Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-01-10
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 Mon and Women Are Excellent.
 A Geneva correspondent in writing of visit to ono of the famous watch manufactories of that city thus de- scribes 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 so 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 n 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 tho copper and then carefully put by to wait the complete cvapora- tion of tho water with which it was mixed. As soon as this has been accom- plished the dial is placed in an intense4 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 tho dial iS tN n nf hours. As soon as this has been done it is again put in tho oven, most clit- ical operation, because the fraction of | a second overmuch would spoil every thing, and then, while yet warm, 1t is | rubbed or redressed with bit of char | coal and small metal tool especially made for tho purpose. It is this opera | ton that gives tho dial tho beautiful | smoothness, like that of a dainty bit of | china. Before that most delicate oper- atlon, tho piercing for the hands, which is done on an instrument furnished | with diamonds fixed on steel, and some | times even tho steel itself, tho dial goes | to the automatic tilcr and is rendered | absolutely perfect in shape.
 The painting of the hours is nearly all SS women arc also employed i'll tho enamel | ing department. The wages paid both men and women arc excellent. Some | of the employees arc time workers, the others work by the piece. many of the latter easily carning 800 francs a month. | Naturally theso arc the most experi- enced workers, who havo finished ap- prenticeships of at least three years. In beginning tho employees are given simple separate parts to do, but even | then they may earn from 100 to 150 | francs month. Tho women who earn | the highest wages, 900 francs, work also | by the piece, polishing or rubbing off the second dial.
 The firm was organized ill 1885, and all the chief employees of today have been connected with it from tho begin ming. There arc If divisions of work men and workwomen, each with q dis | tinct branch of his or her own. Indeed a dial, before complete, passes through | at least 20 pairs of hands. Besides the
 white or simple dials with the usual | black figures, there are tho colored dials pink, blue, gray, q delicate shade of green and black. Thero arc also the white or colored diuls, with figures in contrasting colors or ill metals, as in tho very latest fashion in decoration thero is an artistic combination with golden dots. This firm sonds Gials to America by tho hundreds of thousands annually, and its rato of supply to tho largest Swiss houses is proportional. The making of watch hands is one of the most fascinating adjuncts ill the whole process of watch manufacturing. Tho chief Swiss handmaking firm has been in existence through three general tions. As all its heads havo been not ably expert artisans and devoted work
 men, 1t is littlo wonder that tho hands now produced by this house have be- como celebrated. Tho process is so del icate that tho workers must bo literally undisturbed in their work, and the pieces are so minute that a rogue, should ono enter, could easily carry oit largo number unc!:svrved; honco the business is conducted behind locked doors, and all outside communications arc through closely barred windows. It is almost in credible, but hcre, too, Il staff of design CTS is kept busy, for tho hands i'll form as well as the dials in figures and orna- mentation must keep paco with fash ion S demands. Tho standard favorite designs, however, arc tho Louis XIV, the flower -de-lucc and tho good old fash toned spade and open hands. Tho steel hands cost quite as much as tho ordi- nary gold hands, because they arc so much harder in tho working.
 Tho prico of an ordinary pair of hands is, l believe, about francs, but l have seeu hands tllero initinled and studded with tiny diamonds that cost in tho neighhorhood of 35 or 40 francs. Every style and every workman has its and his own especially cut die with which the hands arc stamped from the thin and very elastic and highly tenn pered sheet of steel or from the gold or silver of which they are to be formed. There is a wonderful machine in this shop that takes Il bar of steel half an inch wide and tlattens it again and again until it comes out vibrant, elas- tic, and of just the thickness desired for the hands Boston Herald