patent no. 13,011 · phineas o. parry · 1906
a pedometer calibrated below the threshold of walking
a pocket pedometer, chased silver, the size of a watch, with a pendulum movement so delicately sprung that it registers a step of one-eighth of an inch. parry's intention was to honour the housebound: the shuffle between bed and basin, the half-step to a closer chair, the small footsteps of a person waiting for the kettle.
it does what it was made to do. the trouble is that it cannot tell a step from a tremble. a heartbeat through the waistcoat registers as one step. a sneeze, four. the dial runs to half an inch within the first minute of being worn and to a mile by the end of an unremarkable afternoon. parry's own wife was recorded as having walked, on a day she did not leave her chair, the length of forgetting.
one therefore wears it not to know, but to be impressed by, the small movements of the body. parry kept his in the dressing-table drawer, alongside his thimble, and read it on sundays the way one reads a barometer of the soul.
field-note · do not wind on a windy day; the case itself counts the trembling.
seed counter · thinking chair · dust meter · footstep · patience