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Entered according to Act of Congress, in June, 1869, by J , W. Burke & Cos., in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the So. District of Georgia .
Vol. III~~No. 38.
MAZING WATCHES BY MACHINERY.
NO. IIT.—CONCLUSION. !
Sp “
we are all ready for the
IvpCjf'* works of the watch. Next
we step into the “Train
Room,” the largest and pleasantest
in the factory. Seventy-five persons
with busy fingers sit at six rows ol
benches extending its entire length,
each before some little machine,
shaping, smoothing, pointing, grind
ing wheels, pinions, or pivots.
Cutting teeth in the wheels is done
by piling up twenty or more, with an
upright shaft passing through the
centre of each, and turning a screw
to hold them together. The girl in
charge then lifts one handle of a little
machine, and instantly a steel cutter
like a shingle nail, but with a sharp
point at one end, is brought against
them, whirling so fast that it looks
like a perfect wheel.| Whizzing down
the outer edge of the pile, it cuts a
groove or furrow in each wheil.
When it reaches the bottom, she
moves the other handle; the cutter
flies up to the top, and runs whizzing
down again. A single wheel has
from sixty to eighty teeth, but the
girl will finish twelve hundred wheels
a day. The long, hooked teeth of
the scape-wheel, and the horn-shaped
tooth of the ratchet, are cut with
equal facility.
In the Escapement and Jeweling
departments we first encounter pre
cious stones, in which pivots of brass
or steel will run for generations with
out any perceptible wearing. In the
order of hardness they stand, dia
mond, sapphire, white or milky ruby,
red ruby, garnet, aqua marine. In
jewelry they are valued only for their
color, in watch-making only for their
hardness. Montana begins to sup
ply garnets, but most precious stones
come from India, Persia, or Brazil.
They are always bought by the carat
—the one- hundred -and - twentieth
part ot an ounce Troy —no matter
MACON, GEORGIA, MARCH 19, 1870.
THE TRAIN ROOM.
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CUTTING WHEEL TEETH.
Whole No. 142.
how large the quantity. They are
used not onl3 r for jeweling, but also
for tools to cut other precious stones
or hard metals with. Sapphire is
the favorite, because it can be sharp
ened upon diamond, while a chisel of
diamond —the hardest of all known
substances—must either be broken
to give it a fresh edge, or sharpened
slowly and laboriously against an
other diamond.
The Dutch are the most famous
lapidists in the world. They sent
workmen from Amsterdam to Lon
don to cut the great Koh-i-noor.
They will divide a diamond weighing
but one carat into two hundred and
fifty little slabs, which look like fairy
finger nails. Inserted in brass han
dles they become ridiculous little
chisels, which might turn out wheels
and axles for Queen Mab's chariot.
Diamond dust also, as white as snow,
and finer than flour, has a hundred
uses in the factory. An ounce costs
five hundred dollars Metal edges
for cutting and surfaces for polishing
are “charged” with it; that is, a lit
tle of the powder is firmly imbedded
in them, and gives them a sharpness
which nothing can resist.
Some rare watches are jeweled
with diamonds and sapphires, and
many with rubies ; but for all prac
tical purposes garnets and aqua ma
rines answer as well. The “ Lady
Elgin,” an exquisite little time-keep
er, has fifteen jewels, all of ruby.
Four of the fifteen in the “ B. W.
Raymond” are of ruby, the rest of
aqua marine and garnet. The preci
ous stones are cut into planks, and
then into joists, by circular saws, and
afterward broken into cubes. Then
each is turned out in a lathe, exactly
as a bed-post is turned in a furniture
factory. By this time it weighs less
than one- eighty - thousandth of a
pound Troy. It is afterward bur
nished into its setting—a little circu
lar rim of brass. The hole is made
through it with a diamond drill, bare
ly visible to the naked eye, and pol
ished with another wire, which passes