INDUSTRIES 



to cheapen the cost of production has met 

 with greater success. The pioneer of the 

 movement was Aaron L. Denison, who after 

 several preliminary attempts started a factory 

 in 1851 at Roxbury, Massachusetts. 19 The 

 enterprise passed through many vicissitudes 

 b ;fore financial success and a satisfactory 

 standard of manufacture were attained. It 

 was not until 1860 that a dividend of 5 per 

 cent, was declared by the American Watch 

 Company, this being the first dividend de- 

 clared by any watch factory in America. 

 In 1 900 the Waltham Watch Company pro- 

 duceJ 2,500 watches per day, and employed 

 1,400 women and 500 men. By the aboli- 

 tion of the fusee and chain a verygreat reduc- 

 tion was brought about in the number of 

 pieces. In Engknd the most expensive 

 watches contain from one hundred and fifty 

 to over a thousand pieces ; the modern short- 



wind watch consists of forty-seven machine- 

 made parts. 



Whilst the efforts of foreign manufacturers 

 have been almost wholly devoted to cheapen- 

 ing the cost of watches, it is satisfactory to 

 note that in England the attainment of a high 

 quality of workmanship continues to be a great 

 object with our principal makers. A great 

 help in this direction has been afforded by the 

 trials instituted at Kew Observatory in 1884, 

 under the auspices of the Royal Society, and 

 now carried out by the National Physical 

 Laboratory. Three classes of certificate are 

 granted, known respectively as A, B, and C, 

 the test for A being especially severe. Watches 

 that obtain eighty or more out of a total of 100 

 marks are classed as ' especially good,' and in 

 spite of the severity of the tests applied the 

 number of watches which gain this distinction 

 has a noticeable tendency to increase. 



BELL- FOUNDERS 1 



The earliest bell-founders of the metropolis 

 are met with towards the end of the 131)1 

 century, and the trade was located near the 

 City's eastern boundary, being chiefly con- 

 nected with the parishes of St. Andrew 

 Cornhill (now Undershaft), and St. Botolph 

 Aldga'e. The Reformation brought dis- 

 aster to the craft of the bell-founders, but 

 it is not until after the great change of religion 

 that foundries are met with in Middlesex. 

 From Aldgate the trade extended to the 

 neighbouring district of Whitechapel, where 

 Robert Mot established a business on the north 

 side of the High Street where Tewkesbury 

 Court now is, which after nearly three and a 

 half centuries still exists in a flourishing state. 

 The earliest known bell from his foundry is 

 one bearing his name and the date 1575, 

 formerly at Danbury in Essex. Other bells 

 cast by him still exist at Banstead, Chertsey, 

 Merstham, and elsewhere ; and in London the 

 sanctus bells at St. Andrew's Holborn, and 

 St. Clement Danes, and four of the six bells 

 of St. Andrew Undershaft, three of which are 

 dated 1597, an ^ t ^ le f urt h 1600. Two of 

 the fine bells at Westminster Abbey, the third 



" H. G. Abbott, Watch Factories of America 

 (1888), 13; Ency. Brit. (ed. 10), xxxiii, 

 763. 



1 The writer is much indebted to Mr. H. B. 

 Walters, M.A., F.S.A., for kindly placing at his 

 disposal the result of his researches on this subject 

 embodied in his paper on ' London Church Bells 

 and Bell Founders,' contributed to the Transactions 

 of the St. Paul' i Ecclesiological Sac. 



and fifth, are also Mot's work, and bear the 

 inscription in black letter : 



CAMPANIS PATREM LAUDATE SONANTIBUS ALTUM 

 CABRIELL GOOD MAN WESTMON* DECANUS 



Both are dated, one 1598 and the other 1583, 

 and their lettering is very elaborate. Mot 

 was in business for about thirty years ; many 

 of his bells have been recast, but eighty still 

 remain. They frequently bear his circular 

 stamp containing the letters I.H.S., his own 

 initials, a crown, and three bells, and are 

 almost always dated. Most of the bells bear 

 the inscription in black letter, ' Robertus mot 

 me fecit,' in which he invariably spells his 

 surname with a small m. 



There are two petitions 2 from Mot in No- 

 vember 1577 to Lord Burghley, praying for 

 the payment of debts of ^10 lo*. and ^5 5*. 

 due to him for eight years past from Henry 

 Howard, esq. He complains 3 that 'your said 

 poor orator is greatly impoverished and come 

 into decay, and is likely every day to be 

 arrested for such debts as he oweth.' His 

 petition for payment of the larger sum was 

 repeated on 7 June 1578, and again on the 

 same date in conjunction with two other 

 creditors of Howard. The petition was ap- 

 parently hopeless ; Howard, who was the son 

 of Viscount Bindon, was overwhelmed with 

 debt ,and abundant evidence of his ill-conduct 

 exists in the State Papers of this period. 



' Cat. S.P. Dom. 1547-80, pp. 568, 591, 593. 

 *A. D. Tyssen, Ch. Bells of Suss. (1864), 20. 



165 



