Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1890-09-10

L
for both open faced and hunting cased.
The watches were known as bulls
eyes. The Lunette was invented by
a Frenchman of that name, and he
must have done an enormous. business,
as the whole watch wearing world was
customer of his. These old fashion
ed timepieces had detachable cases,
and when your grandfather performed
the important duty of winding up his
old ticker, just as the sun was sinking
in the west, he would remove the out
er covering, hang it on his thumb, adj
just the key, and then solemnly and
slowly tighten the spring for another
twenty-four hours service. The
crystals Of the bulls eye had to be
very high in the center because the
post to which the hands were adjusted
stood up nearly quarter of an inch"
"Will you give me the process of
manufacturing?'
"With pleasure. 1t sh ould be
understood, in the first place, that the
finest quality of glass is necessary,
and, in order to make the business
profitable, the factory must be located
contiguous to a rich bed of silica or
pulverized flint. | am now speaking
more particularly of the present time.
The glass is taken from the ovens on
the blow pipe, and large globe, the
size of half barrel formed.
when cool this is taken to the
operator and, with a heated piece of
thin iron, he traces line around the
glove and then quickly lifts it above
his head. The sudden change of
temperature causes the glass to sepa-,
rate where the heated metal has been
in contact. This is continued until
the entire sphere has been made into
hoops or bands. These are then cut
into squares the size of the crystal it
is designed to produce.
"The process is to place these
squares on wheel covered with buck
skin, which is made to revolve under
stationary rod, in the end of which
is a diamond. This operation pro-
duces the dish. These are then placed
on blocks of soapstone, with rounded
tops, and put into a little oven at a
white heat, where they remain about
a minute. This softens the glass, and
it settles down upon the soapstone,
conforming itself exactly to the mold.
The crystals are now ready for the
grinders, who bring them down to
sharp edge so that they shall fit snug
ly into the bezel."
"How are the various styles Of
crystal of the present time designated"
First we have the Geneva, which
is slightly crowned and quite thin.
Then the patent Geneva, made in the
same form, but with a small polished
space in the center. The bulls eye
is high crowned, also with a polished
center. Then there is the thick
parallel. This is fiat on top and very
thick. They have been in vogue for
about twelve years, and were brought
out in answer to demands made nee
essary by the great popularity of the
open face watch. They are very
strong and will stand great deal of
hard usage before breaking. The
Lunette is oval or crowned, running
in height from / to s. The verge
glass was used largely in the old bulls
eye."
"What are the diameter of the old
crystals ?"
"They run from 0 to "a, . being
about the size Of ten cent piece and
"a measuring 2 SIG inches"
The speaker here went to drawer
in cabinet and fshed out a dusty
package, and upon opening it showed
the writer crystal almost large
enough for town clock.
IL manufactured these myself"
said he as he held one of them up to
the light. "They are made of the fin
est glass possible to obtain
"You were then in the manufacture
ing business ?"
"Yes. In 1874 opened small
factory in Williamsburgh, N. Y, and
these glasses / am now showing you
we're part Of my product. In those
days a crystal was worth about dol
lar, and l concluded they could be
produced in this country at a much
lower figure. l preached the matter
of starting factory here, but all my
friends spoke very disparagingly of
the project, saying il was impossible
to make salable crystal on this side
of the Atlantic. Twas not discourage
ed, however, by these pessimistic
views, and went right along and car
ried out my proposition to success
full conclusion, but kept what ! was
doing to myself. 81
1T soon began to be noised about
that l was underselling the market,
and one of the greatest wonders of the
time was to know how managed to
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