New-York tribune., 1867-06-19
MAKING WATCHES IN AMEEIcA.

What is the timei American decidedly Zen
years ago it was Swiss English, French Now AK
your nearest live, progressive patriotic ncghbor The
watch he pulls out ia reply is labeled Geneva
Liverpool" nor Versailles but Watham Massachu-
setts" What has wrought the change Aud what we're
earliest modes for measuring the pace that
whose scyhe always sharp and whose barns never
fun
The sun-dal the first II is among the oldest Of
human inventions. Chadean Kings used it in Babylon.
Charming old Herodotus found 1t in Egypt while taking
notes to depict the small well as the great estates Of
men,"
Next came the clepsydra. 1t glass vessel from
which water out through little aperture at the bot
tom. 1t sort Of household tide The hight OF water
told the hour TO the question: How late b it % fancy
tho answer: d" Four O. the clepsydra."
Chadea, India, China used IT, Plato found It in Egypt
perhaps upon one Of his oipeddlng xpeditions-and
carried It home with him. Greeks and Romans EN-.
poyed it n courts to limit their vOlube lawyers Like
his cOemporaries Aristotle mentions It, II he did keep
the drug store n Athens doubtless one stood upon his
counter and told him when go to dinner and when to
shut up shop. Julius Oesar from whom our July twhy
Is here before the time derives its name found it
among the rude Britons And Calph Iaroun al Raschid
hero Of the Arabian tales sent TO the great Charcmagno
gifts of tent, an elephant clcpsydra aud the keys of
the HolJ sepuicherust Mr. Seward by the Japanese
Commissioners will send to tho Tycoon an omnibus,
buffalo, ar American watch. and a combination safe.
His elephant-Walrussia-h is holding for a sol'
sand is more convenient aud Tess variable than water
SO the hour glass crowded ont the clepsydra
Good Ring Alfred burned candles to mark the hours
At least taught but pitiloss Investigators
who, Hans Christian Anderson says, "ask questions
and dream"-may have dproycd IL they disproyc
all tc good stories about him. IL ought TO be penal
ocnse TO raise Historic Doubt any subject whatever
Linupus had o royal luxury The great botanist
woOed Nature till she whispered him his closest secrets
and showed him her shyest habits. lie so arranged
circle of flowers that opened every hour He could
always tell the time by frcshiblossOms! Rare floral
clock! If the Connecticut factories could only give
that! 1t was like perfect human fc-eyery hour
marked by 4 new bloom and beauty.
In Europe clocks first appeared monasteres 800 years
ago Monks attributed their Invention 90 the Saraccns
people, TO the devil Two centuries later they
mon for sadcycd Dante sings OF their striking Aud
hence have sprung all Theological curoses from the
great clock OF sasbourg with its pedestrian. gymnasc
saints down to our curious mauel ornaments of Pruss
handwork which tell their hour, day month, year.
sunrise, tides. weatlcr-amOst everything except the
condition OF his bank account and the state OF his wfcs
temper.
The watch lncal descendant of the clock and like
most q tribe Hppant and preienous than its
honest father Perhaps with cause for it is wonder of
wonders. pocket planetary system. 1t born in
Nurcmburg 400 ycars ago Henry VIII. Of wifc-kling
memory carried one. So did his cotemporary Charles w.
who
"t,,' crowns o rosario. away,
an empire ~, a cell"
These watches wore rude construction and large rs
dessert plates mshakepeares time they had become
common among private gentlemen. Says Malyoio, in
Twelfth Night "I frown tho while, and pcrchance wind
up my watch or play with some rich jewel"
During the war Of 1912. while foreign trade was
stopped, few excellent watches made at worccs
ter and Hartford. No others manufactured
America until within tho last dozen years We could not
compete with the prices OF European labor. S, we
imported al our watOhc3-somenes 10 the amount Of
S5.0o0oc0 a year
Eut the germs OF revolution had long been planted.
hundred years ago. in Wosboro Massachusetts, boy
born. 20 modify the industry commerce, and politics
OF his co1r.ry than any other American who has
yet lived El Whitnny, sou of poor farmer aud me
chanic Ike the traditional Yankee could anything
he ever saw with q pocket knife and post ax. Given
these two mpiencnts lac constructed all other needed
tools W fast IA he required them At - c made wrought
iron nails (scarce and hgii frrin ti, pis- si..''
tie pins with which our graudmpthers fastened their
bonnets lie worked his through Yale repairing its
philosophical apparatus which proie belle vcd could
not De mendcd on this side Of the Atlantic found his
habtl recreation ia wording With carpenters tools
graduated at Il. aud after while In Georgia. study
ing law invsnsa che Cotton nndn cotton ono
great staples; rendered Slave Labor Prodnblc and
In two generations so changed the industry and sen
mcut Of The South as 10 bring on the great Rebellion
The inventors cxperenceit Is the old. sad story II
morrows and make q successful trip to the moon, o
score Of men would Instantly clam with show Of
proof that they constructed the vehicle ten years
ago. E whitney had the inevitable long, hard struggle
Courts refused to protect mm against Infringement
States growing rich ffOm his ingenious continuance
treated him with nicgardliuess and bad faith His part
ncr died his manufctury burned down and ia IS years
his patent expired 20 leave him poorer man for having
originated the greatest isyeniion since the steam
engine.
But the Westb0rO boy was born to success. He
forcsaw this failure and years before he had found an
other channel 1913 he contracted 70 supply the Gov
eminent from his mlnnfactory near Ne"-IiaYeh'
with 10000 musiets in two years The undertaking was
stupendous and eight years passed before the last gun
was delivered then be had overcome All dhcnltic'
lie filed new contract 10000 more aud the man who
lad starved on the cotton gin, which TO render the
South powerful defiant, grew rich on the musket by
which the same South TO be suodued. IL was cil
Gus prospective revenge.
our Springfield rincd muslcts the best in tho world,
have grown up from the weapon of Eli whitney But his
great achievement the Inauguration Of anew method
lie first employed each workman, not W make agun but
TO perform by machinery operation upon some one
,art of the gun with unng zeal, year after year. he
invented and perfected the nccdful machines lie Alst
made 10000 muskets exactly alike so that given screw
or spring or pivot from any Of them would III any
other equally we'll Dividing and systematizns labor;
machinery for every process absolute uniformity IN each
deta-this was the revolutionary idea which pioneer
El whitney put npractico. 1t has proved the h@0c'@-
istic disnetioe ADcrica, principle i manufactures We
apply thing comparatively foreigners apply
TO nothing.
The inventor Of the Ingenious automaton chesspaycr
exhibited it 10 an Engshman, and hc pronounced II
.sWonderfulw to n German, and he exclaimed Impos-
sibew to FrenchmaD. and he cried "supcrbe! Magni
foue!" then to a Yankee, and he asked "Whatn you
bet 1 can't make one like 1t" That was provincial