Arizona republican., 1892-09-17

oiiaU IL coniu not De touched with the bare hand. From this it is immedi. ately taken and put into another me- tallic box which is buried in ice. There the costly watch is allowed to freeze for an equal length of time, when it's torture ceases and the examination is made. If during this excessive test the watch appears to have ticked merrily on without deviating fractional part of second it is placed back in the case and marked guaranteed for two years" !" The handspring is the first piece of mechanism that succumbs to the test. fit survives nothing else need be feared.
 Mainsprings are, however, about the only part of a watch that the jeweler cannot successfully diagnose. They can guarantee any of the numberless little wheels or pivots or balances that go to make up the anatomy of the watch, but the handspring has as yet baffled the most skilled makers of watches of all countries. It is not so much the severe extremes of the weather that prove fatal to the spring as it is the process of changing from hot to cold, or vice versa Like the human frame, if the ribbonlike little coil of steel can withstand the eff. fleets of this change it may be considered proof against breaking when the change to normal weather comes.
 Many people who have been possessors of new watches but short time come into the dealers with blood in their eyes, declaring that they have paid an enor- nous price for the timepiece and the handspring has broken after only a weeks use.
 "That is nothing, remarked the jewell CT. "We have them snap in our case before the watch has ever been shown for sale" Others imagine that they might have wound the watch too tight. but this does not harm it. It is rather the jerky, hurried winding that will eventually tell on the temper of tho metal. Every good stem winder has a stop placed in the stem, which prevents the winding too tight.
 Damp weather has an ill effect on mainsprings, and in England they do not as rule last as long as in this coun- try. A severe thunder and lightning storm also frequently proves disastrous to the durability of the spring. A dealer who took in seventy-nine watches on one dcy said that one summer on a day inn mediately following a terrific electrical storm there were twenty-one watches brought into his store within five hours for new mainsprings. The cost of new handspring is the small part of making such repair. It is the putting them in, the labor expended, that costs. It costs from twelve to fifteen dollars to put a handspring in the Jurgensen watch and a little less in Patek Philippe, while in cheaper American make it may cost only fifty cents or dollar.
 A man purchased a $500 Jurgensen from leading dealer several years ago, and shortly after be left for tour around the world. He was gone year, and when he returned he went back to the dealer with his watch and com. plained: Heres watch paid you $500 for year ago, and while I was travelling abroad it lost two minutes. You guaranteed it, and I want you to make it good" The watch was placed in the window with this card be. side it:
 This watch lost only two minutes in year in trip around the world. Price $300." It sold within an hour.
 It is said that one bar of iron costing g. will produce $250,000 worth of main. springs.
 Some springs are made in this country by the manufacturers of cheap watches These springs are several feet long and take nearly two minutes to wind up.-- | New York World.