MASSACHUSETTS— BEEHIVE OF BUSINESS 



241 



THE ASSORTING-ROOM IN THE PAPER MIEL 



After the paper has been calendered, the big rolls are put into a cutting-machine trnt 

 cuts the continuous roll into sheets of the desired size. These are then examined, sheet by 

 sheet, by the women shown in the picture. All perfect sheets are put into one pile and the 

 imperfect ones are placed in another pile. The perfect sheets are then ready, after trimming, 

 for the presses of the National Geographic. 



To see a skilled hairspring-maker take 

 three little pieces of flat wire and coil 

 them together with the aid of a pencil- 

 like rod slotted at the end, putting the 

 coil into a tiny copper case just large 

 enough for the reception of the untem- 

 pered spring, looks so easy that one 

 thinks that anybody could do it ; but on 

 the day that a Geographic representative 

 was studying the factory in question the 

 foreman of the department in charge of 

 hairsprings said to the secretary of the 

 establishment, "I took two new girls on 

 yesterday. One of them got one spring 

 wound yesterday and one today, but the 

 other has not succeeded in getting a single 

 spring into the tempering box." Yet so 

 skilled do the women spring-winders be- 

 come that an expert can finish one every 

 few minutes. 



There are three slots in the end of the 

 winder. Into one of these goes the alloy 



steel wire that is to constitute the hair- 

 spring. Into the others go soft steel 

 wires of corresponding dimensions. Be- 

 tween the steel wires is sandwiched the 

 one of alloy. 



The little copper boxes are then sent 

 to the annealing furnace and heat-treated. 

 When this process is finished the soft 

 wires are thrown away, leaving the alloy 

 wire a perfectly wrought hairspring, the 

 price of the smallest of which is seven 

 dollars a dozen, or more than a hundred 

 times their weight in gold. 



SCREWS SO SMAEE THAT 50,000 MAKE A 

 THIMBEEFUE 



But, tiny as they are, these infinitesimal 

 springs must impart to the balance-wheels 

 of the watches they regulate 432,000 im- 

 pulses a day, and must measure time cor- 

 rectly, down to an astonishingly small 

 fraction. 



