The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-05-09
MATCHMAKING.
DELICATE OPERATIONS RE.
QUIRING GREAT JUDGMENT
That Part Of the Work Of Max
ing Timepieces Which Can
Only Be Done BY Hand
Springs and Dials.


ing Timepieces Which Can
Only Be Done BY Hand
Springs and Dials.
The obe-Demoerat prints an interest
ing description of the various operations
required in Matchmaking. After tracing
the steps in which machinery is needed
the article continues: The watch is now
ready for finishing, and the machinery
disappears. Bran, intelligence and
judgment are necessary from this on, and
as this cannot be given to machinery,
man must do the work unaided except
by hand tools. The watches, with all
the marks complete and in place, held by
tie tiny screws, are delivered to this
room, still in the trays in which they
have been carried since the entire train
was first collected in separate pieces.
The men in this room are jewellers. They
pick each watch to pieces, put I'M springs,
try the main spring for uniformity, and
if it has not force enough send the: train
back to be remedied or the spring to be
hardened, as the case may be. II the
movement is too fast the trouble is
remedied by puttingin q weaker spring.
While the men in the finishing depart
ment are skilled in their trade, the work
is not confined on one watch to one man.
Each man does one thing alone. If the
man who tries it for the motion is salts
fed with it he passes it on until it
reaches the workmen who put on the dial
and hands. This, too, is delicate work.
The dials must 60 in just SO, the hands
must not strike the dial and mnst not
come in contact with each other. This,
too, looks easy, but it requires very
correct judgment of space to do it prop
erlY.
The last hands through which the
watch goes before it is pronounced ready
for the market is the adjuster's. The
real adjustment consists in weighing the
screws and different important parts Of
the watch. Each has certain weight,
and each q weight Of other parts to 60
with it. The combination is determined
by running the watch. 1t is then timed
and started off, being watched for an
hour. If it runs uniformly it is then
placed on rack, in trays Of ten, and re-
mains there for twenty-four hours. If
it runs fast or slowit is sent back to the
department In which the fault occurred,
and it is there remedied.
The making of springs and dials is
really separate from the watch industry,
but some factories make everything that
goes into the watch, and so these. The
|, making of the hair spring is-really the
most delicate operation about the manu-
facture of the watch. The wire is re-
ceived in spools, and Is nothing more
than round thread. This is run be-
tween hardened steel rollers and fiat
! tened, and being wound on the roll is
then drawn between diamond dies, which
give the required thickness and width.
The spring must be of exactly the same
width and thickness, and before being
, used is tested on register which marks
down to one two hundred and fifty thou
sandths of an inch. To show to what
fneness this measures, a hair placed be-
tween the jaws marked 400 degrees and
, moved forward half an inch registered
1866 degrees.
OF course, every one knows thata hair
varies in thickness, but that it should be
30 exactly measured Is o surprise; and
when it is remembered that the hair
spring of waing Of awatch cannot vary
even so much as the variance in q hair
from the. human head, the delicacy. Of the
operation will be emphasized in the
Imagination. The wire is received in
lem sths of 1900 yards, and in this entire
length must not vary three degrees, or
one.thirtieth of what q hair varies in
half an inch. The spring is then cut
into lengths of twelve inches, and these
are wound, four at time, and very
quickly, the tool resembling large pen
holder, and turning from the end into
the shape of spring, and Of seventeen
coils. The wire is hardened but winds
very easily, and is removed from the
winder in copper boxes.
The mainsprings being large, a six
teenth to an eighth Of an inch wide, look
much easier to make, but in reality they
give much more trouble. The steel is
received in sheets four inches wide, and
is afterwards split and cut in lengths and
widths desired by machine. The work
after this is all by hand. The grinding is
done with sliding iron or stone, and en-
tirely by elbow grease, on two springs at
time, the springs being stretched
tightly between braces, holding either
end. They are then tempered on gas
iron in q fiddle bow, and afterward
polished by hand. The coiling is sim
ple operation, as is also tacking the
clamp at the end, when the springs are
tied up in bundles of dozen, each spring
twenty-six inches long, ready for use in
the factory or shipment to the jewellers.
It has always been problem how to
cheaper the cost of the mainsprings, but
the very cost of the diamonds necessary
for die has always been an obstacle that
could not be overcome. The Illinois
company, however, now hiss under con-
struction a new machine which, it is
hoped, will do away with hand labor.
The dial is made on a copper plate,
the enamel or porcelain being filled in,
the dial plate then being semitic the fur
mace and submitted to very high degree
of heat, which melts the enamel, runs it
over the plate and burns it in. 1t is then
sent to the printer. A great many
people have an idea that the figures and
designs on a dial are painted with a
brush. Such a presumption is very far
from the fact. The paint is put on in
rough dabs around the edge, or where
the figures will strike. This is then
placed in a machine, perfected within
the last six months, which stamps the
figures and heavy part of the boroer,