The herald., 1894-01-16
HANDS AND FACES.
HOW THEY ARE MADE IN A LARGE
SWISS WATCH FACTORY.

Delicate Operations With Oven and Tools
Required In Making Dials-- Expert
Workers on Hands = Tho Wages Paid
Both Men and Women Arc Excellent.
A Geneva correspondent in writing
Of visit to one of the famous watch
manufactures of that city thus de-
tcribes some Of the operations:
Now, about the dialmaking process
itself: First, the plain round Of purest
copper must be heated to red heat in
a furnace to burn off any adhering i'm
purity. Leaving the fire, it is plunged
into an acid bath. and in that way it
becomes 30 smooth that it may easily
be rubbed into form with small steel
spatula.
The enamel, which comes from France
and Switzerland and looks like great
Jumps of white porcelain, is first re-
duced to the finest of powders in pow
erful crusher. Then it. too, is washed in
acid, and finally it is washed again in
many renewings of pure water. After
this it is made into sort of paste,
which is applied in thin strata to both
sides of the copper and then carefully
put by to wait the complete evapora-
tion of the water with which it was
mixed. AS soon as this has been accom-
plished the dial is placed in an intense
ly hot gas oven, where the enamel be-
comes perfectly fused and adheres firm
ly to the plate. This operation is re-
peated, with second and third appli-
cation of the enamel, and then the dial
is ready to receive the painting of the
hours. AS soon as this has been done
it is again put in the oven, most crit
ical operation, because the fraction of
a second overmuch would spoil every
thing, and then, while yet warm, it is
rubbed OF redressed with bit of char
coal and small metal tool especially
made for the purpose. 1t is this opera
tion that gives the dial the beautiful
smoothness, like that of a dainty bit of
china Before that most delicate oper-
alton, the piercing for the hands, which
is done on an instrument furnished
with diamonds fixed on steel, and some
times even the steel itself, the dial goes
to the automatic filer and is rendered.
absolutely perfect in shape.
The painting of the hours is nearly all
done by women and girls. Several
women are also employed in the enamel
ing department. The wages paid both
men and women are excellent. Some
of the employees are time workers, the
others work by the piece. many of the
latter easily earning 800 francs month.
Naturally these are the most expert
enced workers, who have finished ap-
prenticeships Of at least three years.
In beginning the employees are given
simple separate parts to do, but even
then they may earn from 100 to 100
francs month. The women who earn
the highest wages, 200 francs, work also
by the piece, polishing or rubbing off the
second dial
The firm was organized in 1885, and
all the chief employees Of today have
been connected with 1t from the begin
ming. There are IA divisions of work
men and workwomen, each with dis
tinct branch of his or her own. Indeed
dial, before complete, passes through
at least 90 pairs of hands. Besides the
white or simple dials with the usual
black figures, there are the colored dials
pink, blue, gray, delicate shade of
green and black. There are also the
white or colored dials, with figures in
contrasting colors or in metals, as in
the very latest fashion in decoration
there is an artistic combination with
golden dots. This firm sends djals to
America by the hundreds of thousands
annually, and its rate of supply to the
largest Swiss houses is proportional.
The making of watch hands is one
of the most fascinating adjuncts in the
whole process of watch manufacturing.
The chief Swiss handmaking firm has
been in existence through three genera
tions AS all its heads have been not
ably expert artisans and devoted work
men, it is little wonder that the hands
now produced by this house have be-
come celebrated. The process is 30 del
icate that the workers must be literally
undisturbed in their work, and the
pieces are so minute that rogue, should
one enter, could easily carry off large
number unobserved; hence the business
is conducted behind locked doors, and
all outside communications are through
closely barred windows. 1t is almost in
credible, but here, too, a staff OF design
ers is kept busy, for the hands in form
as we'll as the dials in figures and orna-
mentation must keep pace with fash
ions demands. Tho standard favorite
designs, however, are the Louis XIV,
the fower-de-luce and the good old fash
ioned spade and open hands. The steel
hands cost quite as much as the ordi
nary gold hands, because they are so
much harder in the working.
The price of an ordinary pair of
hands is, / believe, about francs, but
| have seen hands there ini ialed and
studded with tiny diamonds that cost
in the neighborhood of 35 or 40 francs.
Every style and every workman has its
and his own especially cut die with
which the hands are stamped from the
thin and very elastic and highly tenn
pered sheet of steel or from the gold or
silver of which ticy are to be formed.
There is woaderful machine in this
shop that takes bar of steel half an
inch wide and flattens it again and
again until it comes out vibrant, elas-
tic, and of just the thickness desired for
the hanL.s. Boston Herald.