PROCEEDINGS OF THE POLYTECHNIC ASSOCIATION. 405 



Mr. Dyer's is the most original piece of gearing made in our day, and it 

 was made by an American. The teeth of the large wheel fit into a spiral 

 grooved stem, so that one tooth effects one revolution of the stem. The 

 only objection to it is tlie end pressure, which causes most of the friction 

 on one part, and it is liable to wear out there. In this country it may be 

 said that every man can carry a watch. I remember several years ago, 

 being in a small town in the interior of this State, when one evening 

 watches became the subject of conversation, and a calculation was made 

 as to the value of the gold watches owned by the inhabitants, when it was 

 ascertained that the value of those known to persons present amounted to 

 ten thousand dollars. The watch business of the United States is immense, 

 and very few are aware of its great extent. 



Mr. John W. Chambers read the following article on American watches, 

 from the N. Y. Tribune: 



The American Watch Company. 



Watches, which were formerly but the decorations of the opulent, have 

 become the common necessity of the many. The subdivisions of modern 

 labor involve accurate subdivisions of time, and the merchant, the artisan, 

 the professional man, even the lounger, must be able to summon from his 

 fob at will the instrument which points the hour. This is the age of exacti- 

 tudes. Every one of this busy generation must know, a dozen times a 

 day, precisely where he stands chronologically. The note, for instance, 

 must be met by 3 p, m. The difference between that hour and the fraction 

 of a minute later is the difference between untainted commercial repute 

 and damaged credit. The cars start at six. Unless the watch be at hand 

 to admonish the traveler, he reaches the station breathless, in a state of 

 eager perspiration, just in time to see the exasperating train driving away 

 under a full press of steam. A thousand times between sun and sun is felt 

 the need of consultation with the patient little familiar which, hived in the 

 waistcoat pocket, ticks away unceasingly as the hours of all the days tra- 

 verse its dial. The fact that it has become so general a necessity gives 

 importance to the circumstance that we are no longer dependent upon a 

 foreign market for a supply, and that to American ingenuity, aided by 

 American capital and American enterprise, we are indebted for the ample 

 and constant production of watches which in all respects are equal and in 

 many important particulars superior to the best articles of European manu- 

 facture. The American watch company of Waltham, Massachusetts, esta- 

 blished in 1850, has grown into proportions which entitle it to a tirst rank 

 among the manufacturing enterprises of America. It employs between 

 400 and 500 artisans, and produces an aggregate of nearly 50,000 watches 

 per annum. I'he quality of tliese instruments has been thoroughly tested 

 by minute comparisons, and the result is decidedly in favor of tlio home- 

 made over the imported article. The principal difference arises from the 

 mode of manufacture. Foreign watches are made principally by hand, and 

 finished one at a time. All these mysterious and infinitesimal organs which, 

 when aggregated, produce the watch, are the fruit of slow and toilsome 

 manual processes. In the results there must of course be lack of uni- 

 formity. The constituent parts of the American watch are fashioned by 

 machinery. Wheels, pinions, springs, screws, absolutely uniform iu 



