358 WILLIAM A. COUNTRYMAN 



The evolution of this into the Church batter}^ of staff turning 

 lathes all on a single bed and driven by a single belt was a 

 noteworthy event, but the dog was still essential. The 

 triumph came within the past five years, when Mr. Church 

 produced a completely automatic machine, adapting it to 

 the most difficult, delicate, and comphcated staff in the 

 whole watch movement, namely, the balance staff. Four 

 hundred of these, completely turned from start to finish, in- 

 cluding both pivots, are made by each machine each day. 

 This machine is one of the wonders of the Waltham factory, 

 where automatic wonders abound, and it is asserted that 

 nothing in the way of turning has heretofore been done which 

 could at all compare with the work of these machines in 

 delicacy, complexity, and accuracy. The balance staff is 

 so minute that it can be handled only with great difficulty, 

 having a diameter scarcely larger than that of a No. 9 sewing 

 needle, and requiring a magnifiying glass for its inspection. 



For the cutting of pinions the Church automatic cutter 

 is a higher development, as it secures axial truth by per- 

 forming the cutting, in direct connection with the turning, 

 from a long rod of wire. The evolution of the crown wheel 

 cutter is nearly as interesting a study, while the machines for 

 the manufacture of the minute screws and stud pins, and 

 those for vibrating balances and hairsprings, furnish a rare 

 collection of ingenious American inventions. 



Watch hairsprings were imported years ago, but for 

 over a quarter of a century they have been made in the 

 United States. The pioneer machine has been improved 

 into a series of machines now nearly automatic in their action. 

 The wire is drawn to the exact diameter required, then flat- 

 tened by repeated rollings and polished. It is admitted that 

 the coiling of hairsprings seems to be susceptible of no marked 

 improvement in processes of production. A notable device 

 for forming and confining the overcoil of the Breguet spring 

 so that it can be tempered complete is that of the late John 

 Logan, of Waltham. It is said of Mr. Logan and his brother 

 that they have probably made more watch hairsprings than 

 all the other makers in the world put together, all of them 

 high class springs. Until within a few years the adaptation 



