensive than black rubber per pound, but there are two other factors that increase the cost of whitewalls: extra time and steps are necessary to manufacture and finish whitewalls, and the black rubber adjacent to the white rubber must be treated to keep the white from being stained by what would be a normal migration of materials within the tire.

WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 149

Why Do Clocks Run “Clockwise”?

In baseball, horse racing, and most forms of skating, we are accustomed to seeing a counterclockwise movement. Is there any particular reason why clocks run “clockwise”?

Henry Fried, one of the foremost horologists in the United States, gives a simple explanation for this Imponderable. Before the advent of clocks, we used sundials. In the northern hemisphere, the shadows rotated in the direction we now call “clockwise.” The clock hands were built to mimic the natural movements of the sun. If clocks had been invented in the southern hemisphere, Fried speculates, “clockwise” would be the opposite direction.

Submitted by William Rogers, of St. Louis, Missouri
.

150 / DAVID FELDMAN

On Clocks and Watches with Roman Numerals, Why
Is Four Usually Noted as IIII Rather than IV?

Watch and clock designers are given great latitude in designating numbers on timepiece faces. Some use arabic numbers, most use roman numerals, and a few use no numbers at all.

But have you noticed that while the number nine is usually designated as “IX” on timepieces, four is almost universally designated as “IIII”? We contacted some of the biggest manufacturers of watches, and even they couldn’t pinpoint the derivation of this custom. But they sent us to our friend, Henry Fried, who swatted away this Imponderable as if it were a gnat.

When mechanical clocks were first invented, in the fourteenth century, they were displayed in public places, usually on cathedrals.

The faces themselves were only ornamental at first, for the early models had no hour or minute hand but merely gonged once for every hour of the day.

Clocks were thus of special value to the common people, who were almost universally illiterate. Most peasants, even in Italy, could not read roman numerals, and they could not subtract. They performed calculations and told time by counting on their fingers. Four slash marks were much easier for them to contend with than “IV,”

taking one away from five.

Many early clocks displayed twenty-four hours rather than twelve.

While some German clocks in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries used roman numerals to denote A.M. and arabic numbers for P.M., all-day clocks remained especially troublesome for the illiterate. So some clock designers always displayed all numbers ending with four or nine with slash marks rather than “IV” or “IX.”

Why do clockmakers persist in using roman numerals today?

Primarily because the touch of antiquity pleases consumers. At a time when dependable clocks and watches can be produced for less than they could decades ago, manufacturers need design elements to convince consumers to spend more. Although some WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 151

argue that roman numerals are easier to read upside down and at a distance, the touch of class they connote is still their biggest selling point.

The delicious irony, of course, is that this touch of class stems from a system designed for peasants.

Why Are Rain Clouds Dark?

Rain is water. Water is light in color. Rain clouds are full of water.

Therefore, rain clouds should be light. Impeccable logic, but wrong.

Obviously, there are always water particles in clouds. But when the particles of water are small, they reflect light and are perceived as white. When water particles become large enough to form rain-drops, however, they absorb light and appear dark to us below.

152 / DAVID FELDMAN

Why Are So Many Corporations Incorporated in
Delaware?

We blanched when we noticed that two of the largest New York banks, Citibank and Chase Manhattan, were incorporated in Delaware. Both banks’ names betray their New York roots, so surely there must be some practical reasons why they chose to incorporate in another state.

Then we encountered a November 1986
Forbes
article, which reported that Delaware houses more than thirty out-of-state banks. A call to the Delaware Chamber of Commerce yielded even more startling statistics. More than 170,000 companies are incorporated in Delaware, including more than one-half of all Fortune 500 companies, 42 percent of all New York Stock Exchange listees, and a similar proportion of AMEX companies.

WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 153

How could Delaware, the home of fewer than 700,000 people, house so many corporations? The answer is a textbook illustration of the ways a small state can attract big business by changing its laws and tax structure to attract outsiders. One of the reasons that Delaware attracted so many banks, for example, is that it abolished usury ceilings, which are set by the state rather than by the federal government. Let’s look at the other inducements that Delaware offers corporations seeking a home.

Favorable Tax Laws

1. No state sales tax.

2. No personal property tax.

3. No corporate income tax for corporations maintaining a corporate office in Delaware but not doing business in the state. If Chase Manhattan were incorporated in New York, New York State would demand a share of the income generated beyond its borders.

4. No corporate income tax for holding companies handling in-tangible investments or handling tangible properties located outside Delaware.

5. An extremely low franchise tax, based on authorized capital stock (the minimum is a staggeringly low $30; but there is also a maximum, $130,000 per year, that is very attractive to big corporations). Even with the low rate, the franchise tax generates 14 percent of the state’s general fund revenues—Delaware collected over $126

million in 1986.

6. The corporate tax rate itself is a low 8.7 percent and is collected only on money generated inside Delaware. Compare this to the 10

percent New York State tax and the total burden of 19 percent for companies operating within New York City.

Favorable Corporation Law

1. Delaware’s court of Chancery sets the nation’s standards for sophistication and timeliness in shaping corporate law. Don 154 / DAVID FELDMAN

ald E. Schwartz, professor of law at Georgetown Law Center, says:

“There is, by an order of several magnitudes, a larger body of case law from Delaware than there is from any other jurisdiction, enabling not only lawyers who practice in Delaware, but lawyers everywhere who counsel Delaware corporations to be able to render opinions with some confidence.” By quickly establishing precedents on the issues that confront corporate heads today, Delaware has defined the legal parameters for doing business faster and more comprehens-ively than any other state. Business leaders feel more secure in making decisions and planning for the future, because the law is set early; as Schwartz puts it, “Corporate managers and their lawyers seek predictability.”

2. In Delaware, only a majority of shareholders of a company need agree to incorporate a company. Many states require a two-thirds majority.

3. Delaware allows mergers to proceed with less intrusion than just about any other state.

4. Once incorporated, a corporation can change its purpose of business without red tape from the state.

5. The corporation’s terms of existence is perpetual in Delaware.

Some states require renewals, which involve paper work and extra expense.

Favorable Treatment of Corporate Leaders
Delaware has recently enacted several laws designed to make life easier for corporate heads, particularly boards of directors.

1. Delaware law allows corporations to indemnify directors, officers, and agents against expenses and often against judgments, fines, and costs of settlements incurred in suits against them filed by third parties.

2. Delaware law makes it difficult to unseat directors of a corporation.

3. Directors of a Delaware corporation do not necessarily have to meet in Delaware. Decisions can be made by conference WHY DO CLOCKS RUN CLOCKWISE? / 155

call; they can even take an action without any meeting if there is unanimous written consent.

4. Perhaps most important in this category, Delaware passed an enabling act that allowed corporations to limit or eliminate outside directors’ personal financial liability for violations of their fiduciary duty (including potential liability for gross negligence). This rule makes it much easier to attract directors to Delaware corporations; would-be directors in many states are forced to pay high liability insurance premiums to protect themselves against just such lawsuits.

Although Delaware law does not allow directors to escape unscathed for perpetrating fraud, the knowledge that they won’t be held up for making a mistake (even a “gross” one) makes directors happy to work in the state.

Other factors also make Delaware attractive to corporations.

Unions are not as entrenched in Delaware as in most areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Pay and cost-of-living scales are lower than in surrounding regions.

Perhaps the most enticing nontangible asset of Delaware in attract-ing business is the accessibility of government officials to business people. State Insurance Commissioner David Levinson was quoted in the
Forbes
article on this subject: “If you have a problem and you’re operating a company in Delaware, within 48 hours you can have in one room the governor, the insurance commissioner, the president pro tem of the senate and the speaker of the house.”

Delaware’s probusiness slant has revived what was once a stagnant economy. But has this infusion of incorporations helped the average citizen of Delaware, when most companies do not relocate there?

Evidence suggests that money has trickled down. Although there are pockets of poverty in Delaware, unemployment is now well below the national average.

The secret weapon of Delaware is its small size. A bigger state would need promises of a large number of jobs before offering financial concessions to corporations. But a small state like Delaware can siphon off the gravy and thrive. For example, Del 156 / DAVID FELDMAN

aware offers some tax breaks to out-of-state banks if they incorporate in Delaware and maintain an office with at least one hundred employees. To a multinational bank, one hundred jobs is a drop in the bucket. To a state with fewer than twenty thousand unemployed people, one hundred jobs represents a substantial opportunity.