Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-15

! IIHH N E1i manufacture Oh NdbCiiSo' biiO
Han III hi United States today is max
IND "a hi ing them more oheaply than
lk<slRzsHI any other nation There are
/ about forty-two establish
ments in this country that make either
/ watch cases or the movements Inc
! capital involved in this industry is
over thirty-tWo million dollars, While
the number of people employed is near
| ly fifteen thousand. These employees,
about so per cent of whom are women
| get annually about eight million dol
| lars in wages 1t is estimated that the
value of the yearly output OF these
factories, including custom work and
repairing, is nearly twenty-one million
| dollars while nearly nine million dol
lars is spent annually, for materials and
| incidental expenses.
The watchWord of q watch factory
is cleanliness. In the production of the
numberless tiny parts which go TO
make UP the whole, dust would mean
ruin. The building itself is composed,
in so far as possible, of glass, the brick
work being only enough to support the
panes This is to afford all the llght
possible, and in addition to this IN
Vulnerable lights burn all day inside
the building.
Making a watch movement is not
simple process. There are an average
| Oh from lou W lto OlsAliiNt Ef'i - -
movement while to make complete
movement necessitates nearly 1000 dis
tinet operations. In this process many
parts are needed which are in them
selves wonders. The smallest screw
used in watch movement weighs one
thirty -thousandth of pound and has
thread of 260 to the inch The wire OF
| the hair spring, which is foot long,
weighs but one fifteen -thousandth of a
! nd ic t.p1Nl1tpn IN he weight for
weight the most expensive product in
the world.
| Jewels, first used as pivot bearings
/ in the seventeenth century, are another
portion of the work which Is very del
Icate. X pallet jewel weighs but one
-hundred-an fifty -thousandth of a
pound, While roller jewels weigh even
less There are three kinds OF jewels
used in making a watch, according to
! its class. The best are sapphires and
rubies, the second crystal and the third
/ garnets.
"A large portion of the work .lies not
| in making the watch nON ement but IN
making the various parts which are
afterWard to be put together In the
matter of screws alone there is much
| to be done Time was when these were
made by hand days work being 800
to LOO, with daily output of 2500
movements, each one of which required
| from thirty to fifty screws, would mean
| that about eighty men would have to
| be employed for the making of screws
alone Today q machine Is used which
turns out daily from 1000 to 10000 of
| these, and requires the attendance OF
but one person.
| 1t was an American who first pro-
! posed the use of machinery in the MAX
| ing of watches. This was Aaron Il.
| Dennison of Boston, who in 1850 opened
watch factory in partnership with
! Howard and Curtis at RoXbury, Mass.
Up to that time watches We're ali made
| by hand Switzerland, which gained
the reputation of being the watchmak-
ing country of the world, made all her
| timepieces not only by hand but GER
| tain communities made one part while
others constructed different pieces.
| Generation after generation grew up as
| expert Matchmakers, being taught the
art when children. All these communf-
ties making different parts were visited
every so often and their wares collected.
Then still another community, skilled
| in the art of putting the parts together,
was needed to complete the work. To
| day this custom no longer prevails, as
nlachinery has been installed in all
large Matchmaking eenters. In addi-
| ton to this, scho9ls have been opened
| TO teach the making of watches by ma
| chinGry.
| No matter how reliable a watch or
| clock may be, there is sure to be the
smallest fraction of a seconds differ
ence between it and the real time-the
| true tilnepiece is the earth. According
| to Prof Newcomb, the earth has not
altered it's course the one-hundredth-x
| and probably not one e-thousandth--part
| Of o second since the beginning of the
| Christian era. The direct effect IF this
rotation is the apparent revolution of
the stars across the sky. Every con-
conspicuous star, and there are about
600, has its position carefully deter
| mined ty right ascension and Z selma
| tttn, and from prepared catalogue the
astronomers can ascertain just what
| tine il is by the passage of a sta at
certain medidian.
| From Tie various observatories al
over the world, the principal one in
the United States being the naval oh