The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1891-05-30
EVOLUTION OF WATCH SPRINGS.
An Interesting Description of the Process
of Their Manufacturer.


An old resident of Pittsburgh Pa,
was much astonished lately when told
that a Pittsburgh mill manufactures
watch springs, or the next thing before
them. He conceded the Iron City's SUI
premacy in rail making and pipe rolling,
but he grew skeptical when the manu-
facture of wire for watch springs was
mentioned as local industry Never
theless wire is made there of such fine
ness that the skepticnl citizens could
walk away with couple hundred miles
OF it on his bacl1. A freight. carload of
this wire would be long enough to en-
circle the earth and leave a long piece
over.
The most interesting thing in connec-
tion with this fine steel wire-wire so
fine that three strands can be easily
passed through the eye of an ordinary
needle-is the intelligence and skill which
has converted Jumps of mineral dug out
of the ground into such delicate tex
ture. While the manufacture of the
steel from which this fine wire is spun
has no extraordinary features, the
various operations by which the thread
is reduced from block of steel are in
teresting enough.
This wire is made from cruciblc steel.
The steel is melted in pots in a Siemens
regenerative furnace. The material
IRON which the steel is made is wrought
iron scrap, melted in pots or crucibles
and then poured into molds. The fur
mace in which the pots are subjected to
such strong heat as to liqucfy their
=, l.. 4 q / i
number of holes to receive the pots,
each hole being covered during the heat
| When heat, of which six are made in
twenty-four hours, is ready, non armed
with huge tongs lift the pots from the
furnace and pour the contents into the
molds. These are about four feet high
and vary in size from three inches to
sixteen inches square.
The metal, when cast into molds, be-
comes ingots. These ingots are high
grade carbon steel, When cold they are
released from the molds and conveyed
| to storekouse. Here the ends are struck
off, and each one is separately examined
and set apart for the purpose for which
its particular quality is best adapted
whether for tool, sheet or wire making.
A glance of the skilled examiner decides
whether the ingot shall become a knife
for harvesting machine, a carpenters
chisel or the handspring of watch.
Those intended for the latter purpose
are conveyed to the MILL where they are
heated, hammered or rolled down into
billets. Next they are passed through
roughing rolls and reduced to billets
| 1,o1 1f
an inch thick. They are then cut into
lengths of about four feet. These are
again heated and passed through train
of finishing rolls eight inches wide and
having a series of grooves on theirfaces.
This operation reduces the billet four
feet long, one-and-one-fourth inch by
half an inch, to rod thirty-fve feet
long and one-quarter of an inch in
diameter.
AS an instance of the wonderful homo
geneousness of the material it may be
mentioned that a six foot billet has been
drawn out to rod three hundred feet
long and one-quarter of an inch in
diameter by passing and repassing it
through the rolls
With the next operation begins the
long process in which the rod is slowly
reduced to wire. From the rolling mill
the Steel made up into coils, is conveyed
to the annealing furnaces. Here it is
heated and allowed to cool gradually to
render it soft and pliable for drawing
1t next finds its way to the drawing
house. This is large house with
benches running around the walls. The
center of the shop is filed with coils of
wire in various stages of manipulation.
On the benches are the drawing ma
chimes. They consist of two vertical
draws, placed about four feet apart,
with strong, vise-like arrangement
Immediately between.
The coil of wire is placed on one drum
and fed through pair of dies fixed in
the wise, being taken by the other drum
as it passes through. This is all done
by steam power, the work of the at
tendant being to keep the dies well
supplied with grease to prevent them
losing their temper by the heating due
to friction of the wire, as it is drawn
out. The coil of wire, when passed
through the first machine, has been re-
duced O05 of one inch. The wire is
next reheated and bathed in sulphuric
acid and water. This is for the purpose
of further softening it and removing all
surface impurities.
1t is then dried in an oven, and once
more returned to the drawing room,
where it is put through the second ma
chine, and so on, until wire of the re-
quisite gauge has been obtained. The
operation of annealing, picking and dry
ing is performed after every reduction.
To make the smaller gauges these pro-
cesses are gone through no less than
twenty-four times. Hence it will be
seen that wire-drawing is a matter of
patience rather than of great mechanic
al Skill, There are one hundred and
fifty different gauges. The smallest is
known as .055 of an inch, or as Jewellers
gauge"
From the drawing room thu wire is
conveyed to another department and
Strengthened. This is done by passing
it through a small machine making
three thousand five hundred revolutions
per minute. Next it is cut into lengths
of three feet and turned over to the
polisher, who pass it through other ma
chimes with emery cloth fixed between
a pair of blocks. 1t is then sent into
another department, where each strand
ispolished, examined and gagged, The
strands are then tied up in bundles and
put away for shipment.
For watch springs this fine wire is
rolled thin and aF+o, - -.