WATCH. 



facOTd tune is played, the cylinder is puihed into and held 

 in a new fituation, as in a barrel-organ. 



WATCH-Maker is a term that might originally denote the 

 mahr of a watch out of the rough materials ; but this was 

 the cafe only in the infancy of the art ; for when the de- 

 mand for pocket-watches became fo great as to render the 

 manufafture an objeft of commerce, the confequent divifion 

 of labour was foon found to facilitate the execution ; and each 

 branch of the trade had its appropriate tools and artifans ; 

 fo that thoufands of families have at length been employed 

 and maintained by their refpeftive manipulations, without 

 interfering with the bufinefs of their neighbours, who are 

 equally occupied in their refpeftive departments. In this 

 art, the materials are of very little value in their original 

 ftate ; but the workmanfhip is fo various, and requires fuch 

 dehcacy in the management, that, as has been ftated to a 

 committee in the houfe of commons, materials that did not 

 coft fixpence in the Hate of ore, have been and frequently 

 are manufaftured into a watch that is worth lool. and up- 

 wards. This view of the fubjeft induced minifters to with- 

 draw their projefted plan of taxing w^atches, as being, in 

 faft, a tax on ingenuity and induftry. 



We have anticipated much of the fubjeft of watch- 

 making under the articles we have already referred to in ho- 

 rology, for a watch may be cpnfidered as a fpring-clock in 

 miniature ; and what we have faid about calculating, cal- 

 lipering, making, and adjufting the various portions of a 

 fmall clock, is therefore equally applicable to a watch, ex- 

 cept that the balance mull be fubftituted for the pendulum. 

 It may gratify the curiofity of our readers, however, to 

 explain how the labour, we have adverted to, is divided and 

 fubdivided into various branches of manufadlure ; and how 

 perfons fituated at different parts of the kingdom confpire, 

 without any mutual knowledge of each other, to bring this 

 fmall piece of mechanifm into its finithed ftate. 



The beft watch-movements are made at Prefect, in Lan- 

 cafhire, by perfons called movement-makers, who furnilh 

 the movement complete to the London watch-makers, 



The following is a lift of the principal workmen employ- 

 ed in manufafturing a movement, previoufly to its coming 

 into the hands of the London watch-maker. 



1 . The frame-maker, who makes the frame ; that is to 

 fay, the two plates, the bar, and the potance. 



2. The pillar-maker, who turns the pillars, and makes 

 the ftud for the ftop-work. 



3. The cock-maker, who makes the cock and the ftop- 

 work. 



4. The barrel and fufee-maker, who makes the barrel, 

 great wheel, fufee, and their component parts. 



5. The going fufee-maker, who makes the going fufee, 

 (the means by which the watch is kept going while wanding 

 up,) when made ufe of. 



6. The centre wheel and pinion-maker, who makes the 

 fame. 



7. The fmall pinion-maker, who makes it of wire, pre- 

 vioufly drawn by another workman, called pinion-wire ; the 

 third and fourth wheels, and efcapement-wheel pinion ; and 

 in the cafe of repeaters, the pinions of the repeating train of 

 wheels : thefe are all tiiiilhed in the engine. 



8. The fmall wheel-maker, who makes the third and 

 fourth wheels, and the wheels of the repeating train for re- 

 peating movements, and rivets them to their pinions. 



9. The wheel-cutter, who cuts the wheels. 



10. The verge-maker, who makes the verge of vertical 

 watches. 



11. The movement-finiflier, who turns the wheels of a 

 proper fize previoufly to their being cut, forwards them to 



and receives them from the wheel-cutter, examines all the 

 parts as they are made, to fee that they are as they 

 Ihould be ; and finally completes the movement, and puts it 

 together. 



12. The balance-maker, who makes the balance of fteel 

 or brafs. 



Note. — The brafs balance is preferred to the fteel balance 

 by fome watch-makers, in confequence of the latter being 

 fiibjeft to the influence of magnetifm : but others prefer 

 the fteel to the brafs balance, in confequence of the latter 

 being more influenced by variation of temperature than the 

 former. 



13. The pinion wire-drawer, who prepares the pinion- 

 wire ; this, however, may be confidered as only a branch 

 of the trade of wire-drawing. 



The plates and wheels are now all made out of rolled 

 brafs ; but formerly, when it was to be had, they were 

 made of Dutch brafs, it being confidered preferable to the 

 Englifli. 



The movement, in the ftate in which it is fent to the 

 London watch-maker, confifts of the frame, compofed of 

 two plates, connefted together by four or five pillars, as the 

 cafe may be, which pillars are riveted to one of the plates, 

 called the pillar-plate ; the wheels, confifting of the great 

 wheel attached to the fufee, the fecond or centre wheel, 

 the third and fourth wheels, the fufee and barrel, potance 

 and ftop-work, which latter are attached to the upper plate, 

 (fo called in contra-diftinftion to the pillar -plate, ) but the 

 potance fcrewed to it is between the plates ; and laftly, 

 the cock fcrewed to the outfide of the upper plate. 



The following is a hft of the principal workmen employed 

 on a watch to complete it from the ftate in which the move- 

 ment is received from the country. 



1. The Aide -maker, who makes the Aide. 



2. The jeweller, who jewels the cock and potance, and, 

 in a more forward ftate of the watch, any other holes that 

 are required to be jewelled. 



3. The motion-maker, who makes the brafs edge ; and, 

 after the cafe is made, joints and locks the watch into the 

 cafe, and makes the motion-wheels and pinions. 



4. The wheel-cutter, who cuts the motion-wheels for the 

 motion-maker. 



5. The cap-maker, who makes the cap. 



6. The dial-plate maker, who makes the dial. 



7. The painter, who paints the dial. 



8. The cafe-maker, who makes the cafe. 



9. The joint-finiflier, who finiflies the joint of the 

 cafe. 



10. The pendant-maker, who makes the pendant. 



11. The engraver, who engraves the name of the watch- 

 maker on the upper plate ; and alfo engraves the cock and 

 flide, or index, as the cafe may be. 



12. The piercer, who pierces the cock and flide for the 

 engraver, and afterwards engraves them. 



13. The efcapement-maker, who makes the horizontal, 

 duplex, or detached efcapements ; but the efcapement of a 

 vertical watch is made by the finiflier. 



14. The fpring-maker, who makes the main-fpring. 



15. The chain -maker, who makes the chain. 



16. The finiflier, who completes the watch, and makes 

 the pendulum-fpring, and adjufts it. 



17. The gilder, who gilds the watch. 



18. The fufee-cutter, who cuts the fufee to receive the 

 chain, and alfo balance-wheel of the vertical efcapement. 



19. The hand-maker, who makes the hands. 



20. The glafs-maker, who makes the glafs. 



21. To thefe rauft be added the pendulum-fpring, wire- 



drawer. 



