The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-06-05

| 4 y INTERESTING SUMMARY OF
- the Matchmaking industry Of the
United States is found in a bulletin re-
Gently issued by the census department.
No statistics prior TO 1880 are avail
able. but the manufacture Of watches
in this country may be said to have
been started In a very small way in
1851. In 1900 it had grown to the point
where nearly S2S,OO0,OOO were invested
in the work. The value of the product
was placed at close to SIS. 1000 an
nually, while in the census year nearly
$12,O00.O00 were distributed in wages.
salaries, the purchase OF supplies and
other operating expenses.
The earliest watches made i'm Europe
required "A year Of patient and skillfuI
work, and sold for $500 each. A little
less than 100000 watches were made in
1900 in a single factory. nearly 1000
every day. in this country. and the
concern expects to increase its output
TO 5000 daily. The cost of watches
has been steadily reduced until today
a time-piece many times more accurate
than the earlier watches, and guaraL-
teed for year, can be purchased for
81.
According to the census bulletin,
matchmaking as an industry did not
originate in America. Americans have
improved on their manufacture. how
ever, until today American machinery
is used in watch factories all over
Switzerland, and Swiss watches. once
so highly esteemed, are being sold un-
der the American trade mark. Could
anything more wonderfully illustrate
the progress of this nation in anything
its citizens seriously undertake?
The first machinery for matchmaking
was the product Of an American in
ventors BRAIN The man was Aaron
l. Dennison of Maine, who. in 1851, in
spite Of the derision Of most of his ac-
quaintances, started a watch factory.
Today that factory employs 5000 oper-
atives and sends watches to every cor
ner Of the globe. Up to a quarter of q
century ago all watch hafr-springs
used in this country were imported.
Now they are practically all made here.
An idea Of the delicateness Of some
Of the machinery used in matchmaking
may be gained from the statement that
it takes 10000 of a certain kind of
screws to make a pound. Only under
microscope is it possible TO tell what
they are. The bulletin says. further:
The pivot of the balance wheel is
only one two-hundredths Of an inch i'm
diameter, and the gauge with which
pivots are classified measures to the
n-thOusandth part of an inch. Zach
jewel hole into which a pivot fits is
about one five housandths of an inch
larger than the pivot to permit suffi-
cient play. The finest screw for a
small-sized watch has a thread Of $50
to the inch and weighs one one-hun-
dred-and- thirty thousandths of a
pound. Jewel slabs of sapphire. ruby.
or garnet are first sawed into slabs
oDe-fiftieth of an inch thick, and are
shellacked to plate 50 that they may
be surfaced. Then the individual jew
els are sawed or broken off, drilled
through the center, and a depression
made in the convex side for an oil cup.
A pallet Jewel weighs one One-hundred-
and-fifty- Of a pound; a
roller jewel a little more than one two
hundred-and-fifty -thousandths. The
largest round hairspring stud is four
hundredths of an inch in diamater and
about nine-hundredths Of an inch in
length