The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1878-11-29
AMERICAN DISPLAY AT THE
PARIS EXPOSITION.
Wonders or the Mechanical Depars-
mens.

From the London Times. Aug. ~
Perhaps, however, the most I'm
poftan. display ia this department, ali things
considered is that Of the Waltham Watch
Company, their first in the European exhibit
tions. The readers OF the Times reports OF
the Philadelphia Exhibition Will not need 10
be- informed Of the admirable machinery by
which The works Of the Waltham watches are
produced, or their singular exactitude. which
enables any part Of watch % be replaced by
the corresponding piece Of any other watch of
the same grade. Ia this mechanical produce
tion Of machines, America has long led the
world. ana the mechanism by which the En-
glish army rifle Is still produced is with I'M
material notifications a contribution from
the American armories. But In the Waltnam
works science has been brought 70 The
aid Of native ingenuity 10 such degree that
even since the Philadelphia Exhibition the
fabrication OF watches has gone through
large are OF another revolution. What Was
begun by applying such machines that their
work was beyond competition on anything
like equal terms from any hand-work il con-
tinucu BY the construction OF the most essen
tiai parts Of a watch on a new principle, which
permits an approach 10 perfection unattain-
able by the ola mechanism, however pro-
duced. Every one knows that the great diff
cuity IN making chrvnoineters has becn the
compensation Tor the effects Of expansion and
contraction due to change Of temperature;
but what IL less well known Is that this dill
Guilty Is due less ~ lie balance, which, by It's
CONSTRUCTION with bi-seg Ucntai rim (0f hrass
aud streD, may be perfectly corrected, than
10 the expansion of the balance or hair
spring. which, being immensely longer causes
nsr times the error caused by the expansion
or contraction balancewhcel alone. The
two pieces must be considered as one
and the compensation Effected In the wheel
or lin must answer for the spring as well A.
Tor Itself. The theoretical and insuperable
difficulty in this compensation has aiw ays Oecn
that thc error caused By the expansion aud
contraction OF the spring was la a different
ratio from that OF the correcting expansion or
contract ton wheel aud the Two quantiliesmay
be compared 10 curves with TWO radli, which
cOuid be Brought together AT two points, hut
not % coincide throughout, 80 thatif the com
pensation NJ the extremes OF temperature Is
correct, the mean must be In error and vios
IsrSd
The old compensation was, speaking broad
!y, In brazing band uf brass on one Of steel
process both theoretically and mechanically
erroneous, since The contraction and expan-
sion can only 20 en- with certain tendency To
disrupiufe 81 the elements and consequent in
equality OF the action. The new balance pro-
cccds On an entirely different arrangement of
The c0npensaiing metals The rim, 81 plain
steel. Is cut nearly through az the liked ex-
ucmifits OK the semi circles by several
saw-tO0th shaped nOtchts, the number uc-
termiiled BY experiment, and the brass l.
forced into these notches. The conlensat-
ing weights are then lut on at tie other
cxtrcmiticS Of the seml-circies instead OF he-
INK distributed along them empirically. and IL
Il found possible In this arrangement 50 10 dis
Tribute the compensation and coInpcnsating
weights as 10 give AZ VIII a compensation for
the mean tefnlcratufe. either ia excess uf. or
less than the extremes, aud Of course. 10 give
a compensation which shall coincide through
out which makes ii theoretically possible to
give absolute compensation for all Temporal
lures at once. II Is difficult 10 make this
clear, without diagrams showing the exact
curves attained by experiment; but the nature
Of the result will he appreciated by those who
know the mechanism Of the balance. IL Is
simply the theoretical elimination Of all error
from The compensated balance go far as teul-
peraturr i concerned. Practically and me-
chanlcally there VIII always he some, due 10
the inherent imueriectiun OF human workman
equally the manual adjustment required will be
reduced 10 onc-third Of that actually obtaining
under the old form OF balance. But " illustrate
how involved are the various improvements In
mechanism Il may be noted that the delicacy Of
construction OF the new balance would only
have been possible with the mechanism intro
duced by the Waltham Company, the precision
OF which may BE- Judged from that OF the mi
crometer last produced and shown 40 Paris,
which measures the twenty-nye-thousandth
part Of an inch, and even indicates that so
readily into hundred thousandths. A mi
cromcicr screw gauge detects inequalities Ia
the thread OF a screw up 70 hundred thou
sandths, and screw made for the Govern
incnt Scientific Commission 70 correct the
measures has been constructed In which the
Dsoxbn,Di 81 error IN the thread Il less than one
ten thousandth part Of an ncn.