Show AROUND ill 1 THE CLOCK he still has time on his hands filter riter IN half century cat at trade features ELGIN ILL somewhere in the united states there exist an untutored and unknown genius of job like who after months of painstaking effort could put together watch that would run but the odds are just about one million to one that it fall far short of the performance demanded of fine today in the opinion of william H mehus Sa director of watchmakers college Sanae hus ought to know he has made watches for more than 50 years now teaching others the pro bession at the elgin school he re his first introduction into the lore from his father who at one time was the royal watchmaker of sweden came to america as a lad in 1881 today he is still active in the profession an honor ary member of at least eight state associations and the dean of american fine watchman watch mak ers abw always ays ready to talk about his life s work Sa camellus explained some of the reasons why making a watch is not the easiest thing in the world our students learn that the best watches must be within a hm cited tolerance of time fast or slow before they are released from the factory he says they learn to maintain tolerances of of an inch to fit parts into precision watch movements they master all the in manufacturing operations necessary to restore a watch to its timekeeping ability an idea of how small these thes e tolerances are can be gained from the fact that one ten thou sanath of an inch Is the size of a human hair after it has been split the long way 30 times students also work with roller jewels that are so small that 4 weigh a pound some of the screws used in watch manufacture are so tiny that 20 29 of them just barely fill an ordinary sewing thimble despite their size each screw has hag a perfect thread and its head is perfectly slotted some of students be come proficient in the art in a period of from 11 to 14 months although he has been in the business for more than half a century still manages to keep posted on latest cevelo developments P ments in the field he admits that making watches today is con sider ably easier than it was 50 years ago he attributes this in part to innovations in repair equipment and parts ylo ap ap DEAN OF watchmakers willi william in 11 II Sa director of cigua elgin watchmakers college Is shown here inspecting a clock made by william geoghagen one of his students driven by an elec trie motor the nine dialed clock shows the time in bombly lon don hawaii san francisco yokohama shanghai new york moscow and elgin |