THE REVOLUTION IN WATCHMAKING 357 



plates. Within seven years two wholly automatic machines 

 have been built for plate turning, their novelty being in the 

 number of turnings they perform. Six recesses are turned 

 in the train side of the pillar plate — for the l^arrol, escape 

 wheel, pallets, balance, and for the center pinion, and a bear- 

 ing for the intermediate setting wheel. The blank plates, 

 faced on both sides, are taken from a tube at the left end of 

 the machine one at a time by a swinging carrier arm and 

 placed in spindle after spindle until the six recesses are made, 

 each unlike in size, position, and form. Bossing, when de- 

 sired, is accomplished through a modification of the tool 

 movement. By a change of chucks the turnings on the dial 

 side of the plate can be made in a similar manner. The bold- 

 ness in the conception of this machine will be appreciated 

 when it is realized that the watch plate must be placed in 

 each succeeding chuck in a different position, and that it is 

 required to be placed on three pins which fit in the three 

 dial feet holes. This is the work of one of these machines; 

 the other by a somewhat similar process, utiHzing self closing 

 chucks instead of pins, receives and faces the plates on both 

 sides. 



The history of watchmaking in the United States also 

 goes back to the time when the arbors, staffs, and pinions, 

 which constitute the moving parts of the watch, were made 

 by the lathe and slide rest, the feed screw of which was 

 operated by hand. The first improvement was the semi- 

 automatic turning lathe; then came an improved form in 

 which there was a combination of levers designed to provide 

 for turnings of various lengths without changing feed cams. 

 But the great defect was that each piece had to be affixed 

 by hand to its appropriate dog, making it impossible for one 

 operator to run more than a single lathe; and, owing to the 

 minuteness of the smaller staff blanks, like pallet arbors, 

 only a small amount of metal could be removed at each turn- 

 ing. In some cases ten or twelve turnings were required, 

 and they had to be alternated from end to end to avoid spring- 

 ing. Mr. Woerd some twenty years ago invented an auto- 

 matic machine to make the rough turnings; but each of the 

 finish turnings still required the application of a driving dog. 



