170 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
such an attempt, and after all the real era from 
■which the world must hereafter date the history 
of satisfactany watch-making, began when 
American mechanicians conceived the idea of 
doing by machinery that which could never be 
adequately done by hand, and so making perfect 
the parts of a whole which, as a whole, is ex¬ 
pected to do something like perfect work. 
When they did this, people decried their work, 
and sneered at it as “machine-made,” forgetting 
that automatic machinery is of necessity much 
more accurate in its operations than any human 
hand can possibly be. 
Then, again, it was said that these manufac¬ 
turers had discarded three fourths of the pieces 
belonging to the works of a watch; and so they 
had, to the great improvement of the time¬ 
keeper, because, other things being equal, the 
simpler a machine is the better it is. 
The jeerings went on, but little by little peo¬ 
ple learned two facts: first, that these machine- 
made watches kept better time than any others; 
and secondly, that they would last longer than 
any other time-pieces ever made, and when 
these two points were once fully established, 
the watches made in this country took the lead¬ 
ing place that they hold to-day. 
Ever since the first of these factories was 
started, there has been a steady improvement 
of the product, and now, under sharp competi¬ 
tion, each of the great establishments is con¬ 
stantly adding to its machinery new devices 
for bringing the delicate wheels, and cogs, 
and pinions, and screws, and springs nearer and 
nearer to a mathematical perfection of form, 
for the one purpose of making their watches 
more and more nearly perfect in their marking 
of the time. 
It was but a few years ago that half a dozen 
gentlemen got off a train of cars in the Jersey 
meadows a few miles out from New York. The 
place was bald and dreary enough then, but the 
visit of these gentlemen was the forerunner of 
a great industry that has grown up there. They 
went there to select a site for the United States 
Watch Company’s works, and now they have 
quite a goodly little town around their great 
towering factory, wherein hundreds of happy, 
industrious men and women sit every da}’, each 
attending a quiet little automatic machine, that 
does its appointed work with the utmost preci¬ 
sion, and helps to swell the daily shipment of 
nearly perfect Marion watches. 
I saw these people and their machinery at 
work the other day, and truly wonderful work 
they do too. 
In one room there are great punches, each 
cutting the rough metal into bits of convenient 
shape, or stamping the bits into a proper degree 
of density and hardness. Each punch has its 
own work to do, and nothing else, and each man 
confines his attention to his own machine. 
Here, as everywhere in the factory, the intelli¬ 
gence employed lies largely in the machinery, 
its attendants having nothing to do but to sup¬ 
ply it with its proper material. In other rooms, 
hundreds of girls sit in long rows, each attend¬ 
ing a machine which does its work silently, 
turning out screws, cutting screw-heads, cutting 
teeth in wheels, punching holes, or doing what¬ 
ever else its function is, with untiring industry 
and unerring precision. There are, in all, one 
hundred and seventy-six pieces, large and small, 
in every watch made at this factor}’, and each 
watch is the workmanship of one hundred and 
forty-one persons, and one hundred and fifty- 
two separate and distinct machines. 
To catalogue all these machines, many of 
which were invented in this factory and can be 
[May, 
®- - - ----- — 
used nowhere else, and to tell their several 
uses, would of itself require more space Ilian I 
can occupy with this article. I can only speak 
now of some of the curious parts of the great 
subdivided industry. 
One girl sits in a corner running a little piece 
of mechanism that whittles steel wire up into 
shavings. Of what use are these little shavings, 
so small that they stick together in the box ? 
My guide answers a question to this effect by 
putting a powerful magnifying glass into my 
hand, and asking me to examine them through 
that. I then discover that they are not shavings 
at all, but screws—perfect screws, all precisely 
of a size, and all precisely alike, with a fixed 
number of threads on each. These are used to 
fasten the jewels into their proper places. And 
so we went next to the girls who were cutting 
the jewels up into proper sizes and shapes. The 
jewels used are rubies, garnets, and sapphires. 
They are sawed first into thin slices, by means 
of circular bits of tin charged with diamond 
powder. Then these slices are cemented toge¬ 
ther and sawed transversely. This finishes the 
work of getting them out in the rough. The 
tiny bits are then cemented to a metallic disc 
and ground to an even thickness, the accuracy 
of which is tested by means of an instrument 
having a long indicating needle, which marks 
the thousandth part of an inch. As the stone 
is placed at the inner end of the needle, the 
minutest conceivable variation from its proper 
thickness wdll be shown, exaggeratedly of course, 
by the tell-tale point. 
When exactitude of thickness is secured, the 
stones are cut to proper angles for their several 
uses, and the accuracy of these is tested by an¬ 
other indicator. A somewhat similar contriv¬ 
ance, too, is used to determine the exact thick¬ 
ness of the hair-springs, but with even greater 
attention to minute accuracy, the needle mark¬ 
ing variations of Yi 5 ,ooo part of an inch. 
Every part of the watch, large or small, is 
made in the same way. Nothing is left to judg¬ 
ment, eye, or hand. Every shape is determined 
beforehand, and every result measured unerr¬ 
ingly by instruments of almost marvelous deli¬ 
cacy. And so exactly.is all this done, that the 
various pieces in the different watches are freely 
interchangeable. 
'When a “ train,” as a complete set of the work¬ 
ing parts is called, has been finished, it goes to the 
regulator to be adjusted before being made into a 
movement. This regulator is a plate contain¬ 
ing a perfect watch movement made to work a 
small hand marking a minute part of a second 
by each revolution, each revolution being 
divided into four separate motions. The newly- 
made train is placed in position by the side of 
this, and made to move a similar little hand. 
The man attending the regulator keeps the two 
in motion before him, adjusting the new one from 
time to time, until the two little hands revolve 
precisely together, and then he knows that all 
the parts are of proper size, proper shape, pro¬ 
per polish, and proper adjustment to make a 
watch that will run correctly. This much must 
be secured before any train is put into a move¬ 
ment, as the works of a watch set up, ready for 
the case, are called. The company wants to 
make correct time-keepers, and will tolerate no 
measurable variation from accuracy of motion. 
When this is done the superintendent knows 
that the works are properly made, and without 
any further experiment he might safely sell the 
watch under a guarantee that it is vastly better 
as a time-keeper than any hand-made watch 
ever was or ever can be—nay, that it is very 
much better than any European watch yet 
manufactured. But perfection is what the Marion 
watches aim at, and no possible means of secur¬ 
ing it arc spared. Besides defects of construc¬ 
tion, there are two other causes of inaccuracy 
to be guarded against. One of these is change 
of position, and the other difference of tempera¬ 
ture. When the movement is set up, therefore, 
it is kept running for a considerable time in a 
frame which holds it at different times in a vari¬ 
ety of positions, and the slightest variation from 
mean time is sufficient to call for its readjust¬ 
ment. When it is so perfect as to stand this 
test, it is placed in an oven heated to 100° Fah., 
where it is kept for several days, after which it 
is removed and packed away in ice for a like 
period. If it shows no variation under this 
severest of all tests, it is sent out for sale. 
And that is how they make watches at 
Marion, like the one Mr. Chittenden carries, that 
varies but two seconds in fourteen months. 
Ogden Farm Papers.—Ho. 28 
I sometimes wish I had never said a word 
about “gilt-edged” butter. For, since the pub¬ 
lication of the article describing it, I have been 
run down with applications for detailed infor¬ 
mation. Knowing how ungracious it must seem 
to a farmer who writes a careful letter earnestly 
seeking information not to give it, I answered 
these letters at some length, until I found that 
my time and attention were being taken from 
imperative duties. Since then, at the disagree¬ 
able risk of giving offense, I have had to refer 
correspondents to this number of the Ogden 
Farm Papers for a statement of the whole case. 
I wish to premise that I do not pretend to know 
the best way to make butter; that my experience 
in dairy matters has not been very extensive; 
and that I hold up my practices as an example 
with much misgiving as to the judgment that 
may be formed of them by those who have 
more knowledge and experience in the business. 
I can only say that I do the best I know, and 
that I have found the result in my own business 
reasonably satisfactory. 
First, to describe the utensils required: (1.) A 
water-tank holding at least two feet (or better 
two and a half feet) of rvater, having a superfi¬ 
cial area of not less than four square feet for 
each ten cows in the dairy. This tank should 
stand in a room where it will not freeze in the 
coldest weather. It had better be partly or en¬ 
tirely below the level of the ground, that it 
may be reasonably cool in summer, and it must 
be fresh and well ventilated, its bottom free 
from stagnant moisture, and its sides not ex¬ 
posed to foul exudations from adjacent sink- 
drains, etc. The tank should be supplied with 
fresh water from a well or spring by a natural 
or artificial stream. The larger the flow the 
better, but it will suffice for a dairy of 40 cows 
to use a half-inch stream. The fresh water 
should have a temperature not higher than 58°. 
It would of course be better that the stream 
should be a constant one, but it will often be 
necessary, as in our case, to use a windmill, and 
we find in practice that it is never dead calm 
long enough together for the water to become 
stagnant or too warm. (2.) A set of cans, 8 in. 
in diameter and 25 in. deep, such as are made 
by the Iron-clad Can Co. of New York City, 
and called “ Orange County Creamery Cans.” 
These have heavy iron bands at the bottom, 
which serve the double purpose of strengthen¬ 
ing them and of so ballasting them that they float 
upright in the water. They have common iron 
bails at the top for handling (fig. 1). Each can 
