The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-02-10
csEEneIs MALea M1--

Professor csieia aas
ably 1atstsellF
Two Thousand watch moFel
1000 detached birds 800
watches. There are approNr
ures for the collection, not set
lied and numbered, Of Calvin
professor Of drawing q te
Of the city Of New York
The bridge Of a watch is the metal
plate at 1he back Of the works which
covers and receives the axle jeNeled
or otherwise, Of the balance wheel
In the sid handmade Watches the
plate was exquisitively wrought and
appears to view when the brass cap
removed which covers the movements
under the various outer cases
estimated that ona-third Ri the labs
Of making watch Of the early period
was expended on the bridge. NO two
handmade bridges ! ever alike.
None Of the old watches contains q
date. and until the English law Of
1740 it was not compulsory for the
London maker to afix his name o.
the number Of the watch.
Tho movements made in London
in the last century for the Chinese
market are recognizable at once BY
the peculiar pattern Of the bridge OK
nament. 1t IS said that a Chinaman
who could afford to carry a watch ct
all carried tWo-to be a checker each
other. This bridge, upon which the
matchmaker exhausted himself in or
namentation, is the keyto the period
to which the watch belonged.
1T was customary to engraye q head
sometimes at the upper but more often
at the lower edge Of the bridge. Tn
the earliest watches it was a female
head; afterward it was the head Of a
lion or sometimes Of an eagle. by
and by the popular hero Of the day
began to be handed downto posterity
on the bridges Of the watches. In Mr..
Smiths collection we find portraits Of
such distinguished people as Mai
Andre, George III, Toussain POW
~erture, George ", Lord Chatham
Admiral Nelson and Lord North.
At the time when the tulip craze
invaded England from Holland, the
conventional tulip appears in the
bridges and pillars Of the watches o.
the day.
It is an axiom Of the collector thai
the modern MATCHMAKER ii is densely ig
norant Of the mechanism and value d
Z an old watch. One Of the finest move
J mentsinMr Smiths collection chime
: the hours, the quarters and the min
7 utes. The bell is a coil Of steel ca
: circling the works, which at the tim.
Mr.. Smith discovered it the jewele
was about to take of and throw away
Among all the watchmakers Of Ne1
York there are only three or four ez
! perts in old movements who could re
pair a London or Nuremberg watch 0
a hundred years ago.
= Most of the old movements wer
casedin silver. Only dukes and prince
aspired to gold. The jewellers nova
!, days buy these queer old BULBS eye
over the counter for the value Of til
cases, and except in a few rare IN
stancest the latter go promptly into til
melting pot. Occasionally a case mad
of tortoise shell, or covered with shar
skin, or made Of an alloy called pinch
! beck, saves a fine old timekeeperf ro1
: destruction.
The oldest watch Of the collectio
was made about 1890 by Thomas Ton
j pion, who died in 1880, such d famor
] craftsman that his remains were el
tombed in Westminster abbey. Ton
/, pion is called the 'Father of Englis
4 Watchmakers, and side BY side wit
: him in the famous abbey lies Geors
Graham, another illustrious WatcI
Is maker, This old timepieee has bl
one hand, the dial being spaced on
in hours and quarter hours.-E. ]
a Herald.
Uses Of Liquid Air.