Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-07-11
EXPERTS IGNORE FACTORIES



Cottages.
It is most interesting to C ,mpare the
different methods by means Of which
the highest grade of mechanical perfec-
ton is attained in various countries.
Notwithstanding the high character of
American watches, for example, the
finest Swiss watches still maintain their
great reputation. The Swiss workman
receives the parts from the manufacture
er in the rough, takes them to his hosnc.
puts his bes. individual skill into the
finishing and assembling, and brings
the completed watches to his en-
ployer. The latter inspects the work
and out of a batch of, say, so watches.
he selects five or six as worthy of his
own attention, and puts the others into
his regular trade under some general
trade name. The selected watches he
readjusts, working them over for days.
weeks, and months, before he considers
them worthy to bear his own name, and
it is these watches which go to those
who not only have the money to buy.
but also the patience to wait
A prominent firm of American jewell
ers, chatting under the inconvenience of
this old world method of doing things,
sought to introduce American methods,
and see if the highest grade of Swiss
watches could not be made more me-
thodically. A factory was built, en-
ticing rates of wages were offered to
the most skillful workmen, and the ca
pertinent was tried. But, alas! The
Swiss workman soon found that no
regular wages could pay him for his
loss of liberty. To be on hand when the
whistle blew in the morning, to have
his stated hour for dinner, and his fixed
hour for quitting at night-these re-
strictions he could not long stand
Formerly he had worked when he felt
like it and stopped when it pleased him.
and when he was paid for one job he
took his time to begin the next, general
ly waiting until his funds ran low. The
factory plan did not work for long, and
the idle building now bears silent testi-
mony to the Swiss love for independ
ence, which is as much a factor in pres
ent life as it has been in past history.
The fact that much of the work of the
Swiss watchmakers and instrmu. NJ
makers is done in this primitive manner
does not in the least. detract from its
high quality, but rather adds to it's per-
lection by embodying in each article
the individual skill of the workman.
The writer desired to procure one of the
famous Goldschmidt aneroid baromet-
ers, and only after some difficulty and
many inquiries did he succeed in find
ing the whereabouts of the maker at all.
At last he was directed to the quaint
street in the quarter of the city of
Zurich known as the ''Trittligasse" (the
street of the little steps,. There he
found a gate in a wall bearing the iie-
sired number. but no name or sign OF
any description to indicate what was
within. Knocking to obtain admission,
he was finally let into a garden, over
another wall and up picturesque set of
steps, and ushered into little room in
which was work of the finest descrip-
ton.
A few men and boys, couple of
women-this was the working force.
but here were products which surpassed
the finest instruments of any he had
ever seen. Each article was shown and
handled as if it had been a personal pet,
hardly to be parted with. and it was in
deed interesting to see how every
instrument was calibered and tested
and recorded in manner which counl
not but prove that for such work in
dividualism had its advantages over col
lectivism. The articles were indeed
manufactured in the true etymologic-
al sense of the term, "hand made and
head made, too, for that matter and all
this in little out-building accessible
only after diligent search and many
misadventures.- Magazine.