ORIGIN OF CHALK CRAYONS. 19 



who composed it may fill and animate all the men who may 

 lead in the business enterprises of the future of our country. 



The manufacture of the chalk crayons that are now so 

 universally used in our public schools, and other institutions 

 of learning, originated in this town. Before these were man- 

 ufactured, shapeless lumps of chalk were the only article 

 used in the schoolroom in work upon the blackboards. 

 Now these carefully prepared and nicely shaped crayons 

 have banished the crude chalk from the schoolrooms, not only 

 in our own country, but also in most distant ones ; for they 

 are sent to England, France, Germany, Russia, and even to 

 Japan. So Waltham can be said to make its mark all over 

 the world. ^ 



The first attempt to manufacture watches entirely by 

 machinery, and upon the system of maldng all the corre- 

 sponding parts of the watches perfectly interchangeable, is 

 due to American genius and skill. The establishment in 

 which the effort was first made was located in Roxbury; 

 but, after a brief existence there, it was removed to Waltham 

 and permanently located here. The watches are made en- 

 tirely by machinery, that works so accurately and regularly, 

 that, should any part be broken or otherwise rendered use- 

 less, a corresponding part can be supplied by the manufac- 

 tory, which will just fill the place at once, and perfectly 

 perform the work of the injured part. 



After long and severe struggle against very many obstacles, 

 the American Watch Company has gained a world-wide repu- 

 tation for the superiority of its watches. Europe, especially 

 Switzerland, believed itself possessed of a monopoly of the 

 watch-making of the world ; and it was quietly enjoying the 

 belief that tliis monopoly could never be disturbed, until M. 

 Edouard Favre-Perret, one of the Swiss commissioners to the 

 Centennial Exhibition, and a member of the International 

 Jury on Watches, saw and examined the watches of the 

 American Watch Company at Philadelphia, and visited the 

 works here, and returned home to startle his countrymen 

 and ail Europe from their sleep in regard to this manufac- 

 ture. Upon his return, at a meeting held to hear his report, 

 he assured his fellow-craftsmen, that they had been living 

 over a " volcano ; " for the American Watch Company had 

 been making a much cheaper and better watch by machinery 



