The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-08-15
DELICATE M NspRINGS.
Very Quick to Feel the Effects of
Heat and Cold.

I
Heat and Cold.
'Main-springs are very much like peo-
ple," said a New York watch maker
recently to a writer for the Washing
ton Star. They are as susceptible 10
! extremes of heat and cold as human
! beings. When the thermometer is how
ering around the freezing point or
dancing away up in the SOS the senSi-
tive little main spring will succumb
just as easily to freezing or sun stroke
as man.
During the hot weather of the past
month 1 have received over 400
watches which required new main
springs, and other jewelers. have had as
many or more time pieces which needed
| similar repairs. You see this uncertain
piece of mechanism is supposed to be
adjusted to meet the various degrees
of temperature, but when the changes
are great and come suddenly there is
nothing that can prvent them from
swapping. Many are made in Switzer-
land of the very finest quality of steel.
absolutely fiawless. Very often the
watch maker can detect a bad spring
before putting it in a watch, either by
its color or the roftness of its spring.
These have been too tightly tempered
! in making, and instead of being sub
jected merely to a red heat the fire has
been brought TO white heat thus weak
ening the strength of the metal
THE finest watches that are handled
by reliable dealers in the United States
are put through a cooking and freez-
ing process before they are sold, for
the purpose of testing their reliability
in all temperatures. The watch is first
placed in a little metal box, which is
made air tight. Then a strong gas
flame is turned on the under surface
of the box and is kept there for one or
two hours, so that the watch is so hot
at the end of that time that it could not
be touched with the bare hands.
From this it is Immediately taken
and put into another meta "a box,
which is buried in a vessel contain
ing ice. There the costly watch is al
lowed TO freeze for an equal length of
time, when its treatment ceases, and
the examination is made. If during
this excessive test the watch has licked
merrily on without deviating a frac-
tienal part of a second, it is put back
in the case and marked guaranteed
for two years. The main spring is the
first piece of mechanism that succumbs
to the test. If ii survives nothing need
be feared.
"Main-springs are. however, about the
only part Of watch that a jeweler can
not successfully diagnose. They can
wheels or pivots or balances that TO
make up the anatomy of the watch. but
the handspring has as yet baffled the
most skilfull makers of watches in all
countries. 1t is not so much the severe
extremes of the weather that prove IA
tai to the spring, as it is the process of
changing from heat TO cold. or vice
versa
Many people who have been the pos
SCISSORS of new watches but a short |
time, often come to me much annoyed, |
declaring that they have paid a large |
price for their time pieces. and the /
handspring has broken after only a |
weeks use.
That is nothing I tell them. We |
jewelers. have them snap in our cases
before the watch has even been shown |
for sale Others imagine that they !
might have wound their watches too
tight. but this does not harm it. 1t is
rather the jerky, hurried winding that |
will eventually tell on the temper of /
the metal. Besides, every good stem
winder has a stop placed in the stem
which prevents the winding of a watch
too tight.
THE cost of a new handspring is
small. 1t is the putting them in. the
labor expended. that costs. 1t costs
from $12 to SIS to put a handspring in
the finest Swiss watch. while in a
cheap American make it costs only
from soc TO 81.
"a gentleman purchased a $3.50 watch
from me about year ago, and shortly
after he left New York on a tour around
the world. He returned about three
weeks ago, brought his watch back to
me and paid me this compliment: Here
is watch, said he, that 1 paid you
$3.50 for a year ago, and while 1 WIS
travelling around it lost three minutes.
You guaranteed it, and 1 want you to
make it good The watch was placed
in my window with this card beside 1t:
This watch lost only three minutes
in a year. in tour around the world.
Price, s275. -
DID YOU sell it?''
Eyes, within two days.