Show Wonders of the W Watch atcho Down at one of ot the sailors' sailors boardinghouses boardinghouses boardinghouses boarding- boarding houses the other night an old gentleman gentleman gentle gentleman man a recent arrival on a Morgan line Une steamer explained to a group o of interested Interested Interested Inter Inter- ested listeners the wonders of ot an ordinary ordinary ordinary nary watch Have you jou ever paused to think of the wonderfulness of your timekeepers timekeepers' he asked Why look at at the little w wheels eels and screws and springs Notice the busy little flywheel as it flies to and fro unceasingly day and night year in inand inand Inand and year out This little machine continued the speaker at the same time taking from his pocket an ordinary open-faced open sl silver siver ver watch Is the result of ot hundreds of years of study and experiment The watch I have before before be be- fore me is composed of 98 distinct parts and its manufacture embraces more than 2000 distinct and separate operations Some of the smallest screws are re so minute that the unaided e eye ye e cannot distinguish them from steel fil filings filings fil- fil ings or specks of dust Under Undera a a. powerful powerful powerful pow pow- erful magnifying glass a perfect screw is revealed The Tha slit silt in the head Is 2000 1 of an inch wide It takes tales of these screws to weigh a pound and anda a pound is worth 1585 The hair spring Is a a. strip of Yf the finest steel about 9 Inches long ong and 1 1000 of f an inch wide Vide and 27 of an inch thick It Is coiled up in spiral spIra form and finely tempered The process of tempering these springs was long held as a secret by the fortunate few who possessed the knowledge and even today I doubt if there are five men on the Atlantic se board that know it Their manufacture manufacture manufacture ture requires great skill and care care The strip sti is gauged to 21 1000 of an inch but but no measuring instrument has asyet as asyet asyet yet been devised capable of line fine enough gauging to determine beforehand what the strength of ot the finished spring will be A 1 tart part rt of an inch difference will m make ke a a. difference in the running of ot the watch wath of f about six minutes to the hour The value of these springs when placed In watches is enormous In proportion to the material from which they are made A comparison will give a good idea A ton of gold Is worth approximately A tonof ton tonof of ot steel when hen made up into hairsprings hairsprings haIrsprings hair springs is worth or 12 times the value of pure gold Hair Hairspring Hairspring Hairspring spring wire weighs 20 1 of a grain to the Inch One mile of wire weighs less less' than eight ounces The balance Jalance wheel makes five vibrations every second OO every minutes every hour every day and every year At each vibration it rotates about one and on quarter one q arter times which makes revo revolutions each year In order t that a you may ay better understand the stupendous stupendous' amount of labor performed performed performed per per- formed by these tiny works let m me mak make a a. few comparisons Take for illustration a locomotive with six foot driving wheels Let its wheels be run run until it shall hi have ve covered a a. distance equal equa to o 28 complete e. e circuits of the he earth All this a a. watch does oes without other attention attention- than winding every twenty-four twenty hours And another thing an engine has to be tic r paired repaired at east 12 times a year out but there are are re no rot not many watches that that- are even cle cleaned ned once once a year Galveston Galveston News |