The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1867-04-25
PARRY WORKSHOPS.

ribbons of steel are passed under die
| which descends with regular motion,
and cuts out balance wheel at every
! blow.
| In the next room, the blanks-as tlIe
rough pieces are called--are prepared
| for advancement The barrel blank Is a
wheel about three fcurths of an inch
| across. and three e-sixteenths of an inch
thick. 1t is put on lathe. Round and
round it spins with great velocity, rub
bing its rough edges agaist series OF
| immovable sharp tools which polish of
| its coarseness; make it thin and smooth;
turn out chamber for the main spring /;
drill hole in the center to receive the
barrel arbor, and turn fange on the
outer edge in which the teeth are cut.
All this is done in twinkling-faster
than YOU or could describe it in short
hand This machine sets itself.
The barrel is now taken to the den
tist's-to have its teeth cut 1t is placed
in position Quickly litsle chisel spins
on cylinder, cut, cut, cutting as it
'sswings round the circle" and present
ly its sixty teeth are finished--all exact
iy uniform and equidistant. This cutter
is sapphire ground down to the proper
size and form by diamond dust and oil,
and then fastened into little wheel or
disk. No other material could stand the
wear and tear of eating all day long into
this hard brass and steel.
Here, in another room, little machine
is splitting out screws, SO small that you
can not see their threads.
What YOU do see at the first glance, is
a :hin thread of steel, finer than the
most delicate of pins, slowly pushing its
way through little hole in a machine,
and being grasped by tiny tool which
runs round it, as if embracing it; and
then, presto change! out comes knife
and cuts off it's head. All this is done
so quickly that you have to wait and
watch the operation, after you know what
it is all about, before you can see the
process have described. The hits thus
beheaded with a hug look exactly like lit
tie grains of powder. But they are
screws You notice that when you take
a microscope and examine them. They
are complete--almost- Not quite yet.
The girl picks them up, one by one, with
a dainty tool, and places them in rows,
one in every bole, in fiat piece of steel.
This little plate, as soon as it is filled, is
placed under another machine, and it
would do any Irishman's soul good to
see it work It heats Donneybrook Fair
.'all hollow" had never a more con-
vincing proof of the superiority Of the
mechanical over the manual labor For
a while a good hearty man with stout
bit Of shillelah may break half a dozen
heads of q day-with fair luck-this
without Is much as saying "Bv
your lave" comes out of its hole, and
runs along each row, quietly splitting
the head Of each one of them exactly in
the center. And now the screw is made.
Just this way is the jewel-room, with
rubies and sapphires neatly arranged in
glass vials, and in another apartment the
process is conducted. There
is something like a large safe built into
the wall, which is full of little drawers.
Pull out the one on the right side, and
put in your hand and you feel that the
air is hot. On the left, the air is icy.
Watches are first put in the tropical and
then in the arctic zones, till they become
citizens of the world. Then, to accustom
them to the ups and dows of practical
life, they are put away in other drawers
and tested in different positions. One
stands on its head for day, when it is
suddenly reversed; but no sooner does
it become accustomed to that than it is
fat on its back.
l examined the watch case rooms
Every case is composed of more than
thirty parts. In the lower rooms the
bars are melted; and--to be brief--af-
ter a great variety of processes up stairs
and down, they are rapidly turned out,
the models of beauty and elegance that
we take to our homes and our bosoms.
The different parts are soidered togeth-
er under little tin French like roofs,
which extend along the benches and pre-
vent the room from being begrimmed
with smoke. Workmen, after tying two
parts together with wires. fuse them by
suddenly ehting up tube, almost ex-
actly like snake, which instantly spits
out stream of fire, and plays on the
detached parts till they are welded-'now
and forever, one and inseparable-
/ saw a hundred curious processes that
l have no room to describe, and what
have written must be taken only as an
outline sketch, not at all colofed, of a
wonderful picture of genius, applied to
the development of mechanical skill. /
saw the delicate steel nerve and brass
muscle into which, by and by, the breath
of life is to be breathed, till it beats true
time in the passionless ruby heart of the
perfect watch-every tiny bone and in
visible joint is fashioned by these mus
cies made visible-polished, welded, and
perfectly adjusted. as by no human hand!
They were merely passed, in pretty trays,
by skilled hands to infinitely more skill
full mechanisms-going as it were from
nursery to school, from school to college,
and from college to humanity till. after
. hundred private tests, and public ex-
aminations not few. they are finally
put together; diploma or guarantee
that they will do their duty is given to
each of them; and then they are sent to
mark their perfect measure of the pass
ing hours.
Who shall say that the American
Watch Co., of Waltham, Massachusetts,,
is not one of the fairy wonders Of the
century
Mrs. Sarah Adams, of Denmark, Ne.
has spun. since the 28th of May last,
rty L -