WORKSHOP NOTES 
 
 FOR JEWELERS AND WATCHMAKERS. 
 
 BEING A COLLECTION OF THE LATEST PRACTICAL RECEIPTS 
 ON THE MANUFACTURE AND REPAIRING OF WATCHES 
 AND CLOCKS, AND ON THE VARIOUS PROCESSES ENTERING 
 INTO THE MANUFACTURE AND REPAIRING OF JEWELRY, AS 
 COLORING, POLISHING, ENAMELING, ANNEALING, OXYDIZING, 
 ETC.; IN SHORT, A THOROUGH COMPENDIUM OF THE NUMER¬ 
 OUS MECHANICAL DEPARTMENTS OF THE JEWELERS’ AND 
 WATCHMAKERS’ SHOP. 
 
 BY 
 
 One who has contributed such 
 Matter to THE JEWELERS’ 
 CIRCULAR for Twenty Years. 
 
 THIRD EDITION. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 1899 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR PUBLISHING CO., 
 
 11 JOHN ST., COR. BROADWAY. 
 
Co fj S 
 TS 
 
 S?a 
 
 / 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 UBSCRIBERS to The Jewelers’ Circular 
 
 are well aware that since the appearance of its 
 first number, 30 years ago, it has succeeded in col¬ 
 lecting on its editorial staff writers second to none 
 in this or any other country, and that its columns 
 have contained technical instruction of a high order 
 on the subjects of horology, jewelry, optics, and 
 the kindred branches, both useful to the appren¬ 
 tice and the accomplished workman at the bench. 
 
 The management of The Jewelers’ Circular 
 has been repeatedly urged to collect and publisn 
 these articles, and issue them in book form, as they 
 were considered to be too valuable to pass away. 
 
 The volume presented herewith is the result of 
 these solicitations. It will be found to contain 
 numerous valuable additions to the extracts from 
 The Jewelers’ Circular. 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, 1892. 
 by the Jewelers’ Circular Pub. Co., 
 New York. 
 
 THE GETTY CENTER 
 LIBRARY 
 
THE WATCH. 
 
 I T is well, perhaps, that we preface the 
 more minute treatment of the watch in 
 this work with a few cursory remarks. 
 
 It is the common verdict of both watch¬ 
 makers and laymen that a well-constructed 
 lever is the best for all practical purposes. 
 A pocket chronometer is not as reliable, 
 while, if of larger dimensions and furnished 
 with all the possible mechanical appliances, 
 auxiliaries, and improvements, as ship or 
 marine chronometer, it is doubtless the best 
 timepiece constructed. When we say “ for 
 practical purposes,” it is not meant that the 
 watch may be treated with impunity to any 
 and every indignity, or be used as toy by 
 children, as ladies’ watches too often are. 
 
 Let us examine any other piece of ma¬ 
 chinery ; how strong and powerful it is in 
 any and all of its parts; still, it is never re¬ 
 quired to perform one-half of the work of 
 the tiny watch, which unremittingly labors 
 night and day, week day and Sunday, month 
 and year, without intermission or stop, and 
 if it has been duly cared for and consider¬ 
 ately treated, it may arrive at the ripe age 
 of one hundred years, while the ponderous 
 machinery is cleaned and oiled repeatedly 
 during the day, hosts of men attend to its 
 wants, and after all it lasts only for a short 
 time. 
 
 The watchmaker will readily understand 
 that any external motions exert an important 
 influence upon the vibration, and conse¬ 
 quently upon the staff and pivots of the bal¬ 
 ance. If this external motion occurs in the 
 direction of the vibrating plane of the bal¬ 
 ance, and a vibration takes place simultane¬ 
 ously in the same direction, the vibration arc 
 is increased; if in the contrary direction, 
 such an arc will be decreased, and it is only 
 without damage to the time-keeping, if the 
 
 external motion occurs in a vertical direction 
 to the balance axis. 
 
 The most ordinary external motions, how¬ 
 ever, occur in another direction than that of 
 the balance, whereby a sensible pressure is 
 exerted upon the axis of the vibrating mass, 
 productive of an increased friction of the 
 pivots in their bearings, etc., and a retarda¬ 
 tion, never an acceleration, takes place. In 
 most watches, the pivot holes of which are 
 of ruby, the retard of a watch is much larger, 
 but standing fairly well in ratio with its con¬ 
 struction and finish. 
 
 A marine chronometer, regulated to an 
 almost imperceptible difference, and having 
 preserved an excellent rate during a long sea 
 voyage, would, when worn as a watch, go too 
 slow, in consequence of the external motions 
 experienced; in fact, it would prove to be 
 inferior to a good detached lever watch. 
 Beside all imaginable auxiliary improve¬ 
 ments, these chronometers are in a special 
 box and suspended in such a way that they 
 do, or should, remain in an equal position in 
 all the different motions of the ship. 
 
 Watchmakers should recommend to their 
 customers to wind their watches slowly, no 
 matter whether key-winder or stem-winder, 
 avoiding all jerky motions. They should be 
 wound at a stated time in the morning; the 
 watch will then work best during the day, as 
 the spring will exert its best traction power, 
 whereby the external motions to which the 
 watch is exposed during the day’s wear is 
 fairly well counterbalanced; this is greatly 
 better than when winding it at night, because 
 it has only the weakened spring to offer as 
 resistance next day. Nor need the break¬ 
 ing of the spring be feared ; this is no longer 
 at full tension during the night, and can stand 
 better the ensuing cold. 
 
2 
 
 THE LEVER ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 Let watchmakers recommend to their cus¬ 
 tomers that if they lay their watch at night 
 either at an inclination, flat, or suspended, it 
 should always be done in the same manner 
 —not differing every night. The rate differ¬ 
 ence between the vertical and horizontal po¬ 
 sitions is often significant, in second-rate 
 watches sometimes two or three minutes in 
 one night; another vicious way is to suspend 
 a watch from a nail in such a manner that it 
 will rock to and fro like a pendulum, and a 
 watch with a heavy balance will gain, and, 
 vice versd, one with a light one will lose. 
 This lies of course in the nature of things. 
 Similar observations can be made by clocks 
 which are not firm in their case. 
 
 The temperature difference between the 
 heat of the pocket and a wall nearly to the 
 freezing point is about 77 0 to 88° F. and a 
 watch should therefore never be either sus¬ 
 pended or laid upon it—least of all an out¬ 
 side wall; the sudden change of tempera¬ 
 ture may cause the sudden breaking of the 
 spring; also the oil thickens, especially if no 
 longer pure, which cannot help but produce 
 irregularities of rate ; if the balance is not 
 compensated, it must gain from this piece of 
 carelessness, and should it possess construct¬ 
 ive defects, it may stand still from the cold. 
 
 The watch wearer should clean his watch 
 pocket frequently, to free it from accumulat¬ 
 ing dust and fibers. Even by the cleanest 
 pursuits, a sort of fiber dust will gather in the 
 pocket, caused by the friction of the watch 
 case, and this very easily finds its way into 
 the interior of the watch, and is much more 
 pernicious than common dust, by wrapping 
 around the little component parts, and re¬ 
 tarding, sometimes preventing, their motion. 
 No other articles should be carried in the 
 watch pocket, such as keys, coin, etc.; it is 
 often done, yet highly detrimental and care¬ 
 less. Watch crystals may be broken, the 
 case indented, the dial and hands injured, 
 etc. The watch should never be worn against 
 the bony part of the body. 
 
 But by even the greatest of care, it is impos¬ 
 sible that the watch can go forever without 
 periodical repairs, ahd it should be cleaned 
 once a year. All manner of machinery re¬ 
 quires an occasional supervision, and this 
 should be performed on the watch at least 
 once a year; the oil has dried up by this 
 time, and become mixed with particles of 
 metallic dust, which acts like emery. The 
 writer, during a long practice, has had occa¬ 
 sion to manipulate costly watches, and sev¬ 
 
 eral of them were almost ruined beyond re¬ 
 pair by having run beyond the time. 'They 
 generally belonged to people who were afraid 
 to trust their timepieces to indifferent work¬ 
 men, and sooner risked the consequences. 
 
 If the repairing watchmaker urges these 
 points, and many, many more, upon his cir¬ 
 cle of customers, he may in time succeed in 
 educating them into treating their watches 
 with a little more consideration than is gen¬ 
 erally allotted them, to the satisfaction both 
 of the repairer and the owner. 
 
 THE LEVER ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 REVIEW of the different watch escape¬ 
 ments is highly instructive, and an aston¬ 
 ishing amount of ingenuity has often been put 
 forth in their construction ; nevertheless, prac¬ 
 tice has shown that all except four, to wit: 
 the verge, cylinder, anchor or lever, and 
 chronometer escapements, are unreliable. 
 The verge is fast becoming obsolete, and 
 only the last three are left. The escapement 
 most universally used to-day is the lever, and 
 is claimed to be an English invention, said 
 to have been made in 1770, by Mr. Thos. 
 Mudge; others accredit it to Tompion, and 
 date its invention to 1695. The Swiss also 
 claim the invention. It is very possible that 
 it was invented simultaneously about the 
 same time in England and Switzerland, and 
 although the general form and principles to¬ 
 day are the same, they varied largely about 
 100 years ago, at which time the Swiss con¬ 
 struction rightfully deserved the name of 
 “ anchor ” escapement, from its peculiar 
 form, while the English called theirs “ lever ” 
 escapement, with, every show of reason ; both 
 appellations are still dominant in these two 
 countries. 
 
 We borrow the description and action of 
 the escapement from the excellent work on 
 watchmaking by Mr. F. J. Britten, omitting 
 the illustrations, as every watchmaker is so 
 thoroughly acquainted with the functions 
 and performance of the parts that an illus¬ 
 tration is unnecessary. The cut shows the 
 most usual form of the English lever escape¬ 
 ment, in which the pallets scape over three 
 teeth of the wheel. A tooth of the escape 
 wheel is at rest upon the locking-face of the 
 entering left-hand pallet. The impulse pin 
 has just entered the notch of the lever and 
 is about to unlock the pallet. The action 
 of the escapement is as follows : The balance 
 which is attached to the same staff as the 
 
THE LEVER ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 3 
 
 roller, is traveling in the direction indicated 
 by the arrow, which is around the roller, 
 with sufficient energy to cause the impulse 
 pin to move the lever and pallets far enough 
 to release the wheel tooth from the locking- 
 face, and allow it to enter on the impulse 
 face of the pallet. Directly it is at liberty, 
 the escape wheel, actuated by the mainspring 
 of the watch, moves round the same way as 
 the arrow, and pushes the pallets out of its 
 path. By the time the wheel tooth has ar¬ 
 rived at the end of the impulse face of the 
 pallet, its motion is arrested by the exit or 
 :right-hand pallet, the locking-face of which 
 has been brought into position to receive 
 another tooth of the wheel. When the pal¬ 
 let was pushed aside by the wheel tooth, it 
 'carried with it the lever, which .in its turn 
 communicated a sufficient 'blow to the im¬ 
 pulse pin to send the balance with renewed 
 energy on its vibration, so that the impulse 
 pin has the double office of unlocking the 
 pallets by giving a blow on one side of the 
 notch of the lever, and of immediately re¬ 
 ceiving a blow from the opposite side of the 
 notch. The balance proceeds on its excur¬ 
 sion, winding up, as it goes, the balance 
 spring, until its energy is expended. After 
 it is brought to a state of rest, its motion is 
 reversed by the uncoiling of the balance 
 spring, the impulse pin again enters the notch 
 of the lever, but from the opposite direction, 
 and the operation already described is re¬ 
 peated. The object of the safety pin is to 
 prevent the wheel from being unlocked ex¬ 
 cept when the impulse pin is in the notch 
 of the lever. The banking pins keep the 
 motion of the lever within the desired limits. 
 They should be placed where every blow 
 from the impulse pin on to the outside of the 
 lever is received direct. They are sometimes 
 placed at the tail of the lever, but in that 
 position the locking pins receive the blow 
 through the pallets, staff pivots, which are 
 liable to be broken in consequence. 
 
 The escape wheel has fifteen teeth, and 
 the distance between the pallets, from center 
 to center, is equal to 6o° of the circumference 
 of the wheel. The pallets are planted as 
 closely as possible to the wheel, so that the 
 teeth of the wheel, in passing, just clear the 
 belly of the pallets.* The width of each 
 
 * When the tooth is pressing on the locking, the 
 line of pressure should pass through the center of 
 the pallet staff. But as the locking-surface of the 
 two pallets are not equidistant from the center of 
 motion, a tangent drawn from the locking corner of 
 one pallet would be wrong for the other, and as a 
 
 pallet is made as nearly as possible half the 
 distance between one tooth of the escape 
 wheel and the next. As the teeth of the 
 wheel must be of an appreciable thickness 
 and the various pivots must have shake, it is 
 not found practicable to get the pallets of 
 greater width than io° of the circumference 
 of the wheel, instead of 12 0 , which would 
 be half the distance between one tooth and 
 the next. This difference between the the¬ 
 oretical and actual width of the pallet is 
 called the “ drop.” The lever is pinned to 
 the pallets, and has the same center of 
 motion. The distance between the center 
 of the lever and the center of the roller 
 is not absolute. The distance generally 
 adopted is a chord of 96° of a circle repre¬ 
 senting the path of the tips of the escape- 
 wheel teeth, that is the distance from the tip 
 of one tooth to the tip of the fifth succeed¬ 
 ing tooth. The proportion, as it is called, of 
 the lever and roller is usually from 3 to 1 to 
 3)4 to 1. In the former case, the length of 
 the lever (measured from the center of the 
 pallet staff to the center of impulse pin or 
 mouth of notch) is three times the distance 
 of the center of the impulse pin from the 
 center of the roller, and in the latter case 
 3)4 times. The portion of the lever to the 
 left of the pallet-staff hole acts as counter¬ 
 poise. 
 
 In this form of the lever escapement the 
 pallets have not less than io° of motion. 
 Of this amount, 2 0 are used for locking, and 
 the remainder for impulse. The amount of 
 locking is to some extent dependent on the 
 size of the escapement. With a large escape¬ 
 ment, less than i) 4 0 would suffice, while a 
 small one would require more than 2 0 . The 
 quality of the work, too, is an element in 
 deciding the amount of locking. The lighter 
 the locking the better, but it must receive 
 every tooth of "the wheel safely, and where 
 all the parts of the escapement are made 
 with care, the escapement can be made with 
 a light locking, io° pallets, with a lever and 
 roller 3 to 1, give a balance arc of 30 0 , that 
 is to say, the balance in its vibration is freed 
 from the escapement except during 30 0 , 
 when the impulse pin is in contact with the 
 lever. 
 
 Presuming that the staff hole is correctly 
 
 matter of fact, if a diagram is made it will be found 
 that even when the pallets are planted as close as 
 possible they are hardly as close as they should be 
 for the right-hand pallet. To plant as close as pos¬ 
 sible is therefore a very good rule and is the one 
 adopted by the best pallet makers. 
 
4 
 
 THE CLUE-TOOTH LEVER ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 drilled with relation to the planes, a rough 
 rule for testing io° pallets is that a straight 
 edge laid on the plane of the entering pallet, 
 should point to the locking corner of the exit 
 pallet. 
 
 When from setting the hands of a watch 
 back, or from a sudden jerk, there is a ten¬ 
 dency for the pallets to unlock, the safety 
 pin butts against the edge of the roller. It 
 will be observed that when the impulse pin 
 unlocks the pallets, the safety pin is allowed 
 to pass the roller by means of the crescent 
 which is cut out of the roller opposite to the 
 impulse pin. The teeth of the escape wheel 
 make a considerable angle with a radial line 
 (24 0 ), so that their tips only touch the lock¬ 
 ing-faces of the pallets. The locking-faces 
 of the pallets, instead of being curves struck 
 from the center of motion of the pallets, as 
 would be otherwise the case, are cut back at 
 an angle, so as to interlock with the wheel 
 teeth.* This is done so that the safety pin 
 shall not drag on the edge of the roller, but 
 be drawn back till the lever touches the 
 banking pin. When the operation of setting 
 the hands back is finished, or the other cause 
 of disturbance removed, the pressure of the 
 wheel tooth on the locking-face of the pallet 
 draws the pallet into the wheel as far as the 
 banking pin will allow. The amount of this 
 “ run ” should not be more than sufficient to 
 give proper clearance between the safety pin 
 and the roller, for the more the run the 
 greater is the resistance to unlocking. This 
 rule is sometimes sadly transgressed and 
 occasionally the locking is found to be, from 
 excessive run, almost equal in extent to the 
 impulse. It will generally be found that in 
 these cases the escapement is so badly pro¬ 
 portioned that the extra run has had to be 
 given to secure a sound safety action. In 
 common watches, the safety action is a fre¬ 
 quent source of trouble. The more the path 
 of the safety pin intersects the edge of the 
 roller, the sounder is the safety action, and 
 if the intersection is small, the safety pin is 
 likely to jam against the edge of the roller, 
 or even to pass it altogether. 
 
 With an ordinary single-roller escapement, 
 a sound safety action cannot be obtained 
 with a less balance arc than 30 0 . Even 
 with a balance arc of 30 0 , the roller must 
 be kept small in the following way to insure 
 the soundness of the safety action. The 
 
 * The locking face forms an angle of 6° to 8° with 
 a tangent to a circle representing the path of the 
 locking corner. 
 
 hole for the impulse pin must not be left 
 round. After it is drilled, a punch of the 
 same shape as the impulse pin—that is, with 
 one third of its diameter flattened off—should 
 be inserted and the edge of the roller, where 
 the crescent is to be formed, beaten in. By 
 this means, the roller can be turned down 
 small enough to get a sufficient intersection 
 for the safety pin. 
 
 It is useful in estimating the balance arc of 
 a watch to remember, if it has a three-armed 
 balance, that 30 0 is one-fourth of the dis¬ 
 tance between two arms. With a compensa¬ 
 tion balance, a third of the distance between 
 two of the quarter screws is 30 0 . 
 
 THE CLUB-TOOTH LEVER ESCAPE¬ 
 MENT. 
 
 ATCHMAKERS know well that this 
 form of escapement is almost exclu¬ 
 sively used in all the countries on the conti¬ 
 nent, and since many specimens of it come 
 to the workbench of the American repairer, it 
 is well perhaps to turn our attention to it. The 
 readers of the Circular Workshop Notes 
 are well aware that the club-tooth escape¬ 
 ment principally differs from the ratchet 
 tooth in having the'action divided between 
 the pallet and the tooth, both having inclined 
 impulse faces. The club tooth has also an 
 advantage in closer escaping, the back of the 
 tooth being undercut, thereby allows the 
 pallet to pass inward at the back of the tooth, 
 thus giving from one-half to a full degree 
 more impulse arc in the scape wheel action, 
 although no more in the pallet action. 
 
 The action of this style of escapement is 
 a little more complex and difficult to under¬ 
 stand than the ratchet tooth, but is quite as 
 easy to repair if once the principle is under¬ 
 stood. The American and Swiss watches 
 have almost universally this form of escape¬ 
 ment, consequently four-fifths of the watches 
 the watchmaker has to repair are either of 
 the one or the other of these makes. The 
 American watch, being provided with ex¬ 
 posed pallets set in slots, can be moved and 
 manipulated until a near approximation of 
 the correct action is obtained. This ease of 
 change and adjustment, although very nice 
 for those who thoroughly understand the 
 principles involved, is very vexatious to those 
 who are so unfortunate as to lack this 
 knowledge. American scape wheels of all 
 the factories are nearly duplicates of each 
 other, so are also the pallet stones, conse- 
 
THE CLEANING OF A WATCH. 
 
 5 
 
 quently there are but few changes which 
 need to be made except in setting the pallet 
 stones. 
 
 The American watches made by the sev¬ 
 eral factories have different methods of ar¬ 
 riving at similar results. One factory acting 
 from their convictions assume they can over¬ 
 come slight inaccuracies by one method, 
 while another insists their system is best. 
 The most frequent disarrangement to which 
 the American lever is subject is the breaking 
 or loss of the jewel pin and the loosening 
 and loss of a pallet stone. 
 
 INSPECTION OF THE CYLINDER 
 ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 HIS form of escapement is also known as 
 the horizontal, so called from the fact of 
 the escape wheel lying horizontally, in distinc¬ 
 tion from the verge or vertical escapement. 
 This escapement was invented by Tampion 
 and perfected by Graham, early in the last 
 century; it is now almost exclusively em¬ 
 ployed in watches made on the continent, 
 the English turning their attention more 
 toward patent levers Movements of the 
 flattest kind have cylinder escapements. The 
 axis of the balance is a hollow cylinder, cut 
 away to allow the passage of the scape 
 wheel teeth. Though excellent for ordinary 
 pocket watches, the cylinder escapement 
 cannot be said to equal the lever and some 
 others, where greater accuracy is required. 
 The drop of the escapement is the cause of 
 much trouble to watch repairers, but the 
 following means will enable them to ascer¬ 
 tain how far the drops are equal and correct: 
 
 The movement being slightly wound up, 
 with a fine wire or strip of paper turn the 
 balance till a tooth falls ; now, try how much 
 shake the escape wheel has, and allow the 
 tooth to escape; then try again and go all 
 round the wheel, to see how all the teeth 
 and spaces agree in size. To correct any 
 inequality is certainly a job for an expert 
 hand, and directions will not avail much un¬ 
 less to an expert. When the tooth contained 
 within the cylinder has no freedom and rubs 
 at the point and heel, there is no internal 
 drop; when the tooth has escaped and the 
 cylinder shell rubs on the point of one tooth 
 and the heel of the next, then there is no 
 outside drop. The internal drop is increased 
 by reducing the length of the teeth, the ex¬ 
 ternal by increasing the space between the 
 teeth. When the drop is very slight, the 
 
 watch is very liable to stop through the ex¬ 
 cessive friction; in the case of unequal drop 
 the rate of a watch cannot be maintained, 
 and occasional stoppages will occur. 
 
 This fault is found by dotting the balance 
 with spots of rouge and carefully noting the 
 vibrations, which, if unequal, indicate un¬ 
 equal drops. Though this is the usual cause, 
 the same effect may be the result of some 
 teeth lifting more than others. 
 
 A noisy drop is caused by badly polished 
 surfaces, and in such a case the heel of the 
 cylinder should be carefully noticed. If the 
 pivot holes of the escape wheel are too large 
 an immense amount of trouble will be caused, 
 and, in fact, all the end shakes and side 
 shakes of the cylinder require most careful 
 adjustment. An excess of oil will also cause 
 an infinity of errors to arise and should be 
 most carefully guarded against. The points 
 of the escape wheel teeth may catch in a 
 slight burr, which is sometimes left at the lips 
 of the cylinder, and, of course, would stop 
 the watch. This is remedied by polishing 
 the cylinder and rounding off the points 
 of the scape wheel teeth. 
 
 The balance spring should be pinned up 
 to have the escapement in perfect beat. 
 This is done by pinning the stud on the 
 spring so that it is exactly over a dot marked 
 in the balance for the purpose of showing 
 the position. Sometimes the lower corner 
 of the heel of the scape wheel tooth touches 
 the inside cylinder and stops the watch. 
 But all these defects may be seen, or rather 
 felt, by careful trial. If there is any doubt 
 of parts touching where they should not, a 
 spot of rouge put on will at once mark where 
 it touches. _ 
 
 THE CLEANING OF A WATCH. 
 
 ANY methods and agents : Benzine and 
 alcohol, cyanide of potassium, etc., are 
 used for cleaning watches, and the horologi- 
 cal press occasionally publishes a batch of 
 new ones, so that the practical workman has 
 every reason to look forward to the time 
 when the movement need no longer be taken 
 down, but is cleaned, lubricated and bur¬ 
 nished up while the customer is waiting in 
 the shop. But while we anxiously await the 
 invention or discovery of this new method, 
 let us meanwhile discuss, perhaps, the oldest 
 and unexcelled—the washing in soap and 
 water. The washing with a soft brush, 
 warm water and an easily foaming soap is 
 unsurpassed for the gilt parts, as well as the 
 
6 
 
 THE CLEANING OF A WATCH. 
 
 mat ground steel parts of a watch. After 
 washing, the parts are only rinsed in pure 
 alcohol, which dissolves all the particles of 
 soap still adhering, and they are finally dried 
 in sawdust. The original luster is hereby 
 restored to the gilding, and it is necessary 
 merely to lightly dab the pieces with a clean 
 brush and to clean the holes. 
 
 Some of our readers will rejoin by saying 
 that this method is too tedious; this is true 
 of shops where the several agents necessary 
 are not at disposal. Every shop should con¬ 
 tain a wash table, with alcohol lamp and a 
 small light copper kettle in which to heat 
 the water over the flame. Cold water can 
 also be used, but this will not take off the 
 old oil. 
 
 The steel parts are most suitably cleaned 
 in benzine and dried in sawdust. Polished 
 brass parts must previously be retouched 
 with the buffstick. 
 
 When all the parts have been taken out 
 of the sawdust, they are finally cleaned in 
 the order in which to be mounted in the 
 movement, so that each cleaned part is at 
 once located in its place upon the plate. 
 
 The wheels, and more especially the deli¬ 
 cate parts, must, after cleaning, be scrutinized 
 with the magnifier so as to be satisfied that 
 no brush hair or other disturbing element 
 has lodged anywhere. A hair is apt to 
 lodge itself in the slit between the plate and 
 the lower cylinder bridge, and, when trans¬ 
 parent, it is easily overlooked. When this 
 hair comes in contact with one of the escape¬ 
 ment parts, it naturally will give rise to a 
 very injurious disturbance. 
 
 When the plate has been cleaned and the 
 cap jewel plate screwed in place, I clean 
 first the fourth wheel, screw the bridge on, 
 and satisfy myself of the correct end-shake 
 and the perfect freedom of the wheel; the 
 third and center wheels are then mounted ; 
 the pivot of the latter wheel is lubricated, 
 the center staff is put into the cannon and the 
 cannon pinion broached. 
 
 Some workmen will, after the fourth wheel, 
 mount the scape wheel, and, if the fourth 
 wheel is without seconds pivot, they begin 
 the mounting with the cylinder scape wheel, 
 as the freedom of this wheel is of great im¬ 
 portance. 
 
 1 think that my method is preferable, be¬ 
 cause it will happen that after the fastening 
 of the cannon pinion a pinching of the center 
 wheel will occur. Such a pinching is, in the 
 absence of the scape wheel, far more easily 
 
 seen and changed. An accidental trembling: 
 of the center staff, also, is more easily cor¬ 
 rected. 
 
 When the scape wheel has been mounted,, 
 and its shake found correct, investigate the 
 smooth action of the train in different 
 positions, by occasionally exerting a slight 
 pressure against the center wheel. 
 
 The cylinder bridge is then put together,, 
 and the cylinder, with spring, is fastened to 
 the bridge. These parts are put together 
 without oil, and examined whether every¬ 
 thing is in thorough order. Only when the 
 cylinder shake, the balance spring, and the 
 drop has been arranged, put oil into the 
 sinks. If too great a quantity is applied, so 
 that it overruns the jewel, the oil will, by 
 capillary action, draw away from the spot 
 where it should be. 
 
 When putting together the barrel parts, 
 never forget to lubricate the clickwork, more- 
 particularly that of the going barrel, as the 
 injury occasioned thereby would soon show 
 itself. The mainspring is to be lubricated 
 only slightly. The stopfinger should always- 
 be fastened with a steel pin; it is more 
 securely retained thereby. The barrel is 
 mounted in the plate, and the spring is 
 wound a few teeth to apply oil to the es¬ 
 capement. 
 
 I am of the opinion that it is best to ap¬ 
 ply a small portion of oil to each cylinder 
 wheel pivot, while other workmen prefer to 
 place a small drop of oil in the cylinder. 
 
 The oil placed in the cylinder draws at 
 once to the surface of the plug, and outside 
 of the cylinder up to the collet. It therefore 
 may happen with .long cylinders that the 
 teeth receive little or no oil. With short 
 ones it is immaterial in which manner the oil 
 is applied to the escapement, as it will in 
 every case draw upward, because the wheel 
 teeth come very near to the plug surface. 
 
 Before the movement is set into the case 
 this must be well cleaned within, because 
 even new cases contain particles of dust and 
 remnants of crocus. The case springs must 
 invariably be taken out and cleaned ; a large 
 quantity of filth will often be found round, 
 about and behind them, which, if not re¬ 
 moved, would fall into the movement. Dm 
 the same with the push button. 
 
 Only when the movement has been fast¬ 
 ened in the case do I apply oil to those- 
 pivots which still can be reached. The 
 minute wheel pinion, also, must be slightly- 
 moistened, because the pinion runs upon a. 
 
REPAIRING AND EXAMINING WATCHES.—METHODS. 
 
 7 
 
 steel pivot; therefore two steel parts lie 
 against each other, which is apt to engender 
 rust. A spreading spring will generally be 
 necessary for the hour wheel, if the correct 
 shake is not produced itself by the minute 
 work or the hands themselves. 
 
 When the hands have been mounted the 
 watch is ready for service, and only requires 
 timing. With a cylinder watch it is well not 
 to put the regulator entirely on “ fast,” be¬ 
 cause every such watch, after the course of 
 a few months, has an inclination to lose, and 
 the regulator must stand so that a subse¬ 
 quent difference of rate can be corrected. 
 
 The timing of a watch requires so much 
 expert skill that we omit describing it. 
 
 TO CLEAN A WATCH. 
 
 AKE the watch all apart and immerse in 
 benzine, do not leave the cap jewel and 
 jewel slip attached to cock and potence, or 
 the potence to the plate, etc., but have 
 everything apart so that each piece can be 
 thoroughly cleaned. Take each piece out 
 separately and dry with clean linen rag, and 
 brush all the parts with clean brush, charged 
 with billiard chalk and subsequently rubbed 
 over a bone or dry crust of bread ; be very 
 careful to get the jewel holes thoroughly 
 clean and bright, and leave no trace of dust 
 between pinion leaves, wheel teeth, etc.; use 
 watchmaker’s tissue paper for holding parts 
 in to clean ; this paper is for sale by material 
 dealers for 50 or 60 cents a box, contain¬ 
 ing 1,000 sheets ; it is much better than ordi¬ 
 nary tissue paper, as it lasts much longer and 
 there is no “ fluff,” which is an important con¬ 
 sideration. When everything is thoroughly 
 cleaned, put the movement together, oil the 
 mainspring liberally but not excessively ; also 
 the fusee pivot holes and the large center 
 hole; be careful not to place so much oil 
 that it will run on the plates or down the 
 arbor, or it will be drawn off and be of little 
 use where it is intended to be. In oiling 
 the balance jewel holes, sharpen up a piece 
 of pegwood and insert in the holes to insure 
 the oil running down on the cap jewels, and 
 then insert a little more oil; also be very 
 careful in oiling scape teeth ; too much will 
 get to the body of the wheel, all over the 
 pallets and on to the fork ; a little on the tips 
 • of the teeth is all that is needed. 
 
 If the balance is now inserted and pinned 
 so that the hairspring is flat and concentric 
 and plays evenly between the regulator pins, 
 
 the watch will start off with a fine motion, 
 and will continue to run well and give the 
 customer the best of satisfaction. 
 
 TO CLEAN WATCHES WITH CYA¬ 
 NIDE OF POTASSIUM. 
 
 EFORK detailing the process of cleaning 
 a watch with cyanide of potassium, the 
 Circular cannot desist from cautioning 
 watchmakers who use it; while useful in its 
 place, cyanide is dangerous and must be used 
 with great care—dangerous to the person 
 using it, to the gilding of the parts put into 
 it, if allowed to remain too long—and danger¬ 
 ous to all steel articles around which can be 
 reached by its vapors. If not thoroughly 
 cleaned off, the trace of it remaining on the 
 pieces will evaporize on the watch when put 
 together, and rust the steel works of the 
 movement. With this understanding on the 
 part of the Circular it details the process 
 of cleaning a watch by the use of cyanide 
 of potassium. A small piece of the cyanide 
 is dissolved in a common drinking glass filled 
 with water, or, what is better, a wide-mouthed 
 bottle with ground stopper. The movement 
 to be cleaned is taken apart, and the balance, 
 the lever, and other steel parts are placed in 
 benzine. If the balance jewels are in set¬ 
 tings, they are removed and also placed in 
 the benzine. The plates and wheels are 
 strung on a small brass or copper wire, bent 
 so as to form a catch, similar to a safety pin 
 with the pin part extended to hold it by, and 
 dipped into the cyanide, then well rinsed in 
 clean water (warm water is best), and then 
 in alcohol, and placed in sawdust to dry. 
 When dry, brush only enough to remove the 
 sawdust. The parts in the benzine are 
 cleaned in the usual way. 
 
 REPAIRING AND EXAMINING 
 WATCHES.—METHODS. 
 
 XPEDITION and certainty in watch¬ 
 making and repairing are primarily se¬ 
 cured, says Claudius Saunier, by proceed¬ 
 ing on a definite system both in the 
 preliminary examination of the watch and 
 in details of construction or repairing. The 
 best watchmakers, and practical men gener¬ 
 ally, take their work in a certain order, from 
 which any departure is exceptional. By this 
 means they avoid the necessity of doing work 
 twice over and of frequently taking up the 
 same piece ; a circumstance that often occurs 
 
8 
 
 <CASE, GLASS, DIAL, DOME. 
 
 with young watchmakers, owing to forgetful¬ 
 ness and to a want of sequence in their ideas. 
 They, should from the first accustom them¬ 
 selves to working methodically on a definite 
 system. 
 
 It must, however, be understood that no 
 method can be inflexible, nor can it be 
 equally advantageous for different individ¬ 
 uals, because men differ in regard to manual 
 dexterity, goodness of eyesight and of mem¬ 
 ory, power of associating their ideas, etc. 
 A system that is suitable to a person of un- 
 excitable temperament will have to be modi¬ 
 fied by one who is oppositely disposed. 
 Every one will be able to decide for himself 
 as to the best system to adopt and the order 
 in which to take up his daily work. These 
 preliminary observations appear necessary, 
 because the method explained below of ex¬ 
 amining a Geneva watch has been regarded 
 by some as too long and minute. We would 
 urge any young watchmaker who hears such 
 ideas advanced to assure himself that it is a 
 mistake, because the system here explained 
 is only put forward subject to the modifica¬ 
 tions that experience suggests; and it is to 
 be observed that many of the operations 
 given can be performed more rapidly than 
 they can be described. 
 
 When a watchmaker experiences a great 
 loss of time, does it not usually arise from 
 the fact that he is obliged to take a watch 
 down, or nearly so, after its repairing and 
 examination were thought to have been 
 completed; or when a watch that has been 
 repaired is brought back to be examined be¬ 
 fore the ordinary period of cleaning has 
 elapsed f Let him add together the numerous 
 hours spent in this kind of thankless work, 
 let him sum up the worries experienced, and 
 the discredit, etc., to which he has been sub¬ 
 jected, and he will see that systematic work 
 would have saved him both loss of money 
 and loss of credit. _ 
 
 EXTERNAL EXAMINATION OF THE 
 WATCH. 
 
 N the following paragraphs, when the 
 manner in which a given fault is not in¬ 
 dicated at once, explanations will at a sub¬ 
 sequent time be given. 
 
 CASE, GLASS, DIAL, DOME. 
 
 LANCE at the case in order to ascertain 
 that it has not received a blow or been 
 subjected to pressure ; that the joints and fly- 
 
 springs work well; and that the hands, in 
 rotating, touch neither the glass nor dial. 
 By laying the nail on the surface of the 
 glass, it will be easy to see whether there is 
 sufficient freedom between the socket of the 
 hand and the glass. In case of doubt, place 
 a small piece of paper on the hand, close the 
 bezel, and tap the glass with the finger while 
 the watch is in an inclined position. If free, 
 the paper will be displaced. 
 
 The set-hands square should be rounded 
 at the end, and a trifle below the level of the 
 dome, in order to avoid the possibility of 
 contact in case of any accidental bending of 
 the back of the watch, and the dome must 
 not press on the balance-cock wing or the 
 central dust cap (if present). The above 
 remark also applies to the winding square of 
 a fusee watch. 
 
 There must be sufficient freedom between 
 the going-barrel teeth and the banking-pin 
 of the balance on one hand, and the internal 
 rim of the case, the fly-springs, and the joints 
 on the other. Otherwise there is danger of 
 contacts when the case is closed, which oc¬ 
 casions irregularity and stoppage often diffi¬ 
 cult to detect. 
 
 The dome must be at a sufficient distance 
 from all parts of the movement, more espe¬ 
 cially the balance-cock. If there is any oc¬ 
 casion for doubt on this point, put a thin 
 layer of rouge on the parts that are most 
 prominent. Close the case, and, holding it 
 in one hand to the ear, apply a pressure at 
 all parts of the back with a finger of the 
 other hand, listening attentively in order to 
 ascertain whether the vibrations are inter¬ 
 fered with. If the interval is insufficient, a 
 trace of rouge will be found on the inside of 
 the dome. In such a case, if the dome can¬ 
 not be raised nor hollowed slightly in the 
 mandrel (when formed of metal), lower as 
 far as possible the index work and the bal¬ 
 ance-cock wing, and fix in . the plate, close 
 to the balance, one or two screws with mush¬ 
 room heads that will serve to raise the 
 dome. 
 
 Ascertain that the hands stand sufficiently 
 apart; that the hour hand does not rub 
 against the hole in the dial; and that the 
 minute hand does not come nearer to the 
 dial in one place than in another—a fault 
 which may arise either from the dial not be¬ 
 ing flat or from the center wheel being badly 
 planted. 
 
 Remove the movement from its case, after 
 making sure that it is held firmly by the 
 
ACTION OF THE ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 9 
 
 locking screws ; take off the hands, and see 
 that the hour wheel has tfie right amount of 
 play; this freedom may be diminished if re¬ 
 quired by laying on the wheel small discs of 
 tinsel cut out with a punch. If the dial 
 presses against any part of the movement, 
 or is not flat, or comes so near to any of the 
 pivot holes as to draw off the oil, it must 
 be ground away until a sufficient amount 
 of freedom is obtained. 
 
 TO EXAMINE A GENEVA MOVEMENT. 
 
 A LTHOUGH the following remarksr efer 
 . in the main to foreign watches with a 
 Lepine movement, many are also applicable 
 to the English or American watch. 
 
 THE MOTION WORK AND HANDS. 
 
 OTATE the wheels connecting the hour 
 and minute hands by the aid of a key, 
 and a glance will suffice to show whether the 
 several depths, which should be light, are 
 satisfactory. The wheels should not rub one 
 against the other, the plate barrel, or stop 
 work. The barrel should have been pre¬ 
 viously examined to ascertain that it is not 
 inclined to one side, because, if it were, an 
 -error would probably be made in estimating 
 the degree of freedom. , 
 
 The set-hands arbor (the square of which 
 should be a trifle smaller than that of the 
 barrel arbor) must turn rather stiffly in the 
 center pinion, and the cannon pinion must 
 be held on the arbor sufficiently tight to 
 avoid all chance of its rising and thereby be¬ 
 coming loose; for this would alter the play 
 of the hands and motion work. If any fault 
 is found in the adjustment correct it at once, 
 so as to avoid doing so after the movement 
 has been cleaned. 
 
 If it has not been done already, slightly 
 round the lower end of the cannon pinion 
 and the steel shield, care being taken to 
 avoid forming a burr on the pinion leaves. 
 These two pieces ought to rest on the ends 
 of the center-pinion pivots, and at the same 
 time be some distance removed from the 
 plate And bar respectively. 
 
 FREEDOM AND END-SHAKE. 
 
 BSERVE that there is sufficient clear¬ 
 ance between the plate and barrel; the 
 barrel and center wheel; the several wheels 
 in succession, both between themselves, their 
 
 cocks, and sinks; between the balance on 
 the one hand and its cock, the center wheel, 
 fourth-wheel cock, the balance-spring coils 
 and stud on the other. The fourth wheel is 
 frequently found to pass too near to the 
 jewel forming the lower pivot-hole of the 
 escape wheel. 
 
 The end-shake of the wheels may be tested 
 by taking hold of an arm of each with 
 tweezers, and lifting it. This may also be 
 done in the case of the escape wheel, but, 
 when the cock is slight, it will be sufficient 
 to press gently upon it with a pegwood stick, 
 then releasing it, and observing the apparent 
 increase in the length of pivot. At the same 
 time ascertain that the width and height of 
 the passage in the cock is enough to allow 
 the teeth, when carrying oil, to pass with 
 requisite freedom. 
 
 Holding the watch on a level with the 
 eye, lightly raise the balance with a pegwood 
 point several times, each time allowing it to 
 fall. The variation observed in the space 
 between the collet and cock will indicate the 
 end-shake of the balance staff. 
 
 ACTION OF THE ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 HE side play of the balance pivots in 
 their holes can, with practice, be easily 
 estimated by touch, or this may be done by 
 the eye, attentively watching the upper pivot 
 through the end-stone with a powerful glass, 
 while the watch lies flat, and the lower pivot 
 in the same manner with the watch inverted. 
 If the end-stones are not clear enough, al¬ 
 though such a case is rare, remove first one 
 end-stone and examine the pivot; then re¬ 
 place it and remove the other. 
 
 It should be possible to rotate the bal¬ 
 ance until the banking-pin comes against 
 its stop, without causing the escape wheel to 
 recoil at all, or allowing a tooth to catch 
 outside the cylinder behind the small lip. 
 The banking-pin sometimes passes too near 
 to the fourth-wheel staff. The U-arms 
 should rest as nearly as possible in the mid¬ 
 dle of the banking-slot of the cylinder; that 
 is to say, they should be as far from the up¬ 
 per as from the under edge of this slot, so 
 that the end-shakes may have free play in 
 all positions of the watch. Ascertain that 
 the balance spring is flat; that it coils and 
 uncoils regularly without constraint; that it 
 does not touch the center wheel, the stud 
 or the inner curb-pin (with its second coil). 
 The rapid examination of the escapement 
 
IO 
 
 CENTER WHEEL: BAD UPRIGHTING. 
 
 may now be regarded as completed, if the 
 watch in hand is merely cleaned after hav¬ 
 ing previously gone well. 
 
 But, if engaged on a watch that has not 
 gone well previously, or if examining a new 
 one, the action of the escapement must be 
 thoroughly tested in the manner customary 
 among workmen. 
 
 VISIBLE DEPTHS. 
 
 HILE the train is in motion through the 
 force of the mainspring or the pressure 
 of a finger against the barrel teeth, examine 
 with a glass all the depths that are visible. That 
 of the escapement, for example, can be easily 
 seen through the jeweled pivot hole when 
 this is flat, the watch being laid horizontal 
 and a powerful glass used. When the action 
 cannot be seen in this manner with sufficient 
 distinctness, hold the watch up against the 
 light and look through it. Depths that can¬ 
 not be clearly seen, or about which any 
 doubt exists, must be subsequently verified 
 by the touch. 
 
 If examining a new watch, it may be 
 found necessary to form inclined notches at 
 the end of the cocks or near the center hole 
 of the plate, so as to see the action of the 
 depths. But it is important that the setting 
 of the jewels are not disturbed, and indeed 
 that enough metal is left round these holes to 
 admit of their being rebushed, if necessary. 
 
 INVISIBLE AND DOUBTFUL DEPTHS. 
 
 HESE must be tested by the touch, and 
 the requisite corrections applied after 
 having repolished the pivots, etc., as may be 
 necessary. We would observe that holes a 
 trifle large are less inconvenient than those 
 which afford too little play, providing the 
 depths are in good condition. 
 
 LENGTH OF BALANCE PIVOTS: CEN¬ 
 TERING THE BALANCE SPRING. 
 
 EMOVE the end-stone from the chariot, 
 and see that the pivot projects enough 
 beyond the pivot hole when the plate is in¬ 
 verted. Then remove the cock and detach 
 it from the balance. Take off the balance 
 spring with its collet from this latter, and 
 place it on the cock inverted, so as to see 
 whether the collet is central when the outer 
 coil is midway between the curb pins. Re¬ 
 move the cock end-stone and end-stone cap, 
 place the top balance pivot in its hole and 
 
 see that it projects a little beyond the pivot 
 hole. 
 
 Place the balance in the figure-of-8 caliper 
 to test its truth, and, at the same time, to 
 see that it is sufficiently in poise; it must be 
 remembered, however, that the balance is 
 sometimes put out of poise intentionally. 
 
 PLAY OF TRAIN-WHEEL PIVOTS. 
 
 LLO W the train to run down ; if it does so 
 noisily or by jerks, it may be assumed that 
 some of the depths are bad in consequence 
 either of the teeth being badly formed, or the 
 holes too large, etc. To test the latter point, 
 cause the wheel to revolve alternately in op¬ 
 posite directions by applying a finger to the 
 barrel or center-wheel teeth, at the same time 
 noting the movement of each pivot in turn 
 in its hole; a little practice, comparing sev¬ 
 eral watches together, will soon enable the 
 workman to judge whether the play is correct. 
 
 The running down of the train will also 
 indicate whether any pivots are bent. 
 
 Now remove the barrel bar with its sev¬ 
 eral attachments. 
 
 CENTER WHEEL: BAD UPRIGHTING. 
 
 EMOVE the third wheel, and, if neces¬ 
 sary, test the uprighting of the center 
 wheel by passing a round broach or taper 
 arbor through it, and setting the plate in 
 rotation about this axis, holding a card near 
 the edge while doing so. This will indicate 
 at once whether the axis of the wheel is at 
 right angles to the plate. 
 
 When a marked deviation is detected, or 
 the holes are found to be too large, they 
 must be rebushed and uprighted again. 
 
 When, however, the error is but slight, the 
 axes may be set vertical by bending the 
 steady pins a little, in doing which proceed 
 as follows: 
 
 Set the bar in its place alone, the screw or 
 screws being a little unscrewed, and rest the 
 side of the bar opposite to that toward which 
 it is to be bent against a piece of brass held 
 in the vise, and strike the farther edge of the 
 plate one or two sharp blows with a small 
 wooden mallet. Experience alone can teach 
 the workman to proportion the blow so as to 
 obtain a given amount of deviation, and 
 must enable him to ascertain whether it is 
 desirable or not to pass a broach through 
 the steady-pin holes before operating as 
 above explained. Some discretion is essen¬ 
 tial in practicing the method. 
 
WATCH REPAIRING. 
 
 It is important that the center pivots pro¬ 
 ject beyond the holes in the plate and bar. 
 A circular recess is turned round the outer 
 end of each of these holes so as to form res¬ 
 ervoirs for oil. Owing to the neglect of 
 these simple precautions, which are so easy 
 to take, many watches, especially those that 
 are thin, come back for repairs with their 
 center pivots in a bad state, because the oil 
 could not be applied in sufficient quantity, 
 and has been drawn away by the cannon 
 pinion or the steel shield. 
 
 If the watch has a seconds-hand, ascer¬ 
 tain by means of the caliper that its wheel 
 is upright. Finally, examine each jewel to 
 see that it is neither cracked nor rough at 
 the edges of the hole. 
 
 THE BARREL: TO TAKE DOWN AND 
 REPAIR. 
 
 HE side spring, which must not be too 
 strong, should reach with certainty to 
 the bottom of the spaces between the teeth 
 of the ratchet, and this latter should be held 
 steadily in position by the cap. The barrel 
 may be made straight and true on its axis 
 by known methods, the arbor having been 
 previously put in order if required. It is a 
 good plan after making the extensive repairs 
 here spoken of to again test the barrel and 
 center pinion depth, either by touch or by 
 drilling a hole for observation. 
 
 The screw of the star wheel must not pro¬ 
 ject within the cover nor rub against the 
 dial; it must be reduced if either case pre¬ 
 sents itself. The action of the stop-work 
 must be well assured, especially when the 
 actual stop occurs. It is a good plan to, as 
 it were, “ round up ” the star wheel and fin¬ 
 ger piece, with an emery stick, supporting 
 them on arbors. There must be no possi¬ 
 bility of friction between the finger and the 
 bottom of the sink. 
 
 TO TEST THE STOP-WORK. 
 
 AKE up the winding square of an arbor, 
 with the barrel, etc., in position, in a 
 pair of sliding tongs or a Birch’s key; hold 
 the tongs between the last three fingers and 
 the palm of the left hand, the first finger 
 and thumb being applied to the circumfer¬ 
 ence of the barrel so as to rotate it, first 
 in one direction and then in the other. 
 During this movement, take a pegwood point 
 in the right hand, and try to turn the star 
 
 i r 
 
 wheel against the direction in which it would 
 be impelled by the finger. 
 
 WATCH REPAIRING. 
 
 ATCHMAKERS will continue to re¬ 
 pair the fourth pinion as long as it can 
 be repaired, says Mr. Ganney, although in 
 many cases it will not only be better but 
 quicker to replace it with a new one, and I 
 will briefly describe the method of working 
 in a new fourth pinion. 
 
 Having selected a pinion of the correct 
 size for the third wheel, and fixed to the 
 long arbor an old screw ferrule, cut a thin 
 boxwood slip to a thin edge, and with rather 
 sharp red-stuff and oil proceed to polish out 
 the leaves, resting the pinion on a hard cork 
 or piece of soft wood. The screw ferrule 
 on the arbor enables you to press the first 
 finger of the left hand against it, and thus 
 the pinion is held while polishing; the natu¬ 
 ral elasticity of the cork or wood allows the 
 pinion to give a little to the motion of the 
 polisher, thus keeping it flat. The leaves 
 having been polished out with wet red-stuff, 
 and finished with fine stuff or diamantine, 
 the truth of the leaves can be tested by run¬ 
 ning in the turns. (Should the centers of 
 pinion not be perfect, they must be made so 
 before trying it, by turning through a run¬ 
 ner.) Should the leaved portion or pinion 
 on trial prove out of truth, it must be cor¬ 
 rected in the following manner, at the same 
 time I may caution those wdrose experience 
 in the work is not great, that pinions are 
 occasionally met with which it is impossible 
 to get true, owing to one or two leaves be¬ 
 ing cut deeper than the rest from some fault 
 in the cutting engine; such should unhesi¬ 
 tatingly be rejected as useless. 
 
 If, while the pinion is in the turns, a piece 
 of soft lead-pencil is held on the rest so that 
 its point just touches the top of leaves, those 
 that are furthest from the corner will be 
 marked, thus forming a guide for the correc¬ 
 tion of the arbor. The marked side of the 
 arbor being placed downward , in contact 
 with either a soft steel or brass stake, the 
 upper or hollow side can be stretched by a 
 few light blows from the pane of a small 
 hammer; the blows should be distributed at 
 equal distances over the arbor, and, as these 
 pinions are usually rather soft, some care is 
 required not to overdo it. Having by this 
 means straightened the leaves to run true, 
 the arbors can be shortened to little more 
 
WATCH REPAIRING. 
 
 I 2 
 
 than the ultimate length of the pinion, and 
 the centers turned true. Previous to com¬ 
 mencing to work in the pinion, some little 
 alteration is necessary to the following 
 points: In some watches the banking, in¬ 
 
 stead of being against a steed in the cock, 
 is against the arbor of the fourth wheel; in 
 this case the diameter of the arbor is of im¬ 
 portance, as if too small and the watch caused 
 to back by external agitation, the pin would 
 jam against the arbor of the fourth wheel 
 and stop the watch. Again, in some calipers 
 of movements, the fourth pinion head comes 
 close to the plane of the balance, and in 
 some positions, if the pinion head is too 
 high, or from excess of end-shake the bank¬ 
 ing pin touches it, forming a cause of stop¬ 
 page rather difficult to detect sometimes. 
 
 The old pinion being removed from the 
 wheel, all the measurements can be taken 
 directly from it. The first thing will be to 
 turn down the leaves to form a seat for the 
 wheel, measuring the height from the pinion 
 face. Care must be taken in fitting a pinion 
 to an old wheel that the leaves fit into the 
 marks made by the old pinion, otherwise a 
 difficulty will be found in securing the wheel. 
 Having fitted the wheel, try its truth in round 
 in the turns, and, if untrue, shift its position 
 on the pinion until it runs quite true, then 
 mark the wheel and a leaf of pinion, so that 
 its position can be found again. You will 
 now shorten the leaves, leaving just sufficient 
 to rivet soundly. If too much is left to be 
 riveted the pinion face will be bulged and 
 split. If the leaves project the thickness of 
 a sheet of paper (10 millimeters), it will be 
 sufficient (if the wheel fits properly) and 
 should be but slightly undercut to insure a 
 sound rivet. You will now rivet on the 
 wheel, using a steel or bell-metal stake to 
 support the pinion, and a polished steel 
 punch of a size that fits just freely over the 
 arbor. A piece of tissue paper between the 
 face of pinion and stake will protect it dur¬ 
 ing the riveting, and if care is taken to shift 
 the wheel a little every blow, the wheel will 
 be secured true and flat. The face of rivets 
 can be turned flat and glossed and the hol¬ 
 low cut. 'The arbor should now be turned 
 to size, leaving a slight shoulder close to the 
 wheel to prevent the polisher coming in con¬ 
 tact with it. The arbor can now be pol¬ 
 ished, burnished and the position of .the up¬ 
 per pivot shoulder marked on it, measuring 
 from the pinion face with the tenth measure. 
 The pivot being turned down to within three 
 
 degrees of its proper size, the pinion can be 
 reversed in the centers and the seconds pivot 
 turned down, its position being fixed by 
 measuring from the upper pivot shoulder. 
 The pivots being smoothed with red-stuff are 
 burnished on the Jacot tool to size, leaving 
 only the rounding up and turning off the 
 extreme corners to complete the work. I 
 may remark that the size of hollow necessary 
 in the pinion face is regulated by the length 
 of shoulder there is. Where this is extremely 
 short, a hollow of considerable depth and 
 breadth is required; on the other hand, 
 where the shoulder is of considerable length, 
 a small hollow will suffice. 
 
 An excessive end-shake to a barrel will 
 of ten. cause considerable trouble in more than 
 one way, says British Hurologist; but with 
 the Geneva barrel we mostly notice the effect 
 by seeing where the center wheel has left its 
 marks by coming in contact with the- surface 
 of the barrel in some cases, while in other 
 cases the teeth of the barrel have been left 
 in such a rough state that freedom is impos¬ 
 sible. I think that every barrel ought to 
 have the top part of the teeth beveled off, 
 which would insure freedom in this part, 
 providing that the height of the center wheel 
 was above the flat surface of the barrel; but, 
 as it is, the barrel teeth are cut and the burr 
 is left in its rough state, hence so many foul- 
 ings of the center wheel, and all this would 
 be avoided if the barrel teeth were properly 
 beveled at the time of manufacture. 
 
 Of course, some of the better class of 
 watches are left correct in this respect, but, 
 for the sake of so little extra trouble, I think 
 the commonest watch might be done so, as 
 the job would not take a minute to put right, 
 but if it is left for the repairer to bevel off, in 
 order to free the center wheel after it has had 
 considerable chafing, it not only spoils the 
 appearance of the under side of the center 
 wheel, but the gilding is taken from the edge 
 of the barrel-teeth, therefore we have an un¬ 
 sightly piece of patchwork. I am aware 
 that the job may be done without spoiling 
 its appearance very much, if we are a little 
 careful in the shape of the bevel, and polish 
 the part that has been in contact with the 
 graver; but to do this we should not let the 
 graver go much beyond the bottom of the 
 teeth, only just enough to make sure of re¬ 
 moving all the burr, then it will look very 
 well with its polished edge. I have some¬ 
 times really made an improvement in the ap- 
 
WATCII REPAIRING. 
 
 1 3 
 
 pearance by this operation, for it does not 
 look first-class to see gilding done upon a 
 wheel that has such rough burr left after the 
 cutting engine. 
 
 Now, there are times when this beveling 
 off will not free the center wheel and barrel; 
 when this is the case we must look for other 
 cures; or, perhaps, I should rather say, we 
 should look for other causes. In most cases 
 the cause that is more frequently found than 
 any other is the end-shake of the barrel 
 arbor. There is more than one way to cor¬ 
 rect this. We will suppose the excessive 
 end-shake will allow the barrel to get too 
 high and foul with the center wheel when 
 the inside shoulder of the barrel is in contact 
 with the top shoulder of the barrel arbor; 
 yet we find that if we press the barrel down 
 so that the shoulder on the barrel lid is in 
 contact with the bottom shoulder of the ar¬ 
 bor, there is then sufficient freedom for the 
 center wheel. Some would cure this by 
 simply striking the center of barrel a sharp 
 blow on a large round-headed punch, which 
 would lessen the end-shake of the barrel ar¬ 
 bor, and most likely correct the fault. But 
 suppose this blow also puts the barrel out of 
 truth, and the workman will very likely have 
 produced a greater evil than before, and one 
 which is corrected with much greater diffi¬ 
 culty. It is better, therefore, to try some 
 other method sooner than run the risk of 
 ruining the barrel. Suppose we plant a small 
 collet upon the barrel arbor—in this case at 
 the top shoulder—this will have the required 
 effect. Of course, we must have the collet 
 a little smaller in diameter than the barrel 
 arbor, while the hole in the collet should be 
 only just large enough to fit on the shoulder ; 
 the thickness will vary according to the re¬ 
 quired amount in order to correct the end- 
 shake. I may say here that a barrel end- 
 shake should never be more than just free. 
 Just see the detrimental effects of, in some 
 cases, even the least amount of end-shake, 
 where the fusee and chain are used. I have 
 no doubt but that the most of my readers 
 have, at some time or other, had a little 
 trouble in this particular. With a very flat 
 fusee watch the least thing in end-shake, 
 either in the barrel or fusee, will cause the 
 chain to run out of the fusee grooves. We 
 then know what follows. Now, there are 
 many who try to remedy this defect by clos¬ 
 ing the holes in the plate, which is done in 
 many cases with a punch ; this simply means 
 that the next man who sees the job will be 
 
 liable to ask if there has been a blacksmith 
 at work. Yes, there are times when these 
 punches are used, when it is a shame to use 
 them. Why hammer and bruise a plate when 
 the job can be done without any such meth¬ 
 ods ? There is nothing that looks so bad to 
 a practical man as to see a plate smashed 
 about with a punch. It may be excusable 
 to use a punch to close a hole in an old 
 thirty-hour clock, but even in this it is doubt¬ 
 ful, in these days of bouchons. I have seen 
 watches and clocks hammered about in such 
 a style that we are inclined to ask if the man 
 had any conscience to smash plates about in 
 such a wanton manner. Then, again, it is 
 not only the look of the butchery; but just 
 see what kind of a surface the hole has for 
 the pivot to work in. Take, for instance, 
 the top hole of the fusee, it will always near 
 toward the barrel; hence, if the hole is closed, 
 it has to be done on the side nearest the 
 barrel, in order to bring the fusee upright to 
 its original position. But when it is punched 
 on this side, in all probability there is only 
 just one part of the hole in contact with the 
 fusee top pivot, and most likely this promi¬ 
 nent part will very soon become worn down 
 again, and the whole job- be just as bad as 
 before. In fact, in some respects, it is worse, 
 for now the plate has been made a trifle 
 thinner where it has been punched, in ad¬ 
 dition to the bad appearance. 
 
 Now, all this can be put right without any 
 such botching. If a top-plate hole has be¬ 
 come worn somewhat oblong, the proper 
 way to put it right is to put a new hole in 
 the place of the old ; and this is very readily 
 done, if we know the proper way of doing 
 it. First of all, we notice if the fusee is per¬ 
 fectly upright, when it is brought back to 
 the side farthest from the barrel. If this 
 is right while the fusee is held in this position, 
 we then know that the hole will have to be 
 filed with a round file, on the opposite side, 
 until it is as far from the central position as 
 the other side has been worn. If the hole is 
 opened with a broach before this filing is 
 done, the fusee will not be upright when the 
 job is finished, simply because the center is, 
 under such conditions, brought to the cen¬ 
 ter between the outside of the worn part 
 and the opposite side that has not been worn ; 
 and hence it is half as far out of its original 
 center as the amount the hole was worn. I 
 speak of this particular here, because I know 
 there are plenty who commence the job by 
 simply broaching the hole from its oblong 
 
WATCH REPAIRING. 
 
 14 
 
 shape to a round, regardless of the detrimen¬ 
 tal effect it will bring in its train; for they 
 often find that when they have the hole fin¬ 
 ished, it is just in such a position that the 
 square of the fusee is making its obeisance 
 to the barrel; and they wonder how that 
 could have happened, for they have been 
 particular in turning the hole upon a per¬ 
 fectly true turning arbor; but it seems that 
 they had overlooked the fact which I have 
 just commented upon. It is a well-known 
 fact that many, will do this job without ever 
 thinking about such an important item. But 
 I hope these remarks will help them to re¬ 
 member it in the future. 
 
 To resume, in this manner we get the hole 
 filed on this opposite side as nearly as pos¬ 
 sible to the same amount. Of course, if 
 the fusee has to be brought up a little more, 
 we then file this side more in proportion to 
 such requirements. There are times when 
 the teeth of the fusee wheel run too near to 
 the center wheel; this can now be altered by 
 using the file to open the hole a little in the 
 opposite direction to the center wheel. Af¬ 
 ter the filing has been done, we can then use 
 the opening broach, and make the hole per¬ 
 fectly round. We are then ready to turn up 
 the bouchon to fit. See that the turning ar¬ 
 bor is perfectly true. If there is room for 
 putting a deep hole, put it—that is, if the 
 fusee square has not been squared down to 
 the level of the top plate, leave the hole 
 standing up above the plate. When this is 
 done, the bouchon should be turned with a 
 very nice shoulder, so that it rests firmly 
 upon the top surface of the top plate. It 
 should also be turned to a true fit in the hole. 
 I should also sav that, in this case, the hole 
 should be opened with the broach from the 
 top side, so that the bouchon can be turned 
 to an exact fit. Before it is riveted in, the 
 under side of the hole should be chamfered 
 to receive the rivet. If we are particular in 
 getting the exact length for riveting over, 
 we may perhaps finish it all right without 
 having to use the mandrel in order to take 
 off the surplus brass so that the end-shake is 
 free. When we have made the hole secure, 
 we then have to be particular in opening the 
 hole to fit the fusee top pivot. If we let the 
 broach get out of upright, we shall give a very 
 queer shape to the hole, as it will not go 
 through the plate at right angles, hence the 
 sides of the hole will not touch the pivot all 
 along their entire length, so that the pivot 
 would be free when not in position, but as 
 
 soon as the bottom pivot is in its hole, the 
 top pivot binds; this is all avoided if we 
 keep the broach upright while getting to 
 size. When right, we simply chamfer the 
 top a little for the oil, and the job is com¬ 
 plete. If careful in riveting, it would take 
 a close examination to tell that the new hole 
 has been put in. _ 
 
 As a guide to the springer in selecting a 
 proper spring, says Mr. Ganney, in his excel¬ 
 lent series on repairing, the weight of the 
 balance is used. When new work is being 
 sprung, the springer associates certain sizes 
 and weights of balances with springs of a cer¬ 
 tain number and strength, but the repairer can 
 only gauge by lifting up the balance by the 
 eye of the new spring, and noting its elonga¬ 
 tion by the weight. Springs are now too cheap 
 to make as wanted, and the wire is not kept as 
 a material as formerly; but the old method 
 of making a spring, by drawing the wire into 
 a spiral with a point of a joint pusher, and 
 working the spring and pusher entirely with 
 the thumb and forefinger, is very useful in 
 setting the outer coils of old springs into 
 shape again. Springing tweezers are made 
 with the points concave and convex, so as to 
 close or open the turns of the spring, as may 
 be required; a spring blueing-tool is also 
 very useful, or an ordinary blueing-pan, with 
 the spring under a piece of glass, and a 
 weight on it to keep it flat, will do. After 
 blueing the spring, and letting it cool before 
 removal, it will come out quite flat; the other 
 operations connected with the spring, such 
 as making a new stud, and properly fitting 
 the index pins, are very simple and obvious, 
 yet in no point of the watch is so much 
 carelessness exhibited as in these ; being sim¬ 
 ple jobs, they are supposed to want, and, in¬ 
 deed, do get little alteration. 
 
 The hairspring collet often gives 'trouble, 
 owing to bad fitting, and want of freedom 
 of the cock and the scretv heads of index 
 piece. I usually put my watches in beat by 
 moving the collet with a fine screw-driver or 
 drill in the slot, without shifting the stud out 
 of the cock, resting the cock on the board 
 paper, and simply drawing the balance a 
 sufficient distance to get at the collet. I find 
 out of beat a greater source of stoppage 
 than anything else, and suppose the trouble 
 and danger attending frequent removal of 
 spring and balance the reason it is neglected, 
 and devised this plan to save trouble, and 
 insure accuracy of beat. With English 
 
WATCH REPAIRING. 
 
 1 5 
 
 sprung arbor watches it is a very much easier 
 plan, as a bar of the balance, when the cock 
 is removed, may be held by a stout pair of 
 tweezers to free the bottom hole, and the 
 alteration made at once by moving the col¬ 
 let. I earned a good fee in a minute or two 
 by this plan of putting a watch into perfect 
 beat, which the owner declared had never 
 gone a month without an occasional stop¬ 
 page, though he had had it in the hands of 
 all the best men he could find in London for 
 a number of years, who all said it was a first- 
 class made watch, but none had been able to 
 cure it. Thinking it useless to look for or¬ 
 dinary faults, as the watch seemed in per¬ 
 fect order, and all that a watch ought to be, 
 I simply wore it, as I took it on the no cure 
 no pay principle ; and when it stopped, going 
 on again before it could be opened, I no¬ 
 ticed that it had very low angle pallets and 
 rather strong lockings, and appeared very 
 slightly out of beat on the second or dis¬ 
 charging pallet. This was altered and it was 
 put slightly out of beat on the other pallet, 
 as the friction on the second pallet is that 
 which necessitates the oil, and is known as 
 engaging-friction, the surfaces opposing each 
 other as they engage in work. The watch 
 has given perfect satisfaction ever since, show¬ 
 ing the importance of slight errors, and that 
 one small error may be made to compensate 
 another. Watches being out of beat are not 
 very noticeable when fresh oiled and clean; 
 but as the dirt and difficulties accumulate, 
 the effect is very striking, and where escape¬ 
 ments are unequal, the spring may be shifted 
 to make the conditions more equal in per¬ 
 formance. 
 
 The condition of the jewels in Swiss work 
 is of some considerable importance, and if 
 the repairer aspires to be a good jeweler, 
 considerable practice with the lathe and 
 mandrel will be necessary. If it is only de¬ 
 sired to replace holes from a stock kept for 
 that purpose, the holes can generally be re¬ 
 placed without much trouble, raising the edge 
 of the setting at one side, or allow of the in¬ 
 sertion of the jewel, and securing it in posi¬ 
 tion by rubbing the setting well over the stone 
 with a well-burnished rounding-center in a 
 handle; a strong and fine pointed arbor will 
 do to raise the edge for the insertion of the 
 stone. Where a setting is too badly injured 
 to hold a stone properly, an English hole 
 with brass setting may be fitted in a chamfer, 
 or soldered in ; loose jewels may always be 
 tightened with a rounding-arbor or center, 
 
 and should always be tried for tightness, as 
 troublesome variations of depth and freedoms 
 are caused, which often escape observation. 
 
 To make a cock to the escape wheel— 
 often on account of its being very much 
 turned to free the teeth, it is liable to acci¬ 
 dents—it is first desirable to get a sound slip 
 of brass well hammered. Having drilled the 
 screw hole and filed it to the proper shape, 
 it must be firmly screwed down, and the 
 steady-pin holes drilled through; the drill 
 fitting the hole in the plate easily, the open¬ 
 ing of the holes in cock and plate must be 
 carefully done, and the steady-pins well 
 fitted, or the cock is useless. The top pivot 
 hole must now be made in the mandrel or 
 uprighting tool; then an old upper plate 
 should have some shellac melted on it, and 
 placed in the mandrel; the flame of a spirit 
 lamp, or other heat, applied, the cock is 
 placed on it, and centered from the pivot 
 hole; the slide-rest cutter is then used to 
 turn the inside of the cock perfectly flat, and 
 the slot, to free the wheel teeth, is cut a 
 sufficient depth. When removed, the next 
 thing will be to make the wheel the right 
 height by filing away the superfluous brass, 
 then to free the cock of the balance, and try 
 the escapement, and send it for jeweling. If 
 desired, the jeweler will do all the turning 
 and mandrel work. If finished off with 
 water-of-Ayre stone or buff, the cock will be 
 more durable than when gilt. If not con¬ 
 venient to bend the cock, the holes should be 
 plugged with a fine wire, and a hole made 
 the same as a verge hole, with a fine drill 
 and a bottoming broach, with end well bur¬ 
 nished. This kind of hole will give better 
 results than a common jewel hole, if prop¬ 
 erly made, and is in use in all the original 
 escapements of the inventor of the horizon¬ 
 tal (cylinder) escapement, George Graham. 
 A good inside chamfer must be made to hold 
 the oil; this kind of hole will also do good 
 service for the balance holes, and is prefer¬ 
 able to making shift with any cracked or bad 
 jewel hole, if the points are well rounded 
 and burnished. 
 
 It is much to be regretted that watch 
 jewelers do not contribute more to the litera¬ 
 ture of the art. There is a good opportunity 
 for any enterprising young jeweler to gain 
 fame and business by descanting on the va¬ 
 rious qualities, and means of judging the 
 quality and value of jewel holes, and show¬ 
 ing in what way value is imparted, so that 
 those who want to patronize this art may do 
 
i6 
 
 TOOLS USED IN REPAIRING. 
 
 so without discrimination. To most watch¬ 
 makers, one jewel hole is much the same as 
 another, unless it is cracked, and yet there 
 is as much difference in watch jeweling as 
 watch pivoting; the one, in fact, being a 
 counterpart of the other. There seems to be 
 some secret understanding among watch 
 jewelers not to impart information, as appli¬ 
 cations for information by means of contri¬ 
 butions to literature, have been refused, on 
 the ground of injuring the interests of that 
 branch. Saunier’s valuable work, though 
 very copious and full on all other subjects, 
 gives very little information on the subject; 
 or is it that very little can be said of cutting 
 one stone with the dust of a harder one f 
 The stone-mason rubbing marble ifcto shape 
 with sand and water illustrates the primitive 
 idea; the ruby-hole maker, cutting his hole 
 with the next hardest substance, diamond and 
 diamond dust, shows the other extreme of 
 the same process. 
 
 TOOLS USED IN REPAIRING. 
 
 PEAKING of centers, another center 
 made of brass is called the rounding-up 
 center, and used for making pivots right 
 lengths and rounding on burnishing them. 
 It is simply a number of holes round a brass 
 center, which has been filed sufficiently thin 
 to allow the finest and shortest pivots to 
 protrude ; the holes must be of various de¬ 
 grees of fineness, and no more pivot allowed 
 through than necessary, as the file or bur¬ 
 nisher will break them off. Usually, the 
 pinions to common Swiss works are very 
 soft; this, though greatly facilitating their 
 turning, when the work is large, becomes a 
 troublesome quality as it gets fine ; and it 
 may be asserted that a fine pivot cannot be 
 made from soft steel, as it will not stand the 
 necessary pressure to turn or polish it to any 
 degree of fineness, and no amount of finish 
 can be displayed on soft steel, as it will not 
 polish to advantage. In putting in a new 
 third pinion, it is necessary to undercut the 
 shoulder and leave a hollow in the pinion, 
 or the oil may work into the leaves of the 
 pinion and center-wheel teeth; before the 
 wheel is riveted to the pinion, the balance 
 should be put in to see if it is free, as in 
 some calipers the circle intersects. The 
 undercutting of the fourth pinion at the bot¬ 
 tom pivot is also necessary to keep the oil in 
 the sink, and the pinion left no higher than 
 the third wheel requires, or it may foul the 
 
 balance or banking-pin; in polishing the 
 second, the best pivoters usually polish it 
 like any other arbor, but if nervous or heavy- 
 handed, a special brass center with half of 
 its diameter filed away, and a convenient slit 
 for the pivot to rest nearly all its length in 
 may be used, but I do not recommend it, 
 as a careless slip will destroy the pivot, which 
 otherwise in the turns would have a certain 
 amount of elasticity. The resting of the lit¬ 
 tle finger on a convenient part of the turns, 
 and letting it move with the polisher, is an 
 item in polishing pivots, the finger being 
 used to regulate the pressure of the arm and 
 hand; the most troublesome pinion to pivot 
 is the Geneva scape pinion, owing to its hav¬ 
 ing no arbor. If a very thin and small brass 
 ferrule is used, well chamfered to allow all 
 parts of the pinion at its shortest to be * 
 turned, it may be opened to fit the pinion 
 tightly, and the pinion driven in will hold 
 sufficiently to pivot, or it may be fitted 
 loosely, and shellac used to secure it to the 
 ferrule. The value of good, pointed centers 
 will be proved in pivoting this pinion, as it 
 cannot possibly be done without them. The 
 rivet should be well undercut and fitted to 
 the wheel, or the riveting will raise a bun- 
 in the pinion where it acts in the fourth 
 wheel; a few light blows must complete this 
 riveting. 
 
 Good bows being necessary complements 
 to good turns, the watch repairer' cannot 
 dispense with less than four, varying in 
 length from 12 to 24 inches, and in strength 
 from that sufficient only to make a balance 
 pivot, with horse or human hair, without 
 slipping on the ferrule when turning with a 
 fine, pointed graver; and the others increas¬ 
 ing in strength to what is required in turning 
 barrel arbors, stoppings, and the larger drill¬ 
 ing operations in watchwork; for the ordi¬ 
 nary, every-day watch pivots and shoulders 
 are sufficiently well finished with a cutting 
 burnisher, one side of which is rubbed on a 
 board or strip of lead charged with emery, 
 as a few rubs on the small stone used by 
 shoemakers to whet their knives for leather 
 cutting is a handy substitute, and gives the 
 requisite cutting power, and then a few rubs 
 with burnisher, polished on a well-used bur- 
 nishing-board, on which smooth emery has 
 been distributed, will give a perfectly smooth 
 and black pivot. The best English pivoters 
 finish their pivots with the smooth burnisher 
 in this way to harden them, though they 
 have been previously highly polished with 
 
TOOLS USED IN REPAIRING. 
 
 *7 
 
 a soft steel polisher, which leaves the 
 shoulder perfectly square and well polished. 
 Using bell-metal polishers to finish, though 
 putting on a higher gloss, destroys the 
 squareness of the shoulder; the shoulders 
 are protected from injury whilst burnishing 
 the pivot by a small tissue-paper collet on 
 the pivot, or by polishing the edge of the 
 burnisher with a bell-metal polisher, and 
 burnishing the pivot by moving the burnisher 
 down (not up) the pivot as it revolves. 
 Arbors are burnished in the same way, left 
 from the steel polisher, and not too fine red- 
 stuff in preference to more highly polishing 
 bell-metal, as a square shoulder on the arbor 
 is a sine qua non in good pivoting, and a too 
 highly polished arbor will not burnish, but 
 rubs brown or foxy under the burnisher; 
 facing and rivet tools are simply pieces of 
 iron wire, a tin tack, or an old nail with a 
 hole in it, in which the arbor fits loosely, and 
 these being filed and charged with polishing 
 crocus, the pinion is revolved against them 
 with a very weak bow, until the requisite 
 finish is attained; the finest finish on faces 
 is got from a tool made from a horse-shoe 
 nail, the iron being a particular Swedish 
 quality, and the hammering it receives in 
 wear imparting qualities that cause the 
 pivoter who finds one to prize it like a 
 diamond; otherwise, a bell-metal tool to 
 finish the face is necessary, but only to give 
 a few finishing rubs, as it soon loses the flat¬ 
 ness imparted by the file, and makes the 
 face or rivet rounding ; a very careful stroke 
 of the bow is necessary, as only a back cen¬ 
 ter is used, and the tool itself held in the 
 hand forming the other center for the pinion 
 to revolve in. The pressure of the hand is 
 carefully regulated to insure a light and 
 equal pressure ; the progress of the face may 
 be known by the noise the pinion makes; 
 as it works the polishing stuff dry, it begins 
 to sing or squeak, and this is the signal for 
 ceasing operations. If all the parts of the 
 face are well polished and the extreme edges 
 as bright as the rest, it will do ; if not, the 
 tool must be refiled and fresh stuff applied, 
 and the operation patiently repeated. More 
 patience in this job is required than any 
 other in watchwork, and though apparently 
 most simple, and we may add the most 
 unnecessary in watchwork, there are few 
 who excel at it. The polishing of a square 
 shoulder and pivot being a work of celerity, 
 firmness, and skill, those who do the one 
 often fail at the other, as shown by escape¬ 
 
 ment makers, who make good pivots and 
 bad faces to their one pinion, while the fin¬ 
 isher as often as not produces better faces 
 than pivots to his pinions. The repairer 
 may emulate either or neither, but he ought 
 to endeavor to replace old. pieces with equally 
 good, or consign the job to those who can. 
 In large towns, he will not gain or lose much 
 honor either way, his business being to get 
 satisfactory performance from the watch, as 
 a whole; but in putting in pieces to jobs, 
 there are certain little numberless details 
 that give success in action, and only the one 
 who is responsible for the performance of 
 the watch seems able to appreciate or de¬ 
 velop them. This is why cheap, subdivided 
 watchwork is a failure. 
 
 It happens sometimes that the cylinder 
 pivots are bent, continues our author, an 
 event which is of frequent occurrence, m the 
 remedying of which some workmen have 
 recourse to a pair of smooth plyers, made 
 just hot enough to turn the color of the pivot 
 to be straightened to a blue ; but in this class 
 of work, it is rare to meet with a pivot so 
 hard as to require this treatment. It will 
 generally be sufficient, after filling the body 
 of the cylinder with shellac, and at the same 
 time fixing either a bone or brass ferrule, to 
 use a bell-metal polisher on the Jacot tool, 
 taking care to select a notch slightly larger 
 than the pivot, which you have previously 
 measured with the gauge that accompanies 
 the tool for that purpose. You will then 
 use a smaller notch, finishing with a bur¬ 
 nisher expressly made for this tool, and sharp¬ 
 ened No. i emery stone, or emery of similar 
 coarseness on zinc or lead block ; the latter 
 being the better material, the most conven¬ 
 ient size being a square block about seven 
 inches long and one and one-quarter inches 
 wide, got up true on each of its four sides. 
 The burnisher should be put in a Swiss 
 handle, similar to a pen-holder and nearly 
 as long, fastened in with shellac or sealing- 
 wax ; it can thus be set perfectly straight 
 with the handle. In sharpening, the block 
 should rest against the front of the work- 
 board, pointing from you, and plentifully 
 supplied with emery and oil, mixed not too 
 thickly ; the handle held lightly in the right 
 hand, and the first finger of the left applied 
 on the top of the burnisher, the stroke should 
 be from point to heel, lifting it from the 
 block for the return stroke. For reducing 
 
i8 
 
 PIVOTING A CYLINDER. 
 
 a pivot, the burnisher should be cut on a 
 No. 2 stone or emery of a similar grade. 
 
 Should a pivot be broken in this process, 
 a new plug will be necessary; the removal 
 of the old plug should be done by means of 
 a punch, of a knee shape, resting the shell 
 of the cylinder on a brass stake for that 
 purpose; the stake should have a slight 
 recess turned in it, just large enough to 
 admit the cylinder, and the hole sufficiently 
 large to admit the plug when driven out; a 
 slight tap with a light hammer will remove 
 the plug, and a new one should be turned 
 from a piece of staff steel, which has been 
 previously hardened and tempered, let down 
 to a full blue color. The part which enters 
 the cylinder should be perfectly parallel, not 
 tapered, or the shell would probably be 
 burst in putting it in ; if you have a microm¬ 
 eter to measure it with, it is a simple mat¬ 
 ter. Having fitted the plug to the shell (it 
 should enter about one-third of the distance 
 it has to go), the center has to be cut off 
 and the head made flat and polished; this 
 can be done in the screw-head or balance 
 tool; the portion which is to form the new 
 pivot and arbor you will roughly shape be¬ 
 fore cutting off. _ 
 
 PIVOTING A CYLINDER. 
 
 H E plug has now to be fixed in position in 
 the cylinder ; some workmen use a punch 
 similar to the one used to remove the plug, 
 only flat on the face, resting the shell of the 
 cylinder on the punch, and tapping the plug 
 in with the hammer; others press the plug 
 in with the extreme end of a thin, flat bur¬ 
 nisher, holding the plug in a vise or a stake 
 for that purpose, the latter in my opinion 
 being the preferable plan. The plug has 
 now to be centered; you will use for this 
 purpose a steel runner similar to the one 
 used for rounding up the end of a pivot, but 
 with larger holes; these should be loosely 
 chamfered out, hardened and polished; the 
 extreme end of the cylinder will work in one 
 of these holes, which should be plentifully 
 supplied with oil. The top pivot being pro¬ 
 tected by running in a brass runner, having 
 a hole sufficiently large to admit the pivot 
 freely, the shoulder taking the thrust, you 
 can thus turn the extreme end of the plug 
 true with the body of the cylinder. Having 
 centered the plug, it only remains to turn 
 the hollow and pivot, leaving the latter three 
 degrees larger than it will ultimately be re¬ 
 quired, burnishing it down this amount first 
 
 with the rough and then with the fine bur¬ 
 nisher. 
 
 If the upper pivot is the one broken, it 
 will sometimes be possible with a high cylin¬ 
 der to do without a new plug, by knocking 
 out the old one sufficiently to allow you to 
 turn another pivot on it; at the same time, 
 this is not so good as replacing the plug with 
 a new one, as the plug has a tendency to 
 draw oil away from the wheel teeth. It 
 will not be necessary to describe the method 
 of replacing the upper plug, as it is nearly 
 similar to the lower. 
 
 There is yet another way of replacing a 
 pivot that is broken, viz.: by drilling through 
 the old plug and inserting a piece of steel 
 somewhat larger than the shoulder of the old. 
 The centering runner described when speak¬ 
 ing of the new plug must be used, and a re¬ 
 cess turned in the plug sufficiently deep to 
 start the drill truly. Of course, before doing 
 this, the cylinder is to be filled with shellac 
 or sealing-wax, to enable it to stand the 
 pressure. Having turned the hollow suf¬ 
 ficiently deep to bury the angle of the drill, 
 the centering runner is to be removed and 
 replaced with one having a hole in it to take 
 a drill, which, for this purpose, should be 
 strong and short, and not relieved much be¬ 
 hind the cutting part. If ground to cut only 
 one way, and tapered in thickness to the 
 point, it will work quickly and well. Al¬ 
 though the plugs of Swiss cylinders are not 
 very hard, it is not well to use oil to the drill; 
 spirits of turpentine is the best lubricator for 
 this purpose. The pressure on the drill 
 which, when cutting, will be considerable, 
 should be relieved at the return stroke of the 
 bow; if the drill is sufficiently hard and not 
 driven too rapidly, the drilling will proceed 
 pleasantly. Having drilled the plug through, 
 you will insert a piece of steel, previously 
 hardened, tempered, and polished down to 
 size, and not too taper, or a piece of a cut- 
 ting-pivot broach may be blued and inserted. 
 Previous to inserting you will round up and 
 burnish the end nicely, and any burr thrown 
 up on the plug by the drill must be removed 
 by a steel polisher and red-stuff, resting it on 
 cork, while doing so, to keep it flat. 
 
 The new piece can be tapped in with a 
 light hammer; while resting the shell on a 
 punch replace the shellac in the cylinder, 
 and with the centering runner turn the 
 extreme end of plug to a center. You can 
 now proceed as described in making a new 
 plug. 
 
PIVOTING A CYLINDER. 
 
 l 9 
 
 To repair a broken Swiss balance staff, 
 the repairer may procure a rough one from 
 the material warehouse, or make one by driv¬ 
 ing a piece of steel wire into a brass collet or 
 stopping, hardening it by heating it to a 
 cherry red, and plunging it into oil or water; 
 then it must be tempered by brightening a 
 portion with Arkansas stone, or otherwise, 
 and, being held near a flame, let down to a 
 full blue; in this condition the center must 
 be filed in the pin vise, the arbor turned true, 
 and the brass collet turned an approximate 
 size. All parts of the arbor and collet must 
 be forwarded in equal ratios, or it will come 
 to grief if one pivot is turned nearly right 
 size before the other arbor and back hollow 
 has been turned sufficiently small. The 
 douzieme and pinion gauges should be freely 
 used on the broken staff, and if both pivots 
 are broken, and the staff otherwise a good 
 one, the broken staff will be a good guide 
 for the new, and show where the shoulder 
 must be for each pivot. The douzieme ap¬ 
 plied outside of cock and foot jewels in the 
 plate, with end-stones removed, will give the 
 length of arbor and pivots, one division of 
 the douzieme being allowed for end-shake. 
 The arbor should be turned as short as con¬ 
 venient, as long arbors, besides giving un¬ 
 necessary trouble in turning, are apt to get 
 bent in polishing. When the arbor has been 
 turned small enough, the roller must be care¬ 
 fully fitted in the process of polishing with 
 cutting crocus, and the arbor must be only 
 slightly tapered, as Swiss rollers have no pipe 
 like the English; they must be driven on 
 when fitted with a brass hollow punch, the 
 right distance, the last thing, when trying 
 the escapement; if too tight, they will be 
 difficult to get on or off, and if at all loose, 
 will not hold. Taking them off is not con¬ 
 templated in the ordinary routine, and the 
 riveting clams and a punch over the pivot 
 must be used to remove them. A very con¬ 
 venient stake is made by using a piece of 
 metal with a hole large enough for the roller 
 to go through; a slot is cut from this hole 
 some distance to allow the arbor to pass 
 along it, and the roller is thus supported all 
 over at the back, and allows of force being 
 used to remove it. This tool is very useful, 
 also, for putting on the hairspring collet, as 
 the roller can be passed underneath, allowing 
 the seat for the balance to rest on the outer 
 face, and saves injuring the roller, which 
 must occur if the roller itself is in contact 
 with a stake. 
 
 Having finished the arbor, and roughly 
 formed the part for the bottom pivot, and 
 what is called a safe, that is, turning the 
 arbor nearly through below the pivot, so 
 that in case of a slip or catch it may break 
 there, we finish the collet, and fit the balance 
 and hairspring collet. The height from bot¬ 
 tom of brass collet to top pivot must be care¬ 
 fully noted by gauging or actual juxtaposition 
 of the old and new piece, as the eye is apt 
 to be deceived; and leaving the rivet rather 
 high and the collet a little too long, the in¬ 
 experienced will be surprised to find that the 
 pivot and shoulder which appeared all right 
 is just a pivot and shoulder too high, and 
 the pleasure of turning or breaking a new 
 pivot and shoulder out of the rough braes 
 and steel will show the error he has made. 
 The excellent practice of undercutting rivets 
 and shoulders makes them appear as long 
 again as they are, and a good graver and 
 skill in using it are the sure roads to success 
 at this job, the pivots being turned nearly 
 right size and shape with a sharp-pointed 
 graver. Then a cutting burnisher made from 
 a piece of polished steel, hardened when 
 made, with a rounded edge to form the con¬ 
 ical shoulder; this, when sharpened on rough 
 emery sticks to cut, and fine emery to bur¬ 
 nish, will do all that is required for a perfect 
 job in the ordinary turns. If not capable 
 of turning anything finer than an arbor, the 
 Jacot tool and pivot files may be used, and 
 a nick being cut where the pivots are to be, 
 by shifting the arbor from the large to the 
 small nicks in the tool as it is reduced, a 
 pivot may be worried out of the arbor with 
 the pivot file, which will only be good enough 
 for the commonest work. The pivots should 
 be left full long and rounded the least thing 
 after the balance is riveted, so that a chance 
 is given of improving the freedom of the bal¬ 
 ance by making the end-shake and height 
 right by shortening top or bottom pivot, as 
 may be most desirable. The riveting should 
 be done by a half-round punch, with the 
 back whetted to a sharp edge nearly. This 
 will go into the rivet and drive it down as 
 well as out. A blow at four different parts, 
 of the rivet should tighten it flat and true, 
 and then the hammer applied lightly to the- 
 punch, whilst the balance is continually 
 moved with the finger, would finish it. If 
 not flat, the rivet must be hammered at the 
 part where the balance projects. If there 
 are three arms to the balance, it may need 
 flattening by striking them with a light ham- 
 
20 
 
 DUST PIPES. 
 
 mer, or the pliers may be used with advan¬ 
 tage ; resting the point of the pliers near the 
 center of the balance on the arm, and using 
 the edge of the balance as a fulcrum; or the 
 balance may be held in the fingers and 
 pressed against the edge of the workbench 
 to flatten it. A combination of these plans 
 is sometimes necessary. 
 
 Escapement makers usually rub and bur¬ 
 nish their balances on the staff before turning 
 the pivots, by holding a pointed center 
 against the rivet whilst revolving in the turns ; 
 but repairers will find this not so convenient 
 or safe as the other plan of riveting, which 
 must be adopted in the replacing of cylinders, 
 and they will not get enough practice at 
 both to be very reliable at either. 
 
 Most of the directions given for the bal¬ 
 ance staff are applicable to the pallet staff, 
 though it differs from it, being secured to the 
 lever and pallet by screwing. Working 
 usually in thorough jewel holes will require 
 a square-edged polisher and burnisher to 
 finish the pivots. The arbor has usually a 
 very thick bottom arbor or shoulder, which 
 is held in the pliers when it is desired to un¬ 
 screw the pallets and lever. 
 
 In making a new staff, a piece of steel 
 wire may be turned whilst it is soft, and the 
 screw made on it by using the lever itself as 
 the screw plate; when a good thread has 
 been formed on the arbor it should be hard¬ 
 ened and tempered, and the height from the 
 shoulder, on which the pallet rests, carefully 
 gauged, and the bottom pivot made and 
 finished. The action of the wheel on the 
 pallets should now be observed by screwing 
 lever and pallets together, and putting them 
 in, and holding the arbor as upright as pos¬ 
 sible ; or putting the escape cock lightly on 
 in contact with the top arbor. If the posi¬ 
 tion appears right, the height should be 
 gauged from the old arbor, or by filing a 
 piece of brass wire until it fits between top 
 and bottom holes, and gauging that for the 
 height. Internal gauges may be bought, 
 which are very useful for this purpose. 
 
 When the pivot is finished, the escapement 
 should be tried first without the balance. 
 On moving the lever and pallets the tooth 
 should have an equal amount of drop on to 
 each pallet; this will prove the correct sizing 
 and depth of the wheel and pallets, and an 
 equal amount of run of the pallet after the 
 tooth drops, before the lever comes against 
 the banking which limits its motion. If 
 there is much run on one pallet the other 
 
 may not leave the tooth at all, or only just 
 as the lever comes to the rest; this shows it 
 out of angle ; and if the steady pins are tight 
 in pallet and lever the hole must be opened, 
 or the pin filed or bent to allow it to be 
 shifted on the lever, so that the pallet may 
 leave the tooth before the lever has traveled 
 the full distance. If both pallets refuse to 
 leave the teeth, it would show that the bank¬ 
 ings are not wide enough ; but if the watch 
 has ever gone, the fact proves the bankings 
 to be wide enough; and the inability to 
 leave one pallet is the same effect as in¬ 
 ability to leave both, and all alterations 
 which make one pallet deep make the other 
 shallow in the same ratio. Common levers 
 have considerable drop, and run up the pal¬ 
 let as well as variable draw or retentive 
 action of the wheel on the pallet. Fine 
 watches allow of these actions being very 
 close if the wheel drops at equal distance of 
 the lever’s motion, and allows a little more 
 motion of the lever before it comes to the 
 banking ; and then the ruby pin leaves freely 
 and the guard action has a little shake be¬ 
 tween the banking and roller edge, without 
 danger of sticking in the roller or allowing 
 the wheel teeth to get off the locking face 
 on to the impulse plane, until being pulled 
 off by the action of the ruby pin, the escape¬ 
 ment being free may be considered correct. 
 
 MOUNTING THE DIAL. 
 
 HE pin holes in the dial feet should be 
 drilled with a very small drill, in such a 
 direction that the pins will not come in the 
 way of anything and will be easily gotten at; 
 they should not be drilled below the surface 
 of the plate, but broached until the pin 
 touches it. If the hole should be a little 
 below the surface it is better to lengthen the 
 copper foot by squeezing it with a pair of 
 blunt nippers until it is above the plate, than 
 to leave it in such a position that no pin can 
 stop it. _ 
 
 DUST PIPES. 
 
 UST pipes are indispensable in a key¬ 
 winding watch, and when properly 
 screwed on the plate and fitted to the case 
 are expensive. This part of the watch is fre¬ 
 quently treated with utter disregard, and we 
 recently saw a very bad case of dust pipe of 
 the set-hand square of a three-quarter plate 
 watch. It was so constructed that if it was 
 made to touch the case, it would press upon 
 
TO PUT A JEWEL PIN INTO AN AMERICAN WATCH. 
 
 21 
 
 the center pinion and stop the watch or make 
 it go irregularly; to avoid this, the center 
 parts are left with sufficient end-shake to de¬ 
 feat the purpose for which it is designed. A 
 solid top offers advantages in respect to 
 dust, and perfects the key-winding watch to 
 an important degree. 
 
 THE BARREL ARBOR. 
 
 F the pivots of the barrel arbor are of the 
 
 proper shape (which they generally now are 
 in the best movements, and certainly ought 
 to be), the pivots and holes will only require 
 smoothing, and the barrel freeing on the 
 arbor. Instead of adopting the usual course 
 of turning away the bosses in the barrel and 
 cover to reduce the rubbing surfaces, a deep 
 hollow should be turned and a shoulder 
 formed on each side of the arbor of a suf¬ 
 ficient width, and the bosses should be left 
 on the brass as large as possible. It has 
 not been the practice to snail barrel arbors 
 of fusee watches, as there was no trouble 
 with the adjustment of the mainspring, 
 English springs being tapered and generally 
 filed thin at the eye, but the arbor should be 
 snailed (and they probably will be now by 
 the movement makers), and the hook should 
 not project beyond the thickness of the 
 spring. 
 
 SHAPE OF RUBY PINS. 
 
 CYLINDRICAL ruby pin cannot enter 
 the notch so deep as it should, and the 
 driving side of the notch will work very mi¬ 
 nutely toward the front part of the pin, and at 
 the wheel’s drop the off side of the notch will 
 be some distance from the side of the pin ; this 
 vacuity between the notch and the pin is a 
 loss of arc to the roller on each side of the 
 discharge, and also causes some small portion 
 of the lever’s arc to be non-effectual imme¬ 
 diately after unlocking, for directly after un¬ 
 locking, the lever will drop across the vacant 
 space, which is perhaps i° of the lever’s arc 
 on each side. This loss of arc by notch and 
 pin often misleads persons in the arc of the 
 pallet from drop to drop. When the arc of 
 the balance, from drop to drop, is about 30 0 , 
 and the roller, from staff to pin, is about one- 
 third length of the lever, the arc of the pal¬ 
 lets is supposed to be io°—they are more 
 than io°, generally 12 0 —the depths make a 
 greater arc in unlocking than watchmakers 
 are aware of. 
 
 THE PALLETS AND THEIR FUNC¬ 
 TIONS. 
 
 ACH of the two pallets is shaped for the 
 double purpose of impulse and locking; 
 by turning the escape wheel forward, a tooth 
 of the wheel passes over one of the impulse 
 planes, and thereby turns the pallets and 
 lever together through a small arc of perhaps 
 9 0 ; and as the roller and balance are linked 
 to the lever by the pin and notch, the bal¬ 
 ance also is simultaneously turned through 
 an arc, the balance’s arc always being much 
 greater than the lever’s arc, according to the 
 ratio existing between the radii and the small 
 roller and long lever. At the extreme end 
 of the pallet plane the impulse action ceases, 
 and another tooth of the escape wheel drops 
 on to one of the opposite lockings, stopping 
 all the machinery of the watch except the 
 balance and roller, for at the instant of the 
 escape wheel’s drop the Boiler jewel pin 
 passes out of, or away from, the open notch 
 of the lever, and the balance and roller re¬ 
 volve by themselves, perfectly detached from 
 the rest of the mechanism of the watch. 
 
 TO PUT A JEWEL PIN INTO AN 
 AMERICAN WATCH. 
 
 N putting in a jewel pin, the repairer 
 should always remove the lever from the 
 movement, so as to get at the exact size of 
 the fork, selecting a jewel pin which has only 
 sufficient side-shake to be safe. To set a 
 jewel pin, remove the hairspring and fill the 
 hole where the jewel pin goes with cement 
 drawn out into filaments about the size of a 
 large bristle. Some little skill is required to 
 do this expeditiously. The cement is made 
 by mixing a little gum myrrh with the best 
 shellac, and melting both together at the 
 lowest temperature in which they will thor¬ 
 oughly unite. While the mass is warm, it is 
 drawn out into threads of near the size of 
 the hole in the roller. Take the balance 
 (with the hairspring removed) in a pair of 
 tweezers and move it back and forth through 
 the blaze of your alcohol lamp, until hot 
 enough to melt the cement when you touch 
 the jewel pole with one of the filaments, and 
 it will instantly be filled with cement; ora 
 small piece of one of the cement threads can 
 be broken off and inserted in the hole and 
 melted. At any rate no great surplus of 
 cement should be used, as it not only makes 
 a smeary unworkmanlike job, but it is liable 
 
22 
 
 TO HOOK IN-THE MAINSPRING. 
 
 to get into the passing hollow and interfere 
 with the guard-pin. 
 
 After the hole is filled, and while the roller 
 is hot, insert the jewel pin with an extra pair 
 of tweezers, being sure to keep the flat side of 
 the jewel pin to the front and keeping the 
 t jewel pin upright. It need not perhaps be 
 said, do not heat your balance as to change 
 its color or burn the cement. In setting 
 pallet stones, the same kind of cement is 
 used. Some persons use shellac dissolved in 
 alcohol; this cannot be recommended, as it 
 leaves the cement or shellac porous from the 
 bubbles formed by the alcohol when being 
 driven off by heat. 
 
 In order to get at the proper angle and 
 position of a pallet stone, the fork should be 
 put in the watch and the banking screws 
 turned so that the guard pin will just touch 
 the roller; the balance should now be put in 
 without the balaftce spring, and revolved to 
 see if it enters the fork properly, bending 
 the guard pin, if necessary, until this result 
 is obtained. With the fork and roller action 
 in this condition, the tooth should just reach 
 the locking face of the pallet engaged. If 
 we now remove the pallets and insert our 
 pallet stone to be set, placing it as near in 
 the correct position as we can judge, trying 
 it with the scape wheel to see if it is too 
 dose outside or inside. Next place it in the 
 watch and see if a tooth resting against it 
 (the new jewel) just rests on the locking face. 
 Now open the bankings until the tooth will 
 escape, and it should be all right if the direc¬ 
 tions have been complied with. If, on the 
 other hand, the pallet is in too far, the pallet 
 should be removed and heated and the stone 
 pushed back, trying it again with the scape 
 wheel to see if the teeth pass readily between 
 the pallets inside and outside. 
 
 To make the instructions still more ex¬ 
 plicit, we will recapitulate. If the guard pin 
 rests against the roller and the other parts 
 of the escapement are all right, the following 
 conditions will exist: 
 
 The jewel pin will enter the fork freely, 
 and the fork will pass over against the op¬ 
 posite banking pin, where it will rest, but as 
 both banking pins are too close, the tooth 
 which just touched on the locking face can¬ 
 not escape, for the just mentioned reason, and 
 they hold the guard pin against the roller. 
 But remember the guard pin is in just the 
 right place when, if pressed against the roller, 
 it will barely permit the jewel pin to enter 
 the fork, and the pallet is in just the right 
 
 position (as far as locking is concerned) if 
 the guard pin resting against the roller and 
 the tooth engaging the pallet, is as near leav¬ 
 ing the locking face of the pallet as it can, 
 and not do so. But if on opening the bank¬ 
 ings so as to remove the guard pin free of the 
 roller, the pallets will escape, and only a 
 good, fine secure lock is obtained, we may 
 feel sure that the pallet stone is properly set. 
 
 The Swiss club-tooth escapement is not so 
 easily managed, as they are frequently, espe¬ 
 cially in the cheaper grades of movements, 
 faulty, both in the pallets and in the teeth. 
 
 TO HOOK IN THE MAINSPRING. 
 
 ANY springs are broken owing to the 
 hook in the barrel arbor being too long ; 
 therefore, this is an important item to be ex¬ 
 amined by the operator, if he knows that 
 springs in a certain watch are liable to fre¬ 
 quent breakage. Some of the closely made 
 English watches in which a small barrel is 
 used, frequently get their springs broken be¬ 
 cause the arbor hook stands out too promi¬ 
 nent. This hook should never be left longer 
 than the thickness of a coil of the spring; this 
 is quite sufficient to hold firmly, provided 
 the hole in the spring is properly chamfered. 
 The hole made in this end of the spring 
 should be sufficiently large to allow the arbor 
 hook plenty of room so that it will not raise 
 or lower the center of the spring, if the hook 
 should be a little out of the center. In 
 some of the flat Geneva watches, for which 
 a very thin spring is used, we have to be 
 very careful in this particular ; for, with such 
 a thin—or low—spring there is not the room 
 to make the hole sufficiently large for the 
 hook, without making it a little weaker; or, 
 if we are' not careful, we are very liable to 
 get the spring slightly ruptured in this part. 
 Now, rather than run a risk of this kind, we 
 had better stone off a part of the sides of 
 the hook. Or, if the hook should be a little 
 out of the center of the arbor, we can then 
 stone off one side only, in order to bring the 
 hole central. 
 
 When these little items are attended to, 
 we are not very likely to have the center of 
 the spring chafing on the cover or bottom 
 of the barrel, unless the spring has not been 
 properly finished, which is frequently the 
 case with some of the cheap springs. Some 
 of them have a rough burr on the edge, 
 which will often cause considerable trouble; 
 for in this instance, when the spring is nearly 
 
TO MAKE A TRUE STAFF IN AN AMERICAN LATHE. 
 
 2 3 
 
 down and at its weakest point, it is then de¬ 
 prived of part of its strength by this chafing. 
 Now, if the outside of the spring chafes, 
 owing to its getting in any way bulged by 
 riveting the hook on, this chafing is not so 
 liable to affect the watch to such an extent, 
 for, when this part of the spring is in action, 
 there are more coils at work than when the 
 spring is nearly exhausted ; hence, its strength 
 is better able to overcome the chafing. We 
 see from this that the inner end of the spring 
 should always be carefully examined ; for we 
 had better fit in a spring a size too low than 
 allow any' chafing whatever. 
 
 TOO MUCH DROP IN LEVER 
 ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 I N correcting a lever escapement which 
 has too much drop, we must put in new 
 pallet stones; although generally in club- 
 tooth escapements, if one pallet is corrected 
 it will answer—but don’t understand that 
 this will do if both are equally faulty, be¬ 
 cause this is not what is meant. What is 
 meant is that generally one pallet is very 
 bad and the other will answer after the first 
 is corrected. For if we sought to remedy 
 all the faults of many of our cheap watches, 
 the melting pot would be the first thing to 
 use. 
 
 In testing a watch for a thin pallet which 
 •can be considered as causing too much drop 
 (although the fault may be in the tooth, if a 
 club tooth, but as it can be remedied by 
 •correcting the pallet, we call it all the fault 
 of the pallet), we proceed as follows: We 
 put a slight friction under the balance, and 
 revolve it so as to unlock the escapement, 
 and observe whether the tooth falls too far 
 after being released from the pallet, and also 
 notice from which pallet the most drop takes 
 place, so as to be able to select which one 
 is most in need of correction. Here, again, 
 we must in a great measure depend on the 
 judgment; but we know that the drop should 
 not be more than i * 4 °, and here, again, the 
 eye has a comparative standard, that is, the 
 drop should not be much more than one- 
 fourth of the angular motion of the tooth 
 when acting on the impulse face of the pallet, 
 or about one-fifth of the angular motion 
 (i2 0 ) ‘from locking face to locking face. 
 The way to correct the thin pallet is to put 
 in a new pallet stone which will hold the 
 scape wheel longer, and, of course, convey 
 more train power to the balance. 
 
 TO SET JEWELS. 
 
 UPPOSE we have a watch that needs a 
 new jewel in the bottom plate, and we 
 have no jewel that will just fit the old seat 
 and pivot too, or the bezel may be no good ; 
 we must select a jewel that will fit the pivot 
 and is a trifle longer than the old seat, and 
 proceed to cut a new seat and bezel for it. 
 Having the face plate or universal head in 
 place, put your plate up, and push the pump 
 center into the hole where you wish to set 
 the jewel. Now adjust the clamps to your 
 plate, but before screwing them up, look in 
 at the peep hole behind and see if the pump 
 center is exactly in the hole. Now put on 
 your top plate as though you were putting 
 the watch together. The jewel or pivot 
 hole in the top plate is supposed to be in 
 the right place, so we will test the thing to 
 see whether our work is centered. Take a 
 full-length pegwood stick, and sharpen it to 
 a nice point, and insert it into the jewel or 
 pivot hole, and let it rest on the T-rest, which 
 must be slipped within about one inch of the 
 plate. Then, as you run the lathe slowly, 
 watch the end of the pegwood, and if it 
 does not stand still, but moves up and down, 
 the plate is not truly centered, and you must 
 center it by that stick, or else the wheel that 
 is put into that place will not stand upright. 
 To finish centering this, slacken the clamp 
 a little, and with the hammer in hand, run 
 your lathe slowly, and when the end of the 
 pegwood is down, stop the lathe and tap 
 the top edge of the plate, and start the lathe 
 again, noting what effect your tapping had. 
 It takes practice to center this way, but it 
 is “dead sure.” After you have centered, 
 tighten the clamps, and take off the plate, 
 and proceed to set your jewel. 
 
 TO MAKE A TRUE STAFF IN AN 
 AMERICAN LATHE. 
 
 AY we have a spring tempered piece of 
 wire, No. 44, Stubb’s gauge, which will fit 
 a No. 22 chuck. I turn my staffs hard, while 
 many men blank the staff out, and then take 
 it out of the lathe and temper it, put it back 
 and finish. Tempered steel turns much 
 smoother than soft steel, although it is harder 
 on gravers. I next place my piece of wire 
 in the chuck, sticking it out far enough to 
 turn the whole staff, and I finish the upper 
 end, balance seat, collet seat, and pivot, then 
 turn the hub perfectly true with the pivot 
 and grind it with oil-stone dust; at the same 
 
24 
 
 TO PUT IN A NEW SCAPE WHEEL. 
 
 time I grind the pivot, making it smoother 
 than I have the hub, the right length or 
 about it, and proceed to turn as much of the 
 lower part or roller seat as I can before cut¬ 
 ting it off. All that I turn before cutting 
 off the staff is aimed to be perfectly in line 
 with the pivot, and the hub is left perfectly 
 straight—not beveled. 
 
 When I next cut off the staff, I grasp it 
 by the hub, and after I get it the right 
 length, I true it up with the graver, finding 
 it an easy matter to true it up, as the hub is 
 smoother and the lower part of the staff was 
 turned in line with the pivot. When I get 
 the lower part to run true, I know that my 
 pivots will be in line, for they were turned 
 in line before the staff was cut off. After 
 finishing and polishing the pivot, I take the 
 staff out, get another chuck that will fit the 
 collet seat, and proceed to turn the slope on 
 the hub, and my staff is finished. 
 
 CENTERING A BALANCE STAFF OR 
 PIVOT. 
 
 VERY often use a split chuck for a third 
 or fourth wheel pivot, but I generally pre¬ 
 fer a brass taper cement chuck for a balance 
 staff or pivot. My method is as follows: 
 After securing the brass taper in the chuck, 
 I turn off the face perfectly smooth, to 
 avoid being deceived in the center, then 
 with a fine pointed graver find the center, 
 which I cut about as deep as the length of 
 the pivot, using a strong glass. To test its 
 accuracy, I take a long pin tongue, soften 
 it, and set the pointed end in the female 
 center just cut—holding the other end 
 against the thumb of my right hand; then 
 by setting the rest close to the chuck, and 
 holding a thin slip of pegwood under the 
 pointed end of the pin, as it rests in the 
 center, and revolving the lathe, the slightest 
 error will be detected by the “ wink ” of the 
 pin. After being assured of the accuracy 
 of the center, I next apply the cement. By- 
 the-way, about one-sixteenth of one inch 
 from the end of the taper, I have soldered a 
 small piece of thin brass like a washer, which 
 holds the cement better and requires less 
 heat to soften it. The pivot of the staff is 
 then set in the center, and the cement heated 
 until it softens and flows around the staff, 
 and then allowed to cool until it will hold 
 the balance without dropping out. Set the 
 lathe in motion, and turn the other end of 
 the staff by holding a piece of pegwood at 
 
 rest under the old stump of the broken pivot 
 or the next shoulder, the remaining part of 
 the operation of drilling, setting plug, end 
 turning, has often been described, and which 
 I could not improve upon, except by the 
 cautionary suggestion that the plug be fitted 
 so that it will drive tight with the end touch¬ 
 ing the bottom of the hole drilled. 
 
 A plug, when fitted, is of course a little 
 tapering, and as the hole is the same size 
 when it is driven in, it really binds only at 
 the outside, which is the largest part; and 
 for this reason, a pivot will sometimes work 
 loose when it is being turned off, particularly 
 if the hole is large, with little depth. This- 
 may sometimes be remedied by striking the 
 small end of the plug lightly with the ham¬ 
 mer, raising a slight burr on the end, and 
 then driving it in as before. 
 
 TO PUT IN A NEW SCAPE WHEEL. 
 
 ET us suppose the case that a new pinion 
 was put in the scape wheel, and that 
 the workman did not succeed in getting his 
 pinion in true (a very usual occurrence), he 
 now lops off the teeth,—very likely rounding 
 up the points of the teeth to avoid “ friction,” 
 until he gets his scape wheel too small. If 
 our botch stopped here, the remedy would 
 be simple enough; all there is to be done is 
 to put in a new scape wheel of the correct 
 style. A few words in regard to scape 
 wheels, and we will go on with our problem. 
 
 Workmen who live at some distance from 
 large stocks of scape wheels should keep a 
 good supply of the commoner size on hand, 
 letting extreme size (either large or small) be 
 in the minority. If you have one of the 
 correct size, all right, put it in; if not, select 
 one the nearest you have larger. Set the 
 wheel on the pinion and true it up. Next 
 take your depthing tool, and set the points, 
 so they correspond to the holes in the plate. 
 Some little judgment is required to set a 
 depthing tool to exactly represent the dis¬ 
 tance between the two holes; the best way 
 is to take the inside of the top plate (if an 
 English lever), and set the points as nearly 
 correct as the judgment dictates will be 
 right; next, set one of the points in one hole 
 and with the other sweep a short circle cross¬ 
 ing the other hole ; then with a double eye¬ 
 glass determine if the line crosses exactly 
 the center of the hole; if not, set the depth- 
 ing tool until it does. 
 
 Put in your scape wheel and pallets, and 
 
TO PREVENT A WATCH FROM OVER-BANKING. 
 
 2 5 
 
 try the depth—first by turning your scape 
 wheel backward ; if the wheel is entirely too 
 large, it will not turn. Judgment must of 
 course have been exercised in not selecting 
 a scape wheel disproportionally large ; still, 
 if the instructions here given are observed, 
 a wheel seemingly much too large can be 
 used. The reader must not imagine that 
 the writer considers this course as the best ., 
 because he does nothing of the kind; he 
 only gives this as a method by which a fair 
 result can be obtained by persons so situated 
 as to be limited in their resources. 
 
 If the scape wheel will not turn backward, 
 and indicates that the wheel is too large, 
 remove the lever from the depthing tool 
 (but be careful not to change the depth), 
 and insert a slip of Arkansas stone so that 
 it will be held steady, and with the fingers 
 revolve the wheel so as to grind off the ends 
 of the teeth. This should be repeated until 
 the wheel turns freely backward. Next 
 comes the testing for the lock, which is a 
 delicate manipulation not difficult to do, but 
 somewhat difficult to describe. 
 
 Let us suppose we turn the scape wheel 
 backward, so that the back of the tooth 
 acting against the egress pallet, which we 
 will call B, will cause the ingress pallet, 
 which we will call A, to advance the impulse 
 face of (ingress) pallet A, inside of a part 
 of circle or arc corresponding to the ends of 
 the scape teeth. The scape wheel does not 
 want to be turned back until the tooth 
 against pallet B passes the angle of B, but 
 only enough so that when the scape wheel 
 is turned forward a tooth will engage the 
 impulse face of A somewhat near the mid¬ 
 dle, if now the scape wheel is moved for¬ 
 ward until the latter tooth leaves or drops 
 from the pallet A. If everything is as it 
 should be, the latter tooth will fall safely on 
 the locking face of the pallet B and draw it 
 inward. Both pallets can be tested by this 
 system, only reversing the order, letting the 
 back of the latter tooth strike A so as to let 
 the tooth strike the impulse face of B , and 
 bring the locking face of A into action in 
 the same manner as we did at B. This 
 process can be repeated until every tooth is 
 tested as to lock and drop. After the teeth 
 are stoned off to the correct length, they can 
 be dressed up to a point by a slip of Arkan¬ 
 sas stone; but only stone the back of the 
 tooth, leaving the front intact. Skill and 
 judgment must of course be used to preserve 
 the correct form of the tooth. 
 
 TO PREVENT A WATCH FROM 
 OVER-BANKING. 
 
 HE banking pins have nothing whatever 
 to do with over-banking. They only regu¬ 
 late the rwi, or in other words the distance 
 the pallet jewels travel in toward the scape 
 wheel. If the banking pins are too far 
 apart, the scape teeth reach too far up the 
 locking planes of the pallet jewels, and the 
 balance, having therefore to carry the fork 
 so great a distance before the scape teeth 
 act on the impulse planes, meets with so 
 much resistance that the motion is very 
 much increased thereby, and often causes 
 the watch to stop altogether. 
 
 In a correct escapement, the fork should 
 bank against the pins, immediately the scape 
 tooth has dropped from one jewel to the 
 other. If the watch over-banks, the fork is 
 either too short or the roller is too small; in 
 most cases the trouble lies with the fork 
 unless the roller has been tampered with. 
 The effective length of the fork should be 
 such that, when the power is on the watch, 
 if the guard point of the fork 'is pressed 
 against the roller, it will, on being released, 
 return to the bankings. In no case should 
 the fork be left so short that it can be wedged 
 against the roller, as the watch would be 
 liable to stop at any time, and if it received 
 a jar, would in all probability start off again 
 and so cause a great deal of trouble in lo¬ 
 cating the stoppage, in annoyance to cus¬ 
 tomers. 
 
 The fork in Swiss watches may be length¬ 
 ened in several ways. Draw the temper, if 
 necessary, and stretch it with the pane end 
 of the hammer, on the part between the 
 notch and the center. If done this way, 
 care must be taken to see that it is not bent 
 by the stretching, and, if so, straighten it 
 before putting into the watch, or else it 
 would have too much run on one side, and 
 not escape on the other. 
 
 Another way is to file back the old guard 
 point or edge, drill a hole and fit a new one 
 having a pivot on the bottom to go through 
 the hole. Rivet it in place, if possible; if 
 not, solder it carefully. It can then be 
 shortened to the correct length, and the fork 
 repolished. 
 
 If the watch is an English one, the brass 
 guard pin on the end of the fork will have 
 to be bent forward a little, and if that won’t 
 rectify it a new fork must be fitted ; but it is 
 necessary to examine everything in connec- ‘ 
 tion first to make sure that the trouble is in 
 
26 
 
 THE “SETTING” OF SCAPE WHEELS. 
 
 the fork, as the balance jewels might be 
 broken or too large in the holes, and thus 
 allow the roller to drop away from the fork 
 sufficiently to cause over-banking, or the 
 balance staff might be badly out of true, 
 which would cause the roller to be out in 
 the round, and that would cause it. In any 
 case examine the escapement thoroughly, 
 and locate the defect before making any 
 alterations. 
 
 THE “SETTING” OF SCAPE 
 WHEELS. 
 
 T is well known that a large scape wheel 
 
 will set easier than a small one, since more 
 power is required to propel a large wheel 
 than a small one ; and in case of an anchor 
 movement, the pallets are set farther from 
 the center of the wheel; mechanics teach 
 that the farther any part is from a given 
 -center the more force it will require to move 
 a given weight. We may express it in differ¬ 
 ent words and say that a less pressure will 
 stop a wheel, when it is large, simply because 
 the contact is further from the center. This 
 can easily be demonstrated by placing one’s 
 finger against any wheel in a train of a 
 clock, or at the tip of the scape wheel teeth, 
 when it will be found that the least touch 
 will cause a stoppage. Should we try to 
 hold the pinion, however, we will find that 
 it requires much more pressure. It will, 
 perhaps, be useful to give the relative pro¬ 
 portions of this pressure in proportion to the 
 size of wheels and pinions. It will assist in 
 understanding the subject. Let us suppose 
 that we have a wheel three inches in diame¬ 
 ter, and on the same axis we attach another 
 wheel one inch in diameter, place a piece 
 ■of cord round the largest diameter and hang 
 a i-pound weight on the cord; now wind 
 another cord the contrary way on the small 
 diameter, and it will be found that it requires 
 a 3-pound weight to hold the other in equi¬ 
 librium ; hence we see that if one wheel is 
 three times larger than another, it will of 
 necessity require three times more pressure 
 before it can acquire its proper propelling 
 force. Of course, we are aware that the 
 scape wheels of watches do not vary as 
 much as this, but we simply make use of 
 this illustration to be more readily under¬ 
 stood. 
 
 Now, when we consider these proportions 
 from the barrel wheel to escape wheel, we 
 ■ an easily understand what a vast difference 
 
 a slight variation in the size of the scape 
 wheel will make in its propelling force, and 
 this is the reason why we frequently see such 
 strong mainsprings used in some of the in¬ 
 ferior grade watches. If the makers were to 
 study well the relative proportions of wheels 
 and pinions, it is certain that they would not 
 employ such strong springs. 
 
 After this short digression let us return to 
 the subject. We must remember that a 
 wheel, if too small, Is also very detrimental, 
 since, as it were, it seems too quick for the 
 other parts of the escapement, and being so 
 much under the control of the other wheels, 
 it is rather obstinate, and not so willing to 
 make its retrograde motion at the proper 
 time. Of course, when the balance revolves 
 so as to unlock the pallet, the wheel is forced 
 to make this backward motion, but since the 
 pressure is much stronger in a small wheel, 
 when it is extra small, it must lock very 
 hard, and it is therefore very liable to make 
 a bad action, the same as would be produced 
 by a deep depthing. I think I will be un¬ 
 derstood what I mean by saying that the 
 wheel is too quick, for, with such a pressure 
 it drops into the pallet jewel sooner than it 
 would otherwise, and it is therefore really in 
 advance of the lever and balance. Under 
 these circumstances it is very liable to cut 
 the pallet jewels or get its teeth exceedingly 
 worn. A short time ago I had an escape¬ 
 ment of this description under repairs; it 
 had a very broad escape wheel, and the 
 pallet jewels were very round, so that only 
 a small portion of it came in contact with 
 the wheel, which was perfectly flat, so that 
 the jewels caught each tooth exactly in the 
 center. The watch had only bepn going 
 about eighteen months, but the pallets had 
 “ pitted ” the wheel, owing to the excessive 
 force, that all the front parts of the teeth 
 were quite worn out of position. 
 
 This will also occasionally happen when 
 a particle of oil-stone dust or any similar 
 substance gets on the wheel teeth or pal¬ 
 lets. 
 
 When the wheel has sufficient metal, this 
 can be remedied by carefully filing the front 
 part of the teeth until the “ pits ” are taken 
 out; but it requires care, as the file must be 
 held exactly in the same position with the 
 angle'of the teeth. If this is not observed, 
 the wheel will most probably be ruined, 
 since no good action can be expected of a 
 watch when the angle of its scape wheel 
 teeth has been disarranged. 
 
2 7 
 
 THE MEANING “ PITCH CIRCLE.” 
 
 THE COMPENSATED BALANCE. 
 
 COMPENSATED balance is one which, 
 when expanded by heat, contracts in 
 some direction to neutralize the effect of that 
 change, and vice versa. The usual method of 
 securing that result is by forming the balance 
 rim of two metals, one of which is more af¬ 
 fected by heat and cold than the other, as of 
 steel and brass, with the brass on the outside. 
 When the steel center bar expands and car¬ 
 ries the entire rim outward, the brass portion 
 expands more than the steel, and therefore 
 curves the rim and carries the free end of 
 the section, or “ segment,” nearer to the 
 center than the other end, which is attached 
 to the center bar. By attaching a weight to 
 the free end of the rim, the effect of this 
 movement is increased, as the center of 
 weight of the rim, as a whole, determines the 
 virtual working diameter of the balance, and 
 this diameter is more rapidly varied as the 
 weight thus moved inward and outward be¬ 
 comes greater, or nearer the free end of the 
 segment of the rim. If the weight is moved 
 too far, the vertical diameter of the balance 
 is changed more by that motion than by the 
 heat and cold, the effect of the latter is more 
 than neutralized, and an error of the opposite 
 kind is produced. In this case, the balance 
 is said to be over-compensated, and the rem¬ 
 edy is to move the weight (or screws) back 
 from the free end of the rim, till its move¬ 
 ments exactly neutralize the errors of time 
 caused by the expansion of the balance by 
 heat, or its contraction by cold. When this 
 is done, the balance is correctly compensated, 
 and the movement is adjusted for heat and 
 cold. 
 
 It is obvious that a balance may be cor¬ 
 rectly made, but not afterwards compensated. 
 It would then be a compensation or expan¬ 
 sion balance, but not a compensated or ad¬ 
 justed one. A balance, the rim of which is 
 not cut through entirely, is certainly not ad¬ 
 justed, and cannot be until it is cut. So, 
 also, a cut balance the rim of which is not 
 so made as to be susceptible of adjustment, 
 may be a nuisance, causing the watch to run 
 perfectly “ wild.” A well-made compensa¬ 
 tion balance, the rim of which is not cut, is 
 no better than a plain gold balance, because 
 its rim, though capable of compensating, has 
 no chance to do so, its rim being fastened at 
 all points. Consequently it expands and 
 contracts under the influence of changed 
 temperatures just as any other solid balance 
 would do, whether made of gold or any 
 
 other material. The screws may be orna¬ 
 mental, but they have no function as com¬ 
 pensation weights, and such a balance is 
 merely a “screw balance.” 
 
 From the above will be seen that’natural 
 causes contend against plain gold, steel, 
 brass, or any other metallic balances keeping 
 as good time as a good compensated balance, 
 or, indeed, are at all susceptible of keeping 
 anything like correct time. A watch with a 
 plain gold balance may be adjusted to posi¬ 
 tion, and even this is very rarely done, ex¬ 
 cept in movements with adjusted balances. 
 The most usual adjustment is that of the 
 balance to temperatures, and this, as has 
 been shown, cannot be done with a balance 
 of any single metal. The adjustment to 
 positions relates to the balance pivots and 
 their jewels, to secure equal vibration in all 
 positions. The adjustment for isochronism 
 relates principally to the hairspring. 
 
 RELATION OF MAINSPRING TO 
 BARREL. 
 
 F we wish to have a mainspring theo¬ 
 retically adjusted, there is no better method 
 than simply to allow one third empty space, 
 one third for the barrel arbor, and the re¬ 
 mainder for the spring. When a spring is at 
 rest on the barrel, it should occupy one-sixth 
 of the barrel’s inside diameter at either side 
 of the arbor. If we divide a barrel into 
 sixty equal parts, we should always see that 
 the barrel arbor is just twenty of these parts. 
 It is a great mistake to have a barrel arbor 
 too small, for when such is the case, it is al¬ 
 most sure to break the mainspring, if the 
 center is at all stubborn; as is very often 
 the case with the cheap class of mainsprings 
 in market. _ 
 
 THE MEANING “PITCH CIRCLE.” 
 
 N every depth the curved portions, both of 
 the leaves and the teeth, which are known 
 as the points or curves, always project be¬ 
 yond the pitch circles. In discussing any 
 depth, we start with the supposition that if 
 these two circles were to roll one on the 
 other without friction, the depth would be 
 perfect or primitive. Hence, they are known 
 in scientific books as primitive, geometrical, 
 or pitch circles, and their diameters and radii 
 are also called geometrical or primitive. 
 Thus in every wheel or pinion it is important 
 to remember that the total diameter is the 
 primitive diameter, plus twice the height of 
 
28 
 
 CORRECT LENGTH OF LEVER, ETC. 
 
 the point, or curve portion of tooth and leaf. 
 Thus in a depth when it is said that the pinion 
 radius is 1.25 inches, the geometrical radius 
 is meant, which reaches from the center of 
 the pinion to the part of the leaf where the 
 curve starts. The geometrical diameter of 
 the pinion is the total diameter less the thick¬ 
 ness of a leaf measured at the pitch circle. 
 The study of depthing is very interesting, 
 and as it is impossible to design a correct 
 depthing without thoroughly understanding 
 the theory and necessary calculation in¬ 
 volved, watchmakers, especially the younger, 
 should make themselves masters of it. 
 
 TO USE THE MAINSPRING WINDER. 
 
 LTHOUGH a mainspring is often put in 
 with the fingers, even by good workmen, 
 still this way has its objections. When using 
 the winder, the spring is to be hooked upon 
 the arbor of the winder, then wound thereon, 
 while holding the coil flat by the thumb on 
 one side, and the second finger on the other 
 side, with the first finger pressing on the out¬ 
 side of the spring to retain the winding. 
 When fully wound, or very nearly so, the 
 barrel is carefully placed over the spring, 
 which is then allowed to slip around within 
 the barrel until it becomes properly hooked, 
 after which the barrel itself is allowed to 
 slowly turn till it is entirely free, and the 
 spring can be easily removed from the arbor. 
 
 The winder should of course not be used 
 when the winding arbor is in the barrel, as 
 in watches having a solid ratchet screwed to 
 the bridge, and holding the barrel or barrel 
 head fast on the bridge—otherwise the cen¬ 
 ter of the spring would doubtless be badly 
 bent. It is also necessary to use in the 
 winder an arbor of the same diameter as the 
 collet of the winding arbor, as a larger one 
 would open the center of the spring, and a 
 smaller one is very likely to cause the spring 
 to snap off near the center. Caution must 
 also be used to avoid dirtying the spring and 
 barrel with the fingers, especially if the hands 
 sweat much. That is done by holding the 
 parts with a piece of clean tissue paper be¬ 
 tween them and the skin. It hardly needs to 
 be said that the winder can work in either 
 direction by moving the spring pressing on 
 the ratchet pawl—and that the spring must 
 not be allowed to slip from the fingers dur¬ 
 ing the winding, else an inextricable snarl 
 may result, damaging or breaking the spring. 
 Many workmen do not use the winder at all, 
 
 but hold the barrel in tissue paper, hook the 
 outer end of the spring properly, then coil it 
 in from the outside, pushing in a half-coil 
 alternately on each side, with the thumbs. 
 For thin and narrow springs this is as well 
 as the other way, but thick and wide springs 
 are less liable to be bent when inserted with 
 the winder. 
 
 TO CLEANSE A NICKEL MOVE¬ 
 MENT. 
 
 ATCHMAKERS sometimes think that 
 nickel movements are more difficult to 
 clean than gilt movements. This is not so, 
 however, and the former are to be cleaned by 
 the same process as the latter. It is also gen¬ 
 erally supposed that nickel is but little liable 
 to tarnish. This is a great mistake, as it is 
 far more liable to be affected by exposure 
 to moisture, handling, etc., than gilding. In 
 fact, it is almost as bad in this respect as 
 iron, to which it is very similar in its chem¬ 
 ical reactions. So far as is publicly known, 
 the best agents for cleaning nickel are me¬ 
 chanical in their nature—that is to say, it is 
 best done by the use of polishing powders. 
 These should not be used dry, however, as 
 the nickel would all be worn off before a 
 polish is produced ; nor will moisture make 
 the action any better. Either soap and hot 
 water, or, what is better, a very little oil on 
 a piece of buff leather, mixed with the pol¬ 
 ishing powder, should be used, finishing with 
 the soap and water, or the alcohol bath. A 
 mere trace of oil on the tip of the finger, 
 gently rubbed over the parts, will readily 
 loosen and remove the dirt and tarnish, after 
 which the oil can be removed as usual. 
 
 As far as patent or secret unguents and 
 cleansing agents are concerned, they may, 
 on the whole, be looked on with suspicion,, 
 and to the watchmakers at large there is 
 really nothing more accessible or quick-act¬ 
 ing than soap and water, or oily substances 
 and polishing powders, with gentle rubbing. 
 
 A good polishing powder for polishing up 
 nickel is finely powdered and sifted unslacked 
 lime, used on a buff wheel with a little oil. 
 It should be kept in tightly-corked bottles 
 or jars to exclude the air, and only a little 
 of it taken out and powdered, as wanted. 
 
 CORRECT LENGTH OF LEVER, ETC. 
 
 T is quite frequently necessary to deter¬ 
 mine the correct length of the lever, size of 
 table roller, size of the pallets, and depth of 
 
TO OBSERVE BALANCE VIBRATION. 
 
 29 
 
 the escapement of lever watches. A lever, 
 from the guard pin to the pallet staff, should 
 correspond in length with twice the diameter 
 of the ruby-pin table, and if such a table is 
 accidentally lost, its correct size may be 
 known by measuring half the lever between 
 the points above named. For correct size 
 of pallet, the clear spot between the pal¬ 
 lets should correspond with the outside 
 measure on the points of three teeth of the 
 scape wheel. The only rule that can be 
 given without the use of diagrams, for cor¬ 
 rect depth of the escapement, is to set it as 
 close as it will bear, and still free itself per¬ 
 fectly, when in motion. This may be done 
 by first placing the escapement into your 
 depthing tool, and then setting it to the cor¬ 
 rect depth. Then by measuring the distance 
 between the pivots of the lever staff and 
 scape wheel, as now set, and the correspond¬ 
 ing pivot holes in the watch, you determine 
 correctly how much the depth of the escape¬ 
 ment requires to be altered. 
 
 OVER-ACTIVE COMPENSATION. 
 
 HOULD a balance be over-actively com¬ 
 pensated, the screws must be set farther 
 back toward the balance arms. Supposing, 
 however, that it is not possible to remove the 
 screws, then their weight must be lessened, 
 in order to reduce the compensation. It is 
 necessary in this case to regulate the move¬ 
 ment screw, since it will now advance in 
 mean temperature. This can be effected 
 either by means of the balance spring or by 
 an increase of weight of the two screws op¬ 
 posite the balance arms. When any correc¬ 
 tion whatever is made to the screws, carefully 
 re-establish the equipoise of the balance. 
 
 TO MAKE A BURNISHER. 
 
 ROCEED the same way as in making 
 pivot files, with the exception that you are 
 to use fine flour of emery on a slip of oiled 
 brass or copper, instead of the emery paper. 
 Burnishers which have become smooth may 
 be improved vastly with the flour of emery, 
 as above, without drawing the temper. To 
 prepare one for polishing, melt a little bees¬ 
 wax on the face of the burnisher. Its effect 
 then on brass or other fine metals will be 
 equal to the best buff. A small burnisher 
 prepared in this way is the very thing with 
 which to polish up watch wheels. Rest them 
 on a piece of pith, while polishing. 
 
 TO POLISH STEEL. 
 
 AKE crocus of oxide of tin and graduate 
 it in the same way as in preparing diamond 
 dust, and apply it to the steel by means of a 
 piece of soft iron or bell metal, made of 
 proper form, and apply it with flour of em¬ 
 ery, the same as for pivot burnishers. To 
 iron or soft steel, a better finish may be given 
 by burnishing than can be imparted by the 
 use of polishing powders of any kind what¬ 
 ever. The German mode of polishing steel 
 is performed by the use of crocus on a buff 
 wheel. Nothing can exceed the surpassing 
 beauty imparted to steel or even cast-iron 
 by this process. _ 
 
 POLISHING BROACHES. 
 
 OLISHING broaches are usually made 
 of ivory, and used with diamond dust, 
 loose, instead of having been driven in. Oil 
 the broach slightly, dip it into the finest dia¬ 
 mond dust, and work it into the jewel the 
 same as you would the brass broach. Unfort¬ 
 unately, too many watchmakers do not at¬ 
 tach sufficient importance to the polishing 
 broach. The sluggish motion of watches 
 nowadays is more often attributable to rough 
 jewels than to any othfr cause. 
 
 OILING THE PALLETS OF DETACHED 
 LEVERS. 
 
 HE question is often asked whether the 
 lever pallets should be oiled. This de¬ 
 pends somewhat on circumstances. Very fine 
 movements are supposed to be so highly 
 finished as not to need any oil here, which 
 is held to be detrimental to fine time-keep¬ 
 ing ; but the more usual practice, especially 
 with ordinary watches, is to oil them. They 
 should not be smeared with oil, so as to run 
 up on the under side of the lever fork, or on 
 the top of the escape wheel, as it will gather 
 dirt and lead to sticking and clogging the 
 wheel, while passing near or under the fork. 
 Only the pallet stones should be oiled, and 
 sparingly. _ 
 
 TO OBSERVE BALANCE VIBRATION. 
 
 O observe the extent of vibration of a 
 balance, run your eye around the rim, 
 and you will see some point, as a screw in the 
 rim, a mark on it, or the end of one of the 
 balance arms, which can be distinctly ob¬ 
 served when the balance stops and begins to 
 turn the other way. Notice some stationary 
 part that is exactly opposite, or under that 
 
30 
 
 SPEED OF DIFFERENT TIMEPIECES. 
 
 screw at the turning point of the vibration. 
 Now, whenever that screw fails to reach that 
 point or goes beyond it, you will see at once, 
 and see how much it falls short or goes be¬ 
 yond it. By noticing how far the screw 
 reaches in both directions, you have the ex¬ 
 tent of the vibration between these two 
 points. If the screw reaches the same point 
 from each direction, the vibration is “ one 
 turn.” If it goes one-eighth of a turn fur¬ 
 ther in each direction, that is one and one- 
 fourth turns ; and if it falls short one-eighth 
 of a turn both ways, the vibration is three- 
 quarters of one turn. A little practice will 
 enable the watchmaker to notice the extent 
 and variations, and to estimate the proportion 
 of a turn. 
 
 TO USE THE DEPTHING TOOL. 
 
 AKE your depthing tool and set the points 
 so that they correspond to the holes in 
 the plate. Some little judgment is required to 
 set a depthing tool to exactly represent the 
 distance between the two holes; the best 
 way is to take the inside of the top plate (of 
 an English lever) and set the points as nearly 
 correct as the judgment dictates will be right; 
 next, set one of the points in one hole, and 
 with the other sweep a short circle crossing 
 the other hole ; then with a double eyeglass 
 determine if the line crosses exactly the cen¬ 
 ter of the hole; if not, set the tool until it 
 does. 
 
 THE SIZE OF THE CYLINDER PIVOT. 
 
 O establish the size of the pivot with rela¬ 
 tion to its hole is apparently an easy thing 
 to do correctly, but to an inexperienced 
 workman it is not so. The side-shake in 
 cylinder-pivot holes should be greater than 
 that for ordinary train holes ; one-sixth is the 
 amount prescribed by Saunier; the size of 
 the pivot relatively to the cylinder about 
 one-eighth the diameter of the body of the 
 cylinder. It is very necessary that this 
 amount of side-shake should be correctly 
 recognized; if less than the amount stated, 
 the watch, though performing well when the 
 oil is fresh, fails to do so when it commences 
 to thicken. The only accurate way of get¬ 
 ting at the correct amount of shake is to 
 make a pivot or two to a jewel hole by 
 means of a micrometer; the eye will soon 
 become capable of correctly estimating the 
 amount necessary. If any doubt exists, a 
 round broach can be used to size the pivot 
 
 hole, and the micrometer will then decide 
 the question. 
 
 TO CUT SCREW THREADS. 
 
 I T is quite a knack to make a nice screw, 
 and beginners are generally apt to use too 
 much force when cutting the thread. If the 
 spindle has been turned too large for the 
 hole in the screw-plate, there is danger of 
 breaking the tool, which is very hard, and 
 pieces will chip off; again, the piece to be 
 tapped is apt to break and stop up the hole 
 in the plate, thereby entailing the tedious job 
 of drilling the piece out and cleaning the 
 thread. It is better to begin with a hole 
 much larger and w-orking down gradually. 
 It is natural that a certain amount of force 
 must be employed, and a little practice will 
 soon teach the beginner how much, to insure 
 a full good thread. Now, put the screw 
 back in the tool, and turn the head a little 
 more than the required thickness, and cut 
 the screw off by turning a groove above. 
 
 THE BALANCE SPRING. 
 
 T HE study of the balance spring must ever 
 be of the greatest importance to the 
 watchmaker ; because it is the principal agent 
 with which he is able to control the rate of 
 the watch. Debating the different kinds of 
 springs, an authority says that the great ad¬ 
 vantage of an over-coil spring is that it dis¬ 
 tends in action on both sides, and the balance 
 pivots are thereby relieved of the side press¬ 
 ure given with the ordinary flat spring. The 
 Breguet spring, in common with the helical 
 and all other forms in which the outer coil 
 returns toward the center, offers opportuni¬ 
 ties of obtaining isochronism by slightly vary¬ 
 ing the character of the curve described by 
 the outer coil, and thereby altering its pow 7 er 
 of resistance. 
 
 SPEED OF DIFFERENT TIMEPIECES. 
 
 HE balance of a so-called 18,000 train vi¬ 
 brates 300 per minute, 18,000 per hour, 
 consequently 432,000 in 24 hours, 12,960,- 
 000 in 30 days—so-called month, 157,680,- 
 000 in 365 days. 
 
 A seconds pendulum makes 3,600 oscilla¬ 
 tions in one hour, 86,400 a day, 2,592,000 
 in 30 days, 31,536,000 in 365 days. 
 
 A marine chronometer, vibrating half- 
 seconds, makes 14,400 vibrations per hour, 
 
WATCH DIALS. 
 
 3i 
 
 345,600 per day, 10,368,000 in 30 days, 
 126,144,000 in 365 days. 
 
 Let us suppose a watch vibrating 18,000 
 per hour were quietly laid down or hung up 
 for about ten hours—whereby it would go 
 correctly; but in the next succeeding four¬ 
 teen hours it would be worn the general 
 length of time, and each vibration of the 
 balance were retarded only by 0.0001, it 
 would be equal in fourteen hours to 25.2 
 vibrations, or 5.04 seconds; by a regular 
 use, therefore, in one week, 35.28 seconds, 
 and in one month, 2.52, or nearly three min¬ 
 utes. _ 
 
 KNIFE SUSPENSION. 
 
 F a very exact rate is expected from a 
 knife suspension of the pendulum, it starids 
 to reason that neither at the polished edge 
 nor in the pan the least rust must be visible, 
 and the only way to prevent it is by slightly 
 oiling the parts. _ 
 
 NEW METHOD FOR ANNEALING. 
 
 N the oil bath, in which the annealing of 
 the tempered utensils is to be performed 
 lay a metallic ball of about the size of a 
 pea, and consisting of an alloy of 2 parts lead 
 and 1 part tin. This alloy melts at 232 0 C., 
 and therefore indicates the correct time 
 when the small tools are to be taken out of 
 the bath. Alloys of 3 parts lead and 1 part 
 tin, and 4 parts lead and 1 part tin, melt 
 at 259° to 260° C., at which temperature 
 the utensils become softer. 
 
 TO MANIPULATE THE MAINSPRING. 
 
 HEN I take a watch down that has run 
 twelve months and more, I first examine 
 the mainspring, by taking off the cap (head) 
 of the barrel, carefully removing the arbor ; 
 then, holding the barrel between the thumb 
 and fingers of the left hand, with a small, 
 round-nose pliers I lift out the inner end of 
 the spring, holding the thumb and fingers in 
 such a manner as to allow the spring to un¬ 
 coil itself out of the barrel in a gentle man¬ 
 ner into the hand; and if sound and of the 
 right strength, I proceed to clean it with a 
 piece of domestic (Yankee) muslin—a piece 
 of your old worn-out shirt, if you please, 
 after a thorough washing, this being soft and 
 free from starch and all foreign matter cal¬ 
 culated to injure steel. Holding the cloth 
 or rag in the left hand, the spring in my 
 right, just as it comes out of the barrel, 
 
 gently moving it back and forth, holding two 
 or three of the coils between the thumb, 
 first and second (middle) fingers, pressing 
 the coil slightly over with the ball of the 
 thumb (not nails), so as not to materially 
 change the natural curvature of the spring in 
 any way during the operation. In this way 
 the entire spring can be cleaned, with the 
 exception of a small portion of the inner 
 coil, which can be cleaned by using a cor¬ 
 ner of the rag, applied with a piece of peg- 
 wood, or by a slight brushing with a brush 
 used for a like purpose. A first-class spring 
 (and no watchmaker should use any other, if 
 he values time and reputation) thus cleaned, 
 with proper space in the barrel, and with the 
 arbor free, of proper size, and a liberal ap¬ 
 plication of good watch oil (but not flooded 
 with it) turned up to its proper capacity, will 
 give out its full force for one or two years, 
 at least, without breaking, rusting, or becom¬ 
 ing gummy and foul. 
 
 WATCH DIALS. 
 
 HE dial of a watch, says M. Grossmann, 
 though of a material rather inconvenient 
 to handle, is not much open to improvements. 
 The liability to injury of the enamel has led 
 to many attempts to replace it by some more 
 suitable material. But the principal consid¬ 
 erations of a good dial, distinctness, has 
 never been attained in such perfection as 
 with the enameled. A perfectly white sur¬ 
 face, with deep black figures on it, cannot 
 be surpassed for this purpose. 
 
 For these reasons, the enameled dial, in 
 spite of its fragility and thickness, is and will 
 be kept in use by all those who do not leave 
 out of sight its principal purpose; but it 
 cannot be denied that the invention of a 
 metallic or other appropriate material, pos¬ 
 sessed of the indispensable qualities, would 
 indeed prove a great progress in practical 
 horology. Here is ample room for useful 
 inventions. There was a period when in 
 England and elsewhere dials were preferred 
 of a yellowish or greyish tint. These are, 
 of course, not so fit for the purpose as those 
 of pure white enamel. In the same way the 
 slightly frosted surface of the English dials 
 is thought a great improvement, as it is said 
 to allow of looking at the watch in any di¬ 
 rection without being disturbed by the re¬ 
 flection of the dial surface. This is a strange 
 mistake, for if the dial of a watch does not 
 reflect when held in an awkward direction. 
 
3 2 
 
 TO CORRECT THE CENTER STAFF. 
 
 the glass over it will certainly do so. Be¬ 
 sides it is so very easy to look at a watch 
 without any danger of annoying reflex. 
 
 The fastening of the dial in its position is 
 effected by pins or screws. It is not advisT 
 able to fix the dial with unduly small screws 
 and holes drilled through it, because the dial 
 is greatly exposed to injury by the slightest 
 sideward pressure when shutting the case, 
 the holes being so very near the edge of the 
 dial. This method of fastening dials was 
 formerly preferred by the best French and 
 Swiss makers, and many a fine dial has been 
 spoiled by it. 
 
 A dial fastened in this way requires some 
 ■care of the repairer when putting it on. He 
 ought to screw both the screws gently down, 
 but afterward to release each of them by 
 about one-quarter of a turn, so as to ease the 
 dial in its position. 
 
 Another way of fastening the dial is with 
 pillars, or feet, and pins. It is quite effi¬ 
 cient, and involves no danger; therefore it 
 has been much in favor in English watches, 
 and if the movement can be gotten at, there 
 is nothing to be said against it. But in the 
 movements of the present period, the greater 
 part of which do not open with a joint, the 
 fastening with pins would be rather trouble¬ 
 some, because, for taking off the dial, it 
 would be necessary to take the movement out 
 of the case. 
 
 In all movements cased in this way, the 
 dial pillars ought to be held by key screws, 
 which allow taking off the dial without re¬ 
 moving the movement. 
 
 A very good method of fastening the dial 
 is to set it in a thin rim of silver or gold, 
 and adjust this rim nicely on the outer edge 
 of the pillar plate. Then, of course, the dial 
 requires no feet, and all the difficulties re¬ 
 sulting of collision of these feet with the 
 parts under the dial of complicated watches 
 are done away with. 
 
 The hands, in order to be distinctly seen, 
 ought to be of a dark color, and the gener¬ 
 ally adopted blue steel is far preferable to 
 gold for this purpose, and the figures and 
 hands ought to be a little more substantial 
 than the present taste prescribes for them. 
 The most convenient shape for the purpose 
 is the spade pattern ; the Breguet and fleurs- 
 de-lis hands not being so easily distinguished. 
 
 The circle of seconds ought to have every 
 fifth degree visibly marked by a longer and 
 stronger stroke, in order to facilitate the 
 reading of seconds. 
 
 Formerly, all the dials had flat seconds, 
 but since about thirty years it has been quite 
 common to have sunk seconds, even for in¬ 
 ferior watches. There is some advantage in 
 that, especially in flat watches, where it af¬ 
 fords accommodation for the seconds hand, 
 but at the same time it weakens the dial con¬ 
 siderably. This may be the reason why 
 some makers have the sunk part much 
 smaller, and the seconds painted on the 
 main dial, the lines extending inward to the 
 edge of the sink; the seconds hand is then 
 shorter, and moves in the sink. The dial 
 ought never to be made larger than the pillar 
 plate. _ 
 
 TO CORRECT THE CENTER STAFF. 
 
 HE repairer will often find, especially with 
 stem-winding watches, that the center 
 staff moves too easily. He will also find that 
 this defect has been corrected by working 
 burr on the staff by means of a graver or a 
 sharp file; it is true that this remedy will, 
 for a time, be quite efficacious, as it will, so 
 to speak, enlarge the staff and produce a stiff 
 motion. This is not of great duration, how¬ 
 ever, since, by the moving backward and 
 forward of the hands, the burr will gradually 
 drop off, and finally become a good grinding 
 material by combining with the oil, and in 
 due time will aggravate the defect by wear¬ 
 ing the center staff and the hole of the cen¬ 
 ter pinion, and the motion of the hands 
 becomes still looser. Should next the loos¬ 
 ened burr leave the pinion and combine with 
 the oil of the pivot, the consequence will be 
 still graver than formerly, because the jewel 
 holes and pivots of the center wheel will be 
 interfered with to such an extent that the 
 watch must become faulty in its rate. 
 
 It is the purpose of these lines to acquaint 
 my colleagues with another less known 
 method, which is both shorter and accom¬ 
 plishes the purpose much more securely than 
 the above. Fasten the square of the center 
 staff in the pin vise; if the staff has at some 
 previous time been treated in the above de¬ 
 scribed manner, go over it with the pivot file 
 and remove all traces ; then with a fine rat- 
 tail file file in it a so-called lantern, in such 
 a manner that it is about one-third of the 
 length of the center pinion away from the 
 square. Then lay the staff flat upon an un¬ 
 derlay, and gently tap it with the hammer in 
 such a manner that the upper part of the 
 notch slightly inclines to one side. This 
 notch, which will now exert a slightly springy 
 
LONG OR SHORT FORKS. 
 
 33 
 
 motion, will produce a greater tightness of 
 the staff, and if the operator is careful not 
 to file away more than from one-third to 
 one-half of the staff the watch will not be 
 exposed to the inconveniences frequently 
 occasioned by too great a looseness of the 
 motion work. 
 
 LONG OR SHORT FORKS. 
 
 B Y long and short forks we mean to distin¬ 
 guish those, the length of which contains 
 the diameter or rather the semi-diameter of 
 the table roller a greater or less number of 
 times. Thus we call a short fork one which 
 is 3 or 3J/2 times the length of the semi¬ 
 diameter of the table roller, and we would 
 call a long fork one which is 5 or 6 times 
 the length of the semi-diameter of the table 
 roller. In both instances the table roller is 
 to be measured from the staff hole center to 
 the radial center of the jewel pin, and the 
 fork from staff hole center to that point 
 in slot where it comes in contact with jewel 
 pin. Supposing the pallets acting with long 
 and short forks having the same impulse 
 angles, say 5 0 on each side, then the short 
 fork, as stated above, v T ould give from 30 0 
 to 35 0 impulse to balance and the long fork 
 would give from 50 0 to 6o° impulse to bal¬ 
 ance. The first point which forces itself 
 upon our observation is the disparity be¬ 
 tween the unlocking and impulse angles of 
 the two, as shown by the balance, /.<?., by the 
 angular motion traversed, for we have to sup¬ 
 pose that the unlocking angle, as between 
 wheel and pallet, is about the same or as 
 short as possible in both instances. Pre¬ 
 suming this to be the case, the unlocking of 
 the escapement by means of the long fork is 
 easier, but of longer duration, while that by 
 means of the short fork is harder, but of 
 shorter duration. But as the most acute re¬ 
 sistance in unlocking the escapement is felt 
 at the beginning, the unlocking by means of 
 the long fork would have an advantage over 
 that by means of the short fork, where the 
 stronger impact would make an unfavorable 
 impression on the balance pivot or pivots, 
 and affect position unfavorably and very un¬ 
 evenly in watches with unequal motive 
 power, or a going barrel during the twenty- 
 four hours running. But if both escape¬ 
 ments, with long and short forks, are propor¬ 
 tioned in their other parts, as they should 
 be, there is still a further advantage in favor 
 of the long fork by the pallet-staff pivots 
 having less pressure, and therefore less fric¬ 
 
 tion on account of the larger escape wheel, 
 making the unlocking easier on that account, 
 and this is quite important. 
 
 Another point in favor of the long fork 
 is shown by the following argument: Most 
 lever escapements can be brought to a stand¬ 
 still on the unlocking faces of the pallets by 
 an immoderate increase of the motive power, 
 showing thereby that the unlocking resist¬ 
 ance of the escapement is not in proportion 
 to the impulse force, and the former is too 
 great. But as the long fork lessens this re¬ 
 sistance by making the unlocking easier and 
 of longer duration, instead it shows a move 
 in the right direction, which has a tendency 
 to make the motion of the balance more 
 uniform with a varying motive power (a go¬ 
 ing barrel), and therefore more isochronous, 
 regardless of any condition of the balance 
 spring. 
 
 Furthermore, as the long continued im¬ 
 pulse on the balance by means of the long 
 fork for 50, 60 or more degrees, has the 
 effect to accelerate the motion of the balance 
 more and more during the progress of the 
 impulse, the retarding of the motion of the 
 balance by the unlocking resistance of the 
 escapement is more likely to be neutralized, 
 and we are more likely to come near a per¬ 
 fect isochronism by means of the hairspring 
 in adjusted watches. Adjusters of watches 
 will readily see this, as the unlocking of the 
 escapement is their great bugbear. 
 
 We will next discuss the advantages of 
 the short fork, the advantages of the one be¬ 
 ing the disadvantages of the other. 
 
 It is a well-known fact that all watches 
 having the lever escapement have a ten¬ 
 dency to gradually go slow or lose on their 
 rate on account of the oil on the escape¬ 
 ment, and it is principally on this account 
 that the chronometer escapement excels the 
 lever escapement. This tendency is more 
 pronounced the longer the escape wheel lin¬ 
 gers on the pallet faces during the running 
 of the watch. Therefore, watches with 
 lively motions are desirable and will perform 
 better or keep their rate better for a long 
 time than those with short motion, and it is 
 a standing rule that the contact between the 
 balance and the escapement should be of as. 
 short a duration as possible to avoid the oil 
 influence as much as possible. This is in 
 favor of short forks or a short impulse angle 
 and quick beat. But in order to derive the 
 full benefit from them, it is indispensable 
 necessary to have all the details of the c,- 
 
34 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROPORTIONS OF A WATCH BALANCE. 
 
 capement executed in the most perfect man¬ 
 ner, as a deep locking, too much drop or 
 carelessly fitted pivot holes (either any one 
 or all of them) would neutralize any advan¬ 
 tage which we might have a right to expect 
 from a short impulse angle or a quick beat, 
 and a short motion with a short fork is no 
 better and not as good as a large motion 
 with a long fork, where the extent of vibra¬ 
 tion would more than equalize matters. It 
 has always seemed to me to be a popular 
 error to assert that a quick beat, or, say, an 
 18,000 beat train, should go better on a 
 railroad than 16,200 beat train, as the latter 
 is more easily isochronized. Of course, a 
 good deal always depends on the general 
 construction, extent of vibration and weight 
 of balance, or, as the French would say, “ le 
 tout ensemble.” 
 
 THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROPOR¬ 
 TIONS OF A WATCH BALANCE. 
 
 A BOUT thirty-five years ago fusee watches 
 . had the lead in this country. Adjust¬ 
 ing watches to heat, cold and position was 
 hardly known and not appreciated, because 
 the public had not been educated. A 
 Charles Frodsham watch was the ne plus 
 ultra. The only watch not having a fusee 
 and which began to assert itself about this 
 time, was the watch made by Jules Jurgen- 
 sen, of Lode, Suisse. Of all the Swiss 
 watches I had seen before the advent of this 
 one or which I have seen since, none would 
 hold its rate for years as well as this one, 
 though during the twenty-four hours’ run¬ 
 ning it did not equal the fusee watch for 
 regularity, but it would always show an error 
 during the last two hours of its running 
 or before being re-wound. Gradually the 
 competition between fusee watches and go¬ 
 ing barrel watches became intensified. Fi¬ 
 nally it was established to the satisfaction of 
 the two parties in this country, who took op¬ 
 posite views in the matter, that it was pos¬ 
 sible to make a watch with a going barrel 
 which would run with the same regularity as 
 a fusee watch, and the fact was clearly es¬ 
 tablished that it could be accomplished by 
 proportioning the momentum of the balance 
 to the motive power in such a manner, that, 
 should the vibration of the balance be dis¬ 
 turbed by local or external influences, the 
 motive power stood in such proportion to 
 the momentum of the balance and the es¬ 
 capement, that they would not disturb the 
 regularity of the time-keeping, or, in other 
 
 words, that the time lost in the motion of 
 the balance in unlocking the escapement was 
 recovered by the accelerating effect of the 
 impulse, no matter what the extent of the 
 vibration might be. Heretofore the large 
 sized English fusee watches usually carried 
 balances weighing as much as 16 grains, 
 while the weight of the balances in our best 
 American going barrel watches is probably 
 between 8 and 9 grains. It is not the weight 
 of the balance only, however, which is our 
 guide, but it is the momentum of the balance 
 with which we have to deal. 
 
 A balance measuring 1 inch in diameter, 
 controlled by a balance spring which brings 
 it to time, would have to be four times as 
 heavy if it were only y 2 inch in diameter, if 
 it were to be controlled by the same balance 
 spring as the former, being 1 inch in diame¬ 
 ter. But why ? Because the rim of the 
 small balance is only half the distance from 
 the center, and any given point in the rim 
 would have only half the distance to travel 
 for an equal angular motion with the large 
 balance. But the smaller balance would 0 
 have double the momentum of the large bal¬ 
 ance, because momentum is weight multi¬ 
 plied by velocity, and if we multiply the 
 weight of the small balance, which is four 
 times as great as that of the large balance, 
 by the velocity, which is one-half of the large 
 balance, we have a momentum twice as 
 great, 
 
 or, 1 inch x 16 grs. = 16. 
 
 £ “ X 64 grs. = 32. 
 
 Here, then, we have the power to regulate 
 the momentum of the balance and make it 
 suitable to any watch, and here, also, we 
 have the power to make the momentum 
 suitable to any motive power and to make a 
 watch run uniform, no matter how much 
 the extent of vibration may vary. 
 
 If this is true, can we wonder how some 
 watches, even with isochronized hairsprings, 
 run so much poorer than some others. The 
 whole trouble in such cases lies in the badly 
 proportioned balances, if the escapement and 
 everything else has been attended to. Long 
 and short forks, lockings and impulse angles, 
 pivots, etc., all are factors in the problem. 
 
 Next: As I understand it, the prevalent 
 and accepted theory is that the balance 
 spring must always be made to suit the bal¬ 
 ance for isochronism. But we can also so 
 change the momentum of the balance, as to 
 produce isochronism without ever changing 
 
ISOCHRONISM. 
 
 35 
 
 the spring one particle. Small and heavy 
 balances have a greater tendency to go fast 
 in the short vibrations, while large and light 
 balances (both being to time with the same 
 balance spring) have a tendency to go fast 
 on short motions, and all this is owing to a 
 ■different development of the momentum be¬ 
 tween the two. The small and heavy bal¬ 
 ance develops its momentum faster and over¬ 
 comes the resistance of the balance spring 
 easier on the long vibrations, and causes a 
 watch to go slow on the long vibrations. 
 The larger and lighter balance develops its 
 momentum slower; in fact, it can never de¬ 
 velop the same amount of momentum under 
 any condition as the small balance, because 
 the proportion between the arm and the rim 
 .shows a less pronounced difference. 
 
 A similar theory applies to watches hav¬ 
 ing slow and quick trains. The slower the 
 vibrations of a watch the less control has the 
 balance spring over the balance, if the latter 
 is of the same proportion as the balance of 
 a quick beat train, and the development of 
 the momentum of the balance in a slow beat 
 train is proportionately faster than the de¬ 
 velopment of the force of the balance spring, 
 the latter being, by the very force of cir¬ 
 cumstances, weaker and incapable of devel- 
 cping the same force as the balance spring 
 in the quick beat train. The effect on the 
 isochronous condition of the balance springs 
 of the two becomes at once apparent. 
 
 ISOCHRONISM. 
 
 A LTERING the length of the balance 
 ■ spring brings a multitude of new factors 
 into operation, which more justly claim and 
 are constantly quoted as being the actual 
 causes of isochronism and its variation ; and 
 this may explain the confusion of ideas and 
 the contradictions so general on this subject. 
 Most writers and practical men, who do not 
 take the trouble to theorize, are quite sure of 
 the fact that a variation of length causes a 
 variation of isochronism. Saunier’s book on 
 horology quotes and indorses various au¬ 
 thorities to show that a certain length of 
 spring is necessary to secure isochronism, 
 especially with spiral or flat springs. Mr. 
 Glasgow, in his admirable practical articles 
 on springing, contends for length as a prim* 
 element in securing isochronism, and makes 
 no reference to the spring being made ec¬ 
 centric or small, except as a matter of con¬ 
 venience or as a means of altering the ad¬ 
 
 justment for position. I can find no refer¬ 
 ence to the eccentric action of the spring as 
 a means of curing errors of isochronism, 
 until Mr. Kullberg gave me the idea, and 
 there can be no doubt but that it is correct. 
 
 Like will cure like—that which causes the 
 disease will cure it. The want of concen¬ 
 tricity or truth in action is the cause of va¬ 
 riation in long and short arcs, or want 
 of isochronism, and long springs, tapered 
 springs, Breguet springs and double-curve 
 springs are used and proved to promote isoch¬ 
 ronism ; yet notwithstanding the inferiority 
 of the flat spring—a single look at which in 
 action shows its marked inferiority—practi¬ 
 cal results are obtained with it equaling the 
 more perfect springs; and if acceleration of 
 the short arc is desired, to neutralize the re¬ 
 tarding influence of oil in cold, is most easily 
 obtained by it. This shows that the error 
 which is incident to this spring, as usually 
 applied, causes the watch to gain on the 
 long arcs and lose on the short. By revers¬ 
 ing this error, we can utilize it. A spring 
 pinned to be quite true at the collet and stud 
 when at rest, develops a series of eccentric 
 circles of increasing eccentricity as the arc 
 of vibration increases. As the' eccentricity, 
 so is the errof in long and short arcs. A 
 spring being most easily wound when most 
 true, the eccentricity causes a relative in¬ 
 crease of power or butting action, which ac¬ 
 celerates the action where it occurs. If we 
 fix the spring on the collet and stud so as to 
 throw the eccentricity when at rest near the 
 stud, we can have all the eccentricity in the 
 short arcs of vibration causing their acceler¬ 
 ation, or, dividing it between the long and 
 short arcs, secure a circulation of the spring 
 in the middle of its vibration. The matter 
 may be summed up as one of convenience, 
 and in springing with the flat, the circularity 
 of the spring, with the balance turned half 
 the distance it usually vibrates, must be 
 created, if it is to be isochronous. The Bre¬ 
 guet and chronometer springs do not, when 
 perfect, move on the balance circle, but with 
 it; the flat spring travels to and from the 
 center if pinned quite true, and the spring 
 circle is only eccentric when at rest, and the 
 whole of its eccentric action is on one side 
 of the balance, on which it exerts a con¬ 
 stantly increasing influence. When pinned 
 out of circle when at rest, the circle travels 
 with a diminishing eccentricity to the cen¬ 
 ter of the balance, then becomes concentric 
 with it, and the increased motion creates in- 
 
3^ 
 
 TO POLISH A WHEEL. 
 
 creasing eccentricity on the other side of the 
 center of the balance. By this means the 
 eccentricity of the spring may be utilized to 
 secure or vary isochronism ; and this, doubt¬ 
 less, is the basis of all the changes that are 
 recognized as resulting from altering the 
 length of spring. Perfect truth in a spiral 
 spring being impossible, the spring is shifted 
 about until the error it contains is neutralized 
 or balanced. In the face of this fact, one 
 will be astonished at the opposite opinions 
 expressed on this point. Urban Jurgersen 
 states that the taped spring will 'give isoch- 
 ronism, which is correct, and twice asserts 
 that the short arcs are quickened with ordi¬ 
 nary springs by increasing the length of 
 spring. This is contrary to what is usually 
 asserted, though some writers say, if the 
 short arcs are not accelerated by taking up 
 the spring, let some out. Mr. Immisch re¬ 
 pudiates length as of any consequence ; and 
 Mr. F. Cole, in his treatise, says the altered 
 length of spring has of itself no influence as 
 a principle in counteracting errors of isoch¬ 
 ronism, which is chiefly effected by the 
 change of length, altering the mechanical re¬ 
 lation of the .collet with the stud. Mr. Cole’s 
 essay, I am inclined to think, is the most 
 valuable one we have on the subject, as he 
 proves that the subject of isochronism of the 
 balance includes the whole art of watchmak¬ 
 ing, and also shows that isochronism, pure 
 and simple, is only to be found apart from 
 watchworks, as a branch of pneumatics re¬ 
 lating to vibrating or oscillating bodies, 
 though he makes the singular mistake of as¬ 
 serting that no sufficient test of the isochro¬ 
 nism of vibrating strings, reeds or pipes can 
 be had in long and short arcs of vibration, as 
 these only have an extent of a few seconds 
 time after any given blow or impulsion. 
 
 I will conclude with an experiment show¬ 
 ing the value of the Kullberg idea of putting 
 the spring close to the stud or index. A 
 common'eight-day lever timepiece, a con¬ 
 stant eye-sore, owing to its gaining some 
 three or four minutes when fully wound, and 
 losing the same when nearly run down, 
 offered an inviting field for experiment; and 
 making no alteration beyond setting its spring 
 well toward the stud, no difference could be 
 detected between the first and last of the 
 eight days in its time, which seemed perfect. 
 I have not succeeded in getting it to gain in 
 the short arcs, and a recent experiment in 
 putting the spring very much out of circle 
 toward the stud, seems to develop so much 
 
 friction at the pivots, which are not jeweled 
 —it being a common Yankee with the usual 
 steel holes—that the original fault seems to 
 develop ; and it may be observed that bal¬ 
 ancing the friction at the pivots, as shown 
 by increased arc of vibration, and observing 
 the circular appearance of the spring in 
 actual motion, is the best practical guide for 
 success in this direction. 
 
 TO POLISH A WHEEL. 
 
 ASY as it may seem, nevertheless the 
 polishing of a wheel is quite a difficult 
 matter—that is, to a workman who is not 
 accustomed to polishing—to insure success. 
 It is like everything else in watch work, it 
 requires a fair amount of practice, personal 
 instruction and the greatest cleanliness. If 
 the operator is unsuccessful, he may, in the 
 majority of cases, trace his failure to a want 
 of cleanliness. Put a cork, cut flat on top, 
 in the vise, place the wheel on the cork as 
 far as the pinion will allow ; take a bluestone, 
 which was previously reduced to an even 
 face by having been rubbed on a stone, and 
 water, and stone the wheels smooth and flag 
 at the same time keep turning the wheel 
 round with the left hand; then wash it out 
 and put in a box with some slaked powdered 
 lime; the object of this is merely to dry it, 
 and prevent the pinion from getting stained 
 or rusty. Then brush it out nice and clean, 
 put another cork, cut clean and flat, in a 
 vise; then pound on a stake some fine red- 
 stuff. Some workmen add a little rouge, 
 but that is according to fancy. Take a slip 
 of tin, about the size of a watchmaker’s file, 
 only thicker; file the end of one side flat 
 and smooth, charge it with a little of the 
 red-stuff and polish the wheel, keeping it 
 turning all the time with the left hand, and 
 do not leave off until the wheel and tin pol¬ 
 isher are almost dry, so that you can see the 
 polish; and, if to your satisfaction, clean it 
 off with pieces of soft bread, and brush it 
 out. If it has scratches on it bread them 
 off, and clean off the tin and charge it again 
 with the red-stuff. As said, cleanliness is of 
 great importance, for if there be any grit 
 about the red-stuff, polisher, or the fingers 
 of the workman, the work will be full of 
 scratches. 
 
 The above system applies to solid train 
 wheels only. 
 
 Escape wheels are polished in the same 
 way, but before they are put on the pinion. 
 
FUNCTION OF INERTIA IN THE ACTION OF ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 37 
 
 Solid wheels, such as fusee and movement 
 wheels, are polished in the turns, using soft 
 wood or burdock pith instead of tin. There 
 is another way for polishing them, however, 
 which is quite as often employed, by which 
 they are fixed to a small brass block. The 
 block is heated in a bluing pan, and a piece 
 of resin passed lightly over it so as to leave 
 a very thin varnish only, which is quite 
 enough to make the wheel adhere; there 
 should be circles marked on the face of the 
 block as a guide for fixing the wheel as 
 nearly central as possible, or else a small pin 
 in the center of the block to go through the 
 hole in the wheel with the same object. The 
 wheel fixed to the block is first rubbed till 
 quite flat on a piece of bluestone having a 
 true surface, which is kept moistened with 
 water ; it is rubbed with a circular motion by 
 means of a pointer (generally a drill stock), 
 and pressed down on the middle of the back 
 of the block, which is hollow. The wheel is 
 thoroughly cleaned and then polished on a 
 block of grain tin with sharp red-stuff and 
 •oil well beaten up previously. The block of 
 tin rests on a leather pad. When one side 
 of the wheel is finished it is placed again in 
 the bluing pan. The old resin is cleaned 
 •off, and the finished side of the wheel fixed 
 to the block. After both sides are polished, 
 the w’heel is placed in spirits of wine to re¬ 
 move any resin adhering to it. 
 
 Pierced wheels are first rubbed flat on a 
 cork with a bluestone. After cleansing they 
 are polished with a soft tin polisher and 
 moderately sharp red-stuff, using a slightly 
 •circular stroke. Instead of a plain cork 
 some finishers use a half round cork resting 
 in a notch cut in another cork. When quite 
 smooth the wheels are washed in soap and 
 water, and burnished on a clean hard cork 
 with a burnisher well rubbed on a board with 
 rotten-stone or red-stuff. 
 
 Another method for polishing wheels is 
 also much employed: Grind the wheel 
 well upon a cork, and pay strict attention to 
 remove all the burr from the limbs. Then 
 polish with a zinc file moistened with crocus 
 and alcohol. After the wheel has been 
 polished with it, take a sword file and finish 
 polishing with it. Before using, the sword 
 file is to be sharpened and rubbed with a 
 little wax, after which the file is wiped off 
 upon a piece of cloth, so that only a film of 
 wax remains upon it. A brass wheel mav 
 also be polished in the following manner, 
 viz. : by grinding it with slate stone and oil. 
 
 and polishing with diamantine upon box¬ 
 wood with a few short strokes. For sharp¬ 
 ening the sword file emery paper is much 
 employed, after which the file is in gradation 
 sharpened upon decreasing by emery. 
 
 INERTIA. 
 
 HE meaning of scientific terms, says a 
 contemporary, is often in part lost when 
 they are employed by practical men. Thus the 
 word inertia is, with them, synonymous with 
 equilibrium ; a balance of a watch, a wheel 
 or a pair of pallets is in a state of inertia, 
 according to the erroneous language of the 
 workshop, when that balance, etc., is equili¬ 
 brated on the horizontal axis in all the po¬ 
 sitions we can cause it to assume. Such an 
 employment of the term is unfortunate. 
 
 Inertia is that property by which a body, 
 when at rest, remains at rest, and when in 
 motion remains in motion. It is exemplified 
 in the excessive resistance offered by a body 
 to being suddenly set in motion or brought 
 suddenly to rest when in motion. 
 
 A horse, harnessed to a heavy wagon, 
 strains violently and makes great efforts in 
 order to set it in motion, but draws it along 
 with ease when this is once accomplished. 
 On the contrary, when the wagon has at¬ 
 tained a considerable velocity, the horse 
 cannot stop suddenly without receiving a 
 violent push forward. These two effects 
 are due to the inertia of the mass of the 
 wagon. 
 
 FUNCTION OF INERTIA IN THE AC¬ 
 TION OF ESCAPEMENT. — HEAVY 
 WHEELS. 
 
 VERY wheel, however light it be, must 
 have some appreciable weight; it is, 
 therefore, subject to the law of inertia. 
 Hence results that when we wish to set in 
 motion a wheel round its axis it cannot com¬ 
 mence moving at once ; there is a transition 
 period of rest which, although not always 
 perceptible, is none the less real, and the 
 wheel only attains its maximum velocity 
 after a certain arc has been traversed by 
 any point on its circumference. 
 
 As the effects of intrtia thus increase with 
 the weight of the body, and its velocity, it is 
 important to note the influence on escape¬ 
 ments, especially during the lift action ; the 
 wheel then travels during a very short space 
 of time with a considerable velocity. The 
 

 ERRORS WITH REGARD TO LIGHT WHEELS. 
 
 following example of the influence of inertia 
 has actually occurred in practice: In a de¬ 
 tent escapement, with an escape wheel full 
 heavy, the motion of the balance was slug¬ 
 gish and the vibration was of but moderate 
 extent. The workman engaged on it cut 
 away part of the interior of the wheel and 
 reduced its arms ; in short, materially dimin¬ 
 ished its weight, and, by this simple change, 
 very appreciably increased the extent of the 
 vibration of the balance. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to explain that the 
 heavy wheel, offering an excessive resistance 
 to motion, supplemented the resistance 
 caused by friction and oil; as the wheel 
 was longer in commencing its motion and 
 turned more sluggishly, it did not come in 
 contact with the lever of impulse until the 
 latter had traversed a considerable portion 
 of its angular path. The final result was a 
 noise and but slight impulse. The wheel, 
 after being reduced, commenced its motion 
 sooner, and, almost immediately coming in 
 contact with the lever, accelerated its motion 
 to the required extent. 
 
 ERRORS WITH REGARD TO LIGHT 
 WHEELS. 
 
 ROM observations analogous to that 
 above described, it is generally assumed 
 and set down as a mechanical truth, that in 
 every escapement the wheel should be as light 
 as possible. A question which has not received 
 sufficient attention has thus been decided in 
 a very absolute manner, and the solution of 
 a particular problem has been made binding 
 on all the escapements used in horology. 
 Would awheel entirely wanting in inertia be 
 a valuable acquisition ? There seems to be 
 great reason to suppose that it would not. 
 But although such a case could not occur, 
 since the metals employed always have an 
 appreciable weight, it is none the less useful 
 to point out that the velocity of rotation to 
 be communicated to a wheel depends on the 
 manner in which it influences the lever of 
 the balance, and on the amount of energy it 
 is required to give out while actually impell¬ 
 ing the balance. The following observation 
 of a clever watchmaker, M. Moinet, will do 
 more to explain the subject than a consider¬ 
 able amount of argument, and will also illus¬ 
 trate the converse of the case above cited : 
 A chronometer escapement worked well 
 although the wheel was somewhat heavy, 
 
 but when this was rendered lighter it caused 
 the escapement to catch. The excessive 
 lightness of the wheel was evidently the cause 
 of this fault, as it changed position more 
 rapidly than the balance; that is to say, in¬ 
 stead of contact with the face of the pallet 
 when it had time to recoil to a suitable po¬ 
 sition, the wheel commenced moving with 
 considerable rapidity and struck the angular 
 extremity of the lever, producing a butting 
 action.* 
 
 Every watchmaker is aware that a slight 
 displacement of the lever of impulse is all 
 that is required in order to avoid stoppage, 
 and that the above case is only quoted as 
 an example of the influence of inertia. Ex¬ 
 periment and a consideration of the nature 
 of the metals actually employed show with¬ 
 out doubt that in those watches in which the 
 vibrations are rapid, it is necessary to make 
 the escape wheel as light as possible, but 
 care must be taken not to unduly diminish 
 its solidity. The w y ord solidity does not 
 here merely imply that the wheel must resist 
 certain causes of breakage or distortion ; but 
 an escapement wheel must be absolutely 
 firm throughout, and this firmness can only 
 be secured by care in the choice of the 
 metal employed and of the form given to the 
 wheel. Thus, an arm of a wheel of rectan¬ 
 gular section is less rigid when placed edge¬ 
 ways than when its broader face is parallel 
 to the plane of the wheel. With regard to 
 such horological appliances as are regarded 
 by a pendulum or a heavy annular balance, 
 it remains for experiment to ascertain whether 
 a certain slight amount of resistance due to 
 inertia in the wheel is not necessary, since 
 the wheel must move with a velocity deter¬ 
 mined (i) by the greater or less inertia of a 
 train of wheels of a definite weight which 
 abandons its state of rest or recoil; and (2) 
 by the velocity acquired by the lever on 
 which the wheel acts, a lever whose motion 
 is slow in comparison with the velocities met 
 with in watch movements. Inertia is pro¬ 
 portional to the masses of bodies when their 
 velocities are equal, and to the squares, 
 of their velocities when their masses are 
 equal. 
 
 * The editor urges the following objection to this- 
 conclusion : This does not appear a sound argument 
 against a light wheel. Evidently the heavy wheel 
 moved slower on account of its weight, and there¬ 
 fore allowed the balance time to travel far enough to 
 receive the scape wheel tooth on the impulse roller; 
 set the roller back half a degree and this error could 
 not occur, no matter how light the escape wheel. 
 
CLOCK REPAIRING. 
 
 39 
 
 PIVOTING A BALANCE STAFF. 
 
 INIONS vary, so do working methods. 
 We all may have our peculiar notions 
 how a job should be done, and it is not well 
 for any one to prescribe the way in which, and 
 in no other, it should be done. Let us take 
 as an illustration the putting of a pivot into 
 a staff. Some say it should first be driven 
 out of the balance; I never do it, however, 
 and I flatter myself that I do a job not in¬ 
 ferior to that of many. I am convinced 
 that both the staff and the balance are liable 
 to sustain more injury by being driven out 
 and put back than by carefully drawing the 
 temper. If the watch is of so fine a quality 
 that the temper might not be drawn, then 
 for the same reason a pivot should not be 
 put into it, but a new staff. In such a case 
 I always turn the rivet off, so that the staff 
 comes out easily, without straining the bal¬ 
 ance. 
 
 Many years of experience have taught me 
 to regard my way of putting in a staff or 
 pinion to be the best. It is as follows : Take 
 a slice of potato, a quarter of an inch or so 
 thick, and another much thinner, place your 
 wheel or balance fairly in the middle of the 
 hole between the two slices, the thin slice on 
 the side in which the pivot is to be put. If 
 it is the lower pivot, blow a jet of gas parallel 
 with the balance. This ought, not to alter 
 the temper of the balance. If it is a top 
 pivot, stick a piece of potato on the other 
 pivot and blow a-sharp jet of gas through 
 the hole. The slices of potato must be 
 pressed firmly together, and fastened by 
 sticking a few pins obliquely through them. 
 Now cement a brass or ivory collet on with 
 beeswax, place it in the turns, with the 
 broken end running on the stump or shoulder. 
 See that the balance runs true and flat; you 
 will probably find it all right; if not, make it 
 so before proceeding further. 
 
 I might say here that I do all this kind of 
 work with the bow and turns, and consider 
 it the only correct way. I have been fooled 
 a few times in doing this kind of a job with 
 a lathe and chuck, and found that when I 
 supposed the job was finished, I have dis¬ 
 covered that the end gripped in the chuck, 
 instead of running to its center, had been 
 describing a small circle. Being satisfied 
 that the balance runs true, turn or reduce 
 with a file to the shoulder, whether it be 
 long or short—having previously noticed or 
 gauged the length of it, down to the part on 
 which the spring collet fits. Find your cen¬ 
 
 ter as near as you can; it is desirable to get 
 the center, but not absolutely necessary, with 
 the top pivot. Chamfer it out with a piece 
 of hard steel with three-sided point. Put it 
 into the turns, and proceed to drill it with a 
 large drill, and see to it that the old pivot 
 in this and all subsequent operations turns 
 on a brass center, clean and well oiled, or 
 you may find to your discomfort by the time 
 your job is finished, that it is worn so short 
 as to render the staff useless. I have for 
 several years made my drills of piano wire. 
 It is very soft when annealed, and very 
 strong with a hard temper, and in just the 
 proper temper for pivots, as you buy it. Try 
 it once, and you will never use anything 
 else. 
 
 Harden your small drills by giving a red 
 heat, and a vigorous shake in the air; large 
 ones by sticking them in a potato, soap or 
 wax. When hard, clean them by holding 
 them loosely with finger and thumb, resting 
 on a cork in the vise, and rub with pumice 
 stone as you would any piece of steel work 
 for a watch. If you use the wire I have 
 recommended, just a tinge of straw color 
 will cut well. Having drilled the hole deep 
 enough, fit your pivot in by filing first, and 
 then grinding it in with a little oil-stone dust; 
 when fitted well, cut the piece off as long as 
 required, to give room for turning, take a 
 little off the end that goes in the staff, with 
 a slip of stone, put your balance and staff in 
 the riveting stake, and drive your pivot with 
 a few light taps of the hammer, moving your 
 job round a bit between each tap. Point 
 the new pivot, and put it into your turns; 
 your balance will now show any deviation 
 from the center. Alter the point till the 
 balance runs perfectly true, then proceed to 
 turn a new shoulder and pivot. All this will 
 apply to a wheel and pinion. 
 
 clock' repairing. 
 
 CONSIDERABLE part of the life of the 
 country watchmaker, says a correspond¬ 
 ent in one of our European exchanges, is spent 
 in repairing and cleaning clocks, so that a 
 few practical remarks on this subject may 
 perhaps be of use to some who may not have 
 the advantage of being able to refer to an 
 experienced workman when in a difficulty. 
 Occasionally even good workmen are non¬ 
 plussed, an instance of which occurred only 
 a few days before writing. A fine chime 
 clock by a good maker was sent to him with 
 
40 
 
 CLOCK REPAIRING. 
 
 a message “ that it stopped sometimes, and 
 the chimes persisted in getting wrong ” ; it 
 had only recently been in the hands of a 
 good workman, who had passed it as correct. 
 ()n examination the correspondent found the 
 quarter gathering pallet split right through 
 Lie boss, consequently when the train was 
 stopped by the tail of the gathering pallet 
 engaging with the pin in the rack, the pallet 
 opened and allowed the square on the arbor 
 to rotate, thus throwing the chimes into con¬ 
 fusion. On taking the clock to pieces and 
 opening the barrels, he found, as he had 
 anticipated, that several of the inner coils 
 of the springs were lying close round the 
 barrel arbors, proving that the springs were 
 exhausted or set; this accounted for the 
 stopping which occurred toward the end of 
 the week. The correspondent mentioned 
 this instance simply to show how easy it is 
 for even an experienced workman to be de¬ 
 ceived unless he pursues a methodical course 
 in examining for faults. 
 
 The course that 1 have always followed has 
 been : After taking the movement from its 
 case, removing the hands, dial, minute cock, 
 and bridge, to try the escapement with some 
 power on, and note any faults there. Next 
 remove the cock and pallets—putting a peg 
 between the escape wheel arms to prevent it 
 from running down—and carefully let down 
 the spring; you will meet with a difficulty 
 here sometimes; if the spring has been set 
 up too far, and the clock is fully wound up, 
 it may not be possible to move the barrel 
 arbor sufficiently to get the click out of the 
 ratchet. In many old clocks there will be 
 found a contrivance to meet this difficulty. 
 It is simply a hole drilled at the bottom of 
 and between the great wheel teeth directly 
 over the tail of the click, so that it is possible 
 to put a key on the fusee square and the point 
 of a fine joint pusher through the hole, release 
 the click, and allow the fusee to turn gently 
 back until it is down. This is a great conven¬ 
 ience sometimes, and it is a wonder that it is 
 not still done. Having let down the spring, 
 try all pivots for wide holes, and if it is a 
 striking clock, do the same with the striking 
 train, paying particular attention to the pal¬ 
 let pinion front pivot to see if it is worn, and 
 the rack depth made unsafe thereby—also 
 seeing that none of the rack teeth are bent 
 or broken. Having noted the faults, if any, 
 I take the clock to pieces, and look over all 
 the pivots, and note those that require re¬ 
 polishing. Finally I take out the barrel 
 
 cover and see to the condition of the springs ; 
 as I have already referred to the appearance 
 of a spring when it is exhausted or soft, I 
 need not do so again here. 
 
 In most cases, some repairs will be re¬ 
 quired to the pallets, as these nearly always 
 show signs of wear first; if they are not 
 much cut, the marks can be polished out 
 without much trouble—and for this purpose 
 you will find that a small disc of corundum, 
 about three inches in diameter, mounted 
 truly on an arbor, and run at a high speed 
 on the lathe, will be of great assistance; 
 finishing off with the iron or steel polisher 
 and sharp red-stuff. If you have to close 
 the pallets to make the escape correct, see 
 that the pallet arms are not left hard, or you 
 may break them. 
 
 If the pallets require much alteration, or 
 you have to make a new pair, use any one 
 of the tools found at the material stores. 
 After making any alteration in the pallets, 
 you will generally find it necessary to cor¬ 
 rect the depth. Should it only require a 
 slight alteration, probably it will be suffi¬ 
 cient to knock out the steady pins in the 
 cock, and screw it on so that it can be shifted 
 by the fingers until you have the depth cor¬ 
 rect, then screw it tight and broach out the 
 steady pin holes, and fit new pins. The re¬ 
 pairer will occasionally meet with a pallet 
 arbor that has been bent to correct the depth. 
 This is a practice that cannot be too strongly 
 condemned, as it throws an unequal pressure 
 on the pivots, and causes them to cut rapidly. 
 If much alteration in the depth is required, 
 it may be necessary to put in a new .back 
 pallet hole; this can be made from a piece 
 of hollow bushing, broached out and turned 
 true on an arbor, and to a length equal to 
 the thickness of the plate. It is not safe to 
 rely on the truth of this bushing, unless it is 
 turned on an arbor first. The hole in the 
 plate is now with the round filer drawn in 
 the direction required, and opened with a 
 broach from the inside until the bushing 
 enters about half way. Of course, in finish¬ 
 ing broaching the hole, you will roughen the 
 extremities to form rivets. Drive the bush¬ 
 ing in, and rivet it with a round-faced punch 
 from the outside, reverse it, and rest the 
 bushing on the punch, and rivet the inside 
 with the pane of the hammer; remove any 
 excess of brass with the file, chamfer out the 
 oil sink, and stone off any file marks; finally 
 opening the hole for the pivot to the proper 
 size. Of course, if you have a depthing tool 
 
CLOCK REPAIRING. 
 
 4 
 
 that will take in the escape wheel and pal¬ 
 lets, it will be quicker to put them in the 
 tool, fill up both holes with solid bushings, 
 and replant them. 
 
 The repairer will also very frequently meet 
 with a scape pinion that has become so badly 
 cut or worn as to be useless, and one can¬ 
 not always purchase a new one of the right 
 size; in this case, it will be necessary to 
 make it from the wire which can be obtained 
 of every size at the tool shops. In sectoring 
 the pinion wire to the wheel, bear in mind 
 that it will become slightly smaller in filling 
 up. As perhaps some workmen may not 
 have had any experience in making pinions, 
 I will briefly describe the process; but con¬ 
 siderable practice is required to make good 
 shaped pinions quickly and well. 
 
 A piece of pinion wire of a slightly greater 
 diameter than the pinion is to be when 
 finished is cut about one-eighth of an inch 
 longer than required, and the position of the 
 leaves or head marked with two notches 
 with a file. The level portion of the wire 
 that is not required is now carefully filed 
 down on a filing block, taking care not to 
 remove any of the arbor in so doing; a cen¬ 
 ter is then filed at each end true with the 
 arbor, and these centers turned true through 
 a hole in a. runner or center in the throw. 
 If this has been carefully done, the pinion 
 will be nearly true; it is now set quite true, 
 and the arbor and faces of the pinion turned 
 square and smooth. The pinion is now filed 
 out true, using a hollow-edged bottoming 
 file for the spaces, and a pinion rounding 
 file for the sides of the leaves. In using 
 the bottoming file, the pinion is rested in the 
 gallows tool and held in the fingers of the 
 leaves, when finishing, to keep them flat. 
 The file marks are now taken out with fine 
 emery and oil; the polishers that I always 
 have used for this purpose are pieces of 
 wainscot oak, about a quarter of an inch 
 thick, five inches broad and six inches long, 
 used endway of the grain. One end is planed 
 to a V-shape, to go between the leaves, and 
 the other cut into grooves by rubbing it on 
 the sharp edges of the pinion itself, which 
 speedily cuts it into grooves to fit. The 
 pinion is rested, while being polished, in a 
 block of soft deal, which allows it to give to 
 the hand, and keep it flat. 
 
 When the file marks are all out, the pinion 
 is ready for hardening. Twist a piece of 
 stout binding wire around it, and cover it 
 with soap; heat it carefully in a dead fire, 
 
 and quench it in a pail of water that has 
 been stirred into a whirlpool by an assistant, 
 taking care to dip it vertically. Having 
 dried it, it is covered with tallow and held 
 over a clear fire, until the tallow ignites; it 
 is allowed to burn for a moment, and then 
 blown out and allowed to cool. The leaves 
 are now polished out with crocus and oil in 
 the same way that they previously were with 
 emery. Now, if the pinion is put in the 
 centers and tried, it will probably be found 
 to have warped a little in hardening. This 
 is corrected in the following manner.' 
 
 The routiding side of the arbor is laid on 
 a soft iron stake, and the hollow side stretched 
 by a series of light blows with the pane of 
 the hammer, given at regular intervals along 
 the curve. Having got the leaves to run 
 quite true by this means, turn both arbors 
 true and polish them with the double sticks 
 —these are simply two pieces of thin box¬ 
 wood, about three-eighths of an inch -wide 
 and three inches long—fastened together at 
 one extremity and open at the other; be¬ 
 tween these the arbor is pinched with oil 
 and fine emery, and they are traversed from 
 end to end, to take out the graver marks. 
 
 The brass for the collet, to which the 
 wheel is riveted, is now drilled, broached, 
 and turned roughly to shape on an arbor. 
 The position on the pinion arbor is marked 
 with a fine nick, and the collet soldered on 
 with soft solder and a spirit-lamp, taking 
 care not to draw the temper of the arbor 
 when doing so. Wash it out in soda and 
 water, and polish the arbors with crocus, 
 turn the collet true, and fit the wheel on. 
 If the pinion face is to be polished, it is now 
 done, the facing-tool being a piece of iron 
 about one-sixteenth of an inch thick, with a 
 slit in it to fit over the arbor with slight fric¬ 
 tion, and using oil-stone dust first, and then 
 sharp red-stuff. 
 
 Generally, cut pinions are used for the 
 centers, and in this case the body of the ar¬ 
 bor is sufficiently large to allow the front 
 pivot to be made from the solid arbor; but 
 in some movements, particularly those used 
 for spring dials, the center pinions are made 
 from pinion wire in the manner just de¬ 
 scribed ; but for the front pivot a hollow 
 tube of hardened and tempered steel is sol¬ 
 dered on to the arbor. This piece should 
 always project sufficiently far through the 
 pivot hole to allow it to be squared to re¬ 
 ceive the friction spring which carries the 
 motion work. In cases where this pivot is 
 
42 
 
 ACCELERATION. 
 
 much cut, it is best to remove this piece and 
 substitute a new one, and as these pinions 
 are very long and flexible, some difficulty will 
 be experienced in turning this pivot unless 
 some form of backstay is used to support the 
 arbor, and prevent it springing from the 
 graver. _ 
 
 THE PENDULUM CRUTCH. 
 
 HE clock repairer will occasionally come 
 in contact with a clock with a crutch filed 
 so wide by some botch that there is room 
 for two pendulum wires to work freely in it, 
 and the result is that he must either make a 
 new crutch or solder a piece on each side in 
 order to make it fit properly again. It is 
 well known by practical men that many 
 make a mistake in this particular ; an unduly 
 wide crutch is detrimental, while one that is 
 too narrow will soon stop the clock entirely; 
 it should be just wide enough for the pen¬ 
 dulum to move freely in it, when this is at 
 the outside arc of oscillation. Although 
 there is not much difference between it when 
 in this position and when at zero, still there 
 is a little difference, even when the sides of 
 the crutch are very thin ; but when the sides 
 are a little thicker, it makes a difference in 
 proportion to their thickness; therefore, 
 when it is a thickly made crutch we are 
 obliged to make a little more room for the 
 pendulum, in order for it to act freely at 
 the outside arc of oscillation. 
 
 The reason of this is the crutch is work¬ 
 ing in a circle around the pivots of the tail 
 piece and pallets, while the pendulum is 
 working from a suspension string, which is 
 ever subject to deviation from a circular 
 path, while the tail piece must necessarily 
 keep the same distance from its central 
 action. Now, from this we see that an es¬ 
 capement which requires a wide arc of oscil¬ 
 lation, requires also a wider crutch in order 
 to give the pendulum its proper play. The 
 performance of an escapement of this kind, 
 when it runs to an extreme, is to be regarded 
 as doubtful; for if a crutch must be cut so 
 wide in order to be at the outside of the arc, 
 see what a quantity of space there is when 
 the pendulum is at zero. At every tick the 
 pendulum must cross this space in the 
 crutch, and instead of the clock saying “ tick, 
 tick,” it says “ clink, clink.” Take the Dutch 
 clock for an example. Let the crutch be 
 wide, and the noise caused by the pendu¬ 
 lum striking the side of the crutch will be as 
 great as the tick proper; hence, ‘ clink, 
 
 clink, clink,” is the monotonous tones we 
 hear. 
 
 Suppose a clock is running in this form 
 for a long time without any oil, the result is 
 both wire and crutch are considerably worn, 
 and there is no measuring the extra friction 
 in consequence. The only proper way to 
 correct such a job is to fit a new pendulum 
 wire and crutch, noticing that they act cor¬ 
 rectly with each other when replaced. Al¬ 
 ways avoid letting the pendulum wire ride 
 on the back of the crutch; let each hang 
 perpendicularly at the required place, so that 
 the wire touches nothing but the sides of the 
 crutch, and all is well. 
 
 ACCELERATION. 
 
 T is noticed that new chronometers and 
 watches, instead of steadily gaining or los¬ 
 ing a certain number of seconds each day, go 
 faster day by day. There is no certainty as 
 to the amount or ratio of this acceleration, 
 nor as to the period which must elapse be¬ 
 fore the rate becomes steady, but an increase 
 of a second a month for a year may be taken 
 as the average extent in marine chronom¬ 
 eters. 
 
 It is pretty generally agreed among chro¬ 
 nometer makers that the cause of accelera¬ 
 tion is seated in the balance spring, though 
 some assert that centrifugal action slightly 
 enlarges the balance, if the arc of vibration 
 is large, as it would be when the oil is fresh, 
 and that as the vibration falls off, centrifugal 
 action is lessened, and acceleration ensues 
 from the smaller diameter of the balance. 
 Though thin balances do undoubtedly in¬ 
 crease slightly in size in the long vibrations 
 from centrifugal action, this theory is dis¬ 
 posed of by the fact that old chronometers 
 do not accelerate after re-oiling. Others 
 aver that the unnatural connection of the 
 metals composing the compensation balance 
 is responsible for the mischief, and that after 
 being subjected to heat the balance hardly 
 returns to its original dimensions again. If 
 true, this may be a reason for exposing new 
 chronometers, before they are rated, to a 
 somewhat higher temperature than they are 
 likely to meet with in use, as is the practice 
 of some makers, but then chronometers ac¬ 
 celerate on their own rates when they are 
 kept in a constant temperature, and also if a 
 new spring is put to an old balance, or even 
 if a plain uncut balance is used. 
 
 When the overcoil of a balance spring has 
 
TO MOUNT DIAMOND DRILLS AND GRAVERS. 
 
 43 
 
 been much bent or “ manipulated ” in tim¬ 
 ing, it is noticed that the acceleration is sure 
 to be excessive. This is just what might be 
 expected, for a spring unduly bent so as to 
 be weakened, but not absolutely crippled, 
 recovers in time some of its elasticity. But 
 however carefully a spring is bent, the ac¬ 
 celeration is not entirely gotten rid of, though 
 the spring is heated to redness and again 
 hardened after its form is complete. There 
 is little doubt that the tendency of springs is 
 to increase slightly in strength for some time 
 .after they are subjected to continuous action, 
 just as bells are found to alter a little in tone 
 after use. As a proof that acceleration is 
 due to the bending of the overcoil, an au¬ 
 thority asserts that if the spring of an old 
 chronometer is distorted and then restored to 
 its original form, the chronometer will ac¬ 
 celerate as though it were new. Helical 
 springs of small diameter have been proposed 
 by some as a means of lessening accelera¬ 
 tion, on the ground that the curves are less 
 liable to distortion in action than when the 
 springs are larger. Springs elongate in 
 hardening, and it has been suggested that 
 they afterwards gradually shorten to their 
 original length, and so cause acceleration, 
 but there does not seem to be much warrant 
 for this assumption. Unhardened springs 
 do not accelerate, but they rapidly lose their 
 strength, and are, therefore, not used. Flat 
 springs do not accelerate as much as springs 
 with overcoil. Palladium springs accelerate 
 very much less than hardened steel springs. 
 
 MEM. 
 
 OTHING proclaims the skilful workman 
 as well as the finish of the new article. Al¬ 
 ways make the best finish possible; nothing 
 looks as well as a good shine. Your custom¬ 
 ers demand it in everything, and it is a good 
 sign. Encourage it all you can ; condemn 
 the botch that sends out work without finish. 
 A well arranged set of polishing tools saves 
 much time ; keep them always in good order, 
 and remember to exclude dirt and dust. 
 
 WATCH OIL. 
 
 HAVE always prepared an excellent ar¬ 
 ticle of watch oil from deer’s or elk’s feet; 
 take off the skin, prepare the feet with great 
 cleanliness; fry them out well, and filter the 
 obtained fat through clean filtering paper. 
 I have prepared my oil in this manner for 
 
 twenty-five years, and it has kept well invari¬ 
 ably, in jewel holes and cylinders up to 
 seven years. 
 
 TO MAKE PALLETS, UNLOCKING 
 PALLETS, ETC. 
 
 HIS may either be done on the lap or 
 else by using files of soft steel, copper, or 
 tin. In the first case the stones are roughed 
 out while held by the hand, and the required 
 form is given while holding them in a small 
 carrier that fits into the T rest support, but 
 the forms of such stones are so various that 
 no special details can be given. Use dia¬ 
 mond powders of different degrees of fine¬ 
 ness, as in making jewel holes. 
 
 TO BLEACH WATCH DIALS, ETC. 
 
 ISSOLVE one-half ounce cyanide of 
 potassium in a quart of hot water, and 
 add two ounces strong liquor of ammonia, 
 and one-half ounce spirits of wine (these two 
 may have been mixed previously). Dip the 
 dials, whether silver, gold, or gilt, in it for a 
 few seconds, then put them in warm water; 
 brush well with soap, and afterward brush, 
 rinse, and dry in hot box--wood dust. An¬ 
 other good plan is to gently heat the dials 
 and dip in diluted nitric acid, but this must 
 not be employed for dials with painted fig¬ 
 ures, as these would be destroyed. 
 
 OVERBANKING. 
 
 NE of the causes of overbanking is that 
 the steady pin is too far from the table 
 roller; it may also happen at times that the 
 roller jewel is a trifle too short, and will 
 allow the fork to spring under it; if there 
 are any forks at all—steady pin and roller 
 jewel being right—there is no danger of 
 overbanking. It is but seldom that the 
 banking pins will allow overbanking, and 
 they are mostly there for the purpose of 
 keeping the fork from going so far that the 
 jewel can strike inside of the same. How¬ 
 ever, they must be far enough apart to allow 
 the pallet to drop the tooth freely. 
 
 TO MOUNT DIAMOND DRILLS AND 
 GRAVERS. 
 
 RILL a hole or fill a notch in the end 
 of a piece of brass wire to correspond 
 with the fragment of diamond ; heat the end 
 in a spirit lamp and lay on it a piece of good 
 
44 
 
 TO TIME A WATCH. 
 
 sealing-wax or shellac. When this com¬ 
 mences to melt, set the diamond in position 
 and leave the whole to cool. Diamond 
 drills are very commonly mounted at the 
 end of a pin that has had its point filed off; 
 mark a point at the end with a graver and 
 drill the hole, which should be very shallow. 
 Holding the pin in a pin-vise, with its point 
 projecting about one-tenth of an inch, heat 
 the vise in a lamp and proceed as above 
 explained. 
 
 HOW TO REPLACE A BALANCE 
 STAFF. 
 
 T is quite a knack to select another bal¬ 
 ance staff, when one is either ruined or 
 lost. Take the watch partly down, that is, 
 remove the balance bridge, the lever, scape 
 wheel, the hands, dial, and face wheel, also, 
 remove the cap jewel plate, the regulator, 
 and cap jewel from the balance bridge. Now 
 we will suppose there was nothing but the 
 balance wheel and balance spring left, so re¬ 
 move them and screw the balance bridge 
 back into its place. There are several ways 
 of getting the measure of a staff. Some 
 watchmakers will just put a pair of calipers 
 on the outside of balance bridge over the cen¬ 
 ter of jewel hole, and get the outside meas¬ 
 urement, and proceed to guess at the rest 
 of the work. A simple way to measure, and 
 perhaps as good as any in use, is to use a pair 
 of three-screw calipers, at the points they turn 
 outwardly in the form of a T, when they are 
 closed. This tool is made for the express 
 purpose of getting the measure under the 
 bridges for balance staffs, or any other pinion 
 wished to be replaced. These calipers being 
 sharp at the points, you will just set them 
 into the pivot hole, which will enable you to 
 get the shoulder measure of your staff. The 
 turning is done in the customary way. 
 
 TO SHARPEN CUTTING TOOLS. 
 
 ARBOLIC acid is recommended for 
 moistening the tools with which hard¬ 
 ened steel is worked. The effect of the 
 grindstone is even said to be increased by 
 the use of the acid. The dark and impure 
 acid can be used for this purpose. 
 
 TO EXTRACT BROKEN WATCH 
 SCREWS. 
 
 AKE a Cl-shaped cramp or bracket 
 large enough to reach across the watch 
 plates, very strong at the bow, so as to stand 
 
 any screwing up without springing. Put a 
 screw hole through each end and provide 
 with two or three sets of steel screws with 
 different sized hardened points, which points 
 pass within the cramp. To use it, tighten 
 that screw of the cramp which is against the 
 point of the broken screw, and when you 
 have a firm grip turn the whole tool round, 
 and the broken screw will invariably be 
 drawn out. 
 
 TO GILD STEEL. 
 
 ISSOLVE a certain quantity of gold in 
 nitro-muriatic acid; boil the fluid to 
 evaporation; again dissolve the residue in 
 water, and add three times as much sulphuric 
 ether. The fluid is then filled into a bottle, 
 in which it is left to stand quietly for twenty- 
 four hours, after which time it will have 
 become fully settled. If the steel is then 
 dipped into this fluid it will be gold-plated 
 at once, and if certain portions of it were 
 covered with a varnish reserve, a handsome 
 drawing upon the steel will be produced. 
 
 TO TIME A WATCH. 
 
 N ordinary watches two positions are 
 taken, viz., pendant up or vertical, and 
 dial up or horizontal. In the finer grade of 
 work adjustments are made in the quarters, 
 that is, with 3 up and 9 up. This adjust¬ 
 ment is a delicate and often a difficult opera¬ 
 tion, and it is only by constant study and 
 application that the watchmaker can hope 
 for success. The object of timing or adjust¬ 
 ing to positions is to ascertain how far a 
 change of position modifies the compensation 
 and isochronism and to verify the poising of 
 the balance. Saunier says the balance can¬ 
 not possibly be accurately poised in all posi¬ 
 tions if the pivots and pivot holes are not 
 perfectly round, and the poising will be 
 modified with a change of temperature if the 
 two arms do not act identically; as will be 
 the case when the metals are not homogene¬ 
 ous, when one or both arms have been 
 strained owing to want of skill on the part 
 of the workman, or careless work, etc. After 
 accurately timing in a vertical position with 
 XII up, make it go for twelve hours with 
 VI up and the same number of hours with 
 III and IX up. Observe wfith care both 
 the rates and the amplitude of the arcs and 
 note them down. Assuming the pivots and 
 pivot holes to be perfectly round and in 
 good condition, and that the poising of the 
 
THE BALANCE. 
 
 45- 
 
 balance has been previously tested with care 
 by the ordinary means, if the variations in 
 the four positions are slight the poising may 
 be regarded as satisfactory. As a general, 
 but not invariable, rule, a loss in one position 
 on the rate observed in the inverse position 
 may be taken to indicate that the weight of 
 the upper part of the balance is excessive 
 when it does not vibrate through an arc of 
 360° or the lower part if the amplitude 
 exceeds this amount. Independently of the 
 balance this loss may be occasioned by 
 excessive friction of the pivots due to a too 
 great pressure owing to the caliper being 
 faulty, or to a distortion of the hairspring 
 causing its center of gravity to lie out of the 
 axis of the balance. If these influences be¬ 
 come at all considerable their correction will 
 be beyond the power of the isochronal hair¬ 
 spring, and indeed it will be impossible to 
 counteract them. Changes in the rate on 
 changing from the vertical to the horizontal 
 position may also arise from the following 
 causes: 1. The action of the escape wheel, 
 which is different according as it tends to 
 raise the balance staff or to force it laterally ; 
 2, a hairspring that starts to one side and so 
 displaces its center of gravity, a balance that 
 is not well poised, pivots or pivot holes that 
 are not perfectly round, faults which, al¬ 
 though of but little importance in the vertical 
 position of the balance staff, become serious 
 when it is horizontal; 3, the more marked 
 portion of the friction of the pivots may 
 take place against substances of different 
 degrees of hardness in the two cases, the end 
 stones being frequently harder than the 
 jewels. Saunier further says that satisfac¬ 
 tory results will be obtained in most cases 
 by employing the following methods, either 
 separately or two or more together, accord¬ 
 ing to the results of experiments on the rates, 
 the experience and the judgment of the 
 workman: 
 
 1. Flatten slightly the ends of the balance 
 pivots so as to increase their radii of friction ; 
 when the watch is lying flat the friction will 
 thus become greater. 
 
 2. Let the thickness of the jewel holes be 
 no more than is absolutely necessary. It is 
 sometimes thought sufficient to chamfer the 
 jewel hole so as to reduce the surface on 
 which friction occurs ; but this does not quite 
 meet the case, since an appreciable column 
 of oil is maintained against the pivot. 
 
 3. Reduce the diameters of the pivots, of 
 course changing the jewel holes. The resist¬ 
 
 ance due to friction, when the watch is ver¬ 
 tical, increases rapidly with any increase in 
 the diameters of pivots. 
 
 4. Let the hairspring be accurately cen¬ 
 tered, or it must usually be so placed that 
 the lateral pull tends to lift the balance when 
 the watch is hanging vertical. In this and the 
 next succeeding case it would sometimes be 
 advantageous to be able to change the point 
 at which it is fixed, but this is seldom possible. 
 
 5. Replace the hairspring by one that is- 
 longer or shorter, but of the same strength; 
 this is with a view to increase or diminish 
 the lateral pressure in accordance with the 
 explanation given in the last paragraph. 
 
 6. Set the escapement so that the strongest 
 impulse corresponds with the greatest resist¬ 
 ance of the balance. 
 
 7. Replace the balance. A balance that 
 is much too heavy renders the timing for 
 positions impossible. 
 
 8. Lastly, when these methods are inap¬ 
 plicable or insufficient there only remains the 
 very common practice of throwing the bal¬ 
 ance out of poise. 
 
 THE BALANCE. 
 
 HE size and weight of a balance are im¬ 
 portant factors in the time-keeping qual¬ 
 ities of a watch, although the dimensions of a 
 balance are not criteria of the time in which 
 the balance will vibrate. The balance is to 
 a pocket timepiece what the pendulum is to 
 the clock ; although there are two essential 
 points of difference. The time of vibration 
 of a pendulum is unaffected by its mass, be¬ 
 cause every increase in that direction carries 
 with it a proportional influence of gravity; 
 but if we add to the mass of the balance we 
 add nothing to the strength of the hairspring, 
 but add to its load, and therefore the vibra¬ 
 tions become slower. Again, a pendulum 
 of a given length, as long as it is kept at the 
 same distance from the earth’s center, will 
 vibrate in the same time because the gravity 
 is always the same; but the irregularity in 
 the force of the hairspring produces a like 
 result in the vibration of the balance. Britten 
 says there are three factors upon which the 
 time of the vibration of the balance depends : 
 
 1. The weight, or rather the mass, of the 
 balance.* 
 
 * The mass of a body is the amount of matter con¬ 
 tained in that body, arid is the same irrespective of 
 the distance of the body from the center of the earth. 
 But its weight, which is mass x gravity, varies in 
 different latitudes. 
 
46 
 
 THE BALANCE. 
 
 2. The distance of its center of gyration 
 from the center of motion, or to speak 
 roughly, the diameter of the balance. From 
 these two factors the moment of inertia may 
 be deducted. 
 
 3. The strength of the hairspring, or, more 
 strictly, its power to resist change of form. 
 
 Balances are of two kinds, known as plain 
 or uncut, and cut or compensation. The 
 plain balance is only used in this country on 
 the very cheapest variety of movements. 
 The compensation balance is used on the 
 better grade of watches. The plain balance 
 is usually made of brass or steel, while the 
 compensation balance is made of steel and 
 brass combined. Some English makers use 
 gold for plain balances, it being denser than 
 steel and not liable to rust or become mag¬ 
 netized. The process of compensation bal¬ 
 ance making, as carried on in our American 
 factories, is as follows: A steel disc, one- 
 eighth of an inch thick and five-eighths of 
 an inch in diameter, is first punched from a 
 sheet of metal. It is then centered and 
 drilled partially through, the indentation 
 serving as a guide in the operations to follow. 
 A capsule of pure copper three-fourths of an 
 inch in diameter is then made, and in the 
 center of this capsule the steel disc is lightly 
 secured. A ring of brass one-sixteenth of 
 an inch in thickness is then made and placed 
 between the copper capsule and the blank, 
 and the whole is fused together. It is then 
 faced upon both sides. It is then placed in 
 a lathe and cut away in the center until a 
 ring is formed of steel, which is lined or 
 framed with brass. It then goes into the 
 press, where two crescents are cut from it, 
 leaving only the inner lining of the ring and 
 the cross-bar of steel. The burr is then re¬ 
 moved and the balance is ready to be drilled 
 and tapped for the balance screws. This 
 method of making balances is known as the 
 “capsule method.” 
 
 THE EXPANSION AND CONTRACTION OF 
 BALANCES. 
 
 The American Waltham Watch Co. use a 
 simple little contrivance for indicating the 
 expansion and contraction of balances. It 
 is composed of a steel disc, on one side of 
 which a scale is etched and opposite the 
 scale a hole is drilled and tapped to receive 
 the screw that holds the balance. One of 
 the screws of the balance to be tested is re¬ 
 moved and the indicating needle is screwed 
 in its plac p . The steel disc is held by means 
 
 of a pair of sliding tongs over an alcohol 
 lamp, or can be heated in any other way and 
 the expansion will be indicated by the move¬ 
 ment of the needle on the scale. With an 
 increase of temperature the rim # is bent in¬ 
 ward, thus reducing the size of the balance. 
 This is owing to the fact that brass expands 
 more than steel, and in endeavoring to ex¬ 
 pand it bends the rim inward. The action 
 is, of course, reversed by lowering the tem¬ 
 perature below normal. Some adjusters spin 
 a balance close to the flame of a lamp before 
 using in order to subject it to a higher tem¬ 
 perature than it is likely to meet in use. 
 The balance is then placed upon a cold iron 
 plate, and afterward tested for poise. The 
 balance is then trued if found necessary, and 
 the operation is repeated until it is found to 
 be in poise after heating. Britten says that 
 it has been demonstrated that the loss in 
 heat from the weakening of the hairspring 
 is uniformly in proportion to the increase of 
 temperature. The compensation balance, 
 however, fails to meet the temperature error 
 exactly, the rims expand a little too much 
 with decrease of temperature, and with in¬ 
 crease of temperature the contraction of the 
 rims is insufficient, consequently a watch or 
 chronometer can be correctly adjusted for 
 temperature at two points only. Watches 
 are usually adjusted at about 50 0 and 85°. 
 In this range there would be what is called 
 a middle temperature error of about two 
 seconds in twenty-four hours with a steel 
 balance spring. The amount of the middle 
 temperature error cannot be absolutely pred¬ 
 icated, for in low temperatures, when the 
 balance is larger in diameter, the arc of 
 vibration is less than in high temperatures 
 when the balance is smaller, and conse¬ 
 quently its time of vibration is affected by 
 the isochronism or otherwise of the hair¬ 
 spring. Advantage is sometimes taken of 
 this circumstance to lessen the middle tem¬ 
 perature error by leaving the piece fast in 
 the short arcs. To avoid middle temperature 
 error in marine chronometers, various forms 
 of compensation balances have been devised, 
 and numberless additions or auxiliaries have 
 been attached to the ordinary form of bal¬ 
 ance for the same purpose. Poole’s auxiliary, 
 and Molyneaux’s, may be taken to represent 
 the two principles on which most auxiliaries 
 are constructed. Poole’s consists of a piece 
 of brass attached to the fixed ends of the rim 
 and carrying a regulating screw, the point 
 of which checks the outward movement of 
 
THE BALANCE. 
 
 47 
 
 the rim in low temperatures. Molyneaux’s 
 is attached to each end of the arm by a 
 spring, the free ends of the rim acting on it 
 in high temperatures only. It illustrates this 
 auxiliary when the temperature has been 
 raised, its free ends to which the adjusting 
 screws are attached, having approached 
 nearer the center of the balance, carrying 
 with them the free ends of the auxiliary, so 
 that the small projection no longer comes in 
 contact with the short end of the balance 
 rim, as it would in a temperature of 55 0 . 
 This auxiliary is made of steel. 
 
 SIZES AND WEIGHTS OF BALANCES. 
 
 The size and weight of the balance are 
 two very important elements in the timing 
 of a watch, and especially in adjusting to 
 positions. The rules governing the sizes 
 and weights of balances are of a complex 
 nature, and though positive are difficult of 
 application on account of the impracticability 
 of determining the value of the elements on 
 which we have to base our calculations. 
 These elements are the mainspring or motive 
 power, the hairspring representing the force 
 of gravity on the pendulum, momentum and 
 friction. The relation of the motive power 
 or the mainspring to the subject under dis¬ 
 cussion lies first in the necessary proportion 
 between it and the amount of tension of the 
 spring to be overcome, according to the ex¬ 
 tent and number of vibrations aimed at; 
 and, second, to that of friction affecting the 
 motion of the balance and incidental to it. 
 In an 18,000 train the mainspring has to 
 overcome resistance of the hairspring for 
 432,000 vibrations daily. The hairspring 
 having its force established by the relative 
 force of the motive power circumscribes the 
 proportions of the mass called balance and 
 is so co-agent for overcoming friction. 
 
 Momentum overcomes some of the elastic 
 force of the spring and friction. It is the 
 force of a body in motion, and is equal to 
 the weight of the body multiplied by _ its 
 velocity. Velocity in a balance is repre¬ 
 sented by its circumference, a given point in 
 which travels a given distance in a given time. 
 Weight is that contained in its rim. A bal¬ 
 ance is said to have more or less momentum 
 in proportion, as it retains force imparted to 
 it by impulsion. If a watch has a balance 
 with which it has been brought to time, and 
 this is changed to one-half the size, it re¬ 
 quires to be four times as heavy, because its 
 weight is then only half the distance from 
 
 the center, and any given point in its cir¬ 
 cumference has only half the distance to 
 travel. On the other hand, a balance twice 
 the size, would have one-fourth the weight. 
 In the first case the balance would have 
 twice as much momentum as the original 
 one, because if we multiply the weight by 
 the velocity we have a product twice as 
 great. In the latter case a like operation 
 would give a product half as great as in the 
 original balance. 
 
 It follows that the smaller and heavier a 
 balance the more momentum, and vice versa 
 the less momentum it has, always on condi¬ 
 tion that the hairspring controls both equally. 
 Friction, affecting the vibration of the bal¬ 
 ance, is that of the pivots on which it moves 
 and that of the escapement. It is in pro¬ 
 portion to the force with which two surfaces 
 are pressed together and their area. In a 
 balance, weight is synonymous with pressure 
 area, and is represented by the size of its 
 pivots and the thickness of the pivot holes. 
 The first, pivot friction, is continuous and 
 incidental, and is overcome by combined 
 forces, the motive power, the elasticity of 
 the hairspring, and the momentum of the 
 balance. The latter, or escapement friction, 
 is intermitting, and is overcome by contend¬ 
 ing forces, the hairspring and the momentum 
 of the balance on one side and the motive 
 power on the other. 
 
 Having it in our power, as shown above, 
 to obtain the desired momentum of the bal¬ 
 ance by differing relative pressure and 
 diameter, we can regulate pivot friction 
 within certain limits and distribute the labor 
 of overcoming it, among the co-operative 
 forces, in such a manner that the proportions 
 of such distributions shall not be disturbed 
 during their (forces) increase or decrease. 
 Incidental pivot friction is that caused by 
 the contact of the balance with the escape¬ 
 ment. Escapement friction is that caused 
 by the unlocking on the impulse. The first 
 causes retardation, the latter acceleration in 
 the motion of the balance, regardless of 
 isochronism. It is easy to comprehend that 
 a heavy balance would, by its greater mo¬ 
 mentum, unlock the escapement with less 
 retardation than a light one; but, on the 
 other hand, the acceleration by the impulse 
 would be less also; and with a varying 
 motive power a disturbing element would be 
 introduced by a change in the relative pro¬ 
 portions of these forces, the momentum of 
 the balance decreasing or increasing faster 
 
4 8 
 
 TO PUT IN A HAIRSPRING. 
 
 than the motive power, constituting as it 
 does relatively a more variable force. In 
 argument the reverse of this might be ad¬ 
 vanced in regard to a balance which is too 
 light. Without, however, entering further 
 into the subject it is plain how the rate of a 
 watch under such conditions might be af¬ 
 fected after being apparently adjusted in 
 stationary positions by being used on a loco¬ 
 motive or under conditions where external 
 disturbances should lessen the extent of 
 vibration, and making the contact between 
 the balance and the escapement of less dura¬ 
 tion. 
 
 The almost universal abandonment of 
 watches with uniform motive power and the 
 introduction of stem-winders with going bar¬ 
 rels invests the subject with special interest; 
 and as stated in the beginning, applying rules 
 for defining these desirable proportions being 
 impracticable, the only solution of the prob¬ 
 lem which remains to us is the study by ob¬ 
 servation of certain symptoms which do exist 
 to determine that which by other means 
 cannot be done. During the progress of 
 horology similar difficulties had to be met in 
 every kind of watch which happened to be 
 in use. The old verge watch had its bal¬ 
 ance proportioned thus that it could lie 
 inside in the mainspring barrel, and the 
 watch, when set going without a balance 
 spring, would indicate by the hand on the 
 dial a progress of twenty-seven and one-half 
 minutes during one hour running. It was said 
 that under these circumstances it would be 
 least affected by inequalities of the motive 
 power, and the verge would not be cut by 
 the escape wheel. The balance in the cyl¬ 
 inder watch was to be sized according to the 
 proportion of the train, each successive wheel 
 to be one-half smaller than the preceding 
 one and the balance to be twice the size of 
 the escape wheel, the weight to be deter¬ 
 mined by the equal running of the watch 
 during all the changes of an unequal motive 
 power. The cutting of the steel pallets in 
 duplex watches or chronometers is caused 
 more by too heavy balances than by any 
 other defect in their parts. It might be well 
 to note the following, which is very impor¬ 
 tant and too often neglected, and that is the 
 arrangement of the mainspring in the barrel 
 so as to avoid coil friction, and the smallest 
 advantage of the old fusee watch was not 
 the facility of obtaining five turns of the 
 fusee to three or three and one-half of the 
 mainspring, but being enabled thereby to 
 
 arrange the latter around a small arbor in 
 such a manner that the^coils never touched, 
 insuring a smooth motive power and lessen¬ 
 ing the chances of breakage beyond estima¬ 
 tion. 
 
 TO PUT IN A HAIRSPRING. 
 
 I HAVE before me an old anchor watch, 
 in which I am about to put a new spring. 
 The spring is soft. The watch has been a 
 remarkable close time-keeper for over thirty 
 years. The movement is very large and re¬ 
 quires a large spring in the round. On the 
 dial is marked “ Railroad Time-keeper ” in 
 red letters in a circle. In my stock of springs 
 I have none large enough in the round. I 
 select one for strength, which is very closely 
 coiled. To get the desired size in the round, 
 I lay it on a flat barrel head and hold over 
 the spirit lamp until it uncoils to the desired 
 size in the round. I test the hole in the 
 collet with broach. If not parallel with bal¬ 
 ance I broach it to bring it parallel. I put 
 the outer end in the collet and fit a pin with 
 flat side next the spring; press it in tightly 
 and mark the ends carefully and lay it away 
 for future use, and use it for permanent fas¬ 
 tening. I now test the spring in the usual 
 way by counting the train or by setting the 
 second hand at sixty and moving the lever 
 back and forward, counting the beats for 
 fifteen or thirty seconds, which multiplied by 
 two or four gives the number of beats in one 
 minute. I fit the spring at the collet, with 
 coiling tweezers, with proper curve, and fit 
 around the collet at the proper distance, so 
 as not to come in contact with the collet in 
 vibrating, leaving about the same space as 
 between the coils. For trial, I fasten the 
 spring in the collet with pegwood and take 
 hold of the outer end of spring with a pair 
 of tweezers and vibrate the balance on a flat 
 glass for fifteen or thirty seconds. If too 
 strong move further out; if slow move back 
 until I get the desired number of beats. At 
 this point I mark the spring with a little red- 
 stuff (English, you know). I test the hole 
 in stud to find if parallel; if not, I broach it 
 to bring it right. I now fasten spring in 
 stud, leaving the mark a little outside be¬ 
 tween curb pins and stud. I lay my spring 
 on the cock with spring between pins. I 
 put pegwood down though the collet point 
 in jewel hole and find if the spring crowds 
 at any point; if so, it must be connected by 
 getting the coils equal all around. I now 
 put the permanent pin in place and manipu- 
 
TO FIT THE CENTER BUSH. 
 
 49 
 
 late the spring at the collet to get it right in 
 the flat. I get the spring to have the same 
 play between the pins when turned fast or 
 slow. I put the balance with spring in the 
 calipers and ascertain whether there is any 
 wabbling; if so, it must be corrected. I 
 now set the ruby pin in direct line with bal¬ 
 ance and pallet staff and mark on balance 
 directly opposite the stud hole and bring the 
 stud to that point and the watch will be in 
 perfect beat. The balance must be carefully 
 poised. Where there are no screws, it must 
 be done by adding or taking from the rim. 
 Balances with screws can be poised by using 
 washer if light, or reducing the weight by 
 turning the screws out if too heavy. About 
 two years ago I cleaned an American full- 
 plate watch. In a few weeks the watch was 
 brought back with the inside coil over the 
 •curb pin. The watch was carried by an 
 •engineer. The jumping of the engine made 
 the spring overlap. It set me to reflecting. 
 I came to the conclusion that by shortening 
 the pins so that the spring working at the 
 ■ends of the pins and beveling the outside pin 
 and polishing it smooth, if it did occur it 
 would slip back again, which proved to be 
 correct, as it has not occurred since. The 
 new spring has to be tested for isochronism. 
 A spring is isochronal when it causes any 
 point in the balance rim to pass through 
 equal and unequal spaces in equal time. 
 The moment a balance receives an impulse, 
 that moment does it begin to wind up the 
 hairspring, and continues to wind it until it 
 reaches the extreme point of its tension. 
 But the first ten degrees of the return motion 
 of the balance should be neither quicker nor 
 slower than the last ten, and would not be if 
 the spring were isochronal. By making the 
 spring isochronous the watch is made to 
 maintain the same rate in the long as in the 
 short motions of the balance. Rate the 
 watch (fully wound) for six hours in the 
 hanging position, then rate it the same length 
 of time in a lying position. Wind it full for 
 both trials. Should it go slower in the lying 
 than in the hanging position it shows that 
 the spring is too long for its strength, and 
 must be taken up. When the watch is made 
 to keep the same rate in both positions the 
 spring is isochronous. The principle of 
 isochronism consists in the length of the 
 spring being in exact proportion to its 
 -strength, consequently if a spring be too 
 strong for its length there is no point that is 
 isochronous, but if the spring be sufficiently 
 
 long for its strength the isochronal point 
 may be found. I do not advise the use of 
 soft springs. In American watches I use 
 tempered springs in all cases. I do use soft 
 springs in lower grades, where they have run 
 close to time with soft springs. In my ex¬ 
 perience I have found that soft springs for 
 low-grade watches are not affected by ex¬ 
 treme heat and cold to the same extent as 
 hard springs. In conclusion, if there are 
 any points in the above that will be appre¬ 
 ciated by the craft, let them “ make a note 
 of it,” as Captain Cuttle says. 
 
 TO FIT THE CENTER BUSH. 
 
 IN the two plates together and put them 
 in universal face plate or head, centering 
 by the center hole in top plate, and turn the 
 old bush out and traces of soft solder off the 
 bottom plate. Turn up a new bush, and 
 leave it as long as possible, so as to better 
 support the pivot, and retain the oil. 
 
 Saunier says, “ There is no advantage to 
 be gained by diminishing the extent of the 
 surfaces of contact in depths, in liftings and 
 even in rests of escapements, as is too often 
 done under the impression that friction is 
 thereby reduced. Since the same blow or 
 pressure is withstood by a smaller number of 
 elements, it will act with a greater force on 
 them, and will distort the surface more rap¬ 
 idly ; the accuracy of their forms will thus be 
 destroyed in a less time. Also when the 
 bearing surfaces are not of sufficient extent, 
 any excess of pressure expels the oil, causing 
 a destruction of the surfaces and increased 
 friction.” Therefore it is plain to be seen 
 what a bad effect a thin bush will occa¬ 
 sion. 
 
 A bush should support the pivot for three- 
 fourths of its length, and also have a suffi¬ 
 ciently deep oil sink to retain enough oil to 
 keep the pivot moist for a year or a year 
 and a half. Bushes should always be fitted 
 in from the side the shoulder of pivot rests 
 against, and the other end should be well 
 undercut and turned to a knife edge that 
 will just project through the plate, and then 
 one or two taps will be sufficient to rivet it 
 firmly. The center wheel should have very 
 little end-shake, as it runs so close to both 
 the 3d wheel and great wheel and barrel, 
 and the end-shake should always be tested 
 with the plates pinned together with all the 
 pins. 
 
5° 
 
 TO CLEANSE POLISHING LEATHERS. 
 
 FITTING THE RUBY PIN. 
 
 BRASS pin having been inserted in table 
 roller, it will be necessary to replace it 
 with a jewel, and by that I don’t mean the 
 glass “ ruby pins ” to be bought for about 
 twenty-five cents a gross, but the genuine 
 garnet and ruby pins that cost about one 
 dollar a gross ; they are in all certainty suffi¬ 
 ciently low-priced, and any watch that is 
 worth having a ruby pin fitted at all is worth 
 having one costing a cent, notwithstanding 
 which, we frequently find glass, steel, brass 
 and even copper ones inserted. It is a dis¬ 
 grace that such work should be done, and 
 as it most certainly is done, it is to be hoped 
 that any who have been in the habit of so 
 doing, either from the want of proper instruc¬ 
 tion or otherwise, will turn over a new leaf 
 and in future use proper materials in all cases. 
 
 Knock out the brass pin, pick out a jewel 
 that fits the slot in the fork with very slight 
 shake, the less shake the better, freedom be¬ 
 ing insured. Sometimes ruby pins are fitted 
 that do not fill more than half the slot, and 
 as a consequence, about half the impulse 
 that would be communicated to the balance 
 by the fork if the ruby pin fitted the slot, is 
 lost, and a small, struggling motion is the 
 result. Insert the jewel in the roller and set 
 it with shellac, using one of the several de¬ 
 signs of ruby pin setters in the market. 
 After the pin is firmly and correctly set, fit 
 the roller on the balance staff and test the 
 action of ruby pin and fork in the depthing 
 tool to see that the pin enters the slot, and 
 does not enter so deeply as to touch against 
 the back of it. _ 
 
 TO FIT THE DIAL FEET. 
 
 RIND away the enamel where the feet 
 are broken off with emery lap, and turn 
 up two new feet, shaping them the same as 
 a plate screw, the part corresponding to the 
 head being large enough to get a strong job 
 when soft soldered to the copper plate of 
 dial, solder them on so that when fitted on 
 plate the center of seconds hole will corre¬ 
 spond with the hole in fourth or second wheel 
 jewel, mark the points to drill for the dial 
 pins so that when the pins are inserted they 
 will touch the plate and thus keep the dial 
 from rattling. _ 
 
 TO FIT NEW BANKING PINS. 
 
 NOCK out the old pins and insert 
 Waltham banking studs, if the old bank¬ 
 ing-pin holes are too far apart. By fitting 
 
 Waltham banking studs you can turn the 
 pins around to the proper position at will. 
 Turn them so that at all points the shake 
 between the fork and pins at the one end 
 and guard pins and roller at the other will 
 be the same, and reduce the shake as much 
 as possible. When the pins are adjusted to 
 suit the fork and roller, put the movement 
 together and see that the banking pins are 
 sufficiently far apart to allow the scape wheel 
 to escape. Should the wheel escape on one 
 side and not on the other, the pin binding 
 the pallets and fork together will have to be 
 knocked out and the pallets moved suffi¬ 
 ciently to allow the scape wheel teeth to 
 escape on the other side. If they require to- 
 be moved very slightly, the pallets and fork 
 can be firmly held in hand vise and the holes 
 broached out in line with each other, or else 
 the hole in fork must be filled up and a new- 
 one drilled. _ 
 
 TO REPAIR CENTER PIVOT. 
 
 HE pivot, if cut so that it is smaller 
 than the cannon arbor, or part the 
 cannon fits on, will have to have a pipe fit¬ 
 ted. Chuck the center pinion in a lathe,, 
 and turn what remains of the pivot flush with 
 the cannon arbor, take a piece of Stubb’s 
 wire of requisite thickness, and drill it so 
 that it will fit down over arbor snugly, turn 
 the ends flat and square, leaving it of suffi¬ 
 cient length so that the cannon pinion will 
 rest against it and be clear of scraping against 
 the plate, as would be the case if cut off too 
 short, fit it in position, using a speck of soft 
 solder if necessary, in which case do it care¬ 
 fully and without discoloring the rest of the 
 pinion, and then boil out in alcohol to de¬ 
 stroy the bad effect of the soldering acid (I 
 wish it understood right here that I am no- 
 advocate of soft solder in any shape or form, 
 except when it is absolutely necessary to use 
 it, and occasionally it is, but even then it 
 may be done so that it is not noticeable). 
 Then turn the pipe true and to the desired 
 size, and grind and polish with oil-stone dust 
 and crocus on bell-metal slip. 
 
 TO CLEANSE POLISHING LEATHERS. 
 
 CORRESPONDENT complains that 
 his polishing leathers have shrunk to¬ 
 gether after washing them, as directed by 
 us. This can only have been caused by the 
 use of very hot water, which should hardly 
 be lukewarm. Wash your leathers with 
 
THE MARINE CHRONOMETER. 
 
 51 
 
 ordinary soap which contains much potash, 
 and renew the water as often as necessary, 
 until perfectly clean. Then beat soap to 
 froth, and meanwhile mix a little olive oil, 
 using barely a tablespoonful per leather. 
 Next rinse the leather well, and wring dry, 
 stretch it to all sides, and for the purpose of 
 thoroughly drying, hang it in a place free 
 from dust, but not near a stove. The oil is 
 for the purpose of making the leather soft 
 and supple, and no fears need be entertained 
 that the oil will make it smeary. The leath¬ 
 ers can also be washed in benzine; they 
 must then be wrung out in a soft linen rag 
 or handkerchief, and rubbed with it until 
 thoroughly dry, otherwise they would shrink 
 together and become hard. 
 
 THE MARINE CHRONOMETER. 
 
 ROBABLY no piece of human mech¬ 
 anism represents more brain labor, or 
 a greater amount of unyielding endeavor, 
 to overcome obstacles than we find embodied 
 in a first-class marine chronometer. And 
 yet the instrument is far from the state of 
 perfection which “ theory ” would promise. 
 We are beset with difficulties on every hand, 
 which, although purely mechanical, are still 
 serious enough to be perplexing. These 
 mechanical imperfections beset us the instant 
 we enter the workshop and seek to realize 
 our theories; and these imperfections will 
 impede our operations, and stand a barrier 
 to our progress to perfection forever; yet 
 patience and skill will remedy many, and 
 modify other of those difficulties, until, like 
 the problem of squaring the circle, although 
 perfection can never be reached, still, an 
 approximation to it can be attained, which 
 will leave little to be desired. I do not pro¬ 
 pose to follow the development of the instru¬ 
 ment up to its present state of perfection 
 through all its modifications, but rather to 
 call notice to inherent faults which exist and 
 admit of remedy to a certain extent. First 
 and foremost among the imperfections stands 
 compensation for heat and cold, as counter¬ 
 acted by the composite curb, or, as it is 
 usually called, the chronometer balance. It 
 is unnecessary to describe this appliance to 
 readers of The Circular, as it is supposed to 
 be thoroughly understood in all its actions by 
 them from articles hitherto published in its 
 columns. But certain features exist in it not 
 generally known and appreciated—first, its 
 imperfections in extreme temperatures ; sev¬ 
 
 eral devices exist to remedy this defect to a 
 limited extent; second, its elasticity begets the 
 trouble to a great extent of “ shop rate,” and 
 “'sea rate”; third, its susceptibility to cen¬ 
 trifugal action. I will waive the first count 
 of the indictment and proceed to the second 
 and third, which, in reality, grow out of the 
 same cause, i.e., the springy nature of the 
 compound curbs or segments of the balance 
 rim. It is a well-known feature of a curved 
 spring that it is more easily bent outward 
 than inward, or, in other words, it requires 
 less force to straighten a curved spring than 
 it does to increase the curve; hence, any 
 motion or disturbing influence, like the sway 
 of a vessel, will tell in the line of least resist¬ 
 ance ; this proposition is proved by the fact 
 that in nine cases out of ten the “ sea rate ” 
 of a chronometer is slower than the “ shop 
 rate.”* The exceptions to this rule is with 
 inferior chronometers having unsteady rates. 
 In regard to the effects of centrifugal action, 
 it is more serious than at first would seem 
 probable. It is impossible to construct a 
 balance in which both segments are exactly 
 alike in elasticity or resilient power; but we 
 will suppose we can seize and comprehend 
 the exact conditions of a balance just at the 
 instant it pauses on a return vibration; we 
 will conceive it to be in a perfect condition 
 of repose in all its particles—a condition 
 we will see does not and cannot* exist with 
 this form of balance—the tension of the bal¬ 
 ance (pendulum) spring causes the return 
 vibration to set in, our segment with its 
 adjustable weight yields to the centrifugal 
 action first, the center of gravity (poise) is 
 disturbed, and the pivots thrown to one side 
 of the hole jewels ; the opposite segment and 
 its weight follows, and if we could see the 
 pivots in such a way as to take cognizance 
 of their action, we would find them taking 
 advantage of the side-shake in the jewel 
 holes at the rate of several shakes a second ; 
 I say several, for it is much to be doubted 
 if those shakes are a constant number, and 
 if not constant they must in some degree 
 affect the performance of the instrument.. 
 It is a well-known test with old and experi¬ 
 enced adjusters, that a chronometer must,, 
 in its “ tick,” give out a pure musical tone; 
 or in other words, the vibrations in its com¬ 
 ponent parts must be synchronous—in har¬ 
 mony. It is a well-known fact that if two 
 springs whose vibrations represent certain 
 musical tones, if not exactly harmonious, will 
 compromise if near each other, and produce 
 
52 
 
 TO HARDEN PINIONS. 
 
 a tone intermediate to both. So probably, 
 to a certain extent, a compromise takes 
 place in the balance of a chronometer, and 
 a synchronous harmony is established ; but, 
 on the other hand, a discord can also set in, 
 which would tell irregularly on the chro¬ 
 nometer’s rate. It must be evident to all 
 minds which give the problem careful atten¬ 
 tion, that centrifugal action on the segments 
 must beget a train of unequal resistances, 
 which tell unequally on the balance and all 
 its belongings. I wish the reader to under¬ 
 stand that I have no axe to grind, nor do I 
 propose any better form of balance, but I 
 wish to bring the facts to the attention of 
 the thinking portion of our expert mechanics, 
 and see if there is no better way to counter¬ 
 act the effects of heat and cold on movable 
 time-keepers. But I would beg to say that, 
 practically, up to the present time, the com¬ 
 pound curved segments (in some form) give 
 the best results. A few suggestions may not 
 be displaced—not my own, understand, but 
 such as have been thrown out during the 
 development of the expansion balance as it 
 now exists. What is required in a balance 
 for correcting heat and cold effects are: 
 perfect and equitable compensation through 
 all ranges of exposure ; rigidity of form ex¬ 
 cept by caloric effects. To produce these 
 results various devices have been offered; 
 many with merit, some with varied points of 
 excellence, which are worthy of considera¬ 
 tion. The prominent ones of interest are 
 based on two principles: first, keeping the 
 timepiece exposed to an exalted temperature 
 above anything it would be exposed to, and 
 maintaining this temperature to constantly 
 exactly the same degree ; second, a mechan¬ 
 ical arrangement of levers operated some¬ 
 thing similar to a gridiron pendulum. The 
 problem is open, and will yet be solved by 
 the ingenuity of some person, who will con¬ 
 fer a great favor on humanity, and if prop¬ 
 erly managed, result in a financial return to 
 the inventor. I am aware that I am vent¬ 
 uring on a ground which has been carefully 
 gone over by deep thinkers and skillful men 
 —yet, twenty years ago, if a man had fore¬ 
 told the success of breech-loading guns, the 
 very men who were supposed to know the 
 most about such things would have treated 
 the suggestion with contempt—but one small 
 idea established or made practicable breech- 
 loading guns, and this was the metallic car¬ 
 tridge. Now, in our case, may not some 
 idea be thrown up by discussing the subject, 
 
 which will happily solve the question ? A 
 balance free from dilation by centrifugal 
 force would be much easier to match with 
 an isochronal spring. There is another 
 point deserving of consideration, which is, a 
 compound segment is always liable to de¬ 
 terioration, like a hairspring or mainspring, 
 but even more rapidly; there is a constant 
 antagonism between the two metals which 
 can never be reconciled. I think that my 
 experience will agree with others when I say 
 that chronometer balances will show some 
 queer freaks. A chronometer which has 
 been under one’s care for years, and showing 
 a marvelous fine rate, will all at once fly off 
 on a tangent (“ kick up ” is a better phrase), 
 and vary more in one day than it previously 
 did in a month. Now, generally, the trouble 
 lies in the hairspring, but sometimes a new 
 balance is required—some latent defect has 
 existed in the balance, and all at once it is 
 developed in full force. 
 
 TO POLISH STEEL. 
 
 F the steel is of moderately good tem¬ 
 per, use a zinc polisher with diaman- 
 tine ; for soft steel a tin polisher is better. 
 The diamantine should be mixed on glass, 
 with very little watch oil. Diamantine 
 mixed with ordinary oil becomes gummy, and 
 is quite unfit for use in a day or two, and if 
 brought into contact with metal in mixing, 
 turns black. _ 
 
 TO HARDEN PINIONS. 
 
 VERY watchmaker knows that heated 
 steel dipped into water becomes hard. 
 When heating the steel, care must be taken 
 not to let the steel burn, but simply bring it 
 to a red heat. For hardening pinions or 
 other large steel objects, do as follows, to 
 prevent the ruinous warping: Make a box of 
 sheet iron with a well-fitting cover upon it, 
 and heat it to a white heat before using. 
 Then fill it one-half with bone black, place 
 the piece of steel into it, fill it entirely with 
 bone black, put the lid on, and secure the 
 box with binding wire. Then put the box 
 into a charcoal fire until white hot, withdraw 
 and immerse it in cold water, leaving it im¬ 
 mersed until cold ; the color of the steel will 
 be gray, it has no scale, and is not warped. 
 Steel hardened in this manner must not be 
 annealed quite as much as is done with 
 other—instead of dark blue, make it dark 
 yellow. 
 
TO RENEW OLD FILES. 
 
 53 
 
 FLAT POLISH. 
 
 O polish such parts as rollers and col¬ 
 lets, first get a flat surface, by rubbing 
 with fine emery on a glass plate or a bell- 
 metal block, and afterward finish .off on a 
 zinc block with diamantine; but for levers, 
 you must use a long, flat bell-metal or zinc 
 polisher, and press the lever into a piece of 
 soft wood (willow is the best) in the vise, 
 moving the polisher instead of the work. 
 For large articles, such as indexes or repeater 
 racks, which are not solid and spring, it will 
 be found best to wax them on to a small 
 brass block and polish them underhand, in 
 the same manner as rollers. 
 
 TO TEMPER GRAVERS. 
 
 RAVERS and other instruments larger 
 than drills may be tempered in quick¬ 
 silver, or you may take lead instead of quick¬ 
 silver. Cut down into the lead, say half an 
 inch, then, having heated your instrument to 
 a bright cherry-red, press it firmly into the cut. 
 The lead will melt around it, and an excel¬ 
 lent temper will be imparted. 
 
 TO DRAW TEMPER. 
 
 HE following method is said to be ex¬ 
 cellent for drawing the temper from 
 delicate steel pieces, without springing them. 
 Place the article from which you desire to 
 draw the temper into a common clock key. 
 File around it with brass or iron filings, and 
 then plug up the hole with a steel, iron, or 
 brass plug made to fit closely. Take the 
 handle of the key with your pliers, and hold 
 its pipe into the blaze of a lamp till nearly 
 hot, then let it cool gradually. When suf¬ 
 ficiently cold to handle, remove the plug, 
 and you will find the article with its temper 
 fully drawn, but in all other respects as it 
 was before. You will understand the reason 
 for having the article thus plugged up while 
 passing through the heating and cooling 
 process, when you know that springing 
 always results from the action of changeable 
 currents of atmosphere. The temper may 
 be drawn from cylinders, staffs, pinions, or 
 any other delicate pieces by this mode with 
 perfect safety. _ 
 
 TO STRAIGHTEN SCAPE WHEEL. 
 
 HE Traite de VHorlogerie Moderne con¬ 
 tains a method of truing a cylinder 
 escape wheel that has been cockled in the 
 
 hardening; the following is a modification 
 of the process there described: In the mid¬ 
 dle of a square plate that is moderately 
 thick, fit a strong screw with a large and 
 long head; this screw must pass freely 
 through a disc that is perfectly flat and fits 
 easily into the upper side of the escape 
 wheel. Now fix the plate between the jaws 
 of a bench vise, and placing the wheel be¬ 
 tween this plate and the disc with a mod¬ 
 erate pressure applied to the screw, hold a 
 lamp to the under side, gradually tightening 
 the screw as the steel changes color, so as 
 to obtain a maximum pressure when a blue 
 temper is reached. Leave the whole to cool 
 in position. 
 
 FINE LUBRICATING OIL. 
 
 Y putting pure olive oil into a clear 
 glass bottle with a few strips or pieces 
 of sheet lead, and exposing to the sun for 
 two or three weeks, an exceedingly fine 
 lubricating oil may be obtained that will not 
 gum or corrode. Only that part should be 
 poured off which is perfectly clear. 
 
 TO RENEW OLD FILES. 
 
 HE process of cleaning and renewing 
 old files will be found useful, whenever 
 there is a lot of apparently worthless files 
 lying around the shop. Very often they do 
 not need recutting, but are merely clogged 
 up with dirt and grease and are of little 
 service. To restore them, take the following 
 advice of a correspondent: Some time ago 
 I gathered together a lot of old worn-out 
 files, both large and small, coarse and fine, 
 and boiled them for half an hour in saleratus 
 water (4 oz. saleratus to 1 quart water). I 
 then washed them in clean water and placed 
 them in a solution of sulphuric acid and 
 water (4 oz. of sulphuric acid to 1 quart 
 water). I removed the smaller and finer 
 files at the end of forty-five minutes, but the 
 larger and coarser I let remain for two or 
 three hours, looking at them occasionally to 
 see that they didn’t cut too much. I then 
 washed them thoroughly with a stiff brush 
 and plenty of clean water, then dried and 
 oiled them a little to prevent their rusting. 
 I have used them for several months and 
 think they cut as well as new files, and have 
 lasted almost quite as long. 
 
54 
 
 TO EASE AN INDEX. 
 
 BROKEN SCREWS. 
 
 1 HAVE two methods for taking broken 
 plate screws out of American watches: 
 i. When it can be done, I turn them out 
 with the sharp point of a graver. When 
 this cannot be done, with a thin screw file I 
 file into the end of the post until the broken 
 screw is reached, and a slot made in it by 
 which it can be easily raised. Some may 
 be disposed to call it botch-work, but I can¬ 
 not see that it injures the post, and when 
 the upper plate is on and the screw in, the 
 place cannot be seen. 
 
 TO APPLY WATCH OIL. 
 
 ATCH oil should be conveyed to 
 the watch only with an absolutely 
 clean medium, and steel is to be preferred 
 by all odds. Many use brass, but this can¬ 
 not be kept as clean, nor is it as easily 
 cleaned as steel, and we would recommend 
 to our fellow-workmen to use steel exclu¬ 
 sively. _ 
 
 TO FASTEN SPRING ON COLLET. 
 
 HEN the spring is firmly fastened 
 on the collet, the first turn cannot be 
 too close to it, but it must not touch it, and 
 must form a true or slightly expanding circle 
 with it. It must then be placed in the turns, 
 or an arbor, and revolved with the bow, and 
 looked at with the glass to see that the spring 
 revolves truly with the collet, and that there 
 is no jumping action in it. If the eye of 
 the spring is much larger than the collet, it 
 will be difficult to make it revolve truly, but 
 in repairing a bad spring many judicious 
 touches with the tweezers may be given while 
 it is on the arbor, and anything like a crank 
 action of the spring and collet must be cor¬ 
 rected. 
 
 TO RESET THE RUBY PIN. 
 
 [ HAVE so often seen watch repairers, 
 every time they wished to tighten or 
 reset a ruby pin in a lever movement, re¬ 
 move the roller from the staff, heat it in the 
 alcohol lamp until the shellac was. softened, 
 and perhaps the roller blued and disfigured, 
 beside losing the entire adjustment and in¬ 
 juring the time-keeping qualities of the 
 watch, by replacing the roller without the 
 aid of a beat block, that I offer a simple little 
 device which may be useful to some of your 
 readers, 'lake a piece of medium sized pin 
 
 wire, about two and a half inches long; 
 anneal about one-half or three-quarters of 
 an inch of each end, then bend into the 
 shape of a shepherd’s hook, hammering the 
 open end flat, and it is ready for use. Hold¬ 
 ing the balance with the roller table upper¬ 
 most, now heat the hook, and place it care¬ 
 fully around the staff body underneath the 
 roller table. You will find it will communi¬ 
 cate sufficient heat to the roller to soften the 
 shellac, and no other part of the balance 
 staff or spring will be sufficiently heated to 
 damage them in the least, while the ruby pin 
 may be readily and easily adjusted to its 
 proper position. 
 
 THE WATCH TRAIN. 
 
 HEN examining a watch handed you 
 for repairs, examine the train of wheels. 
 If the scape depth, as often happens, is shal¬ 
 low, as shown by much side-shake, drive the 
 scape cock by pressure from behind, if free¬ 
 dom allows, the second pivot hole being 
 always very shallow. A pivot broach pressed 
 by the finger underneath in opening the hole 
 will cut away one side of the hole, into 
 which a French bouchon or stopping is being 
 inserted and riveted, Ave have a new depth 
 as the result of a few minutes’ work. 
 
 TO REDUCE DIAL. 
 
 ESTING the dial in an inclined po¬ 
 sition against a block, file its edge 
 with a smooth or half smooth file, which 
 must only be allowed while advancing,, and 
 is, at the same time, displayed sideways and 
 turned so as to follow the contour of the 
 dial. The file should be dipped occasion¬ 
 ally in turpentine, and when sufficient enamel 
 has been removed, pass a new emery stick 
 over it to remove the file marks. 
 
 TO EASE AN INDEX. 
 
 I T is a common but bad practice among 
 watchmakers, says Saunier, to scrape the 
 inside of the ring of the index or cut it 
 through. A better method is as follows: 
 Resting the index on a cork, cover the in¬ 
 side of its ring with oil-stone dust, and make 
 the cap rotate in its seat by means of a 
 pinion caliper, the two points of which are 
 inserted in the screw holes. The operation 
 is repeated as often as may be required. 
 
TO TAKE OUT TEMPER OF STAFF. 
 
 55 
 
 MAGNITUDE OF PALLET IMPULSE. 
 
 HE average magnitude of pallet im¬ 
 pulse angles is io°. It is a matter 
 which depends greatly on the quality of the 
 work. If a pallet with an impulse angle of 
 j} 4 ° has much side-shake on its pivots, then 
 the ruby pin becomes the center of motion 
 where the impulse should commence, and 
 hence a greater part of the moment would 
 be lost. Though a large impulse angle gives 
 less moment, nevertheless it will neutralize 
 the evil of badly fitting holes ; hence, pallets 
 with small impulse angles should always 
 have jeweled holes, and brass pallet holes 
 require larger impulse angles. This appears 
 so self-evident that diagrams are not neces¬ 
 sary to prove it. 
 
 TO REMOVE A BROKEN SCREW. 
 
 CORRESPONDENT of The Jewel¬ 
 ers’ Circular complains that he has 
 .a bad case of broken screw in a w r atch 
 plate, and asks for information how to ex¬ 
 tract it. Our columns have heretofore con¬ 
 tained practical recipes, to which we refer 
 him, adding another one. With a screw- 
 head file cut a slit in the top of the broken 
 screw deep enough for a screw-driver to 
 have a firm hold. Then pressing the screw¬ 
 driver firmly in the slit, turn it to the left, 
 and in most cases the screw will give way. 
 After turning it once or twice it is advisable 
 to file off the top of the screw nearly level 
 with the watch plate and recut the slit. If 
 this method does not answer, place the plate 
 Avith the top of the broken screw over one 
 •of the holes in the riveting stake correspond¬ 
 ing to the size of the screw, and with a joint 
 pusher placed on the bottom of the screw, 
 give a sharp blow with a hammer or mallet, 
 which generally breaks the thread and partly 
 ■drives it through the plate, after which it can 
 be pulled out Avith a pair of pliers. Re-tap 
 the hole and fit in a new screw. 
 
 TO WRITE UPON STEEL. 
 
 GOOD fluid with which to write upon 
 steel is prepared by mixing one part 
 of nitric acid with about one-sixth part 
 •of hydrochloric acid. Cleanse the part to 
 be operated on with oil and cover it with a 
 -coating of beeswax. With a pointed tool 
 write upon the wax, letting each stroke 
 penetrate down to the metal; then with a 
 fine brush, dipped into above said acid 
 
 mixture, follow the strokes of the writing. 
 When these strokes have been filled with this 
 mixture, let the work stand for about five 
 minutes, and then dip it into water to inter¬ 
 rupt the further operation of the acid. 
 
 TO SOLDER BROKEN BROACHES. 
 
 TEEL broaches and other tools are sol¬ 
 dered by cleaning well the parts broken, 
 then dipping them into a solution of sulphate 
 of copper, and soldering them Avith ordinary 
 soft solder. The joint is a good one, and 
 will stand ordinary hard wear. 
 
 TRANSPARENT BLUE FOR STEEL. 
 
 AMAR varnish, y 2 gallon ; finely pul¬ 
 verized Prussian blue, ]/ 2 oz. ; mix 
 thoroughly. Makes a splendid appearance. 
 Excellent for bluing hands. 
 
 HOW TO SUPPLY OIL. 
 
 E very careful in lubricating. The 
 manner of doing this is much more 
 important than many imagine, and has a 
 greater influence upon the duration of the 
 good performance and timing. To single 
 out the escapement: Many watchmakers 
 put too much oil into the cylinder, under 
 the impression that when the wheel passes 
 through each tooth will take its required 
 amount. This is a bad method, because it 
 stands to reason that those teeth Avhich pass 
 through first will take so much oil, that 
 instead of adhering to the lifting faces of the 
 tooth Avhere it belongs, the oil will run down 
 the tooth pillars and swim upon the bottom, 
 acting there as a dirt trap. It is more advis¬ 
 able to place only a small quantity of oil in 
 the cylinder, then pass the teeth through, 
 and additionally lubricate the lifting face of 
 each third or fourth tooth. 
 
 TO TAKE OUT TEMPER OF STAFF. 
 
 N taking the temper out of hard staffs in 
 order to drill without injury to adjacent 
 parts, the following method has been found 
 to work very nicely: Take a small piece of 
 charcoal, as large as a pea, or larger, accord¬ 
 ing to size of staff; make a hole in it, into 
 which the end of the staff is to be inserted; 
 then holding the staff with the pliers, direct 
 the flame of the lamp upon the coal until it 
 is ignited, when it can be kept in a red-hot 
 
56 
 
 ' TO SHARPEN FINE FILES. 
 
 glow by the blowpipe alone, until all is con¬ 
 sumed. This will not even blue the rest of 
 the staff, and will usually take out the tem¬ 
 per sufficiently to drill. If once will not do, 
 it may be repeated several times till the end 
 is accomplished. 
 
 TO BROACH A HOLE VERTICALLY. 
 
 HOLE in a plate, as, for instance, that 
 in a barrel, is seldom maintained at right 
 angles to the surface by young watchmakers 
 when they have occasion to employ a broach. 
 By adopting the following very simple 
 method success may be assured: Take a 
 long cork or a diameter rather less than that 
 of the barrel or other object operated upon, 
 and make a hole in the length of the cork 
 through which the broach can be passed. 
 When the cork has been turned quite true 
 on its end and edge, the broach is pushed 
 through and used to enlarge the hole; by 
 pressing against the back of the cork it is 
 always kept against the barrel, and the ver- 
 ticality of the broach is then maintained. 
 
 THE USE OF SHELLAC IN 
 HOROLOGY. 
 
 HELLAC, says J. Beau, in the Revue 
 Chronometrique, is used in two forms, in 
 rolls, and dissolved in alcohol or phenyl, as 
 will be specified farther on. Solid shellac is 
 suited best for fastening parts that either 
 have much shake between each other or are 
 badly fitted together, while the fluid is used 
 for cementing closely fitted pieces; for in¬ 
 stance, anchor pallets, because, owing to its 
 fluid condition, it can penetrate better into 
 smaller interstices. 
 
 When shellac in rolls is used it is advisable 
 to draw it out, an operation that should not 
 be performed with the fingers; it is to be 
 warmed over an alcohol flame, and drawn 
 out with two pair of tweezers, in which 
 manner it can be drawn out as thin as de¬ 
 sired, at the same time protecting it against 
 the perspiration of the hand. 
 
 This drawing out is really not the best 
 method, although, perhaps, the large major¬ 
 ity of watchmakers employ it; the roll of 
 shellac loses thereby part of its rigidity, and 
 will no longer give results as perfect as those 
 obtained by the following method: The 
 shellac is to be heated, and a part of it is 
 taken upon the point of a pegwood suffi¬ 
 ciently strong to manipulate the shellac, with 
 
 which it is placed upon the pieces to be 
 cemented. 
 
 Again, the pieces to be cemented should 
 never be warmed directly, but they are to 
 be placed into a chuck or other suitable 
 utensil, which is heated, the shellac placed 
 upon the point until it becomes soft; when 
 in this condition, a small quantity is taken 
 away with the pegwood ; in this way, there 
 will never be any danger of overheating. 
 
 Shellac dissolved in alcohol would comply 
 with all the demands of horology, if the 
 solutions were not open to the following 
 objections: If a drop of the solution is only 
 for a few seconds exposed to the air, a pelli¬ 
 cle, analogous to boiling milk, will form on 
 its surface and prevent the spreading of the 
 drop, so that it can enter into the interstices, 
 especially if very small, as in the case of 
 pallets. For this reason, I preferably have 
 used for some time the solution effected in 
 phenyl. Phenyl, also called phenylic alco¬ 
 hol, has properties placing it between alcohol 
 and acid; it exerts no injurious effect upon 
 the metals used in horology, and, therefore,, 
 no objections to its employment exist. The 
 only disagreeable characteristic is, that it 
 etches the skin when coming in contact with 
 it. The watchmaker may therefore use it to 
 advantage, guarding, of course, against its, 
 cauterizing action. 
 
 TO SHARPEN FINE FILES. 
 
 A FTER the files have been liberated from 
 the adhering dirt and filth with a fine 
 wire scratch-brush, and a hot, fairly dilute 
 solution of crystallized soda, or, what is stilt 
 better, warm soapmakers’ waste lye, place 
 them alongside each other in an earthen 
 vessel, upon the bottom of which two strong 
 wires were laid, so that the files can come in 
 contact from below with the following fluid. 
 'Phis fluid consists of a careful mixture of 8 
 parts of cold water and i part concentrated 
 nitric acid, to be prepared in another vessel. 
 Sufficient of this is poured upon the files that 
 they are just covered. The acid is left te 
 operate upon the files for about twenty-five 
 minutes. After the lapse of this time, they 
 are taken out of this bath, treated with the 
 scratch-brush in clean water, similar to the 
 first time; they are then immersed a second 
 time in an acid bath of the same strength (8 
 parts water and i part nitric acid), for 
 twenty-five minutes, during which time they 
 are occasionally changed about. The files 
 
CARE OF THE BRUSH. 
 
 57 
 
 are then again treated with the scratch¬ 
 brush, and returned to the same bath, to 
 which one-half part of English sulphuric acid 
 has been added. The bath heats, and red¬ 
 dish-brown vapors escape, during which 
 time the sharpening of the files by corrosion 
 progresses. Care must be had to keep the 
 vessel (the best is an earthen) in a rocking 
 motion, so that the acid operates equally 
 upon the files, which are not to be left longer 
 than five minutes in this bath. They are 
 then withdrawn, again treated, as above 
 stated, with the scratch-brush and clean 
 water, and again placed in a new bath of 
 the same composition, in which they must 
 not remain longer than five minutes. 
 
 This ends the operation. They are then 
 treated with the scratch-brush, first with 
 clean water, and finally they are for a few 
 minutes laid in a bath to which a little lime 
 water was added; this is for the purpose of 
 neutralizing every trace of acid. They are 
 then well rinsed in clean water, wiped with 
 a dry rag, and heated to dry the moisture. 
 Finally, rub a little oil on them. 
 
 IMPROVED BENZINE JARS. 
 
 I. Take a circular piece of finely per¬ 
 forated metal—a copper strainer answers 
 well. Then fit it inside your benzine glass, 
 rivet in five or six wire feet, not more than 
 one-quarter of one inch long, so that you 
 will have a small space between the perfo¬ 
 rated metal and the bottom of the benzine 
 jar; half fill the jar with the purest of benzine 
 —the spirit must be at least one-quarter of 
 one inch above the perforated metal; lay the 
 watch plates, etc., on the perforated metal, 
 and the benzine, which holds the thick oil 
 and other impurities in solution, will speedily 
 precipitate them to the bottom, and their 
 further contact with the work is prevented 
 by the perforated plate, and, when dried, 
 they are perfectly clean. 
 
 II. Take a small wide-necked bottle, fit 
 in a cock, and insert a brass wire; turn up 
 the end like a fish-hook, so that it will dip 
 half an inch into the benzine, hook on the 
 wheels, balance, and small pieces, and im¬ 
 merse them in the spirit, which will operate 
 as before described. A little attention to 
 small tools is often the difference between a 
 quick workman and a slow one. Workmen 
 of equal industry and ability often produce 
 widely differing results from the neglect of a 
 small outlay in useful tools. 
 
 THE FOOT WHEEL. 
 
 I HAVE a 40-pound Webster foot wheel,. 
 
 says a correspondent in an exchange, 
 which runs true and perfectly noiseless. I 
 altered my wheel, balancing it by putting shot 
 in the hole left in the inside of the rim. This 
 hole was left so as to make the wheel heavy¬ 
 sided, so that it should not stop on centers. 
 For my part, I do not want a heavy-sided 
 wheel that will, every time I stop my lathe 
 and take my foot out of the stirrup, run 
 backward and forward several times before 
 remaining at rest. I can run my lathe very 
 slow and it will not stop on me like a heavy¬ 
 sided wheel does, unless you are on your 
 guard. Sometimes, one wants to slow up 
 to examine work, and a heavy-sided wheel 
 will stop on you sometimes as the heavy side 
 starts up. A heavy-sided wheel will run 
 with a jerking motion. My wheel now oc¬ 
 casionally stops on centers, and when I go- 
 to start and find that such is the case, I 
 simply touch the rim of the wheel with my 
 foot, and it is easily thrown off. Poise your 
 wheel, and if you do not like it better, 1 will 
 pay for the time. 
 
 CARE OF THE BRUSH. 
 
 WATCHMAKER’S brushes are a con¬ 
 stant utensil in his hands and on the 
 workbench; nothing except pliers, screw¬ 
 drivers, and tweezers being in more con¬ 
 stant use; and how few treat them prop¬ 
 erly, or rather, how few keep them in 
 proper use. A soft brush for rough work is 
 quite useless, a hard one for fine work is 
 ruinous, and a dirty brush of either kind is 
 a nuisance. The methods adopted for 
 cleaning them are nearly as varied as the 
 workmen that use them, and there are some 
 who never even make the attempt. Some 
 clean the brush with dry bread; some lay 
 a piece of tissue or other paper across 
 the wide open bench vise, the sharp corners 
 formed by the jaws taking off on the paper 
 a little of the dirt; others, brush a piece of 
 clean cork vigorously, and one man we 
 knew who used his'knuckles for the same 
 purpose. All these various methods are 
 imperfect, while some of them can be called 
 slovenly. The only good way to clean a 
 brush is with soap and water—warm water, 
 if convenient, being preferable. Wet two 
 brushes, soap them, and rub them together 
 in plenty of water, and the job is done. 
 The only objection to this way is the delay 
 
58 
 
 BROKEN PILLAR SCREW. 
 
 by drying; but this need not be, for six 
 brushes assorted will give you three clean 
 ones to use, while the other three are dry¬ 
 ing ; and the workman who cannot afford 
 half a dozen of brushes had better seek 
 some more lucrative occupation. More 
 damage to the appearance of the movement 
 is done by injudicious brushing than by any 
 other means. The watch may not be in¬ 
 jured in its quality as a timepiece, but it 
 grows prematurely old in looks by such 
 severe treatment. 
 
 TO MAKE A GOOD DRILL. 
 
 F we wish to make a drill that will act 
 to satisfaction, we must be particular 
 about getting the point exactly in the 
 center; but this is just what is often neg¬ 
 lected. Now, it will not be difficult for the 
 youngest reader to understand that when 
 the point is out of the center, one side of 
 that point has to cut a larger share of the 
 metal under operation than the other does; 
 hence, the side that is cutting its smaller 
 share does not do all it might and could, 
 if working under different circumstances. 
 This, of course, is detrimental to the speedy 
 action of the drill, and if the reader would 
 verify this statement, he should make two 
 drills alike in every respect, except that one 
 shall have its point central and the other 
 not, and temper both alike. Then let him 
 drill through a sheet of brass, and notice 
 the time it takes in each case, when he will 
 find that the result will be considerably in 
 favor of the centrally pointed drill. 
 
 THE TEMPERING OF SMALL DRILLS. 
 
 UCH has been written on this subject, 
 and still it is never exhausted; new 
 methods for hardening this small tool, so 
 useful to the watchmaker, are recommended 
 every little while. 
 
 Small drills for drilling holes in arbors, 
 staffs, etc., which are frequently very hard 
 and difficult to be perforated, are tempered 
 in the following manner: After the drill has 
 been filed to its proper size (the cutting 
 face must tiot be flattened with the ham¬ 
 mer), it is only moderately warmed; avoid¬ 
 ing that it does not become red when it is 
 run into borax. The drill is thereby coated 
 over with a crust of borax, and secluded 
 from the air. It may now be hardened by 
 heating it only cherry-red, after which it is 
 
 inserted into a piece of borax, or what is 
 still better, plunged into mercury; care is to 
 be taken in the latter case, however, not to 
 breathe the mercury fumes. The borax 
 accommodates itself to the heat of the drill, 
 melts, and cools it off. Various experiments 
 made by cooling in water, petroleum, etc., 
 after the drill had been coated with borax, 
 were not followed by results as favorable as 
 when the drill was plunged into borax or 
 mercury ; it becomes exceedingly hard with¬ 
 out being brittle, and the watchmaker is able 
 to drill articles which cannot be perforated 
 with a drill tempered in the ordinary manner. 
 
 GOOD STEEL FOR DRILLS. 
 
 ANY watchmakers make use of broken 
 broaches for their small drills, in the 
 belief that they are made of the best steel, 
 which is not always the case, however, be¬ 
 cause the steel used for them is frequently 
 burned, and, of course, the steel is thereby 
 rendered unfit for such small tools. In order 
 to be certain of the quality of their drill, let 
 them take a new piece of round steel. 
 
 TO TEMPER A DRILL. 
 
 ELECT none but the finest and best 
 steel for your drills. In making them, 
 never heat the steel higher than a cherry-red, 
 and always hammer until nearly cold. Do 
 all your hammering in one way, for if, after 
 you have flattened out your piece, you at¬ 
 tempt to hammer it back to a square or 
 round, you will ruin it. When your drill is 
 in proper shape, heat it to a cherry-red, and 
 thrust it into a piece of resin or into mercury. 
 Some use a solution of cyanide of potash 
 and rain water, but the resin or mercury will 
 give better results. 
 
 TO TEMPER STEEL. 
 
 PREPARATION is used for the pur¬ 
 pose, consisting of one-half a teaspoon¬ 
 ful wheat flour, i do. salt, 2 do. water. The 
 steel to be hardened is to be heated suffi¬ 
 ciently, dipped into this mixture, to be coated 
 therewith, then raised to a red glow, and 
 thrown into cold soft water. 
 
 BROKEN PILLAR SCREW. 
 
 HOULD a broken pillar screw be so 
 rusty that it cannot be taken out with 
 
DRILLING BOWS. 
 
 59 
 
 a graver or other tool, use a countersink. 
 Make a center at the opposite end of the pil¬ 
 lar, take a drill a little smaller than the screw, 
 so as not to weaken the pillar too much, and 
 drill a hole, until the broken screw is reached; 
 then make a punch to go through in the hole, 
 and drive out the screw with a hammer, by 
 laying the pillar by its shoulder on a stake. 
 
 CARE OF CHUCKS. 
 
 HE watchmaker who values true chucks 
 must never force a wire into a chuck that 
 is too small to receive it, as it will spring the 
 chuck open, and when it is drawn into the 
 mouth of the spindle, it is liable to be sprung 
 at the cone or shoulders. It is just as liable 
 to be damaged at some point by holding a 
 piece of wire that is too small for the chuck. 
 Keep your chucks in a block under glass 
 cover, or in a box kept in your drawer; and 
 occasionally brush them out with a stiff 
 brush, dipped in benzine. A couple of stiff 
 tooth-brushes are nice things, say one for al¬ 
 cohol and the other for benzine. 
 
 ISOCHRONISM. 
 
 T will have happened to the repairer and 
 adjuster that when a ruined or badly 
 mounted balance spring was straightened 
 and set in order by him, the rate of the 
 watch differed materially, and the spring had 
 to be reset; a proof that a spring of equal 
 length and thickness, but of another curve, 
 requires another adjusting; the power of re¬ 
 sistance or tension of the spring is virtually 
 altered. Generally, when a watch retards it 
 is presumed that its spring is too weak, or, 
 xvhat is the same, too long, and every watch¬ 
 maker knows that by further drawing through 
 the spiral stud, its vibrations are accelerated. 
 The cause of the acceleration, however, does 
 not lie in the immediate shortening and ap¬ 
 proach of its two ends, but in the alteration 
 of its curves, whereby the proportion of the 
 curve dimension to the length, and thereby 
 to the weight of the balance, becomes 
 another, and favors a greater power of resist¬ 
 ance. If the proportion of length alone 
 were to decide, then the same quantity o r 
 shortening of the balance spring would pro¬ 
 duce the same effect, which, as every one 
 knows, is not so. By shortening the spring 
 on its inner end, its power of resistance is 
 sensibly augmented, because the operating 
 power of the balance upon the spring is less 
 
 ened by the change from the center of the 
 inner curve. For this self-same reason, the 
 inner curve should be treated with all possi¬ 
 ble consideration. 
 
 TO MAKE A DIAMOND-POINT TOOL. 
 
 USEFUL little tool for the repairing 
 watchmaker is a diamond-point tool, 
 which he can easily make himself. In bort ' 
 such as he buys for jewel-grinding, he will find 
 small splinters of diamond, which, by careful 
 setting, will form a point by which the pallet 
 stone itself can be marked with a fine scratch. 
 But in grinding, the scratch must be cut 
 away, as, if left, it would be constantly cut¬ 
 ting the teeth of the scape wheel. In break¬ 
 ing up old diamond cap jewels, it is quite 
 easy to select a fragment which can be set 
 up. For such a tool, take a bit of steel wire 
 about one-tenth of an inch in diameter, and 
 turn it up to a conical point, and drill a hole 
 in the end to match the size of your diamond 
 splinter; into this, the fragment can be bur¬ 
 nished in, and, if necessary, can be still fur¬ 
 ther secured by brazing. That is, if brass fil¬ 
 ings and borax be applied at and around the 
 diamond splinter, the brass can be fused 
 without injury to the bit of diamond. Such 
 a diamond splinter can be used to reduce 
 the size of hole jewels. 
 
 TO CLEAN WATCH CASES. 
 
 ERY dirty or oxidized silver or gold 
 watch cases can be restored by brush¬ 
 ing them with a soft brush and a little rouge 
 and oil. The case is afterwards cleaned 
 with another brush and a little (best is luke¬ 
 warm) water and soap, and finally laid in 
 alcohol to remove all traces of the soap. 
 The case, after being taken from this bath, 
 is dried with a clean rag. It is evident that 
 the movement, and, if possible, also the case 
 springs, have been taken out. Clean, dry 
 sawdust may be used in place of alcohol; 
 leave the case in them until thoroughly dry. 
 
 DRILLING BOWS. 
 
 OOD bows are necessary complements 
 to good turns, and the watch repairer 
 cannot dispense with less than four, varying 
 in length from 12 to 24 inches, and in 
 strength from that sufficient to make a bal¬ 
 ance pivot, with horse or human hair, with¬ 
 out slipping on the ferrule, when turning 
 
6o 
 
 TO SOLDER A STAY SPRING. 
 
 with a fine pointed graver; and the others 
 increasing in strength to what is required in 
 turning barrel arbors, stoppings, and the 
 larger drilling operations in watch work. 
 
 TO POLISH PIVOTS. 
 
 T HERE are a number of ways to polish 
 pivots. After turning the pivot down 
 about to size, it is ground with oil-stone 
 dust and oil till the marks of the graver are 
 removed, and a smooth “ gray ” or dead- 
 white surface is obtained—the pivot now 
 being of a size to barely enter its hole and 
 perfectly shaped. It is then polished with 
 sharp or hard rouge. Both the grinding and 
 polishing are best done with slips of bell- 
 metal filed to shape and used like the old- 
 fashioned pivot burnishers. Many workmen 
 finish off with Vienna lime or diamantine to 
 give a fine gloss, but this is hardly necessary 
 if the polishing with sharp rouge is well done, 
 as that gives a splendid black luster that is 
 the ideal of perfect polish for steel. The 
 polishing should not be continued too long, 
 or the surface will become a sort of brown 
 color and of inferior appearance. If the 
 “ gray ” has been well done, a very little 
 further manipulation will be sufficient to 
 produce the polish, and, as soon as it is 
 reached, the process should stop. But if the 
 brown shows itself, the surface should again 
 be stoned off and the polishing repeated. 
 Some workmen take the trouble to finish the 
 pivot in the Jacot lathe with the pivot bur¬ 
 nisher, in order to harden the surface and 
 make it wear better, and less easily scratched 
 and marred. The foregoing refers to work¬ 
 ing with the live spindle lathe, but if the 
 repairer uses the old-fashioned steel verge 
 lathe or “ turns,” he is, of course, confined 
 to the pivot file and burnisher for finishing 
 the pivots. _ 
 
 TO STRAIGHTEN A PIVOT. ' 
 
 S OME watchmakers will object to the 
 straightening of a pivot, and rather break 
 it off and put in a new one. Some may try to 
 avoid the labor and expense, and sometimes 
 a pivot can be straightened and act as well 
 as a new one, in the following manner: I 
 put it in a pivot lathe, with or without screw 
 collet, place in a rest just a little smaller than 
 the pivot, first springing it as near straight 
 as I can see or tell, then carefully run a 
 small steel burnisher over the pivot, pressing 
 sufficiently hard to spring it straight; the 
 
 wheel will revolve under the pressure (if it 
 does not, use collet and bow). Great care 
 is necessary to keep the pivot from rolling 
 out of the rest. _ 
 
 TO FIX A CAP JEWEL. 
 
 T O fix an end-stone, the cap must be 
 held by its edge in the sliding tongs 
 and shellac carefully applied round the edge 
 of the hollow. It is advisable to hold the 
 cap in a small tool formed of two parallel 
 blades, as, when reversed so as to press the 
 stone on a flat surface, the shellac will be 
 spread over the end-stone, from which it will 
 be removed with difficulty. 
 
 TO MAKE A PIVOT FILE. 
 
 D RESS up a piece of wood, file fash¬ 
 ion, about one inch broad, and glue a 
 piece of fine emery paper upon it. Then 
 shape your file as you wish it, of the best 
 cast steel, and, before tempering, pass your 
 emery piece several times heavily across it 
 diagonally. Temper by heating to a cherry- 
 red and plunging it into linseed oil. Old 
 worn pivot files may be dressed over and 
 made new by this process. At first glance 
 one would be led to think them to be too 
 slightly cut to work well, but this is not so. 
 They dress a pivot more rapidly than any 
 other file. _ 
 
 THE LENGTH OF A BALANCE 
 SPRING. 
 
 T HE length of a balance spring is im¬ 
 portant, especially in fiat springs, with¬ 
 out overcoil. By varying the strength of 
 the wire two flat springs may be produced, 
 each of half the diameter of the balances, 
 but of very unequal lengths, either of which 
 would yield the same number of vibrations, 
 as long as the extent of the vibrations re¬ 
 mained constant, yet if the spring is of an 
 improper length, although it may bring the 
 watch to time in one position, it will fail to 
 keep the long and short vibrations isochro¬ 
 nous. Then, again, a good length of spring 
 for a watch with a cylinder escapement vi¬ 
 brating barely one full turn, would clearly 
 be insufficient for a lever vibrating one turn 
 and a half. _ 
 
 TO SOLDER A STAY SPRING. 
 
 S TAY or lifting springs are often broken, 
 and the watchmaker has frequently none 
 of the right size nor the time to make a new 
 
REPAIRING CHEAP CLOCKS. 
 
 one. In such a predicament, he can mend 
 the old one, and have it just as good as new, 
 by placing the broken parts together and 
 binding them firmly to a piece of coal, then 
 soldering them with 18-karat gold. It re¬ 
 quires a strong heat and plenty of borax; 
 then finish off, nicely harden and temper in 
 the usual manner. __ 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CURB PINS. 
 
 I F the balance spring is not entirely 
 equidistant from both the curb pins in 
 a state of repose, or, what is still worse, if it 
 touches one of the pins, it will, when it 
 makes smaller vibrations, be more subject to 
 the influence of these curb pins, and conse¬ 
 quently its vibrations will become quicker. 
 It will often happen that with a certain ex¬ 
 tension of the vibrations, it leaves one of the 
 pins, and vibrates free from all impediment, 
 therefore with less power, for a certain time. 
 
 TO CUT THE SCREW TO THE FAN 
 OF A MUSIC BOX. 
 
 HE country watchmaker will be re¬ 
 quested to do many a job of repairing, 
 for which there are specialists in any large 
 city. This is the case also in the present 
 instance. Select a piece of steel wire a little 
 larger than the entire diameter of the screw, 
 and turn up a flank for your screw and staff. 
 Of course, the reader will understand that 
 the piece of wire should be hardened and 
 tempered to a spring temper. Now take a 
 piece of fine iron binding wire, and wind it 
 on a wire a trifle smaller than the size of the 
 screw. Wind the coils close together, and 
 when you have an inch, say, wound, remove 
 from the large wire and stretch it out like a 
 spiral spring until the spaces between the 
 coils exactly correspond to the spaces of the 
 teeth which are to work in the screw; a 
 gradual stretching is the best—stretch and 
 try. Cut off three-eighths of one inch of 
 the fine wire spiral, slip it on the screw 
 blanks, on which it should go easily, not too 
 tight, but so that the coils touch the screw 
 blank. Soft solder this fast, and you have 
 a guide that, with a double safe edge-file you 
 can quickly file out to a screw. Finish with 
 emery, polish with rouge or diamantine. 
 
 D PALLET ACTION. 
 
 HERE is a class of trouble in pallet 
 action, in the way of scape wheels 
 which are not round. Frequently this is so 
 
 61 
 
 much, that part of the teeth of the scape 
 wheel hardly pass the pallets, while the other 
 side will trip; that is, the teeth will not 
 securely catch on the locking face. Usually, 
 in such cases, the scape wheel has been 
 badly set on the pinion. This can generally 
 be told by inspection of the pinion at the 
 point where the scape wheel is set. Some¬ 
 times it arises from the scape wheel pinion 
 having been pivoted. If the last cause is 
 the one, a new pivot will cure the trouble; 
 but if the pinion is all right we must seek 
 for the cause somewhere else. We will first 
 find out where the fault is, and then tell how 
 to correct it. If we put the scape wheel 
 and pinion into the double calipers and re¬ 
 volve it, we can readily determine which is 
 at fault—the scape wheel or the pinion. If 
 a pivot is the fault, we answered this above ; 
 if it seems to be in the wheel, knock the 
 pinion out, and test the wheel if it is round. 
 Usually, in such cases, the trouble is in the 
 manner in which the scape wheel has been 
 set on the pinion. The seat or place where 
 the scape wheel goes on the pinion was 
 turned too small, and when the wheel was 
 riveted on, tire riveting was done in such a 
 way as to throw the shake or play all to one 
 side. Such a condition is quite serious, as 
 we cannot well put the pinion again in the 
 lathe and true up the seat, as it is already 
 too small; and it is impracticable to bush or 
 close the hole in the scape wheel. The 
 correct way to proceed is to test the scape 
 wheel for round, and see if it is true; if not, 
 it is easy to open the hole in the center to 
 one side, so that the wheel will be true if the 
 pinion is true. Now, there are two ways to 
 go about correcting the trouble: First, and 
 best, put in a new pinion; next, use the old 
 pinion if it is long enough. 
 
 REPAIRING CHEAP CLOCKS. 
 
 HERE are few things that tax a work¬ 
 man’s patience and ability more than 
 the repairing of common clocks. The low 
 prices that are paid for repairs and the ex¬ 
 acting demands that are made for their 
 performance render it increasingly difficult. 
 Among the most troublesome that I have 
 found is the French drum clock with short 
 pendulum. The most frequent cause of 
 stopping is this: the back pivot, just above 
 the pendulum, soon wears flat, which in¬ 
 creases friction and stops the clock. The 
 cheapest and best remedy is to file up the 
 
62 
 
 TO MAKE A COMPOSITION FILE. 
 
 pivot to a knife edge or V-shape, which will 
 give it a light action. 
 
 TO MAKE A DRILL. 
 
 I T is quite a difficult piece of work to 
 make a true running drill in the drill¬ 
 ing spindle of the chuck lathe. To do this 
 well do not turn the drill between the lathe 
 center, but fit the steel direct into the spindle 
 and turn the spoon on. It will receive the 
 proper form and size in the lathe, after which 
 it is filed flat in front. Such a drill requires 
 a little more labor, but it is far stronger than 
 the hammered ones, and it is really a piece 
 of downright carelessness if the repairer 
 breaks it. Moreover, a drill made in this 
 manner must unconditionally run true. It 
 is best to make it as short as possible. 
 Every drill should have only two cutting 
 edges—one on each side; this will expedite 
 work not alone in the foot lathe, but also 
 with the drill bow. 
 
 BOWS. 
 
 HALEBONE can be reduced in 
 strength or rendered more uniform by 
 being filed with a fine rasp, or by scraping 
 its surface with a piece of broken glass. If, 
 instead of fixing a brass end with a hook to 
 the bow, it is desired to form a hook of the 
 whalebone itself, hold the extremity in boil¬ 
 ing oil for a short time, when it will soften; 
 then form the hook, maintaining the whale¬ 
 bone in the required position until sufficiently 
 cool to set. A form of bow has been intro¬ 
 duced that consists of a brass handle, into 
 which slides a steel wire bent into the requi¬ 
 site form ; the strength, of course, depending 
 on the thickness of steel wire used. 
 
 POLISHING THE FOURTH PINION. 
 
 HE best pivoters generally polish the 
 fourth pinion like any other arbor, but 
 if nervous or heavy-handed, a special brass 
 center with half of its diameter filed away, 
 and a convenient slit for the pivot to rest 
 nearly all its length in may be used, but it is 
 not to be recommended, as a careless slip 
 will destroy the pivot, which otherwise in tht 
 turns would have a certain amount of elas¬ 
 ticity. The resting of the little finger on a 
 convenient part of the turns, and letting it 
 move with the polisher, is an item in polish¬ 
 
 ing pivots, the fingers being used to regulate 
 the pressure of the arm and hand ; the most 
 troublesome pinion to pivot is the Swiss 
 scape pinion, owing to its having no arbor. 
 
 AUDIBLE UNROLLING OF THE MAIN¬ 
 SPRING. 
 
 T happens occasionally that the main¬ 
 spring will make a peculiar grating noise 
 in the barrel while in the act of unroll¬ 
 ing. The repairer should, if possible, cor¬ 
 rect this, because it may occasion other 
 errors, and the power exerted by the main¬ 
 spring must necessarily be unequal. It is 
 most generally caused by the scant room in 
 the barrel; the spring in the act of unfolding 
 in the contracted barrel space must naturally 
 scrape on the cover or bottom. The spring 
 may also, when it grates in one of the com¬ 
 mon clocks, where the barrel wheel supplies 
 the place of cover, catch on the dial, espe¬ 
 cially when this is too thick or shaky. Burr 
 inside the barrel may also cause the audible 
 development of the spring. 
 
 TO PREPARE SHELLAC FOR USE. 
 
 HELLAC can be dissolved in alcohol, 
 and kept in a liquid form, in a close 
 stoppered bottle, to prevent evaporation. To 
 use it, it is only necessary to apply it, where 
 required, with the pointed end of pegwood, 
 or small camel’s-hair brush, and gently heat 
 over a lamp, when it will quickly harden. 
 Or it may be used in chips, as received from 
 a drug store ; a good way to do, when set¬ 
 ting pallet jewels, ruby pins, etc., is to heat 
 a piece over the lamp and draw it out to a 
 long, slender thread, then break the thread 
 into small particles of suitable lengths for 
 cementing the jewel; by this means, the 
 shellac can be placed just where it is needed, 
 and it will not run all over the pallets or 
 table roller. ______ 
 
 TO MAKE A COMPOSITION FILE. 
 
 HESE files, which are frequently used 
 by watchmakers and other metal work¬ 
 ers, for grinding and polishing, and the color 
 of which resembles silver, are composed of 
 8 parts copper, 2 parts tin, 1 part zinc, 
 1 part lead. They are cast in forms and 
 shaped upon the grindstone; the metal is 
 very hard, and therefore worked with dif¬ 
 ficulty with the file. 
 
THE MOVABLE STUD. 
 
 6 3 
 
 DIAMOND FILES. 
 
 HAPE your file of brass, and charge 
 with diamond dust, as in case of the 
 mill, grade the dust in accordance with the 
 coarse or fine character of the file desired. 
 
 CLEANING-PITH. 
 
 HE stalk of the common mullen makes 
 the best pith for cleaning pivots. The 
 best time to gather it is winter, when the 
 stalk is dry. Some use cork instead of pith, 
 but it will hardly answer the purpose. 
 
 VERDIGRIS SPOTS. 
 
 CORRESPONDENT of the D. Uhrm. 
 Ztg. inquires how to remove verdi¬ 
 gris spots from gilt parts of a large clock, 
 to which some one responds by saying 
 ' that they are easily removed with a few 
 drops of spirits of hartshorn upon the offend¬ 
 ing spots ; or wet a small ball of silk paper 
 with it and pad them until removed, after¬ 
 ward drying the spots thoroughly with a like 
 pellet of dry paper. If the spots do not dis¬ 
 appear at once, repeat the process. If the 
 spots have shown themselves for a length of 
 time, of course, the gilding has been ruined 
 and must be touched up again, after remov¬ 
 ing the spots, with a fine camel’s-hair brush 
 and shell gold. _ 
 
 PALLET LOCKINGS. 
 
 N respect to the pallet lockings, the 
 equality of sharpness of draught in¬ 
 ward is readily judged to be about equal by 
 trial—some persons try them by placing the 
 guard pin against the round edge of the 
 roller, and gently putting the peg on the 
 escape wheel. But the equality of their 
 draught inward does not quite prove their 
 equal resistance to the reciprocated force of 
 the balance, nor does the writer know of any 
 way to prove when they are so, strictly, but 
 he will make some remarks about them. It 
 is to be observed that the two lockings are 
 at unequal distances from the center of the 
 pallet, and also that with deeper depths the 
 wheel drops further under the inside locking, 
 so that in unlocking the wheel has to be 
 moved further back to get the locking out 
 from under the tooth; still, as the radius to 
 the inside locking is the shortest, therefore 
 the long arm of the lever bears a greater 
 ratio to that shortest pallet radius, and 
 although the inside locking of itself may be 
 
 a trifle the hardest, yet it may not subtract 
 any more velocity from the balance in un¬ 
 locking than the outside one ; and, indeed, 
 if the inside locking of itself was as easy to 
 unlock as that of the outside we should then 
 be certain that the resistances to the force 
 of the balance would be unequal, as the two 
 radii to the lockings were unequal. Un¬ 
 equal radii must have unequal resisting lock¬ 
 ings to subtract equal portions of velocity 
 from the same reciprocated force of the bal¬ 
 ance. 
 
 In light pallet depths the wheel has only 
 to be moved back in the locking a mere 
 trifle, but in very deep depths or long run to 
 the bankings, the wheel has to be moved 
 back a good bit. It is the moving back of 
 the wheel to get the locking out from under 
 the tooth that causes the principal resistance 
 to the force of the balance, for if there were 
 no motion backward of the wheel the un¬ 
 locking would only be a frictional resistance, 
 like in a regulator clock ; but this is impossi¬ 
 ble in watches, for there must be a detach¬ 
 ment by draught inward sharp enough to 
 free the guard pin without any hesitation, or 
 else there is danger that the vibration of the 
 balance is frequently interfered with, which, 
 in some cases, will stop the watch. 
 
 All pallets that make equal arcs by the 
 two workings have, and must have, the 
 deepest hold of the outside locking. Sup¬ 
 pose the depth hold to be such that each of 
 the pallets make an arc of 3° in the unlock¬ 
 ing, it is easily seen that 3 0 of the larger 
 outer circle which the pallets describe is a 
 greater space than 3 0 of the smaller inner 
 circle, and the piece of stone which must 
 enter the wflieel is the greatest on the outside 
 locking—and if pallets were made to draw 
 off equally, that depth at which they Avould 
 do so must be planted precisely or they 
 would be unequal in the draw off. As a 
 rule, it will be found that if the wheel just 
 catches a tripping hold of the outside lock¬ 
 ing and just ships the inside locking, when 
 tried in a depthing tool before closing the 
 tool to the depth, the unlockings wall draw 
 off pretty nearly equal when in at the depth, 
 provided the depth is not very deep. 
 
 THE MOVABLE STUD. 
 
 HE great objection to the ordinary 
 balance spring lies in the distance of 
 the center of the balance cock from any one 
 of its points of fastening; this causes the 
 
M 
 
 THE ADJUSTING OF LARGE AND SMALL WATCHES. 
 
 body of the spring to crowd to one side in 
 vibrations of any extent. A change of form 
 takes place, which opposes the progress of 
 the isochronal development. 
 
 This defect may be overcome by not fast¬ 
 ening the spring to the bridge, but to the 
 end of a straight spring screwed with a foot 
 upon the plate. This construction is known 
 by the name of “spring stud,” or “ movable 
 stud.” By the vibrations of the balance the 
 stud bends, and when the balance spring 
 closes, its end approaches towards the cen¬ 
 ter, while in the opening of the former it 
 withdraws. This disposition favors the 
 isochronal development of the spring to a 
 high degree. 
 
 The difficulty is to find the exact propor¬ 
 tions. It is evident that by a given balance 
 spring the spring stud must comply with 
 certain conditions of length, thickness, flexi¬ 
 bility, etc., which until now could be estab¬ 
 lished only by experiments. Besides this, 
 strictly considered, the head of the stud 
 must have almost no weight, so that its 
 elasticity alone would operate, and its weight 
 would not enter into account as a different 
 power, between the vertical and horizontal 
 positions. 
 
 This arrangement, says Cl. Saunier, is still 
 too new to express an opinion on its merit. 
 C. Frodsham, of London, introduced a flat 
 balance spring with a spring stud in a marine 
 chronometer, and it has been shown that this 
 chronometer was one of the best he ever 
 made. Raby, of Paris, also used the spring 
 stud in watches, and expressed great satis¬ 
 faction as to their performances. 
 
 TOOL FOR FASTENING ROLLER 
 JEWELS. 
 
 AVING been benefited so much by 
 the many good suggestions appearing in 
 The Circular, I deem it but right that I 
 should add _my mite toward the fund of 
 information. For fastening a roller jewel 
 I have made a little tool which I find very 
 convenient. It is made of a small piece of 
 brass plate, say one inch long by one-quarter 
 of an inch wide, with a slit lengthwise. 
 Fasten this plate to a handle three inches 
 long, made of iron wire, with a rivet. To 
 use, heat the brass plate, then lay your bal¬ 
 ance on with the table roller flat on the 
 plate, the end of staff and the roller jewel 
 extending though the slit. When the shellac 
 
 has melted see that the roller jewel is in cor¬ 
 rect position before the shellac hardens. 
 
 THE ADJUSTING OF LARGE AND 
 SMALL WATCHES. 
 
 HEN we speak of adjusting watches, 
 we are generally understood to mean 
 adjusting to temperature and position or 
 isochronism, whichever may be the proper 
 term. In what I am going to say about the 
 adjusting of large and small watches, I mean 
 to speak only of position, adjustments, or ad¬ 
 justments to isochronism, and I will have 
 nothing to say about the adjustment to tem¬ 
 perature, though the latter may, perchance, 
 be the most important of the two. 
 
 In adjusting watches to position, or in 
 isochronizing the vibrations of the balance 
 to all the conditions which a watch may be 
 subjected to, we have to deal pre-eminently 
 with the following factors, while there are 
 others which it may not be necessary to 
 mention in discussing the subject from the 
 proposed standpoint: 
 
 1. The escapement. 
 
 2. The balance spring. 
 
 3. The momentum of the balance. 
 
 4. Friction. 
 
 The most perfect isochronism could, no 
 doubt, be produced, could we have a bal¬ 
 ance which could vibrate without any fric¬ 
 tion whatsoever, but in all watches made the 
 balance can only vibrate on resting points 
 or pivots, and its vibrations can only be kept 
 up by its receiving a'n occasional impulse by 
 means of the escapement; and here we en¬ 
 counter at once one of the worst enemies to 
 a perfect isochronism, i.e., “friction." This 
 friction is, therefore, twofold. 1. The fric¬ 
 tion of the pivots, and 2. The friction caused 
 by the balance coming in contact with the 
 escapement. Of these frictions, the first is 
 constant and the second is intermitting. 
 
 What means have we to overcome these 
 frictions? 
 
 1. The momentum of the balance. 
 
 What is momentum? Momentum is 
 weight multiplied by velocity. A steamship 
 weighing 3,000 tons and moving at the rate 
 of 2 miles per hour, has double the momen¬ 
 tum of a steamship weighing 300 tons mov¬ 
 ing at the rate of 1 o miles per hour, because 
 3,000 tons weight multiplied by 2 miles 
 velocity is equal to 6,000, while 300 tons 
 weight multiplied by 10 miles velocity is 
 
REGULATION OF WATCHES. 
 
 65 
 
 only equal to one-half, or 3,000. In a 
 watch balance, momentum is represented by 
 the weight of its rim near its outer edge, 
 multiplied by the velocity at which a given 
 point in this rim moves in a given time and 
 at a given distance. The proportions of the 
 size, or, rather, of the weight, of the arm or 
 arms of a balance, have a good deal to do 
 with the momentum of a balance, as will be 
 readily understood. 
 
 2. The balance spring. The balance 
 spring is to the balance what gravity is to 
 the pendulum, and it exerts a continuous 
 influence which tends to bring the balance 
 back to a point of rest, and it overcomes the 
 inertia of the balance in this respect, and in 
 so doing becomes instrumental and auxiliary 
 to unlocking the escapement, overcoming 
 with the co-operation of the momentum of 
 the balance, the pivot friction and the inter¬ 
 mitting friction of the escapement. 
 
 It will be seen at a glance from the fore¬ 
 going, that the most perfect isochronism 
 attainable can only be had by reducing the 
 pivot and escapement friction to a mini¬ 
 mum, by the greatest mechanical skill and 
 by the most intelligent manipulation. And 
 the larger the machine the more perfectly 
 we can carry out the details of its construc¬ 
 tion. (Of course, there is a limit to every¬ 
 thing.) Hence the size of a ship’s chro¬ 
 nometer. 
 
 When we consider that in making the 
 best 18-size pocket watch movements, we 
 make the balance pivots often as small as 
 0.004 of an inch an d escapements to match, 
 and we present the question whether we can 
 reduce sizes and frictions proportionately to 
 a 6-size watch, the answer must be an em¬ 
 phatic “ No.” The pivot and escapement 
 friction in so small a watch, therefore, be¬ 
 comes such a preponderating factor, that the 
 isochronizing of the vibrations of the balance 
 thereof must be at best but a crippled job. 
 
 In speaking of small watches, we must 
 include in the list some of the complicated 
 watches, such as repeaters, etc., where the 
 want of space and a limited motive power 
 admit of only a small train and escapement 
 and balance to match, and it was with one 
 of these that I had my first experience. 
 
 I cannot conclude my communication and 
 convey the impression that what I have said 
 is all that ought to have been said; and, if 
 circumstances will permit, I hope to be able to 
 refer to the subject again incidentally, treat¬ 
 ing it from an entirely different standpoint. 
 
 REGULATION OF WATCHES. 
 
 H-E accurate time-keeping qualities of 
 a watch, presuming the works to have 
 been properly constructed, depend in the 
 main upon the regulation ; while it is a well- 
 known fact that the great majority of people 
 judge the quality of a watch solely by the 
 accuracy of the time it keeps. 
 
 To move the regulator to the right or to 
 the left, thus lengthening or shortening the 
 hairspring and thereby causing the watch 
 to run slower or faster, as the case may be, 
 is a very simple matter in itself, but the 
 science of regulation lies much deeper than 
 this, since accuracy can only be obtained 
 when all the parts are in proper, order. It 
 is therefore necessary at all times to be as¬ 
 sured that certain faults do not exist, because 
 their presence unperceived might render 
 accuracy absolutely impossible; hence, to 
 summarize some of these defects briefly may 
 not be inappropriate. In this article the 
 treatise will be confined to the anchor watch, 
 elbowed spiral, and compensated balance; 
 attention being directed hereafter to the 
 regulation of the cylinder watch. 
 
 A subtle defect, and one which inexpe¬ 
 rienced workman do not readily perceive 
 because they occur almost solely in fine 
 watches, is a too great precision in the per¬ 
 formance of the escapement, but which, 
 however, is not noticeable upon the vibra¬ 
 tions of the balance. In order to remedy 
 this it is sometimes necessary to remove the 
 gilding at the place where the pallet rests 
 while it is locked. To ascertain if the action 
 is too strict, all the teeth of the wheel should 
 be made to pass by using a small wooden 
 point, in order to push the pallet of the 
 anchor to the locking point on each side 
 of the escapement wheel. In the great 
 majority of cases the teeth will not pass 
 equally well on both sides, to rectify which 
 it is often only necessary to raise the bed of 
 the gilding on one side. This defect does, 
 not exist in anchors in which the locking is 
 made on the stem of the wheel, though but 
 few escapements of this kind are met with 
 on account of the greater care required in 
 their manufacture. 
 
 The ruby holes, also, should not be too 
 constricted, there being no danger in allow¬ 
 ing a little play to the pivots in the holes. 
 In the better grade of watches the ruby 
 holes are usually of a fair size, well oiled 
 and well set, with the exception of the cen¬ 
 ter holes, which are often too exact, the fac- 
 
66 
 
 REGULATION OF WATCHES. 
 
 tory workman imagining that to make them 
 well only little play must be allowed. The 
 consequence is that the oil does not remain 
 upon the pivots, entailing a rapid alteration 
 in the rate of speed of the movement owing 
 to the pivots wearing rough, and getting cut. 
 Too often these holes do not receive from 
 the manufacturer the attention which their 
 importance demands. 
 
 The axis ought to be well tempered so as 
 to have the pivots as hard as possible, and 
 which, conical and well burnished, should 
 not be too large, but ought to be of such a 
 size as not to leave any chance of breaking. 
 That the pivots should be well rounded is of 
 prime importance, since oval pivots produce 
 the same effect as a balance of bad equilib¬ 
 rium, and occasion much trouble in estab¬ 
 lishing the isochronism of the positions. 
 Let the ends of the pivots be well burnished 
 and slightly rounded, and better still, that 
 that part of the pivot which works in the 
 hole should be perfectly cylindrical, so that 
 it may leave the axis just play enough be¬ 
 tween its counter-points. 
 
 The balance spring requires particular 
 attention; requiring to be very upright, and 
 to turn well round. Many watchmakers 
 have been surprised, after having well 
 rounded a balance to discover, when the 
 watch is brought back to them six months 
 later, that the balance is no longer round, 
 and that the regulation is changed. To 
 avoid this, warm the balance on a metal plate 
 to a temperature of 6o° or 70 0 Cent., make 
 it round and warm it afresh until quite cer¬ 
 tain that it is in the same condition as at 
 first. Care should be taken, if it is held in 
 the fingers during very warm weather, to 
 place it each time upon a plate of cold 
 metal, as it may happen that the heat will 
 close it up, and that a moderate temperature 
 will change the diameter and of course inter¬ 
 fere with the regulating. It is usual also to 
 obtain its diameter and height by that of the 
 barrel and mainspring. Its size should be 
 the diameter of the cover of the barrel, and 
 the height of the rim just half that of the 
 spring. It should be furnished with fourteen 
 screws of gold, rather less than more. 
 
 The practice of regulating at different 
 temperatures is already well understood, yet 
 for the sake of perspicuity it should be re¬ 
 membered that when a watch goes slower in 
 heat the screws are carried toward the end 
 of the blade of the balance, and if that does 
 not suffice, then change the last gold screw 
 
 for one of platina; but this latter course is 
 very unusual, owing to the length of the 
 spiral now in use. If the watch gains in 
 heat the screws should be set back ; and if 
 after they have all been put back the watch 
 still gains, the arms of the balance must be 
 shortened, and two additional small screws 
 added. With a little practice the desired 
 result will be obtained. 
 
 For the sake of convenience, regulating 
 the balance has been considered prior to 
 that of the spiral, but it should be borne in 
 mind that the former can in actual practice 
 only be regulated after the isochronism of the 
 latter has been accomplished ; because if any 
 change is needed in the spiral, the balance 
 must then be regulated again. 
 
 Often it becomes necessary to put in a 
 new spiral altogether, in the selection of 
 which those of moderate size are preferable, 
 since with the small ones considerable diffi¬ 
 culty is met in finding the isochronism; 
 while with the large ones, although this is 
 much easier accomplished, yet they are not 
 safe for a pocket watch, the movements ol 
 the wearer, especially when the coils are 
 close, causing them to touch each other, or 
 to touch the balance. Many watchmakers 
 have met instances in which larger spirals 
 almost caught the center wheel, and to pre¬ 
 vent which have been obliged to put in an 
 accessory piece; and besides this, a long 
 spiral is more susceptible of shocks which 
 might interfere with regulating, especially in 
 watches that are liable to receive rough 
 treatment, as for instance those worn by 
 railroad men, and those engaged in similar 
 pursuits. 
 
 It is usual to take for the diameter of the 
 spiral the radius of the balance and the 
 number of turns fifteen; this size and this 
 number permit the separation of the coils, 
 and avoid the danger of their touching each 
 other through shocks. The spiral should be 
 hard and the blade high—as high as the 
 watch - will permit. Generally the spiral of 
 low blade produces a noise which the accus¬ 
 tomed ear detects, and which indicates some¬ 
 thing wrong with the regulator. This may 
 be produced by an uneven steel wire, and, 
 in order to discover if the wire is equal 
 throughout, observe attentively its workings ; 
 if it is uneven, a slight vibration of the 
 thickest part will be perceptible, upon dis¬ 
 covering which the spiral should be im¬ 
 mediately changed, for it will only be loss 
 of time to try to make it isochronal. The 
 
REPAIRING OF ENGLISH PATENT LEVER WATCHES. 
 
 67 
 
 requisites of a perfect fiat or elbowed spiral 
 are that it should not wriggle, and if it is of 
 fifteen turns, the eighth should not leave its 
 place, though this is contrary to the opin¬ 
 ions of some watchmakers who have con¬ 
 fined their observation to the helicoid spiral, 
 in which all the blades are equally displaced. 
 
 REPAIRING OF ENGLISH PATENT 
 LEVER WATCHES. 
 
 HENEVER an English patent lever 
 watch -is offered for repair, the watch¬ 
 maker well understands that a difficult and 
 Tedious job is before him. Very often the 
 ■cap has been hammered out by some botch, 
 and evidence may be visible that the top 
 bridge has been pressed this way and that, 
 -while the heavy and clumsy expansion bal¬ 
 ance wheel with its lazy motion, which be¬ 
 comes still slower when held in different 
 positions, presents in itself a hard problem. 
 Before taking the watch to pieces the bank¬ 
 ing should be carefully examined by guid¬ 
 ing, to determine whether or not the escape 
 wheel has a safe rest upon the anchor pallets. 
 Should the banking be safe, but wide, close 
 one, or, if necessary, both of the banking 
 pins; bearing in mind, however, that very 
 little play is needed. Friction is thus re¬ 
 duced, and the impulse power of the pallets 
 thereby increased; which is in turn trans¬ 
 ferred to the balance wheel, increasing its 
 curve of vibration. Should the fork pin 
 squeeze against the roller, thus clogging the 
 motion of the balance wheel, the banking is 
 insecure, and after the watch has been taken 
 to pieces and the escapement reached, the 
 fork pin should be bent a trifle forward. 
 
 Supposing the watch to be in pieces, ex¬ 
 amine each piece separately and thoroughly. 
 First, put the center wheel between the plates 
 and notice if its motion is free and easy; if 
 it has the right play, or if it is rubbing on 
 the bottom of the out-cut. A small supply 
 of ordinary pins, with heads filed gradually 
 thinner to the end, should always be kept on 
 hand to be used in place of the usual pillar 
 pins, a handy substitute which admits of 
 easy insertion and ready withdrawal without 
 pliers. If the center wheel moves freely and 
 the pinion is well fastened, observe whether 
 the cannon pinion has made a hard impres¬ 
 sion on the front of the dial plate, and if so, 
 take it off by making a flat counter-sink— 
 the bottom of the cannon pinion must never 
 touch the plate. 
 
 The fusee wheel next requires attention, 
 and more than ordinary pains must be taken 
 with this; because this wheel causes more 
 trouble in an English lever than all the other 
 wheels together. Test the wheel between 
 the plates, and in a great majority of in¬ 
 stances it will be found to be out of order, 
 and sometimes so badly as to absorb more 
 than half the power of a strong mainspring. 
 Examine the stop-piece situated in the stud, 
 to see if it squeezes against the fusee. This 
 piece, generally furnished with a stiff spring, 
 reaches too high up ; if so, make the spring 
 softer and stretch the lower end with the 
 hammer so much that the front end touches 
 the plate ; take the screw-driver or penknife, 
 squeeze it under the stop-piece close to the 
 stud, and bend it carefully up a little, just 
 enough to give the stop-snout of the fusee 
 a free passage, and nothing more. If the 
 edge of the lower end does not give out 
 enough when stretched (sometimes it gets 
 too thin), put a new stop-piece in the watch. 
 Again place the fusee-wheel between the 
 plates and carefully note that the stop-snout 
 passes freely between the stop-piece and 
 plate, forward and backward. When this is 
 corrected, proceed to the stop-snout of the 
 fusee. Here a neglect is met, curiously 
 enough, which has been carried on for hun¬ 
 dreds of years, and perhaps longer. The 
 snout is invariably too short to secure a safe 
 stopping, after winding up. Fusee, staff, 
 and snout are in one solid piece, making the 
 job of filing it out very difficult for an 
 ordinary watchmaker. However, it can 
 usually be accomplished if the snout is not 
 too thin, by placing it upon a suitable anvil, 
 and with a hammer stretch it as much as 
 possible and then bend off the stop-piece 
 from the fusee. Place the fusee in the up¬ 
 per plate only, to see that a safe counter- 
 stemming is produced. If so, there is no 
 danger of chain-breaking on account of an 
 imperfect stop-work. Put the wheel again 
 between the plates, and if the work has been 
 done properly, the fusee wheel will be found 
 to move with perfect freedom. 
 
 Examine the chain on its track; if it runs 
 off, file the turns a little deeper with a sharp 
 and well-fitting screw-head file, bearing in 
 mind that the chain should be only one inch 
 longer than actually necessary, to prevent 
 running one turn over another. Now place 
 the two wheels together between the two 
 plates, center and fusee, and examine the 
 pitchings or depth, and when traces of hard 
 
68 
 
 REPAIRING OF ENGLISH PATENT LEVER WATCHES. 
 
 wear are observable on the front side of the 
 teeth, the wheel must be worked over, a job 
 requiring both skill and experience. Close 
 below the teeth is generally a little cornice, 
 which must not be destroyed. Place the 
 teeth—and only the teeth—upon a sharp- 
 edge anvil, fastened in a bench vise, and 
 hammer them out, one after the other, until 
 all are done; but the hammer must hit no 
 other places. The marks of the blow must 
 be removed with fine emery paper without 
 touching the gilding, while with a small 
 rounding-up file (entirely smoothed on the 
 oil-stone) the front side of the teeth must be 
 polished. 
 
 Assuming the depth to be right, observe 
 that the wheels do not touch each other, and 
 that the pin of the maintaining spring reaches 
 out far enough to catch the teeth of the 
 center wheel. Then try the click-work by 
 turning the fusee around the wheel. If the 
 rattling of the double click is heard plainly, 
 all is right; otherwise, take off the wheel and 
 remedy what is necessary by putting in 
 either a new click-work or a new ratchet 
 wheel. The correction of the mainspring 
 click-work yet remains to be done. The 
 point of the click must be sharp and the 
 click itself level with the ratchet wheel. 
 The click-spring is invariably too stiff, absorb¬ 
 ing too much power, and must be made 
 softer. If the spring is small and curved, 
 file it thinner at a point about half an inch 
 from the stud—-never at the front end ; while 
 doing the job support the spring upon a 
 cork, placed in a vise, or in some other safe 
 way. If the spring is a broad, band-shaped 
 one, cut in with a shoulder file a quarter 
 inch from the front end, and file out half, 
 or a little more, of its whole width, close to 
 the stud. In filing this spring thinner, the 
 broad side presents the difficulty, on account 
 of its hardness and brittleness, yet the spring 
 must not possess more stiffness than is 
 absolutely necessary for working the click 
 properly. The two wheels, maintaining 
 click-work and stop-work, are now in per¬ 
 fect order. The third wheel now requires 
 attention. Place it between the plates, and 
 if it works free and easy, do the same with 
 the fourth; then put in both together and 
 examine depth and freedom. The rule is, 
 examine each wheel singly, then in pairs. 
 
 If the watch is jeweled, holding the plate 
 firmly in your hand, put each pivot in its 
 pivot hole, and observe that the fall is equal 
 on all sides; if not so, roll the pivot a little 
 
 thinner, irrespective of how free it seems, 
 otherwise when oiled the pivot will stick. 
 If the watch is working in metal bearings, 
 put a pivot broach in each hole to see if it 
 is straight; in many cases it will not be, in 
 which case a few chips must be taken out 
 with the broach very carefully, in order to 
 straighten the hole as much as possible. If 
 the hole is getting too large, bushing will be 
 necessary. 
 
 Examine the escape wheel as to freedom 
 and pitch in the same manner as before, and 
 if the pinion is too large, it must be re-turned 
 to its proper size, the edges smoothed, and 
 the teeth of the fourth wheel well polished 
 with a smoothed rounding-up file. 
 
 The escapement next requires attention. 
 The arbor-pin has been bent already a little- 
 forward, but by doing so, frequently the free 
 passage through segment of the roller-plate 
 will be destroyed; therefore take off the 
 roller, hold it in the cuts of a watch-hand 
 tong, or some other suitable way, and file 
 the segment straight down to its bottom ; 
 the two edges are mostly in the way. If 
 there is left plenty of material between the 
 surface and the hole in which the roller-pin 
 is fastened, hollow out the newly-made sur¬ 
 face with a bird’s-tongue file to restore the 
 segment form again. In no other way must 
 the proper hold of the roller-pin be de¬ 
 stroyed ; better the fork-pin be bent a trifle 
 back. 
 
 Next comes the hairspring roller. Take 
 off the hairspring and roller, fasten the latter 
 upon a fitting turning arbor, and turn both 
 sides of the roller down as much as possi¬ 
 ble, the front side even a little under-cut, 
 without endangering a safe hold of the hair¬ 
 spring. 
 
 The balance wheel is now reached, the 
 weight of which must be in proportion to 
 the motive power. “A balance wheel too 
 heavy does not admit a good curve of vibra¬ 
 tion ; a balance wheel too light would act as 
 a fly, but not as a regulator.” The balance 
 wheel is almost invariably too heavy, to 
 rectify which, the arms or spokes must be 
 filed much smaller, and made to incline 
 a little toward the center. To do the job 
 with security, put a good sized piece of wire 
 perpendicular in the vise, bend the top end 
 outward nearly in a right angle and furnish 
 it with one or two cross cuts deep enough 
 to give the balance wheel a firm support 
 when filing the spokes; afterward file away 
 all unnecessary metal around the staff, taking; 
 
ABOUT GAUGES. 
 
 69 
 
 off as much as possible without interfering 
 with a safe hold of the center-staff. Then 
 file the drums a little slanting so as to cut 
 the air well, and after cleaning put the hair¬ 
 spring and roller in their proper places. If 
 the hairspring roller is somewhat loose, 
 squeeze it a little, but not without having a 
 piece of wire held loosely in the middle, or 
 it is apt to’break. Some slight improve¬ 
 ments still remain to be made in the anchor- 
 fork. If the outside of the fork reaches far 
 outward, cut off enough to make the bank¬ 
 ing just safe and poise the inner end by filing 
 and shaping it into a small bar from close 
 behind the fork-pin to the anchor (pallets). 
 Should the extreme inner ends of the fork 
 be very stiff, file them straighter, but never 
 touch the inner edges, and carefully remove 
 all burr. Sometimes when they are too 
 steep, they are apt to catch the roller-pin 
 from behind. In fine Swiss watches these 
 ■ends are hollowed out. 
 
 Last, but not least, the mainspring and 
 barrel requires attention. See that the arbor 
 Las the necessary play and how many 
 rounds the mainspring makes—generally 3 ^ 
 rounds, and if so, span the ratchet wheel 
 about ^ of a whole round—just enough not 
 to allow the chain to fall off. Clean the 
 watch properly in the ordinary way, and if 
 the job has been done conscientiously, the 
 result cannot fail to give perfect satisfaction. 
 
 ADJUSTMENT TO ISOCHRONISM. 
 
 HE manipulation of the hairspring so 
 that the long and short arcs of the bal¬ 
 ance are performed in the same time. The 
 theory of isochronism advanced by Dr. Rob- 
 ■ert Hooke, and more commonly known as 
 Hooke’s law, “ as the tension so is the force,” 
 is an axiom in mechanics with which every¬ 
 body is, or should be, familiar. This law 
 has, like nearly all others, its exceptions, and 
 it is only partially true as applied to hair¬ 
 springs of watches; “ otherwise,” says Glas¬ 
 gow, “every spring would be isochronous.” 
 Pierre Le Roy says that there is in every 
 spring of a sufficient extent a certain length 
 where all the vibrations, long or short, great 
 or small, are isochronous, and that this length 
 being secured, if you shorten the spring the 
 great vibrations will be quicker than the 
 small ones; if, on the contrary, it is length¬ 
 ened, the small arcs will be performed in less 
 time than the great ones. Glasgow says 
 that a hairspring, of whatever form, to be 
 
 isochronous must satisfy the following con¬ 
 ditions : Its center of gravity must always 
 be on the axis of the balance, and it must 
 expand and contract in the vibrations con¬ 
 centrically with that axis. When these con¬ 
 ditions are secured in a properly made spring 
 it will possess the quality of isochronism, 
 that is, its force will increase in proportion 
 to the tension, and it will not exert any 
 lateral pressure on the pivots. 
 
 The recognized authorities conflict con¬ 
 siderably in their various theories in regard 
 to adjustment to isochronism, and partic¬ 
 ularly in regard to the length of spring. 
 Immisch says that mere length has nothing 
 to do with isochronism. Glasgow contends 
 that length has everything to do with it and 
 that a spring too short, whatever its form, 
 would make the short arcs of the balance 
 vibration be performed in a less time than 
 the long arcs, and a spring too long would 
 have just the contrary effect. Charles 
 Frodsham advanced the theory that every 
 length of spring has its isochronous point. 
 Britten declares that the length is all-impor¬ 
 tant. That a good length of spring for bne 
 variety of escapement' is entirely unfitted 
 for another variety. Saunier says that the 
 discussion of the question whether short 
 springs are preferable to long ones is a mere 
 waste of time and can result in no good. 
 In horology everything must be relative. 
 Whatever be the escapement under consid¬ 
 eration, it requires neither a long nor a short 
 hairspring, but one that is suited to its nat¬ 
 ure and mode of action, that is to say, the 
 length must bear a definite relation to the 
 extent of the arcs of vibration, etc. 
 
 Owing to this conflict of opinion, it is 
 advisable that the student read the various 
 arguments set forth in the works referred to 
 above and form his own conclusions. 
 
 ABOUT GAUGES. 
 
 I N working in a new pinion when the 
 old one is at hand, no trouble will be 
 experienced as to height, and when the old 
 pinion is removed from the wheel, all the 
 measurements can be taken from it by the 
 millimeter gauge. This gauge is much lighter 
 in its action than the douzieme gauge, and 
 altogether more suitable, having finer and 
 cleaner divisions. About two-tenths of a 
 millimeter are equal to one douzieme. The 
 jaws of this tool are frequently not fitted 
 closely, and on account of their hardness can 
 
7° 
 
 WATCH REPAIRING. 
 
 only be corrected by grinding. A piece of 
 flat brass, similar to a barrel cover, is fixed 
 on an arbor and adjusted to run true in flat; 
 a little emery and oil or oil-stone dust is ap¬ 
 plied on each side of it. The turns having 
 been put in the vise sideways, so that the 
 gauge can hang freely, the jaws should be 
 allowed to close on the lap. A few revolu¬ 
 tions will grind both jaws true and perfectly 
 parallel. After this operation it is not un¬ 
 likely that the pointer will pass beyond the 
 index; if so, the end of the pointer must be 
 gripped in the vise, with a piece of card in¬ 
 serted between it and the vise, to prevent 
 marking, and pulled gently, until it indicates 
 correctly. _ 
 
 ANNEALING AND HARDENING. 
 
 OPPER, brass, German silver, and sim¬ 
 ilar metals are hardened by hammer¬ 
 ing, rolling, or wire drawing, and are softened 
 by being heated red hot and plunged in cold 
 water. Copper, by being alloyed with tin, 
 may be made so hard that cutting instru¬ 
 ments may be made from it. This is the 
 old process of hardening copper, which is so 
 often claimed to be one of the lost arts, and 
 which would be very useful if we did not 
 have in steel a material which is far less 
 costly and far better fitted for the making of 
 edge tools. _ 
 
 WATCH REPAIRING. 
 
 LTHOUGH broaching in the mandrel 
 is not a bad way of opening a hole, it 
 is always better to open it to nearly the re¬ 
 quired size by running a cutter through it, if 
 the hole is large enough to admit of this 
 being done ; but, as these cutters are easily 
 broken, in consequence of their being so 
 small, turning out holes is not often resorted 
 to by watch jobbers. 
 
 The half-round or triangular pieces of 
 steel sold with a mandrel to make cutters of 
 are seldom made from the best steel, and 
 are only fit for cutters for rough turning, and 
 making a cutter of one of these involves 
 considerable labor; therefore it is much 
 better to make one into a cutter-holder by 
 drilling a good-sized hole in one end of it, 
 and after broaching the hole, fitting several 
 pieces of small steel to the hole (they should 
 be turned and fitted accurately); these pieces 
 are easily made into cutters of any size or 
 shape required, and if one gets broken it is 
 easily replaced. 
 
 Watch jobbers do not seem to like the 
 
 mandrel, but the more they use it the better 
 will their work be done, and it will certainly 
 save their time to do so. If the fusee re¬ 
 quires new holes and the center wheel holes 
 are right or have been renewed, the teeth of 
 the great wheel will often be found worn 
 and sometimes bent from the wheel having 
 been softened in gilding—the teeth being' 
 much longer than is necessary and the 
 spaces cut square at the bottom—and in the 
 case of the teeth being worn from the center 
 pinion being a wrong size and the depth too- 
 shallow. A new wheel would, of course, be 
 the proper remedy for this; but if this maw 
 not be done, the teeth should be hammered 
 carefully ; the depth tried in the depthing- 
 tool, and when the stopping in the pillar 
 plate or bar is pushed out, the depth marked 
 across the hole. The hole should then be 
 drawn until the mark is in the center of it 
 and a new stopping put in. The great 
 wheel depth should always be as deep as- 
 possible; it is a mistake to make it shallow, 
 because it will then run more smoothly. 
 But, supposing the lower fusee hole does not 
 require any alteration, and a new top hole 
 only is required (a repair often wanted), if 
 the old stopping in the plate is removed or 
 —in the case of a -plate watch—the fusee 
 piece is broached large enough for a stop¬ 
 ping, if a piece of brass is broached to nearly' 
 the size of the pivot and then turned to fit 
 the hole in the plate of fusee piece and riv¬ 
 eted ; if the hole is again broached to fit the 
 pivot and the fusee put into its place in the 
 frame, the chances are twenty to one against 
 its being upright; whereas if the method I 
 have described, of pegging the lower hole- 
 and turning out the upper one, be adopted,, 
 the upright of the fusee will be secured with¬ 
 out further trouble ; and, if it is not perfectly'- 
 upright, the stop-work is most likely to be 
 wrong, and the acdetantant will require bend¬ 
 ing to get it to act in the steel wheel, which,, 
 of course, is botching. 
 
 If the barrel holes are worn, and the bar¬ 
 rel is, as it often is, out of truth, it may be 
 better to put in a new stopping in the barrel 
 and get it true by the cover; but generally 
 it will be sufficient to close the holes by lay¬ 
 ing the barrel on a small round stake and 
 hammering up the boss from the inside of 
 the barrel. This boss is usually left large, 
 and if it is hammered on the outside edge 
 the hole will be closed, when it can be made 
 to fit the pivot by broaching with a round 
 broach, and it will be good enough to last 
 
THE BREGUET SPRING. 
 
 for years; this repair is often an improve¬ 
 ment, as it lessens the rubbing surfaces of 
 the shoulders of the barrel-arbor pivots. If 
 the hole in the barrel cover is too large 
 and the cover too small, from the expansion 
 of the barrel from the breaking of strong 
 mainsprings, the best remedy is a new cover, 
 which any one can make without any telling ; 
 but in the case of a new cover being made, 
 the* barrel is not likely to be true, and the 
 cover should be snapped into the barrel be¬ 
 fore it is brought to the right thickness; if 
 when the end-shake of the arbor is adjusted, 
 the arbor and barrel are put into the calipers, 
 it will be seen if the barrel is true—if not, 
 the cover should be marked on the high 
 side, taken off and turned until it fits easily, 
 and then hammered carefully on the outer 
 edge of the side that is marked until it fits 
 the groove in the barrel; and this, if done 
 the required amount, will bring the barrel 
 true. When a barrel cover is hammered on 
 one side until it is out of round, the barrel 
 and cover should be marked in order that 
 the cover may always occupy the same place. 
 
 THE BREGUET SPRING. 
 
 HERE is no doubt that the Breguet or 
 overcoil spring is one of the best forms, 
 in fact the best form, of spring under certain 
 conditions; and if the watch be of such a 
 character in construction and finish as to 
 justify or require its application—this fact 
 being known and acknowledged gives a 
 character to a watch worthy of imitation, 
 and therefore it is something for a manu¬ 
 facturer or agent to point to—and as the 
 action of the spring is easy and uniform the 
 retailer or shopkeeper is taken with it and 
 points to it in his turn as an excellence in 
 the cheap watch he is recommending to his 
 customer, and in which he probably believes. 
 As to his consideration for the comfort or 
 convenience of the jobber into whose hands 
 the watch may afterward come for repairs, 
 the thing is too absurd to be thought of; his 
 business is to sell the watch. The Swiss 
 have hitherto been the chief sinners in this 
 affair of Breguet springs, and as they claim 
 that great man Breguet as their countryman, 
 they may be excused for having a prejudice 
 in favor of his invention ; but it is useless to 
 rail against the manufacturers of any article 
 for making what they can sell. However 
 great the excellence of a spring having the 
 inherent quality of giving isochronal vibra- 
 
 W 
 
 tions to the balance of a fine watch, it is no 
 help to a watch with machine-made pivots 
 and jewel holes, and such escapements as 
 these watches generally have, especially when 
 the overcoil is badly and unscientifically 
 made so that each move of the index pins 
 gives the spring a different form. But it is 
 the business of the watch jobber to take 
 things as they are, and to that end he should 
 learn to make the best of them. 
 
 The manipulation of the balance spring is 
 really the most important function of the 
 watch jobber, and but for the fact that these 
 springs can be bought ready to his hand, he 
 would be under the necessity of learning to 
 handle them with greater certainty and less 
 trouble to himself. It is rather humiliating 
 to be obliged to acknowledge that nearly 
 all the balance springs applied to English 
 watches are of foreign make. 
 
 Although the watch jobber is an all-round 
 man, he ought to be able to pin in a spring flat 
 and true and to correct or repair an injured 
 one, as, no matter how perfect all the other 
 parts of the watch may be, if the spring is 
 bent or constrained in its action no correct 
 time will be obtained from the watch. A 
 flat or spiral spring should never be larger 
 than half the diameter of the balance, that 
 is, if the spring has the coils close together, 
 such as are generally'in use at present; but 
 if a new spring is required for a job watch it 
 must be of a size to suit the stud and index 
 pins, and therefore if larger than this pre¬ 
 scribed size the coils should be more open. 
 If the old spring is only distorted, and not 
 broken, a ready way of finding the strength 
 of the new one is by lifting a small weight 
 attached to the inner coil of the spring while 
 the other end is held in the tweezers. This 
 weight should consist of a small disc of brass 
 having a pin about an inch long projecting 
 through its center; the pin should be tapered 
 so as to make it as light as possible at the 
 top, and have a small hook filed in it close 
 to the disc sufficient to hold the inner coil 
 of the spring while the weight is being lifted. 
 It is easier to judge of the strength correctly 
 if the weight be sufficient to draw the spring 
 down the whole length of the pin, and for 
 this purpose a few thin pieces of brass, that 
 will drop over the pin and increase the 
 weight to what is required, should be kept 
 ready ; by this means the strength of the old 
 spring is easily gauged and a new one of the 
 same strength as easily chosen. A very 
 common and very uncertain method of find- 
 
7 2 
 
 BALANCE. 
 
 ing the strength of a spring is by lifting, in 
 a similar manner to what I have just de¬ 
 scribed, the balance itself; the almost use¬ 
 lessness of this method is seen when we 
 know that the diameter of the balance has 
 as much to do with the time of the watch as 
 its weight, and the diameter in this case 
 counts for nothing. A spring should be 
 chosen that will be rather smaller than the 
 circle of the stud hole and index pins; that 
 is, the spring should look small when the 
 balance is at rest, as a spring this size has 
 more freedom of the coils or at those parts 
 of the coils that lie between the stud and 
 the balance staff, and therefore assists in 
 quickening the short arcs of the balance. 
 
 I think it is pretty well known that almost 
 all ordinary watches go slower in the short 
 arcs of the balance than in the long ones, 
 or slower when the watch is hanging up than 
 when it is lying down (this is especially the 
 case with full-plate watches, and they, as a 
 rule, have the balance springs too large). 
 A spring collet should be as small as possi¬ 
 ble, and the inner coil of the spring just 
 large enough to be free of the collet. If the 
 hole in the collet is not straight, that is, 
 tangential, it should Se broached until it is 
 so, and from the side from which the spring 
 is inserted, as, if this is done, it will not be 
 found necessary to bend the spring to suit 
 a hole that is drilled anyhow; and, if the 
 spring has to be unpinned, it must be bent 
 again to suit another position. 
 
 If, when the spring is pinned to the collet, 
 it stands away from it at the points where 
 the pin is inserted, it will be useless to at¬ 
 tempt to bring it closer to the collet by bend¬ 
 ing it on the collet; therefore, it must be 
 unpinned, and the eye bent in a little, so as 
 to get the center true. When the spring 
 runs true, the collet can be put on an arbor, 
 and there is then very little trouble in get¬ 
 ting it flat. I am now speaking of hardened 
 and tempered springs, or those springs that 
 are hardened by chemical process, and are 
 more difficult to handle: soft springs can be 
 bent to any shape or form. Some years ago 
 a prize essayist on the balance spring gave 
 a few diagrams of springs, showing how they 
 grew shorter as they grew older, and the way 
 these springs were made to do was by a pro¬ 
 cess known as white throating, that is, by 
 scraping with a graver about an inch of the 
 inside of the outer end of the spring to re¬ 
 duce its strength. This is complete botch- 
 in tc, and the workman who resorts to it can 
 
 have no respect for himself, and need not 
 look for respect from others. 
 
 A GOOD WAY TO CLEAN A MAIN¬ 
 SPRING. 
 
 HERE are several methods for cleaning 
 and mounting a mainspring, but the fol¬ 
 lowing ranks with the best in use among gobd 
 watchmakers. Let us suppose we have a 
 watch that has run twelve months or more. 
 After taking the watch down, first examine 
 the mainspring by taking off the cap of the 
 barrel, carefully removing the arbor, then 
 holding the barrel in the thumb and fingers 
 of the left hand, lift out the inner end of the 
 spring with small round nose pliers, holding 
 the thumb and fingers in such a manner as 
 to allow the spring to uncoil itself from the 
 barrel in a gentle manner into the hand, and 
 if sound and of the right strength, proceed 
 to clean it with a piece of domestic (a clean 
 soft rag is preferable, as it is free from starch 
 and other foreign matter calculated to injure 
 steel). Holding the cloth or rag in the left 
 hand and the spring just as it has come out 
 of the barrel in your right, gently move it 
 back and forth, holding two or three of the 
 coils between the thumb, first and second 
 fingers, pressing the coils slightly over with 
 the ball of the thumb (not nails), so as not to 
 materially change the natural curvature of 
 the spring in any way during the operation. 
 In this way the entire spring can be cleaned, 
 with the exception of a small portion of the 
 inner coil, which can be cleaned by using a 
 corner of the rag, applied with a piece of 
 pegwood, or by a slight brushing with a brush 
 used for this purpose. A first-class spring 
 (and no watchmaker should use any other if 
 he values time and reputation) thus cleaned, 
 with proper space in the barrel, and with the 
 arbor free, of proper .size, and a liberal appli¬ 
 cation of watch oil, but not flooded with it, 
 turned up to its proper capacity, will give 
 out its full force for one or two years, at 
 least, without breaking, rusting, or becoming 
 gummy and foul. 
 
 BALANCE. 
 
 HREE things cause a loss of the bal¬ 
 ance velocity, viz.: the resistance of 
 unlocking the escape wheel, the friction of 
 the pivots in the holes, and the stress of the 
 reciprocating spring on the pivots. If the 
 
WOOD ROD AND LEAD BOB FOR PENDULUM. 
 
 73 
 
 mass of the balance is unbalanced, the pivots 
 will suffer an additional stress from the cen¬ 
 trifugal force in revolving. 
 
 PRACTICAL METHOD FOR LENGTH¬ 
 ENING A BALANCE SPRING. 
 
 HE repairer is occasionally compelled to 
 regulate a watch with too short a balance 
 spring, because the owner does not want to 
 pay for a new spring, or else, if a country 
 watchmaker, he may not happen to have the 
 exact size on hand. Let us imagine that he 
 has withdrawn the spring to its utmost, and 
 still the watch advances. Apparently some¬ 
 thing is to be done, and in this extremity 
 the most objectionable means are employed. 
 A repairer recently asked the question in a 
 German horological paper, and received all 
 kinds of replies. One recommended to dip 
 the spring in acid; another to scrape it 
 thinner with a graver; and still another to 
 make it weaker by grinding with an oil-stone. 
 The most heroic treatment was proposed 
 lately in another horological paper. The 
 scientist says : “ When I find that a spring is 
 too short and cannot be made longer by 
 pinning, I employ a method that will inva¬ 
 riably do it: I make the balance a trifle 
 heavier with tin solder. I cut off two very 
 small pellets of solder, put a little soldering 
 fluid on the lower side of the balance, lay a 
 pellet of the solder upon it, and then hold 
 the balance rim on the edge of the alcohol 
 flame until the solder has run. 
 
 “It does not require a great heat to do 
 this, and it suffices to hold the rim on the 
 edge of the flame, whereby it is prevented 
 at the same time that the cylinder or one of 
 the pivots is annealed, by carelessness. I 
 then make the opposite side heavier in the 
 same manner, and finally buff the rim, after 
 which no trace of the work can be seen.” 
 
 For what use, we ask, are the prize essays 
 “on the balance spring,” by Excelsior, Im- 
 misch, Sandoz, and others, who have wasted 
 their talent and ill-spent lives by writing on 
 timing and isochronism? Make a pyre of 
 their writings ! 
 
 A Mr. Barthelemy, of St. Menehouldt, a 
 skillful watchmaker, recently published his 
 method for obtaining satisfactory results in 
 the Revue Chronometrique. He says : 
 
 “ My method, which I have employed with 
 excellent results for the last fifteen years, is, 
 that in place of the graver I use a burnisher, 
 with which I rub over the balance spring, 
 
 the thickness of which is reduced by this 
 means; its pores are closed and the quality 
 of the spring is not whatever impaired; be¬ 
 sides this, it is easy, with a spring treated in 
 this manner, to restore it to its original coils. 
 
 “ It requires only a moderate amount of 
 practice to accomplish the purpose, and it is 
 only necessary to hold the spring flat. I 
 made the first trial with a spring that ad¬ 
 vanced 20 minutes per day. After I had 
 smoothed a length of about 3 centimeters 
 with the burnisher, I had produced a differ¬ 
 ence of 40 minutes—that is, the spring now 
 retarded 20 minutes, while formerly it had 
 advanced 20 minutes.” 
 
 The country repairer who may occasionally 
 be called on to do this, might by practice 
 seek to acquire the necessary skill. 
 
 WOOD ROD AND LEAD BOB FOR 
 PENDULUM. 
 
 CHEAP and good compensated pen¬ 
 dulum may be made with a wood rod 
 and lead bob. For a seconds pendulum, 
 the rod should be of thoroughly well sea¬ 
 soned, straight grained deal, 44^ inches 
 long, measuring from the top of the free 
 part of the suspension spring to the bottom 
 of the bob, and of an oval section .75 inch 
 by .5 inch. This size of rod allows of sound 
 fixing for the attachments at the ends. A 
 slit for the suspension spring is cut in a brass 
 cap fitting over the top of the rod, to which 
 it is secured by two pins. A bit of thin 
 brass tube is fitted to the rod where it is 
 embraced by the crutch. The rating screw, 
 .25 inch in diameter, is fixed to a short piece 
 of sheet brass, .75 of an inch wide. A saw 
 cut is made at the bottom of the pendulum 
 rod, into which the brass plate is inserted, 
 and fixed with a couple of pins. Wooden 
 rods require to be coated with something to 
 render them impervious to the atmosphere. 
 They are generally varnished or polished, 
 but painting them answers the purpose well. 
 Mr. Latimer Clark recommends saturating 
 them with melted paraffine. The bob, 2^ 
 inches in diameter and 11 inches high, with 
 a hole just large enough to go freely over 
 the wood rod, rests on a washer above the 
 rating point. 
 
 Many pendulums made on this plan have 
 been all that could be desired. Several cor¬ 
 respondents have borne testimony to their 
 high efficiency, but nearly all say that the 
 bob, 14 inches, advised in a former article, 
 
74 
 
 CONICAL PIVOTS. 
 
 is too long for a seconds pendulum, and a 
 length of 12, 11, io, and even 8 inches is ad¬ 
 vised. For this reason, 11 inches may be 
 taken as a mean. 
 
 It is essential that the grain of a wood 
 pendulum should be perfectly straight, for 
 if the grain is not straight the rod is likely 
 to bend, causing the clock to go irregularly. 
 
 CLOSE OBSERVATION NECESSARY. 
 
 LOSE observation is necessary when 
 taking down a watch for repairs. If it 
 has a strong mainspring and a bad vibration 
 and the train free, it may be assumed that 
 the escapement is at fault. A very common 
 fault by which the vibration is spoiled is too 
 much run on the pallets, and the escape- 
 'ment pitched too deep ; all run is a serious 
 evil, and no more than sufficient for freedom 
 should be allowed. 
 
 If, on closing the banking-pins, the pallets 
 escape freely and the roller and lever are 
 not free, first try if the guard-pin is free with 
 the banking closer, and has fair shake when 
 the end of the lever is moved. If tight, the 
 guard-pin must be bent back, or the roller 
 edge turned away and repolished to give the 
 guard-pin freedom, care being taken that the 
 pin, though free, is not so free as to pass 
 the roller or to stick; reducing the size of 
 the roller insures its safety, though an im¬ 
 pression to the contrary seems to prevail 
 among some foreign makers of common 
 lever escapements, judging by the large 
 radius of roller outside the ruby pin, which 
 is seen in all cheap levers of English, Swiss, 
 and German make. Both time and trouble 
 are saved by making the guard roller as 
 small as possible. True theory requires it 
 smaller than the roller-pin radius, hence the 
 double roller escapement. 
 
 Should the ruby pin be unable to leave 
 the lever notch, with the motion of the lever 
 curtailed to that given it by the pressure of 
 the pallets only, the necessary freedom must 
 be obtained by more legitimate means than 
 wasting the motive force in pallet motion 
 and extra locking friction—an evil, in its 
 best form, to be kept within the smallest 
 possible limits in all escapements. If the 
 lever notch is very deep, removing sufficient 
 with a piece of oil-stone will give freedom, 
 but much care is desirable in making a rad¬ 
 ical alteration, and repairers should think 
 twice before removing parts they cannot 
 restore. Putting the roller on a wire and 
 
 warming it sufficiently to allow the ruby pin 
 to be moved nearer the center of the roller, 
 to make a more shallow depth, and, if the 
 pin is circular, replacing it with one flattened 
 on the surface, will allow the pin to leave 
 the lever notch with more freedom ; and ex¬ 
 periments with a brass pin in the roller 
 should also precede any serious alterations. 
 Exchanging a small roller pin for a large 
 oval or flattened one, will diminish the labor 
 required in unlocking and improve some es¬ 
 capements by changing the engaging friction 
 at the line of centers to a disengaging action. 
 
 THE ROUNDING-UP TOOL. 
 
 HIS most ingenious tool is one of the 
 most useful to watch repairers. By its aid 
 the wheel may be almost instantly reduced 
 in diameter; corrected, if out of round, or 
 have the form of its teeth altered as may be 
 required. The cutters are a little over half 
 a circle and terminate in a guide. While 
 one end of the guide meets the cutter, the 
 other angles a little, so that instead of meet¬ 
 ing the other extremity of the cutter, when 
 the circle is completed, it leaves a space 
 equal to the pitch of the wheel to be cut. 
 By this means, after the cutter has operated 
 on a space, the wheel is led) forward one 
 tooth by the time the cutter arbor has com¬ 
 pleted its revolution. Some little practice 
 is required to select exactly the cutter re¬ 
 quired. Care must be taken not to select 
 one too thick, or the teeth will of course be 
 made too thin, and the wheel probably bent. 
 When the guide is adjusted to the pitch, it 
 will be well to see that it enters the space 
 properly before rotating the tool quickly. 
 The wheel should be fixed firmly, but not 
 too tightly, between the centers, which 
 should rest well on the shoulders of the 
 pinion. The rest piece for the wheel should 
 be as large as possible to keep the wheel 
 from bending, to give it firmness and to in¬ 
 sure a clean cut. _____ 
 
 CONICAL PIVOTS. 
 
 HE cone should be an easy curve 
 tapering off into the pivot proper, 
 which runs in the hole; this part must be 
 perfectly straight and parallel. The pivot 
 having been turned to a little over the re¬ 
 quired size, its end is laid on a bed formed 
 in a manner of the turns. Every time the 
 work is examined the bed of the runner 
 must be cleared and the runner adjusted to 
 
THE MOTIVE FORCE IN WATCHES. 
 
 75 
 
 a slightly different length, so that it does not 
 bear on the same part of the pivot. If this 
 is neglected, the pivot is sure to be marked. 
 A soft steel polisher, made to suit the pivot, 
 is then used with either oil-stone dust or red- 
 stuff. It should be used with a backward 
 and forward as well as a rolling motion, till 
 the pivot is reduced so that it will just fall 
 off the hole. The pivot is then finished 
 with a very smooth burnisher and oil. 
 
 Instead of the soft steel polisher, some 
 prefer to use a hard steel burnisher rough¬ 
 ened. or a piece of lead with emery, which 
 makes an equally good pivot. For rounding 
 the end of the pivot, a thin-edged runner, to 
 allow the end of the pivot to come through, 
 is used. The pivot is rounded by passing 
 the burnisher from the body of the pivot 
 over the end. If the burnisher is used from 
 the point toward the body of the pivot, a 
 burr may be formed. There is a little differ¬ 
 ence of opinion as to the proper direction of 
 the stroke to be imparted. Opinions will 
 differ. 
 
 THE MOTIVE FORCE IN WATCHES. 
 
 OLLOWING a recent controversy in 
 an English horological paper, a contri¬ 
 bution from the pen of Mr. Oscar Perret, of 
 St. Imier, in the Journal Suisse d'Horlogerie, 
 will be read with interest: “ It should ap¬ 
 pear that this question [the motive force in 
 watches] were worthy of meriting the atten¬ 
 tion of all those engaged in watchmaking; 
 nevertheless, this is far from being so, be¬ 
 cause it is the most neglected part, to such 
 an extent, even, that many watchmakers do 
 not trouble themselves at all to study the 
 important works which this force produces, 
 nor the parts that consume a portion of it. 
 It appears that the mounter has no other 
 duty to perform than that of imprisoning the 
 spring within the barrel, lubricating it with 
 a little oil of an inferior quality, without fur¬ 
 ther troubling himself whether it runs with¬ 
 out being cramped, or whether its force can 
 develop as it should. This is due to the 
 fact that the motive force labors under one 
 disadvantage. Its motions cannot be seen 
 and studied like those of the other movable 
 parts; were this so, one can be certain that 
 it would be the object of greater care, and it 
 would be more highly esteemed. 
 
 “ It is rarely the case that the mainspring 
 is examined; this fact is left to the good 
 taith of the spring manufacturers, who may 
 employ either steel of a bad quality or badly 
 
 tempered; nor is any rigorous exactitude 
 exerted as regards the height or thickness of 
 blade, etc. Such as the spring is, it is de¬ 
 livered to the mounter, whose duty simply 
 is to put it in place, regardless of the condi¬ 
 tion in which he receives it. It is not as¬ 
 tonishing, therefore, that the greater part of 
 these springs cannot but very imperfectly 
 comply with the functions they are to dis¬ 
 charge, and they become a source of imper¬ 
 fection to the watch, even when all its other 
 parts are in fair order. 
 
 “ We have said that the mainspring per¬ 
 forms a very important part; it produces a 
 force which must be preserved as nearly 
 intact as possible. The ban-el being actu¬ 
 ated by this force must, in its rotary motion, 
 actuate an entire mechanism, and its energy 
 experiences a diminution from one wheel to 
 the other, so that when it arrives at the es¬ 
 capement a large part of the original force 
 has been consumed by the many frictions of 
 the depthing and pivots. Theory can with 
 precision calculate this loss. To this may 
 be still added the imperfections of construc¬ 
 tion, bad proportions, etc., which augments 
 the intensity of the frictions, and conse¬ 
 quently requires more force.* 
 
 “ In order that the mainspring may comply 
 with its functions passably, it must be capa¬ 
 ble of exerting a uniform traction force for 
 at least twenty-four hours; and it would 
 thereby favor the regularity of the amplitude 
 of the balance vibrations, which is very im¬ 
 portant for the adjustment. But experience 
 has taught us that it is not always an easy 
 thing to attain this result, because it is well 
 known that the manufacturers of steel have 
 not yet been able to produce it with a reg¬ 
 ular force, and, consequently, springs with¬ 
 out a uniform action in the same conditions 
 are the result. Nothing, indeed, is more in¬ 
 teresting than experiments on their action, 
 to prove the irregularities produced by them, 
 as far as their traction is concerned, even 
 with springs of the same height and thick¬ 
 ness of blade; this irregularity is a great 
 defect. 
 
 “ I would like to call the attention of young 
 watchmakers to one point: it is better in 
 order to have more force to augment the 
 breadth of the blade rather than its thick¬ 
 ness, because less is lost of development, 
 
 * Experiments instituted have demonstrated that 
 the train (wheels, pivots, depthings), when in proper 
 condition and lubricated with fresh oil, absorbs 
 about 20 per cent, of the motive force. 
 
76 
 
 ATTRACTION OF GRAVITATION. 
 
 and the traction is much more regular from 
 the beginning to the end of the performance 
 —-that means that the differences are not so 
 great in the extremes; we have been able to 
 observe this fact in a number of instances, 
 and it is easy to prove the truth of the asser¬ 
 tion by instituting experiments. 
 
 “ The friction produced between the coil 
 blades during the activity of the spring 
 is also of great importance, and becomes 
 so much more injurious as the spring is 
 out of truth, that is to say, when it un¬ 
 folds to one side. It is fairly difficult to 
 ascertain the origin of this, and the in¬ 
 quirer frequently loses much valuable time 
 in ascertaining it. In the common watch, 
 where the price does not, naturally, permit 
 any very exhaustive inquiry, much could 
 nevertheless be done toward ameliorating this 
 evil. 
 
 “The barrel must be free upon its arbor, 
 like any other movable piece in the watch ; 
 the spring must be unconditionally free to 
 develop with the greatest ease. The pivot 
 holes and spring must be lubricated with a 
 suitable oil of good quality. The repairer 
 will frequently find a bad oil which rusts the 
 steel and produces very injurious friction. 
 One grave error very often found is that the 
 core is too large. 
 
 “ We might say much on the question of 
 the stop-work, because it must be acknowl¬ 
 edged that many watchmakers do not at all 
 inquire into the utility and duty of this little 
 mechanism. It is often the case that re¬ 
 pairers take it out altogether because they 
 do not understand its functions. The stop- 
 work has its well-defined utility, if it is kept 
 in good order, and especially if it is made to 
 comply with its functions, to wit, of utilizing 
 the turns which give the greatest equality in 
 the tractive power. By barrels for which 
 no stop-work is used, different stop systems 
 are employed, and they are oftenest in bad 
 condition, either by the space they occupy, 
 the little quantity of solidity which they pos¬ 
 sess, or the disagreeable friction produced by 
 them. We have been able to observe fre¬ 
 quently that in many cases the collar-stop¬ 
 ping contrivance hinders the spring from 
 unfolding; although certain kinds of collars 
 do not produce this effect, and thus enjoy an 
 advantage over other kinds. 
 
 “ As regards the quantity of force to be 
 employed, there are laws governing this 
 question in a rational ^nanner. Generally 
 speaking, there is more force than is neces¬ 
 
 sary, but by reason of the want of care this 
 excess is completely absorbed. 
 
 “ It is often asserted that the Americans 
 use springs which are too strong. It is nec¬ 
 essary to do them this justice, however, that 
 their springs are proportioned to the barrel, 
 and that if they employ large barrels their 
 trains and escapements are in the same pro¬ 
 portion. One difference to be noticed is 
 that they have employed a much smaller 
 but much thicker balance than we. In 
 Switzerland the principle governs that the 
 watch must go with the least possible force. 
 It is an old principle which exerts its full 
 value, especially for fine grade watches ; but 
 when it concerns watches ‘ by the thou¬ 
 sand,’ which must be manufactured at a 
 very low price, the question is no longer the 
 same. We must admit that the Americans 
 have abandoned this principle for a very 
 simple reason : Their watches, as well as our 
 own, possess imperfections which would 
 cause them to stop, and, above all, to go 
 badly. Now, it must be acceded that these 
 defects are compensated to a certain extent 
 by the resistance of the motive power, which 
 is much stronger than in our watches.” 
 
 BROKEN BALANCE PIVOT. 
 
 F a' balance pivot is broken I generally 
 replace it by a new staff, as I think 
 that by far a better way than to drill and put 
 in a new pivot, as it is nine chances out of 
 ten that the job is not done without some 
 harm to the watch. I can take a blank staff 
 and turn up and finish the pivots in less time 
 than I could drill and pivot, and I always 
 feel satisfied with my job. Of course there 
 are always cases where we have to pivot and 
 then make the best of it. In the train 
 wheels I always pivot, as there is less wear 
 and tear and more stock to work on. 
 
 ATTRACTION OF GRAVITATION. 
 
 NE law governing the pendulum is this : 
 The action of gravity or the mutual 
 attraction of bodies varies with their masses, 
 and inversely as the square of their distances. 
 Following from this, a pendulum will vibrate 
 seconds only in a given place. Our standard 
 of measurement is taken from a pendulum 
 vibrating seconds in a vacuum at the level 
 of the sea. It also follows that the further 
 a pendulum is removed from the center of 
 
WATCH MAINSPRING 
 
 77 
 
 the earth the less it will be attracted in its 
 descent toward the vertical. This explains 
 why a pendulum loses on being transferred 
 from the sea level to the mountain, or from 
 one of the earth’s poles toward the equator, 
 as the earth is a spheroid slightly flattened 
 at the poles. 
 
 WATCH MAINSPRING. 
 
 ERY little is generally said in the hor- 
 ological press on the subject of main- 
 springing ; while-some writers appear to have 
 “ isochronism ” on the brain, others treat ad 
 nauseam of the pallet draw and locking, 
 while mainspringing is but occasionally men¬ 
 tioned, and treated with a step-parent’s affec¬ 
 tion. We recently read in a horological 
 publication where the writer advised to sub¬ 
 stitute the hook on the barrel for one on the 
 spring; not to make it of steel, but of the 
 softest and best of iron ; for instance, an 
 American clock pendulum rod or a horseshoe 
 nail. To use iron, because it is more easily 
 and more firmly riveted, and easier to cut off 
 and finish. 
 
 These are apparently weighty reasons, 
 although not many practical watchmakers 
 would agree with the waiter in substituting a 
 hook on the barrel for that on the spring in 
 a w^ch with fusee and chain. The trial 
 has occasionally been made, but the inevi¬ 
 table result is that the first time the chain 
 breaks the barrel is bulged out on the side, 
 caused by the recoil of the spring against the 
 hook, and in all probability ruined beyond 
 redemption. He next recommended that 
 the workman should always shape the hook 
 on the spring and polish its face before it is 
 put in the barrel. This style of work may 
 be possible to do, but it is certainly neither 
 practical nor customary. 
 
 A practical method of fitting this kind of 
 hook would be about as follows: 
 
 A piece of soft iron is held in a pin vise 
 and filed to fit the hole in the barrel, round or 
 square, whichever it may be, giving it as little 
 taper as possible ; pass the wire so fitted into 
 the hole in the barrel from the outside, in 
 giving it the same slant as the hole, and 
 make a scratch wfith a sharp point across it 
 and on the inside of the barrel; withdraw 
 the wire and turn it end for end in the vise, 
 bringing the end faces of the jaws even with 
 the scratch. You now place this vise, with 
 the wire in it, in a perpendicular position in 
 the bench vise; first shorten the wire and 
 
 then proceed to fit it to the hole in the main¬ 
 spring, which has been previously punched, 
 countersunk and pointed, as already de¬ 
 scribed, allowing the jaws of the pin vise to 
 act as a gauge for the scratch made on the 
 wire, remove the wire from the pin vise and 
 grip it firmly in the left side of the bench 
 vise, close up, but not so as to injure the 
 part which is to form the hook. 
 
 Put the spring in its place and rivet up 
 carefully and solidly; have the spring so 
 countersunk as not to permit any of the rivet 
 to project above the surface of the spring. 
 Take it out of the vise and cut off, leaving 
 just enough to form the hook. Try if the 
 hook fits by putting it backward into the hole 
 in the barrel from the outside, for it is pos¬ 
 sible to distort its shape in riveting, etc. 
 Being satisfied, and not having the hook 
 excessively long, wind it in and ship the 
 hook. 
 
 You now take the barrel between the 
 thumb and point of the middle finger and 
 slap it on the bench, first on one side, then 
 the other, till you see that the hook is well 
 home to its place. Put the arbor and cover 
 —presuming that the spring was oiled before 
 winding it in. All that remains to be done 
 now is to finish the hook outside the barrel, 
 which is done by carefully filing it down till 
 you come close to the gilded side or edge 
 of the barrel; you then take a piece of thin 
 writing paper and lay over it, and go on 
 filing both paper and hook together till you 
 touch, but not deface, the barrel. It is well 
 now to grip the square of the arbor in a pin 
 vise, and set the spring up to test the effi¬ 
 ciency of the hook, and, if possible, to force 
 it further through the barrel, in which case 
 you repeat the filing through a fresh piece 
 of paper. You now finish the job by pass¬ 
 ing a clean flat burnisher over it a few 
 times, also through a piece of paper. I 
 consider it quite impossible for a hook on 
 the spring that is properly fitted to fail to 
 hold securely. 
 
 It is easily seen that the hook on the 
 spring is preferable to having it on the bar¬ 
 rel, because box chronometers of all nations 
 have it on the hook. We may readily con¬ 
 jecture that when we see the hook of a watch 
 with fusee and chain altered from the spring 
 to the barrel, that it was the work of one 
 who was either too lazy or incompetent to 
 do the job, but it is not to be accepted as 
 evidence that the hook-on-the-barrel stvle is 
 more reliable. 
 
78 
 
 IS THE STOP-WORK INDISPENSABLE. 
 
 SCAPE WHEELS OF SWISS 
 WATCHES. 
 
 N the case of a very bad wheel it would 
 be much easier to change, than to at¬ 
 tempt to correct it; there is such facility now 
 for doing this—wheels of very good quality 
 can be got for such a low price, and in such 
 a variety of sizes and heights, that it is rarely 
 a difficult matter to get one of a correct size. 
 If the country watchmaker has no large 
 stock on hand, and must send for a new 
 wheel, it is always best to turn a sink in a 
 piece of brass in the mandrel, as a gauge for 
 size; and if the wheel is not sent, a notch 
 cut for the height also. The removal of the 
 wheel from the pinion should be done on a 
 pinion-riveting stake, in a hole that just fits 
 the pinion loosely; a pointed hollow punch, 
 preferably of brass, fitting freely over the 
 pivot, or in the hollow of the rivets, should 
 be used and a light hammer. The size of 
 the hole in the wheel is the next considera¬ 
 tion ; it will most probably be considerably 
 smaller than the old. The common way of 
 opening this hole is to broach it, and as the 
 wheel as obtained from the material dealer 
 is generally too hard to broach, it is usually 
 put on a wire, and the wire in the flame of a 
 lamp, until sufficiently softened. 
 
 This is rather a risky way of doing; the 
 wheel is liable to be got out of flat, or broken 
 in the operation; a far safer and better plan 
 is to grind out the hole without softening the 
 boss, A long and soft arbor is filed length¬ 
 ways ; it should not be too taper, and used 
 with either fine emery or oil-stone dust, the 
 wheel having previously been cemented by 
 its back to either an old fourth wheel or 
 some light, circular piece of brass, to protect 
 the teeth and handle it by. Particular care 
 should be taken not to run the arbor dry 
 while grinding, but to keep it liberally sup¬ 
 plied with oil, so that it does not stick. 
 Should the boss be too thick, leaving insuf¬ 
 ficient rivet, it can be turned down with a 
 hard graver. To turn down the seat, if the 
 watch is flat, would be rather a difficult mat¬ 
 ter ; but if it is at all high, it can be done, 
 supposing that the slot in the cylinder will ad¬ 
 mit of it. The hole having been ground out 
 until it fits firmly on to the pinion, it should 
 be riveted lightly with a hollow steel punch, 
 revolving the wheel a little between each 
 blow of the hammer, which should be very 
 light. Its truth in flat should be examined 
 from time to time by means of the brass 
 calipers and straight-edge; if the riveting is 
 
 carefully done the wheel will be true. It 
 will rarely be necessary to bump the arms of 
 the wheel if carefully riveted. The size of 
 the punch should be such that it just goes 
 easily over the shoulder of the pinion, and 
 its face should be perfectly polished. 
 
 HOW TO REPLACE A BALANCE 
 STAFF. 
 
 N the event of a broken staff a new 
 one is to be made as follows:—In the 
 first place the old balance staff should serve 
 as a model, unless it has decidedly radical 
 defects. The balance is knocked off the 
 brass collar on the old staff and a rough 
 staff selected of approximate dimensions. 
 These staffs are generally sold in the rough 
 by material dealers, but one may be made 
 by driving a steel arbor into a collet of hard 
 brass. The steel should be hardened and 
 tempered just sufficient to allow it to be 
 turned with the graver. A screw ferrule is 
 fixed to the staff, and it is mounted in the 
 turns; the length is reduced to a trifle over 
 the finished size, paying due attention to the 
 relative size of the staff that projects both 
 above and below the brass. The brass is 
 then turned to fit the balance and the bal¬ 
 ance spring collet, and the length is made 
 right. The staff is then turned downjtfo fit 
 the hole in the roller. The pivots are then 
 made, gauging the position at the shoulders 
 by means of the pinion gauge, using the old 
 staff to measure by. The diameter is made 
 by trying in the jewel holes. The body of 
 the staff is polished, as are the pivots, with 
 crocus on a bell-metal burnisher, English 
 workmen generally using the turn bench with 
 specially made centers, but the Jacot tool is 
 far more convenient. When the staff is fin¬ 
 ished the balance is riveted on true, and 
 should be at the precise height, so that it 
 will not be necessary to use a punch to raise 
 or lower it. Very careful handling and con¬ 
 stant gauging are the principal requisites for 
 making a balance staff; failing the former, 
 the partlv finished staff is likely to be broken, 
 and by not paying sufficient attention to the 
 latter, some part will be made too small. 
 
 IS THE STOP-WORK INDISPENSABLE, 
 
 HE question whether the Maltese cross 
 or stop-work in medium and low grade 
 watches is indispensable or not was some 
 time ago debated in a meeting of watch- 
 
PENDULUMS. 
 
 79 
 
 makers in Germany. Those in favor of dis¬ 
 pensing with it proposed a number of other 
 devices, among which is the brace. One of 
 them published his views on the matter sub¬ 
 sequently in the Deutsche Uhrmacher Zeitung, 
 from which we translate the following: 
 
 “ I am not at all opposed to the stop- 
 work ; on the contrary, I consider it to be 
 one of the best and most secure devices—if 
 well executed and hardened, and the square 
 of the spring arbor upon which the stop 
 sits is sufficiently long and well-conditioned. 
 Every repairer,^ however, knows the condi¬ 
 tion of the stop-work in the ordinary cheap 
 watches. . . . It is an ordinary occur¬ 
 
 rence that already in the first four weeks the 
 man who recently bought a cheap watch 
 from you will come back to the shop with his 
 watch over-wound, and from that time for¬ 
 ward misconfidence against his time-keeper 
 and yourself is fully established. Frequently, 
 also, does it happen that after the mainspring 
 is broken the owner also ruins the stop-work 
 by winding, when he is a sort of a Jack-at- 
 all-trades and tries to remedy the evil himself. 
 
 “ Some repairers urge that when an ordinary 
 brace stop is used, more springs break than 
 by the use of a stop-work. I cannot say that 
 this is my experience, although I have been 
 a repairer for a number of years. If ever it 
 should be true that the breakage of springs is 
 greater by io per cent., surely watchmakers 
 cannot call this a great misfortune! Nor 
 does the assertion hold good that the small 
 end of a spring (the brace) forms a separate 
 spring power, as this force lasts barely one 
 minute. 
 
 “ Another advantage of the simple brace 
 stop in the interior of the barrel is that this 
 is rendered much more secure, as the cover 
 does not require to be turned down and out, 
 and the spring arbor can at its lower end be 
 made with a nice and long pivot. All the 
 repairers know how terribly shaky some bar¬ 
 rels are in consequence of the pivot hole be¬ 
 ing too thin in the barrel cover, and also in 
 this particular a decided defect would be 
 remedied. The time which the workman 
 spends upon the repairing or re-making of 
 the stop-work may, by the employment of the 
 simple brace, be spent to a far better purpose 
 upon the other parts of the watch. 
 
 For better grade watches, which have from 
 the start been constructed with more care, 
 and on which more time is spent in repair¬ 
 ing, they may be employed profitably. 
 
 “ Three methods are known to me for using 
 
 the brace as a stop. The first consists in 
 riveting a small piece of watch spring to the 
 end of the spring and of beveling its free 
 side a little ; by the second, the end of the 
 spring is bent into a small hook, in which is 
 laid a small piece of spring with beveled 
 ends; by the third, the spring is bent out¬ 
 ward at a length of from 5 to 10 millimeters 
 near the end, which must be done, however, 
 while the spring is red hot, so that it will not 
 break in bending. The diameter of the 
 spring core can, in general, be taken as the 
 length of the brace. The latter method is 
 the simplest and easiest, and I have success¬ 
 fully employed it for a number of years. 
 The hook in the barrel is unnecessary, and a 
 very small pin slightly projecting within is all 
 that is required ; even this fear is not neces¬ 
 sary ; simply raise a burr with a sharp graver 
 on the inner side of the barrel.” 
 
 In conclusion the writer solicits the opinion 
 of other watchmakers on this question. 
 
 THE BAROMETRICAL ERROR. 
 
 PENDULUM is affected by the den¬ 
 sity of the atmosphere, but to a degree 
 that would only be of importance in a pre¬ 
 cision timepiece, where all the errors are re¬ 
 duced to a minimum. An increase of den¬ 
 sity in the air is equivalent to reducing the 
 action of gravity, while the inertia of the 
 moving body remains the same. The rule 
 is, that the velocity of the pendulum varies 
 directly as the force of gravity and inversely 
 as the inertia, and it follows then that an in¬ 
 crease of density diminishes the velocity and 
 shortens the time of oscillation, causing the 
 clock to gain time. The barometrical error 
 can be reduced to within three- or four-tenths 
 of a second in twentv-four hours for each 
 rise or fall of the barometer. Short axes of 
 oscillation are also essential in reducing the 
 barometrical error. An apparatus is some¬ 
 times attached to the pendulum to assist in 
 reducing the error. 
 
 PENDULUMS. 
 
 PENDULUM required to vibrate sec¬ 
 onds, says a lecturer, must be of such 
 "a length as to make the distance between the 
 centers of suspension and oscillation 39.14 
 inches; and it must farther satisfy the con¬ 
 dition here indicated, namely, the expansion 
 of steel downward must equal that of brass 
 upward. The co-efficients of expansion of 
 
8o 
 
 i’MNDULUMS. 
 
 steel and brass are respectively 0.0000124 
 and 0.0000188 per i° centigrade, and it can 
 easily be shown that the smallest number of 
 rods that can satisfy this condition, keeping 
 the pendulum symmetrical, is nine. The ar¬ 
 rangement of the rods and the mode in which 
 they effect the required object need but little 
 explanation. The outer steel rods are firmly 
 pinned at right angles to the upper brass 
 cross-piece, but they are only held loosely by 
 the pins in the lowest cross-bar. This car¬ 
 ries two brass rods expanding upward, and 
 each pair is loosely held by pins in the same 
 way. The innermost steel rod hangs from 
 a pin at its upper end, passes freely through 
 the lower cross-piece, and supports the pen¬ 
 dulum bob by a nut at its extremity. 
 
 The necessity for so many rods has always 
 been regarded as a serious objection to this 
 form of pendulum, and many attempts have 
 been made to avoid the difficulty. Trough- 
 ton suggested a very elegant arrangement, 
 in which the four brass rods are replaced by 
 two brass tubes, the five steel rods being 
 joined in a manner corresponding to that 
 above indicated. The bulk of the pendulum 
 rod is thus diminished to a tube 0.6 of one 
 inch in diameter, an important point, since 
 the center of oscillation is thereby lowered, 
 and a shorter pendulum can be employed. 
 Zinc has a much higher expansibility than 
 brass, and attention was, therefore, directed 
 toward the employment of this metal. By 
 increasing the length of the pendulum, and 
 placing the bob some distance above the 
 lower end of the pendulum, supported by a 
 short cylinder of zinc, Berthoud succeeded 
 in obtaining sufficient compensation with 
 only two brass rods and three of steel; and, 
 even with a brass cylinder in place of the 
 zinc, the compensation was at times found 
 to be complete. This is a compact form of 
 gridiron pendulum, but long, and the excess¬ 
 ive friction between the rods is a serious ob¬ 
 jection. Berthoud constructed them about 
 13 inches long, beating half-seconds, and the 
 center of oscillation comes very near the cen¬ 
 ter of the bob. 
 
 Reid, Tiede, Jacob, Ward, Dent and 
 others, invented pendulums in which zinc and 
 steel are employed in conjunction, and in an 
 interesting arrangement suggested long ago 
 by Robert, zinc is associated with platinum 
 as being at the opposite end of the scale of 
 expansibility. The form adopted by Jacob 
 is worthy of notice on account of its extreme 
 facility of adjustment. The central rod is 
 
 of steel, and terminates in a screw bearing 
 a locking nut, which supports a rectangular 
 zinc frame. A screw thread is cut on the 
 upper portion of this, and a nut on it sup¬ 
 ports the frame that carries the bob. As¬ 
 suming the pendulum to be under or over 
 compensated, it will only be necessary to ele¬ 
 vate the upper screw and depress the lower, 
 or vice versa , and the effective length of the 
 zinc will thus be altered as required. The 
 expansion of zinc being more than double 
 that of steel, a single zinc rod less than the 
 length of the pendulum will suffice for the 
 compensation. 
 
 The only other combination of these two 
 metals that need be specially referred to is 
 the pendulum employed by Dent & Co., of 
 London, England, for astronomical clocks, 
 in which the bob is of lead, and the steel and 
 zinc are two concentric tubes, the rod also 
 being of steel. A zinc tube resting on the 
 rating nut supports, at its upper end, a steel 
 tube by which it is enclosed; to the lower 
 end of the steel is fixed, by its center, the 
 lead bob covered with a brass jacket. Holes 
 are drilled through the steel and zinc tubes 
 in such a manner that each portion of the 
 pendulum is equally influenced by thermo¬ 
 metric variation. 
 
 The pendulum by Mr. Robert, above re¬ 
 ferred to, is a light platinum tube passing 
 through a zinc bob and terminating in a steel 
 screw, which carries the rating nut. The 
 bob extends to half the height of the rod, 
 and its upward expansion is sufficient to neu¬ 
 tralize the downward expansion of this latter. 
 
 Numerous other combinations of two or 
 more substances have been suggested from 
 time to time, but detailed reference to them 
 is unnecessary since the principle of all is 
 identical. J. L. Smith employed a vulcanite 
 tube surrounding the lower extremity of a 
 steel rod, in a manner somewhat analogous 
 to Berthoud’s pendulum, only that the tube 
 passed within the (copper) bob ; Ley used 
 zinc and glass similarly arranged, and Cal- 
 laud proposed a combination in which steel, 
 brass, and platinum (wire) are used. The 
 brass tube resting on the timing nut supports 
 a plate at its upper end, through which pass 
 two screws attached to the extremities of a 
 platinum wire. This passing round a groove 
 in the pendulum bob raises it as the brass 
 tube expands, and the adjustment for com¬ 
 pensation somewhat resembles that of Jacob’s 
 pendulum. Benzenberg’s pendulum, as mod¬ 
 ified by Kater, consists of a lead tube trav- 
 
RULES GOVERNING COMPENSATION PENDULUMS. 
 
 81 
 
 ersed by an iron wire, the bob being sus¬ 
 pended by two iron wires from the upper end 
 of this tube. By employing steel and zinc, 
 Katei succeeded in reducing the length of 
 compensation metal so as to conceal it within 
 the bob ; and Bailey proposed a cheap con¬ 
 struction that has been much used, in which 
 the upward expansion of a cylindrical lead 
 bob neutralized the downward expansion of 
 a deal rod. 
 
 It is unquestionable that a carefully made 
 wooden pendulum is to be preferred in all 
 clocks, other than the very best astronomical 
 timepieces; in conjunction with a well-made 
 train, it can be relied upon to give a more 
 uniform rate than any unadjusted compen¬ 
 sation pendulum. Indeed, such a pendulum 
 may give rise to a very great irregularity, if, 
 as is perfectly possible, the arrangements for 
 compensation tend to produce an opposite 
 effect to that which is required. 
 
 An immense variety of devices have been 
 proposed for correcting this error of temper¬ 
 ature, but they may all be classified under 
 four heads: 
 
 1. Two or more solid and rigid substances 
 employed in conjunction, and so arranged 
 that the vertical downward expansion of one 
 is neutralized by the vertical upward expan¬ 
 sion of another. 
 
 2. Two metals of different expansibilities 
 actuating levers, and thus maintaining the 
 length of the pendulum invariably. 
 
 3. Two metals of different expansibility, 
 Tigidly joined together by soldering or other¬ 
 wise, employed to vary the distance of a 
 weight from the center of suspension when¬ 
 ever the temperature varies. 
 
 4. Pendulums in which mercury is em¬ 
 ployed. 
 
 The earliest attempt to correct the varia¬ 
 tions of temperature was made by Harrison, 
 in the construction of his “ gridiron ” pendu¬ 
 lum, consisting of nine vertical rods—five of 
 steel and four of brass. 
 
 1RULES GOVERNING COMPENSATION 
 PENDULUMS. 
 
 HE compensation pendulum is to the as¬ 
 tronomical clock exactly what the com¬ 
 pensation balance is to the chronometer, and 
 whatever facilitates the narrowing of the mar¬ 
 gin that borders the central line of absolute 
 accuracy, reduces the space demanded by 
 final adjustment. It may never become pos¬ 
 sible to produce, by mechanical means, either 
 
 a balance or a pendulum absolutely correct 
 and requiring no adjustment. There are 
 means of closely approximating to that con¬ 
 dition, and these I propose to impart. 
 
 In the first place, the conditions of the 
 manufacture of Graham’s mercurial pendu¬ 
 lum, the one adopted by both the artist and 
 the astronomer, require careful consideration. 
 The rod and the stirrup should, after all me¬ 
 chanical work is completed, be annealed 
 down to the simplest softness, and all subse¬ 
 quent bending avoided, as well as any large 
 amount of friction, for the sake of polish; 
 no part of the stirrup should be left on the 
 strain; everything should fit without shake, 
 but still without bind. Here we arrive at 
 the point of the closest approximation to the 
 proportion nearest mechanically achievable 
 —perfect compensation for temperature. 
 The ordinary glass jar and mercury being the 
 simplest, is amongst, if not absolutely, the 
 best; and the result of a great number of 
 experiments has proved that a glass jar of ex¬ 
 actly two inches internal diameter, containing 
 eleven pounds eight ounces (avoirdupois) of 
 mercury will be so near to absolute compen¬ 
 sation as seldom to require any correction 
 when tested in heat and cold. The mercury 
 should be carefully relieved from all ad¬ 
 mixture of atmospheric air, and this is by no 
 means an easy task. In addition to the care¬ 
 ful removing of any visible air bubbles, time 
 and the application of heat should be given 
 in order to facilitate the decomposition of 
 such remaining portions of air as cling with 
 great tenacity to mercury that has been re¬ 
 cently shaken. For this purpose a piece of 
 bladder neatly tied over the top of the jar 
 will enable the maker to aid this decomposi¬ 
 tion by keeping the jar for a week or so in 
 a temperature of (say) from a hundred to a 
 hundred and five, and the jar should not be 
 put into the stirrup until all the manipulations 
 of the clock and its pendulum suspension are 
 completed. 
 
 During the ovening of the pendulum, the 
 addition or subtraction of mercury from the 
 jar should be effected by a dipping-tube. 
 The most convenient form of this latter tool 
 is a piece of glass tube half an inch in diam¬ 
 eter, drawn out at one end for a couple of 
 inches to a nose about two inches long, and 
 of about a quarter of an inch in diameter. 
 The top end of the dipper should also be 
 drawn out a little, and the end of the drawn- 
 out part rounded where the orifice is about 
 one-tenth of an inch in diameter. The plane 
 
82 
 
 TO REPAIR A YANKEE CLOCK. 
 
 in which the pendulum swings should be east 
 and west, and the suspension should always 
 be of such a form as will enable the pendu¬ 
 lum to oscillate by its own weight, making 
 the suspension of itself from all restraint of 
 friction. 
 
 The fulfilment of the foregoing conditions 
 will give in all cases good practical results. 
 
 NEW METHOD OF HARDENING 
 DELICATE STEEL PARTS. 
 
 HE warping of very delicate or long steel 
 parts by tempering is one of the most 
 disagreeable occurrences that can happen 
 to a watchmaker, and many remedies have 
 been proposed and are in use to counteract 
 it, with more or less satisfactory results — 
 tempering in animal charcoal, smearing with 
 soap, tempering in the lead bath, etc. The 
 latest method is that of the very able watch¬ 
 maker, Mr. P. Gabriel, published in the 
 Revue Chronometrique. He says :— 
 
 “ Take an earthen or metal crucible, pour 
 in a proper quantity of cyanide of potassium 
 and place it over a grate fire to fuse. Into 
 this fusing mass enter the steel article to be 
 hardened, and, as soon as red hot, dip it 
 quickly into cold water. The article will not 
 only have obtained a very good temper, but 
 it has also not become warped in the slight¬ 
 est degree. Another advantage of this 
 method of hardening is that the polish of 
 the article is not injured whatever—in case 
 it has already been polished. The polish 
 becomes slightly gray, which color, however, 
 is easily removed by a few retouches with 
 wood and a little fine steel rouge. 
 
 “ As regards the warping of the article to 
 be hardened, it must be stated that before 
 hardening it must not be injured by hammer 
 taps or careless glow heating, so that the in¬ 
 terior texture of the steel is damaged. Well 
 treated thus, turning arbors of from four to 
 five centimeters long remained perfectly true, 
 when hardened by this method. This is also 
 excellent for hardening the detent springs of 
 chronometers, by which the foot must always 
 be much larger than the very delicate,flexible 
 part of the spring. All the parts are equally 
 heated in the cyanide bath, in consequence 
 of which they experience no warping.” 
 
 TO REPAIR A YANKEE CLOCK. 
 
 r PHE ordinary Yankee clock is so very 
 1 cheap now that it “ hardly pays ” to 
 repair it ; yet it stands the tvary watch and 
 
 clock repairer in hand to look out even in this 
 particular. We will suppose a customer lias 
 an old Yankee clock which has done service 
 in the kitchen for years; he brings it in to 
 you and you see it is well worn and needs a 
 considerable amount of repair ; now, sell him 
 a new one if you can ; if not, do not let him 
 take it away and get some other man perhaps 
 not half as skilful as yourself to tinker it up 
 for him, for if you do it will be more than 
 probable that he will give him his watch to 
 clean and repair, and you will not only lose a 
 customer, but have a man saying : “ Oh ! 
 
 B.’s no good ; I took my clock to him to fix 
 and he said it was all worn out, and C. took it 
 and fixed it, and it runs as well as ever.” In 
 every case either sell a new one or fix up the 
 old one. It is a very bad clock that one who 
 knows how cannot put into shape so it will 
 run. Another thing to be looked to is the 
 regulation ; be sure it is running right before 
 you let it go out of the store ; do not trust 
 the purchaser with timing his own clock, as 
 it is only in rare instances that you will find 
 one who can do it properly. Nine cases out 
 of ten, if the clock goes too fast, he will turn 
 down the nut, but it never occurs to him 
 to pull the bob tightly down on to it. All 
 words aside, it is best to make sure of the 
 regulation yourself while you have the clock 
 in your possession. The great secret in clock 
 work is to know exactly what you want to do 
 and have the proper tools to do the work 
 with. In three cases out of four it is not 
 necessary to take a clock down to insure its 
 running. Put on plenty of fresh oil and take 
 off the verge and let it run down, wiping off 
 the oil as it exudes from the pivot holes, leav¬ 
 ing enough on finally to ensure its running 
 for the next twelve months. When it comes 
 to repairs, clocks need but two things (as a 
 rule) done to them ; these are closing a hole 
 or two and grinding out pits in the pallets. 
 It needs no expensive punches to close a 
 hole nicely, just a crescent-shaped punch of 
 two or three sizes is all that is required. The 
 largest punch should be of No. 5 steel wire 
 and the smallest of No. 14 steel wire. Holes 
 are in every instance worn on one side ; close 
 up from this side only, but be sure you do 
 not overdo the matter and force the hole over 
 too far—this, like everything else around a 
 watchmaker's shop, is a matter of nice judg¬ 
 ment. A few words to my old friends, the 
 apprentices, for whom these articles are sup¬ 
 posed to be written : Learn to take down 
 and put together a clock quickly ; don't sit 
 
HANDSOME FROSTING OF WHEELS, ETC. 
 
 83 
 
 and dread a clock and be afraid you cannot 
 get it to strike right again ; go at it man¬ 
 fully, and say, “ I am going to get so I can 
 put any striking clock together in five min¬ 
 utes,” go at it and stick to it until you can be 
 as good as your word. When you find it is 
 necessary to take a clock down, out with the 
 pins or screws and down with it; do your 
 repairs and slap it together again. But for 
 mercy sake don’t sit and dread it. Get (when 
 you have an idle half hour at your disposal) 
 an old clock movement and take it down and 
 mix up the wheels, and learn to put every 
 part of it in place as quickly as you can set 
 the men on a checkerboard. When you have 
 a hole to close, notice how it is to be closed, 
 and on the side where the wear is, so as to 
 restore it to as near the original condition as 
 possible. Judgment is essential in regard to 
 the distance from the hole at wdrich you 
 should set the punch. This in a great 
 measure depends on the thickness of the 
 plate ; if the plate is quite thick the punch 
 should be set back farther from the hole than 
 in a thin plate. It should be our endeavor 
 ro close the hole the entire thickness of the 
 plate, and this can generally be done from 
 one side; but in some cases it is necessary 
 to close from both sides. A round broach 
 should be used to smooth out the hole after 
 it is closed, putting the wheel in place and 
 the plates together, and trying if the wheel 
 runs free and with the proper amount of side- 
 shake. A smooth-faced stake of pretty good 
 weight should be used for punching on. 
 
 HANDSOME FROSTING OF WHEELS, 
 ETC. 
 
 F REQUENTLY we see stem-wind wheels 
 frosted, that is, they have a dull, gray, 
 matted look. This is usually done with sifted 
 oil-stone dust and benzine on the end of a 
 block of wood, giving the wheel or piece to 
 be frosted a short circular motion. Such 
 frosted wheels, when well and nicely done, 
 are very pretty;' but where one perfectly 
 satisfactory finish of this kind is accomplished 
 there will be a dozen failures. I mean to a 
 greater or lesser extent. A beautiful frosting 
 can be made, dissolving clear white rosin in 
 alcohol. The solution does not want to be 
 thick, as the thinner the solution is the finer 
 the grain or finish produced will be. Take 
 two wide-mouthed bottles, holding about two 
 ounces each, and fill one about half full of 
 rosin broken into dust and small pieces, then 
 
 fill the bottle with 95 per cent, alcohol and 
 let it stand, with an occasional shaking, 
 for two or three days; after this pour the 
 fluid portion into the empty bottle and fill up 
 with alcohol. When we wish to frost a 
 wheel, put piece of sharpened pegwood into 
 the center hole (to handle it by); dip the 
 wheel into the solution of rosin and alcohol 
 and set the wheel on a riveting stake to dry, 
 letting the point go into one of the holes so 
 that the wheel will lay flat and quiet until 
 dry. The wheel is now to be dipped into 
 dilute nitric acid prepared by mixing fifty 
 drops of acid with an ounce of water. The 
 wheel is allowed to remain in about two 
 minutes, when it is removed and well washed 
 with water. After this the rosin is dissolved 
 off with turpentine and well washed in 
 soap and water. If the first etching is not 
 satisfactory repeat the rosin coat, dipping in 
 acid, and the frosting will be found very 
 even and a little coarser than the grain made 
 by grinding. By rubbing the wheel on a bit 
 of flat cork with oil-stone dust and benzine, 
 the dark coat produced by the acid is re¬ 
 moved and the surface has a beautiful steel- 
 gray appearance. A mixture of Jj of an 
 ounce of alum and Q of an ounce of corro¬ 
 sive sublimate in half a pint of water, makes 
 a good acid solution into which to dip the 
 wheel after the rosin coat has been applied. 
 It is to be understood that the process of 
 frosting by acid is not attempted until the 
 wheel is ground smooth and flat, and free 
 from any deep scratches. The solution of 
 alum and corrosive sublimate acts much 
 quicker than the dilute nitric acid, a few 
 seconds answering. Before I leave the sub¬ 
 ject of cheap chatelaine watches it is well to 
 speak of the stem-winding works. These 
 are, as a rule, very badly made and tax the 
 ingenuity of the workman to the uttermost 
 to remedy the countless ills to which (like 
 flesh) they are heir to. The American plan 
 of a tilting yoke for changing over the action 
 from the winding to the hand setting, is usu¬ 
 ally kept in place by a spring struck out of 
 sheet metal with a die. This method is to 
 be deprecated, as the die breaks up the 
 strength of the steel. Springs cut out in this- 
 way should be struck out much larger than 
 needed, and worked down with a file or mill¬ 
 ing machine to the correct size. For such 
 springs we need sheet steel softened in char¬ 
 coal annealing box from which to cut them. 
 Every watchmaker should keep an assort¬ 
 ment of such sheet steel of different thick- 
 
8 4 
 
 THE USE OF BENZINE FOR WATCII CLEANING. 
 
 nesses ready softened for just such jobs. In 
 making such a spring, about the best way is 
 to select a bit of softened sheet steel of the 
 proper thickness and soft solder the old spring 
 fast to the steel. The hole is drilled and the 
 whole spring given shape while the old spring 
 is attached. A jeweler’s narrow saw can be 
 used to saw the soft steel into shape almost 
 as readily as if it were of brass. After it is 
 cut out with the saw it should be brought 
 nearly to shape with a file, and then hardened 
 by placing it between two plates of thin sheet 
 iron formed by folding one piece together 
 like the covers to a book. The spring is 
 embedded in a paste of Castile soap be¬ 
 tween the folds of the sheet iron, heated red 
 hot, and thrown into cold water to harden. 
 It should now be tempered by laying on 
 another piece of sheet iron with a little bees¬ 
 wax, and heated until the beeswax burns 
 off. This device of heating to harden can 
 also be used for wheels. 
 
 TO COLOR IRON AND STEEL BROWN. 
 
 ISSOLYE in four parts water, two parts 
 crystallized chloride of iron, two parts 
 chloride of antimonium and a trifle of tannic 
 acid, and apply this mixture with a cloth or 
 sponge upon the surface; then let it dry. 
 Repeat the application according to the 
 depth of color desired. This coating fully 
 protects the steel against humidity. The 
 chloride of antimonium should be as little 
 acid as possible. _ 
 
 HARDENING GOLD SPRINGS. 
 
 O gold detent, thermometer, suspension 
 and balance springs can be imparted a 
 high degree of elasticity. Rolling hardens 
 them, but they are rendered very brittle there¬ 
 by. They can be made pliable and elastic, not 
 by hardening, as in the case of steel, but by 
 annealing, care being taken not to exceed a 
 certain degree of heat. The spring may be 
 coiled on a block and placed in a tube, with 
 a smooth steel lid ; then heat the tube in the 
 flame of a spirit lamp, and as soon as the 
 steel is of a blue temper, remove the flame 
 and allow the whole to cool. 
 
 FLATTENING AN ORDINARY BAL¬ 
 ANCE SPRING. 
 
 EMOVE the collet and stud, and clamp 
 the spring by a central screw between 
 two plates, which are then placed on a blu¬ 
 
 ing tray and gently heated. A small piece 
 of whitened steel is laid on the plate in order 
 to see that the heat does not exceed what is 
 needed to give a blue temper. Allow the 
 plates to cool and separate them. Ordinary 
 springs being made of rolled steel and sub¬ 
 sequently coiled, always open out on heat¬ 
 ing ; it is therefore necessary, before resort¬ 
 ing to the above method, to coil up the spring, 
 as otherwise the outer turn will be found to 
 have opened beyond the stud. 
 
 TO FIT A BOUCHON. 
 
 A FTER repairing the pivot, a bouchon is 
 selected as small as the pivot will admit. 
 Open the hole of the plate or cock so that 
 the bouchon, which previously should be 
 lightly draw-filed at the end, will stand with 
 a slight pressure upright in the opened hole 
 of the plate or cock; then, with a knife, cut 
 it across at the part where it is to be broken 
 off so that it may break very readily when 
 required to do so. Press it in the plate on 
 the side the pivot works, break off, and then 
 drive it home with a small center punch. In 
 every repair of this nature, notice should be 
 taken of the amount of end-shake of the 
 pinion, and allowance made by leaving the 
 bouchon so that any excess may be corrected. 
 To finish off the shoulder end, a small cham¬ 
 fering tool should be used. It has a hole 
 smaller than the pivot one to receive a fine 
 brass wire, serving as a center to prevent the 
 tool from changing its position while being 
 used; or the wire may be put through the 
 bouchon holes, and then the hole of the tool 
 may be left open. Tile above is a far more 
 expeditious way than using the turning lathe. 
 
 THE USE OF BENZINE FOR WATCH 
 CLEANING. 
 
 N a period at the workbench extending 
 over fifty years, I have used benzine for the 
 last fifteen—of course, the purest. A piece 
 of brass dipped into it will not have a par¬ 
 ticle left on it one-half minute after, and 
 if my experience in this line will be of any 
 use, I am glad to offer it to my fellow-work¬ 
 men. 
 
 On taking a watch down, removing all 
 screws and cap jewels, I place all the parts 
 in an alcohol glass one-half full of benzine; 
 I then put the cover on and let it soak for 
 an hour or so ; two or three can thus be in 
 operation at the same time. Then I turn all 
 
MEASURE FOR THE LENGTH OF BALANCE STAFF, ETC. 85 
 
 out into a small white porcelain plate, and 
 with tweezers and a small, stumpy camel’s- 
 hair brush, wash all the parts while covered 
 with the benzine ; on removing, dry off with 
 an old fine cambric rag; then place in alco¬ 
 hol and dry off with another clean rag; this 
 can all be done easily in ten minutes. I do 
 not let it remain in the alcohol longer than 
 I can help, putting the balance and pallets 
 in last, and taking them out first. I very 
 seldom find it necessary to use either peg or 
 (watch) brush; thus the gilding even on a 
 cheap watch will never get rubbed off. Of 
 course, you want to keep clean rags, espe¬ 
 cially for the alcohol. In my opinion, there 
 are so few watches that will do without a 
 little oil on the pallets, that it is best to put 
 it on all. Often when I have left them over 
 night without oil, they have stopped before 
 morning (of course, alcohol makes them very 
 dry), and this has happened with good Amer¬ 
 ican watches too. 
 
 TO REPAIR A PINION. 
 
 A T the present prices of material, it is 
 l economy to buy the parts as nearly fin¬ 
 ished as possible. Then take your measures 
 and bring them to sizes required in your lathe. 
 Then stake the wheels to their place with a 
 good true staking tool. With a good tool, 
 you are bound to do good work. The bal¬ 
 ance staff, when broken, requires a staking 
 tool and roller remover to do a good job 
 properly. Fit your new staff to the jewels, 
 then stake on the balance; place in position 
 and take a blow-pipe and blow against its 
 edge, and see if it runs easy in all positions. 
 This is the very best test. Let it run lively 
 and listen, and see if there is any tremble or 
 jar; if you hear this, the balance is out of 
 poise or out of truth. Always get a good 
 polish on your pivots. 
 
 TO STRAIGHTEN THE CYLINDER 
 WHEEL. 
 
 HE cylinder escape wheel, if it does not 
 run flat, may be straightened upon a nice 
 little brass anvil, which has a hole for the 
 pinion in the center; it can be placed either 
 upon the workbench or fastened in the vise ; 
 a small punch, in the shape of a rounded- 
 off chisel can be used, or else taps are di¬ 
 rectly given upon the wheel with the pane 
 of a small hammer. Care of course is neces¬ 
 sary. 
 
 THE PROPORTION OF AN ESCAPE¬ 
 MENT. 
 
 HPI most effectual test of the correctness 
 of the proportions of an escapement is 
 supplied by the bankings. Assuming that the 
 depths are right, the “ run ” of the pallets 
 ought to be the same as the shake on the 
 bankings, and if the wheel has been so planted 
 that the lever lies straight along the pallet 
 the proportions may be used as the basis of 
 future operations, assuming always that the 
 angle of the pallets are the same. 
 
 TO MAKE A WHETSTONE. 
 
 T is easy to make a stone for sharpening 
 tools and to make it sufficiently hard, 
 and give it the “ bite ” desired. Take gel¬ 
 atine of a very good quality, which melt in 
 an equal quantity of water. The operation 
 should be performed in darkness, as daylight 
 is injurious to gelatine. When melted, add 
 one and one-half per cent, of bicarbonate 
 of potash previously dissolved. Then take 
 about nine times, by weight, the quantity of 
 gelatine employed of very fine emery and 
 pulverized flint-stone, which mix intimately 
 with the dissolved gelatine. Mould the ob¬ 
 tained paste according to the desired form, 
 and press it in as hard as possible to consoli¬ 
 date the mass well. After it has been dried 
 in the sun, you will have a first-class stone 
 for sharpening. _ 
 
 HOW TO DRILL HARD STEEL. 
 
 AVING to put a pivot in a pinion wheel, 
 on attempting to drill, I found no drill I 
 could make would cut it. I thought of trying 
 the same lubricator as for cutting or drilling 
 glass, viz., turpentine, and to my great sur¬ 
 prise I found the same drills cut freely and 
 enabled me to get over the difficulty. In a 
 long experience and with many men, I never 
 heard of it being used before, and if not gen¬ 
 erally known, if tried I am sure will remove 
 a difficulty that I know has existed with many 
 repairers. _ 
 
 MEASURE FOR THE LENGTH OF 
 BALANCE STAFF, ETC. 
 
 N exchange contains a practical process 
 for exact measure. The brass instrument 
 is composed of a brass pendant with two 
 points placed one over the other, exactly sim¬ 
 ilar to the point of the depthing-tool, with the 
 exception that the inside ends are flat. Both 
 
86 
 
 THE TRAIN OF A WATCH. 
 
 points will be pressed by side screws, similar 
 to the depthing-tool. The outer end of the 
 upper point is furnished with a screw, on 
 which is a strong adjusting nut. It has to 
 be used as follows: The tool with the situ¬ 
 ated piece is pressed into the vise, and after 
 the cover-lids or end-stones have been taken 
 off from the jewel holes of both balance staff 
 or cylinder cocks, the whole is brought with 
 the left hand between the points of the in¬ 
 strument, of which the lowest will be estab¬ 
 lished by the side screw, while the upper one 
 remains previously loosened. The last point 
 is afterward pressed softly down, until it re¬ 
 poses on the outer surface of the upper jewel 
 hole. The upper point is also pressed by 
 the side screw and the nut screwed down, 
 so as to pose firmly on the body of the tool. 
 By this process is the corrected measure 
 given. To take the plate out with both 
 cocks, it is necessary to screw the upper side 
 looser and to lift the point, by which motion 
 the whole is free and easily taken away. 
 The point is to be pushed back until the nut 
 reposes firm on the body of the tool, being 
 also pressed by the side screw. The distance 
 of both points given is the exact one between 
 the outer surfaces of both side holes, which 
 shows the right length of the arbor to be fin¬ 
 ished. _ 
 
 CLUB TEETH. 
 
 NE of the grave objections to the club 
 tooth is that, no matter how perfect the 
 machinery for cutting the teeth, error will 
 creep in ; and these errors are much more 
 difficult to detect than with the ratchet tooth 
 
 CYLINDER PIVOTS. 
 
 LL cylinder pivots should be of a coni¬ 
 cal shape, since they are then much 
 stronger; and their making does not require 
 more time and skill than ordinary cylindrical 
 pivots. They are made with a three-cornered 
 pivot polishing file, the edges of which are 
 correspondingly ground off. The file must 
 be well sharpened, to be done with medium 
 fine emery upon a flat piece of lead. 
 
 THE TRAIN OF A WATCH. 
 
 HE first condition for the construction 
 of the train of a watch, says M. Gross- 
 mann. is to make it of as large dimensions 
 as the diameter of the movement will admit 
 of. The very limited space allowed by 
 
 reigning taste for the movement of a port¬ 
 able time-keeper is already an impediment 
 to the attaining of a high degree of perfec¬ 
 tion in the gearings; and if it is possible to 
 execute the wheels and pinions of a clock 
 with a satisfactory degree of accuracy, it 
 gets more and more difficult to do so, accord¬ 
 ing to the smaller dimensions in which the 
 work is to be executed. If we had the 
 means of verifying easily the accuracy of the 
 division and rounding of our small pinions, 
 even of the best make, we would soon come 
 to the conclusion that it must necessarily 
 diminish with the dimensions. The inequal¬ 
 ities and alterations of shape by the stoning 
 and polishing will be nearly the same with a 
 large pinion as with a small one, only the 
 small one suffers proportionally much more 
 under them. This applies to the manufact¬ 
 uring of the pinions; but before the pinion 
 runs in the train it has to pass through the 
 finishing process. The finisher first of all 
 will have to verify whether the pinion runs 
 perfectly true, and to set it true in case of 
 need. In all operations of this nature the 
 operator has to rely on his eye for distinguish¬ 
 ing whether the state of the piece is satisfac¬ 
 tory. But the eye, like all the senses of 
 man, is reliable only within certain limits, 
 and if a good workman pronounces a pinion 
 to be true, this statement must not be taken 
 mathematically; it can only be understood 
 so that an experienced eye can no more de¬ 
 tect any deviations from the truth of run¬ 
 ning. There are, then, in any piece of 
 workmanship, some small defects escaping 
 the most experienced eye, and their absolute 
 quantity is about the same for the large 
 pieces as for the small ones. Let us suppose, 
 for instance, that a careful workman when 
 turning a pinion of 3 millimeters diameter, 
 cannot perceive any defect of truth beyond 
 one hundredth of this size—say 0.03 milli¬ 
 meter. The same defect, indistinguishable 
 to his eye, with a pinion of one millimeter 
 diameter, will be not one but three hun¬ 
 dredths of it; consequently it is of threefold 
 more importance with the small pinion taken 
 proportionally. 
 
 The same considerations will, to their full 
 extent, apply also to the correctness of the 
 depths or gearings; and it will be clearly 
 seen that it is of the greatest importance to 
 construct the acting parts of the train as large 
 as the diameter of the watch will admit of. 
 
 Another matter of great importance is the 
 uniform transmission of motive power from 
 
THE TRAIN OF A WATCH. 
 
 the barrel through the train to the escape¬ 
 ment. This uniformity can only be attained 
 by good depthing; and, as it is well known 
 that the depthings are more perfect with the 
 higher numbered pinions, it is advisable 
 never to have the center pinion with less than 
 i 2 leaves, the third and fourth wheel pinions 
 with io, and the escape pinion with 7 at 
 least. The difference resulting therefrom in 
 the cost of manufacturing is so very trifling, 
 that it could not be an obstacle to making 
 ■even low class watches with these numbers. 
 
 The center pinion, it must be admitted, 
 will be more delicate, apparently, and more 
 liable to injury by the sudden jerk resulting 
 from a rupture of the mainspring, or by the 
 pressure occasioned through careless wind¬ 
 ing. The teeth of the barrel, too, being 
 necessarily thinner, will be more apt to bend 
 :from the same causes; but this is partly 
 remedied by the fact that with a pinion of 
 twelve there are in almost every moment two 
 teeth of the barrel acting at the same time 
 on two leaves of the pinion, while in the 
 lower numbered pinions one tooth alone 
 Jias to lead through a more or less extended 
 angle. Thus, any sudden shock will be 
 divided between two teeth of the pinion of 
 twelve, and sustained in the same way by 
 two teeth of the barrel belonging to it, where¬ 
 by the same apparent danger is greatly dimin¬ 
 ished. Besides, the finer toothing produces 
 a better transmission of power, a weaker 
 mainspring may be used, and, in case of its 
 Tupture, the shock will be less violent. 
 
 One of the chief conditions for a good and 
 regular transmission of power is a good and 
 suitable shape of the wheel teeth ; and it is 
 astonishing to see in what an indifferent way 
 this important matter is treated. It is a 
 well-known fact that the wheel teeth, in order 
 to act properly, ought to have an epicycloidal 
 rounding, and no engineer would suffer any 
 form for the teeth of star wheels. Berthoud 
 treated this subject in a most elaborate way 
 about a century ago; Reid and others have 
 also explained the principles of the construc¬ 
 tion of toothed wheels most explicitly, but in 
 vain. It seems that the greater part of the 
 horological community have resolved to view 
 the shape of their wheel teeth as a matter of 
 taste. All the wheels of English and other 
 makers have, with very few exceptions, their 
 teeth of a shape defying the rules of Berthoud, 
 Reid, and other masters—a shape of which 
 nothing can be said, except that they look 
 very nice in the eyes of those who make 
 
 87 
 
 them, or those who use them, and say, “ They 
 look much better, indeed, than those ugly 
 pointed teeth.” 
 
 There is no possibility of being successful 
 against arguments like these, and I have 
 known many a respectable and good watch¬ 
 maker who declared that he could not bear 
 the sight of epicycloidally rounded teeth. 
 This is a subject, however, which cannot be 
 more amply entered into in the present essay. 
 
 The respective proportions of the wheels 
 of a train ought also to present a certain har¬ 
 mony, attainable by a regular progression in 
 the diameters of the wheels and the fineness 
 of their teeth. 
 
 With respect to the escape pinion, at least 
 for the larger watches, I would strongly rec¬ 
 ommend to have it of eight leaves, with a 
 fourth wheel of 75, and an escape wheel of- 
 16 teeth. The last depthing, the most sensi¬ 
 tive of all to any irregularity of transmission, 
 will be found greatly improved by so doing. 
 
 The following are the sizes of a train which, 
 according to my opinion, would answer per¬ 
 fectly to the above conditions, for a watch 
 of 43 millimeters = 19 lignes Swiss = 14 lines 
 English size. 
 
 Diameter of barrel. . 43 X 0.485 = 20.85 mm - 
 
 Center wheel.15.4 mm. 
 
 Third wheel.13.0 mm. 
 
 Fourth wheel. j 1.8 mm. 
 
 The numbers would be 
 
 Barrel. 
 
 Center wheel. 
 
 Third wheel. 
 
 Fourth wheel. 
 
 Escape wheel. 
 
 Pinion. 
 
 The sizes of teeth are accordingly: 
 
 Barrel- .°-345 mm. 
 
 Center wheel.0.30 mm. 
 
 Third wheel.0.27 mm. 
 
 Fourth wheel.0.24 mm. 
 
 It is easy to see that this progression is a 
 very regular one. 
 
 The train ought to be arranged in such a 
 way as to have the seconds circle at a suit¬ 
 able place on the dial. This circle, of course, 
 ought to be as large as possible for the sake 
 of distinctness of the divisions, and, on the 
 other hand, it ought not to be so large as to 
 
 . 90 teeth. 
 ,80 
 
 75 
 75 
 16 
 
 1 2 
 I o 
 
SCREW PLATES AND TAPS. 
 
 88 
 
 cover entirely the VI. of the hour circle. It 
 ' may be recommended as a good disposition 
 to have the center of the circle of seconds 
 exactly in the middle of the distance from 
 the center of the dial to its edge. The gen¬ 
 eral observation of this rule would be a de¬ 
 cided step toward a greater regularity of 
 construction, and besides it would prove a 
 great boon to all the dealers and manufact¬ 
 urers of dials, and to all the repairers who 
 have to replace broken dials. 
 
 A greater circle of seconds might be ob¬ 
 tained by approaching its center nearer to 
 the center of the dial, but this subordinate 
 advantage would be too dearly purchased at 
 the expense of the commodious arrangement 
 of the wheel work. 
 
 The height of the moving arbors ought to 
 be restricted only by the height of the frame. 
 'The longer the distance between the two 
 bearings of an axis can be, the better it will 
 prove for the stability of the moving part as 
 well as its performance. The same amount 
 of side-shake required for free action will in¬ 
 fluence the pitch of a long pinion less than 
 that of a short one. 
 
 The diameters of the pivots in the watch 
 work could not be made according to the 
 generally established rules in the construction 
 of machines, for if we should attempt to 
 make the dimensions of our pivots in a theo¬ 
 retical proportion to the strain which they 
 have to resist, we would obtain pivots of such 
 extreme thinness that they would be very 
 difficult to make and handle, and it would be 
 doubtful whether the cross-section of such 
 a pivot would not come into an unfavor¬ 
 able proportion with the molecular disposi¬ 
 tion of the steel. Besides, it ought always 
 to be kept in mind that the pivots of the 
 train must not be calculated to bear with 
 safety the mere pressure of the mainspring, 
 but also the sudden strains resulting from 
 rupture of the spring or from rough winding. 
 Thus, there will be very little to say against 
 the way in which the pivots of watch work 
 are generally made. 
 
 SCREW PLATES AND TAPS. 
 
 HE lathes employed in the manufacture 
 of screws, says Mr. Saunier, are of two 
 kinds; those intended for polishing, and, 
 where necessary, modifying the form of screw 
 heads much used by watch examiners and 
 repairers, and those specially designed for 
 cutting the threads, which are mainly in use 
 
 among mechanics. Before discussing them, 
 however, we will give some account of the 
 screw plates and taps in ordinary use. 
 
 COMMON HAND SCREW PLATES. 
 
 The use of these is much facilitated by 
 providing a seconds plate perforated with 
 holes of such sizes that a spindle which 
 just passes into a hole of any given number 
 will be of the size most convenient for form¬ 
 ing a screw in the hole of the same number in 
 the screw plate. For a long time we had 
 made use of two Latard screw plates, so- 
 made that a rod which would enter into 
 one hole without play was of the most con¬ 
 venient size for forming a screw in the next 
 smaller hole but one. (Thus the plate per¬ 
 forated with plain holes can be replaced by 
 a second screw plate, or by using the suc¬ 
 cessively larger holes on a single plate as 
 gauges.) 
 
 In order to form a screw that is clean cut 
 and even with the least possible straining of 
 the metal, the holes in the screw plates should 
 have notches; they should be carefully 
 hardened and well polished on each side of 
 the notch, and this system is now even ap¬ 
 plied in the case of the smallest jewel screws. 
 
 SCREW DIES. 
 
 The ordinary plate in which notches are 
 not cut at the sides squeezes up and strains- 
 the metal. This effect is less marked when 
 separate dies are used, and disappears en¬ 
 tirely if only a small quantity of metal is- 
 removed at a time and the cutting edges of 
 the dies are smooth and in good order. In 
 addition to possessing other advantages, this- 
 form of screw plates enables us to obtain at 
 will screws of the same thread and different 
 diameters, or of the same diameter and dif¬ 
 ferent threads. The dies must be carefully 
 fitted to the sides that receive them. Dies 
 cannot be employed for cutting very small 
 screws. 
 
 FINE THREADED SCREW PLATES. 
 
 At the present day these can always be 
 obtained at the tool shops; but thirty years, 
 ago it was not so, and the watchmaker was. 
 obliged to make them for himself. The fol¬ 
 lowing method was adopted: Take a screw 
 formed with an ordinary plate in which the 
 thread is broad as compared with the hollow. 
 If the screw does not satisfy this condition, 
 it must be modified thus: Having ascer¬ 
 tained that it runs true on its points, and that 
 
BANKING EBROR. 
 
 89 
 
 it is larger than will be ultimately required, 
 attach a ferrule to the screw and place it be¬ 
 tween the centers of the lathe. The T-rest 
 must carry a smooth horizontal rod of hard¬ 
 ened steel. Rotating the screw with a bow, 
 hold a slitting file in the hollow; the file 
 should fit into this hollow accurately and 
 should be smoothed on its two sides, only 
 cutting with one edge. The bar of hardened 
 steel will determine the depth to which the 
 file is allowed to cut. By this means a screw 
 is obtained that has a thread thick at the 
 bottom. With the graver remove the top 
 of this thread, round off its corners and 
 harden the screw, filing three facets along 
 its entire length that make it taper. The 
 tap having been thus prepared is employed 
 for cutting a thread in a piece of steel, not 
 too thick, that-has been previously annealed, 
 and in which a hole is drilled of the proper 
 size. The thread of this internal screw 
 will be thin and the hollow proportionately 
 broad. 
 
 The plate is now hammered cold with 
 care, until the thickness is so far diminished 
 that the thread and hollow are as nearly as 
 possible of equal thickness. Harden it and 
 chamfer the ends of the hole with a conical 
 steel point and oil-stone dust. Then clean it 
 and cut a thread on a piece of soft steel 
 which may be formed into a tap. If the 
 operation has been properly conducted this 
 tap will satisfy the prescribed conditions and, 
 when hardened, it is to be employed as a 
 screw plate; for that first formed must, in 
 consequence of the hammering to which it 
 was subjected, present irregularities in the 
 hole, and can only be used to cut one or 
 two taps cautiously. It is useless for making 
 screws or tapping brass. 
 
 TO CLEAR A STOPPED HOLE IN A 
 SCREW PLATE. 
 
 RILL a hole through the center of the 
 piece of metal that fills up the hole, tak¬ 
 ing care to maintain it central, and to employ 
 a drill that is sufficiently small to avoid all risk 
 of contact with the screw thread. Pass a 
 broach through this hole, and, after tighten¬ 
 ing it with a few gentle blows with the ham¬ 
 mer, turn it in such a direction that it tends 
 to unscrew the broken screw, which will, in 
 nearly every case, be removed without diffi¬ 
 culty by this means. 
 
 THROW AWAY BAD SPRINGS. 
 
 HE vibration of the balance and the 
 time-keeping qualities of the watch are 
 more frequently destroyed by untrue and 
 badly put springs. Repairs to springs, except 
 of a trifling character, are generally false econ¬ 
 omy. An hour may be spent trying to re¬ 
 shape and flatten a bad spring in vain, which 
 can be replaced in a few minutes by an ex¬ 
 pert hand possessing a good stock of springs, 
 and nothing pays so well for keeping. 
 
 THE CUTTING OF HOLLOWS, ETC. 
 
 HE cutting of hollows in pinion faces 
 and rivets is perhaps the finest test of 
 skill with the graver, as a sharp, well-pointed, 
 yet strong, graver must be used, and the 
 graver cutting' clean without burr or rough¬ 
 ness, leaving the hollow a bright gray. It 
 was the practice years ago to polish hollow, 
 but there is no skill in the operation, and it 
 has gone out of fashion. The value of hol¬ 
 lows to rivets and pinions, when the pivots 
 are close to them, is very great, as they pre¬ 
 vent the oil running away from the pivots 
 and shoulders. _ 
 
 LOSS OF ESCAPE WHEEL. 
 
 HOULD an escape wheel and pinion 
 be lost, they can be replaced by sector¬ 
 ing the fourth wheel for the size of the pinion, 
 or a pinion whose leaves are rather smaller 
 than the same number of teeth of the wheel 
 may be tried in the depthing-tool, taking the 
 depth from the fourth and scape holes. The 
 scape wheel corresponds in number on the 
 gauge with the hole in the cylinder gauge, in 
 which it fits; but before using it will be as 
 well to see if the cylinder passes freely be¬ 
 tween two teeth of the wheel, and that one 
 tooth of the wheel has shake sufficient for 
 freedom in the inside of the cylinder. 
 
 . BANKING ERROR. 
 
 NEW hairspring will sometimes cause 
 the banking error. There is a tendency 
 of late years to put too many turns in the 
 hairsprings of cylinder watches. A large 
 number of turns in a lever balance spring is 
 a gfeat advantage, owing to the greater vi¬ 
 bration necessary and desirable ; but when 
 the arc of vibration is small, as in cylinder 
 and vertical watches, long springs do not 
 have all their turns properly in action, and 
 offering not sufficient resistance to the bal- 
 
9 o 
 
 TO REGULATE A FIXE WATCH. 
 
 ance, allow it to travel greater distances too 
 easily. A balance without the balance spring 
 strikes the banking at every vibration, and 
 the number of turns and tension of the spring 
 are the means to be used to prevent this. 
 
 TO FIT IN NEW SCAPE WHEEL. 
 
 HE old wheel was defective, the teeth 
 being bent and too short, so that the 
 action was not safe; the effect being that 
 the scape tooth, instead of dropping on the 
 locking face of the pallet jewel, and drawing 
 the fork over to the banking pin, dropped on 
 the impulse face, and thereby caused the 
 fork to travel the opposite direction and bring 
 the guard pin up against the roller, which 
 would either cause the watch to stop or vary. 
 No doubt some of my readers have often, in 
 listening to a watch ticking when in the case, 
 heard an occasional scraping noise, and an 
 accompanying dropping off in the motion, 
 and perhaps it would run on again for some 
 time before another scrape would take place. 
 If you have, you can in all probability trace 
 the trouble to a very shallow depthing or an 
 untrue scape wheel, which caused the guard 
 point of fork to rub against the tail roller. 
 Pick out a new 'wheel that you think is about 
 the correct size and run it on a small turning 
 arbor, and insert it with pallets in depthing 
 tool, and examine the action very carefully. 
 If the inside edge of the entrance pallet 
 catches against the back of a scape tooth, 
 the wheel is too large, as it sticks on the in¬ 
 side and would consequently have too much 
 drop on the outside. If the outer edge of 
 disengaging pallet jewel catches against the 
 back of a scape tooth the wheel is too small, 
 and there would be too much drop on the 
 inside; if correct the tooth should drop just 
 nicely safe on the locking faces of the pallet 
 jewels, and the drop should be about equal, 
 that is, when the scape tooth leaves the im¬ 
 pulse face of the entrance or engaging pallet 
 jewel, the distance the wheel has to travel 
 before coming in contact with the locking 
 face of the disengaging pallet jewel should 
 be the same practically as it is when the 
 tooth leaves the edge of impulse face of dis¬ 
 engaging pallet, and the wheel again comes in 
 contact with locking face of engaging pallet. 
 
 THE MEANING OF “ADJUSTED.” 
 
 ATALOGUES and lists of prices fre¬ 
 quently speak of “ adjusted ” move¬ 
 ments, which term is also applied frequently 
 
 to cheap watches. The term is a very elas¬ 
 tic one, and can be stretched so as to cover 
 a multitude of sins. It varies, according to 
 whether it is applied to the balances, the 
 movements, etc. An adjusted balance means 
 a chronometer, or expansion balance, which 
 is adjusted for changes of temperature, so 
 that it will keep the same rate in warm or cold 
 weather. This adjustment is made more 
 close or perfect in fine watches than in cheap 
 ones. A great many are sold as “ adjusted,” 
 that have never been adjusted at all. 
 
 But there are other adjustments besides 
 that for heat and cold—as the adjustment for 
 the positions, which enables the watch to keep 
 the same rate whether hanging up or lying 
 down, or in any other position, while carry¬ 
 ing, etc. ; the adjustment for isochronism, 
 which is an adjustment of the balance spring 
 to secure isochronal vibration of the balance ; 
 the rating or timing is often called the adjust¬ 
 ment for rate, etc. An adjusted movement, 
 or one “ fully adjusted,” should have all of 
 these adjustments, but an adjusted balaiice 
 is only adjusted for heat and cold. 
 
 An expansion balance, the rim of which 
 is not cut entirely through, is certainly not 
 adjusted, and cannot be. This is a simple 
 test for some kinds of cheap bogus “ ad¬ 
 justed ” watches. But the methods of test¬ 
 ing cut balances, and also for testing the 
 other adjustments, are too numerous and too 
 lengthv to be condensed into one simple ar¬ 
 ticle, but will be given more fully in detail. 
 
 TO REGULATE A FINE WATCH. 
 
 S OME time ago a correspondent desired 
 to know how to regulate a very fine 
 watch made by a certain favorably known 
 English watchmaker. He said that although 
 he “ had tried altering the hairspring by tak¬ 
 ing up and letting out, yet could never obtain 
 the desired effect.” 
 
 When a watch has no regulator, it is reg¬ 
 ulated by the timing screws in the balance 
 rim, at the end of the center bar. They are 
 turned verv slightly inward, to make the 
 watch gain, and outward, to lose. Both 
 screws must be turned exactly the same 
 quantity, or the balance will be thrown out 
 of poise, and regular running will be impos¬ 
 sible. Should the amount of regulation 
 wanted be too much to be easily corrected 
 by these screws, it shows that there is some 
 fault in the movement, which should be 
 looked after and repaired. This may be in 
 
TO PUT AN ADJUSTED WATCH IN ORDER. 
 
 9 1 
 
 the escapement, or elsewhere. It is some¬ 
 times caused by the balance rim having be¬ 
 come bent by the careless handling. But 
 the hairspring should never be disturbed in 
 a fine watch, unless in some very exceptional 
 circumstances. Its length and curvature have 
 probably been carefully adjusted to secure 
 isochronal vibration of the balance, and tak¬ 
 ing it up or letting it out will at once dam¬ 
 age or destroy the isochronism. Even tak¬ 
 ing up a hairspring and afterward putting it 
 back where it was in the beginning will often 
 spoil it for fine Tunning, because the shape 
 of the spring and the condition of the metal 
 have been so altered by the pressure of the 
 pin in the hole, the bending or straightening 
 of the coil, etc., as to unfit it for isochronal 
 action. It is difficult, in fact, for a workman 
 who is not fully posted in fine watch w r ork, 
 to handle a fine movement without injuring 
 it in some w r ay, although he may not know 
 how he did it, or discover the fact till the 
 owner complains of its inferior performance. 
 
 TO PUT AN ADJUSTED WATCH IN 
 ORDER. 
 
 E have heard so many complaints com¬ 
 ing from members of the trade in re¬ 
 gard to this matter, that we thought perhaps 
 the pointing out of the difficulty concerning 
 the remedy therefor would be of profit to all 
 concerned. Ten years ago we hardly sold 
 one adjusted watch a year; now a large 
 portion of the watches we sell are adjusted 
 movements, I having sold eight the past 
 month (April), and they are the best adver¬ 
 tisement that a jeweler can have. 
 
 If a w r atch was going immediately into 
 the hands of a customer without any prepara¬ 
 tion except what it received at the factory, 
 I would rather risk a well made medium- 
 priced watch than a fine adjusted watch. 
 The reason of this is that the adjusted move¬ 
 ment is usually three times as long in stock 
 as the medium grade that they have calls for 
 every day, and it may have been out on ap¬ 
 proval and have been monkeyed with more 
 or less by some knowing ones. If the fol¬ 
 lowing rules, which I practice on every ad¬ 
 justed watch I receive, are carried out, I will 
 guarantee satisfaction not only to the buyer, 
 but to the seller, for it is a satisfaction to sell 
 a good time-keeper. 
 
 i st.—When you receive the movement, 
 look it carefully over outside to see that it 
 has received no apparent injury ; then tak¬ 
 
 ing out the slip under the balance, observe 
 the motion in different positions and see that 
 it has not only the same, but a good motion 
 in any and all positions, with the mainspring 
 one-half wound up. 
 
 2d.—Place a bristle or fine broach in the 
 train so as to stop the motion; see that 
 neither pallet hits against the scape wheel so 
 as to hold the fork to one side; then with 
 your strongest glass, observe that the hair¬ 
 spring, just where it goes through the pins, 
 is exactly in the center, with about the thick¬ 
 ness of the hairspring each side, or perhaps 
 less. Also observe whether it is true in the 
 round or flat; if everything is all right ap¬ 
 parently, you can proceed to the first test. 
 If the hairspring is not in the center of the 
 pins wffien the balance is at rest, the stud 
 must be turned until it stands so, but the 
 pins must not be stirred under any consid¬ 
 eration, and the banking pins must not be 
 moved. If the watch is not adjusted to 
 position, the first test should be made with 
 pendant up (don’t put the movement in the 
 case yet). Wind it entirely up, set the sec¬ 
 onds hand exactly with the seconds hand of 
 the regulator, and let it run for 1 2 hours; 
 make an observation and set down just how 
 much it has gained or lost; leave it in the 
 same position and set it again with the reg¬ 
 ulator ; in 12 hours more observe the varia¬ 
 tion. Say in the first 12 hours it gained 30 
 seconds, and in the next 12 hours it only 
 gained 20; 10 seconds difference between 
 the first and last coils of the mainspring. If 
 the hairspring is isochronized, 5 seconds is 
 as much variation as should be allowed, if 
 the observations on the works and hairspring 
 have found them correct. 
 
 In a movement costing over $15.00 I 
 should send it back if I had found in these 
 preliminary trials the variation between the 
 first and the last observations exceeded five 
 seconds, or if the movement was running 
 fast or slow to exceed one minute either way 
 per day, for if the regulator has to be moved 
 much the isochronism of the spring will 
 suffer. 
 
 If the watch is- adjusted to position it 
 should be tried in different positions, each 
 tim^ setting it exactly with the regulator and 
 using the same strength of mainspring for 
 different positions, and if in a 6-hour trial in 
 each position, it should not vary more than 
 three seconds from the standard or vertical 
 adjustment, I should retain it. 
 
 Some may consider these conditions rather 
 
9 2 
 
 THE KNACK OF PIVOTING. 
 
 severe, but if the movement was in the con¬ 
 dition described before being tested, I have 
 not had to return but three out of hundreds 
 tested and sold. 
 
 CARE OF THE EYES. 
 
 T happens occasionally that, while turn¬ 
 ing, a splinter of the metal will fly into 
 the eye. Never try to expel it by rubbing, 
 as it simply irritates the eye and drives the 
 chip still further into it. It is better to raise 
 the upper lid or draw it over the lower, so 
 that when returning to its place, it slides over 
 the lower eyelashes, which will thereby sweep 
 it clean, as it were. This process will, in 
 the majority of cases, suffice to remove the 
 chip or other foreign body ; if not, the object 
 may be gotten out with a strip of white paper 
 or a camel’s-hair brush. Never, however, let 
 any one use a hard instrument; if this is 
 necessary to be done, it is most advisable to 
 send for or go to a physician. 
 
 TO LUBRICATE CLICK-WORK, ETC. 
 
 HEN putting together the barrel parts, 
 never forget to lubricate the click-work, 
 more particularly that of the going-barrel, as 
 the injury occasioned by its working, while 
 dry, would soon show itself. The main¬ 
 spring is to be lubricated only slightly. The 
 stop-finger should always be fastened with a 
 steel pin ; it is more securely retained thereby. 
 The barrel is mounted in the plate, and 
 the spring is wound a few teeth to apply oil 
 to the escapement. 
 
 THE KNACK OF PIVOTING. 
 
 T HE repairer who is the happy owner of 
 an American lathe (and right here let me 
 say the scope of usefulness of this tool is so 
 much greater than that of any others I have 
 ever used, that the latter simply drop clear 
 out of sight) will readily echo the opinion ex¬ 
 pressed to me by a brother repairer. When 
 asked how he liked his new lathe, he ejacu¬ 
 lated, “ Like it! I do not think that a bet¬ 
 ter tool exists ; I am prepared with it to do 
 any kind of turning, from a cambric needle 
 to a sheet anchor.” Supposing, however, 
 that we do not get an order for a sheet anchor 
 every day, and only have a balance staff of 
 a low-grade American with the upper pivot 
 broken, and our customer not willing to pay 
 for a new staff, requires the insertion of a 
 new pivot. Before proceeding farther, I will 
 
 devote a little space to the explanation of a 
 small device for holding pivot drills, which 
 I think is ahead of some found in material 
 stores, as no set screw is required and the 
 drill is always centered. 
 
 This drill chuck is made by securing a 
 ^j-inch brass chuck in your lathe, and turning 
 the end down to fit snugly in the taper hole 
 in the spindle of the tail stock, but should fit 
 tighter near the shoulder, so it will close on 
 the drill, when pressed in tightly; the prin¬ 
 cipal being the same as that of the American 
 lathe chucks. 
 
 After it is fitted and cut off, place it in 
 tail spindle and drill a hole through it just 
 to fit the wire you intend to use for pivot 
 drills. Mark the relative positions of chucks, 
 spindle and tail stock by little dots so that 
 they can be replaced in the same position to 
 bring the drill true. Now, with a fine saw, 
 split the chuck as indicated by the heavy line 
 in the center, and it is complete, and will 
 pay you for your trouble a thousand times. 
 
 I now take a No. 6 chuck and put it in my 
 lathe, insert the staff and stone off the stub 
 of the broken pivot, down to the shoulder. 
 Try the truth of its running by sliding the T 
 up close, and resting a small screw-driver on 
 it so that the point will just touch the lower 
 side of the staff near the end, rotate and see 
 if it runs true ; if any light can be seen be¬ 
 tween the screw-driver and the staff at any 
 part of the revolution, it is not true, and must 
 be loosened and turned in the chuck a little. 
 Keep on trying till it runs perfectly true. 
 If there is no point at which it can be set to 
 run true, the only remedy is wax, but I sel¬ 
 dom find one that will not run true when set 
 in the proper position in the chuck. When 
 you get it true, tighten it up for keeps. Take 
 the measurement with a height gauge from 
 the balance arm to the top of the pivot, 
 making allowance for the part broken off. 
 Few staffs are so hard that a properly made 
 and tempered drill will not cut them ; if it 
 will not, draw the temper in the staff slightly, 
 with a wheel protector covering the wheel, 
 being careful not to blue the balance arms. 
 Nothing makes a much more unsightly job 
 than having the balanced arms blued or al¬ 
 most blackened as I have seen them, half 
 way to the rim. If they should become 
 slightly colored by heat it may be removed by 
 dilute hydrochloric acid, cleaning thoroughly 
 with alcohol after, to prevent its rusting. In¬ 
 sert the drill in the little chuck previously de¬ 
 scribed, press the chuck firmly in the spindle, 
 
THE MOTIVE POWER OF CLOCKS. 
 
 93 
 
 and all is ready to drill. Take hold of the 
 rubber button at the end of tail-stock spindle, 
 and press the drill against the work. If the 
 chuck and drill have been made with proper 
 care, one can center and drill a staff with his 
 eyes shut. If the tail-stock spindle should 
 not be true, it might be prudent to have a 
 little dot on the spindle, and also one on the 
 little chuck to correspond with it to necessi¬ 
 tate its coming true every time. Drill the 
 hole about one millimeter in depth, although 
 this may be varied to suit circumstances. 
 Now take a needle in the pin vise, a trifle 
 larger than the hole you have drilled, and 
 draw the temper in it, never beyond a blue, 
 then file it down by the thumb and finger 
 motion, till the end will just start in the hole. 
 It should be tapered a very little, but if too 
 much, it will loosen and work out in turning. 
 Drive it in tightly with a light hammer, and 
 cut it off with a sharp-pointed graver, a little 
 longer than is indicated by the height gauge 
 previously referred to, so that it may be 
 shortened to the exact length by stoning. , 
 Great care should be exercised in cutting it 
 off, and in the first turning of the pivot, to 
 keep the graver sharp, and not use too much 
 pressure or the pivot will become loosened 
 in the staff. Turn and polish the pivot the 
 same as you would on a new staff. In turn¬ 
 ing the back slope at the base of the cone, 
 cut away a little of the metal of the old part 
 of the staff, to be sure that the shoulder of 
 the new pivot is even with the old, making 
 an invisible joint. When I say that I use 
 needles for drills, pivots, etc., I do not mean 
 to say that I am partial to them; they are 
 good, and so is Stubb’s steel or other wire 
 of equal quality; but as they are cheap 
 and easily obtained, of any size, I mostly use 
 them. If the hole you drill for a pivot breaks 
 out at the side, or you find the hole is much 
 out of true, discard it entirely and make a 
 new staff. Any attempt at soldering or botch¬ 
 ing should not be indulged in if one ever 
 wishes to be a master of the art. 
 
 THE MOTIVE POWER OF CLOCKS. 
 
 LOCKS not propelled by springs are 
 actuated by weights fastened to the end 
 of a cord, which is wound around a barrel. 
 The power of the weight increases or de¬ 
 creases according to the diameter of the bar¬ 
 rel. The radius of the barrel is a one-armed 
 lever, but by its union with the barrel wheel 
 it becomes two-armed. For this reason the 
 
 power with which the barrel wheel depths 
 into the pinion is proportioned to the draw¬ 
 ing power of the weight or its ponderosity, as 
 the length of the radius of the barrel, multi¬ 
 plied with the ponderosity of the weight, 
 to the length of the radius of the barrel 
 wheel. 
 
 If, for instance, the ponderosity is 2 kilo¬ 
 grams, the radius of the pinion 2 centimeters, 
 and the radius of the barrel wheel 6 centi¬ 
 meters, then the power with which the latter 
 depths into the pinion is 2 x 2 :: 6 z= 2/3 
 kilogram. 
 
 In the clock train the power decreases 
 with each wheel that depths into a pinion 
 by so much as the radius of the pinion is 
 contained in the radius of the wheel depth- 
 ing into it. We may also say “ diameter ” 
 in place of “ radius,” as the proportion re¬ 
 mains the same. When, for instance, the 
 barrel wheel depths with a power of 750 
 grams into a pinion of 8 millimeters in di¬ 
 ameter, and this arbor carries a wheel of 50 
 millimeters in diameter, then this wheel ex¬ 
 erts a force of only 120 grams upon the next 
 pinion. Because 750 x 8 : : 50 = 120 
 grams. In this mariner the power may be 
 calculated up to the scape wheel. 
 
 If, however, the original power were to 
 be retained, it then would become necessary 
 that each wheel should depth into the next, 
 having the same diameter; in this manner, 
 however, the time necessary for the scape 
 wheel to make its required number of revo¬ 
 lutions, while the barrel wheel makes one 
 revolution, could be obtained. This power 
 may, indeed, be increased, if the actuation 
 of the wheels upon the pinions be reversed, 
 so that the latter act upon the former. For 
 instance: A weight of 1 kilogram draws on 
 a barrel of 72 millimeters in diameter; a 
 pinion of 16 millimeters in place of the bar¬ 
 rel wheel depths into a wheel of 48 millime¬ 
 ters diameter ; the arbor of this wheel carries 
 a pinion of a diameter of 8 millimeters. The 
 power with which this last pinion depths into 
 the next wheel isi x 72 : 16x48 : 8 = 
 26 kilograms. 
 
 With such an arrangement, naturally, it 
 would be possible to lift a heavy body by 
 the expenditure of a little power, but it would 
 go increasingly slower, the lighter the pon¬ 
 derosity would become ; because the weight 
 of 1 kilogram would have to sink 679 milli¬ 
 meters to revolve the pinion of 8 millimeters 
 only once. In the case of clocks it does not 
 so much depend upon the loss of time to in- 
 
94 
 
 THE MOTIVE POWER OF CLOCKS. 
 
 crease the power, but rather upon the gain 
 of time, even if this cannot be effected in 
 another manner than at the expense of power. 
 ' Neither is it desirable to wind the clock every 
 few minutes, nor yet to make the cord un¬ 
 necessarily long; and for this reason the 
 train is constructed in such a manner that, 
 as already observed, the scape wheel has to 
 make many revolutions while the barrel wheel 
 rotates only once. 
 
 CALCULATION OF THE TIME. 
 
 Every timepiece, with regard to the pur¬ 
 pose of its wheels, may be divided into three 
 parts. The first part of the wheels, from the 
 barrel wheel to the center wheel, solely con¬ 
 ditions the length of time during which a 
 clock can go without being rewound. 
 
 The center wheel, upon the arbor of which 
 sits the cannon pinion with the minute hand, 
 must, since the hand has to accomplish its 
 revolution in one hour, also revolve once in 
 an hour. When, therefore, the pinion of the 
 center arbor has 8 leaves and the barrel 
 wheel 144, then the 8 pinion leaves, which 
 makes one revolution per hour, would require 
 the advancing of 8 teeth of the barrel wheel, 
 which (8 : 144) is equal to the eighteenth 
 part of its circumference. But when the 
 eighteenth part in its advancing consumes 
 1 hour, then the entire barrel wheel will con¬ 
 sume 18 hours to accomplish one revolution. 
 If, now, 10 coils of the weight cord were 
 laid around the barrel, the clock would then 
 run 10 x 18 = 180 hours, or 7^ days, be¬ 
 fore it is run down. 
 
 Question .—How long will a clock run with 
 8 coils of cord around the barrel—the barrel 
 wheel having 144 teeth, the first wheel 84 
 teeth, with a pinion of 1 2 leaves, the second 
 wheel 80 teeth, with a pinion of 10 leaves, 
 and the center wheel having a pinion of 8 
 leaves? 
 
 Answer. — Y/ x {J X - 8 g °- X 9 = 9,072 
 hours, or 378 days. 
 
 The clock would therefore run 378 days. 
 
 As will be seen from above example, the 
 number of wheel teeth are multiplied with 
 each other, and the same thing is done with 
 the number of pinion leaves, after which the 
 product of the former is divided by that of 
 the latter, the result being the number of 
 given hours of the clock with one coil of the 
 cord. This number multiplied with that of 
 the coils of the cord gives the entire time 
 during which the clock will go until run 
 down. 
 
 CALCULATING THE TIME OF OSCILLATION, 
 
 LENGTH OF PENDULUM, AND NUMBER OF 
 
 OSCILLATIONS. 
 
 The second part of the wheel work, from 
 the center wheel to the escape wheel, is in 
 the number of its teeth controlled by the 
 length of the pendulum, and the reverse; 
 the length of the pendulum is controlled by 
 the proportion of the number of wheel teeth 
 and pinion leaves of this second part. For 
 instance, a seconds pendulum is to be used in 
 a clock ; the center wheel can then he made 
 with 64 teeth, the third wheel with 60 and a 
 pinion of 8 leaves, the escape wheel with 30 
 and a pinion of 8. The scape wheel, each 
 tooth of its 30 teeth being dropped by the 
 anchor after two beats (or 1 tooth every 2 
 seconds), accomplishes its revolution in 60 
 seconds, or 1 minute. The third wheel has 
 meanwhile, as it gears into a pinion with 8 
 teeth, only progressed (8: 60) the 7^ part 
 of its circumference, and consequently would 
 accomplish its entire revolution only in 7 x / 2 
 minutes. While the third wheel (the pinion 
 of which has also 8 leaves) has made one 
 revolution in ~Q/ 2 minutes, the center wheel 
 has advanced only by 8 teeth or (8 : 64) the 
 one-eighth distance of its circumference, and 
 would therefore consume 8 x 7^ =60 
 minutes, until it accomplishes one revolution. 
 
 With a proportion like the above, to wit, 
 providing the scape wheel of a seconds pen¬ 
 dulum with 30 teeth, a seconds hand can be 
 mounted upon the arbor of the scape wheel, 
 since the wheel makes one revolution in 60 
 beats of the pendulum. Still, the proportion 
 of the number of teeth can also be changed 
 according to desire; for instance, center 
 wheel, 60 teeth; third wheel, 50 teeth and 
 a 10 leaf pinion; scape wheel, 60 teeth and 
 a 1 o leaf pinion; so that in this proportion, 
 when the center wheel has made one revolu¬ 
 tion, the third wheel has already (10 : 60) 
 = 6 ; the scape wheel, however, at one rev¬ 
 olution of the third wheel (10 : 50) could 
 have made 5 revolutions ; consequently (5 x 
 6) — 30 revolutions, while the center wheel 
 has made one ; to reduce this to time would 
 be equal to 30 revolutions in one hour. 
 Naturally a seconds pendulum would have 
 to be used for this arrangement, but no sec¬ 
 onds hand could be mounted because the 
 scape wheel would accomplish one revolution 
 only in two minutes. 
 
 Example .—To find the length of a pen¬ 
 dulum when the center wheel has 72 teeth, 
 the third wheel 60 teeth and a 6 leaf pinion, 
 
THE MOTIVE POWER OF CLOCKS. 
 
 95 
 
 and the scape wheel 30 teeth and a 6 leaf 
 pinion. 
 
 Since we know that the lengths of the pen¬ 
 dulum are proportioned to each other in¬ 
 versely as the squares of the numbers of 
 oscillation, we calculate first how many oscil¬ 
 lations the clock makes per hour, which we 
 ascertain as follows: 
 
 The center wheel makes one revolution 
 per hour; the third wheel 6:72 = 12 rev¬ 
 olutions ; the scape wheel makes for each 
 one revolution of the third wheel 6 : 60 — 
 1 o revolutions, or with 12 revolutions 1 o x 
 12 = 120 in one hour. Each tooth causes 
 two beats, therefore the entire wheel 2 x 30 
 = 60; consequently 120 revolutions cause 
 60 x 120 = 7,200 oscillations. 
 
 The entire calculation can be made shorter 
 as follows: 
 
 “V“ X X 60 = 7,200. 
 
 As is well known, the length of a seconds 
 pendulum is 994.07 millimeters, and makes 
 3,600 oscillations per hour. Consequently 
 is proportioned the square of 3,600 : to the 
 square of 7,200 = x: 994.07 ; reducing this 
 we have the square of 1 to the square of 2 = 
 x : 994.07 ; orixi:2X2 = je: 994.07 ; 
 consequently, 1 : 4. = x : 994.07, whereby 
 we find that x = 248.51 millimeters. 
 
 In place of the center wheel, any other 
 wheel may occupy the center of the move¬ 
 ment, and the seconds hand may be in the 
 center of the dial. For instance, the center 
 wheel has 64 teeth ; the first third wheel has 
 60 teeth with an 8 leaf pinion; the second 
 third wheel, upon the arbor of which the sec¬ 
 onds hand is mounted, and which, therefore, 
 has its place in the center, has 60 teeth with 
 an 8 leaf pinion ; the scape wheel has 8 teeth 
 with an 8 leaf pinion, and the number of os¬ 
 cillations is: 
 
 “S 4 X X - 6 ^ X 16 — 7,200. 
 
 The pendulum, therefore, as its time of 
 oscillation is only one-half that of the seconds 
 pendulum, has ^ x = % the length of 
 the seconds pendulum, or 248.51 millimeters. 
 
 The second third wheel, which here is the 
 fourth wheel, makes in one hour (64 : 8 x 
 60 : 8) = 60 revolutions ; therefore, one rev¬ 
 olution per minute. The wheel must have 
 60 teeth in order to divide the revolution 
 more equally into seconds. The wheel pro¬ 
 gresses one tooth per second. 
 
 A table of the pendulum lengths is to be 
 found in every work treating on horology, 
 and therefore need not be reiterated here. 
 
 TO FIT IN A SCAPE PINION. 
 
 The next consideration is the scape pin¬ 
 ion. Choose one that has been truly cut 
 and well polished, notice particularly that the 
 leaves are all of the same thickness; if not 
 throw it away, it is of no use. Without dis¬ 
 cussing how to pick out a pinion theoretic¬ 
 ally correct with relation to the 4th wheel 
 (which I will do in a subsequent article), I 
 will just say, place the new pinion in the 
 depthing tool, also the 4th wheel and pinion, 
 and set the tool so that the points of the 
 two centers are exactly the distance apart 
 that the 4th and scape holes are, revolve the 
 wheel and pinion, keeping a slight friction 
 on scape pinion to be able to notice well 
 the action, and see that when one tooth has 
 finished its lead, the following one comes 
 into action with the following leaf without 
 a drop , and also that a butting action does 
 not take place between a tooth and leaf by 
 their coming in contact too soon before the 
 line of centers. If such is the case the 
 pinion is too large; if there is a drop, the 
 pinion is too small. 
 
 Insert the pinion in a chuck either by the 
 arbor part, or by the pinion leaves, if the 
 pinion will not run true when chucked on 
 arbor part, in which case be careful in tight¬ 
 ening up the chuck not to draw it up or 
 tighten as you would on a plain piece of 
 wire for bushing, as there would be the dan¬ 
 ger of flattening the edges of the pinion, at 
 the same time it can be chucked sufficiently 
 tight to remain as placed, and without dam¬ 
 aging the leaves. Turn the bottom end of 
 arbor true, and finish the bottom pivot first, 
 having its shoulder at such a distance from 
 the face of the pinion that the 4th wheel will 
 be about in the center of the leaves, consid¬ 
 ered lengthwise, then reverse the pinion in 
 the chuck, and mark the point in the up¬ 
 per shoulder. This distance can be gotten 
 several ways ; an inside measuring tool 
 may be bought or made; if you possess 
 a little ingenuity, one of your own make 
 would be the best, or you could make it 
 to suit all cases, while the one made for 
 sale will not always enter sufficiently far 
 between the plates. Another way is to 
 take a piece of brass wire, filed perfectly 
 flat, and make it of the requisite length, so 
 that when introduced between the plates and 
 resting on the scape jewels or surfaces the 
 shake will be of the desired extent, and then 
 measure with ordinary calipers from that; or 
 the old pinion can be used as a guide b\ 
 
g 6 
 
 RULES FOR DEPTHING. 
 
 making the necessary allowance if the end- 
 shake is too great, and still another way will 
 sometimes answer, namely, measuring the 
 length of the pallet staff, which occasionally 
 is the same as the scape pinion. Of course 
 these are only make-shift ways, and the 
 proper way is to have a carefully made meas¬ 
 uring gauge. Measure the total length and 
 finish top pivot and the upper end of arbor 
 for the scape wheel collet to fit on ; this must 
 be slightly tapered, and turned very smooth 
 and true and well polished, and great care 
 must be taken not to get it so small that the 
 scape collet will go down too far or be 
 loose; this very defect often is the cause of 
 poor motion and stoppages in English lev¬ 
 ers, and in examining such watches for re¬ 
 pairs, never neglect to grasp the scape pinion 
 tightly and see that the scape wheel is not 
 loose. Sometimes I have found that the 
 hole in collet has been closed to one side, 
 thereby causing the wheel to be out of true 
 in the round, thus making a serious defect in 
 wheel and pallet action. The proper way in 
 such a case is to make a new collet. 
 
 THE USE OF THE CUTTING BUR¬ 
 NISHER. 
 
 OR the ordinary every-day watch, pivots 
 and shoulders are sufficiently well fin¬ 
 ished with a cutting burnisher, one side 
 of which is rubbed on a board or strip of 
 lead charged with emery, or a few rubs on 
 the small stone used by shoemakers to whet 
 their knives for leather cutting, is a handy 
 substitute, and gives the requisite cutting 
 power; and then a few rubs with a bur¬ 
 nisher, polished on a well-used burnishing 
 board, on which smooth emery has been dis¬ 
 tributed, will give a perfectly smooth and 
 black pivot. The best Clerkenwell pivoters 
 finish their pivots with the smooth burnisher 
 in this way to harden them, though they 
 have been previously highly polished with a 
 soft steel polisher which leaves the shoulder 
 perfectly square and highly polished. 
 
 SCREWED JEWELS. 
 
 HE screwed jewel, against which sev¬ 
 eral well-founded objections may be 
 urged, may be improved in such a way as to 
 make it much less liable to failure. There 
 is not the slightest necessity for countersink¬ 
 ing the screws in the upper plate; they 
 might, without the least detriment to their 
 
 functions, have flat heads, rounded at the 
 top, as they merely serve to hold the jewel 
 down in its place, thereby reserving the 
 whole thickness of the plate for the hold of 
 the screws. The jewel setting might be dot¬ 
 ted, as usual, for always having it in its same 
 place in its sink, which is not without impor¬ 
 tance ; and if it should be thought necessary 
 to insure this position of the jewel, even 
 against careless.repairers, who might not pay 
 any attention to the dotting, this might easily 
 be attained by drilling a very small hole in 
 the bottom of the countersink, into which a 
 pin might be driven, and for the reception 
 of which the jewel setting ought to have a 
 small groove. _ 
 
 JEWELS IN WATCHES. 
 
 MOVEMENT with plain set jewels is 
 in no way inferior to one with screwed 
 jewels, even in the very exceptional case of 
 the replacement of a jewel hole. The move¬ 
 ment with screwed jewels has a more ele¬ 
 gant appearance, but it implies, if not done 
 with the greatest care and discernment, a 
 vast deal of trouble in the manufacturing, 
 and still more so in the repairing. Not only 
 must all the screws and jewels be taken out 
 for thoroughly cleaning a watch and put in 
 again, but the very little thickness in which 
 the screws have to take their hold is a great 
 source of annoyance to the repairer,especially 
 in the English watches, with their thin upper 
 plates of brass, rendered quite soft by gild¬ 
 ing, and with screws of rather coarse threads. 
 Any screw failing in its hold has to be replaced 
 by one of the next number of threads having 
 by its greater thickness still less chance of a 
 sound hold, and very often it is necessary to 
 make other holds at fresh places. If, now, 
 the screwed jewel presents the advantage of 
 easy replacement of a broken jewel without 
 leaving any lasting mark of the operation, 
 this small advantage may be considered to 
 be neutralized by the above-mentioned draw¬ 
 backs. _ 
 
 RULES FOR DEPTHING. 
 
 T may be accepted as a rule that the 
 following conditions are necessary for 
 a good depthing: i. That the pinion be 
 well proportioned to the wheel. 2. That 
 both parts run true. 3. That this division 
 be mathematically correct. 4. That the 
 wheel teeth as well as the pinion leaves be 
 shaped properly and in proportion to each 
 other. 
 
THE ART OF TURNING. 
 
 97 
 
 TO INSPECT DEPTHINGS. 
 
 HE depthing of watches, as they are 
 invisible, are generally examined by 
 the toach. This sort of examination, how¬ 
 ever, requires practice of years, and even the 
 experienced repairer may occasionally be de¬ 
 ceived by a shallow depthing. Whenever it 
 can be done, small holes should be opened 
 for inspecting, to bring both the senses of 
 sight and feeling into play. The examina¬ 
 tion of the depthing in the depthing-tool 
 cannot be recommended or relied on in all 
 cases. _ 
 
 VISIBLE DEPTHINGS. 
 
 HEN the depthing can be seen pay 
 attention to the following points: i. 
 The wheel tooth must enter the pinion undis¬ 
 turbed and with sufficient shake between the 
 back of the wheel tooth and the next pinion 
 leaf. 2. The first engagement, or the exact 
 point of beginning of the driving, must take 
 place on the line of center. This, however, 
 is possible only with the center pinion in 
 cylinder watches, and with ten or more leaf 
 pinions. Those with a lower number of 
 leaves will always have driving before the 
 line of centers, which increases with the de¬ 
 crease in the number of leaves. If the driv¬ 
 ing occurs too far before this line of centers, 
 it may either be caused by an unduly large 
 pinion, or pinion leaves of unduly pointed 
 rounding, and, finally, by too shallow a 
 depthing. _ 
 
 CARE IN REPAIRING. 
 
 HEN you clean a watch, see that the 
 holes are well pegged out and the 
 pinions free from all foreign substances. 
 Many watches of good construction fail to 
 give satisfaction because some trifling fault 
 has been overlooked by the over-quick work¬ 
 man. A man may clean a watch in half an 
 hour, and it may stop from the fact that the 
 pinions are clogged with the abundance of 
 chalk used in the process, or in the incon¬ 
 siderate haste a loose jewel may be over¬ 
 looked, or a screw left not fully turned in. 
 Carelessness in adjusting the hairspring 
 leaves the watch in such a condition that 
 its owner cannot depend upon it. 
 
 RECOURSE IN TIMING A WATCH. 
 
 A LTHOUGH first-class watchmakers do 
 ■ not admit of the process explained 
 below, still, when the repairer is timing a 
 
 medium or low-grade watch, he may have 
 recourse to the following: When the watch 
 gains in a horizontal position, and loses with 
 pendant up, the ends of the pivots of the 
 balance wheel may be flattened to increase 
 the friction while lying down, so as to make 
 the friction the same in that position as 
 when the pivots are rubbing against the sides 
 of the pivot holes while the watch is in a ver¬ 
 tical position. _ 
 
 THE ART OF TURNING. 
 
 HE art of turning with the bow and 
 common turns is so valuable to the 
 watch repairer, says M. Ganney, that no op¬ 
 portunity should be lost by young watch¬ 
 makers to acquire facility in this branch of 
 the business, as advancing years render it 
 almost impossible to atone for any neglect 
 of this subject in early youth. A certain 
 amount of daily practice is the only sure 
 means of acquiring it, and it was at one 
 time the usual plan of teaching a youth his 
 business to let him have at least two hours 
 a. day at turning, as the ordinary watch 
 repairing business, unlike escape making 
 and finishing new work, does not give the 
 opening for turning talent to be devel¬ 
 oped ; and the supply of material now be¬ 
 ing so prevalent, instead of making new 
 pieces as required, it behooves all having 
 apprentices to make provision in this respect 
 by making the learner produce himself all 
 screws, arbors, plugs and stoppings, and 
 rough out, for the other workmen, the pieces 
 that they finish and put into the watches. 
 The spectacle, now too common, of young 
 men who have served a number of years and 
 quite unable to replace a broken piece of 
 watch work, would become rare. The usual 
 routine of large and small clock work to 
 commence with, and finishing with coarse 
 and fine watches, is admirably adapted to 
 develop the mechanical ideas of the learner ; 
 but the turning must be supplemented with 
 more than what is required ordinarily in 
 the course of the business of watch repair¬ 
 ing. 
 
 Almost any sort of turns will do good piv¬ 
 oting, the only requirement being rigiditv 
 of centers when fixed, and firmness in the 
 rest, which must be brought as close to the 
 work as possible, and the center that holds 
 the pivot that is turning must be as close 
 as possible to the hole in the turns. For 
 this reason many pivoters prefer the plain¬ 
 est possible turns with a piece of brass for 
 
9 8 
 
 HAND TURNING IN WATCH WORK. 
 
 a rest, having another piece of brass riv¬ 
 eted on it, which is simply put against the 
 turns, and the two screwed up in the vise, 
 the work being brought close to the rest by 
 the centers. This primitive and despised 
 plan is better than using the Swiss turns, 
 which being made to elongate so as to take 
 in all sizes common to the various jobs in 
 use, is deficient in the prime element of ri¬ 
 gidity, and the rest that usually accompanies 
 them is three times the width it ought to be, 
 and should be filed away to allow the short¬ 
 est possible amount of center to be used. 
 When a long center projects the work invari¬ 
 ably becomes loose, as the pressure on such 
 a long lever is more than the binding screw 
 can counteract. What are known as Eng¬ 
 lish pivoting turns, when the rest is short¬ 
 ened, answers all the requirements of fine 
 turning, as the centers are held firm by the 
 split hole in which they fit, being closed 
 throughout its length on the center by a 
 screw working from the back, and not liable 
 to accidental disturbances by a touch in 
 working, and all parts very strong and rigid. 
 The centers usually supplied with turns are 
 not of much use, as all the holes are made 
 in the center of the steel, and this prevents 
 the work coming close to the rest and ren¬ 
 ders good or fine turning impossible, besides 
 breaking both fine graver points and pivots 
 by the vibration of the graver. Ordinary 
 round steel must be fitted rather loosely, or, 
 as dirt accumulates in the holes, there will 
 be an amount of force required in moving 
 the centers difficult to apply and dangerous 
 to the work in hand, as the center must be 
 moved lightly in all directions with one hand 
 whilst the work is held lightly in position for 
 fixing with the other. The back center 
 must be a pointed one with only one hole 
 or chamfer in it, made with a fine punch as 
 near to the outer edge of the steel, when full 
 size, as convenient. The surrounding steel 
 must be all filed away with a half-round 
 potence file, forming an irregular hollow 
 cone for a quarter of an inch; this may be 
 considered the finest or finishing back cen¬ 
 ter, and should have a hole in which the 
 finest pivot point can rotate without side 
 motion. The other end of the center should 
 be made a center of the same kind, but 
 much stouter and larger, to hold an arbor, 
 when the pinion is first commenced on for 
 turning. The fine point to the center is to 
 allow it to pass freely up any ferrule in which 
 the work is held, and all strength compatible 
 
 with freedom should be obtained, and the hole 
 at the center being at the side or eccentric 
 allows the work to be raised or lowered or 
 brought close to the rest as may be desired, 
 and also in a straight line with the holes in 
 the other center at which it is being turned. 
 The right hand center is simply left full size 
 and both ends filed quite flat, and small dots 
 made around its extreme edge with a sharp 
 punch completes the apparatus for turning. 
 The ends of all centers should be made red 
 hot and plunged in water; if hardened all 
 over they may break when dropped or pulled 
 roughly. One or two holes or dots may be 
 made so close to the edge as to burst, or a 
 slight nick cut, in which the point of a 
 pivot rests, when being polished. As the 
 various holes wear through they may be used 
 for polishing pivots on, and holes that wear 
 too deep and become dangerous thereby to 
 the work by the friction they generate, must 
 be restored to use by grinding the center on 
 the oil-stone. Many neglect to harden cen¬ 
 ters, but the advantages of hardening are 
 very great—the friction is much less, and 
 the constant wear and change of soft centers 
 prevents the certainty and accumulation of 
 experiences in the use of a tool which in¬ 
 sures perfection in such a delicate operation 
 as fine turning. Another center, called a 
 centering one, is quickly made by filing the 
 plain steel center as a right angle on each 
 side with its face and cutting a recess on 
 each side; an arbor or pinion point rest¬ 
 ing on it, exposing its extreme end, may be 
 truly centered by a very smooth old file; a 
 new one will have too much power over 
 it and push it off the center. Great light¬ 
 ness and rapidity are necessary in centering 
 truly. _ 
 
 HAND TURNING IN WATCH WORK. 
 
 T should be the fixed object of every 
 young man, says Henry Bickley, who 
 wishes to become a watchmaker to master 
 the art of turning; not only because it will 
 enable him, if a jobber, to work in new 
 pieces with skill and precision—in itself an 
 object worth striving for—but also because, 
 in the process of learning to turn, the eye 
 and the hand receive an education unattain¬ 
 able by any other means. A thorough con¬ 
 ception of form and truth, as well as deli¬ 
 cacy of touch, are the outcome of the art 
 of turning. Think how much the watch¬ 
 makers’ art is dependent on the possession 
 of these qualities, and but what a poor repre- 
 
HAND TURNING IN WATCH WORK. 
 
 99 
 
 sentative of the trade must he be who has 
 them not! 
 
 Turning, like all other branches of skill, 
 •can only be mastered by slow and patient 
 effort, plodding onward step by step from 
 the beginning. No hurry, no slurring of 
 difficulties, but patiently attacking and van¬ 
 quishing each as it arises. For want of 
 proper grounding in the preliminary stages 
 many men are never able to turn at all in 
 the proper sense of the word. Badly taught, 
 most likely, in the first instance, with no clear 
 idea of what is'required, and deprived of the 
 practice without which they can never suc¬ 
 ceed, they rush forward, evading the difficul¬ 
 ties in their way instead of surmounting 
 them, till the goal of their ambition, a bal¬ 
 ance staff, is reached. It is unnecessary to 
 say that the staff is usually a very bad one ; 
 its merits being quite undiscernible to any 
 but the maker. He, however, is decidedly 
 proud of the job. Has he not gained his 
 ambition, what more is there to learn ? And 
 so he quietly subsides. This is no fancy 
 picture. I have come across many such per¬ 
 sons, who, when put to the test, have been 
 unable to do anything, even to the making 
 •of a screw, in a satisfactory manner. 
 
 There is no better mode of learning to turn 
 than to practice first of all in soft steel or even 
 brass till proper command is acquired of the 
 "raver and bow. The latter should be tol¬ 
 erably strong to begin with, with good-sized 
 steel wire and a large ferrule and graver. 
 Then let the learner try to make a big screw, 
 taking another screw as a copy. The wire 
 must first be centered quite true, starting on 
 the filing block and finishing on the center¬ 
 ing runner, and a pivot turned on it to form 
 the screw top. The graver must be held 
 firmly on the rest at a point slightly above 
 the center of the wire. In this apparently 
 simple piece of work, if persevered in till it 
 is properly done, the learner will take in four 
 valuable lessons. He will learn in the first 
 place to turn straight, as the pivot must be 
 so formed if a proper thread is to be put on 
 it; secondly, he will learn to turn squarely 
 in forming the shoulder for the back of the 
 screw head; thirdly, he will learn to turn to 
 size, if he makes the screw tops, as he 
 should do, to fit a certain hole in the 
 screw plate; and lastly, and most impor¬ 
 tant of all, he will learn to turn true. On 
 this latter point I think it well to make a 
 slight digression, having met with a strange 
 confusion in some minds as to what consti¬ 
 
 tutes truth in turning. We speak of a piece 
 of work as being true when its circumfer¬ 
 ence forms as nearly as possible a perfect 
 circle—in other words, when it is round. 
 Now, as the truth of the work as left from 
 the graver depends entirely on the centers, 
 it follows that if they are not round, neither 
 will the work be; especial care must there¬ 
 fore be taken to fix the centers in the first 
 instance. Lay the end of the piece on the 
 centering runner, giving it a good speed with 
 the bow, then turn along it for a short dis¬ 
 tance and carefully observe it; if the center 
 and the part turned over do not seem round, 
 turn and center it again. If the piece be 
 much out of round, turn off the extreme point 
 to form a new center before running it with 
 the file, repeating the operation till perfect 
 truth is obtained. This must of course be 
 done to both centers, and frequent observa¬ 
 tion made of them during the progress of the 
 work. Want of care and observation, even 
 at the last moment, may cause a good piece of 
 work to be spoiled ; for if the centers should 
 get but the slightest degree out, the part 
 turned last—which in a finished piece is al¬ 
 ways the pivot—will be oval, and its effect¬ 
 iveness, in any case seriously diminished, 
 will in a balance staff be destroyed. Thus 
 far as to centers and centering. This little 
 digression will not be lost, as I have met 
 with inexperienced persons who have thought 
 and argued that, because a thing is true to 
 the center it must of necessity be true, a 
 fallacy that in some instances had taken 
 deeper root than I should have thought pos¬ 
 sible. 
 
 But to return to the screw making. From 
 large screws the learner should gradually pass 
 on to small ones, adapting his bow and fer¬ 
 rule to the work as he goes along ; and when 
 he can make a jewel screw quite true, with a 
 good thread, and a well-shaped head with 
 the shoulder at the back turned clean and 
 square, without either lump or nick in the 
 corner, he may think, as regards soft metal, 
 that he has done very well. It seems in 
 some respects a pity that material for repair¬ 
 ing is now so easily obtained. In days 
 gone by, when screws were wanted for job¬ 
 bing (and for new work, too, for that matter) 
 they were made by the apprentice, who, by 
 this means, got an amount of useful instruc¬ 
 tion and practice in turning he does not get 
 now. I know I shall be told that to make 
 screws when they can be bought for almost 
 next to nothing does not pay, that time ia 
 
I oo 
 
 HAND TURNING IN WATCH WORK. 
 
 money, and so forth. To this I reply that 
 skill must be paid for in some shape or other, 
 that youth is the time to acquire it, when 
 the perceptions are quick and time not so 
 valuable as afterwards, and that if the young 
 watch jobbers of to-day are to learn turning 
 at all, they must do as all the best men in the 
 trade have had to do—begin at the beginning. 
 Besides, to take the matter on its merits, I am 
 not sure that it would not often be cheaper 
 to make screws than to buy them. The 
 screws, as we get them, usually want so 
 much alteration, that to one who can handle 
 his tools the making of a screw would take 
 very little, if any, longer than the fitting of 
 one. 
 
 Having so far mastered the making of 
 screws, the learner may now try his hand at 
 tempered steel, following much the same 
 procedure as with the soft metal. A piece 
 of good-sized steel wire should be rough- 
 centered on the filing block, hardened and 
 brought back on the bluing pan till toler¬ 
 ably soft. A light blue color will give about 
 the right temper: if left harder than this it 
 will be liable to glaze easily and give trouble. 
 After centering it in the manner just de¬ 
 scribed, turn a good-sized pivot with the 
 point of the graver, keeping it straight and 
 the shoulder clean and square. Begin with 
 pivots as large as the No. io hole in La- 
 tard’s screw plate, and do not reduce them 
 in size till able to make them of a good shape 
 with the point of the graver, smooth and 
 quite true. Then gradually make them 
 smaller, proceeding by easy stages till the 
 smallest sizes are reached. The same re¬ 
 marks apply to conical pivots as to straight 
 ones—the learner must begin with large 
 ones and gradually work his way, striving in 
 all cases to produce the exact shape required. 
 Not only pivots, but all the different forms 
 to be seen on staffs and pinions, such as 
 back slopes, hollows, etc., should be prac¬ 
 ticed on rough steel. One of the most diffi¬ 
 cult lessons for the learner is the turning in 
 of pieces, such as staffs and pinions, to exact 
 height or length to meet ah end-shake. It is 
 very mortifying, when the piece is completed, 
 to find that it is too long or too short, ancl 
 very elaborate and ingenious gauges have 
 been constructed to overcome this among 
 other difficulties. But it is at least doubtful 
 if some of these instruments are not calcu¬ 
 lated to make the learner’s troubles greater 
 instead of less. Gauges, to be really useful, 
 must be simple ; and it may be said of them, 
 
 almost more than of any other tool, that 
 there is as much in the use as in the con¬ 
 struction. There is really but one way of 
 meeting these difficulties, and that is by at¬ 
 tacking them systematically. It is too much 
 to expect that a youth, so soon as he can 
 hold a graver, should be able to execute 
 work requiring great nicety of judgment, 
 even with the aid of the finest gauges. Let 
 him take an old frame and practice fitting: 
 pieces by copying the old staffs and pinions. 
 The pinion gauge, or a space filed in a piece 
 of sheet brass, will be the only gauge neces¬ 
 sary at first. 
 
 Take one of the pinions that has a proper 
 end-shake in the frame and measure off the 
 distance between the pivot shoulders; if the 
 end-shake is wrong, adjust the gauge tn 
 correct it. Then turn pivots on either end 
 of a piece of steel, with the shoulders a 
 proper distance apart to fit the gauge. The 
 correctness of the height will of course be 
 proved by trying it on the frame. Only 
 large pivots should be made at first, and, 
 the height having been struck in the gauge, 
 care must be taken in turning the pivots not 
 to back the shoulders. It is just at this 
 point that learners generally fail: in turning 
 the pivots they cut into the shoulders and 
 get the piece too short, or, anxious to avoid 
 this, they allow for it and leave the piece 
 too long. It is work, as I have said, call¬ 
 ing for nice judgment with a keen apprecia¬ 
 tion of trifles, and must be gone over many 
 times before the worker becomes thoroughly- 
 familiar with it. Making a pallet staff to a 
 full-plate lever watch is capital practice in 
 this kind of work. Before knocking out the 
 old staff, take accurate measurement of the 
 height of the top pivot shoulder above the 
 lever, also of the length of the staff between 
 the two shoulders. Take a thin piece of tem¬ 
 pered steel wire and turn it down a sufficient 
 length to form the staff, fitting it to the hole 
 in the pallets and keeping it slightly taper ; 
 polish and glass-burnish it; then gently 
 drive it tight into the pallets and mark off 
 the height for the top shoulder; remove the 
 pallets and make the pivots, being careful 
 that they fit the holes with very little side- 
 shake. The next step should be to practice 
 making pivots, straight and conical, to jewel 
 holes. The pivots, to be quite true, must 
 be turned the exact shape, and, as nearly as 
 possible, to the right size before being pol¬ 
 ished or burnished. 
 
 All this should be preliminary to making 
 
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LATHE. 
 
 101 
 
 balance staffs, fitting cylinders, and such like 
 -ambitious efforts ; so that, when these higher 
 parts are reached, the ground round about 
 will be so far cleared as to make their accom¬ 
 plishment comparatively easy. It has been 
 said that no one can claim to be master of 
 an art till he can play with it. As applied 
 to watch-making this can only be a half-truth, 
 as our work is not of a kind to be played 
 with. But, stated in another form, the idea 
 is true enough: for in watch-making, as in 
 other things, mastery only comes with a com¬ 
 plete loss of self-consciousness, when, from 
 long and constant practice, the faculties 
 move together in unison without apparent 
 effort. To all, therefore, who would excel in 
 turning, my last words would be :—begin at 
 the beginning, make sure of each step as you 
 advance, and work away. 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LATHE. 
 
 R. AMBROSE WEBSTER, the head 
 of the American Watch Tool Co., con¬ 
 tributes the following article to the Jewel¬ 
 ers’ Circular on the subject of above head¬ 
 ing, upon which he, of all others, is perhaps 
 the best qualified to speak. He says: 
 
 There is no tool on the watchmaker’s 
 bench that is so expensive, valuable, or at¬ 
 tractive as a nickel-plated American watch¬ 
 maker’s lathe. It is expensive because in its 
 ■construction, though there is a comparatively 
 small amount of material used, a large 
 amount of expensive labor is necessary. It 
 is valuable because it is ready for use at a 
 moment’s notice, and furnishes the capability 
 to polish pivots and staffs, and perform any 
 of the numerous operations so constantly re¬ 
 quired in the repairing of watches. It is at¬ 
 tractive through its highly bright appearance 
 and delicacy and beauty of form. Through 
 this attractiveness, the lathe proves of value 
 as an advertisement to the owner, for, when 
 a customer, upon entering his shop, discerns 
 the neat and trim American lathe, instead of 
 the rough-looking affairs he remembers were 
 universally used in his youth, he argues that 
 the possessor of the better tools must per¬ 
 form the better work. The efficiency of the 
 American lathe is undeniable ; skilled work¬ 
 men agree that they can do from 20 per 
 cent, to 2 5 per cent, more with it than with 
 the old styles. The best manufactures have 
 been copied in England, France, Germany, 
 and Switzerland. 
 
 As very few watch repairers ever consider 
 
 the progressive steps in the development of 
 the lathe from its original form used in pre¬ 
 historic ages, down to its present perfect 
 construction, I think a review of this step in 
 simple outline, will prove of interest and 
 value. In the first illustration the crude, 
 primitive lathe is depicted. It will be no¬ 
 ticed that the article to be turned has both 
 its ends, or bearings, fastened in the fork of 
 two trees, and is revolved by a crank. The 
 operator, or turner, holds the cutting tool 
 against the revolving object, his hands rest¬ 
 ing on the fork of a tree-branch, which is 
 driven into the earth. 
 
 There are several minor stages between 
 the primitive form and the ingenious Egyp¬ 
 tian iathe; but, my space being limited, I 
 will hurry to a description of this machine. 
 The Egyptian lathe for centuries was in uni¬ 
 versal use ; and, even at the present moment, 
 in some out-of-the-way places still exists. 
 It was originally made wholly of rough 
 wood, and was composed of a spindle and 
 pulley mounted upon a stand, looking more 
 like the frame-work of the door of a log-cabin 
 than a piece of machinery. The power for 
 driving this lathe was as follows: a cord 
 was at one end fastened to the pulley, the 
 other end being tied to a branch of an ad¬ 
 jacent tree, which was bent downward to 
 form a spring. A pressure of the foot in 
 the stirrup produced a forward rotary motion 
 which was reciprocated backward by the re¬ 
 lease of the foot-pressure and the recoil of 
 the tree-branch, the continual pressures and 
 releases producing a constant reciprocal ro¬ 
 tary motion. As years became generations, 
 and generations centuries, the material used 
 in the manufacture of these machines, as seen 
 in the illustration, was to change to iron, 
 the principle of regenerating power remained 
 essentially the same, a springy pole being 
 used instead of a tree-branch. The Egyp¬ 
 tian lathe has entirely disappeared in Amer¬ 
 ica, but, as I have said, still exists in remote 
 parts of Europe. 
 
 Until quite recent days, the fiddle-bow 
 was almost every watchmaker’s principal 
 tool, and is now utilized by many mechanics. 
 This was, or rather is, but a modification of 
 the reciprocal rotary motion in the Egyptian 
 lathe. It is too widely known to bear profit¬ 
 ably a description at this day. 
 
 This final stage, the fully developed ma¬ 
 chine, is shown in the last illustration, which 
 gives an improved foot-wheel, driving to a 
 countershaft, and from the latter to the lathe. 
 
102 
 
 HOW TO FIT WATCH HANDS. 
 
 Every watchmaker’s lathe should be set up 
 thus to exercise its full value to the workman. 
 
 To consider some of the essentials of a 
 perfect lathe. As is known, every article 
 turned will be of the form of the bearing of 
 the spindle; consequently, if the bearing is 
 not perfectly round, the article cannot be 
 perfectly round ; the shoulders of the spindle 
 must be perfectly true, or the truth of the 
 turned article will be affected ; the spindle of 
 the lathe should revolve with uniform free¬ 
 dom, and must not have hard spots during 
 the revolution ; the general use of spring 
 chucks requires that the mouth and throat of 
 the lathe shall be perfectly true and both 
 hard, and that the chucks shall be hard, 
 and ground true after hardening; the tail- 
 stock spindle should also be perfectly 
 straight and round, and fit accurately 
 in the hole. The process of binding the 
 spindle must not have any effect upon its 
 alignment; it is also absolutely necessary 
 that the fine point of the tail-stock shall ac¬ 
 curately match and align with the point of 
 the center of the head-stock, to secure which 
 end very expensive tools and machines have 
 been made, adding largely to the general 
 cost of the lathe. The latter essential, capa¬ 
 ble of fulfilment in a lathe, proves the lathe 
 to be fairly perfect in construction. Some 
 manufacturers are producing a lathe in which 
 the tail-stock may be reversed upon its bed, 
 and either end perfectly align with the head- 
 stock. 
 
 Notwithstanding that lathes possessing 
 the above qualities cost fifteen per cent, 
 more than those built without particular care, 
 the difference in the efficiency of the two 
 varieties is a larger per cent, than that of the 
 difference in cost. Every investor hopes for 
 the return of a good dividend, and experience 
 has proved that a perfect lathe pays an an¬ 
 nual dividend of fifty per cent. 
 
 TO EXAMINE A WATCH. 
 
 EFORE you take a »watch down ex¬ 
 amine the action of the balance wheel, 
 and you will quite often find it to be rubbing 
 slightly on the center wheel, the stud, or the 
 curb pins ; push the balance in several direc¬ 
 tions with a peg, and freely apply the file to 
 the offending pieces. If center wheel and 
 balance are touching, consider the balance 
 foul, and after taking it out, screw the cock 
 on, and drive it over with a blow on a box¬ 
 
 wood peg with the hammer; but be sure 
 that the required freedom is attained, and 
 that the balance is free of both the stud and 
 regulator in all positions. 
 
 THE TRAIN OF WHEELS. 
 
 XAMINE the train of the wheels. If 
 the scape-wheel depthing is too shal¬ 
 low, as often happens when there is much 
 side-shake, drive the scape-bridge by press¬ 
 ure from behind, if freedom should* allow, 
 the second pivot hole being very shallow. A 
 pivot broach pressed by the finger under¬ 
 neath in opening the hole will cut away one 
 side of the hole, into which a French bouchon 
 must be inserted and riveted, and then we 
 have a depthing as the result of a few mo¬ 
 ments’ work, the wheel being uprighted by 
 driving the cock in the customary manner. 
 
 FINAL REVIEWS. 
 
 HEN the repairer has corrected the de¬ 
 fects and cleaned the watch, and is 
 about to mount it, let him look to the oil- 
 sinks, that they are thoroughly clean, inspect 
 the jewel-holes to see that they are highly 
 polished and firmly set, that the screws are- 
 all securely fastened, and when he finds 
 everything in order, he may commence to 
 mount the pieces. 
 
 HOW TO FIT WATCH HANDS. 
 
 HE fitting on of a watch hand, al¬ 
 though slighted in many shops, is a 
 job deserving of a great deal more care than 
 is generally bestowed upon it, and even re¬ 
 pairers who take pains with their work neg¬ 
 lect several important points. They leave 
 the pipe of the hour wheel too long and that 
 of the minute hand too short, and when they 
 adjust the end-shake of the hour hand, they 
 lay the boss on the hour wheel and the dial 
 so that the end-shake of the center wheel 
 affects that of the hour hand, sometimes giv¬ 
 ing it too much, and the hour hand is bent 
 by catching the minute hand either in setting 
 the hands or in the going of the watch. In 
 fitting the hands to a hunting case, the ex¬ 
 aminer should fit the glass as high as the 
 case will admit; ascertain the space available 
 by placing a piece of beeswax on the dial 
 and pressing the glass down on it, and then 
 turning the cannon pinion until it projects 
 
PRINCIPAL INVENTIONS IN HOROLOGY. 
 
 103 
 
 from the dial the height of the beeswax. 
 The hour-wheel pipe should rise perceptibly 
 above the dial, and the end-shake of the 
 hour hand be adjusted by the pipe of the 
 minute hand and that of the hour wheel. If 
 the body of the cannon pinion will not bear 
 turning in fitting it to the hour wheel, then 
 it should be opened in the mandrel, as it can¬ 
 not be kept true by opening the hole in the 
 fingers. _ 
 
 TO REPAINT THE HOURS ON A DIAL. 
 
 HE following system has reference to 
 metallic dials, but the reader will be able 
 to select without difficulty the parts that are 
 applicable to altering and retouching the 
 figures on an enamel dial. We can answer 
 from experience for its being successful, but 
 would at once observe that it cannot be 
 practiced hastily, because some skill is essen¬ 
 tial in addition to patience and care; with 
 them success is certain. Before removing 
 the hour figures and the division for minutes, 
 mark them with a fine steel point, using a 
 lens and proceeding with great caution. 
 These marks will remain, so that after the 
 dial has been colored or otherwise treated, it 
 will only be necessary to trace over them with 
 a fine brush charged with ink. The short 
 horizontal lines at the top and bottom of each 
 figure, termed “ serifs,” as well as the two cir¬ 
 cles that enclose the minute division, can be 
 drawn with a sharpened point of the screw- 
 bar compass. _ 
 
 LIFTING SPRINGS. 
 
 IFTING springs of watch cases are often 
 broken. If the watchmaker has none 
 of the right size on hand, and has no time 
 to make a new one, he can mend the old 
 spring and have it just as good as new. 
 Place them close together and bind firmly 
 to a piece of charcoal; then solder with 
 18-karat gold. It requires a strong heat 
 and plenty of borax; next finish off nicely, 
 heat, and temper in the usual manner. 
 
 SPOTTING. 
 
 HE process of finishing chronometer 
 and watch plates, by polishing thereon 
 equidistant patches, is called by different 
 names: spotting, snailing, smoothing, ston¬ 
 ing, damaskeening, frosting, etc. The plate 
 to be spotted is fixed to the top of a slide 
 rest, and the marks are made with a small 
 bone or ivory tube, which screws into the 
 
 bottom of the upright spindle. The mate¬ 
 rial used to produce the pattern is a mixture 
 of oil-stone dust and sharp rouge. The plate 
 when fixed in position on the platform of 
 the tool is dabbed all over with the end of 
 the finger dipped in this composition, which 
 must not be at all dry or thick. This up¬ 
 right spindle carrying the spotter is kept 
 constantly rotating by a band from a foot 
 wheel. A spiral spring round the arbor of 
 the spotter keeps it off the work, and a little 
 pressure on a knob at the top brings the 
 spotter into action. The pattern is made by 
 turning the handle of the slide rest equal 
 amounts after each spot until a row is fin¬ 
 ished, and then moving the transverse slide 
 an amount equal to the pitch of the pattern. 
 
 A wavy or watered spotting is produced 
 with water-of-Ayr stone and oil, carefully 
 prepared, or with a piece of wood charged 
 with oil-stone dust, etc. The oiled corner of 
 an emery buffstick can occasionally be used. 
 
 To obtain wavy undulations on a smooth 
 piece of metal, the finger should first be 
 placed at the point of commencement of the 
 undulations. Resting the wood or stone 
 against this finger, it is moved a little in a 
 straight line, and then in a series of semicir¬ 
 cular wave lines, from right to left or left 
 to right. The finger is advanced through 
 a definite distance, and the operation re¬ 
 peated, and so on. 
 
 A very good watered surface can be pro¬ 
 duced with soft charcoal. With a view to 
 increasing the regularity in the marks, a rule 
 may be laid on the object, against which the 
 charcoal is brought. Parallel watering is 
 usually done mechanically, in about the same 
 manner. _ 
 
 PRINCIPAL INVENTIONS Ik 
 HOROLOGY. 
 
 HE JEWELERS’ CIRCULAR is fre¬ 
 quently asked concerning the dates of 
 the principal inventions in horology, and it 
 has therefore compiled them in a chrono¬ 
 logical form, which is as nearly correct as 
 patient research can make it. It appears, 
 however, that the old masters were not as 
 eager to obtain a patent for every displace¬ 
 ment of a screw or introduction of a pin, as 
 our modem watchmakers are, but were con¬ 
 tent with the knowledge of having introduced 
 a new escapement, a new arrangement of 
 wheels, etc., without letting everybody know 
 who did it. The invention of the balance 
 spring is ascribed to several; the detached 
 
CEMENT FOR REPAIRING A DIAL. 
 
 104 
 
 lever escapement is claimed both by Switzer¬ 
 land and England ; the duplex escapement 
 is said to have been invented by Dr. Hooke ; 
 Pierre Leroy; Dutertre, another French 
 watchmaker; again, that it was introduced 
 into England by Thomas Tyrer, after whom 
 it was also called Tyrer’s escapement; and, 
 finally, that it was invented by an English¬ 
 man, named Duplex. The reader may 
 choose. 
 
 Watchmakers of the past century, aided 
 by advancing education, gradually began to 
 comprehend more fully the power and adap¬ 
 tability of wheels and pinions ; new escape¬ 
 ments were planned and existing ones im¬ 
 proved ; no less than one hundred and eight 
 are preserved in our various watch collec¬ 
 tions. The greatest impulse, however, was 
 given by the introduction of the pendulum, 
 claimed both by Huyghens (pronounced 
 Hoyghens) and Galileo, and the balance 
 spring, most probably by Dr. Hooke. The 
 interesting series of inventions commences 
 with the date of the application of the pend¬ 
 ulum to clocks, 1656. 
 
 1658. Dr. Hooke invents and applies the 
 balance spring. 
 
 1675. Barlow and Quare, of London, 
 construct the repeating timepiece, first for 
 mantel-clocks, next for watches. The for¬ 
 mer, a priest, furnishing the plans, the latter, 
 a watchmaker, executing the work. Besides 
 this, the invention is also claimed by 
 Tompion. 
 
 1680. Dr. Robert Hooke constructs the 
 recoil escapement for clocks. 
 
 1691. Daniel Quare applies the minute 
 hand. As watchmakers well know, the time¬ 
 piece had only one hand until then. 
 
 1700. Graham invents the mercury pend¬ 
 ulum. 
 
 1702. Graham invents the dead-beat or 
 “ Graham ” escapement, and the cylinder 
 escapement. 
 
 1704. Fatio, of Geneva, introduces watch 
 jeweling, for which he ?'ec?ives an English 
 patent , No. 371, May, 1704. 
 
 1720. Harrison, the “extraordinary gen¬ 
 ius,” invents the maintaining power. 
 
 1726. Harrison constructs the compen¬ 
 sated gridiron pendulum. 
 
 1754. Caron de Beaumarchais invents the 
 pin escapement for watches, which is claimed 
 by Lepaute, but after a lawsuit awarded to 
 the former. 
 
 1754. Mudge invents the detached-lever 
 escapement. 
 
 1760. Ellicott constructs a peculiar com¬ 
 pensation pendulum. 
 
 1761. Harrison, sixty-seven years old, in¬ 
 vents the first marine chronometer. 
 
 1765. Pierre Leroy invents the compen¬ 
 sated balance. 
 
 1770. Stodges constructs the half-quar¬ 
 ter repeating escapement, mostly used in 
 English watches. 
 
 1770. Duplex, an Englishman, invents the 
 escapement named for him. 
 
 1780. Arnold invents the marine chro¬ 
 nometer with detent escapement. 
 
 1780. Earnshaw constructs the spring- 
 detent escapement and the compensated 
 balance, both substantially as now' used in 
 chronometers. 
 
 1792. Breguet invents the tourbillon es¬ 
 capement. 
 
 It was stated above that one hundred and 
 eight distinct escapements have been con¬ 
 structed. Four of these only withstood the 
 touchstone of time, viz., detached lever, cyl¬ 
 inder, chronometer, and verge, the latter of 
 which is fast becoming obsolete. Of the 
 remaining three escapements again, the 
 chronometer is used with but few exceptions 
 for marine timepieces, while the cylinder is 
 used only sectionally for cheap grades of 
 watches. We therefore may sum up by say¬ 
 ing that there is only one universal escape¬ 
 ment—the detached lever. 
 
 TO CLEAN CORAL. 
 
 F IRST soak them in soda and water for 
 some hours; then make a lather of 
 soap, and, with a soft hair brush, rub the 
 corals lightly, letting the brush enter into all 
 the interstices. Pour off the water, and re¬ 
 place with clean water. Finally dry in the 
 sun. 
 
 CEMENT FOR REPAIRING A DIAL. 
 
 S CRAPE pure white wax, and mix with 
 equal parts of zinc white; next, melt 
 the mass in a clean vessel over the alcohol 
 flame, and let get cold. The cold cement 
 can be easily pressed into the cracks of the 
 slightly warmed dial, and adheres firmly, 
 assuming a high polish when scraped with a 
 knife. If the cement has become too hard, 
 add a little wax; if still too soft, a little 
 zinc white. Cleanliness in mixing and a little 
 heat contribute to the production of a very 
 white wax. 
 
THE TREATMENT OF GOLD, SILVER, ETC 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE GOLDSMITH. 
 
 HE goldsmith expresses in his works 
 the sentiment and culture of his age. 
 The more exalted this sentiment, the purer 
 are the conceptions, and the more artistic 
 the works of the goldsmith. A sober and 
 ignorant age also produces only a miserable 
 treatment of the precious metals. Depraved 
 taste does not understand to array itself in 
 an artistic manner; its low vanity is satisfied 
 with coarse, unwieldy trinkets, or the glitter¬ 
 ing ornament of a boastful, pretentious style ; 
 it overloads itself with bulk, with which it 
 strives to impose. 
 
 The goldsmith was originally only a smith, 
 who fashioned gold and silver into useful 
 shapes, as the latter does iron. Growing 
 culture, however, in individual people not 
 only awakened a desire for the possession of 
 useful articles from the precious metals, but 
 the possessor also wished to have its value 
 augmented by more exquisite work so that, 
 as it were, the possessor would be distin¬ 
 guished among. men by his superior orna¬ 
 ments. The kings demanded diadems, the 
 heroes golden shields and weapons, the 
 nobles handsome dishes and vessels for their 
 tables, the priests gold and silver ornaments 
 for the temples, and the ambitious citizen, 
 finally, desired spangles and bracelets, rings 
 and chains, to serve as a noble distinguishing 
 mark of his self-respect. The tradesman of 
 whom all these demands were made exerted 
 his taste and ingenuity to always produce 
 something better and purer. The goldsmith 
 no longer cast his trinkets, but gave them finer 
 forms by hammering according to models; 
 he embellished them by engraving into them 
 and chasing upon them arabesques, flowers, 
 figures, and entire pictures, and still enhanced 
 this style by adorning these designs with 
 jewels; he skillfully added single pieces to 
 
 form a whole by choosing different sub¬ 
 stances—silver, gold, ivory, and jewels; he 
 invented enamel. And thus the tradesman 
 became an artist, one of the highest rank. 
 He was called on to adorn architecture, and 
 became the chief auxiliary of the architect, 
 the sculptor, the painter. The Bible and 
 many historians of the Greek speak of this 
 rise of the art of goldsmithing among the old 
 nations of culture. Solomon’s temple glit¬ 
 tered in the pride of gold adornment. Ho¬ 
 mer exalts the golden arms of Glaucus, and 
 the inlaid shield of Achilles. Semiramis 
 caused gold and silver statues to be erected, 
 and the greatest of all Greek artists, Phidias, 
 was a goldsmith, who built temples, and in 
 them placed statues of the gods in a hitherto 
 unknown perfection. In Samos, Corinth, 
 and Athens, the most excellent goldsmiths 
 manufactured those vessels, ornaments, and 
 masterpieces for which the Romans afterward 
 paid incredible sums, and which we marvel 
 at to-day, as the proof of the eminence of 
 an art vocation. 
 
 As previously stated, the goldsmith charac¬ 
 terizes in his productions the grade of culture 
 both of his people and age. During the 
 flourishing period of Greece, we find it upon 
 the highest pinnacle of the art; gradually it 
 declines, commensurate with the increase of 
 ignorance and wars, and finally the sun of 
 culture sets behind them. In Rome, where 
 the conceptions of the ideal languished and 
 perished in the viciousness of the emperors 
 and the brutality of the people, the goldsmith 
 finally becomes the panderer simply for the 
 senseless, boastful lavishness, and his art 
 becomes nothing else than a gradually de¬ 
 generating imitation of Greek works. He- 
 liogabalus adorned his room with gold, only 
 dined from gold plates, drank out of gold 
 and silver vessels, which he presented to his 
 
io6 
 
 GOLD AND ITS TREATMENT IN SMELTING AND ROLLING. 
 
 companions, servants, and the hungry mul¬ 
 titude before his palace, after nocturnal 
 orgies; he caused gold dust to be strewn in 
 his path, in order to show that he, as the first 
 of Rome, could waste its possession and 
 blood. Rut art had no companionship with 
 this senseless waste, until, after a night of a 
 thousand years, a new era began to dawn 
 upon it, and as long as the merciful mission 
 of Christendom shall exist the art of the 
 goldsmith will also not perish. 
 
 GOLD AND ITS TREATMENT IN 
 SMELTING AND ROLLING. 
 
 E will here state that it is our desire to 
 go through a kind of apprenticeship in 
 respect to the processes employed in the 
 manufacture of gold. We hope that the in¬ 
 formation thus afforded, beside being very 
 valuable to the practical workman, by giving 
 him facilities which will result in the more 
 successful performance of his work, will 
 prove useful to the manufacturer also, by im¬ 
 parting to him that with which he has hitherto 
 been unacquainted. We shall lay most stress 
 upon those processes of art workmanship and 
 management in which we venture to believe 
 we have been more successful than most of 
 our compeers. 
 
 We shall commence with the first proced¬ 
 ures in the course of the manufacture, viz.: 
 the preparation of the alloy and its subse¬ 
 quent treatment in the crucible, in order to 
 describe minutely the processes or methods 
 of working with the precious metals. 
 
 When purchasing the materials for alloy¬ 
 ing, where a fair average trade is being car¬ 
 ried on, there is an advantage in buying cop¬ 
 per in large quantities; but with gold and 
 silver the reverse is the case. Irrespective 
 of the disadvantage of the cash lying idle, 
 gold being always bought for cash, some of 
 its particles are so fine and minute that every 
 time it is moved about or touched some por¬ 
 tion is sure to be lost; the quantity may, per¬ 
 haps, be very small indeed, but when we 
 take into consideration the extremely valu¬ 
 able nature of gold in the above state, the loss 
 in the course of the year may be something 
 amazing. For these and other reasons which 
 could be adduced, we recommend the pur¬ 
 chase of gold at the time it is needed, and 
 sufficient for the purposes required. 
 
 In preparing the mixture of gold, silver, 
 and copper for the crucible care should be 
 
 taken in weighing them accurately in order 
 to prevent improvement or deterioration in 
 the qualities of the gold constantly in use. 
 In melting all qualities it is a wise plan to 
 place the lightest of the metals to be melted 
 at the bottom of the crucible, viz. : the cop¬ 
 per first, the silver next, and the gold last; 
 by so doing the melter is more likely to get 
 a perfect amalgamation of the metals, as the 
 gold, being the heaviest, is sure to find its 
 way to the bottom of the pot. When spelter 
 is employed it must not be put in until the 
 other metals are melted; being of so vol¬ 
 atile a nature, it would be all evaporated 
 before the mixture of alloy was properly in¬ 
 corporated, consequently the bar of gold 
 would fall short of its original weight, the 
 quality would be improved, and the manu¬ 
 facturer would be unable to compensate him¬ 
 self without remelting with an addition of 
 alloy. 
 
 Plumbago crucibles are the best for all 
 practical melting purposes, and with care 
 will last from twenty to fifty times; if new, 
 a very small quantity of charcoal powder 
 should be put into the pot with the mixture 
 of alloy. This coats the surface of it, and 
 prevents the metals from adhering. When the 
 gold is at the point of fusion, fling on it about 
 a tablespoonful of perfectly pure vegetable 
 charcoal. The layer of charcoal which forms 
 upon the surface of the gold in the crucible 
 protects the mixture from the action of the 
 air, which would refine the gold by destroy¬ 
 ing some of the alloy. When perfectly fused, 
 the mixture must be well stirred with an iron 
 stirrer (consisting of a long round piece of 
 iron sharpened at the point), which should 
 previously be made red hot, to render the 
 whole mass uniform in quality. The pot is 
 then quickly withdrawn, and its contents 
 poured into a suitable ingot-mold, previously 
 warmed and greased, to prevent adhesion. 
 The warming of the mold is quite indispen¬ 
 sable ; but, if made too hot, the metal, when 
 poured into it, will spit and fly about; be¬ 
 sides incurring great loss of gold, danger¬ 
 ous results may thereby happen to the per¬ 
 son in charge ; the same remark applies when 
 the ingot-mold is cold ; this part of the pro¬ 
 cess must therefore not be neglected, but 
 carefully attended to. The ingot-mold, we 
 may state, is hot enough when you can just 
 touch it with the hand for a second or two. 
 In nine cases out of ten, if the gold is properly 
 heated in the melting and cast all right with 
 the charcoal flux we have recommended, the 
 
GOLD AND ITS TREATMENT IN SMELTING AND ROLLING. 
 
 working qualities in its subsequent treatment 
 will be found all that could be desired for 
 any purposes whatever. 
 
 When it is desired to produce very tough 
 gold, use as a flux a tablespoonful of char¬ 
 coal, as before, and one of sal-ammoniac, 
 adding it to the gold on the eve of melting; 
 the sal-ammoniac burns away while toughen¬ 
 ing the gold, leaving the charcoal behind to 
 perform the functions already indicated. The 
 employment of the mixture of sal-ammoniac 
 will bring the ingots of gold up bright and 
 clear; it will also prevent them from splitting 
 or cracking at the rolling-mill, and in subse¬ 
 quent working; if proper attention has been 
 paid to it, the gold will then be found tough 
 and pliable. This does not, however, apply 
 to every kind of alloy, but it may be affirmed 
 of those we have described, and can be safely 
 and thoroughly depended upon. 
 
 The furnace used by most jewelers is the 
 ordinary wind furnace, built of brick-work, 
 which is admirably suited for such purposes ; 
 a size convenient for every requirement is of 
 the following dimensions : eight inches square 
 inside, and sixteen inches deep from the 
 grate which supports the fire. 
 
 For producing tough gold, the employ¬ 
 ment of common salt as a fluxing agent is 
 sometimes strongly recommended. There is 
 not, however, much to be said for its use, as 
 it produces a very liquid flux, and is not half 
 so clean as the one we have recommended. 
 In the casting, unless very great care is ex¬ 
 ercised, it runs into the ingot-mold with the 
 gold, producing a brittle-like substance, and 
 this forces itself into the bar of gold, the sur¬ 
 face of which becomes irregular and full of 
 holes; on this account alone it is objection¬ 
 able, in preparing clean and smooth bars of 
 gold. The same may be said of borax, but 
 that is still largely used in the jewelry trade 
 for melting purposes. Nevertheless we are 
 confident, from long practical experience 
 (the result of many years’ study and practice, 
 during which time we have worked up many 
 thousand ounces of gold), that there is no 
 better flux than a mixture of sal-ammoniac 
 and charcoal, for every possible purpose re¬ 
 quired, in the subsequent treatment of the 
 different qualities of gold ; and that for tough¬ 
 ness, cleanliness, and producing good worka¬ 
 ble properties it cannot be surpassed. 
 
 In melting scrap gold from the workshop, 
 care should be taken to see that it is quite 
 clean and free from organic matter, wax, etc. 
 To effect this it is a good plan to heat the 
 
 107- 
 
 scrap in an iron ladle until all wax or grease 
 is removed; this should be done before the 
 workman weighs his scrap into the ware¬ 
 house, and should be a special rule of every 
 establishment. It has a great tendency to 
 reduce the working loss, which is almost un¬ 
 avoidable. This kind of scrap is best re¬ 
 melted by itself, and the same flux may be 
 employed as has been recommended for new » 
 gold ; if the bar of gold should split in rolling, 
 it is due to the presence of some foreign 
 metal, such as lead or tin, or it may be iron 
 or steel. Then remelt the bar with two parts 
 carbonate of potash and one part of nitrate 
 of potash (saltpeter), the saltpeter will draw 
 the iron or steel into the flux, leaving the 
 alloy of gold free. If lead or tin should get 
 into the gold, very serious results follow—a 
 very small portion being sufficient to split a 
 large bar and render it totally unworkable 
 and exceedingly brittle; when broken, the 
 grains appear close and pale. Bi-chloride 
 of mercury (corrosive sublimate) is) the best 
 flux to use when these defects make their 
 appearance, in the proportion of two parts 
 charcoal to one of corrosive sublimate, when 
 all will go right again. Sandiver is also a 
 very useful flux when iron or steel gets into 
 the gold. Such gold, when remelted, always 
 loses in weight, some of the alloy being lost 
 on account of the many small pieces of gold 
 of which the scrap consists. This, of course, 
 improves the quality; therefore it is neces¬ 
 sary, in order to keep the gold of one stand¬ 
 ard, to add some small portion of alloy, 
 either silver or copper ; but, as the scrap may 
 contain a little solder, copper will be the best 
 td use. The following calculations may be 
 relied upon for the different qualities: 
 
 TABLE OF CALCULATIONS. 
 
 Wet-colored scrap. . 3 gr. copper per ounce.. 
 
 12-karat scrap. 6 gr. copper per ounce- 
 
 1 o-karat scrap. 9 gr. copper per ounce- 
 
 9-karat scrap.12 gr. copper per ounce. 
 
 Any gold bearing the English Hall-mark 
 make no additions. 
 
 All qualities of scrap should be well-sorted 
 and undergo the action of a magnet before 
 remelting, and the'greatest care exercised in 
 keeping every quality separate. 
 
 Sometimes in remelting scrap gold it is 
 necessary to make some addition, either in 
 fine gold or alloy, for the purpose of improv¬ 
 ing or reducing the quality. This happens 
 when different qualities of goods are required 
 
108 
 
 THE MELTING OF GOLD. 
 
 on the spur of the moment, and it may not 
 be convenient to procure fine gold at the 
 time sufficient for the purpose; this is very 
 often the case with beginners who have em¬ 
 barked in business with a limited capital, 
 which may already be partially invested ; to 
 such persons the advice we may give may 
 prove serviceable. There may be possibly 
 existing at the time in the work-shops a large 
 quantity of scraps of the regular quality, and 
 if the proper rules for alloying, in reference 
 to reducing and improving the qualities, were 
 understood thoroughly, use might be made 
 of it in the above direction, not only to the 
 pecuniary interest of the man of business, 
 but also to the advantage of all parties con¬ 
 cerned. We shall be as simple and as con¬ 
 cise as possible in our modes of calculation, 
 and will employ the usual arithmetical signs. 
 In preparing the scrap for reducing, great 
 care must be taken in selecting it free from 
 solder or other impurities, otherwise the cal¬ 
 culation, as regards extreme accuracy, will 
 be thrown out; and sometimes this is of im¬ 
 portance, but, more commonly speaking, 
 when the quality is not for some special pur¬ 
 pose, the difference likely to result is of little 
 importance. The numeral 20 in the follow¬ 
 ing tables will always be consonant, because 
 it represents the number of pennyweights in 
 one ounce of gold. The multipliers and di¬ 
 visors will be different, and will vary with 
 the quality of gold required. 
 
 As an example, suppose we want to find 
 how much pure gold will be required to be 
 added to 1 ounce of g-karat scrap in order 
 to raise it to 15-karat gold, we should pro¬ 
 ceed thus: 
 
 20 x 15 = 300 
 20 x 9 = 180 
 300— 180 = 120 
 120-L 9 = 13 dwts. 8 grs. 
 
 Therefore to every ounce of 9-karat gold 
 we shall have to add 13 dwts. 8 grs. of fine 
 gold to make 15-karat gold. The divisor 9 
 does not represent the quality of scrap about 
 to be improved, but is the difference between 
 the quality manufactured and the numeral 
 24, which represents the number of karats in 
 one ounce; consequently, when it is desired 
 to improve the scrap, the divisor will always 
 represent the difference between the quality 
 as improved by the addition of fine gold and 
 24. When it is desired to reduce the scrap 
 the reverse will be the case ; the divisor will 
 always indicate the quality to be made. 
 
 Let us take another case as illustration of 
 what we mean. Suppose it is desired to 
 reduce some scrap in quality, no alloy being 
 suitable to be found in the alloy book, we 
 shall have to make a sort of guess-work or 
 haphazard calculation. If we adopt the sys¬ 
 tem we are recommending it will become 
 very simple. To reduce 18-karat scrap in or¬ 
 der to make 15-karat gold we shall proceed 
 as follows: 
 
 20 x 18 = 360 
 20 X 15 = 300 
 360 — 300 =r 60 
 60-4- 15=4 dwts. 
 
 To every ounce of 18-karat scrap must be 
 added 4 dwts. of alloy. This case clearly 
 illustrates the difference in the divisor be¬ 
 tween reducing and improving the quality. 
 If it is of importance to know how much 
 mixture of alloy should be added to one 
 ounce of fine gold, in order to produce 
 qualities of inferior standard, the numeral 24 
 becomes consonant, thus to produce 18 kar¬ 
 ats : 
 
 20 x 24 = 4F0 
 20 x 18 = 360 
 480 — 360 — 120 
 120-4- 18 = 6 dwts. 16 grs. 
 
 Therefore, in making 18-karat gold, to 
 every ounce of fine gold a mixture of alloy 
 consisting of 6 dwts. 16 grs. must be added. 
 The above examples represent almost every 
 case, and any others which may arise out of 
 them may be safely calculated, taking these as 
 basis or starting point. 
 
 THE MELTING OF GOLD. 
 
 HE melting of gold is a work performed 
 nearly every day in the goldsmith shop, 
 and would hardly be considered as one occa¬ 
 sioning great difficulty. Larger quantities are 
 melted in a crucible, either in a coal fire or 
 in a gas furnace. This method, where gas is 
 cheap, is to be highly recommended, on ac¬ 
 count of great convenience and cleanliness. 
 
 MELTING ON COAL. 
 
 It is really a cause of astonishment that 
 there are so many shops into which the 
 melting of gold on coal has not yet been 
 introduced, although it will be seen at a 
 glance that it must be very convenient—of 
 course when a small quantity only is to be 
 melted; from 25 to 30 grams (16 to 19 
 
THE MELTING OF GOLD. 
 
 dwts.) may be melted on a piece of coal. 
 The round” branch coals are to be preferred. 
 See that they are thoroughly charred, and 
 contain no cracks. Cut one end obliquely 
 and in it make a medium deep hole, into 
 which lay the gold. In order to keep out 
 the air and confine the heat within, put on a 
 small covering coal. As in the procedure 
 when using a crucible, add the alloy only 
 when the gold is in a fusing state; the labor 
 of the operation may be facilitated by adding 
 a small piece of borax. 
 
 BORAX AND SALTPETER AS FLUXES. 
 
 Borax has the property of slightly dull¬ 
 ing the color of the gold, and, if a lively 
 color is desired, add also a little saltpeter 
 —but only a little, as this agent attacks the 
 copper as alloy, especially when preparing 
 red gold. This effect might be prevented 
 by adding a little charcoal dust. The 
 warmed ingot-mold is placed in a conven¬ 
 ient position, with a piece of sheet tin under¬ 
 neath ; it may happen when least expected 
 that the coal splits, or, that, in shaking in 
 place of stirring, a little gold flies or runs 
 over. When the gold has been melted well 
 expose it to a soft flame for one moment 
 longer, and when it shows a nice button, pour 
 it, but not with too great haste. 
 
 THE BEST MOLD FOR CASTING. 
 
 An open ingot-mold should never be used 
 in casting; the gold cast in it invariably 
 labors under the disadvantage of being im¬ 
 pure, or cracked upon the entire surface; 
 such a bar will never have as regular a form 
 as when cast in a closed mold. The gold¬ 
 smith may himself manufacture such a mold 
 very readily and in a simple manner. 
 
 MALLEABILITY OF THE INGOT. 
 
 Freshly alloyed gold is best suited to 
 stand further working; its not being easily 
 workable is frequently due to the lack of 
 care exercised in the melting and casting. 
 In spite of all patience in the repetition of 
 the melting and the most painstaking care, 
 however, it will have happened to some of 
 my readers that the gold proved to be 
 brittle. It is to be supposed that an an¬ 
 nealing fluid would contribute to its tough¬ 
 ness. Most suitable for this is perhaps the 
 ordinary nitric acid, as it cleans at the same 
 time the surface, and perhaps creates a thin 
 film of pure gold. It is perhaps best not to 
 
 i ocy 
 
 anneal it while too hot. Much is also con¬ 
 tributed to the ductility of the gold by ham¬ 
 mering it; strike it a few times on all sides, 
 and only then bring it between the rollers. 
 Both 8- and 14-karat gold must be glow- 
 heated very often; but 18-karat is best 
 worked up to finishing without glow-heating 
 it, as it is almost sure to crack in this pro¬ 
 cess. If, however, it will not stand at all 
 melt it again, and when liquid add a small 
 quantity of corrosive sublimate. This has 
 the property of expelling the air, for which 
 18-karat gold has a great affinity; in other 
 words, it assists it in becoming compact. 
 The expert workman will know by the very 
 sound whether gold is ductile or not. If it 
 gives a clear ring when thrown down it is 
 good; if, however, the sound is dull, count 
 on its being brittle. 
 
 TO CORRECT CRACKED GOLD. 
 
 Should the gold crack only at a few places, 
 the defect may be corrected by welding. 
 Coat it with borax and lay it upon the coal 
 in such a manner that it lies upon it every¬ 
 where. Then heat it until it almost melts; 
 it will then be found that the jagged places 
 have run together again, and will not re¬ 
 open in the succeeding working processes. 
 This, of course, applies only to 18-karat gold. 
 If, however, it will not become tough in spite 
 of all endeavors, it is best to use the particu¬ 
 lar piece for 14-karat, and try another alloy. 
 It is a first indispensable condition to use 
 only the finest kind of copper for alloying. 
 
 THE USE OF SCRAP GOLD. 
 
 The use of scrap gold, when used for 14- 
 karat, sometimes occasions great difficulties.. 
 It is best to dispense with the many remelt¬ 
 ings and refine it well at once, for which 
 the following method can be highly recom¬ 
 mended. The gold to be refined is weighed 
 exactly, and with a corresponding quantity 
 of saltpeter placed into a crucible. Upon 
 this invert a smaller crucible with a hole 
 through its bottom, and then lute the joint 
 well with clay. Place the crucible in the 
 furnace, and at first heat slowly; when the 
 vapor issues quietly from the air-hole the 
 gold is melted; keep it in this condition for 
 one-half hour longer; you may then be sure 
 that the saltpeter has operated well, and has 
 refined the gold. When cold, break the 
 lower crucible carefully, so as not to injure 
 the perforated one, which may be used again 
 
I I o 
 
 TO ALLOY GOLD. 
 
 .at some future time. Then weigh the but¬ 
 ton, add the wanting quantity, melt together, 
 and cast. It will then be malleable. 
 
 MELTING WASTE. 
 
 In most shops only the entirely clean gold 
 filing dust is melted. Everything else is 
 added to the waste, which is melted to¬ 
 gether once about every two months, and 
 sent to the assayer for refining. This 
 method is under all circumstances the most 
 convenient, as the jeweler works thus only 
 with good gold and is seldom called upon 
 to refine. In many establishments, even, 
 when it is ascertained that a purchased lot 
 of gold is not as pure as it should be, it is 
 thrown into the waste. Before melting, heat 
 this waste well in a pan, draw a magnet 
 through the pile and take out all the iron. 
 Then mix it well with potash or fluxing 
 powder, place everything into a good-sized 
 crucible, strew upon the surface a layer of 
 salt, which prevents the boiling over, and 
 place the crucible into the furnace. Since, 
 especially in the melting of waste, the cruci¬ 
 ble bursts easily, great care is to be exercised 
 in regulating the heat well, and that the char¬ 
 coals lie always compact during the melting. 
 To prevent the crucible from sinking down 
 to the grate when the coals underneath have 
 been burned away, it is well to place it on 
 the lower half of an old one. When the 
 waste begins to behave more quietly, and 
 emits a whiter, beady vapor, the metal has 
 been melted ; either cast at once, or else let 
 the crucible get cold, and melt clean. When 
 doing the latter, and a clean button with 
 rounded edges and smooth, arched surfaces 
 is found, the melting is successfully per¬ 
 formed ; but, if it is flat and sharp-cornered, 
 it still contains foreign metal. Preserve and 
 add it to the next melting of scrap. It will 
 decidedly not pay to attempt to refine the 
 scrap, as the assayer can do it much cheaper 
 and better. 
 
 TO ALLOY GOLD. 
 
 T is not always convenient to obtain pure 
 gold to modify our alloys; consequently 
 gold coin is used which is 900 fine, and as our 
 books and instructions I believe without ex¬ 
 ception only give the rules for pure or fine 
 gold as it is termed, I will give the rules for 
 compounding alloys of any fineness less than 
 from standard American gold coin. The 
 rule for calculating the proportions is the 
 one known in the arithmetics as alligation. 
 
 There is a feature of the calculations which 
 should be taken into consideration, and that 
 is the absurd usage of a 24-karat standard. 
 All our alloys should be on a decimal basis. 
 If we look for a composition of brass or bell- 
 metal in any work on metallurgy we find the 
 proportions invariably given in hundredths, 
 and so in the present case, as our coin stand¬ 
 ard is in one thousandths, let us use the same 
 standard in all gold alloys and call 18-karat 
 gold Td S wo fi ne - I presume most of my read¬ 
 ers are familiar with the rules of alligation ; 
 still one would be very excusable for not 
 recollecting them, as in business life, except 
 to jewelers, they are seldom called into use. 
 The method of working the rule is as fol¬ 
 lows : We will first, however, give the deci¬ 
 mal equivalent for the different alloys in 
 one thousandths: 
 
 Fineness in Fineness in 
 
 Karats. 
 
 ioooths. 
 
 Karats. ioooths. 
 
 24 - 
 
 IOOO 
 
 12 — .500 
 
 23 = 
 
 • 95 8 
 
 11 = .458 
 
 22 = 
 
 • 9 W 
 
 10 = .416 
 
 2 I = 
 
 • 8 75 
 
 9 — -375 
 
 20 — 
 
 • 8 33 
 
 8 - -333 
 
 I 9 = 
 
 .792 
 
 7 = .292 
 
 l8 = 
 
 ■ 75 ° 
 
 6 = .250 
 
 17 = 
 
 .708 
 
 5 == .208 
 
 16 — 
 
 .667 
 
 4 = - i6 7 
 
 15 = 
 
 .625 
 
 3 = - I2 5 
 
 14 = 
 
 •583 
 
 2 - .083 
 
 13 = 
 
 •542 
 
 1 = .042 
 
 The reader need not be told that to con¬ 
 vert the karat expression into decimals, he 
 should add cyphers to the karats fine given 
 and divide by 24 ; as, for instance, what is 
 the decimal of 18-k. ? Add 000 which re¬ 
 duces it to thousandths and divide by 24 ; 
 18.000 -f 24 = .750. The alligation method 
 is worked as follows: Suppose we have 
 some 1 o-k. scrap we wish to raise to 14-k., 
 by adding gold coin 900 fine we would work 
 it thus: Write the desired fineness in deci¬ 
 mals to the left (14-k. in decimals being 583) 
 thus: 
 
 416 = 317 
 900 = 167 
 
 then to the right put the decimal of 10-k., 
 416 (see table), and below this put the gold 
 coin decimal of 900. Still farther to the 
 right we write the difference between 583 
 and 900, not opposite to the 900, but opposite 
 the 416 or 1 o-k. decimal, while opposite the 
 900 we write the difference between 583 and 
 416. Now, the meaning of this is, if we 
 
GOLD AND ITS ALLOYS. 
 
 I 11 
 
 take 317 parts of 10-k. gold and add 167 
 parts of coin gold, we will have a mixture 
 (alloy) of 14-k. gold. To prove this let us 
 suppose the 317 and 167 represents dwts. of 
 gold, the first of 10-k. fine is worth say 40 
 cts. a dwt., and the second, coin gold worth 
 86 cts., 4 mills a dwt. Now, 317 and 167 
 added together as 14-k. alloy will make 484 
 dwts., and this at 56 cts. a dwt. (4 cts. a 
 karat fine), amounts to $271.04. To form 
 this 484 dwts. of 14-k. alloy, we used 167 
 dwts. of coin gold worth 86.4 cts. a dwt. 
 and 317 dwts. oT 10-k. worth 40 cts. a dwt. 
 The first amounts to $144.28 and the latter 
 $126.80; added together they amount to 
 $271.08, the 4 cts. discrepancy arising from 
 the decimals on the 10 and 14-k. as will be 
 seen by taking a series which have perfect 
 decimal expression. Even the slight loss 
 noticed could be reduced to a fraction of a 
 cent by carrying the decimal expression out 
 two figures farther. The truth or accuracy 
 of the rule will be demonstrated by taking 
 such an expression as the following which 
 give perfect decimals, when we will raise 
 some 12-k. to 18-k. stated thus: 
 
 ( COO = I CO 
 7C0 s 0 0 
 
 ' J ( 900 — 2^0 
 
 In this case every 150 parts of 12-k. will 
 require 250 parts of coin 900 fine. We will 
 suppose we have 30 dwts. of 12-k. we raise 
 to 18-k.; we make the statement of 150 
 parts of 12-k. require 250 parts of 900, what 
 will 30 parts require—thus : 
 
 150 : 250 : : 30 : the required amount. 
 We work it out as follows : 
 
 250 x 30 = 7>5°° '5° =• 5°> 
 
 the required dwts. of coin gold 900 fine. 
 Now, to see how this will pan out by values 
 as above where no loss from decimals will 
 occur. We have 80 dwts. of 18-k. from the 
 30 dwts. of 12-k. and 50 dwts. of coin gold; 
 now, 50 dwts. at 72 cts. is $57.60. And 30 
 dwts. of 12-k. at 48 cts. is $14.40, and 50 
 dwts. of coin gold at 86.4 cts. is $43.20, 
 which added to $14.40 gives us $57.60, the 
 same result as before. In calculations it is 
 as well to use grains; as, for instance, we 
 had 26 dwts., 14 grains of gold, we would 
 express it thus, 534 ; it would make no differ¬ 
 ence with the method of stating the question 
 as in illustration of the last proposition of 30 
 dwts. only we would say 720 grs.; thus: 
 
 150 : 250 : : 720 : 1,200 (grs.). 
 
 It is almost needless to say 1,200 divided 
 by 24 gives the dwts. 
 
 GOLD AND ITS ALLOYS. 
 
 IGHTEEN-karat gold, from the pecul¬ 
 iar nature of its alloy, can be wrought 
 into almost any article of exquisite beauty 
 and delicate workmanship; if properly cast, 
 it is both malleable and tenacious. It is also 
 exceedingly ductile. A hardness is imparted 
 to this quality of gold, which admirably 
 adapts it to the manufacture of jewelry of 
 the highest order. There is, perhaps, a diffi¬ 
 culty in preparing eighteen-karat gold, not 
 experienced in some other alloys ; this defect 
 soon shows itself when subjected to the 
 breaking-down mill, by little cracks all over 
 the surface of the bar of gold; and when 
 this appearance presents itself, it is by far the 
 most economical plan to remelt it at once 
 than to go on with the breaking-down ; for 
 when the process of slitting is attempted, the 
 gold will all fly into little fragments, and the 
 probability is that some will be lost. The 
 prevailing opinion in the trade is, that this 
 want of unity or amalgamation of the par¬ 
 ticles of the gold and alloy is due to the 
 copper which is employed. Our experience 
 teaches us—having tried every kind of cop¬ 
 per, from the bean-shot down to the best 
 refined Swedish wire, for the purpose of pro¬ 
 ducing eighteen-karat gold rather cheaper— 
 that we have invariably found that there is 
 not so much in the quality of the copper as 
 in the quantity used. This we wish to state 
 for the benefit of the goldsmiths’ trade. 
 Formerly we used a rather large proportion 
 of copper, in order to effect a small saving 
 per ounce, but the misfortune to which we 
 have just alluded sometimes presented itself, 
 and after trying all sorts of copper, with no 
 certainty of permanent success, we thought 
 of the plan of alloying with more silver and 
 less copper. In this we succeeded, and now 
 never meet with a bar exhibiting the defects 
 after rolling just described. 
 
 It is the most economical plan, when these 
 defects appear, to reduce the bar to the regu¬ 
 lar nine-karat quality. It is only right to 
 say that we always found eighteen-karat gold 
 alloyed with bean-shot copper, a more diffi¬ 
 cult and harder alloy to work with than when 
 the refined wire was used. One great draw¬ 
 back in shot copper (which is very injurious 
 in alloying, particularly in this quality), is 
 that it may contain lead or tin ; and half a 
 
112 
 
 GOLD AND ITS ALLOYS. 
 
 grain of either in an ounce of this gold will 
 prevent it from working. This quality of 
 gold is now always manufactured fully up to 
 the standard fineness. 
 
 COLORS OF GOLD. 
 
 Yellow gold —pure or fine gold, 24 parts. 
 
 Red gold —fine gold, 18 parts ; copper, 6 
 parts. 
 
 Green gold —fine gold, 18 parts ; silver, 6 
 parts. 
 
 Blue gold —fine gold, 18 parts; iron, 6 
 parts. 
 
 White gold —fine gold, 12 parts ; silver, 1 2 
 parts. 
 
 Platinum, or fine silver, may be employed 
 for white gold. Red and white are generally 
 employed for flowers, green for leaves, while 
 the stems or sprays may be made' of yellow 
 or fine gold. Blue gold may be used for 
 special purposes of ornamentation. This 
 latter alloy requires great practical knowl¬ 
 edge, as it. presents many difficulties in its 
 preparation ; these are best overcome, first, 
 by melting the gold, and then introducing 
 some iron wire into the molten mass, until 
 the proper quantity of alloy is formed. Then 
 the crucibles must be withdrawn, and the 
 composition poured out into an ingot-mold 
 prepared for its reception. This alloy must 
 not be quenched in water, but allowed to 
 cool; the ingot of gold to be perfect should 
 exhibit no signs of porosity ; if it turns out 
 of the ingot-mold in proper condition, it 
 must be well hammered upon the edge, and 
 annealed in order to render the grain more 
 close and prevent it cracking in the rolling- 
 mill. This process may be wisely repeated 
 upon the surface, and the ingot again put 
 through the fire. The gold is then ready for 
 the breaking-down mill, and may be safely 
 wrought into wires or sheets of different 
 sizes. 
 
 Fifteen-karat gold is another alloy largely 
 used in the manufacture of colored jewelry. 
 This quality, to our mind, is second to none 
 with respect to works of art in jewelry, both 
 in regard to taste and appearance as well as 
 durability. It can be made to look quite 
 equal to the finest gold, and in addition it is 
 easy of manipulation ; almost any article can 
 be easily made from it, whilst the hardness 
 which nine parts of alloy impart, is not such 
 as to prove a hindrance or a difficulty in the 
 manufacture, but unites with it that amount 
 of strength and durability which is so essen¬ 
 tial in costly articles of jewelry. These ad¬ 
 
 vantages make articles of this gold wear 
 much better than when made of a softer 
 material; they also keep their form and 
 shape a considerable time longer. 
 
 Thirteen-karat gold is called common 
 when speaking of colored goods, for the 
 reason that it is about the lowest quality that 
 can be conveniently colored to look rich and 
 beautiful. A slightly inferior quality (12^- 
 karat) can be colored, but thirteen-karat is 
 about the usual kind employed in all respect¬ 
 able colored-gold houses. In Birmingham 
 a very large quantity of gold is weekly em¬ 
 ployed in manufactures of this kind. 
 
 Twelve-karat gold is the best of the bright 
 golds, and is so called to distinguish it from 
 the colored; although any of the qualities 
 that are described in speaking of colored 
 gold may be made bright by a little variation 
 in the mixture of alloy. No gold inferior 
 to twelve-karat will color to present that 
 appearance which characterizes the higher 
 qualities. Twelve-karat gold finished bright 
 has a fine, rich, sparkling appearance, and 
 when the workmanship is good is very im¬ 
 posing ; it is a good quality to work upon, 
 being tolerably soft and ductile, as well as 
 possessing good malleable properties. 
 
 Ten-karat gold sustains all the character¬ 
 istics of the former quality, both as regards 
 facility of manufacture and finish. A large 
 quantity of goods is made of this quality in 
 Birmingham. 
 
 Nine-karat gold is regularly manufactured 
 into all kinds of bright goods, and this qual¬ 
 ity, when made fully up to the standard of 
 fineness, is of a good appearance. After all, 
 the quality which is most extensively em¬ 
 ployed in every possible description of manu¬ 
 facture, is usually below this standard, prob¬ 
 ably it is about 8)4 karats; and if alloyed 
 according to the appended table will stand 
 the aqua test perfectly well. Nine-karat of 
 the mixture of alloy given in‘the table will 
 stand more than ordinary treatment from the 
 hands of the workman, and may be touched 
 and removed from the annealing pan while 
 still red hot, without injury to any subsequent 
 manipulation of it; it may also be quenched 
 at any degree of heat in pickle or water, if 
 any advantage is likely to accrue from it; 
 but we strongly object to the continuous 
 quenching of gold alloys at every subsequent 
 process of annealing, partly because every 
 time the metal is quenched in sulphuric acid 
 pickle, a portion of alloy in these low qualities 
 is dissolved. This improves the quality of 
 
GOLD AND ITS ALLOYS. 
 
 i 13 
 
 the gold, by which the manufacturer does 
 not receive any benefit, but is actually a 
 loser. Moreover, we shall see that, when 
 we come to the processes of soldering, this 
 pickling or boiling-out is perfectly indispen¬ 
 sable. 
 
 Nine-karat alloys, if alloys with too much 
 spelter, will not present the characteristics 
 we have just named in respect to treatment; 
 if shaken or touched while hot, they are very 
 brittle and difficult to work; consequently 
 they take longer in working, and therefore 
 the same quantity of goods cannot be pro¬ 
 duced in a given time with these alloys as 
 with those we have just described. The 
 great point in the manufacture of gold articles 
 should be to get the greatest amount of real 
 work out of the smallest amount of material, 
 so as to make the least possible waste or 
 scrap for remelting; for this reason we say 
 that the alloys which mostly tend to this ob¬ 
 ject are the best for jewelers to use in their 
 manufactures. 
 
 Eight-karat gold is sometimes used in the 
 manufacture of jewelry, and is often styled 
 nine-karat No. 2, in some of the workshops 
 where this quality is somewhat extensively 
 •employed. In order to stand the aqua test 
 it must be alloyed with more silver than or¬ 
 dinary nine-karat gold, and when finished 
 appears rather paler to the eye ; this may be 
 a partial guide as to quality, but not always 
 a sure one; if properly alloyed it works ex¬ 
 ceedingly well in any process of preparation, 
 from the ingot-bar down to the finished ar¬ 
 ticles ; but, of course, judgment must be 
 used by the workman as to the proper periods 
 for annealing; if this be neglected the gold 
 will become hard and brittle, and, as to the 
 process of preparing proceeds, it will break 
 and fall to pieces. 
 
 Seven-karat gold is generally termed com¬ 
 mon gold, and is about the lowest quality 
 manufactured ; it requires extra care in work¬ 
 ing on account of the very large proportion 
 of silver it contains, which increases the fusi¬ 
 bility of this alloy. Care must necessarily be 
 taken in annealing and soldering. The in¬ 
 creased proportion of silver is requisite to 
 enable the articles manufactured from it to 
 stand the gold test of aqua fortis. Gold 
 chains of this quality are now very seldom 
 made. The common alloys of gold have 
 much lower fusible point than' those of a 
 superior quality. 
 
 Pure silver has a brilliant white color, and 
 is the whitest of all the metals; none surpass 
 
 it in luster; and in hardness it ranges be¬ 
 tween pure gold and pure copper. It is 
 more fusible than copper or gold, melting at 
 a bright red heat or at 1,873° F. It is com¬ 
 monly used for the purpose of alloying gold 
 in its pure state, but if too much be ac^led it 
 makes the gold pale. 
 
 Pure copper has a reddish appearance, and 
 is the only metal of that color; it is both 
 malleable and ductile, hence it is used as an 
 alloy for gold. In fusibility it stands be¬ 
 tween silver and gold. It is a very useful 
 metal, a large number of cheap alloys being 
 manufactured from it. 
 
 Composition is a mixture of copper and 
 zinc, and is used by jewelers in alloying. 
 Some of them profess to have secrets with 
 regard to color, which is produced by differ¬ 
 ent proportions of the composition. 
 
 When it is necessary to form hard gold, 
 this metal may be safely employed, although 
 it will not be wise to use too much, about 
 four dwts. to the ounce of fine gold being 
 ample ; if, as we have already observed, too 
 much be added, it will make the gold brittle 
 and unworkable. With less silver and more 
 composition an alloy is formed equal in ap¬ 
 pearance to one, two or three karats higher, 
 but it is very difficult to work, and after be¬ 
 ing some time in wear it changes color. 
 This alloy cannot be attempted in very 
 inferior qualities, as it will not stand the 
 acid. 
 
 TABLE OF ALLOYS. 
 
 For 23 karats—23 parts gold, y 2 part cop¬ 
 per, ) / 2 part silver. 
 
 For 22 karats—22 parts gold, 1 part cop¬ 
 per, 1 part silver. 
 
 For 20 karats—20 parts gold, 2 parts 
 copper, 2 parts silver. 
 
 For 18 karats—18 parts gold, 3 parts 
 copper, 3 parts silver. 
 
 For 15 karats—15 parts gold, 6 parts cop¬ 
 per, 3 parts silver. 
 
 For 13 karats—13 parts gold, 8 parts cop¬ 
 per, 3 parts silver. 
 
 For 12 karats—12 parts gold, 8 y 2 parts 
 copper, 3j4 parts silver. 
 
 For 10 karats—10 parts gold, 10 parts 
 copper, 4 parts silver. 
 
 For 9 karats—9 parts gold, ioy parts 
 copper, y / 2 parts silver. 
 
 For 8 karats—8 parts gold, 10 y 2 parts 
 copper, 5 y 2 parts silver. 
 
 For 7 karats—7 parts gold, 9 parts cop¬ 
 per, 8 parts silver. 
 
GOLD SOLDERS. 
 
 114 
 
 For composition—16 parts copper, 8 parts 
 spelter (purified zinc). 
 
 The above table represents the full stand¬ 
 ard quality of alloy (used in England); if it 
 be needful to make an inferior alloy, which 
 is often the case in the manufacture of 
 jewelry, the same calculation in respect to 
 the inferior metals will do, but a small por¬ 
 tion of fine gold must be deducted till it 
 brings the alloy down to the value required. 
 
 VARIOUS GOLD ALLOYS. 
 
 The following mixtures will answer all the 
 ordinary purposes of the manufacturing jew¬ 
 eler for his gold alloys : 
 
 Gold , 2 2 karats , for wedding rings or med¬ 
 als : 22 parts fine gold, i fine silver, i copper. 
 
 Gold, 18 karats , bright: 18 parts fine gold, 
 4 fine silver, 2 copper. 
 
 Gold, 18 karats , colored: 18 parts fine 
 gold, 4 copper, 2 silver. 
 
 Gold, 15 karats , bright: 15 parts fine gold, 
 6 fine silver, 3 copper, or 15 parts 18 kt. 
 bright gold, 2 fine silver, 1 copper, or 15 
 parts 18 kt. colored gold, 2 y 2 fine silver, y 
 copper. 
 
 Gold, 15 karats , colored: 15 parts fine 
 gold, 6 copper, 3 fine silver, or 1 5 parts 18 
 kt. colored gold, 2 copper, 1 fine silver, or 
 15 parts 18 kt. bright gold, 2^ copper, y 2 
 fine silver. 
 
 Gold, 1 2 karats: 12 parts fine gold, 8 fine 
 gold, 4 copper, or 12 parts 18 kt. colored 
 gold, 4 fine silver, 2 copper, or 12 parts 18 
 kt. bright gold, 3 fine silver, 3 copper, or 1 2 
 parts 1 5 kt. colored gold, 2 fine silver, 1 cop¬ 
 per, or 12 parts 15 kt. bright gold, 1 y 2 fine 
 silver, 1 *4 copper, 3 parts fine gold, 1 2 parts 
 of 9 kt. gold, or 3 parts 18 kt. colored gold, 
 6 parts 9 kt. gold, or 3 parts 15 kt. colored 
 gold, 3 parts 9 kt. gold. 
 
 Gold, 9 karats: 9 parts fine gold, 8 fine 
 silver, 7 copper, or 9 parts fine gold, 7 fine 
 silver, 5 copper, 3 brass, or 9 parts 18 kt. 
 colored gold, 6 fine silver, 3 copper. 9 parts 
 1 8 kt. colored gold, 5 fine silver, 2 copper, 2 
 brass, or 9 parts 18 kt. bright gold, 5 fine 
 silver, 4 copper, or 9 parts 15 kt. colored 
 gold, 4 fine silver, 2 copper, or 9 parts 15 kt. 
 colored gold, 3 fine silver, 1 copper, 2 brass. 
 
 HARD GOLD ALLOY. 
 
 A very hard gold alloy which may be 
 used for many purposes, is obtained by 
 melting together three parts gold, two parts 
 silver, four parts copper, and one part pal¬ 
 
 ladium. The mixture is of a brownish-red 
 color and assumes a high polish. We should 
 think that it would be excellent for jewel 
 holes ; a good hard alloy would be preferable 
 to colored glass jewels seen in many low- 
 grade watches. 
 
 NOTES ON ALLOYS. 
 
 Mr. Guthier, in his work on “ Metal Al¬ 
 loys,” gives a few suggestions on the subject 
 of fusing the metals: 1. The melting pot 
 
 should be red hot (a white heat is better), 
 and those metals first placed in which require 
 the most heat to fuse them. 2. Place the 
 metals into the melting pot in strict order, 
 following exactly the different fusing points 
 from the highest degree of temperature re¬ 
 quired, down to the lowest, in regular order, 
 and being especially careful to refrain from 
 adding the next metals until those already in 
 the pot are completely melted. 3. When 
 the metals fused together in the crucible 
 require very different tempjeratures to melt 
 them, a layer of charcoal should be placed 
 upon them, or if there is much tin in the al¬ 
 loy, a layer of sand should be used. 4. The 
 molten mass should be vigorously stirred 
 with a stick, and even while pouring it into 
 another vessel, the stirring should not be re¬ 
 laxed. 5. Another hint is to use a little old 
 alloy in making new, if there is any on hand, 
 and the concluding word of caution is to 
 make sure that the melting pots are abso¬ 
 lutely clean and free from any traces of for¬ 
 mer operation. 
 
 GOLD SOLDERS. 
 
 A S it is difficult to procure, at the time 
 . when most wanted, alloys for solders 
 that are the most suitable and advantageous 
 for the various kinds of work without no little 
 inconvenience in effecting a proper composi¬ 
 tion, we here append a list suitable for all 
 the qualities of colored gold work as manu¬ 
 factured by jewelers and goldsmiths : 
 
 GOLD SOLDER SUITABLE FOR I 8-KARAT WORK. 
 
 oz. dwts. grs. 
 
 Gold, fine. 1 o o 
 
 Silver, fine. o 6 o 
 
 Copper wire. o 4 o 
 
 1 1 o o 
 
 Or 3 dwts. of copper and dwt. of composi¬ 
 tion instead of all copper. 
 
GOLD SOLDERS. 
 
 11 5 
 
 GOLD SOLDER SUITABLE FOR 
 
 18 
 
 -KARAT WORK. 
 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Gold, fine. 
 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 Silver, fine. 
 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 O 
 
 Gopper wire.. 
 
 
 0 
 
 5 
 
 I 2 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 1 2 
 
 I 2 
 
 Or 4 dwts. of copper and 1 
 
 
 dwts. of com- 
 
 position instead of all copper. 
 
 
 
 
 GOLD SOLDER SUITABLE FOR 
 
 16 
 
 -K. 
 
 \RA1 
 
 ' WORK. 
 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Gold, fine. 
 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 Silver, fine-. 
 
 
 0 
 
 8 
 
 O 
 
 Gopper wire. 
 
 
 0 
 
 7 
 
 O 
 
 115 o 
 
 Or 5 dwts. of copper and 2 dwts. of com¬ 
 position instead of all copper. 
 
 take 5 dwts. gold, 13 dwts. silver and 6 dwts. 
 copper. Melt and cast into bars; as s'oon 
 as it can be handled, break into pieces and 
 throw into the melting pot; while the pot is 
 hot add 15 grains of brass and melt again ; 
 when thoroughly mixed, cast into a bar and 
 roll it out thin for use. Another solder, 
 much used for low grade gold, is made as 
 follows: 3 dwts. gold, 2 silver, ^2 copper; 
 melt as above, and at the second melting 
 add, when fused, % dwt. zinc in small pieces, 
 and as soon as mixed pour into the mold. 
 This solder runs at a dull red heat; three- 
 fourths dwt. zinc in place of one-half would 
 flow sooner, but would be apt to eat into the 
 work if too high or too low heat was used. 
 But that would be of little consequence if 
 the article to be soldered was of brass. 
 
 GOLD SOLDER SUITABLE FOR I 5-ICARAT WORK. 
 
 oz. dwts. grs. 
 
 Gold, fine. 
 
 . . . . r 0 
 
 Silver, fine. 
 
 
 Copper wire. 
 
 . . . . 010 
 
 2 0 0 
 
 Or 7^ dwts. of copper and 2 y 2 dwts. of 
 composition instead of all copper. 
 
 SOFT GOLD SOLDER FOR 14 KARATS. 
 
 Melt equal parts of 14-karat gold and sil¬ 
 ver solder, and hammer it into thin sheets 
 upon the anvil. This solder will satisfy 
 all the demands of a watch repairer. It 
 is advisable to use silver solder for a low- 
 grade, say 6- or 8-karat gold goods, which 
 consists of 2 parts fine silver and 1 brass, 
 with the addition of a gram of tin. 
 
 GOLD SOLDER SUITABLE FOR 14-KARAT WORK. 
 
 oz. dwts. grs. 
 
 Gold, fine. i o o 
 
 Silver, fine. o 12 12 
 
 Copper wire. o 12 12 
 
 250 
 
 Or 9dwts. of copper and 3 dwts. of com¬ 
 position instead of all copper. 
 
 GOLD SOLDER SUITABLE FOR ANY COLORED 
 WORK. 
 
 oz. dwts. grs. 
 
 Gold, fine. 
 
 
 O 
 
 0 
 
 Silver, fine. 
 
 . . . . 0 
 
 15 
 
 O 
 
 Copper wire. 
 
 
 I 2 
 
 1 2 
 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 1 2 
 
 Or g l /2 dwts. of copper and 3 dwts. of com¬ 
 position instead of all copper. 
 
 EASILY FLOWING YELLOW HARD SOLDER. 
 
 A yellow solder is frequently required in 
 country shops ; it must flow at a low heat, 
 and be a hard solder at the same time. 
 Of course, each shop contains its own rec¬ 
 ipe, each one possessing its own merits, 
 but the following will be found as good as 
 the best: For an easy flowing 5-karat solder, 
 
 SOFT GOLD SOLDER FOR 8 AND 14 KARATS. 
 
 A nice soft solder for 8- and 14-karat 
 gold consists of 1.5 parts fine silver, 0.5 
 part fine copper, 1.6 parts 14-karat gold, 
 and 0.4 part zinc; the first three metals are 
 well melted and mixed together, and when 
 well in a fluid state, the zinc is added, the 
 whole left for a few moments in fusion, until 
 it melts, not volatilizes, and then cast. 
 
 GOLD SOLDER. 
 
 To make a gold solder, instead of reduc¬ 
 ing the quality of your gold with copper, 
 silver, or brass, use a silver solder com¬ 
 posed of three dwts. coin silver and one dwt. 
 English pins. I never keep gold solder by 
 me ; when I make a piece of jewelry, as soon 
 as I get the gold worked out, I take a piece 
 of it, and reduce it with about its own weight 
 of the silver solder, with the blow-pipe on 
 charcoal. It matters not if the work is to be 
 bright or colored, it always comes out sat¬ 
 isfactory. I, however, make colored work 
 always of at least 1 5 karats. By what I have 
 said, my solder will be, say, 8 karats. Some 
 will say, perhaps, that such solder will not 
 color ; neither will it, but it must be borne in 
 mind that when pieces of gold are solder.d 
 
RESTORING THE COLOR OF GOLD AFTER HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 116 
 
 together, the surface melts and combines 
 with the solder, thereby improving 8 karats 
 to 12 karats. This, of course, will be a very 
 easy running solder, intended for light work, 
 and where a large number of pieces are to be 
 joined ; for a heavy job, do not reduce it 
 quite as much. _ 
 
 SOFT-SOLDERING ARTICLES. 
 
 OISTEN the parts to be united with 
 the soldering fluid, then, having joined 
 them together, lay a small piece of solder 
 upon the joint, and hold over the lamp, or 
 direct the blaze upon it with the blow-pipe, 
 until fusion is apparent. Withdraw them 
 from the blaze immediately, as too much 
 heat will render the solder brittle and unsat¬ 
 isfactory. When the parts to be joined can 
 be made to spring or press against each 
 other, it is best to place a thin piece of solder 
 between them before exposing to the lamp. 
 When two smooth surfaces are to be soldered 
 one upon the other, you make an excellent 
 job by moistening them with the fluid, and 
 then having placed a sheet of tinfoil between 
 them, holding them pressed together over your 
 lamp till the foil melts. If the surfaces fit 
 nicely, a joint may be made in this manner 
 so close as almost to be imperceptible. The 
 bright looking lead which comes as a lining 
 <of tea boxes, is better than tinfoil. 
 
 SOLDERING FLUID. 
 
 A N exchange gives the following recipe 
 for making a soldering fluid for soft- 
 soldering jewelry. Dissolve sheet zinc in 
 hydrochloric acid until the acid will take up 
 no more zinc. Turn off the clear liquid and 
 dilute it with alcohol in place of water. 
 When diluted with water, it must retain acid 
 enough to rust, but with alcohol the dilution 
 can go on until the acid is not perceptible by 
 the tongue. _ 
 
 SOLDERING A RING WITH A JEWEL. 
 
 N order to prevent the bursting of the 
 jewels of a ring, when soldering the 
 latter for repairs, take a juicy potato, cut it 
 into halves, make a hollow in both portions in 
 which that part of the ring with the jewels 
 fits exactly, so that that part of the ring to 
 be soldered protrudes. Then wrap the jew¬ 
 eled portion in fine silk paper, place it in the 
 hollow, and bind up the closed potato with 
 binding wire. Now, solder with easily-flow¬ 
 ing gold solder—not upon a coal, but by 
 
 holding the potato in the hand. Another 
 good way to do the same job is to fill a 
 small crucible with wet sand, bury that part 
 of the ring with jewels in the sand, and then 
 solder. _ 
 
 TO REMOVE SOLDER STAINS. 
 
 HE removal of solder stains, to a certain 
 extent, depends on the nature of the 
 article you are soldering. If you are solder¬ 
 ing gilt metal, German silver or silver, you 
 may scrape it off. If you use pickle, you 
 will leave a stain that will require to be pol¬ 
 ished off. If soldering bright gold you can 
 use pickle rubbed on with a cork. With 
 colored gold, it would be better to use a 
 little color. Pickle is merely nitric acid and 
 water, in the proportion of half a gill of acid 
 to a pint of water. 
 
 TO REMOVE SOFT SOLDER FROM 
 GOLD AND SILVER WORK. 
 
 HE following method is given by Mr. 
 A. Watt: Place the soldered article in 
 a hot solution of perchloride of iron—made 
 by dissolving crocus or jewelers’ rouge in 
 muriatic acid—diluting the solution with four 
 times its bulk of water, and there leaving it 
 until the solder is removed. A formula 
 recommended by Qee for this purpose is 
 composed of protosulphate of iron (green 
 copperas), 2 oz. ; nitrate of potassa (salt¬ 
 peter), 1 oz. ; water, 10 oz. Reduce the 
 protosulphate of iron and nitrate of potassa 
 to a fine powder, then add these ingredients 
 to the water and boil in a cast-iron saucepan 
 for some time ; allow the liquid to cool, when 
 crystals will be formed; if any of the liquid 
 should remain uncrystallized, pour it from the 
 crystals and again evaporate and crystallize. 
 The crystallized salt should be dissolved in 
 muriatic acid in the proportion of 1 oz. of 
 the salt to 8 of acid. Now take 1 oz. of this 
 solution and add to it 4 ozs. of boiling water 
 in a pipkin, keeping up the heat as before. 
 In a short time the most obstinate cases of 
 soft solder will be cleanly and entirely over¬ 
 come and the solder removed without the 
 work changing color. 
 
 RESTORING THE COLOR OF GOLD 
 AFTER HARD SOLDERING. 
 
 HERE are different ways, according to 
 the effect desired, as for plain or mat 
 gold, Roman or Etruscan, etc. To describe 
 
SEPARATING GOLD FROM GILT ARTICLES. 
 
 all would make quite a good-sized book. 
 The simplest and easiest way is to expose all 
 parts of the article to a uniform heat, allow 
 it to cool, then boil it until bright in a pickle 
 made with about ounce of sulphuric acid 
 to one ounce of rain water. Another way 
 is to first pickle, then color. Anneal and 
 boil in a pickle made of nitric acid and 
 water, then again anneal black and dip in a 
 coloring mixture made as follows: Put into 
 the coloring pot or a No. io black-lead cru¬ 
 cible 9 oz. 12 dwts. of saltpeter, and 4 oz. 
 15 dwts. of table salt. Heat it up without 
 water, then add hot water enough to make 
 a thick paste; let it boil, add 6}4 oz. of 
 muriatic acid and stir it up well. In using, 
 keep up a quick and lively fire, and the mixt¬ 
 ure should boil up till it fills the crucible— 
 which should have been previously well an¬ 
 nealed to avoid breaking. The mixture re¬ 
 moves more or less of the gold, and the 
 operation should therefore be performed as 
 quickly as possible. With good gold 1 ]/ 2 to 
 2 minutes will be long enough to expose it 
 to the mixture. The article should be con¬ 
 stantly stirred about, taking care not to let 
 any of the surface get out of the color, as the 
 vapors will affect the work. Then rinse it in 
 a pickle, dip in hot water, wash well in am¬ 
 monia, again dip in hot water and dry thor¬ 
 oughly in hot sawdust. This color may be 
 used with gold ranging between 12 and 20 
 karats fine, but the finest coloring can be got 
 with about 15-karat gold. If not thoroughly 
 dried the work is liable to become spotted. 
 Much practice is needed to be successful. 
 
 WHEN WRONG SOLDER IS USED. 
 
 HEN colored gold-work intended for 
 coloring has, by mistake, been soldered 
 with silver solder, which renders it unfit for 
 the purpose, it can be prepared again for the 
 operation by being placed in tolerably strong 
 nitric acid, of good commercial quality and 
 free from muriatic acid, as the latter would 
 cause the mixture to be decomposed, with 
 liberation of chlorine and dissolution of the 
 gold. The nitric acid solution, if chemically 
 pure acid is employed, will entirely free the 
 work from all traces of the wrong solder, 
 breaking it up and dissolving it without in¬ 
 juring in any way the articles operated upon. 
 After the solder has been removed, and the 
 work taken from the solution or acid, it 
 should be rinsed, annealed and boiled out in 
 dilute sulphuric acid—commonly called oil 
 
 1 17 
 
 of vitriol—before re-soldering again with 
 the proper solder. The nitric-acid solution 
 should be of good strength, although not too 
 strong; a good mixture consists of one part 
 of acid to four of water. It should be used 
 hot, and the necessary heat can be kept up 
 to the point required by means of a gas jet. 
 
 TO REMOVE SOFT SOLDER. 
 
 OW to get rid of soft solder on such 
 jobs as one has to hard solder. Boil 
 the job in a mixture of crocus and muriatic 
 acid. Take 4 ounces of muriatic acid and 
 add y 2 an ounce of crocus in a bottle ; shake 
 the mixture well. Take of this mixture 1 
 ounce and add 4 ounces of hot water, and 
 keep it hot over a lamp or gas flame; put 
 your article in, and in a short time the soft 
 solder will be dissolved off. 
 
 SEPARATING GOLD FROM GILT 
 ARTICLES. 
 
 RON and steel articles, says A. Rose- 
 leur, are ungilt without any injury to 
 themselves, by dipping them into a bath of 
 10 parts of cyanide of potassium and 100 
 parts of water, and connecting them with 
 the positive pole of a battery. A wire or 
 foil of platinum is fixed to the negative pole. 
 This is inverting the position of the poles, 
 and in this case the gold applied upon the 
 iron or steel is dissolved in the solution of 
 cyanide, and partly deposited upon the plati¬ 
 num anode, from which it is removed in a 
 regular gold bath. When there is only a film 
 of gold upon iron or steel, it may be removed 
 by the cyanide alone without the aid of elec¬ 
 tricity, but the method is slow. 
 
 Silver, copper, and their alloys, may also 
 be ungilt by this process, but the cyanide 
 dissolves, at the same time, the gold and part 
 of the other metals; it is, therefore, prefer¬ 
 able to operate as follows: For ungilding 
 silver, it is heated to a cherry-red heat, and 
 immediately thrown into a pickle of more or 
 less diluted sulphuric acid. The gold scales 
 off and falls to the bottom in the shape of 
 spangles. The operation is repeated until 
 gold no longer appears upon the surface of 
 the silver, which is then white and frosty. 
 This process is not adapted to light and hol¬ 
 low articles, for which the preceding process 
 is better. For copper and its alloys, in small 
 articles such as false jewelry, thinly gilt, 
 either by battery or by dipping, use the fol- 
 
REFINING GOLD THAT WILL NOT WORK. 
 
 118 
 
 lowing bath : sulphuric acid, io parts; nitric 
 acid, i part; hydrochloric acid, 2 parts. 
 
 The large quantity of‘sulphuric acid allows 
 of the solution of gold, whilst it does not 
 sensibly attack copper or its alloys. The 
 sulphuric acid is put alone into a stoneware 
 jar, and the mixture of hydrochloric and 
 nitric acids, kept in a stoppered bottle, is 
 gradually added to it as the operation pro¬ 
 ceeds. The same sulphuric acid may last a 
 long time if it is kept well covered, and its 
 dissolving action promoted by successive ad¬ 
 ditions of nitric and hydrochloric acids. The 
 articles should be often withdrawn to watch 
 the operation, which is terminated when no 
 gold is seen, and when the copper has ac¬ 
 quired a uniform blackish-gray coat; or, by 
 plunging the objects into the compound 
 acids, they will be perfectly cleansed when 
 the gold has all dissolved. 
 
 Saltpeter and common salt may be substi¬ 
 tuted for nitric acid and hydrochloric acid ; 
 the salts must be finely powdered and stirred 
 with a glass rod. 
 
 For large objects, such as clocks or chan¬ 
 deliers, concentrated sulphuric acid, 6t>° 
 Beaume, is put into a glass or stoneware ves¬ 
 sel supporting two brass rods. One of these 
 rods is connected by a conducting wire with 
 the last carbon of a battery of two or three 
 Bunsen’s inserted elements, and supports the 
 objects to be ungilt, which are entirely cov¬ 
 ered by the sulphuric acid. The other rod 
 supports a copper plate, facing the object, 
 and is connected with the last zinc of the 
 battery. The electric fluid traverses the sul¬ 
 phuric acid, and carries the gold from the 
 positive to the negative pole; as the copper 
 plate is not prepared for retaining the gold, 
 it falls to the bottom of the bath in a black 
 powder, which is easily recovered. So long 
 as the sulphuric acid is concentrated, and 
 even under the action of the galvanic cur¬ 
 rent, it does not sensibly corrode the copper. 
 As it rapidly absorbs the dampness of the 
 atmosphere, the vessel in which it is con¬ 
 tained should be kept perfectly closed, when 
 the ungilding process is not in active opera¬ 
 tion, and the pieces for ungilding should be 
 put in perfectly dry. 
 
 If it is intended to sacrifice the gilt articles 
 of copper or silver, let them remain in pure 
 nitric acid, which dissolves all the metals ex¬ 
 cept gold, which either floats on the surface 
 of the liquid as a metallic foil, or falls to the 
 bottom as a blackish powder. If the liquor 
 is diluted with distilled water and filtered, all 
 
 the gold will remain in the filter and the solu¬ 
 tion will contain the other metals. 
 
 STRIPPING GOLD FROM GOLD- 
 PLATED WARE. 
 
 CCORDING to the following process 
 the gold may be stripped from a gold- 
 plated article, no matter whether it was fire 
 —or electrically gilt. When stripping with 
 the battery do as follows : Suspend the 
 article in place of the anode in an almost 
 exhausted bath, previously warmed. In 
 place of the goods a piece of sheet copper, 
 insulated in some manner, is best. After the 
 current has been active for a short time the 
 gold will be found to be entirely stripped 
 from the article. The gold is recovered by 
 diluting the stripping fluid with double the 
 quantity of water and adding a solution of 
 sulphate of iron. The gold will be precipi¬ 
 tated in powder form, and may then be 
 melted. 
 
 The gold may also be stripped by means 
 of a mixture of 200 parts sulphuric acid, 40 
 parts hydrochloric acid, and 20 parts nitric 
 acid, in which it will gradually dissolve. 
 The articles must always be entered in this 
 mixture in a perfectly dry condition. To 
 recover the gold, dilute this acid mixture with 
 from 10 to 12 times its quantity of water, 
 and add a solution of sulphate of iron. 'The 
 gold will also in this instance be precipitated 
 in the form of powder, and may then be 
 smelted in the well-known manner. 
 
 If the article is of a shape to be scraped, 
 the gold may also be stripped in this me¬ 
 chanical way- The copper of the scrapings 
 may be eaten out with nitric acid, after which 
 the gold can be smelted. 
 
 REFINING GOLD THAT WILL NOT 
 WORK. 
 
 T is known to those who work in gold 
 that there are times when a piece of 
 that metal cannot be got to work; so, after 
 having tried all the usual methods of refin¬ 
 ing and re-alloying, etc., only to find that our 
 time has been wasted, and the gold as obsti¬ 
 nate and unworkable as ever, that we are 
 compelled to resort to a chemical process; 
 we accordingly refine it once more, giving it 
 lots of saltpeter, a good heat, plenty of time 
 —throwing in a pinch of table salt when the 
 crucible shows a disposition to boil over. 
 The result is an alloy composed of gold and 
 
HOW TO UTILIZE GOLD SCRAPS. 
 
 silver. Nitro-muriatic acid will not dissolve 
 this, because, after eating the gold off the 
 surface, further action is prevented by a coat 
 of silver that remains. In like manner, nitric 
 acid will not act upon it. Under such cir¬ 
 cumstances it is customary to melt about 
 eight times its weight of silver with it, and 
 when really hot, to pour it into a large vessel 
 of water while an assistant agitates it briskly 
 with a stick, so as to cut it up into small shot. 
 (Some roll it out.) It is then dissolved with 
 nitric acid, which leaves the gold in the form 
 of a black sediment, which, on being dried, 
 turns to a beautiful brown powder, and on 
 being melted with a little borax runs out fine 
 gold. So far there is nothing new. We will 
 say that we have two ounces of this alloy. 
 This will require about sixteen ounces of sil¬ 
 ver. By the way, I have known people to 
 borrow old silver from their neighbors in the 
 trade, to be returned after having used it for 
 this purpose. This is the predicament I was 
 in. I had no old silver; no neighbors to 
 borrow from, and did not care to melt so 
 much coin, especially as I had no use for it 
 afterward ; and still I had urgent use for this 
 troublesome gold. I thought over the diffi¬ 
 culty, and determined, although I had never 
 known of such a thing being done, to use 
 pure copper in the place of silver, with the 
 most gratifying result—in fact, consider it 
 much better than silver, for while copper only 
 needs cold nitric acid and to be set aside 
 where the fumes can escape, silver requires 
 heat and constant attendance. The solution 
 must now be decanted off the sediment into 
 another vessel, and table salt added to it to 
 throw down the silver; both these precipi¬ 
 tates must be well washed in several changes 
 of water, allowing them plenty of time to settle 
 •each time, and dry them well before putting 
 them in the crucible to melt. The copper is 
 recovered by putting a couple of iron bolts 
 or pieces of iron into the remaining solution, 
 upon which it will be found to deposit, and 
 is pure, suitable for alloying gold. 
 
 HOW TO UTILIZE GOLD SCRAPS. 
 
 MONG the old scraps of gold which 
 accumulate in a jewelry store are many 
 pieces which are more or less contaminated 
 with soft solder, and as a very small amount 
 of this material will render gold unfit to work, 
 it stands one in hand to look out that none 
 gets in with the scrap we melt. It is well to 
 put all such bits as show any trace of this pre- 
 
 ”9 
 
 cious substance into a box by itself and treat 
 it in the following manner: Take 4 ounces of 
 muriatic acid and add y 2 an ounce of crocus ; 
 put these two ingredients into a bottle and 
 shake them well together. Put 1 ounce of 
 this mixture into 4 ounces of boiling water in 
 an ordinary teacup; put the scrap gold con¬ 
 taminated with soft solder into the teacup 
 and keep the mixture hot over a lamp or gas 
 jet, and in a few minutes all the soft solder 
 will be dissolved off, leaving the scrap fit to 
 be melted with other scrap gold. In a for¬ 
 mer article the writer gave a method of melt¬ 
 ing, and promised some future time to give 
 additional methods for refining scrap and 
 gold which worked badly. It is a business 
 of a lifetime to be a proficient in gold melting, 
 so many details have to be mastered ; trifles 
 in themselves, but still going a long way in 
 making up the sum of knowledge necessary 
 to the gold worker. Economy is one essen¬ 
 tial thing in all jewelry repair shops. Save 
 your scraps and filings; pick out all the 
 scraps large enough to be picked up with 
 the tweezers and put into your scrap to be 
 melted. In regard to filings you should have 
 a good-sized steel magnet to pass through 
 your filings to remove all iron and steel filings 
 and chips. The manner of using the magnet 
 is to simply run the two poles of the magnet 
 back and forth through the pan of the bench 
 at which you work, brushing off the particles 
 of iron as fast as they accumulate, letting the 
 iron filing go into the sweep, as they will 
 mechanically carry away some gold. The 
 sweepings of even a small place is far more 
 valuable than most persons would imagine, 
 and should be carefully saved. The floor of 
 a jewelry repair shop should be carefully laid 
 to avoid cracks and corners. The best way, 
 if a floor is to be laid new, is to have the 
 plank of which the floor is to be laid well 
 seasoned and quite narrow. After the floor 
 is laid it should be well oiled with boiled lin¬ 
 seed oil or painted with oil paint, and the 
 cracks puttied with hard putty composed of 
 white lead and coach varnish—the kind of 
 coach varnish known as rubbing varnish— 
 the puttying should be done after the oil is 
 applied or the paint put on. The varnish 
 putty is difficult to use, as it dries very 
 quickly ; keep it under water except as fast 
 as you use it. If you have an old floor full 
 of cracks, put sheet zinc over the whole floor 
 where you work ; let the sheets lap well* and 
 if a hole wears through, put a piece over it 
 as soon as seen. A common soft wood floor 
 
120 
 
 HOW TO UTILIZE GOLD SCRAPS. 
 
 will hold an unbelievable amount of scrap 
 and filing, to say nothing about the cracks. 
 This is true also of oilcloth, and an old oil¬ 
 cloth which has been on the floor for any 
 length of time should be burned and the 
 ashes put into the sweepings. Scraps of pa¬ 
 per and old match sticks lying on the floor 
 should all go into the sweepings. These 
 sweepings should be put in a tight box or 
 barrel until enough have accumulated (say a 
 barrel or two) to pay for burning. The way 
 to burn sweepings is, if you use a stove, clean 
 it out when- you are going to burn a lot of 
 sweepings, and put the dirt with the scraps 
 of paper in a little at a time until all is reduced 
 to ashes. A barrel of sweepings will be re¬ 
 duced in this way to two or three quarts; 
 this reduction is another economy when you 
 come to send it to the sweep smelters, which 
 it is better to do than to try and recover the 
 precious metals it contains yourself. Such a 
 melting furnace as the writer described in a 
 former article is a good place to burn sweep¬ 
 ings in. The residue of three or four barrels 
 of sweepings can be put in an old paper flour 
 sack, and the flour sack, which will not per¬ 
 mit a particle of anything it contains to es¬ 
 cape, can be put in a quite small box and 
 shipped to your sweep smelter, whom you 
 will notify of the shipment and mention how 
 you treated your sweep. After burning such 
 a lot of sweepings you, of course, will be 
 careful to remove every particle from the 
 stove or furnace, as the gold being heavy 
 will fall to the bottom. A person work¬ 
 ing gold or silver should brush his clothes 
 and apron with a bristle clothes-brush kept 
 for this purpose before leaving his work. 
 Treat filings as follows: They should be 
 melted by themselves with a flux composed 
 of 2 parts of carbonate of potash [sal tartar) 
 and one part of nitrate of potash [saltpeter'). 
 This flux will remove the iron and steel par¬ 
 ticles which escaped the magnet. The but¬ 
 ton of gold should be remelted with sal-am¬ 
 moniac and charcoal powder and cast in the 
 ingot-mold. If, on attempting to roll it, it 
 cracks, it is a pretty sure indication that 
 some lead or tin is present; but if the pre¬ 
 caution given above is taken of treating the 
 suspected scrap with the muriatic acid and cro¬ 
 cus, there is very little danger but the gold will 
 come out in condition to roll and work well; 
 but if it does crack, remelt it with a flux of 
 charcoal and corrosive sublimate, two parts 
 (by weight) of charcoal to one of corrosive 
 sublimate. This treatment wall destroy the 
 
 last trace of lead or tin. Sometimes one 
 will get hold of old gold pens with iridium 
 points ; these points should be carefully re¬ 
 moved, as they are pernicious things to get 
 into gold you have to work, being so hard 
 that a file will not touch them, and they will 
 also indent the hard steel rollers. If only 
 one or two such points get into an ingot, 
 they should be instantly cut out with a small 
 cold chisel. But if quite a number of such 
 points should get into a lot of gold, the way 
 to proceed is to remelt the lot in a crucible 
 which has a strongly marked hollow conical 
 bottom. The heat should be raised (using 
 fine charcoal as a flux) until the gold is ren¬ 
 dered very fluid. The crucible should now 
 be removed from the fire and allowed to 
 cool. On removing the button from the 
 crucible, all the pen points will be found to 
 have settled to the bottom of the crucible, 
 and now are congregated at the very apex 
 of the cone of the gold button. The reason 
 for this is that iridium being heavier than 
 gold (and not melting as easy), when the 
 gold was in a melted state settled to the bot¬ 
 tom. The part of the button containing the 
 iridium points can now be cut off with a cold 
 chisel and treated as follows : The gold can 
 be dissolved in aqua regia —composed of two- 
 parts of muriatic acid to one of nitric acid; 
 after the gold is dissolved the acid can be 
 poured from the points (now visible and 
 separated); to the gold solution add oxalie 
 acid crystals until the brown deposit ceases; 
 this brown deposit is pure gold and can be 
 melted into a button with a blow-pipe, using: 
 carbonate of potash as a flux. 
 
 TO WORK GOLD SCRAPS. 
 
 The following process is very useful for 
 working up filings and scraps of gold, gold- 
 plated jewelry, etc. It does not, of course, 
 refine the gold as in the usual process of 
 quartation, but merely destroys the filings 
 of copper, silver, German silver, brass, and 
 other metals acted upon by the acid. It will 
 “ eat ” the solder or brass out of hard-sol¬ 
 dered or plated goods, leaving the thin shell 
 of gold. The iron filings are thoroughly 
 separated from the mass by the repeated use 
 of the magnet. All pieces of soft solder and 
 lead should be picked out, and if there is 
 much soft solder in any of the plated articles, 
 it should be melted out, and the residue then 
 placed in a shallow glass or china vessel, and 
 rather more than covered with good nitric 
 acid. When the bubbles cease to agitate it. 
 
BRITTLE GOLD. 
 
 I 2 I 
 
 the acid should be poured into another cup, 
 and if there is any base metal left, more acid 
 added, and the mass stirred occasionally with 
 a glass rod. When no bubbles appear on 
 adding new acid, it may be poured off, and 
 the filings, scrap, etc., washed two or three 
 times, or until perfectly clean, letting them 
 stand a minute or two to settle before pour¬ 
 ing off the water. They are then dried and 
 melted. The filings and scraps treated in 
 this manner seldom require more than one 
 melting to make them easily worked and fit 
 for jobbing. There is no skill required, only 
 considerable care in the handling. The sil¬ 
 ver remaining in the acid may be precipitated 
 in the ordinary manner with common salt. 
 The chloride obtained may be melted into a 
 button, and, being pure silver, used as an al¬ 
 loy for other gold. 
 
 TO REDUCE JEWELERS’ SWEEPINGS. 
 
 HE fire for burning the sweepingsto re¬ 
 duce the bulk should be a smoldering 
 one, with as little direct draft as possible, as 
 a strong flame has a tendency to carry more 
 or less gold up the chimney. The safest and 
 most economical method is to put the sweep 
 into an iron pot, with an iron cover, and put 
 the pot into the furnace and burn the con¬ 
 tents out by a slow combustion. But, if the 
 process is conducted in a workmanlike man¬ 
 ner, with the precaution of making the com¬ 
 bustion as slow as possible, very little gold 
 will be lost. The acids used in coloring and 
 pickling should not be thrown away until 
 treated to recover the gold. All wet color¬ 
 ing acids and muriatic acid pickle after using 
 should be thrown into a stoneware jar, and 
 when nearly full treated as follows: A sat¬ 
 urated solution of green copperas ( proto-sul¬ 
 phate of iron), in the proportion of 8 oz. of 
 hot water to i oz. of the sulphate. In get¬ 
 ting the sulphate it is best to get such as is 
 used for medicinal and chemical purposes, 
 as it is essential to be pure; also avoid all 
 such pieces as are air slacked or present the 
 look of rusty iron; such pieces are chem¬ 
 ically changed to such an extent as to be 
 deleterious to the process. The solution of 
 sulphate should be added to the acids in the 
 stoneware vessel until it fails to produce any 
 effect. Allow the precipitate to settle (after 
 stirring well), when the acid can be poured 
 off. The precipitate is nearly pure gold, and 
 if of sufficient quantity can be directly re¬ 
 covered by melting with a strong flux. By 
 
 a strong flux I mean one which will resist a 
 high temperature, as the complete reduction 
 of the gold will require intense heat. After 
 the precipitate is thoroughly dried, to every 
 4 oz. of precipitate add 2 oz. of sal tartar 
 {carbonate of potash), 1 oz. of common salt, 1 
 oz. of green glass (any glass which contains- 
 no lead). All the ingredients should be re¬ 
 duced to a fine powder and well mixed, when 
 it can be put in a crucible. While the melt¬ 
 ing is going on a little saltpeter can be added 
 occasionally to aid the process. But in small 
 quantities the precipitate can be thrown into 
 the burnt sweep ; as also the old sulphuric 
 acid pickle used in jobbing. The true course 
 to pursue, as far as scouring is concerned, is 
 to look sharp to all the filings of gold on 
 plated jobs. There is more gold wasted here 
 than in any part of the job shop. And as I 
 remarked in a former communication, the 
 gold derived from filings seldom or never 
 works well; and for this reason it is best to 
 melt it into a button, so as to get at the fine¬ 
 ness, and sell it to the refiner. The best 
 course to pursue with filings (“ lemelf it is 
 termed) is to first pass it through a fine sieve 
 to remove all pieces of gold of any size; 
 these should be put in with the scrap. After 
 all the coarse particles of gold and silver are 
 removed, the magnet should again be em¬ 
 ployed to remove any iron or steel particles 
 which may remain. In refining and melting 
 filings, for every 12 oz. of filing take 2 oz. of 
 sal tartar (carbonate of potash), 1 oz. of com¬ 
 mon salt. Mix the filings and flux together 
 well, and put them into a*"crucible and cover 
 the mixture with common salt. The crucible 
 should now be put into the furnace and a 
 continual high melting heat kept up for 30 
 or 40 minutes, adding a little saltpeter from 
 time to time. Care must be taken to add 
 the saltpeter sparingly, as it may cause the 
 mixture to rise and flow over. A little very 
 dry common salt if added, as indications of 
 rising too high occur, will check it. 
 
 BRITTLE GOLD. 
 
 HE goldsmith is often puzzled to soften 
 gold so that it can be forged out thin 
 without cracking or breaking. Some gold 
 can be forged out easily, while other varieties 
 are very hard and brittle, because the impuri¬ 
 ties or alloys, such as a little lead or zinc, 
 tend to make it so. Melting over a stone 
 coal fire would do the same. Gold should 
 be melted over charcoal or coke, and if of 
 
.12 2 
 
 DISSOLVING AND PRECIPITATING GOLD. 
 
 low grade, should not be exposed to the heat 
 too long. If it has no “ grain,” melt again. 
 If it does not take grain, then melt again, 
 -and add a little saltpeter, and, a little later, 
 .some borax. For ordinary melting, fuse 
 with borax, stir well and add a little sal-am¬ 
 moniac just before pouring. In forging gold, 
 it must be annealed as often as it begins to 
 get hard and brittle. Low grade gold needs 
 annealing oftener than fine gold. Heat red 
 hot and cool without tempering. 
 
 TO TOUGHEN BRITTLE GOLD. 
 
 If the gold ingot shows sufficient ductility 
 to withstand the first two or three anneal¬ 
 ings without cracking, it may be considered 
 -as sufficiently tough for being worked; if, 
 however, it cracks, recourse must be had to 
 a sort of mold casting, what the French call 
 “brassage.” This processjs performed by 
 taking a soldering coal sufficiently large to 
 receive the ingot. It is prepared for the 
 purpose by working with a file, a half round 
 hollow in it. The ingot is then heated upon 
 a coal to nearly white heat, is laid in the hol¬ 
 low of the prepared coal, and covered with 
 borax everywhere to facilitate the melting; 
 direct the flame of the soldering lamp with a 
 heavy wick upon it, using a long blow-pipe ; 
 maintain the flame until the surface begins 
 to melt, whereby all the cracks disappear, 
 without raising the temperature sufficiently, 
 however, to either shorten the ingot or sepa¬ 
 rate it into several pieces. The necessary 
 degree of heat will be recognized as soon as 
 the bar begins to^give way and conforms to 
 the smaller angles of the coal, as well as by 
 the rainbow hues that begin to appear upon 
 its surface, and finally by the disappearance 
 of the cracks. When the ingot has reached 
 this degree of heat throughout, the operator 
 may be assured of its malleability. 
 
 DISSOLVING AND PRECIPITATING 
 GOLD. 
 
 T WO processes frequently occur in gold- 
 smithing and electro-plating, viz., the 
 ■solution and precipitation of gold, and the 
 operator often meets with difficulties or is in 
 doubt; so valuable a material as gold can¬ 
 not be treated with levity. 
 
 As regards the dissolving, the nitro-muri- 
 atic acid is generally used in too concentrated 
 a state. The workman most generally goes 
 by guess work and takes as much as he 
 considers about right, now nitric acid, then 
 
 muriatic acid, and finally he is in difficulties 
 to remove the excess of acid, especially nitric 
 acid. How easy it would be for him to 
 compound an aqua regia according to the 
 following formula: 
 
 4 parts by weight of crude muriatic acid, 
 i part by weight of crude nitric acid, 
 
 5 parts by weight of pure water. 
 
 Of this mixture generally will suffice io 
 parts to i part of gold. 
 
 It is enough if the gold is in a passable 
 state of division. With thick pieces a little 
 more mixture is subsequently to be added, 
 until a perfect solution has ensued. It is well 
 to weigh also the subsequently added portion. 
 
 The writer performs his solutions in a 
 weighed porcelain dish or glass retort in a 
 water bath, and is not in any manner troubled 
 by the evolving of red vapors. That the 
 solution takes place can be seen from the 
 outside by the yellow color of the fluid and 
 the bubbles arising from the gold. 
 
 A water bath is easily made ; take an iron 
 or earthen pot, upon the rim of which the 
 dish or the glass retort rests, fill this pot with 
 water and heat it. The gold hereby receives 
 simply the heat necessary for effecting of 
 the solution from the arising steam, and no 
 fear need be entertained that something may 
 go wrong. One-half of the solution having 
 evaporated, which can be ascertained by 
 weighing—for instance, you used io grams 
 gold and ioo grams aq:ia regia , there must 
 be left 50 to 51 grams; dilute this solution 
 to 100 or 200 grams, and you will have a 
 solution, each gram of which contains T x ^ or 
 2V gram of gold. 
 
 The writer always found such a solution 
 to be free from nitrate, and it may safely be 
 used for every recipe. 
 
 THE, PRECIPITATION OF GOLD. 
 
 The gold from galvanic baths is easiest 
 precipitated with the galvanic current upon 
 a smooth copper plate ; the gold which does 
 not precipitate as a powder is scraped off 
 and purified, as well as that which precipi¬ 
 tated as powder. Impure gold, which chiefly 
 consists of gold, however, is dissolved in the 
 indicated proportions in the aqua regia speci¬ 
 fied above; it is then evaporated to one- 
 half, diluted with water, filtered and washed 
 out with large quantities of water. This 
 washing is continued until the escaping fluid 
 is water, clear and no longer colored by sul¬ 
 phate of iron. 
 
 Meanwffiile a solution of handsome crystal- 
 
ACID COLORING. 
 
 12 J 
 
 lized sulphate of iron has been prepared, as 
 follows: To io grams (6 dwts. 10.32 grains) 
 sulphate of iron, 100 grams water and 10 
 .grams muriatic acid. 
 
 For precipitating the gold suffices the 4^2 
 fold quantity of crystallized green copperas 
 of the impure gold used. 
 
 In order to precipitate the gold, pour its 
 solution into the copperas solution. The 
 gold will very quickly fall down in this di¬ 
 luted fluid ; decant the clear liquid, and first 
 wash with water acidulated with muriatic 
 acid, afterward' simply pure water. Collect 
 the gold in a porcelain dish, drain off the 
 wash water as closely as possible, and let it 
 dry in a moderately warm place. 
 
 LAPPING. 
 
 HIS is a distinct process of finishing 
 jewelry work. It is not much resorted 
 to in colored work, and when it is employed, 
 it is sometimes performed before the articles 
 are colored, and sometimes after, according 
 to choice. It is distinguished from scratch¬ 
 ing, by the evenness of surface and the luster 
 it leaves upon the parts to which it has been 
 applied; and this can be ascertained by an 
 examination of the work after this operation. 
 It is principally confined to bright gold 
 chains and earrings, a class of jewelry to 
 which its adaptation is most suitable, as it 
 enhances the beauty of their appearance very 
 much. The lapper produces the plain and 
 diamond-shaped surfaces by the rotary action 
 of the lapidary’s wheel, which consists of a 
 specially prepared composition disc, secured 
 in the lathe vertically upon .a horizontal 
 spindle. This has a shoulder in the middle, 
 against which the disc of metal is firmly held 
 by a nut and screw from the other side. 
 This lap or disc weighs about five pounds, 
 and is made of a mixture of two parts pure 
 grain tin to one part of pure lead ; to which, 
 for edge-laps, may be judiciously added one 
 pennyweight of fine copper to every pound 
 of mixture. To effect a complete amalgama¬ 
 tion of the component parts, the lead, being 
 the least fusible metal, should be first melted 
 and the tin afterwards added, first weli heat¬ 
 ing, to prevent too sudden a chill of the lead. 
 If necessary to add the copper, it should be 
 melted separately, and added to the other 
 ingredients when in the liquid state, and be 
 well stirred. Care should be exercised in the 
 casting, in order to pfevent waste. 
 
 The lap having been properly adjusted by 
 
 skimming, it is then “ headed in,” a process 
 performed by the application of flour emery, 
 by means of a brush, to the right-hand side 
 of the lap, and pressed in with a hard flint 
 stone. In heading in a lap, the emery is 
 used in the wet state. This done, the gold- 
 cutter, as he is familiarly called, takes his 
 work, and submits it to the revolving lap or 
 disc ; but before doing so, he submits it to a 
 preparation he has by the side of him, which 
 is used for protecting the gilding or surfaces 
 not subjected to his particular work. He 
 dips the articles into a liquid mixture of gum 
 arabic, two parts, and gamboge, one part; 
 they are then well dried, but must not be 
 overheated ; this has a tendency to protect 
 the gilding whilst under the manipulative 
 skill of the gold-cutter. This gum or cement 
 is soluble in hot water; consequently, in 
 washing out, it parts from the gold, and 
 leaves a color upon the work. The lapping 
 process is a curious one, and it is truly mar¬ 
 velous to see the skillful and practiced work¬ 
 man turning the links of gold chains between 
 his thumb and finger with great dexterity and 
 accuracy; and while to all appearance it 
 seems as if they are being presented in a 
 haphazard fashion to the lap, the most per¬ 
 fect-shaped diamonds are being produced. 
 This is called faceting. 
 
 Square-lapping is now extensively prac¬ 
 ticed ; it adds a sharpness and luster to the 
 work not equaled by any other means. The 
 gold taken from articles during the process 
 of lapping remains—the greater portion of it 
 at least—upon the lap. The emery cuts and 
 retains the gold upon it; this, however, is 
 prevented from interfering with the process 
 by wiping the side of the lap with a tow of 
 cotton waste, dampened with oil. This cot¬ 
 ton waste must be strictly preserved and sub¬ 
 jected to a special mode of treatment for the 
 recovery of the metal. 
 
 ACID COLORING. 
 
 OTORINO gold articles is a process 
 for dissolving out more or less of the 
 alloy, to give them a surface having a dif¬ 
 ferent quality or fineness from its previous 
 surface. For good gold, that is, 18-karat or 
 finer, melt in a common pipkin the following 
 articles: No. 1.—Alum, 3 ounces; nitrate 
 of potassa (saltpeter), 6 ounces; sulphate of 
 zinc, 3 ounces; common salt, 3 ounces. 
 When melted, mix well together, and immerse 
 the articles to be colored in it, removing oc- 
 
ACID COLORING. 
 
 i 24 
 
 casionally to examine the color. When the 
 color appears satisfactory remove the articles, 
 place them on a piece of sheet iron and allow 
 to cool, then immerse in dilute sulphuric or 
 acetic acid, which will remove the flux, after 
 which they may be rinsed in warm water, to 
 which a little potash or soda has been added, 
 and finally brushed with hot soap and water, 
 again rinsed in hot water, and dried in clean 
 warm boxwood sawdust. 
 
 For inferior qualities of gold, that is, from 
 18-karat down to 12-karat, use the following 
 composition : No. 2.— Nitrate of potassa 
 (saltpeter), 4 ounces ; alum, 2 ounces ; com¬ 
 mon salt, 2 ounces. Add warm water 
 enough to make the whole into a thin paste, 
 place it in a small pipkin or crucible, and 
 boil. Attach a thin wire to the article to be 
 colored, and hang it in the paste, allowing it 
 to remain from ten to twenty minutes. Then 
 remove it, rinse in hot water, treat it with the 
 scratch-brush, rinse again, and replace in the 
 coloring pot for a few minutes. The length 
 of time it is subjected to the action of the 
 coloring bath depends of course on the 
 amount of alloy to be removed. When the 
 color suits, the article is removed, rinsed and 
 scratch-brushed as before, then brushed with 
 soap and hot water, again rinsed in hot water, 
 and dried in the sawdust. 
 
 When the articles are of as low quality as 
 12-karat, if they are slightly made, great care 
 must be used or the coloring process will eat 
 away so much of their substance as to de¬ 
 stroy their strength. The coloring paste 
 should not be used on articles lower than 
 12-karat. 
 
 Electro-plated articles are often colored, 
 but they must have a good thick plate on in 
 order to stand it. The following is con¬ 
 sidered a good composition: No. 3.—Sul¬ 
 phate of copper, 2 dvvts.; French verdigris, 
 4 y 2 dwts. ; chloride of ammonium (sal-am¬ 
 moniac), 4 dwts. ; nitrate of potassa, 4 dwts.; 
 acetic acid, about 20 dwts. 
 
 Reduce the sulphate of copper, sal-am¬ 
 moniac and saltpeter to a powder in a mor¬ 
 tar, then add the verdigris, and finally pour 
 in the acetic acid, a little at a time, stirring 
 it well all the while, till the whole becomes a 
 bluish-green mass. Dip the article to be 
 colored in this, then place on a piece of 
 sheet copper, and heat over a clear charcoal 
 or coke fire till it becomes black. Then let 
 it cool, after which put it into a tolerably 
 strong pickle of sulphuric acid and water to 
 dissolve off the flux, rinse well in hot water 
 
 containing a little potash or soda, brush with 
 soap and hot water, and dry in the sawdust. 
 If the article is scratch-brushed being col¬ 
 ored, it will come out of the pickle perfectly 
 bright. 
 
 Another' preparation for coloring either 
 gold or plated articles is: No. 4.—Nitrate 
 of potash, 5 ounces; alum, 2 ounces; sul¬ 
 phate of iron, 1 ounce; sulphate of zinc, 1 
 ounce. Mix well together, then add water 
 to form a thin paste. Dip the article in this, 
 gently shake off any superfluous paste, place 
 on a piece of sheet copper and heat till dry. 
 Then increase the heat for two or three min¬ 
 utes, plunge into cold water, and finish as 
 before described. 
 
 Preparation No. 1 may also be used for 
 coloring plated goods (heavily plated), by 
 dipping the articles in and heating, etc., as 
 described under No. 4, till nearly black, then 
 plunge into cold water and finish as there 
 directed. 
 
 Gilt articles of poor color (as well as gold 
 articles) may be improved by the use of gild¬ 
 er’s wax, No. 1 ; beeswax, 4 parts; verdigris, 
 1 part; sulphate of copper, 1 part. Melt 
 and mix well together. No. 2.—Beeswax, 
 5 parts ; alum, 1 part; verdigris, x y 2 parts ; 
 red ocher, 1 part. Melt the beeswax and 
 mix well together. 
 
 This wax is used by heating the article, 
 rubbing the compound over it, then placing 
 it on red-hot charcoal till the wax is all 
 burned off. Place in very dilute sulphuric 
 acid to clean it, scratch-brush it, wash, etc., 
 as before. 
 
 Nearly every manufacturer has his own 
 secret process for “coloring” gold, which 
 they are not at all likely to give away. But 
 the foregoing processes are considered good, 
 and will doubtless meet all the cases. 
 
 ACID COLOR FOR I4-KARAT GOLD. 
 
 Saltpeter, 4 parts; salt, 2 parts; mu¬ 
 riatic acid, 3 parts. Put the first two in¬ 
 gredients in the pot and heat strongly; add 
 a little water; let boil up and when it 
 becomes a thin paste add the muriatic acid; 
 stir and put in the work, taking care to com¬ 
 pletely submerge it in the color; let it boil 
 two minutes, then add as much water as you 
 did muriatic acid, make it boil quickly again 
 for two minutes, take out the work, boil in 
 hot water, then in another pot of hot water 
 to which a few drops of muriatic acid have 
 been added, and afterward rinse in hot water 
 and dry in sawdust. 
 
PREPARING FOR WET COLORING. 
 
 1 2 5 
 
 ACID-COLORING SOLID GOLD. 
 
 Saltpeter, 2 parts; salt, 1 part; muriatic 
 acid, 1 part. Put saltpeter and salt into 
 the coloring pot, and heat it without water, 
 then add hot water sufficient to produce 
 a thick paste, let it boil, add the muriatic 
 acid and stir it up well. As soon as the 
 brown vapor arises, plunge in the work 
 quickly, being careful to submerge it com¬ 
 pletely (since the vapor will affect the work 
 if exposed to it). Let the work boil over a 
 quick and lively fire (and preserve it during 
 the whole process) for about three minutes, 
 stirring it about constantly, taking care not 
 to let any part of it come to the surface of 
 the liquid. Then rinse the work in a light 
 pickle, and thereupon plunge it into hot 
 water. Quick and careful handling in dip¬ 
 ping in and taking out the work is important. 
 This done, the acid color should be thinned 
 by adding hot water, or one-half old color, 
 which is preferable. Submerge the work 
 again, let it boil two minutes, and should 
 some pieces require it, such should boil one 
 minute longer. Now boil the work in a 
 pickle, two thimblefuls of muriatic acid to 
 one gallon of water, then again in a pickle 
 containing only a few drops of acid, then dry 
 off the work carefully in hot sawdust. Re¬ 
 member that work not properly dried will 
 draw spots. 
 
 ACID-COLORING SMALL ARTICLES. 
 
 For acid-coloring on gold for small ar¬ 
 ticles, a very good plan is to place them on 
 a lump of charcoal, and make them red hot 
 under the blow-pipe flame, and then throw 
 them into a pickle composed of about 35 
 drops strong sulphuric acid to one ounce of 
 water, allowing the article to remain therein 
 until the color is sufficiently developed; 
 washing the article in warm water in which 
 a little potash has been dissolved, using a 
 brush, and finally rinsing and drying in box¬ 
 wood sawdust, completes the operation. 
 
 PREPARING FOR WET COLORING. 
 
 HERE are several methods of prepar¬ 
 ing work for wet coloring, each oper¬ 
 ator adopting the one which suits him best 
 and appears to claim an advantage over the 
 others. We do not intend to assert that 
 there is any particular advantage in the adop¬ 
 tion of any particular process. The main 
 principles are thorough polishing (this need 
 
 not be so much the case as for dry coloring, 
 though it is of great importance) and cleanli¬ 
 ness, the latter element being very essential 
 in the production of a good color. The oper¬ 
 ator cannot be too careful in enforcing these 
 two conditions. 
 
 Some persons prefer to color from the 
 black anneal; others to boil for a time in 
 nitric acid pickle; others, again, after the 
 work has been w^ell annealed, boil out in sul¬ 
 phuric acid pickle, and afterward in clean 
 water. In adopting any of these plans, the 
 method is that after the work has been well 
 polished by means of the finest materials and 
 washed out, it must be placed upon an iron 
 or copper pan and heated to redness over a 
 clear fire, the latter proceeding being of im¬ 
 portance. If it appears greasy in the inter¬ 
 stices and it is desired to color it black, it 
 should be boiled out again and annealed ; it 
 may then be placed aside to cool, and after¬ 
 ward suspended upon the wires usually em¬ 
 ployed for this purpose. In the work of re¬ 
 coloring articles it is by far the best plan to 
 anneal them. Where this can be done, boil 
 them out and again anneal them, which is 
 easily performed. It is an economical plan 
 to re-color goods of this sort in old color, 
 which should always be preserved for the 
 purpose. If this appears dry, or nearly so, 
 when put into the pot, add one ounce of acid 
 and one ounce of water; if tolerably liquid 
 make no addition whatever, for, in some in¬ 
 stances, and especially where the alloys con¬ 
 tain a great proportion of copper, the weaker 
 the preparation the better and brighter is the 
 color produced upon the work. 
 
 FINISHING THE WORK. 
 
 After the process of wet coloring, it is ab¬ 
 solutely necessary that the work should go 
 through another operation, that of “scratch¬ 
 ing,” which consists of submitting it to the 
 revolving action of a circular brush of fine 
 brass wire, mounted upon a lathe after the 
 manner of the round hair brushes used in 
 polishing, and upon which a weak solution 
 of ale is allowed to run from a small barrel 
 with a tap to it. This removes any dull 
 color that may be upon the work and gives 
 it a perfectly bright and uniform surface. 
 Frosting is effected by keeping the points of 
 the wires of the brush quite straight and run¬ 
 ning the lathe very fast, just letting the ends 
 touch the surface of the work ; to do this 
 accurately requires great practice. After 
 this process has been performed, the work 
 
AN EXCELLENT WET COLORING. 
 
 126 
 
 must he well rinsed in either hot or cold 
 water, and finally dried in warm boxwood 
 sawdust, which must not be allowed to burn 
 or char in any way; if so, the color of the 
 work will be much damaged and its beauty 
 marred. A soft brush will remove all traces 
 of sawdust from the interstices of the articles 
 which have passed through this operation. 
 
 WET COLORING BY THE GERMAN 
 PROCESS. 
 
 IE up your work in small bunches with 
 fine silver or platinum wire ; then, for 
 3 ounces of work, take a black lead pot 6 
 or 7 inches high, and having previously 
 placed your work in hot water, put into it 6 
 ounces of saltpeter and 3 ounces of common 
 salt; stir them well with a wooden spoon, 
 and when thoroughly dried fine and hot add 
 also 5 fluid ounces of hydrochloric acid. 
 When boiling up, put in your bunch of work, 
 having previously shaken the water from it, 
 and keep it moving for three minutes, taking 
 care to keep it well covered all the time of 
 the operation. At the end of this time take 
 it out, and plunge it into a vessel of clean 
 hot water, and finally into a second vessel of 
 the same. Then add to your color in the 
 pot 6 fluid ounces of hot water, and when it 
 boils up again after having been thus diluted, 
 put in your work for one minute longer, and 
 again rinse it as before directed, when it will 
 be found to be of a beautiful color. Too 
 much clean hot water cannot be used for 
 plunging the work into each time. 
 
 If the work is hollow and bulky, not as 
 much as 3 ounces should be put in, as it is 
 not effectually immersed in the pot. 
 
 In wet coloring, it sometimes happens that 
 the color is rather dead, or it may happen 
 that the “ color ” burns, which causes the 
 work to look brown ; this is a precipitation 
 which may be removed by scratch-brushing 
 at the lathe with stale beer, using a fine brass 
 wire brush similar to the round hair brushes 
 used for polishing. 
 
 In coloring, a large stone jar should also 
 be provided, into which should be emptied 
 your “ color,” when done with, because the 
 pot should be worked out each time, so as to 
 be ready when wanted again ; also the wash- 
 water used, as it contains quite a percentage 
 of gold. All things in connection with the 
 process should be kept clean and free from 
 grease of any kind. Do not keep iron near this 
 wet color in the pot, as it is most injurious. 
 
 AN EXCELLENT WET COLORING. 
 
 MIXTU RE for wet-coloring, such as the 
 following, may be applied with advan¬ 
 tage, and if a moderate amount of skill be 
 employed during the operation, certain suc¬ 
 cess is sure to follow the process when red 
 eighteen-karat gold jewelry is treated with 
 it. The ingredients employed are as fol¬ 
 lows, when small work is to be heightened 
 in color: 
 
 Saltpeter. 6 ounces 
 
 Common salt. 3 ounces 
 
 Alum. 3 ounces 
 
 12 ounces 
 
 A color pot or crucible is provided with: 
 straight sides, into which is put the salts, 
 which should have been previously well pul¬ 
 verized and mixed together with the hands. 
 Now place the color pot upon the fire (a gas 
 jet is by far the best substitute, as the power 
 of the heat can be regulated at will, without 
 the removal of the color pot from the posi¬ 
 tion in which it was first placed), and dis¬ 
 solve the mixture very carefully and slowly 
 so as not to burn the coloring composition. 
 Stir occasionally during the dissolution of the 
 salts. When the latter have dissolved, the 
 mixture will rise somewhat in the pot, and 
 then it is time to place in the work, which 
 must be superseded by a wire of platinum 
 of suitable dimensions to the work in hand. 
 The work should be gently moved about 
 while in the pot, and occasionally withdrawn 
 to inspect its color. Dipping in acid water 
 removes any color that adheres to the sur¬ 
 face of the work, and which occasionally 
 prevents a proper and satisfactory inspection 
 of it. The acids used mostly for the pur¬ 
 pose are nitric, muriatic, and sulphuric acids ; 
 either one may be used in the proportion of 
 one of acid to twenty of boiling water. Be 
 careful in adding the sulphuric acid to the 
 water, as it will fly about and scald or burn, 
 if it comes in contact with the flesh or clothes 
 of the operator. The water hanging to the 
 work after each rinse should be well shaken 
 from it before re-dipping in the color 
 pot. The time occupied in the process, if 
 the alloy and other particulars absolutely 
 necessary to the true performance of it 
 are in accord, will be about four or five 
 minutes. 
 
 After the dissolution of the coloring salts, 
 the heat kept up should not be too intense 
 
ELECTRO FIRE-GILDING AND SILVERING. 
 
 1 2 T 
 
 during the period occupied in coloring; if 
 so, the paste or composition is not at all 
 unlikely to become devoid of the necessary 
 moisture before the allotted time has expired, 
 which, practically, is required to the ter¬ 
 mination of the treatment. A very slow 
 fire, or still better, a gas jet is best for the 
 purpose of accomplishing the common ob¬ 
 ject in view, viz., the highest and richest 
 color to the work under treatment, and 
 that in the simplest and easiest manner pos- , 
 sible. 
 
 The coloring mixture may be employed 
 for 16-karat, and also for as low as 15-karat 
 gold if the alloys are red gold. But for such 
 a purpose its preparation and application is 
 somewhat different to that just described, as 
 well as to the length of time occupied in the 
 process. 
 
 For a small batch of work the quantities 
 may be the same as those already stated, 
 although larger quantities can be used with 
 the same success that attends the smaller 
 ones, taking extra work in proportion to 
 increase the color. The best relation be¬ 
 tween the work and the color would be as 
 one to three, four and five; that is, the 
 mixture given will be sufficient to color four 
 ounces of solid work, such as chains, three 
 ounces of hollow work, or two ounces of 
 light work, with large surfaces. Always re¬ 
 member that it is in proportion to the sur¬ 
 face of the work that you have to provide 
 a coloring mixture, and not to its absolute 
 weight, to be accurate and correct in your 
 results. 
 
 In coloring with the too inferior qualities 
 named above, it is necessary to add water 
 to the salts in the pot, in order to keep them 
 moist during their period of action, which 
 takes a much longer time than the one we 
 have already given the details of to produce 
 a color intense enough for the trades. Two 
 ounces of water will be sufficient to put to 
 the mixed salts, which must be allowed to 
 boil. When this takes place, take the batch 
 of work encircled with a wire of platinum or 
 silver, and put it in the mixture, and there 
 let it remain for about fifteen minutes, when 
 it should be withdrawn and instantly plunged 
 into boiling water provided in a pan for the 
 purpose. The work during the above period 
 may occasionally be withdrawn and rinsed 
 in order to inspect its progress, and some¬ 
 times this is found to be an advantage, as 
 the right color is produced more quickly at 
 times than others. 
 
 ELECTRO FIRE-GILDING AND 
 SILVERING. 
 
 OMPLAINTS against the durability of 
 the ordinary electro gilding and silver¬ 
 ing by contact or limited battery, and of the 
 abrasions, when exposed to wind and weather, 
 or friction, as compared to the good old fire¬ 
 gilding, are very frequent, although the for¬ 
 mer is generally acknowledged to have a 
 richer appearance than the latter. The 
 reason for these complaints are based upon 
 the facts that the deposit of the precious 
 metals by the galvano-electric system are not 
 of a solid and compact nature. Experience 
 has taught that electro-gilt ornaments at¬ 
 tached to church-yard monuments, lightning 
 conductors, crosses, balls, eagles, and other 
 ornaments on church steeples and public 
 buildings, very soon tarnish, which is fully 
 proved to be the cause of the unsolid and 
 porous deposit of the gold on the metal form¬ 
 ing the base of the articles. 
 
 To effect good substantial deposit of gold' 
 or silver by electricity, we are compelled tO' 
 take recourse to batteries of great capacity, 
 dynamo-electric apparatus worked by steam 
 power arrangements which to purchase and 
 to maintain entail expenses too large to be 
 borne by the jeweler or watchmaker who 
 conducts his business on a limited scale, and 
 who, if even in a position to purchase and 
 maintain these extensive appurtenances, in 
 very rare instances has sufficient work to 
 realize a profit to warrant and encourage the 
 outlay. 
 
 In order to overcome the instability of 
 the deposit by electro-gilding, and to avoid 
 the heavy expense of costly apparatus, while 
 securing at the same time a good deposit by 
 electricity, the following procedure is recom¬ 
 mended as practically good and satisfactorily 
 effective. 
 
 To the ordinary gold solution for electro¬ 
 gilding add some mercury previously dis¬ 
 solved in nitric acid; this solution, diluted 
 with water and neutralized of the acid by 
 adding small quantities of spirits of ammonia 
 until immersed litmus paper does not change 
 its blue color into red. Previous to dissolv¬ 
 ing the mercury in the acid, it is necessary 
 to free it from the lead, with which commer¬ 
 cial mercury is generally contaminated, and 
 this is effected simply by passing the mercury 
 through a piece of wash-leather, which will 
 allow the mercury to pass through on squeez¬ 
 ing it and retain the lead. 
 
 This prepared gold solution will be a mer- 
 
REPAIRING JEWELRY. 
 
 I 28 
 
 •curial-gold amalgam of a fluid or watery 
 nature, and should not be mixed in larger 
 quantities than required for immediate use. 
 The articles to be gilt are immersed in this 
 solution appended to the wire in connection 
 with the cathode (zinc) of any battery, and 
 will receive a gold deposit of a quicksilver 
 appearance, after the article has remained 
 sufficient time in the solution. It is then 
 withdrawn, rinsed in water, and laid" on a 
 fresh fire made of small pieces of charcoal, 
 until the mercury has evaporated, which 
 takes place very soon, as the quantity of mer¬ 
 cury is very small in proportion to the gold 
 deposit, although the color of the former 
 predominates. After the evaporation of the 
 mercury, the article has all the characteristics 
 in color and toughness of fire-gilding—pale 
 yellow and dead surface. The article is then 
 scratch-brushed in beer and will assume a 
 fine luster. If a heavy deposit of gold is re¬ 
 quired, the operation may be repeated after 
 each scratch-brushing. By weighing the ar¬ 
 ticle before the first immersion into the gold 
 solution, and again after the last scratch- 
 brushing, the weight of the gold deposited 
 can be ascertained very accurately. In the 
 last evaporation, the article is left for about 
 half a minute or so longer on the fire than 
 necessary for driving off the mercury, which 
 will deepen the color of the gilding. After 
 a final scratch-brushing, the article may be 
 gilded in an ordinary gold solution without 
 the addition of mercury, by which the rich¬ 
 ness of color of electro-gilding and the dura¬ 
 bility of fire-gilding are combined. 
 
 This kind of gilding is accomplished with 
 much less trouble, and what is of great im¬ 
 portance, attended with less, or no more, 
 danger than fire-gilding on the old method, 
 which requires the continual handling of a 
 large quantity of mercury so injurious to 
 health, as the deposit of mercury in combina¬ 
 tion with the gold deposit in electro fire-gild¬ 
 ing is so slight as to evaporate almost in¬ 
 stantly, and affords the great advantage of a 
 regular deposit of gold, not only on the sur¬ 
 face, but in the hollows and interstices of 
 the articles to be gilt. If any places or por¬ 
 tions of the articles do not require gilding, 
 these places can be prevented from receiving 
 the deposit by a coating of copal varnish 
 mixed with a little rouge powder, and dry¬ 
 ing in a warm place before immersion in the 
 gold solution. 
 
 The same method may be advantageously 
 applied to electro fire-silvering, by employ¬ 
 
 ing silver solutions, and the results are ex¬ 
 cellent. 
 
 Care must be taken that the mercurial gold 
 or silver solutions are carefully kept apart 
 from the ordinary gold and silver solution. 
 
 Silvering by fire has been very much neg¬ 
 lected, and preference given to electro-plat¬ 
 ing, but fire-gilding is still practiced to a 
 considerable extent, and the careful perusal 
 of the above cannot fail to convince the 
 practical man that the combination of electro 
 fire-gilding not only fully replaces the ordi¬ 
 nary and antiquated process of fire-gilding, 
 but effects at the same time a great saving 
 of precious metal, which would unavoidably 
 be lost in fire-gilding, while at the same time 
 presenting all the advantages to be derived 
 from that method. 
 
 REPAIRING JEWELRY. 
 
 ROBABLY there is nothing which 
 builds up the reputation of a jeweler 
 more easily than the neat and substantial 
 repairing of the jewelry of his patrons. The 
 intrinsic value of a filled ring may be almost 
 nothing, but to the owner it is surrounded by 
 a halo of associations which give it priceless 
 worth, and if broken by accident, its neat 
 repairing is very highly appreciated. So also 
 the cleaning of jewelry, which, through dis¬ 
 coloration, has lost its beauty, is often looked 
 upon with delight as marvelous; therefore, 
 a few hints on this subject may be of use to 
 some who have met with difficulty in making 
 to their satisfaction such repairs to articles 
 of jewelry that are almost of every-day oc¬ 
 currence. 
 
 It is of first importance that the use of soft 
 solder be avoided as far as possible in repair¬ 
 ing articles of gold or silver, and even filled 
 and plated jewelry may be repaired with hard 
 solder. 
 
 To repair a ring, the shank of which re¬ 
 quires soldering, bury the head in a crucible 
 of wet sand, place a small piece of charcoal 
 against one side, coat the break, previously 
 cleaned by filing or scraping, with borax, and 
 charge with solder ; blow a flame against the 
 ring and charcoal until the solder runs in. 
 For articles which require to be protected 
 from discoloring in the process of soldering, 
 coat them with a mixture of burnt yellow 
 ocher and borax, adding a little dissolved 
 gum tragacanth to make it lay all over, allow 
 it to dry, then charge with borax and solder 
 and heat sufficiently ; boil out in weak pickle 
 
THE ART OF ENAMELING. 
 
 made of nitric or sulphuric acid. One im¬ 
 portant point is to wash the piece well in hot 
 water with a little ammonia in it before at¬ 
 tempting any repairs; this removes all dirt 
 and grease, which, if burned on, cannot be 
 removed. 
 
 If the article be of colored gold, boil out 
 in pickle made of muriatic acid, and never 
 coat with any protecting mixture. The sol¬ 
 der must vary in regard to fusibility accord¬ 
 ing to the quality of the article. For repair¬ 
 ing most filled work, very easily melted solder 
 is required, which may be made of one ounce 
 fine silver, ten pennyweights hard brass wire, 
 adding two pennyweights zinc just before 
 pouring ; or, to make it more fusible, use bar 
 tin instead of zinc; or, for strong silver 
 solder, use only the silver and brass. For 
 repairing most bright gold work, use gold 
 coin, three pennyweights; fine silver, three 
 pennyweights; fine copper, two penny¬ 
 weights. For colored work, fine gold, one 
 pennyweight; silver, seventeen grains ; cop¬ 
 per, twelve grains; hard brass wire, two 
 grains. 
 
 A good solder for repairing spectacles or 
 other steel work is made by melting together 
 equal parts of silver and copper. In solder¬ 
 ing steel, plenty of borax should be used. 
 
 Very often the want of a rolling mill is a 
 great obstacle to the making of solder, but 
 it may be flattened very thin, although not 
 with great regularity, by pouring into a flat 
 piece of wood, and putting the flat surface 
 of a piece of iron, while it is still in a melted 
 condition; a piece of cigar box is good to 
 pour it on, as the odor emitted is not very 
 disagreeable, and the solder may be melted 
 in the hollow of a piece of charcoal, by using 
 gas and a blow-pipe. 
 
 For cleaning colored gold, a mixture of 
 one pound sal soda, one pound chloride of 
 lime, and one quart of water will be found 
 useful; it should be placed outside the build¬ 
 ing after mixing, and when settled, the liquor 
 poured off and the sediment thrown away; 
 with great care this may be used for cleaning 
 gilt bronzes, and cheap gold, and plated jew¬ 
 elry, but caution is necessary, as it will cor¬ 
 rode brass very rapidly. 
 
 To remove lead solder from badly repaired 
 jewelry, place the piece in muriatic acid and 
 leave it till the lead is eaten away. It is al¬ 
 ways best to heat the piece gently and brush 
 off the lead, while melted, before subjecting 
 the piece to the action of the acid, as too 
 long a steeping is not desirable. 
 
 129 
 
 Set pearls, which have become discolored 
 by wear, may often be improved by placing 
 in a covered vessel with a mixture of whiting, 
 ammonia and water, and permitting them to 
 remain a few hours. 
 
 A good powder for cleaning jewelry, silver 
 watch cases, etc.., is made by mixing about 
 four parts of whiting with alcohol or water; 
 this, it will be found, is easily brushed out 
 of crevices, engravings, etc. Many are not 
 aware of the fact that the gold and the jet 
 jewelry, which has been worn so much for 
 years, can be hard soldered with easy run¬ 
 ning solder without removing the jets, but it 
 is easily accomplished by coating the gold 
 with ocher, and laying the piece with the jets 
 up while soldering, care being taken not to 
 smoke the jets; an alcohol lamp is perhaps 
 preferable to gas for this purpose, but in 
 most cases gas answers best for soldering. 
 
 THE ART OF ENAMELING. 
 
 HEN an enameler lives at a convenient 
 distance, it is better to send your work 
 to him ; this, however, is not always possible, 
 as these artisans are generally to be found 
 only in large cities, and for obvious reasons, 
 a certain piece of work requiring his assist¬ 
 ance, cannot always be sent to him. In such 
 cases, it is well if the country jeweler knows 
 how to help himself, and any intelligent 
 workman will, by the exercise of a little com¬ 
 mon sense, soon attain the necessary skill. 
 This article is intended to give him simple 
 and practical instruction in the method. 
 
 Enamel is a glass which fuses at a lower 
 degree of heat than the ordinary kind ; it is 
 manufactured in so many ways and of so 
 many different compositions that to give all 
 the formulas would lengthen this article inordi¬ 
 nately. The basis consists generally of silica 
 (quartz powder or white sand), carbonate of 
 soda, and oxides of tin and lead, and the 
 different colors are produced by metallic ox¬ 
 ides ; consequently enamels are of a metallic 
 nature. 
 
 The colors of the enamel are liable to 
 change on silver, and on copper they will 
 generally turn bluish and greenish around the 
 edge; to prevent this, a ground of white- 
 enamel is fused on first. The colors do not 
 change on gold, and this metal is therefore 
 suited best for the purpose; reddish gold is 
 the handsomest of all alloys. 
 
 To prevent the chipping of the alloy, al¬ 
 ways prepare a fresh alloy of gold, to be of 
 
130 
 
 THE ART OF ENAMELING. 
 
 at least 14 karats. To prevent the chipping 
 of the enamel on hollow articles, strengthen 
 them from behind with so-called counter¬ 
 enamel. 
 
 CLEANING THE SILICA. 
 
 The silica best suited for the basis (the frit 
 or fritz) is colorless quartz (rock crystal), 
 which is heated and thrown into water, to 
 make it vitreous ; it is next pulverized finely. 
 If the operator desires to use white quartz 
 sand, it must be cleansed first. This is done 
 by pouring over it equal parts of hydrochloric 
 acid and water; it is left to stand for several 
 days and then washed with water ten to 
 twenty times. In a test melting of a sample, 
 with the other necessary ingredients, a pure 
 white mass that shows no shade of green 
 must result; if such is not the case, the sand 
 still contains traces of iron. 
 
 The sand may also be purified by mixing 
 it with one-fourth of its weight of table salt, 
 and glow-heating it in a plumbago crucible. 
 The peroxide of iron present and the table 
 salt decompose each other and form chloride 
 of iron, which evaporates, while the soda en¬ 
 ters into combination with the silica. 
 
 MAKING THE FRIT. 
 
 'The glow-heated mass may, by mixing 
 with red lead and smelting, be reduced at 
 once into a frit, which represents a glass of 
 lead, soda and silica. Take: Quartz sand, 
 100 parts; table salt, 25 parts; and smelt 
 with red lead, 25 parts. The soda (carbon¬ 
 ate of soda) used in enameling must also be 
 free from iron. The chalk used for the same 
 purpose must be perfectly white ; yellow spots 
 betray the presence of peroxide of iron, and 
 a product made with it would be useless. 
 
 I PREPARING THE PEROXIDES OF TIN AND 
 LEAD. 
 
 The white coloring substance in the base 
 or frit is, as already stated, generally peroxide 
 of tin, to which peroxide of lead is also added 
 occasionally. This peroxide of tin is on a 
 large scale generally prepared by smelting 2 
 parts tin and 1 part lead in a very flat por¬ 
 celain dish over live coals, and heating the 
 alloy beyond the point of fusion. This alloy 
 will soon be coated with a white (yellow in 
 heat) skin of peroxide, which is with a glass 
 rod pushed to one side, when a new film is 
 formed, and this is continued until all the 
 metal has been oxidized. The oxide is then 
 separated by washing it from the metallic 
 
 parts. It is more advantageous, however, 
 to do as follows: The tin and lead, reduced 
 to small pieces, are treated in a porcelain 
 dish with concentrated nitric acid; the 
 metals are violently affected thereby, and 
 evolve brown vapor; the lead is dissolved, 
 while the tin is changed into a white powder 
 —the peroxide of tin. Corrosion being fin¬ 
 ished (no more brown vapor must evolve, on 
 the addition of nitric acid), the whole is 
 slowly evaporated to dryness, and the white 
 pieces of the mass are glow-heated in a cru¬ 
 cible ; the nitrate of lead dissociates and 
 forms peroxide of lead, and in this manner a 
 mixture of pure peroxide of tin and peroxide 
 of lead is obtained. If the operator desires 
 to produce peroxide of tin alone, he can treat 
 the tin with nitric acid, and after the develop¬ 
 ment of the brown vapor has ceased, heat the 
 fluid to boiling,—finally obtaining the powder 
 of the tin peroxide, which he dries. 
 
 Useful mixtures for the production of frit 
 can be composed in the following propor¬ 
 tions : 
 
 I. 
 
 Tin (oxidized), 2 parts; lead (oxidized), 1 
 part. Of this mixture take 1 part, melted with 
 crystal glass 2 parts, and saltpeter, o.i part. 
 The saltpeter is for the purpose of converting 
 any traces of very strongly (green) coloring 
 protoxide of iron into the much less strongly 
 (yellow) coloring peroxide of iron. 
 
 II. 
 
 Crystal glass, 30 parts; antimoniate of 
 soda, 10 parts; saltpeter, 1 part. This frit 
 contains no peroxide of tin. 
 
 The above specified substance, obtained 
 by the smelting of table salt, quartz sand, 
 and minium, is a colorless glass; in order to 
 change it into white enameling mass, the 
 weight of the glass of peroxide of tin is 
 added. If a frit of an especially high color¬ 
 ing capacity is desired, the quantity of the 
 tin is still increased 5, 10, or 20 per cent. 
 
 SMELTING THE FRIT. 
 
 In the melting of the frit, blistery lumps 
 of an unequal color are obtained first; some 
 places are highly transparent, while others are 
 perfectly white, being charged with the per¬ 
 oxide. In order to correct this inequality, 
 the substance is to be powdered and smelted; 
 repeating this operation until the color is 
 uniform. The greatest cleanliness is neces¬ 
 sary in these various remeltings; neither 
 
THE ART OF ENAMELING. 
 
 .ashes nor fire gases must in any manner be 
 permitted to enter into the crucible, as the 
 result would be a miscolored enamel. 
 
 By pouring the fusing mass of enamel in 
 a thin stream into cold water, it will by the 
 sudden cooling off become so brittle that it 
 can be pulverized readily. As above stated, 
 the enameling mass is to be fused repeatedly, 
 until the color is perfectly uniform. Only 
 when this is produced, it is pulverized as 
 finely as possible, and by crushing reduced 
 to an impalpable powder. 
 
 The frit produced by the above detailed 
 formulae is either used by itself or else as a 
 basis for certain other colors. In the former 
 case, it is frequently used as smelt for the 
 manufacturer of watch dials or used on arti¬ 
 cles of copper, silver, and gold, which receive 
 thereby the appearance of porcelain. Beau¬ 
 tiful specimens of art objects of this kind, 
 especially bonbonnieres and jewelry boxes, 
 were in the 17th century manufactured by 
 French artists ; they are still sought and pur¬ 
 chased at high prices by collectors. 
 
 If the frit is to be smelted upon sheet silver 
 or gold, it is necessary only to apply enough 
 to just cover the metallic ground. When 
 copper or bronze plates—and for larger 
 enamel pictures copper is almost always used 
 —are to be coated, a thicker coating of the 
 frit is to be applied. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS OF FRIT. 
 
 By comparing a sheet of gold and one 
 •of copper, on both of which the frit was 
 ■applied equally thick, the latter metal will 
 appear only bluish or greenish white. By 
 chipping off a corner of the coating, this 
 will be found green on the side to the metal, 
 because when fused on, it dissolved a little 
 of the copper. This may be prevented by 
 making the frit coating a little heavier. This 
 is applied upon the well polished metal sur¬ 
 face, moistening this, and dusting the frit 
 powder, tied in a linen rag, very uniformly 
 upon it. . This done, the spots which are not 
 to be enameled are cleaned from the frit, and 
 this is fused. 1 
 
 FUSING. 
 
 It is best to perform this operation at 
 once; if it cannot be done at the time, the 
 article must be very carefully protected 
 against dust or accidental rubbing off of the 
 loose powder. The fusing is always per¬ 
 formed in the muffle ; if the article has curved 
 •surfaces, great care is necessary, because the 
 
 * 3 * 
 
 readily fusible mass will soon be so fluid that 
 it leaves the higher places, and the metallic 
 face will show at these places, while at the 
 places where the coating is thicker, it is apt 
 to chip off. 
 
 VARIOUS FORMULAE FOR COMPOUNDING FRITS. 
 
 Certain colors can at once be applied upon 
 this basis; they are those which fuse at a 
 high temperature, without altering their 
 color; these are especially blue (protoxide 
 of cobalt), dark red (peroxide of iron and 
 alumina), black (protoxide of iron), and 
 brown (peroxide of iron). The other colors, 
 however, cannot stand the high temperature 
 necessary for smelting the frit, and change 
 their hue. If, therefore, enamel paintings 
 are to be made upon the white frit, a color¬ 
 less covering frit, consisting of an easily fusi¬ 
 ble glass, has to be applied first. Such a 
 covering frit, suitable for every color, is com¬ 
 pounded according to the following formula: 
 
 Frit No. 1. 
 
 Parts by weight. 
 
 Quartz powder.60 
 
 Alum (free from iron).30 
 
 Table salt.35 
 
 Minium.100 
 
 Magnesia.5 
 
 This mixture, which in its composition is 
 equal to a lead glass, can be made still more 
 fusible by decreasing the quantity of the 
 alum one-half; the degree of fusibility is still 
 increased by leaving the alum out entirely. 
 
 For very sensitive colors, especially those 
 produced with purple of cassius, from rose to 
 deep purple, it is better to use the following 
 covering frit, which smelts easily, and exerts 
 no influence upon even the most delicate 
 hues. 
 
 Frit No. 2. 
 
 Parts by weight L 
 
 Quartz powder. 3 
 
 Washed chalk.1 
 
 Calcined borax.3 
 
 Many enamel painters work in such a 
 manner that they fuse upon the basis the 
 covering frit, and execute the painting upon 
 this; the work, however, may be simplified 
 by melting the covering frit at once with the 
 color, and painting with this mixture. The 
 frit then fuses together with the color, and 
 adheres to the basis. 
 
 For producing these painting colors, the 
 pulverized covering frit is, by washing, 
 changed into a very fine powder, mixed with. 
 
i 3 2 
 
 THE ART OF ENAMELING. 
 
 the corresponding color in very definite pro¬ 
 portions, and the whole is smelted in small 
 crucibles. The fused mass is then pulverized 
 and washed again, and can be used for paint¬ 
 ing. It is evident that in this manner the 
 fused color is only of one deep shade; in 
 order to have graduation the composition is 
 to be toned down by an addition of colorless 
 covering frit, and it is advisable to prepare 
 an assortment of ten shades, calling the un¬ 
 adulterated substance No. i ; a somewhat 
 lighter shade is obtained by smelting 90 parts 
 of No. 1 with 10 parts of the colorless frit; 
 No. 3 is composed of 80 parts; Nos. 1 and 
 20 of the latter, etc. In order to be certain 
 of the effects produced by each number, it 
 is well to prepare a sample plate with the ten 
 numbers. The painter must often have more 
 than these ten grades, and he must then rely 
 on his skill and practice to prepare interme¬ 
 diate ones, to be produced in the same man¬ 
 ner as the first. 
 
 The colors ground, with lavender oil, are 
 applied upon the covering frit with a brush. 
 The picture, when finished, is next subjected 
 to fusing, and the greatest amount of care 
 must be exerted in this process, because by 
 a slightly incautious treatment, at the last 
 moment when about finished, the -whole work 
 may be utterly ruined. The muffle, in which 
 the enamel picture is to be fused, must be 
 only warm enough to smelt the covering frit; 
 the article is first gradually warmed, because 
 by a precipitate heating the enamel layer 
 might crack on account of the unequal de¬ 
 gree of expansion of the latter and of the 
 metal. The pre-heated article is then in¬ 
 serted into the muffle, and left in it until the 
 covering frit arrives at a state of fusion, and 
 unites with the base frit. By an unduly 
 strong heating the covering frit becomes so 
 highly fluid that the individual colors merge 
 into each other, and the picture does not 
 have any clear and plain contours, but looks 
 blurred, which, of course, deteriorates the 
 value of the small delicate pictures which are 
 occasionally used as ornaments on jewelry. 
 
 THE ENAMELING WITH ENAMEL PASTE. 
 
 From above details of the work necessary 
 for enamel painting, it will be seen that this 
 art is very laborious, and requires consider¬ 
 able amount of attention; it is, therefore, 
 appropriate only on high-class jewelry. It is 
 often desirable, however, to use enamel on 
 lower-grade jewelry, and this may be done 
 by using the so-called enamel paste. This 
 
 consists of a covering frit, 
 
 which, by a suit- 
 
 able variation of mixture proportions, has had 
 imparted to it a lower degree of fusion ; for 
 
 instance, according to the 
 
 following propor- 
 
 tions: 
 
 Parts by weight~ 
 
 Silicious (quartz) sud. 
 
 
 Chalk. 
 
 . 3 ° 
 
 Calcined borax. 
 
 
 Minium. 
 
 .10-30 
 
 Tin oxide. 
 
 . 5 - 9 ° 
 
 This charge, after having been smelted, is 
 powdered coarsely and again smelted with 
 the addition of such pigments as stand a high 
 degree of heat. Colored masses, which, ac¬ 
 cording to the pigment used, show a superior 
 or inferior degree of intensity, for instance, 
 protoxide of cobalt produces shades from 
 light forget-me-not blue to the darkest pansy- 
 blue ; sesquioxide of iron and alumina dark 
 red; a large quantity of protoxide of iron 
 makes a black, etc. These color pastes are 
 in a smelted condition poured into water, 
 powdered, and for large surfaces they are 
 fused in the muffle, while for smaller ones, 
 they are simply fused with the blow-pipe. 
 Before applying the enamel paste, the pre¬ 
 viously brightened surface is moistened with 
 borax solution ; the mass is then applied, first 
 heated over live coals, in order to evaporate 
 the water, and then fused. The entire work 
 of enameling is performed at one operation. 
 
 THE ENAMEL COLORS. 
 
 The enamel painter has at his disposal 
 quite a large list of colors, and by suitable 
 mixtures he is able to compose any shade 
 desired. His paints are: 
 
 For white : Oxide of tin. 
 
 For yellow: Oxide of antimony, antimo- 
 nious potash, antimoniate of potash, antimo- 
 niate of lead, oxide of silver, oxide of iron, 
 oxide of uranium. 
 
 For red: Oxide of iron and alumina, so¬ 
 dium and chloride of gold, chloride of tin 
 and chloride of gold, purple of Cassius. 
 
 For orange : A mixture of yellow and red; 
 brown pigments. 
 
 For green: Oxide of copper, oxide of 
 chrome or protoxide of iron. 
 
 For blue: Protoxide of cobalt, silicate of 
 cobalt (so-called smalt), zoffre. 
 
 For violet: Oxide of manganese. 
 
 For brown: Oxide of iron. 
 
 For black: Protoxide of iron in larger 
 quantities. 
 
 We omit describing the processes used for 
 
THE ART OF ENAMELING. 
 
 * 3.5 
 
 compounding colors with these oxides and 
 other chemical combination, their manufact¬ 
 ure not being the work of the enamel painter 
 or goldsmith, but of the chemist. If, how¬ 
 ever, there are those who desire further in¬ 
 formation, The Jewelers’ Circular will 
 most cheerfully furnish it on application. 
 
 The writer closes with a few remarks con¬ 
 cerning the proportions to be observed be¬ 
 tween the covering frit and the different 
 colors, and these apply specially to these 
 colors prepared from gold preparations. 
 
 The gold preparations are distinguished by 
 their great affinity for being reduced into 
 metallic gold. If in consequence of an in¬ 
 correct treatment a gold-containing enamel 
 color should be reduced into the metal, the 
 enameler will have, in place of the light red 
 or dark purple, according to the color, a 
 more or less dark brown spot with metallic 
 luster, consisting of finely divided gold. It 
 is necessary, therefore, to fuse gold prepara¬ 
 tions at as low a degree of heat as possible, 
 and they must never be applied immediately 
 upon a base containing lead or tin, nor must 
 they be brought into contact with a covering 
 mass containing lead. If, consequently, the 
 enameler desires to make the most of his 
 gold color, he must coat the white covering 
 mass with a covering free from lead, and 
 execute the painting with gold color only 
 upon this; the latter, as above said, is to be 
 fused on only at a very low heat. 
 
 Pigments, such as oxide of cobalt, oxide 
 of chromium, and all iron colors, which 
 withstand any degree of heat with impunity, 
 are very easily treated; the composition of 
 both base and covering frit, as well as the 
 temperature used for fusing them, has no in¬ 
 fluence on them. Copper pigments are more 
 sensitive, and antimony and silver are more 
 so, being altered by an unduly strong heat. 
 Silver colors also are easily reduced into the 
 metal, and in this condition form a gray spot 
 with a metallic luster. 
 
 If, therefore, easily reducible preparations 
 are to be fused together with the glass 
 charges which are to be colored with them, 
 it is evident that great care is necessary. 
 Gold purple is in small quantities mixed most 
 intimately with highly fine pulverized borax 
 3 parts, chalk i part, and pulverized quartz 
 3 parts; the mass is filled into a glazed and 
 covered porcelain crucible, which is placed 
 into a larger one, equally covered ; these two 
 crucibles are used for the sake of keeping out 
 .the fire gases, and fused at as low a tempera¬ 
 
 ture as possible. The dark red mass is pul¬ 
 verized, washed and made of a corresponding 
 lighter color by a suitable addition of frit 
 of the last mentioned composition (3 quartz 
 flour, 3 borax, and 1 chalk). 
 
 For the antimony and silver preparations, 
 mixtures are composed of easily fusible lead 
 glasses, and the preparations, together with 
 one-half their weight of the whole mass of sal- 
 ammoniac, and very gradually heated to the 
 fusing point. The addition of the sal-am¬ 
 moniac is only for the purpose of not rais¬ 
 ing the degree of heat too high; when the 
 temperature has risen to the point at which 
 the sal-ammoniac volatilizes, it remains at the 
 point at which the latter evaporates, this salt 
 making use of all the heat for volatilizing it. 
 
 The preceding is about the description of 
 the process, together with the formula as em¬ 
 ployed on the continent, France and Italy. 
 We next append that employed in England. 
 
 ENGLISH ENAMELING. 
 
 Enamels are vitreous or glassy substances, 
 used by metal workers for producing various 
 designs for useful or ornamental purposes. 
 Enamels as applied to metals have a trans¬ 
 parent colorless base, and when required for 
 use, a color is readily given to it by the ad¬ 
 dition of metallic oxides, of which the follow¬ 
 ing formulae have been selected as the most 
 useful: 
 
 Frit No. 1. 
 
 Red lead.10 parts. 
 
 Flint glass.6 parts. 
 
 Saltpeter.2 parts. 
 
 Borax..'.2 parts. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Frit No. 1, in English enameling, is com¬ 
 posed of red lead 10 parts, flint glass 6 parts, 
 saltpeter 2 parts, and borax 2 parts. Fuse 
 this mixture well in a crucible for some time, 
 then pour it out into a jar of water, collect 
 the residue, and afterward reduce it to a 
 powder in an agate-ware mortar and preserve 
 for future use. 
 
 Frit No. 2. 
 
 Metallic tin.8 parts. 
 
 Metallic lead.2 parts. 
 
 Fuse this composition in an iron ladle at a 
 dull red heat; carefully remove the oxide 
 which will form upon the surface, taking care 
 also to obtain it quite free from the pieces of 
 metal which have escaped oxidation, and re- 
 
THE ART OF ENAMELING. 
 
 3 34 
 
 duce as before to a fine powder. Then take 
 of this, calcine 4 parts, silica 8 parts, salt¬ 
 peter 2 parts, common salt 2 parts. Well 
 mix and partly fuse in a clay crucible; the 
 fewer number of times this is fired the firmer 
 it will be. 
 
 Frit No. 3. 
 
 Broken crystal goblets ...12 parts. 
 
 Calcined borax.4 parts. 
 
 Glass of antimony.2 parts. 
 
 Saltpeter.1 part. 
 
 Melt this mixture after the manner recom¬ 
 mended for No. 1. Break up and again 
 melt, as the flux improves by repeated melt¬ 
 ing. The above enamel fluxes are admirably 
 adapted to form the basis of enamels for gold 
 work. They may be made more fusible by 
 increasing the proportion of borax; and by 
 the latter substance the fusibility of all 
 enamels may be increased at pleasure; but 
 too free a use of it is an obstacle to the work 
 of the artist. 
 
 Frit No. 4. 
 
 Flint glass, powdered.... 16 parts. 
 
 Pearl ash.6 parts. 
 
 Common salt.2 parts. 
 
 Calcined borax.1 part. 
 
 Let the ingredients be well melted together, 
 and afterward finely broken into powder; 
 and pre ‘erved ready for the additional color¬ 
 ing mixture of enamel. 
 
 Frit No. 5. 
 
 Silicious sand.12 parts. 
 
 Calcined borax.12 parts. 
 
 Glass of antimony.4 parts. 
 
 Saltpeter.1 part. 
 
 Chalk.2 parts. 
 
 Mix and fuse as before explained; grind 
 into very fine powder and re-melt; this op¬ 
 eration may be judiciously repeated several 
 times. 
 
 We have only so far described enamels, 
 and given directions for the bases of them; 
 variety of design in color is produced by the 
 addition of some metallic oxide, which ef¬ 
 fects the change according to the kind em¬ 
 ployed. These oxides should be used as 
 sparingly as possible, because some of them 
 will not stand the chemical process of color¬ 
 ing or even boiling without a bloom coming 
 over them. A good black enamel may be 
 made by taking the following ingredients: 
 
 BLACK ENAMEL. 
 
 Frit No. 5.14 parts. 
 
 Peroxide of manganese... 2 parts- 
 Fine Saxony cobalt.1 part. 
 
 BLUE ENAMEL. 
 
 Frit No. 4.24 parts. 
 
 Fine Saxony cobalt.5 parts. 
 
 Saltpeter.1 part. 
 
 RED OR CRIMSON ENAMEL. 
 
 Frit No. 3.8 parts. 
 
 Purple of Cassius, or.r part. 
 
 Red oxide of copper.1 part. 
 
 WHITE ENAMEL. 
 
 Oxide No. 2.1 part. 
 
 Fine crystal, j.2 parts. 
 
 Peroxide of manganese... part. 
 
 GREEN ENAMEL. 
 
 Frit or flux No. 1.36 parts. 
 
 Oxide of copper.2 parts. 
 
 Red oxide of iron. T x 7 part. 
 
 YELLOW ENAMEL. 
 
 White lead.2 parts. 
 
 White oxide of antimony. . x part. 
 
 Sal-ammoniac..1 part. 
 
 Alum.1 part. 
 
 For the last mentioned, pound each of the- 
 ingredients separately in a mortar and mix 
 well together; then carefully submit them to 
 a heat sufficient to decompose the sal-am-. 
 moniac (chloride of ammonia); this color can 
 be tested in the melting, and will do when 
 the yellow is properly brought out. 
 
 Enamel may be made deeper in color by 
 a further addition of oxide than that given 
 for producing the respective tints. For in¬ 
 stance, if a very intense blue is required add 
 half a part of zaffre to the other ingredients. 
 For black, the same protoxide of iron, zaffre 
 or black oxide of copper; but the latter is- 
 not so good as the others. For red, the red 
 oxide of copper may be employed; and in 
 yellow, the oxide of lead must be used. For 
 green, the protoxide of iron and oxide of 
 chromium may be sparingly added to the 
 transparent flux. 
 
 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 Enamels may be prepared and kept ready 
 for use by grinding them in an agate mortar, 
 and then placing them under water in a 
 covered vessel. Or if preferred, they may be 
 preserved until required, in the lump, as they 
 
THE ART OF ENAMELING. 
 
 1 35 
 
 are formed after the crucible operation; if 
 the last-mentioned plan is adopted, then they 
 must be broken with a rather sharp-faced 
 hammer, and pulverized by means of the 
 previously mentioned pestle and mortar. 
 When this has been done, they are washed in 
 clean water until all extraneous matter has 
 entirely disappeared. 
 
 The work which has to receive enamel 
 must be specially prepared. This is done in 
 the following manner: The pattern desired 
 is first drawn on the work by the graver, the 
 ground work or part to receive the enamel is 
 cut down very evenly, and this helps to 
 heighten the effect; in the case of transpar¬ 
 ent enamels, the ground work should be ex¬ 
 tremely smooth and bright. After the work 
 has been well cleaned by washing in a hot 
 solution of soda, soap and water, and dried, 
 the enamel is applied. In very delicate 
 cases the point of a pen is used for this pur¬ 
 pose ; in others, a knife or spatula may be 
 substituted with advantage ; the work is then 
 fired and the enamel is laid on as many times 
 as is required. 
 
 When the enamel is sufficiently fused the 
 surplus part is rubbed off, the article is rinsed 
 and again fired in order to close the pores. 
 Great judgment is required with regard to 
 this operation, as too long an exposure to 
 the heat of the furnaces would completely 
 ruin the entire work. Different shades of 
 color require different degrees of heat, and a 
 knowledge of this can be acquired only by 
 continual practice; such knowledge, how¬ 
 ever, is of the highest importance, because in 
 some of the lower qualities of gold, the fus¬ 
 ing point of the enamel is so near that of the 
 gold that there is great danger of fusing the 
 one along with the other. As we have said 
 before, when the workman finds himself beset 
 with these difficulties, a small addition of 
 borax to the enamel will remove these de¬ 
 fects in the operation. 
 
 Opaque colors require a slower and longer 
 continued heat than transparent ones, be¬ 
 cause the base generally contains lead, tin, or 
 antimony. In transparent colors a sharp, 
 quick heat is most suitable, which must be 
 proportioned to the extent of brilliancy re¬ 
 quired. Opaqueness may be given to black 
 enamel by heating the work to a dull red 
 after it has passed through the usual process 
 of cleaning ; the oxide which forms upon the 
 surface being black imparts a kind of dark¬ 
 ness to the color. 
 
 In the case of transparent enamels, the 
 
 ground work must be clean, smooth, and 
 quite bright; the grooved surface being com- 
 .monly run over with a polished, half-round 
 scorper, to make the effect more intense and 
 beautiful, the latter quality depending to a 
 considerable extent upon this being properly 
 performed. 
 
 By varying the alloys of gold, a great alter¬ 
 ation may be made in the brilliancy of 
 enamel; for example, in transparent yellow 
 and green, the alloy of gold should be rather 
 pale; in the case of red, the reverse should 
 be the case. 
 
 The vertical lapidary’s wheel is now much 
 used by the artificer for the purpose of re¬ 
 moving the surplus enamel; and by the ap¬ 
 plication of wet emery it is rendered clear 
 and smooth ; this is much quicker and better 
 than the old method. It is finished upon the 
 buff by an application of putty-powder (oxide 
 of tin), as it is both smoother and cuts faster 
 than most other polishing mixtures. In 
 England enameling is a separate and distinct 
 craft, and is altogether an art in itself; it has. 
 never been found to answer well where tried 
 by ordinary manufacturing goldsmiths,- the 
 designs and colors having in their hands too 
 much of sameness when compared with those 
 produced by the professional enameler. The 
 enameler, to take high rank in the order, must 
 have some knowledge of designing, engrav¬ 
 ing, and chemistry; he must likewise under¬ 
 stand the alloys of gold and their points of 
 fusion, and the effects of coloring the work; 
 he must also be tolerably conversant with the 
 nature of the workmanship that is continually 
 coming under his charge ; and all this knowl¬ 
 edge may be considered quite sufficient to 
 raise the art to a distinct branch of study 
 and practice. 
 
 In closing our remarks on the preparation 
 of enamels, colors, and fluxes, and their 
 mode of application to gold alloys, we de¬ 
 sire to say that the rules or directions here 
 given have been selected from very high 
 authorities in the trade, and we trust they 
 will be found equally serviceable to those 
 desirous of gaining information concerning 
 enamels and the art of enameling. The ex¬ 
 act work cannot well be described, and thor¬ 
 ough success is to be achieved only by the 
 exercise of good taste, and by long-continued 
 practice and attention to the craft. 
 
 Where diamonds and other precious stones 
 are employed as well as enamels, work 
 pertaining to the latter is performed first. 
 Engraving, chasing, coloring, and lapping 
 
136 
 
 FUSING GOLD DUST. 
 
 are subsequent processes of the goldsmiths’ 
 art. 
 
 TO RESTORE LUSTER OF GOLD 
 ARTICLES. 
 
 IGH quality gold articles, when- their 
 color has deteriorated, can be restored 
 to their primitive beauty by the application 
 of the following mixture. It is thus com¬ 
 posed : 
 
 Sesquioxide of iron. 3 oz. 
 
 Calcined borax. 2 “ 
 
 Chloride of ammonia. 1 “ 
 
 Water to form paste. 2 “ 
 
 Well mix the powdered ingredients to¬ 
 gether until a thick and even paste has been 
 formed, then take the work and either dip it 
 into the mixture or otherwise brush it over 
 with it, care being taken to see that it is well 
 covered with the color. The articles to be 
 brightened are then taken and placed upon a 
 copper pan, and heated over a clear fire, un¬ 
 til all hissing sound has ceased and the ar¬ 
 ticles have received a moderate amount of 
 heat, when they are withdrawn, placed aside 
 to cool, and afterward boiled out in weak 
 muriatic acid to dissolve the coloring salts 
 adhering to the surface. Well rinsing, 
 scratching, and drying completes the pro¬ 
 cess. This produces a fine and high color 
 to rich gold, if the alloy is of a deep hue. 
 It may also be used for restoring the color 
 to repaired places of gold chains, which have 
 had to be mended after the color has been 
 given to them, and when it is not safe or 
 economical to put them through the acid 
 process again. After the soldering has been 
 completed take a little of the above compo¬ 
 sition, prepared as stated, and apply it to the 
 soldered parts, then heat the parts only very 
 gently with the gas jet by means of the 
 mouth blow-pipe, allow to cool; next dis¬ 
 solve the adhering flux by the means before 
 stated, slightly scratch-brush the places re¬ 
 colored, rinse, and dry, after which the even¬ 
 ness of surface will be completely restored. 
 
 Another mixture that may be used in the 
 same manner, consists of the following in¬ 
 gredients : 
 
 ANOTHER RECIPE. 
 
 Sesquioxide of iron. 3 oz. 
 
 Acetate of copper. 3 “ 
 
 Calcined borax. 1 “ 
 
 Water to form paste. 2 “ 
 
 The acetate of copper should be well dried 
 
 before using it, to free it from the vinegar* 
 or it will probably corrode the work. In 
 this recipe the sesquioxide of iron should be 
 the red, whereas in the other it may be the 
 yellow. The treatment is exactly the same 
 as that in the one above described. 
 
 CASTING. 
 
 HE goldsmith or watchmaker often has 
 the occasion to make a casting, which 
 is easily effected in the following manner: 
 Make a model of the article desired out of 
 lead or wood, but a trifle larger than neces¬ 
 sary, as the casting will lose somewhat in 
 shrinking and hammering ; take two pieces of 
 cuttlefish, and fit them smoothly together; 
 then place the model between them, gently 
 press equally on both, whereby you will re¬ 
 ceive a good imprint of the model, and to 
 prevent a possible displacement, fasten them 
 with three or four pins. Take them apart, 
 carefully remove the model, make a funnel- 
 shaped cut-in for casting, and bind them 
 together with wire. Put the brass into a cru¬ 
 cible, strew borax over it, and if you are 
 skillful, you will obtain a nice casting. 
 
 GILDING WITHOUT A BATTERY. 
 
 BJECTS which are not exposed to 
 much handling may in a short time be 
 gilt in the following manner without employ¬ 
 ing the electrical pile. In boiling distilled 
 water, dissolve one part of chloride of gold 
 and four parts of cyanide of potassium. The 
 objects will in a short time be covered by a 
 handsome gold film, by leaving them in the 
 still hot bath for a few minutes, and by hav¬ 
 ing them attached by a fine copper wire se¬ 
 cured to a strip of clean zinc. 
 
 FUSING GOLD DUST. 
 
 SE such a crucible as is generally used 
 for melting brass; heat very hot, then 
 add your gold dust mixed with powdered 
 borax. After a while a scum or slag will rise 
 to the surface, which may be thickened by 
 the addition of a little lime or bone ash. If 
 the dust contains any of the more oxidizable 
 metals, add a little saltpeter, skim off the slag 
 or scum very carefully ; when melted, grasp 
 the crucible with strong iron tongs, and pour 
 immediately into cast-iron molds slightly 
 greased. The slag and crucible may be after¬ 
 ward pulverized, and the auriferous matter 
 
TO MAKE GOLD AMALGAM. 
 
 l 37 
 
 recovered from the mass by cupellating by 
 means of lead. 
 
 TO KNOW PURE GILDING. 
 
 SOLUTION of chloride of copper will 
 show the difference between gilding 
 for which gold has been used and gilding 
 with alloys of inferior metals. If the gilding 
 is imitation gold, a touch of the solution gives 
 a black mark, copper separating out through 
 the zinc in the yellow metal; with pure metal 
 no discoloration occurs. The test can also 
 be effected with a solution of chloride of gold 
 or nitrate of silver, the first of which gives a 
 brown spot, the second a gray or black spot, 
 neither, of course, having any effect on gold. 
 Common gold goods of 14-karat gold do not 
 change their color with nitrate of silver. 
 Leaf gold is tested by being shaken up in 
 a stoppered bottle with sulphur chloride. 
 Beaten gold shows no alteration, while 
 “ metal ” leaves grow gradually black. 
 
 / - 
 
 TO MAKE CHLORIDE OF GOLD. 
 
 AKE five pennyweights of fine gold, and 
 after rolling out to a thin plate, cut it 
 into small strips or pellets. Get an olive 
 flask and clean it well with a warm and satu¬ 
 rated solution of soda and water. Half fill 
 the flask with water, and set on a sand bath 
 over a heat that will slowly bring the w'ater 
 to boiling, which will both temper and test 
 the flask; if it stands this test, it is fit to be 
 used. Put the gold pellets into the flask, 
 then mix in a small bottle half an ounce of 
 pure nitric acid and two ounces of muriatic 
 acid, and pour some of this into the flask to 
 cover the pieces of gold; place it on a sand 
 bath over a gentle heat, and put over the 
 mouth of the flask a small piece of glass to 
 prevent the solution from spurting out, while 
 in action. As soon as the acid ceases to act 
 on the gold, and if any remains undissolved, 
 add a little of the mixed acid, and continue 
 to add little at a time as often as it stops act¬ 
 ing on the gold until all is dissolved ; remove 
 then the flask from the sand bath and let it 
 cool, after which pour in it about the like 
 quantity of water, and boil over a heated 
 sand bath until about half of it is evaporated ; 
 remove and pour the solution into a glass or 
 porcelain dish, and rinse the flask several 
 times with small quantities of warm water, 
 which add to the solution. 
 
 NEW INGOT MOLDS. 
 
 EW ingot molds to prevent the gold 
 adhering to them, should be well 
 greased before using. It is much better to 
 close them and pour in a solution of salt and 
 water, letting them remain so for a day or 
 two before using them; this causes oxida¬ 
 tion, or rust, of the surfaces, and is an excel¬ 
 lent preventive to the gold sticking, which 
 is sometimes found .to be so obstinate as to 
 cause chipping of the mold, thus rendering 
 it thereafter useless. 
 
 HOW TO DISTINGUISH REAL GOLD. 
 
 TINY drop of mercury rubbed on some 
 corner of the surface to be examined 
 will produce a white, silvery spot if the gold 
 is pure or if there is gold in the alloy. If this 
 silvery spot does not appear, there is no gold 
 in the surface exposed. To prove the cor¬ 
 rectness of this result, a drop of the solution 
 of nitrate of mercury can be dropped on the 
 surface, when a white spot will appear if the 
 gold is counterfeit, w'hile the surface will re¬ 
 main unaltered if the gold is genuine. After 
 the operation, heating the article slightly will 
 volatilize the mercury and the spots will dis¬ 
 appear. 
 
 WHITE COLOR AFTER PICKLING. 
 
 HE white color after pickling may be 
 due either to heating the article too 
 much or too long, or to keeping it too long 
 in the pickle. In the former case, the alloy 
 or copper is oxidized deeply into the article, 
 and when removed by the pickle it leaves 
 only the silver on the surface. In the latter 
 case, keeping the article too long in the 
 pickle has the same effect, by eating away 
 the copper too deeply. The color may be 
 restored by scouring and polishing till the sil¬ 
 ver coating is removed and the solid metal 
 is brought to the surface. Then, if the nat¬ 
 ural color of the gold is too light, it must be 
 colored either by plating with gold, or by the 
 coloring process. 
 
 TO MAKE GOLD AMALGAM. 
 
 IGHT parts of gold and one of mercury 
 are formed into an amalgam for plating, 
 by rolling the gold into thin plates, heating it 
 red hot and then putting it into the mercury, 
 while this is also heated to ebullition. The 
 gold immediately disappears in combination 
 
FROSTING AND COLORING GOLD. 
 
 138 
 
 •with the mercury, after which the mixture 
 may be turned into water to cool. It is then 
 ready for use. _ 
 
 GOLD FRICTION POWDER. 
 
 T HE following is an advice given by an 
 expert: I use a gold friction powder, 
 which I find very handy in removing or 
 covering over spots on gold or plated articles 
 where the plate is worn off, and where I do 
 not care to dip the articles in a solution. I 
 dissolve twenty-four grains of fine gold (coin) 
 in one-half ounce of nitro-muriatic acid, and 
 then absorb the acid with a clean blotting 
 paper. When the paper is thoroughly dry I 
 burn it and pulverize the ashes, which I rub 
 on the bare spots with chamois skin moistened 
 with water. The spots should first be well 
 cleaned, the same as for plating with a bat¬ 
 tery, to resist the deposition of gold upon 
 them. 
 
 TO REMOVE TIN FROM THE STOCK. 
 
 J UST previous to pouring the gold, 
 throw a small piece of corrosive sub¬ 
 limate into the pot, stir well with a long 
 piece of pointed charcoal, and allow the pot 
 to remain on the fire for about half a minute 
 afterward. This will take tin from the alloy; 
 gold containing tin will not roll without 
 cracking. To remove emery or steel filings 
 from gold, add a small piece of glass-gall 
 while melting; it will collect them in the 
 flux. 
 
 TO SEPARATE GOLD FROM SILVER. 
 
 T HE alloy is to be melted and poured 
 from a height into a vessel of cold 
 water, to which a rotary motion is imparted. 
 By this means the alloy is reduced to a finely 
 granulated condition. The metallic substance 
 is then treated with nitric acid, and gently 
 heated. Nitrate of silver is produced, which 
 can be reduced by any of the known meth¬ 
 ods, while metallic gold remains as a black 
 mud, which must be washed and smelted. 
 
 TO POLISH GOLD ARTICLES. 
 
 E IGHTEEN karat articles and upwards 
 from bright alloys , will present a bright, 
 mirror-like appearance by well polishing all 
 over, inside and out, with pumice and emery, 
 then with oil and rotten-stone, and finally 
 finishing upon the buff with a little rouge of 
 the best quality, and a touch or two of 
 grease. Work high in quality finished in 
 
 this manner, requires no gilding or coloring 
 to put a superior surface to it; and when it 
 is well washed out with soap in a hot solution 
 of potash or soda it looks very beautiful and 
 rich. The bright alloy for 18 karats is com¬ 
 posed as follows: Gold, fine, 15 dwts. 3 
 grains; silver, 2 dwts. 2 x grains; copper 
 wire, 3 dwts. Add 2 grains of copper per 
 ounce for loss in melting. The two grains 
 of copper added for melting loss will be 
 found to be an advantage, since it keeps the 
 alloy more uniform as to its original weight, 
 and the cost per ounce is more certain and 
 regular. _ 
 
 FROSTING AND COLORING GOLD. 
 
 F OR i 5-to 18-karat gold the work should 
 be well polished, first with glass paper, 
 then with crocus and oil used on a circular 
 brush revolving on a lathe spindle. Wash 
 out clean with soap and hot water with soda,, 
 and dry in hot boxwood sawdust. Take 2 
 parts saltpeter, 1 part alum, 1 part common 
 salt; reduce them all to powder, place them 
 in a rather large crucible or a proper color- 
 pot of plumbago and set over a gas jet; add 
 a very little water to moisten and allow the 
 whole to dissolve, stirring occasionally to pre¬ 
 vent burning. While this is dissolving, set a 
 kettleful of water on the fire to boil. Take 
 the gold articles out of the sawdust; dust 
 away any particle of the latter and anneal 
 the articles, attaching each one separately to 
 a silver wire (which may be thin), and twist 
 all the articles up into a bundle and tie the 
 ends of wires on to a stick of cane or fire¬ 
 wood, allowing the goods to be colored to 
 be spread out slightly. By this time the in¬ 
 gredients will have boiled up into a froth. 
 You must so arrange that this effect is pro¬ 
 duced, regulating the heat to produce that 
 effect by the time you are ready. 
 
 Now, dip the bunch of goods into the 
 color-pot, thoroughly immersing them, and 
 keep them moving gently for five minutes; 
 then withdraw and pour boiling water from 
 the kettle over them to rinse, holding them 
 at the same time over a pipkin to catch the 
 rinsing. 
 
 Now, pour about 1 ounce of boiling water 
 in the color-pot, allow that to froth up, dip 
 the bunch again, move about for four min¬ 
 utes and rinse as before; add 2 ounces of 
 water, dip again for three minutes and rinse ; 
 add now 3 ounces of water, let it froth up, 
 dip for two minutes and rinse ; add 4 ounces 
 of water and rinse as before ; then 5 ounces of 
 
TO RECOVER THE GOLD LOST IN COLORING. 
 
 water, re-dip for one minute and rinse for the 
 last time. 
 
 The operation of coloring is now complete. 
 Remove the goods from the wires, and boil 
 them in a pickle of nitric acid and water for 
 a few minutes and afterwards in plain water, 
 throwing away the water when it boils and 
 replacing it with cold. The goods are now 
 ready for frosting. 
 
 Have a very fine scratch-brush mounted 
 on the lathe, with an arrangement for drop¬ 
 ping size water on the front or top of the 
 brush; set the lathe going and hold the ar¬ 
 ticle so that the ends of the wires of the 
 brush just touch it; drive it fast and turn all 
 parts of the work to the action of the revolv¬ 
 ing brush. _ 
 
 TO CAST IN FISH-BONE. 
 
 EINRICH SCHULTZE says in Die 
 Goldschmiedekunst that the manner of 
 casting in fish-bone has been explained re¬ 
 peatedly in that and other technical journals. 
 It will, however, have happened occasionally 
 that the cast has not turned out well, a cir¬ 
 cumstance readily induced partly by the way 
 of pouring and again by the condition of the 
 mold. Brass foil is sometimes recommended 
 for producing a compact cast; indeed, it is 
 very good, but the copper percentage of the 
 alloy is increased unnecessarily, since the zinc 
 only influences the compactness of the ingot. 
 For about 80 parts 14-karat gold, or 50 to 
 60 parts 18-karat gold—the same proportions 
 hold good for silver—1 part good pure zinc 
 sheet rolled together, dipped in sal-ammoniac 
 water or soldering fluid, heated and immersed 
 into the clear molten metal, does the same 
 services, and does not alter the nature of the 
 alloy as it evaporates again. 
 
 A bad cast is caused both by pouring when 
 too cold or too hot, as well as by a bad mold. 
 After the mold has been made ready and 
 provided with air ducts and hole for casting, 
 and when ready to be laid together, take a 
 camel’s-hair brush and coat everything with 
 a concentrated solution of borax or boracic 
 acid; after the lapse of a few minutes, when 
 the surface has become fairly dry, repeat the 
 coating, this time, however, taking a concen¬ 
 trated solution of water gloss, either diluted 
 one-half with water or borax solution ; do it 
 as carefully as possible, so that no small lump 
 remains adhering anywhere, or in order not 
 to injure the sharp corners; then dry over a 
 small lamp, place together and lay the mold 
 where it is warm. If wood cores are to be 
 
 139 
 
 laid in, they are each separately laid into the 
 water-gloss solution, and after drying, are 
 placed into the mold. 
 
 It may perhaps not be known to every¬ 
 body how it is possible to cast holes in a cer¬ 
 tain object; for instance, the bezel hole of a 
 ring. The pattern for it is fully finished, and 
 the more perfectly it is smoothed and bur¬ 
 nished the nicer will be the cast. When the 
 corresponding holes have been cut in, fit into 
 it a wooden mold of the requisite shape— 
 round, square, oval—but in such a manner 
 that it projects a few millimeters so that the 
 plug, after the ring or model has been re¬ 
 moved, may again be laid exactly into the 
 imprinted place; these projecting parts are 
 then slightly rounded off in order to be in¬ 
 serted and withdrawn readily. Now bind 
 the mold together and carefully close the 
 casting hole with silk paper; drive also some 
 of it between the sides in case they should 
 stand together with only little hold; then 
 place the model obliquely into a small vessel 
 filled with fine sand, so that the former is 
 filled nearly as far as the opening. The sand 
 may also be heated previously, or else the 
 vessel may be heated afterward to a degree 
 borne by the fish-bone, both for the purpose 
 of drying them and expelling the air as much 
 as possible. When the metal is clear and 
 ready for coating and the operator is certain 
 that the mold is thoroughly dry, pour. Ex¬ 
 perience makes the expert, and experience is 
 necessary to know the right time when to 
 pour. If the metal is too cold the cast is 
 faulty; if too hot, it becomes blistery; it 
 may also occur that the cast looks to be 
 nice and smooth, but when worked places 
 cave in caused by holes and blisters within. 
 Therefore, remember: first, a good heat, 
 next, have the crucible closely before the 
 mold, and as soon as the brightness of the 
 molten metal disappears and a film is about 
 to form on it, cast quickly, and my word for 
 it vou will cast with as much success in fish¬ 
 bone as you will in sand. The placing of 
 the mold in sand is for the purpose of pre¬ 
 venting the running through of the metal. 
 
 TO RECOVER THE GOLD LOST IN 
 COLORING. 
 
 ISSOLVE a handful of sulphate of iron 
 in boiling water, then add this to your 
 “ color ” fluid, and it will precipitate the 
 small particles of gold. Now draw off the 
 fluid, being very careful not to disturb the 
 
140 
 
 CYANIDE OF GOLD. 
 
 auriferous sediment at the bottom. Then 
 proceed to wash the sediment from all trace 
 of acid with plenty of boiling water; it will 
 require three or four separate washings, with 
 sufficient time between each to allow the 
 water to cool and the sediment to settle, be¬ 
 fore pouring off the water. Then dry in an 
 iron vessel by the fire, and finally fuse. 
 
 RECOVERY OF GOLD FROM SOLU¬ 
 TION. 
 
 A N easy method to recover gold from 
 solutions, particularly from old toning- 
 baths of photographers, has been made 
 known by Fr. Haugk. It consists in filtering 
 the solution into a white glass flask, or bottle, 
 making it alkaline with sodium carbonate, 
 and then adding, drop by drop, a concen¬ 
 trated alcoholic solution of aniline red (fuch- 
 sine), until the liquor is of a deep strawberry 
 color. The flask is then exposed to the sun¬ 
 light for six or eight hours, at the end of 
 which all the gold still present will have been 
 precipitated as a dark violet color, and the 
 liquor will have become colorless. After 
 pouring off the liquor the flask with the pre¬ 
 cipitate is kept until a fresh quantity of solu¬ 
 tion has to be precipitated, and this is con¬ 
 tinued until the deposit in the flask is suffi¬ 
 ciently large to make it worth while' to re¬ 
 move it. It is then transferred to a filter, 
 washed, dried, and burned with the filter. 
 The residue, containing the filter-ash, is dis¬ 
 solved at a gentle heat in aqua regia, filtered, 
 and the solution evaporated to dryness. The 
 quantity of impurity caused by the simul¬ 
 taneous solution of the filter-ash is too insig¬ 
 nificant to be objected to. 
 
 TO CLEANSE GOLD TARNISHED IN 
 SOLDERING. 
 
 HE old English mode was to expose 
 all parts of the article to a uniform 
 heat, allow it to cool, and boil until bright in 
 urine and sal-ammoniac. It is now usually 
 cleaned in dilute sulphuric acid. The pickle 
 is made in about the proportion of one-eighth 
 of an ounce of acid to one ounce of rain 
 water. _ 
 
 FACETIOUS GOLD. 
 
 T is averred that the following recipes 
 will produce alloys of metals so nearly 
 resembling genuine gold as to almost baffle 
 goldsmiths without a resort to thorough tests. 
 
 Fuse together with saltpeter, sal-ammoniac, 
 and powdered charcoal, 4 parts platinum, 
 2 y 2 parts pure copper, 1 part pure zinc, 2 
 parts block tin, and 1 y 2 parts pure lead. 
 Another good recipe calls for 2 parts plati¬ 
 num, 1 part silver, and 3 parts copper. 
 
 TO COLOR SOFT SOLDER. 
 
 HE following is a method for coloring 
 soft solder so that when it is used for 
 uniting brass the colors may be about the 
 same: First prepare a saturated solution of 
 sulphate of copper—blue stone—in water, 
 and apply some of this on the end of a stick 
 to the solder. On touching it then with an 
 iron or steel wire it becomes coppered, and 
 by repeating the experiment the deposit of 
 copper may be made thicker and darker. 
 To give the solder a yellow color, mix one 
 part of a saturated solution of sulphate of 
 zinc with tw T o of sulphate of copper; apply 
 this to the coppered spot and rub it with a 
 zinc rod. The color can be still further im¬ 
 proved by applying gilt powder and polish¬ 
 ing. On gold jewelry or colored gold the 
 solder is first coppered as above, then a thin 
 coat of gum or isinglass solution is laid on 
 and bronze powder dusted over it, making a 
 surface which can be polished smooth and 
 brilliant after the gum is dry. 
 
 CYANIDE OF GOLD. 
 
 YANIDE of gold is formed by cau¬ 
 tiously adding a solution of cyanide of 
 potassium in six parts of water, to a neutral 
 solution (that is to say, not containing any 
 free acid) of terchloride of gold, as long as 
 a yellow precipitate settles down ; if more 
 cyanide of potassium is added, the precipi¬ 
 tate becomes dirty yellow, and is more 
 quickly deposited; a still larger quantity 
 renders it orange-yellow, and re-dissolves it. 
 It is a crystalline powder, permanent in the 
 air; by ignition, it is resolved into gold and 
 cyanogen gas ; it is not decomposed by sul¬ 
 phuric, hydrochloric, or nitric acid, or by 
 aqua regia, unless freshly precipitated, and 
 then only slowly. It is not decomposed by 
 sulphuretted hydrogen; hydrosulphate of 
 ammonia dissolves it slowly but completely, 
 forming a colorless solution, from which, by 
 the addition of acid, sulphide of gold is pre¬ 
 cipitated. It dissolves in aqueous solution 
 of ammonia, hydrosulphite of soda or alkaline 
 of cyanides, but not in water, alcohol, or ether. 
 
ACCIDENTS IN POURING. 
 
 RECOVERING GOLD FROM COLORING 
 BATH. 
 
 ISSOLVE a handful of sulphate of iron 
 in boiling water, and add it to .your 
 “ color ” water; it precipitates the small 
 particles of gold. Now draw off the water, 
 being very careful not to disturb the aurifer¬ 
 ous sediment at the bottom. You will now 
 proceed to wash the sediment from all trace 
 of acid with plenty of boiling water; it will 
 require three or four separate washings, with 
 sufficient time between each to allow the 
 water to cool and the sediment to settle, be¬ 
 fore passing off the water. Then dry in an 
 iron vessel by the fire and finally fuse in a 
 covered skittle pot with a flux. 
 
 TO MAKE GOLD TO ROLL WELL. 
 
 O cause gold to roll well, melt with a 
 good heat, add a tablespoonful of sal- 
 ammoniac and charcoal, equal quantities, 
 both pulverized, stir up well, put on the 
 cover for two minutes, and pour. 
 
 MELTING AND REFINING. 
 
 N melting brass gold urge the fire to a 
 great heat and stir the metal with the 
 long stem of a tobacco pipe, to prevent 
 honey-combing. If steel or iron filings get 
 into gold while melting, throw in a piece of 
 sandiver the size of a common nut; it will 
 attract the iron or steel from the gold into 
 the flux, or, subrimatq of mercury will destroy 
 the iron or steel. _____ 
 
 TO RECOVER GOLD FROM GILT 
 METAL. 
 
 AKE a solution of borax water, apply to 
 the gilt surface, and sprinkle over it some 
 finely powdered sulphur; make the article 
 red hot and quench it in water; then scrape 
 off the gold and recover it by means of lead. 
 
 TO REMOVE GOLD. 
 
 OLD is taken from silver by spreading 
 over it a paste composed of pulverized 
 sal-ammoniac with aqua fortis, and heating it 
 till the matter smokes and is nearly dry, 
 when the gold may be separated by rubbing 
 with a scratch-brush. 
 
 CLEANSING MAT GOLD. 
 
 AKE 80 grams chloride of lime, 80 gr. of 
 bicarbonate of soda, and 20 gr. table 
 salt; pour over this about 3 liters distil’ed 
 
 *4 r 
 
 water, and fill in bottles, to be kept well 
 corked. For use, lay the dirty articles into 
 a dish, pour over the well shaken fluid, let 
 it submerge them, leave them in it for a short 
 time, and in extra cases when very dirty warm 
 them a little. Next wash the articles, rinse 
 them in alcohol, dry them in sawdust, and 
 they will appear like new. The fluid is of 
 no further use. 
 
 PURE GOLD. 
 
 HE Journal de Pharmacie specifies the 
 following method for preparing pure 
 gold: Commercial gold is dissolved in a 
 mixture of 4 parts hydrochloric and 1 part 
 nitric acid, of 20 0 B.; the obtained white- 
 colored pasty chloride of silver is filtered off, 
 and the filtrate is mixed with an aqueous solu¬ 
 tion of antimony chloruret, to which so much 
 hydrochloric acid has been added, that no 
 turbidity is produced at the mixing of the 
 solution. The reduction is effected in a few 
 hours, especially if a little heat is used. 
 The gold is filtered off, washed with dilute 
 hydrochloric acid, next with water, and fused 
 with a little saltpeter and borax. The mother 
 liquors, which contain antimony chloride, can, 
 boiling with metallic antimony, be again re¬ 
 duced to antimony chloruret and again used. 
 
 ACCIDENTS IN POURING. 
 
 OST jewelers, at some time or other of 
 their experience, may have met with 
 accidents in the melting and pouring of their 
 alloys, such, for instance, a pot cracking, the 
 spilling or the upsetting of a portion of the 
 metal from the crucible into the fire. The 
 following mode of recovery of lost metal we 
 have found the best and most practical in 
 the workshop, with the ordinary appliances 
 usually at the command of jewelers and gold 
 workers. Collect the whole of the burnt 
 coke, ashes, and other refuse used in the 
 smelting operation and, first of all, well wash 
 it several times with water, to remove the 
 dust and other extraneous matter; the sedi¬ 
 ment left behind is then well dried and 
 pounded as fine as possible in a cast-iron 
 mortar; it is afterwards put through a sieve 
 as fine as is convenient to prevent the small 
 particles of gold from going through the 
 meshes with the powdered dust. The gold 
 is now picked at this stage from the refuse 
 in a sieve ; and if there be any solid particles 
 of refuse still unpounded, it is put through 
 the process again. It is very seldom 4 hat 
 
142 
 
 PREPARATION OF GOLD SALTS. 
 
 the whole of the gold can be collected when 
 •once split into the fire, but the larger portion 
 of it can be recovered by these means. The 
 remainder goes into the scraps to be treated 
 by the refiner. _ 
 
 JEWELERS’ PICKLE. 
 
 HE usual jewelers’ pickle is made of 5 
 parts of water to 1 of sulphuric acid. 
 When something is wanted that will “ take 
 hold ” more than this, a little muriatic or 
 nitric acid is added to it. For Roman col¬ 
 ored goods, especially, muriatic acid is added. 
 If the jeweler has trouble with a gold article, 
 and it looks green or white after being in the 
 above sulphuric acid pickle, make a pickle of 
 strong sulphuric acid and saltpeter, equal 
 parts, heat it boiling hot, hang the article on 
 a hook made of copper wire and dip in the 
 boiling liquid, then wash. If the color is not 
 good, repeat. _ 
 
 COLORING TIN SOLDER YELLOW. 
 
 CCORDING to the Metal Arbeiter , pre¬ 
 pare a saturated solution of sulphate 
 of copper in water; into it dip a pegwood 
 and with this touch the soldered place. 
 Then take an iron or steel wire, and with it 
 touch the same place, whereby it will be¬ 
 come coppered at once. The precipitate 
 will be increased by repeating the operation. 
 For coloring the place of soldering yellow, 
 prepare a saturated mixed solution of one 
 part of sulphate of zinc and two parts sul¬ 
 phate of copper; with this touch the cop¬ 
 pered place, and then touch with a zinc rod, 
 whereby a precipitate of brass is produced; 
 in order to improve the color, the place may 
 be rubbed with gilding powder and burnished 
 with a steel. On gilt or colored gold articles, 
 the coppered soldering place is furnished 
 with a thin coating of mucilage or isinglass 
 solution, over which bronze powder is strewn 
 which can be brushed nice and smooth after 
 the mucilage solution is dry; or else the 
 article may be galvanically gilt again, whereby 
 a uniform color is produced. The coppered 
 place is, on silverware, rubbed or brushed 
 with silvering powder ; it may then be care¬ 
 fully scratched and polished. 
 
 PREPARATION OF GOLD SALTS. 
 
 ERCHLORIDE of gold is formed by 
 dissolving metallic gold in a warm 
 mixture of one measure of nitric acid, and 
 from two to three measures of hydrochloric 
 
 acid; the mixture is called aqua regia. The 
 gold dissolves slowly with evolution of gas. 
 When it is all dissolved, evaporate the solu¬ 
 tion by gentle heat, with stirring, until it is 
 reduced to a small bulk and solidifies on 
 cooling. The residue should be entirely 
 soluble in water. If it contains a white sub¬ 
 stance which will not dissolve, it is chloride 
 of silver, derived from traces of silver in the 
 metal. If there is a small amount of yellow 
 or brown residue, one of the salts has been 
 overheated. Such residue should be redis¬ 
 solved in a little aqua regia and evaporated 
 to dryness again. One ounce of gold, if it 
 is in small fragments or thin sheets, will re¬ 
 quire about four ounces of aqua regia to dis¬ 
 solve it. Chloride of gold is a yellow salt, 
 and dissolves in one and a half its weight of 
 w r ater. If it is properly made, it contains 
 one atomic weight (196.6 parts) of gold and 
 three atomic weights (106.5 parts) of chlo¬ 
 ride, and its composition is represented by 
 the formula AuC 1 3 . One troy ounce of 
 gold will make one ounce 164^ grains of 
 the chloride. 
 
 Oxide of gold is obtained by digesting a 
 solution of the chloride with an excess of 
 calcined magnesia, washing the precipitate 
 first with dilute nitric acid, and then with 
 water only. If caustic potash or soda be 
 used instead of magnesia, the oxide is liable 
 to contain some of the alkali. 
 
 The terbromide of gold may be formed by 
 digesting oxide of gold in hydrobromic acid, 
 and evaporating the solution by gentle heat, 
 stirring until it solidifies on cooling. 
 
 The oxide of gold forms, on addition of 
 aqueous ammonia or of solutions of carbon¬ 
 ate sulphate, or chloride of ammonia, a dark 
 olive-brown substance, called fulminate of 
 gold, aurate of ammonia, or ammoniuret of 
 gold. The same substance is also formed 
 on adding ammonia or a solution of a salt of 
 ammonia to a solution of terchloride of gold. 
 It is an extremely dangerous substance when 
 dry, and detonates with the least friction or 
 percussion. To form ammoniuret of gold, 
 which is sometimes used in electro-gilding 
 baths, convert ten parts by weight of gold 
 into the solid chloride. Dissolve that salt in 
 water and add to the solution fifty parts, by 
 weight, of the strongest aqueous ammonia 
 and stir the mixture ; an abundant precipitate 
 of the ammoniuret, otherwise called fulminate 
 of gold, is produced in the form of a yellow¬ 
 ish-brown powder. When it has subsided, 
 pour .off the supernatant liquid and fill up 
 
WHITE METAL ALLOYS. 
 
 143 
 
 again with water, and repeat this several 
 times, until the precipitate no longer smells 
 of ammonia. The water contains a little 
 gold, and is reserved for recovery of that 
 metal. As the yellow-brown precipitate, 
 when in a dry state, is highly explosive, it 
 should never be allowed to get dry, and 
 ought not to be prepared until the time of 
 forming a gilding solution with it. Particles 
 of it should not be allowed to dry upon the 
 edges of the vessels nor upon filters through 
 which the wash-liquids have been passed. 
 To remove the solid salt from articles we 
 may dissolve it in a solution of cyanide of 
 potassium. Freshly precipitated wet oxide 
 of gold dissolves in a solution of caustic pot¬ 
 ash, to form aurate of potassium; the solu¬ 
 tion is yellow, and may be used for electro¬ 
 gilding. 
 
 Sulphide of gold is obtained by passing a 
 current of sulphuretted hydrogen gas through 
 a solution of chloride of gold, as long as a 
 precipitate occurs; it is a blackish, brown 
 powder. _ 
 
 WHY GOLD IN JEWELRY CHANGES 
 COLOR. 
 
 I T is well known that the human body 
 contains humors and acids, similar in 
 action to and having a like tendency toward 
 baser metals, as nitric and sulphuric acids 
 have, namely, to tarnish or dissolve them, 
 varying in quality in different persons. 
 Thousands wear continually, without any ill 
 effects, the cheaper class of jewelry, with 
 brass ear-wires, while if others wore the same 
 article for a few days they would be troubled 
 with sore ears, or, in other words, the acids 
 contained in the system would so act on the 
 brass as to produce ill results. Instances 
 have occurred in which articles of jewelry of 
 any grade below 18 karats have been tar¬ 
 nished in a few days, merely from the above- 
 named cause. True, these instances are not 
 very frequent; nevertheless, it is as well to 
 know them. Every case is not the fault of 
 the goods not wearing well, as it is generally 
 called, but the result of the particular consti¬ 
 tution of the wearer. 
 
 WHITE METAL ALLOYS. 
 
 A S so much depends in plating on the 
 . quality of the metal on which the outer 
 stratum is deposited, both with respect to the 
 appearance of the goods when new and their 
 durability in use, the importance of its homo¬ 
 geneity can hardly be over-estimated. 
 
 _At good deal of misapprehension seems to 
 
 exist as to the meaning of the term “ nickel,” 
 which is commonly applied (even by those 
 who are well aware of the misnomer) indis¬ 
 criminately to all kinds of white metal alloys. 
 The principal alloy of nickel is German silver, 
 a triple compound or admixture of nickel, cop¬ 
 per, and zinc; although another alloy, com¬ 
 posed of nickel and copper only, is also in 
 use, chiefly for purposes of foreign coinage, 
 which, however, does not call for special at¬ 
 tention here. An instructive article dealing 
 with the above subject appears in a recent 
 issue of a contemporary, an abstract of the 
 principal part of which will be of interest to 
 our readers: 
 
 The casting of German silver is, in many 
 respects, similar to the same operation with 
 brass ; but there are certain important differ¬ 
 ences. It is found impossible in practice to 
 make German silver by one melting in the 
 pot, the high and sustained temperature nec¬ 
 essary to bring about liquefaction of nickel 
 causing excessive loss of the low melting and 
 volatile zinc (spelter). For this reason the 
 nickel is always alloyed in one operation 
 with a portion of the copper, and the zinc 
 and the remainder of the copper, in the 
 form of brass, are added in a separate melting. 
 It is the invariable rule of English casting 
 shops to make one-and-one “ mixing ” and 
 one-and-one brass ; “ mixing,” it may be ex¬ 
 plained, is the name given to the alloy of 
 copper and nickel. This alloy is made in 
 80-lb. plumbago crucibles heated in a wind 
 furnace, similar to the square section furnaces 
 employed by brass casters, and fed by the 
 best hard coke. It is necessary to use a 
 good coke, since nickel alloys are much de¬ 
 teriorated by contamination with sulphur. 
 About an hour is required from putting in 
 the pot to pouring the metal, and the tem¬ 
 perature must be very high. To diminish 
 oxidation, and also to refine the ingredients, 
 more particularly the nickel, borax is always 
 added as a flux. This substance, though pos¬ 
 sessing many of the properties of an alkali 
 when in aqueous solutions, has powerful acid 
 properties at temperatures beyond redness. 
 The boracic acid it contains is, like silicic, 
 a feeble acid; but being, like the latter acid, 
 fixed in the fire, it manifests important prop¬ 
 erties at these higher ranges of temperature, 
 and borax, chemically speaking, contains a 
 more than normal quantity of this acid. It 
 will, therefore, be understood how the flux, by 
 inducing a kind of scorifying action, brings 
 
144 
 
 WHITE METAL ALLOYS. 
 
 about a partial refining of the contents of the 
 pot. Mixing is run into pigs of a few pounds 
 weight, and each of these should, when cold, 
 present an upper surface somewhat concave 
 and covered with transverse wrinkles. If 
 the metal shows a smooth and bloated con¬ 
 vex surface, the presence of impurities, and 
 more particularly of sulphur, may be inferred. 
 The casting of the brass for German silver 
 making differs in no important respect from 
 the ordinary manufacture of the same alloy 
 for sand caster’s use. The actual making of 
 German silver begins when the mixing and 
 the brass have been obtained. For pig 
 metal, that is, German silver intended for re¬ 
 melting and casting in sand molds, it is 
 sufficient to mix together the ingredients, 
 fuse under a layer of charcoal, and pour into 
 pig molds; sometimes a little tin is added, 
 to give increased whiteness and hardness. 
 It is in the casting of strips for the rolling- 
 mill that the special skill of the German sil¬ 
 ver maker comes in. Many a good brass 
 caster has tried his hand at German silver 
 strip casting and failed, although, to a super¬ 
 ficial observer, the two operations are identi¬ 
 cal. Both alloys, when required in the form 
 of sheets or wire, are cast into strips, or, in 
 the case of wire, into rods, and these are then 
 reduced to the finished form by mere me¬ 
 chanical manipulations. But a German sil¬ 
 ver strip, or wire rod, treated exactly as a 
 brass one, would, in ninety-nine cases out of 
 a hundred, result in a sheet or wire, good, 
 perhaps, at one end, but unsound through 
 half of its dimensions. The reason is to be 
 found in the greater shrinkage of the nickel 
 alloy during solidification, and the remedy 
 for this is in the careful “ feeding ” of the 
 ingot during cooling. To compound Ger¬ 
 man silver, of whatever quality, certain 
 weights of mixing and of brass, together with 
 a smaller quantity of copper, are necessary; 
 and to allow for loss of zinc by volatilization 
 during the melting, about 2 lbs. of spelter 
 per heat for low qualities, and 1 y 2 lbs. for 
 the better qualities, are allowed, the heat 
 being about 80 lbs. The ingredients are 
 weighed out mixed with a certain quantity 
 of scrap, and placed in the pot, which has 
 been already heated to redness. The lumps 
 of new metal are introduced with a pair of 
 tongs, and the scrap by means of a long 
 sheet-iron funnel reaching into the furnace. 
 A few pieces of charcoal are now introduced, 
 and the pot covered with a lid. When the 
 charge has melted, the crucible is stirred with 
 
 an iron rod, and the zinc allowed for waste 
 is added, the pot being again stirred. Mean¬ 
 while the ingot-molds have been prepared 
 and placed in position. The molds are simi¬ 
 lar to those used for brass and are of two 
 halves, clamped together by rings and 
 wedges. The molds are cleaned, rubbed 
 inside with oil, and dusted with powdered 
 charcoal (blacking). T'he caster raises the 
 crucible from the furnace, and, holding it in 
 position, pours the metal into the receptacle, 
 while an assistant keeps back the floating 
 pieces of charcoal with an iron rod. The 
 mold is now full of German silver, and as 
 the portion in contact with the cool surface 
 solidifies, considerable shrinking takes place, 
 and a hollow core begins to appear at the 
 upper central part of the ingot. The skill of 
 the workman is now brought to bear in sup¬ 
 plying a fine stream of metal to prevent the 
 formation of such a core. This stream is 
 continued for some time, and the ingot is 
 thus fed until the last portions form a pro¬ 
 jecting button at the center of the upper ex¬ 
 tremity. Mixing, it may be mentioned, is 
 always made in plumbago crucibles, the 
 charge being diminished in each successive 
 heat, to prevent the corrosive flux acting 
 successively upon the same zone of the pot. 
 German silver is melted in plumbago pots, or 
 in the best fire-clay crucibles; the latter are, 
 perhaps, better for the purpose, since they 
 radiate heat with less rapidity, and remain 
 hot for a longer time, a point of some im¬ 
 portance when the pouring takes a consider¬ 
 able time, as in filling ingots for wire rods. 
 If the ingots are intended for rolling into 
 spoon strips, the nickel need not be of the 
 very finest quality, because such strips are 
 thick, and destined to undergo only a moder¬ 
 ate amount of mechanical strain. Into metal 
 of this kind a little inferior scrap, filings, etc., 
 may be introduced ; but, of course, it must 
 not be supposed that any rubbish will answer 
 the purposes of the spoon and fork manu¬ 
 facturer. German silver that is destined to 
 undergo the trying operations of raising, 
 deep stamping, or drafting, must be com¬ 
 pounded of the best brands of spelter, such 
 as “ Upperbank,” “ D. & Co.,” and of best 
 selected copper; the nickel should be either 
 grain nickel or the cake nickel made by the 
 Nickel Company. A brand of nickel con¬ 
 taining varying quantities of copper, imported 
 from Sweden in the form of powder, also 
 gives very good results. Only a limited 
 quantity of the best “raising metal” scrap 
 
ALLOYS OF COMMON SILVER AND IMITATION ALLOYS. 
 
 *45 
 
 should be introduced; but this little, if good, 
 has a tendency to improve the working prop¬ 
 erties, although the reason is not very evi¬ 
 dent. The ingots of raising metal are now 
 planed on the flat faces, in order to remove 
 the hard skin and the inequalities which 
 would impair the surface of the finished 
 sheets; spoon metal is usually not planed. 
 When the metal reaches the rolling-mill it is 
 treated cold, in a similar manner to brass, 
 the first operation being known as “ breaking 
 down.” The ingots are passed diagonally 
 between very-powerful rolls, until they have 
 attained to rather more than the breadth of 
 the required sheet (to allow for trimming), 
 and have, at the same time, of course, in¬ 
 creased in length. This treatment is fol¬ 
 lowed by passages longitudinally through 
 
 smaller rolls. From time to time, and from 
 the outset, the metal is annealed by heating 
 it in a furnace and cooling with water; after 
 each annealing the scale must be removed by 
 pickling in dilute sulphuric acid, assisted by 
 scouring with fine sand. Sometimes bright 
 sheets are ordered, and when this is the case, 
 the final pickling is done with aqua fortis 
 (nitric acid). The. following table gives the 
 composition of the various qualities of Ger¬ 
 man silver; “ hollow-ware ” or “ raising met¬ 
 al,” it will be noticed, contains proportionally 
 less zinc and more copper than spoon metal 
 or sand caster’s pig. The mixtures of the 
 various makers vary a little, some using more 
 copper than others per unit of nickel; the 
 former qualities are somewhat reddish, while 
 the latter have a yellowish tinge. 
 
 TABLE I.— G. S. as weighed oat. 
 
 Quality. 
 
 Lbs. per heat. 
 
 Percentages. 
 
 
 Copper. 
 
 Mixing. 
 
 (1 & 1.) 
 
 Brass. 
 
 (1 & 1.) 
 
 Copper. 
 
 Zinc. 
 
 Nickel. 
 
 Best best ”. 
 
 8 
 
 34 
 
 27 
 
 5579 
 
 19-56 
 
 24-64 
 
 A,” “ hollow-ware ”. 
 
 6^4 
 
 33A 
 
 26^ 
 
 54‘97 
 
 20-07 
 
 24-95 
 
 ■“ A ”. 
 
 9 A 
 
 27/4 
 
 33 'A 
 
 56-87 
 
 23-73 
 
 I 9 " 3 8 
 
 Special ist (spoon). 
 
 10 
 
 2 9 
 
 3 ° 
 
 57-23 
 
 21-73 
 
 2 I‘OI 
 
 ist spoon. 
 
 11 
 
 24 
 
 3 ° 
 
 58-46 
 
 23-08 
 
 18-46 
 
 i st hollow-ware. 
 
 18 
 
 24 
 
 21 
 
 64.28 
 
 i6 - 66 
 
 19.05 
 
 2d spoon. 
 
 8 
 
 18 
 
 40 
 
 56-06 
 
 3 °' 3 ° 
 
 13-63 
 
 2d hollow-ware. 
 
 1 5 
 
 18 
 
 29 
 
 62-10 
 
 23-38 
 
 I 4-5 1 
 
 3d spoon and 3d hollow-ware. . . . 
 
 8 
 
 14 
 
 42 
 
 56‘ 2 5 
 
 32-81 
 
 10-93 
 
 4th spoon and 4th hollow-ware. . . 
 
 8 
 
 12 
 
 48 
 
 55-88 
 
 35 ' 3 ° 
 
 8.82 
 
 5th spoon and hollow-ware .'. 
 
 io3 A 
 
 8*4 
 
 5 ° 
 
 57 - 7 6 
 
 36-10 
 
 6-13 
 
 •“ Portland ”. 
 
 t'A 
 
 6 
 
 54 
 
 55 - 5 8 
 
 39 - 9 8 
 
 4 A 4 
 
 TABLE II .—As analyzed. Results iti per cent. 
 
 Quality. 
 
 Copper. 
 
 Zinc. 
 
 Nickel. 
 
 Iron. 
 
 Lead. 
 
 Qual. spec. 4th. 
 
 — 5648 — 
 
 33 ' 11 - 
 
 9-57 — 
 
 "39 
 
 - '49 
 
 u (( u 
 
 — 56-08 — 
 
 33-55 - 
 
 9-56 — 
 
 •39 
 
 - -36 
 
 Sp. ist spoon. 
 
 ... 48-17 — 
 
 29-28 .... 
 
 21 -66 .... 
 
 — 
 
 .... — 
 
 “ B.B.”. 
 
 ... 51-44 — 
 
 24-47 - 
 
 23-5 1 - 
 
 — 
 
 _ — 
 
 “ B.B.”. 
 
 ... 52-90 — 
 
 20-38 .... 
 
 26-06 .... 
 
 — 
 
 _ — 
 
 1 . 
 
 — 64-32 .... 
 
 23-98 - 
 
 I I "2 I .... 
 
 — 
 
 _ — 
 
 2d “ H.”. 
 
 — 63-34 — 
 
 22-64 ■ • • • 
 
 13-58 - 
 
 — 
 
 _ — 
 
 “ A 1 ” . 
 
 .... 54-70 — 
 
 20-25 - 
 
 23-67 - 
 
 •75 
 
 .... ‘26 
 
 ALLOYS OF COMMON SILVER AND 
 IMITATION ALLOYS. 
 
 HE undermentioned white alloys have 
 their various uses in the industrial and 
 mechanical arts, some being employed as 
 common silver, whilst others are manufact¬ 
 
 ured as near as possible in imitation of it, 
 and used as a substitute, for many purposes. 
 In melting the alloys in which nickel and 
 several other compounds enter into combina¬ 
 tion, unless very great care be exercised, it 
 is a difficult matter to maintain the true and! 
 
146 
 
 ALLOYS OF COMMON SILVER AND IMITATION ALLOYS.' 
 
 definite proportion of each metal of which 
 the alloy proper is composed, owing to the 
 loss of the more fusible metal by volatiliza¬ 
 tion, if allowed to remain too long in the 
 furnace. The best method of preparing the 
 compound for the crucible is to mix the 
 copper and nickel together. The latter is 
 produced from the pure oxide of nickel; 
 therefore it is taken in this form and placed 
 in the crucible with the copper at the com¬ 
 mencement of the operation. When these 
 ingredients are well melted, and incorpo¬ 
 rated by stirring, add the zinc or other fusible 
 metal required to make up the compound, 
 previously heating it thoroughly over the 
 mouth of the crucible, to prevent the chilling 
 of the already molten metal which it contains. 
 When silver forms a component part in any 
 of these alloys it should be added at the be¬ 
 ginning of the process along with those of 
 high degree of fusibility, and reduced under 
 the protection of a suitable flux; charcoal 
 being the best for the purpose. This also 
 tends to preserve the fusible metals, upon 
 their addition to the melted compound in the 
 pot, from too suddenly flying away in the 
 shape of fumes. The best zinc of commerce 
 should be employed in these alloys, which is 
 sold under the name of spelter. 
 
 Common silver alloy:— 
 
 Fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 17 dwts.; 
 nickel, 13 dwts. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 
 1 oz.; nickel, 15 dwts. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 
 1 oz. 3 dwts.; nickel, 17 dwts. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 1 
 oz. 6 dwts.; nickel, 19 dwts. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 
 1 oz. 9 dwts.; nickel, 1 oz. 1 dwt. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 
 1 oz. 12 dwts.; nickel, 1 oz. 3 dwts. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 
 
 1 oz. 15 dwts. ; nickel, 1 oz. 5 dwts. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz. ; shot copper, 
 
 2 oz. 2 dwts. 12 grs.; nickel, 1 oz. 7 dwts. 
 12 grs. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 
 
 2 oz. 10 dwts.; nickel, 1 oz. 10 dwts. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 
 
 16 dwts.; nickel, 10 dwts. 12 grs.; spelter, 
 
 3 dwts. 12 gr. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 
 19 dwts; nickel, 12 dwts.; spelter, 4 dwts. 
 
 Another: fine silver, 1 oz.; shot copper, 
 x oz. 2 dwts.; nickel, 15 dwts.; spelter, 3 
 dwts. 
 
 Chinese silver.—Shot copper, 1 oz.; spel - 
 ter, 6 dwts.; nickel, 4 dwts.; cobalt, 3 dwts. 
 18 grs.; silver, 18 grs. 
 
 Imitation silver.—Shot copper, 1 oz. , 
 nickel, 6 dwts. 12 grs.; spelter, 4 dwts. 18 
 grs. 
 
 Another: shot copper, 1 oz.; spelter, 12 
 dwts.; nickel, 8 dwts. 
 
 Another: shot copper, 1 oz.; spelter, 8 
 dwts.; nickel, 4 dwts. 
 
 Another: shot copper, 1 oz.; spelter, 10 
 dwts.; nickel, 10 dwts. 
 
 Another: shot copper, 1 oz.; nickel, 8 
 dwts. 8 grs.; spelter, 6 dwts. 16 grs. 
 
 White alloy.—Shot copper, 1 oz.; tin, 10 
 dwts. 6 grs.; brass, 2 dwts. 12 grs.; arsenic, 
 18 grs. 
 
 Clark’s patent alloy.—Shot copper, 1 oz. , 
 nickel, 3 dwts. 18 grs.; spelter, 1 dwt. 22 
 grs.; tin, 12 grs.; cobalt, 12 grs. 
 
 White alloy.—Shot copper, 1 oz.; tin, 10 
 dwts.; arsenic, 1 dwt. 
 
 Alloy with platinum; fine silver, 1 oz.; 
 platinum, 5 dwts. 
 
 Alloy with palladium; fine silver, 1 oz.; 
 palladium, 5 dwts. 
 
 The platinum and palladium of which the 
 last two alloys are composed, although very 
 difficult to use in combination with any other 
 metal, readily unite in any proportions with 
 silver; and it has been found that such al¬ 
 loys are not so easily tarnished as the ordinary 
 ones, or even as fine silver itself. These 
 various alloys serve to effect the several pur¬ 
 poses for which they are employed in manu¬ 
 factures ; wires prepared from any of them 
 will supply the place of silver, as brooch 
 tongs, stems for pins, catches and joints, etc., 
 for articles of common quality and cheap 
 workmanship. They are also employed for 
 preparing the ground for “ electro-plate ” for 
 .which they are very serviceable. When, 
 however, these alloys are employed by the 
 regular silversmith, care should be taken not 
 to get the scraps of metal in any way mixed 
 with those of the better material, otherwise 
 difficulties will soon begin to present them¬ 
 selves, which will materially interfere with 
 the regular and proper working of the best 
 silver alloys; and in fact, with all qualities 
 that have originally been prepared free from 
 nickel. Those prepared from nickle are 
 much more infusible than those made without 
 it; consequently, if a piece of the nickel alloy, 
 either by accident or design, gets intermixed 
 with the other quality, in a subsequent melt¬ 
 ing, it will be found to float on the surface of 
 
SILVER SOLDERS: THEIR USES AND APPLICATIONS. 
 
 the molten metal for some considerable time 
 and thus retard the process. Alloys prepttred' 
 in imitation of silver are harder and much 
 more difficult to work than those of the true 
 metal; therefore it can easily be imagined 
 what alteration the latter undergo upon the 
 addition of some of the former compounds. 
 The hardness and toughness which these 
 alloys possess admirably adapt them for such 
 purposes as we have described. 
 
 SILVER SOLDERS: THEIR USES 
 AND APPLICATIONS. 
 
 OLDERING as applied to silversmith’s 
 work is an art which requires great care 
 and practice to perform it neatly and properly. 
 It consists in uniting the various pieces of an 
 article together at their junctions, edges, or 
 surfaces, by fusing an alloy specially prepared 
 for the purpose, and which is more fusible 
 than the metal to be soldered. The solder 
 should in every way be well suited to the 
 particular metal to which it is to be applied, 
 and should possess a powerful chemical affin¬ 
 ity to it; if this be not the case, strong, clean, 
 and invisible connections cannot be effected, 
 whilst the progress of the work would be 
 considerably retarded. This is partly the 
 cause of inferior manufactures, and not, as 
 might be frequently supposed, from the want 
 of skill on the part of the workman who 
 makes them. 
 
 The best connections are made when the 
 metal and solder agree as nearly as possible 
 in uniformity, that is, as regards fusibility, 
 hardness, and malleability. Experience has 
 proved, more especially in the case of plain 
 and strong work (or work that has to bear 
 a strain in the course of manufacture), that 
 the soldering is more perfect and more tena¬ 
 cious as the point of fusion of the two metals 
 approaches each other ; the solder having a 
 greater tendency to form a more perfect alloy 
 with the metal to which it is applied than 
 under any other conditions. The silver or 
 other metal to be operated upon by soldering 
 being partly of a porous nature, the greater 
 the heat required in the fusion of the solder 
 the more closely are the atoms of the two 
 metals brought into direct relationship ; thus 
 greater solidity is given to the parts united, 
 and which are then capable of forming the 
 maximum of resistance. It is thus obvious 
 that tin should not be employed in forming 
 solders possessing the characteristics we have 
 
 T 47 
 
 ju st described, for being a very fusible metal 
 it greatly increases the fusibility of its alloys ; 
 but when very easy solder is required, and 
 this is sometimes the case, especially when 
 zinc has been employed in the preparation 
 of the silver alloy, its addition is a great ad¬ 
 vantage when it comes to be applied to the 
 work in hand. Solders made with tin are not 
 so malleable and tenacious as those prepared 
 without it, as it imparts a brittleness not usu¬ 
 ally to be found in those regularly employed 
 by silversmiths ; for this reason it is advisable 
 to file it into dust, and apply it in that state 
 to the articles in course of manufacture. 
 
 The best solders we have found to be those 
 mixed with a little zinc. These may be 
 laminated, rolled or filed into dust; if the 
 latter, it should be finely done, and this is 
 better for every purpose. Too much zinc, 
 however, should not be added under any 
 conditions, as it has a tendency to eat itself 
 away during wear, thus rendering the articles 
 partly useless either for ornamental or domes¬ 
 tic purposes earlier than might be anticipated. 
 Solders thus prepared also act with some dis¬ 
 advantage to the workman using them, for 
 they possess the property of evaporating or 
 eating away during the process of soldering, 
 leaving behind scarcely anything to indicate 
 their presence; consequently the workman 
 has to keep on repeating the process until the 
 connection is made perfect, which is always 
 done at the expense of a quantity of solder 
 as well as loss to the workman as regards 
 time. 
 
 Solders made from copper and silver only 
 are, generally speaking, too infusible to be 
 applied to all classes of silversmith’s work. 
 
 Solders are manufactured of all degrees of 
 hardness ; the hardest of all being a prepara¬ 
 tion of silver and copper in various propor¬ 
 tions ; the next being a composition of sil¬ 
 ver, copper, and zinc; and the easiest or 
 most fusible being prepared from silver, cop¬ 
 per, and tin, or silver, brass, and tin. Ar¬ 
 senic sometimes enters into the composition of 
 silver solders, for promoting a greater degree 
 of fusion; and we have heard of workmen 
 actually refusing to work with any other 
 solder. The employment of arsenic has,, 
 however, a tendency to slightly endanger the 
 health of those persons using it in large 
 quantities; and of late its employment has 
 not been persevered in. 
 
 In applying solder of whatever composi¬ 
 tion, it is of the utmost importance that the 
 edges or parts to be united should be chem- 
 
148 
 
 SILVER SOLDERS: THEIR USES AND APPLICATIONS. 
 
 ically clean ; and for the purpose of protect¬ 
 ing these parts from the action of the air, 
 and oxidation during the soldering process, 
 they are covered by a suitable flux, which 
 not only prevents oxidation, but has also a 
 tendency to remove any portion of it left on 
 the parts of the metal to be united. The 
 flux employed is always borax, and it not 
 only effects the objects just pointed out, but 
 greatly facilitates the flow of the solder into 
 the required places. Silver solder should be 
 silver of a little inferior quality to that about 
 to be worked up. The various degrees of 
 fusibility of the several solders are occasioned 
 by the different proportions of the component 
 parts of the elements which enter into their 
 existence. For instance, a solder in which 
 tin forms a component part will flow or fuse 
 much sooner than one in which copper and 
 silver alone enter into composition, or of one 
 wholly composed of copper, silver, and zinc, 
 or of silver and brass; therefore it must be 
 understood that tin is the best metal for in¬ 
 creasing the fusibility of silver solders, and 
 for keeping up their whiteness. Neverthe¬ 
 less it should always be used sparingly, and 
 even then drawbacks will present themselves 
 such as we have already alluded to. 
 
 It is our intention to give a list of the vari¬ 
 ous solders which have been usually em¬ 
 ployed with more or less success, so that the 
 silversmith and the art workman will be en¬ 
 abled to select the one most suitable to the 
 particular branch of his trade; and we con¬ 
 tend, from experience in the craft, that suc¬ 
 cess of workmanship mainly depends upon 
 this point. 
 
 HARDEST SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 . . O 
 
 16 
 
 O 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 . . O 
 
 4 
 
 O 
 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 HARD SILVER 
 
 SOLDER. 
 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 . . 0 
 
 
 O 
 
 Brass. 
 
 . . 0 
 
 5 
 
 O 
 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 EASY SILVER 
 
 SOLDER. 
 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 . . 0 
 
 l 3 
 
 8 
 
 Brass. 
 
 . . 0 
 
 6 
 
 l6 
 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 HARDEST SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 oz. dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 O 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 .. 0 5 
 
 0 
 
 
 1 5 
 
 0 
 
 HARD SILVER 
 
 SOLDER. 
 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 oz. dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 O 
 
 Brass. 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 r 6 
 
 16 
 
 EASY SILVER 
 
 SOLDER. 
 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 oz. dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 O 
 
 Brass. 
 
 
 0 
 
 
 I IO 
 
 O 
 
 The silver solders here given are not such 
 as we can confidently recommend to the 
 general silversmith, having proved them to 
 be very unsatisfactory in certain classes of 
 work. For example, the first solder, except 
 in the case of plain, strong work, would be 
 far too infusible to be generally used by the 
 silversmith ; the second, although much more 
 fusible, cannot safely be applied to very fine 
 and delicate wire-work, because the brass in 
 its composition is so uncertain ; unless spe¬ 
 cially prepared by the silversmith, it probably, 
 if purchased from the metal warehouse, con¬ 
 tains lead ; the latter is injurious, and in pro¬ 
 cess of soldering it burns and eats away, 
 much resembling the application of burnt 
 sawdust to the work. No really effective 
 work can be produced when the above 
 symptoms present themselves. The same 
 remarks apply to No. 3, which is the most 
 fusible, and when free from lead or other 
 base metal it may be classed as a tolerably 
 fair common solder. In the preparation of 
 the solders to which we are alluding, it is 
 preferable to employ, instead of the brass, a 
 composition consisting of a mixture of cop¬ 
 per and zinc, in the proportion of two parts 
 of copper to one part of zinc; the operator 
 then knows of what the solder is composed, 
 and if it should turn out bad he will partly 
 know the cause, and be able to supply a 
 remedy. 
 
 The solders that we have found to answer 
 our purpose best are composed of the follow¬ 
 ing elements. The first is described again 
 as hard solder, but it is not nearly so hard 
 as the one previously described. 
 
SILVER SOLDERS: THEIR USES AND APPLICATIONS. 
 
 149 
 
 BEST HARD SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver . . . 
 
 . 0 
 
 16 
 
 O 
 
 Shot Copper. . 
 
 . 0 
 
 3 
 
 iT 
 
 Spelter ...... 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 12 
 
 
 1 
 
 O 
 
 0 
 
 BEST HARD 
 
 SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 
 OZ 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver . . . 
 
 . I 
 
 0 
 
 O 
 
 Shot Copper. . 
 
 . 0 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 Spelter. 
 
 . 0 
 
 0 
 
 i 5 
 
 
 1 5 
 
 0 
 
 MEDIUM SILVER 
 
 SOLDER. 
 
 
 
 oz. dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 • 0 15 
 
 O 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 . 0 
 
 4 
 
 O 
 
 Spelter . 
 
 . 0 
 
 I 
 
 O 
 
 The whole of the above-named solders 
 will bleach or whiten properly if applied to 
 silver of the suitable quality for such pur¬ 
 poses. We have used copper and spelter in 
 our silver solders because we have found 
 from experience that the fewer number of 
 times a solder is melted the better it is for all 
 purposes. This result of our experience is 
 in direct opposition to those authors who 
 have professed to treat upon this subject, and 
 who can have had but a small amount of real 
 practical knowledge ; for it is argued by them 
 that the oftener a solder is melted the more 
 properly does it become mixed, and conse¬ 
 quently the more fit it is for the workman’s 
 use. To such arguments we are prepared to 
 give a blank denial, and our reasons for so 
 doing we will state further on in this treatise. 
 
 There are various other silver solders used 
 by silversmiths, some few of which it will 
 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 be as well, perhaps, while we are on the point. 
 
 
 
 
 
 to enumerate: 
 
 
 
 EASY SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 SILVER SOLDER FOR 
 
 ENAMELING. 
 
 Fine Silver.. . 
 
 . 0 
 
 14 
 
 0 
 
 
 oz. dwts. 
 
 grs- ' 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 . 0 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 1 0 
 
 0 
 
 Spelter. 
 
 . 0 
 
 I 
 
 12 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 0 5 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 O 
 
 
 1 5 
 
 0 
 
 COMMON 
 
 SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 EASY SILVER SOLDER FOR 
 
 FILIGREE 
 
 WORK., 
 
 
 OZ 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 
 oz. dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver . . 
 
 . 0 
 
 12 
 
 I 2 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 0 16 
 
 0 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 
 6 
 
 O 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 0 0 
 
 12 
 
 Spelter. 
 
 . 0 
 
 I 
 
 I 2 
 
 Composition. 
 
 0 3 
 
 12 
 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 MEDIUM 
 
 SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 SILVER SOLDER 
 
 FOR CHAINS. 
 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver . . 
 
 
 0 
 
 O 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 . 0 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 . . . 0 
 
 IO 
 
 0 
 
 Spelter. 
 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 
 Pure Spelter. 
 
 ... 0 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 l 6 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 2 
 
 0 
 
 EASY SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 COMMON SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 
 oz. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 
 oz. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver . . 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 , . . . I 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 . 0 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 
 12 
 
 0 
 
 Spelter. 
 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 Pure Spelter. 
 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 
 I 
 
 !5 
 
 0 
 
 COMMON 
 
 SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 SILVER SOLDER 
 
 WITH ARSENIC. 
 
 
 oz. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver . . 
 
 
 0 
 
 0 
 
 Fine Silver ...... 
 
 
 0 
 
 O 
 
 Shot Copper. 
 
 . 0 
 
 9 
 
 15 
 
 Shot Copper.... , 
 
 
 3 
 
 O 
 
 Spelter. 
 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 Yellow Arsenic... 
 
 
 2 
 
 O 
 
 
 I 
 
 12 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 O 
 
SILVER SOLDERS: THEIR USES AND APPLICATIONS. 
 
 * 5 ° 
 
 EASY SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 
 oz. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Line Silver. 
 
 
 o 
 
 0 
 
 Composition. . . . 
 
 .... 0 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 Tinsel. 
 
 
 5 
 
 O 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 0 
 
 O 
 
 SILVER SOLDER 
 
 FOR ENAMELING. 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 L'ine Silver. 
 
 
 O 
 
 0 
 
 Shot Copper. .. . 
 
 
 I O 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 0 
 
 0 
 
 QUICK RUNNING 
 
 SILVER 
 
 SOLDER. 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Line Silver. 
 
 
 o 
 
 0 
 
 Composition.... 
 
 
 IO 
 
 O 
 
 Pure Tin. 
 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 2 
 
 0 
 
 EASY SOLDER 
 
 FOR CHAINS. 
 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 
 O 
 
 0 
 
 Composition.... 
 
 
 IO 
 
 0 
 
 Pure Spelter. .. . 
 
 
 2 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 I 2 
 
 0 
 
 COMMON EASY SOLDER. 
 
 
 
 oz. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 
 o 
 
 0 
 
 Composition.... 
 
 . . . . o 
 
 I 2 
 
 O 
 
 Pure Spelter. . . . 
 
 
 3 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 15 
 
 0 
 
 SILVER SOLDER 
 
 WITH ARSENIC. 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 
 O 
 
 0 
 
 Composition.... 
 
 . . . . 0 
 
 6 
 
 0 
 
 Yellow Arsenic. . 
 
 
 I 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 
 0 
 
 COMMON EASY SOLDER. 
 
 
 
 OZ. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 Tinsel. 
 
 
 I O 
 
 O 
 
 Arsenic. 
 
 
 5 
 
 0 
 
 
 I 
 
 15 
 
 0 
 
 ANOTHER COMMON SOLDER. 
 
 
 
 oz. 
 
 dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 
 0 
 
 O 
 
 Composition.... 
 
 
 cs 
 
 O 
 
 Arsenic. 
 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 • 
 
 I 
 
 16 
 
 6 
 
 A VERY COMMON SOLDER. 
 
 Fine Silver. 
 
 oz. dwts. 
 
 grs. 
 
 0 
 
 Composition. . . 
 
 
 0 
 
 White Arsenic.. 
 
 
 0 
 
 The solders here 
 
 given will be 
 
 found 
 
 amply sufficient to select from for every 
 operation of the silversmith, and will answer 
 the several purposes for which they have 
 been described. When tin and arsenic are 
 employed in the composition of solder, either 
 together or separately, they should be with¬ 
 held until the more infusible metals with 
 which they are to be united have become 
 melted; the tin or tinsel should then be 
 added, and when this is well melted with the 
 mass, fling on the top the arsenic, let it melt, 
 stir it well together, and pour it out quickly 
 into an ingot-mold already prepared for its 
 reception. 
 
 When silver and brass, or silver and com¬ 
 position. alone form the component parts of 
 the solder, these metals may be put into the 
 melting-pot together, well fused, stirred, and 
 poured out as before. 
 
 Solders into which volatile metals enter, 
 upon repeated meltings, become hard, brittle, 
 and drossy, and are therefore not so good as 
 when the metal has received only one melt¬ 
 ing ; it is for this reason that we have al¬ 
 ways preferred to manufacture our solders 
 from metals which have not been melted be¬ 
 fore, or from those which have gone through 
 the process as few a number of times as pos¬ 
 sible. 
 
 The mode of soldering gold and silver is 
 as follows: Take the solder and roll it out 
 thin between the flattening- rollers, or file it 
 into dust, according to the kind of work in 
 hand. If filed into dust, it is all the better 
 if done very fine; and if reduced to a flat 
 state, which should be tolerably thin, cut it 
 into little bits, or pallions, which may easily be 
 performed with a pair of hand-shears, length¬ 
 ways, and afterwards crossways. When this 
 is done, take the work which is to be soldered, 
 join it together by means of fine binding-wire 
 (very thin iron wire), or lay it upon the pumice 
 so that the joinings can come close together 
 and will not be liable to move during the 
 process; wet the joinings with a solution of 
 borax and water mixed into a thick paste or 
 McLane’s Anti-Oxetyn, applying it with a 
 small camel’s-hair pencil; then lay the bits or 
 pallions of solder upon the parts to be united, 
 and having placed the article upon some suit- 
 
SILVER SOLDERS: THEIR USES AND APPLICATIONS. 
 
 able object, take your blow-pipe and blow 
 with it, through a gas-jet, a keen flame upon 
 the solder in order to melt it; this will render 
 the unification of the parts complete and 
 compact. 
 
 When filed solder is used, the process of 
 charging the article is rather different from 
 the above. In *he latter case the filings are 
 commonly put into a small cup-shaped vessel, 
 in most cases the bottom of a teacup, or 
 some other similar vessel being used for the 
 purpose; a lump of borax is then taken and 
 rubbed upon a piece of slate, to which a lit¬ 
 tle water is occasionally added durin/g the 
 rubbing; when this solution attains the con¬ 
 sistency of cream it is put into the solder- 
 dish and well mixed with the solder. This 
 is then applied to the article to be soldered 
 by means of a charger, consisting of a piece 
 of round metal wire, flattened at one end, 
 and shaped for the purpose it has to serve. 
 The joinings, when this kind is employed, 
 require no boraxing with the pencil, as de¬ 
 scribed under pallion solder ; the borax being 
 intermixed with the solder flushes with it 
 through the joinings to be united, thus ren¬ 
 dering any further application unnecessary. 
 The process to which we are alluding is 
 called “hard soldering,” and cannot be ap¬ 
 plied to metals of a fusible nature; neither 
 must it be attempted in the case of goods 
 bearing the name of plated, which are put 
 together with soft or pewter solder, similar to 
 that used by tinsmiths and gasfitters. If 
 there should be any soft solder about the ar¬ 
 ticle to be soldered by the means we are de¬ 
 scribing, it would be almost certain to destroy 
 it, the soft solder having such an affinity for 
 entering into combination with metals more 
 infusible than itself when overheated. 
 
 There is an art in soldering greater than 
 some people would believe. The heat re¬ 
 quired is of various degrees, some articles re¬ 
 quiring a broad rough flame, others a smooth 
 one, and others again a fine pointed one. All 
 these circumstances connected with the pro¬ 
 cess, together with others which we could de¬ 
 tail,proving that it is an art only to be acquired 
 by practice, must be considered enough ; and 
 we proceed to observe that the skillful jeweler 
 in soldering a large piece of work will direct 
 the flame of the gas-jet to all parts of it, un¬ 
 til it is tolerably hot, and then return to the 
 spot to be soldered, and by a very dexterous 
 movement of the flame, produced by the 
 blow-pipe, increase the heat at the spot until 
 the solder has flushed and the parts are ren- 
 
 I 5 I 
 
 dered thoroughly secure. So far as some of 
 the work of the silversmith is concerned, the 
 process of soldering is a very delicate opera¬ 
 tion, and ought not to be undertaken by an 
 unpracticed hand. 
 
 The method of preparing solder for filigree 
 work is worthy of a passing notice. It is 
 called by the Germans Lemaille solder. In 
 the first place it is reduced to very fine filings, 
 mixed with burnt borax powdered fine, and 
 in this state it is sprinkled from a spouted 
 grater over the work to be soldered. The 
 English filigree workers commonly use clean 
 filed solder, and by means of the camel’s-hair 
 pencil apply a solution of borax to the work, 
 and then sprinkle the dry solder upon it from 
 the grater. 
 
 In Vienna a kind of powdered borax is 
 employed, called Stren borax , or sprinkle 
 borax. It is composed of the following in¬ 
 gredients, which should be gently annealed 
 to expel their water of crystallization, the 
 whole well pounded and mixed together, and 
 sprinkled over the parts to be joined from 
 the spouted grater as before : 
 
 oz. chvts. grs. 
 
 Calcined borax. o 17 12 
 
 Carbonate of soda... o 1 12 
 
 Common salt. c 1 o 
 
 100 
 
 The object of this mixture is to prevent 
 the rising of the solder, and to facilitate its 
 flushing. Too much of it should not, how¬ 
 ever, be put with solder in the grater at one 
 time, as it is as objectionable as too much 
 borax applied in the ordinary way ; but every 
 workman will learn from experience concern¬ 
 ing these matters. We have tried this mix¬ 
 ture, prepared with filed solder in the ordi¬ 
 nary way, and found it advantageous at first; 
 but its greatest drawback is the turning of 
 the solder yellow if not quickly used upon 
 the work after mixing, thus rendering the 
 solder permanently injured. For this reason 
 we have had to abandon its employment in 
 the wet state. But, in its dry state, to the 
 silversmith for filigree purposes it is likely to 
 be of advantage. It may be remarked that 
 this preparation encumbers the work with a 
 great deal more flux than borax does, and 
 consequently it requires to be more often 
 boiled out during the period of soldering to¬ 
 gether the component parts. This is effected 
 by boiling in a weak pickle of sulphuric acid, 
 and water, composed of the following propor¬ 
 tions : one part of acid to thirty parts of water. 
 
*5 2 
 
 COLD SILVERING. 
 
 TO SOLDER SILVER. 
 
 HE best solder for general purposes to 
 be employed in soldering silver consists 
 of 19 parts (by weight) of silver, 10 parts of 
 brass, and one part of copper, carefully 
 smelted together and well incorporated. To 
 use this for fine work, it should be reduced 
 to powder by filing; the borax should be 
 rubbed upon a slate with water to the con¬ 
 sistency of cream. This cream should then 
 with a fine brush be applied to the surfaces 
 intended to be joined, between which the 
 powdered solder (or pellet) is placed, and 
 the whole supported on a block of charcoal 
 to concentrate the heat. In the hands of a 
 skillful workman the work can be done with 
 such accuracy as to require no scraping or 
 filing, it being necessary only to remove the 
 borax when the soldering is complete, by 
 immersing in a jeweler’s pickle. 
 
 SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 T EN pennyweights of brass and one ounce 
 of pure silver melted together makes a 
 good silver solder for plating. 
 
 SILVER SOLDER. 
 
 HREE dwts. coin weight, one dwt. 
 English brass pins. Melt the silver 
 alone with borax, bend the pins up double, 
 and wrap them up into a compact little par¬ 
 cel in thin paper, so as to be readily dropped 
 into the molten silver, and not bristle up and 
 stick to the sides of the crucible; as soon 
 as they melt, give your crucible a shake or 
 two and run into the ingot; if you leave it 
 long in a molten state after the pins melt, 
 the zinc burns out and impairs the quality of 
 the solder. Have a good heat on before 
 you drop the pins in, especially the lip from 
 which you intend to pour off. It is not 
 owing so much to any peculiarity in the 
 brass of which these pins are made, although 
 its excellence and their convenient size rec¬ 
 ommend them, as witnessed by their gen¬ 
 eral use by the trade for many purposes, but 
 it is the antimony with which they are coated 
 that gives the solder its good quality. It 
 flows easy, will stand chilling in the pickle, 
 and retain its toughness; is white enough 
 to use on silver, and is suitable for all kinds 
 of repairing. 
 
 COLD SILVERING. 
 
 T sometimes happens that the country 
 goldsmith or watchmaker has a silver- 
 plated article in repair, and not having a 
 battery either in his possession or in working 
 order, he is nonplused how to restore the 
 silver-plating. For doing this, there is noth 
 ing so good as the methods described by A 
 Roseleur, and which are as follows: 
 
 COLD SILVERING BY RUBBING WITH THE 
 THUMB, A CORK, OR A BRUSH. 
 
 The results are better than those by the 
 whitening process, but not very durable; the 
 method is useful to repair slight defects upon 
 more durable silverings, and to produce mixt¬ 
 ures of gold and silver, or gold upon slightly 
 gilt objects, thus avoiding the use of resist 
 varnishes. Make a paste by thoroughly grind¬ 
 ing in a porcelain mortar, or with a muller, 
 and, as far as practicable, not in the light: 
 
 Water.ounces, 3^ to 5 
 
 White fused nitrate of 
 silver, or preferably 
 
 the chloride. “ 7 
 
 Binoxalate of potash.. “ 10 
 
 Bitartrate of potash... . “ » ioj^ 
 
 Common salt. “ 15 
 
 or, 
 
 Chlorate of silver.ounces, 3^ 
 
 Bitartrate of potash. “ 7 
 
 Common salt. “ 10 y 2 
 
 Pulverize finely in a porcelain mortar, and 
 
 triturate it under a muller upon a plate of 
 ground glass until there is no granular feel¬ 
 ing. Keep the paste in a porcelain pot or 
 in a black glass vessel, to preserve it from 
 the light, which decomposes it rapidly. 
 When about to use it, add a little water so 
 as to form a thin paste, which is applied with 
 a brush or pencil upon the cleansed articles 
 of copper, or upon those gilt by dipping, or 
 even upon those gilt by the battery, provided 
 that the coating is thin enough to allow the 
 copper to decompose the silver paste through 
 the coat of gold ; allow the paste to dry nat¬ 
 urally or with the aid of a gentle heat. The 
 chemical reaction is more or less complete 
 according to the thickness of the gold de¬ 
 posit, and the dry paste is of a pink shade, 
 or entirely green. The salts are removed by 
 a thorough rinsing in cold water and the sil¬ 
 ver appears with a fine frosted appearance, 
 the brightness of which may be increased by 
 a few seconds’ immersion in a very dilute 
 
COLD SILVERING. 
 
 1 53 
 
 solution of sulphuric acid or of cyanide of 
 potassium. This silvering bears the action 
 of the wire brush and of the burnishing tool 
 very well; and it may also be oxidized. 
 Should a first silvering not be found suffi¬ 
 ciently durable after scratch-brushing, apply 
 a second or third coat. This Adyering is not 
 so adhering or so white on pure copper as 
 upon a gilt surface. For the reflectors of 
 lanterns, the paste is rubbed upon the re¬ 
 flector with a fine linen pad ; then, with an¬ 
 other pad, a thin paste of Spanish white, or 
 similar substance, is spread over the reflector 
 and allowed to dry. Rubbing with a fine 
 and clean linen rag will restore the luster and 
 whiteness of the plated silver. 
 
 FOR PLATED SILVER REFLECTORS. 
 
 A bath made of water, i Y\ pints ; nitrate 
 of chloride of silver, 2 ounces; cyanide of 
 potassium, 10 14 ounces; add sufficient Span¬ 
 ish white, or levizated chalk, in fine powder, 
 to produce a thin paste, which is kept in a 
 well-closed pot. This paste is spread with 
 a brush, or a pad of old linen, all over the 
 surface of the reflector, and allowed almost 
 to dry, when it is briskly rubbed over with 
 another clean dry rag of old linen. 
 
 SILVERING BY DIPPING IN A WARM BATH. 
 
 For small articles, a bath is made by dis¬ 
 solving in an enameled cast-iron kettle, in 
 two gallons of water, 17 y 2 ounces of ordinary 
 cyanide of potassium. Also dissolve 5^ 
 ounces of fused nitrate of silver in 1^ pints 
 of water, contained in a glass or porcelain 
 vessel. The second solution is gradually 
 poured into the first. Stir with a glass rod. 
 The white or grayish-white precipitate pro¬ 
 duced soon dissolves, and the remaining 
 liquor is filtered, if a perfectly clear bath is 
 desired. When brought to the boiling point 
 it will immediately silver the cleansed copper 
 articles plunged into it. The objects must be 
 quickly withdrawn. The silvering should im¬ 
 mediately follow the cleansing, although the 
 rinsings after each operation should be thor¬ 
 ough and complete. This bright and light 
 silvering is adapted for set jewelry, which can¬ 
 not be scratch-brushed without flattening the 
 clasps, and to which a bright luster is abso¬ 
 lutely necessary as a substitute for the foil of 
 burnished silver placed under the precious 
 stones of real jewelry. The employment of 
 the solution of nitrate of binoxide of mercury 
 is useless, and even injurious for this bath. 
 It is useless to keep up the strength of the solu¬ 
 
 tion by new additions of cyanide and silver 
 salt, as it will invariably give results far in¬ 
 ferior to those of the former solution. The 
 baths should therefore be washed out, as long 
 as the silvering is satisfactory, and when ex¬ 
 hausted, put away with the waste. With this 
 process a battery and a soluble anode may 
 be used to obtain a more durable deposit; 
 but the operation is no longer a simple dip¬ 
 ping, and properly belongs to electro-silvering 
 by heat. 
 
 A solution which, when boiling, produces 
 a very fine silver coat with a mat, or partly 
 mat, luster upon cleansed copper, is made 
 by dissolving, with the aid of heat, in a well- 
 scoured copper kettle: Distilled water, 9 
 pints ; ferro-cyanide of potassium, 21 ounces ; 
 carbonate of potash, 14 ounces. When the 
 liquid boils, add the well-washed chloride ob¬ 
 tained from 1 ounce of pure silver. This 
 should boil for about half an hour, and be 
 filtered before using; part of the silver de¬ 
 posits upon the copper kettle, and should be 
 removed when a new bath is prepared. On 
 account of this inconvenience, the process 
 has been nearly abandoned, although the 
 products are remarkably fine. All the dip¬ 
 ping silver baths, which contain a compara- 
 ■ tively great excess of cyanide of potassium 
 to proportion of the silver salt, will silver well 
 copper articles perfectly cleansed, even in 
 the cold; whereas this characteristic dimin¬ 
 ishes in proportion to the increase of the 
 amount of silver in the bath, or with the de¬ 
 crease of the amount of cyanide. For small 
 articles, partly copper and partly iron, such 
 as those used for saddlery and carriage wares, 
 a particular process of silver is used. The 
 bath is composed of . 
 
 Water. pints, 9 
 
 Caustic potash. ounces, 6 
 
 Bicarbonate of potash.. “ 3*4 
 
 Cyanide of potassium . . “ 2 
 
 Fused nitrate of silver. . “ ^3 
 
 The cyanide, caustic potash, and bicarbo¬ 
 nate are dissolved in seven pints of water in 
 an enameled cast-iron kettle ; then the remain¬ 
 ing quart of water, in which the nitrate of 
 silver has been separately dissolved, is added 
 to the former solution. For the silvering 
 operation, a certain quantity of articles are 
 cleansed, thoroughly rinsed, and put in a 
 small enameled kettle. Enough of the silver 
 bath is poured in to cover the articles en¬ 
 tirely, and the whole is brought to a boil for 
 a few seconds, and stirred with a wooden 
 
*54 
 
 OXIDIZING SILVER. 
 
 spatula. When the silvering appears satis¬ 
 factory, the liquor employed is put with the 
 saved waste; the same liquid is never used 
 for two batches of articles. This process 
 gives a somewhat durable silvering with a 
 dead luster of a grayish-white, which is in¬ 
 creased in whiteness and brightness by soap 
 and burnishing.- _ 
 
 TO DISSOLVE SILVER FROM SIL¬ 
 VERED ARTICLES. 
 
 Cold Bath .—For dissolving silver in the 
 cold, the objects are hung in a large vessel 
 filled with the following mixture: Sulphuric 
 acid 66° B., io parts; nitric acid at 40 0 B., 
 10 parts. The articles remain in this for a 
 greater or less length of time, according to 
 the thickness of the coat of silver to be de- 
 solved. The liquid, when it does not contain 
 water, dissolves the silver without sensibly 
 corroding copper and its alloys; therefore 
 avoid introducing wet articles into it, and 
 keep the liquid perfectly covered when not in 
 use. As far as praticable, place the articles 
 in the liquid so as not to touch each other, 
 and in a vertical position, so that the silver 
 salt will fall to the bottom. In proportion 
 -as the action of the liquid diminishes pour 
 in small and gradual additions of nitric acid. 
 Dissolving silver in .the cold is regular and 
 certain, but slow, especially when the pro¬ 
 portion of silver is great. 
 
 Hot Bath .—Nearly fill an enameled cast- 
 iron pan with concentrated sulphuric acid, 
 and heat to a temperature of from 300° to 
 400 0 Fahr.; at the moment of using it, 
 pinches of dry, powdered saltpeter are thrown 
 into it; then hold the article with copper 
 tongs in the liquid. The silver rapidly dis¬ 
 solves and the copper or its alloy are not 
 sensibly corroded. According to the rapid¬ 
 ity of the solution more or fewer pinches of 
 saltpeter are added. All the silver has been 
 dissolved when, after rinsing in water and 
 dipping the articles into the cleaning acid, 
 they present no black br brown spots—that 
 is, when they appear like new metals. 
 
 These two methods are not suitable for 
 removing the silver from wrought- and cast- 
 iron, zinc or lead ; in these cases it is pref¬ 
 erable to invert the electric current in a 
 cyanide bath, or to use mechanical processes. 
 Old dissolving liquids become green after 
 use; to recover the silver they are diluted 
 with four or five times their volume of water ; 
 then add hydrochloric acid or common salt. 
 
 I lie precipitation is complete when the set¬ 
 
 tled liquor does not become turbid by a new 
 addition of common salt or by hydrochloric 
 acid. The resulting chloride of silver is 
 separated from the liquid either by decanting 
 or filtering, and is afterwards reduced to the 
 metallic state by one of the usual methods. 
 
 TO IMITATE INLAYING OF SILVER. 
 
 VERY neat imitation of silver inlaying 
 for small boxes, handles, and articles 
 de luxe , may be made in the following man¬ 
 ner f Carefully draw your pattern upon the 
 work, and then engrave or cut away your 
 lines with sharp gouges, chisels, etc., so as to 
 appear clean and even, taking care to cut 
 them deep enough, and rather into it, like a 
 dovetail, so as to secure the composition 
 afterward to be put into the grooves. The 
 silver composition may be made as follows: 
 Take a small quantity of the purest and best 
 grain tin and melt it in a ladle; add to it, 
 while in fusion, the purest quicksilver, stirring 
 it to make it incorporate; when you have 
 added enough, it will remain as a stiff paste ; 
 if too soft, add more tin, or if too stiff, add 
 more quicksilver. • Grind this composition in 
 a mortar or upon a marble slab, with a little 
 size, and fill up the cuttings or grooves in 
 your work, as you would with putty. Allow 
 it to remain some hours to dry, after which 
 you may polish it with your hand, and it will 
 appear like work inlaid with silver. 
 
 OXIDIZING SILVER. 
 
 VERY worker in the precious metal 
 knows the liability of silver to become 
 tarnished in an atmosphere containing sul¬ 
 phurous emanations, sewer gas, or sulphu- 
 reted hydrogen ; in the language of the day 
 this tarnishing is called “ oxidizing,” although 
 erroneously so, because the silver enters into 
 a chemical combination with the sulphurous 
 gas and forms a sulphide of silver. The ob¬ 
 ject assumes a dark lead-color, and in order 
 to restore the brightness of the silver, pickling 
 must be resorted to. This proclivity is taken 
 advantage of for causing an artificial oxida¬ 
 tion upon the silver surface by covering this 
 latter with certain re-agents that will produce 
 such an effect. Such a re-agent must natu¬ 
 rally contain an easily decomposing sulphur 
 combination, which the silversmith has in the 
 so-called liver of sulphur (German Schwefel- 
 leber , sulphide of potassium), which is so 
 easily decomposed that it parts with hydro- 
 
OXIDIZING SILVER. 
 
 1 55 
 
 sulphide even at a simp.e exposure to air. 
 The workman can readily prepare it himself 
 by mixing two parts of sharply dried potash 
 with one part of pulverized sulphur, and then 
 fusing the mass in an iron vessel. This po- 
 tassic sulphide can also be purchased in any 
 drug-store; it is a crumbling,, liver-brown 
 mass, and has to be kept in firmly closed re¬ 
 ceptacles on account of its liability to decom¬ 
 pose. When a silver article is to be coated 
 entirely with sulphide of silver, the former 
 must first be thoroughly cleaned from all filth 
 and grease with soda lye; it is then rinsed 
 in water and-at once immersed in a bath of 
 the sulphide of potassium solution. Action 
 begins at once, and the coating adheres ac¬ 
 cording to the state of dilution of the bath. 
 The coursp of the process must not be 
 hastened too precipitately, however, as under 
 such circumstances the coating of the sul¬ 
 phide will adhere loosely and drop off when 
 slightly touched. (The writer ascertained by 
 experiments that a much more firmly adher¬ 
 ing coating may be obtained by exposing the 
 article for some time to an atmosphere of 
 humid sulphureted hydrogen gas.) It may 
 be well to remember that the more dilute 
 the bath is the more tenaciously adheres the 
 “ oxidation ’’; the formation of this is has¬ 
 tened by warming the fluid. 
 
 When coated sufficiently with sulphide of 
 silver, the article is taken out of the bath, 
 quickly rinsed in water, and then dried; if 
 the work has been conducted correctly the 
 piece must be of a uniform gray color. Or¬ 
 namentations may then be executed showing 
 the brightness of the silver; this is effected 
 in two ways—mechanically and chemically. 
 By the former, the layer of the sulphide of 
 silver is completely removed with a graver, 
 so that the color of the metal underneath is 
 made to appear. By the second, that part 
 of the design which is to appear bright is 
 executed with a goose quill dipped in moder¬ 
 ately strong nitric acid, which changes the 
 sulphide of silver into a sulphate, that can 
 be washed off by dipping the article for some 
 time in boiling water, after the drawing of 
 the design is finished. The sulphate of silver 
 dissolves with difficulty in water. 
 
 It is not easy to produce entirely faultless 
 designs in this manner, and especially do the 
 contours occasionally lack sufficient sharp¬ 
 ness. Sharper designs are obtained by coat¬ 
 ing the places of the silver which are to re¬ 
 main bright with asphaltum varnish, and, 
 after drying, dipping the article into the 
 
 potassium-sulphide bath. When the action 
 is satisfactory the article is rinsed and the 
 asphaltum lacquer removed by dipping in 
 benzoin. 
 
 By tracing the design directly upon the 
 article, experiments have also been success¬ 
 ful ; a highly concentrated solution of sul¬ 
 phide of potassium in water was prepared, 
 and so thickened with sufficient thick muci¬ 
 lage solution that it could have been used for 
 writing and drawing. The designs upon the 
 bright silver were executed with a quill and 
 brush ; the article set aside for 24 hours, then 
 heated so that the dried mucilage mixture 
 either dropped off of itself or separated by 
 gentle tapping. If the fluid is thickened 
 sufficiently with the mucilage solution the 
 outlines of the tracings will be of very great 
 sharpness, and the dark gray sketches on the 
 bright silver will make a very agreeable effect. 
 
 There are two distinct shades in use, one 
 of which is produced by chloride, which has 
 a brownish tone. For this it is only neces¬ 
 sary to work the article with a solution of 
 sal-ammoniac. The other, described in the 
 proceeding, is of a much more beautiful tint. 
 
 The nice blue-gray to black tone, the char¬ 
 acteristic of sulphide of silver, is obtained by 
 this sulphur bath ; but if the silver is alloyed 
 with much copper the color will be different, 
 inclining more to dead black, and not so 
 handsome. When, therefore, an oxidation 
 simply produced by sulphide of silver is to 
 be obtained, the article must be heated to a 
 red heat for some time, so as to oxidize the 
 copper on the surface to a proportionally 
 great depth ; this oxide is then to be removed 
 by pickling twice or three times. If the 
 color of the oxidized silver is to be very dark, 
 passing into a velvety black, dip the article, 
 before entering the liver-of-sulphur bath, in 
 a solution of proto-nitrate of mercury. The 
 article assumes thereby a fairly white color, 
 metallic mercury separating upon its surface 
 which unites into an amalgam with the silver. 
 The solution of the proto-nitrate of mercury 
 is produced by dissolving mercury in the 
 cold in nitric acid, so that a little mercury 
 remains in excess ; this solution is to be kept 
 in a closed bottle, upon the bottom of which 
 is a little mercury. When the article is next 
 immersed into the sulphide of potassium 
 bath, a thicker layer of a mixture of sulphide 
 of mercury and sulphide of silver, of a vel¬ 
 vety black tone, is produced. 
 
 The silver oxidation may also be shaded 
 by chemical re-agents; for instance, the ox- 
 
J 5 6 
 
 OTHER METHODS. 
 
 idized article is dipped into a fluid consisting 
 of io parts of sulphate of copper,- 5 parts of 
 sal-ammoniac, and 100 parts vinegar, which 
 imparts a warm, brown color to the bright 
 places of the silver. Elegantly colored de¬ 
 signs may be produced in this manner by a 
 skillful manipulation of the process. For in¬ 
 stance, ornamentations are first traced upon 
 the bright silver surface with asphaltum lac¬ 
 quer ; the article is next oxidized in the liver- 
 of-sulphur baths, after which the asphaltum 
 layer is removed; next it is dipped into the 
 solution of proto-nitrate of mercury, and 
 again oxidized, when black designs upon a 
 blue-gray ground are obtained. Now 
 brighten certain places of the silver surface, 
 dip the article in the above-stated copper 
 solution, and you will have the bright spots 
 oxidized brown. Care is always necessary 
 that the oxidations already produced are not 
 ruined by the succeeding ones, and it is al¬ 
 ways necessary to coat such finished places 
 with asphaltum lacquer. 
 
 OTHER METHODS. 
 
 I. 
 
 S ILVER work may be oxidized by any of 
 the following processes: 
 
 Sal-ammoniac. 2 parts. 
 
 Sulphate of copper. 2 parts 
 
 Saltpeter. 1 part. 
 
 Reduce the above ingredients to a fine 
 powder, and dissolve it in a little acetic acid. 
 If the article is to be entirely oxidized, it 
 may be dipped for a short time in the boiling 
 mixture ; if only in parts, it may be applied 
 with a camel’s-hair pencil, the article and the 
 mixture both being warmed before using. 
 
 II. 
 
 Platinum. 1 part. 
 
 Hydrochloric acid. 2 parts. 
 
 Nitric acid. 1 part. 
 
 Dissolve the platinum in the mixture of 
 acids, evaporate to crystallization, and when 
 cold, dissolve again in a little sulphuric ether. 
 Apply the mixture with a camel’s-hair pencil 
 to the parts required to be blackened. 
 
 III. 
 
 Saltpeter. 2 parts. 
 
 Common salt. 1 part. 
 
 Spirits of salts.1 part. 
 
 Reduce the salts to powder, and place it 
 in a black-lead crucible along with the acid, 
 
 boil up, and then dip the articles into the 
 mixture for a short time, or otherwise apply 
 it to the parts required to be oxidized. 
 
 These mixtures will give the various tints 
 of oxidation to silver work if properly treated ; 
 but if other tints be desired, the following 
 chemical substances may be employed ac¬ 
 cording to taste: For slate-colored surface, 
 dip the articles into a boiling solution of sul- 
 phuret of potassium. Strong hydrosulphate 
 of ammonia produces a dark tint of oxidation, 
 and if diluted with much water a light tint is 
 produced. Nitric acid produces a light sur¬ 
 face. The fumes of sulphur produce a beau¬ 
 tiful blue-colored surface. This operation 
 should be conducted in a closed box, and all 
 parts not to be blackened should be coated 
 with a suitable resist varnish. After any of 
 these processes the articles may either be 
 scratched or otherwise burnished. 
 
 IV. 
 
 We find the following process for oxidizing 
 silver in the Journal des Applications Elec- 
 triques: 
 
 The salts of silver are colorless when the 
 acids, the elements of which enter into their 
 composition, are not colored, but they gen¬ 
 erally blacken on exposure to light. It is 
 easy, therefore, to blacken silver and obtain 
 its oxide; it is sufficient to place it in con¬ 
 tact with a sulphide, vapor of sulphur, or 
 the sulphides or polysulphides of potash or 
 soda, dissolved in water and called eau de 
 barege. The chlorides play the same part, 
 and the chloride of lime in solution or simply 
 eau de javelle may be used. It is used hot 
 in order to accelerare its action. 
 
 The bath must be prepared new for each 
 operation for two reasons: 1. It is of little 
 
 value. 2. The sulphides precipitate rapidly 
 and give best effects only at the time of their 
 direct precipitations. The quantity of the 
 re-agent in solution forming the bath de¬ 
 pends upon the thickness of the deposit of 
 silver. When this is trifling, the oxidation 
 penetrates the entire deposit and the silver 
 exfoliates in smaller scales, leaving the cop¬ 
 per bare. It is necessary, therefore, in this 
 case to operate with dilute baths inclosing 
 only about 3 grams (45 grains) of oxidizant 
 at most per liter. The operation is very 
 simple: Heat the necessary quantity of 
 
 water, add the sulphide or chloride, and agi¬ 
 tate to effect the solution of the mixture, and 
 then at once plunge in the silver-plated arti¬ 
 cles, leaving them immersed only for a few 
 
FROSTING SILVER. 
 
 *57 
 
 seconds, which exposure is sufficient to cover 
 it with a pellicle of deep black-blue silver. 
 After withdrawing they are plunged in clean 
 cold water, rinsed and dried, and either left 
 mat or else polished, according to the nature 
 of the articles. 
 
 Should the result not be satisfactory, the 
 articles are brightened by immersing in a 
 lukewarm solution of cyanide of potassium. 
 The oxide, the true name of which would be 
 the sulphuret or chloruret, can be raised only 
 on an object either entirely of silver pr silver- 
 plated. 
 
 FROSTING SILVER. 
 
 AVING been requested to give some 
 general information with regard to the 
 processes of frosting and finishing silver and 
 metal work, we give the following few par¬ 
 ticulars with the expressed proviso that, al¬ 
 though every process and detail may be here 
 laid down for the perfect and most complete 
 accomplishment of the art, the uninitiated or 
 even the less experienced operator can do 
 the same work and achieve such good results 
 as the skillful workman. 
 
 The frosting of silver goods is not done 
 with an acid or combination of acids, but is 
 simply due to scratching with the scratch¬ 
 brush. These scratch-brushes take different 
 forms, according to the kind of work to be 
 submitted to them for frosting, and are made 
 of various strengths; that' is, the wires of 
 them are specially prepared of several thick¬ 
 nesses, and when a very fine satin finish is 
 required, a brush of very fine wire is taken, 
 and so on. A brush with wires thicker and 
 thicker in proportion is taken as a more ex¬ 
 tended roughness is desired. These wire 
 scratch-brushes are fixed upon a horizontal 
 spindle in the lathe; the lathe is made to re¬ 
 volve by means of the foot of the operator 
 and a treadle attached to the crank of the 
 lathe, but where a gas or other small power 
 engine can be employed it is far preferable, 
 as the speed is much greater and far more 
 regular. Frosting requires great speed to do 
 the work nicely. The wires of the scratch¬ 
 brush must lie even on the surface, all of the 
 same length, and always kept straight at the 
 points, otherwise the frosting will not be 
 regular. Sometimes the little hand scratch- 
 brushes are employed for coarser work ; four 
 of them are taken and firmly secured in four 
 corresponding grooves in a circular chuck, 
 which screws into the lathe. The ends of 
 
 the four little brushes are repeatedly cut off 
 as occasion requires, in order to present a 
 straight surface for a continual contact with 
 the work. 
 
 Metal work is first prepared for gilding by 
 dipping, and when gilt, submitted in the 
 same manner as silver to the processes just 
 described. 
 
 Metal work can be frosted by acids with 
 advantage, whereas no good results can be 
 arrived at with silver, or by its treatment in 
 any analogous manner, as the color, in the 
 first place—and this is highly important— 
 would be very inferior, and the frost produced 
 would in no manner compare with that pro¬ 
 duced by the scratch-brush. 
 
 A few good recipes consist as follows for 
 dipping metal goods. Each one effects a 
 bright frosted surface upon work submitted 
 to their various actions, and this, of course, 
 is always providing the alloy is right of 
 which such work is composed: 
 
 No. i. 
 
 Nitric acid. 4 ounces. 
 
 Sulphuric acid. 1 ounce. 
 
 Common salt. y? ounce. 
 
 $y ounces. 
 
 In preparing this solution add the sul¬ 
 phuric acid to the nitric, and lastly put in 
 common salt in a state of fine, dry powder. 
 Keep your work free from water, and dip it 
 in the mixture for a few seconds only. The 
 work must be scrupulously clean and free 
 from grease of every kind. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Nitric acid.. 4 ounces. 
 
 Muriatic acid. 4 ounces. 
 
 Hydrochloric acid. y drachm. 
 
 Prepare the mixture, and treat it exactly 
 in the same manner as the previous one; be 
 careful and not leave the work in the solution 
 too long. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 Nitric acid. 1 ounce 
 
 Muriatic acid. 1 ounce. 
 
 Common salt. 1 ounce. 
 
 Well mix these ingredients together by 
 stirring, and then dip the work for a very 
 short time only, when the object of your de¬ 
 sire will be readily attained. 
 
POLISHING SILVER. 
 
 *58 
 
 TO ETCH SILVER AND GOLD. 
 
 T HE process of etching silver is done for 
 the purpose of embellishing an otherwise 
 dead flat surface of a certain article. When 
 an etching is to be introduced, the place of 
 the article is slightly warmed to a temperature 
 to melt a coating of beeswax upon it. The 
 design is then carefully scratched with a 
 sharp-pointed instrument, the etching needle, 
 through the coating of the beeswax, work¬ 
 ing and managing the lines precisely as we 
 would if we were making a pen-and-ink 
 drawing, forcibly drawing the outline of the 
 design—say a rabbit—and if the operator is 
 confident of his ability to preserve the round¬ 
 ness of the form, let the furry appearance be 
 given in the etching; if not, let him content 
 himself with the outline and a few vigorous 
 touches, as far as his ability enables him. 
 
 The etching, or “ biting in,” as it is also 
 termed, is best done with nitric acid, diluted 
 with three or four times the amount of water. 
 The piece to be etched should be protected 
 all over either with beeswax or shellac var¬ 
 nish (shellac dissolved in alcohol). The ar¬ 
 ticle or plate to be etched is best sunk in the 
 dilute nitric acid, where it should be brushed 
 (as it lies immersed in the acid) with a 
 camel’s-hair pencil, to remove gas bubbles. 
 A little practice will enable one to judge of 
 the time required, as acids vary so much in 
 strength that no rule can be given. The 
 etching can be carried to different degrees 
 of depth and width, by the time to which it 
 is subjected to the action of the acid ; as, for 
 instance, the same line can be bitten in with 
 acid so as to be so fine and delicate as to be 
 almost imperceptible, but if the acid action 
 is continued it will bite deeper and deeper, 
 until a full, heavy, strong line is obtained. 
 Gold can also be etched by using nitro-mu- 
 riatic acid (2 parts muriatic, 1 part nitric), 
 diluted in about the same proportions. In 
 the rabbit the effects may be varied by mat¬ 
 ting some portions and leaving others bright. 
 After the etching is complete, and before the 
 bright cutting is done, the article should be 
 cleaned from the wax by washing with 
 spirits of turpentine, and then with soap and 
 water, after which it should be dried in box¬ 
 wood sawdust. After the etching wax is en¬ 
 tirely cleaned off, the etching lines should be 
 rubbed with a fine wire scratch-brush, to re¬ 
 move any oxide of silver remaining in them. 
 Such etch effects can be made in figures of 
 men or animals, but more particularly land¬ 
 scape scenes. When in the hands of a skill¬ 
 
 ful designer, a witching little rural scene can 
 be lined in in a comparatively short time. 
 
 POLISHING SILVER. 
 
 OLISHING is an important process with 
 all precious metal workers. It is applied 
 for the production of surface to their wares, 
 and in proportion to the smoothness required 
 upon the work, so should be the fineness of 
 the material employed in effecting it. The 
 polishing powders are emery, powdered pum¬ 
 ice, crocus, rotten-stone, putty of tin, and 
 rouge. In the best w’ork, scratches are re¬ 
 moved with a smooth and rather soft dark 
 gray stone (Water-of-Ayr stone); it is then 
 polished in the lathe with a stiff brush, and the 
 application of a little fine polishing mixture. 
 We have placed the materials for polishing in 
 their respective order of smoothness or fine¬ 
 ness, beginning with emery, which is the 
 coarsest. A very good mixture for ordinary 
 work consists of equal portions of emery, 
 pumice, and crocus, with oil added to consist¬ 
 ence of a thick paste. Good work does not 
 want much polishing, for the beauty of it de¬ 
 pends more on its being executed by a well- 
 trained workman ; whereas rough and badly 
 executed work requires much polishing, and 
 for this the coarser powders are preferable, 
 or a mixture of them; but for the finer, 
 better finished work the finer powders should 
 be employed. 
 
 The Water-of-Ayr stone employed for pol¬ 
 ishing is usually obtained in the form of 
 small square sticks, and is used with a small 
 quantity of water to the surface of the work, 
 in a similar manner to filing. The stone is 
 softer than the material upon which it oper¬ 
 ates (and, in fact, so are all the materials for 
 polishing), and therefore wears away, pro¬ 
 ducing a mud-like substance upon the article, 
 which should be repeatedly moved, in order 
 to ascertain the progress made. This may 
 be done with a clean rag, or tissue paper. 
 When the work is polished at the lathe it 
 will gradually become enveloped in grease, 
 etc., which should be removed occasionally, 
 to show when the process has been carried 
 far enough. The polishing of silver work is 
 the branch of the trade commonly performed 
 by girls. It is hard work for them, as the 
 metal possesses a very soft nature; it there¬ 
 fore pulls hard against the brush which holds 
 the polishing mixture. The lathe employed 
 is the ordinary polishing lathe with a hori¬ 
 zontal spindle, and is worked with a common 
 
RESTORING THE LUSTER OF SILVER. 
 
 l S9 
 
 foot-treadle; steam-power is used by some 
 firms for moving lathes, but it is by no 
 means the usual custom at present. 
 
 After the completion of the polishing pro¬ 
 cess, the work is well washed out in a pre¬ 
 pared solution, to remove the mixture which 
 adheres to it; a solution of soda is found to 
 answer the purpose best, both from its cheap¬ 
 ness and effectiveness. It should be used 
 hot, with the addition of a little soap, and 
 with a stiff brush the dirt is soon removed. 
 The quantity of soda used to a given pro¬ 
 portion of water differs in the trade, and 
 there is no set rule to go by; it dep/ends, 
 more or less, upon the adhesiveness bf the 
 polishing mixture. We have found about 
 two ounces of it to a quart of water amply 
 sufficient for the purpose. 
 
 RESTORING THE LUSTER OF 
 SILVER. 
 
 HE best way to restore the original dead 
 or lustrous whiteness of silver goods, 
 lost or impaired by exposure to sulphurous 
 atmospheres, or by having been too often 
 and perhaps carelessly cleaned, is effected 
 by annealing in a charcoal fire, or before the 
 flame of a gas or oil lamp, by means of the 
 blow-pipe, which affects the destroying of all 
 organic matter adhering to the surface of the 
 article, at the same time oxidizing on the 
 surface the base metals with which the silver 
 is alloyed. The article is allowed to cool, 
 and then immersed in a boiling solution, 
 consisting of from one to five parts of sul¬ 
 phuric acid, and twenty parts of water—the 
 quantity of the water depending upon the 
 quality of the silver the article is made of; 
 the coarser the'silver, the more acidulated. 
 The boiling in this solution has the effect of 
 dissolving the extracted deposit of oxide 
 and leaving a coating of pure and fine silver 
 on the surface. The time for allowing the 
 articles to remain in the solution also de¬ 
 pends on the quality of the silver; while 
 good sterling silver will be whitened in al¬ 
 most an instant, common silver will take a 
 minute, or even longer; care is, however, to 
 be taken not to allow the articles to be too 
 long in the solution, as in that case the sur¬ 
 face will turn into an unseemly grayish color, 
 and the manipulation will have to be com¬ 
 menced afresh ; if the silver is very com¬ 
 mon, the article will require to be repeatedly 
 treated in this manner before the desired 
 whiteness is obtained, and in some cases will 
 
 even have to be silvered by the galvanic 
 method. As soon as the desired whiteness 
 of the article whilst in the acid is observed, 
 it is removed and quickly thrown into luke¬ 
 warm water; it is advisable to have an ad¬ 
 ditional vessel with warm water at hand to 
 place the articles in after having been re¬ 
 moved from the first. The articles are then 
 immersed in boxwood sawdust, kept in an 
 iron vessel near the stove, or any warm 
 place, when, after thoroughly drying in the 
 sawdust, the article will be found to look like 
 new. Any places on the article desired to 
 look bright are burnished with a steel bur¬ 
 nisher. 
 
 The annealing, prior to placing the article 
 into the acid solution, requires some care 
 and attention, or else the workmanship of 
 the piece will be irretrievably lost. It is 
 first of all necessary to closely examine the- 
 article, whether it has been soft-soldered 
 previously, as under such circumstances it is 
 unfit to be annealed, as the heat necessary 
 for this would burn the solder into the ar¬ 
 ticles and produce blemish past remedy. It 
 is, secondly, necessary to remove all stones, 
 steel, or any material not silver, or liable to 
 be injured in the fire, and it is also advisable 
 to remove pins or tongues from brooches, or 
 spiral springs attached to some very showy 
 ornaments, to produce a shaking or trembling 
 greatly admired in artistic jewelry, in order 
 to preserve the hardness of the pins and the 
 elasticity of the springs. After being satis¬ 
 fied that these precautions have been ob¬ 
 served, and the article is without risk fit to 
 be annealed, another precaution, and espe¬ 
 cially by mechanics not accustomed to such 
 work, should be observed, namely, to pre¬ 
 vent. an over or under heating. If the ar¬ 
 ticle is overheated, it is liable to melt, and if 
 underheated, the organic matter adhering is 
 not effectually destroyed, and the surface 
 not sufficiently oxidized. In order to ob¬ 
 tain the required degree of heat, and running 
 no risk of either under or over heating, the 
 article is held with a pair of pincers very 
 close over the flame of the lamp so as to be 
 covered with soot all over, and then exposed 
 before the blast of a flame by means of a 
 blow-pipe, until the soot bums or disappears, 
 when quite sufficient and yet not more heat 
 than is required is obtained. The practice 
 of this last precaution will greatly assist the 
 manipulation and prevent accidents. 
 
 Silver ornaments which have merely be¬ 
 come oxidized by exposure in a sulphurous 
 
COLD SILVER PLATING. 
 
 1 60 
 
 atmosphere, and not by repeated cleaning, 
 are simply restored by brushing with a clean 
 -tooth-brush and a little carbqnate of soda. 
 
 alike, rub it with very fine chalk powder or 
 dust upon wadding or other soft cloth, wash 
 with clean water, and dry with a cloth. 
 
 TARNISHING OF SILVER. 
 
 O F the many agents proposed to prevent 
 the tarnishing of silver and plated 
 goods, none appear to have given as satis¬ 
 factory results as a varnish of collodion—a 
 solution of gun-cotton in a mixture of alco¬ 
 hol and ether. All other varnishes appear 
 to impart a yellowish tinge to the silver or 
 plated wares, but collodion varnish is quite 
 colorless. The articles should be carefully 
 brushed with the varnish, using an elastic 
 brush, making sure that the entire surface is 
 covered. The film of collodion will protect 
 the underlying metal surface for a long time. 
 
 TO CLEANSE SILVER TARNISHED 
 BY SOLDERING. 
 
 S OME expose it to a uniform heat, allow 
 to cool, and then boil in strong alum 
 water. Others immerse for a considerable 
 length of time in a liquid made of one-half 
 ounce of cyanide of potash to one pint of rain¬ 
 water, and then brush off with prepared chalk. 
 
 TO CLEAN SILVER. 
 
 T AKE either a small sponge, a piece of 
 flannel, a piece of chamois, or a clean 
 and dry silver brush. Rub all the articles 
 which have bad spots with salt, which re¬ 
 moves the spots more quickly than anything 
 else. The simplest method is to place a little 
 prepared chalk in a saucer with water, of 
 which make a thick paste, and add a few 
 drops of ammonia. In place of ammonia, the 
 chalk can be prepared with alcohol or simply 
 with water. This paste is to be brushed or 
 rubbed carefully over the article. 
 
 RAPID SILVER PLATING. 
 
 D R. BURGER recommends the follow¬ 
 ing for rapid silver plating: Prepare a 
 powder of 3 parts of chloride of silver, 20 
 parts carefully pulverized cream of tartar, 
 and 15 parts pulverized cooking salt; mix 
 it into a thin paste with water, and rub it 
 upon the well-cleaned metallic surface with 
 blotting paper. After you are certain that 
 all parts of the article have been touched 
 
 SILVERING RECIPE. 
 
 A MONG the several recipes given for ob¬ 
 taining a silvering solution, Marquand 
 recommends the following of Mr. C. Eber- 
 macher, which has been tested repeatedly, 
 and was found very useful, as it gives, after 
 a short time, lustrous silver layers on metals, 
 and especially on brass. Care must be taken 
 that the pieces which are dipped in the metal 
 bath be treated before in the ordinary man¬ 
 ner in a potash solution and dilute hy¬ 
 drochloric acid. The silver bath is made 
 with a solution of four ounces lunar caustic 
 (equal to a solution of two and one-half 
 ounces silver in seven and one-half ounces 
 nitric acid); the silver of this solution is 
 precipitated as oxide of silver by the addi¬ 
 tion of a solution of two and one-half ounces 
 caustic potash in six and one-quarter ounces 
 distilled water; and the precipitate, after 
 being washed, is added to a solution of 12 
 and one-half ounces of cyanide of potassium 
 in one quart of water. This solution is then 
 filtered and water added to bring it to four 
 and one-quarter quarts. In this solution, 
 which is heated on the water bath, the pieces 
 to be silvered are left for a few minutes. 
 After being agitated, they are taken out, ard 
 put to dry in fine sawdust, and then polished. 
 
 COLD SILVER PLATING. 
 
 F RESHLY deposited chloride of silver, 
 well washed with hot water, is mixed 
 in equal proportions of table salt and cream 
 of tartar, until it becomes a paste, if neces¬ 
 sary, with additions of water. The article 
 to be silvered is first cleansed with a good 
 stiff brush and a solution of soda and soap, 
 and thoroughly rinsed to remove any dirt, 
 and again rinsed with hot water. It is to 
 be recommended to submit it to a dry clean¬ 
 ing with pulverized and washed chalk, pum¬ 
 ice-stone powder, or quartz powder. When 
 well rinsed with cold water, make a ball of 
 loose cotton wrapped in soft muslin, and 
 with this coat the wet article with a thin 
 layer of salt; then rub some of the silvering 
 paste onto it until the whole article under 
 treatment is well silver-coated. When suffi¬ 
 cient, quickly rub with a little ball some 
 cream of tartar upon the silvering, and 
 
SILVER ALLOYS. 
 
 wash. The silver deposit will be found 
 handsome, clean, and as white as snow. 
 
 SILVERING WITHOUT A BATTERY. 
 
 S ILVERING by contact is not as dura¬ 
 ble as by battery, although the color is 
 the same. The solution is prepared as fol¬ 
 lows : Take one part chloride of silver, six 
 parts prussiate of potash, four parts purified 
 potash, two parts salt, four parts caustic am¬ 
 monia, four and one-half parts rain-water. 
 First prepare the chloride of silver, next dis¬ 
 solve the prussiate of potash in water, and 
 add then the potash, salt, and ammonia, and 
 boil the whole for one-half hour in a porce¬ 
 lain vessel; filter, and the fluid is ready for 
 silvering. The utmost cleanliness is also a 
 primary condition by this method. Heat 
 the fluid up by boiling, then introduce the 
 article, together with a piece of clean zinc. 
 Take it out after a few minutes and brush 
 it with cream of tartar, and put it back again 
 in the solution, in which leave it for three or 
 four minutes. Then brush again, and con¬ 
 tinue this until it is sufficiently silvered. 
 This silvering will bear polishing with the 
 steel, and takes a nice black luster. Articles 
 silvered by this method cannot be distin¬ 
 guished from silver articles. It is very good 
 to protect galvanic casts against dimming. 
 But when silvering, no more must be taken 
 of the fluid than will be used. 
 
 FROSTING POLISHED ILVER. 
 
 C YANIDE of potassium one ounce, dis¬ 
 solved in one-half pint of water. Do 
 not hold the silver in your hands, but use 
 boxwood plyers, and apply the mixture to 
 the surface with a brush. 
 
 PICKLE FOR FROSTING. 
 
 S ILVERWARE may be frosted and 
 whitened by preparing a pickle of sul¬ 
 phuric acid one drachm, water four ounces ; 
 heat it and in it immerse the silver articles 
 until frosted as desired ; then wash off clean 
 and dry with a soft linen cloth, or in fine 
 clean sawdust. For whitening only, a 
 smaller quantity of acid may be used. 
 
 SILVER-ALUMINUM ALLOYS. 
 
 A LUMINUM and silver make handsome 
 ■ white alloys, which, compared to those 
 from pure aluminum, are much harder, in 
 
 x6t 
 
 consequence of which they take a much 
 higher polish, and, at the same time, they 
 are preferable to the silver-copper alloys, for 
 the reason that they are unchangeable in air 
 and retain their white color. It has been 
 proposed, therefore, no longer to alloy the 
 world’s money with copper, but with alumi¬ 
 num, which makes it far more durable, and 
 even after a long-continued use it retains its 
 white color. Experiments on a vast scale 
 were for this reason instituted in European 
 countries, but for some reason or other, it 
 appears that the silver-copper alloys were 
 retained. According to the quantities of 
 aluminum added, the alloys possess varying 
 characteristics. An alloy consisting of ioo 
 parts aluminum and five parts silver dif¬ 
 fers but little from the pure aluminum, yet it 
 is far harder and assumes a higher polish. 
 An alloy consisting of equal parts of alumi¬ 
 num and silver rivals bronze in hardness. 
 
 WASHING SILVERWARE. 
 
 N EVER use a particle of soap on your 
 silverware, as it dulls the luster, giving the 
 article more the appearance of pewter than 
 of silver. When it wants cleaning, rub it 
 with a piece of soft leather and prepared 
 chalk, the latter made into a kind of paste 
 with pure water, for the reason that water 
 not pure might contain gritty particles. 
 
 EXTRACTING SILVER FROM 
 WASTAGE. 
 
 M IX your refuse with an equal quantity 
 of wood charcoal, place in a crucible 
 and heat to a bright red, and in a short time 
 a silver button will be found at the bottom. 
 Carbonate of soda is another good flux. 
 
 SILVER ALLOYS. 
 
 P URE silver is a metal of only an inferior 
 degree of hardness, in consequence of 
 which silverware manufactured from the 
 pure metal would be subject to rapid wear, 
 and for this reason it is generally alloyed, 
 except for articles for the chemical labora¬ 
 tory. Silver is more frequently alloyed with 
 copper; beside this, it is also alloyed with 
 gold and aluminum. Alloys containing sil¬ 
 ver and nickel, or silver, nickel, and zinc, 
 are much employed in the manufacture of 
 table ware and articles de luxe , which, while 
 being of a handsome white color, are much. 
 
DIPPING MIXTURE. 
 
 162 
 
 cheaper than those from silver and copper, 
 which was formerly much used in the manu¬ 
 facture of silverware. 
 
 RESILVERING BRASS CLOCK DIALS. 
 
 HE following solutions are generally 
 employed for electro-plating: Silver 
 solution, No. 1 : cyanide of potassium, 
 lb.; cyanide of silver, oz.; water, 1 
 gallon. The cyanide of potassium, in the 
 form of white cakes or lumps, is dissolved in 
 the water and allowed to settle; it is then 
 filtered. The cyanide of silver, a white 
 powder, is then gradually added to the alka¬ 
 line cyanide solution in the above propor¬ 
 tions ; it will dissolve on stirring, and the 
 result is -the electro-plating solution desired. 
 It contains 1 oz. of silver to the gallon. 
 Solution No. 2: This is the solution of silver 
 which is most easily prepared; it is also the 
 cheapest, and there is neither time nor labor 
 spent in preparing the silver salt for solution 
 in the cyanide solution. The materials em¬ 
 ployed are: Cyanide of potassium, lb.; 
 water, 1 gallon. This solution is placed in 
 a large vessel, and a similar solution is placed 
 in a flat, porous vessel, which is supported in 
 the larger vessel, so that the liquid is the 
 same height in each vessel. In the porous 
 vessel is put a small and clean piece of iron, 
 and in the outer vessel a large and thick 
 sheet of pure silver, the iron being so fixed 
 that the conductor in contact with it does 
 not enter the solution, and the silver being 
 supported entirely in the liquid by means of 
 thick silver wire. When these details are 
 properly arranged, the silver plate and the 
 iron plate are so connected with the source 
 of electric power that the electric current 
 proceeds from the silver to the iron. The 
 size of the silver plate may be half a square 
 foot, and the electric power employed may 
 be equivalent to six Smee’s cells, each with- 
 an area of 18 square inches. In a few hours 
 the silver plate will have lost 1 oz. of the 
 metal. The disposition of the metal on the 
 cathode is prevented by the use of the porous 
 vessel. The liquid in the porous vessel may 
 contain some silver; this may be ascertained 
 by the addition thereto of muriatic acid. 
 Although there is free caustic potash in the 
 solution, which by contact with the air be¬ 
 comes carbonate of potash, and although the 
 resulting solution is not quite so conductive 
 of electricity as No. 1, it is a very good solu¬ 
 tion in practice, and is said to be less likely 
 
 to deposit non-adherent metal, or, in techni¬ 
 cal terms, metal “ that will strip,” than many 
 others. 
 
 SILVERSMITHS’ ALLOY. 
 
 OPPER, 1 oz.; nickel, 3 dwts. 12 grs.; 
 bismuth, 6 grs.; zinc, 2 dwts. 12 grs. ; 
 soft iron, 12 grs.; tin, 12 grs. This com¬ 
 pound is said to form a fusible and malleable 
 metal that can be easily worked by the sil¬ 
 versmith ; it is also said to resist oxidation 
 through atmospheric influences. 
 
 IMITATION SILVER. 
 
 INE silver, 6 dwts.; nickel, 6 dwts.; 
 copper, 8 dwts. 
 
 REMOVING GOLD FROM SILVER 
 ARTICLES. 
 
 ILVER articles which have been gilt may 
 be brought back to their original color 
 by simply covering them with a thick solu¬ 
 tion of borax, and then well annealing them. 
 After this process, if the articles are boiled 
 for a short time in one of the whitening mix¬ 
 tures and scratched, they will present a 
 beautiful white and uniform surface. 
 
 OXIDIZING SILVER. 
 
 BEAUTIFUL deep, black color, pos¬ 
 sessing great luster, may be given to 
 finished silver work by boiling it in the fol¬ 
 lowing preparation for some time : Bromine, 
 5 grs.; bromide of potassium, 5 dwts.; 
 water, 1 o oz. The boiling should be effected 
 in a stoneware pipkin, and generally from 
 two to five minutes will suffice for the pur¬ 
 pose. The work is finished after the proper 
 color has been attained by well rubbing with 
 a soft piece of wash-leather and a little best 
 jewelers’ rouge. It is better to make the 
 work as bright as possible before submitting 
 it to this mixture; for this reason it is pref¬ 
 erable to thoroughly buff all plain surfaces 
 on a piece of felt by the application of the 
 lathe, as by that means a characteristic 
 brightness is imparted. 
 
 DIPPING MIXTURE. 
 
 RASS or metal goods may be cleaned 
 and their oxides removed by dipping 
 into the under-mentioned liquid for a few 
 seconds only : Oil of vitriol, 5 parts ; water. 
 
ELECTRO-PLATING SOFT SOLDER. 
 
 -5 parts; nitric acid, 2^4 parts; spirits of 
 salts, two drachms. Well mix the several 
 ingredients together, and immerse the work 
 in the solution cold. The mixture improves 
 after a quantity of work has been dipped 
 into it. 
 
 SILVER POWDER FOR COPPER. 
 
 HLORIDE of silver, 2 parts; cream 
 of tartar, 2 parts; alum, 1 part. Mix 
 with water to the consistence of a paste, and 
 .apply with a soft leather or sponge; when 
 .sufficiently whitened, well polish. 
 
 ANOTHER RECIPE. 
 
 Chloride of silver, 1 oz.; sal-ammoniac, 
 2 oz.; sandiver, 2 oz.; white vitriol, 2 oz.; 
 bichloride of mercury, 5 dwts. Make into 
 a paste with water, and rub the articles over 
 with it; then expose them to a good heat 
 upon a clear fire, in order to run the silver 
 and evaporate the mercury, after which 
 process dip in very weak sulphuric acid to 
 clean. 
 
 SILVER-STRIPPING MIXTURE. 
 
 ULPHURIC acid, 6 parts; nitric acid, 
 1 part. Take a large black-lead cruci¬ 
 ble or pipkin and heat the mixture in it; 
 when this is done put in the work required 
 to be stripped, occasionally withdrawing it 
 to ascertain the progress made. The large 
 proportion of sulphuric acid allows of the 
 'dissolution of the silver, and does not sensi¬ 
 bly corrode or interfere with copper or any 
 of its alloys, if kept quite free from water; 
 therefore be careful not to introduce wet ar¬ 
 ticles into the mixture. After finally with¬ 
 drawing the work, it should be well rinsed, 
 .annealed, and then boiled out. 
 
 STRIPPING SILVER. 
 
 UT some strong oil of vitriol in a similar 
 vessel to those above described, apply 
 heat, and during the process add a few crys¬ 
 tals of saltpeter. When the solution has 
 become hot enough, the work should be im¬ 
 mersed in it, and be moved about or agi¬ 
 tated until the silver is dissolved from the 
 -surface. The articles should not be allowed 
 to remain too long in the solution, and if it 
 does not remove the silver quickly, more 
 saltpeter should be added from time to time 
 until the desired end be attained. 
 
 163 
 
 SOFT SOLDER. 
 
 URE tin, 2 parts; lead, 1 part. Melt, 
 and well incorporate together; when 
 this is done, pour into strips for use. 
 
 SOLDERING FLUID. 
 
 URIATIC acid (spirits of salts), 3 parts ; 
 metallic zinc, 1 part, or as much as 
 the acid will take up. When dissolved and 
 all effervescence ceases, allow it to settle, 
 then decant the clear solution from the sedi¬ 
 ment at the bottom of the vessel in which it 
 has been made, and it is ready for use. If 
 a small quantity of water be added to the 
 mixture at this stage, say yi, it will answer 
 quite as well for some purposes. For solder¬ 
 ing iron and steel, a very small portion of 
 sal-ammoniac is of great advantage to the 
 mixture for promoting toughness. 
 
 DISSOLVENTS. 
 
 ISSOLVING fine silver: Nitric acid, 2 
 parts; water, 1 part. 
 
 Dissolving silver alloys: Nitric acid, 1 
 part; water, 2 parts. 
 
 Dissolving copper: Nitric acid, 1 part; 
 water, 4 parts. 
 
 Dissolving soft solder: Perchloride of 
 iron, 1 part; water 4 parts. 
 
 Dissolving silver solder: Nitric acid 1 
 part; water 4 parts. 
 
 Dissolving sealing-wax : Place for a time 
 in a solution of spirits of wine. 
 
 RESIST VARNISH. 
 
 D ISSOLVE resin or copal in essence of 
 turpentine, or boiled linseed oil; to 
 give it different shades of color, add red 
 lead, chrome yellow, or Prussian blue. 
 
 PLATE POWDER. 
 
 HITENING, 2 parts; white oxide of 
 tin, 1 part; calcined hartshorn, 1 part. 
 Reduce to a powder and well mix together; 
 apply as usual. 
 
 ELECTRO-PLATING SOFT SOLDER. 
 
 AKE nitric acid, 1 ounce; water, 2 
 ounces ; copper, about x ounce in 
 small, flat pieces; when the copper has dis¬ 
 solved and effervescence has ceased, the so¬ 
 lution is ready for use. To apply it, take 
 
164 
 
 DEAD-WHITE ON SILVER ARTICLES. 
 
 up a few drops by means of a camel’s-hair 
 pencil and apply it to the desired part, then 
 touch it with a bright piece of steel, and 
 there will be instantaneously a film of copper 
 deposited. If the copper has not spread all 
 over the desired part the process should be 
 repeated, when deposition in the plating bath 
 will take place with perfect success. 
 
 ANOTHER RECIPE. 
 
 Take sulphate of copper (that which 
 accumulates in the whitening mixture), 1 
 ounce ; water, 6 ounces. Reduce the sul¬ 
 phate of copper to a fine powder and dis¬ 
 solve it in the water. Treat according to 
 the directions given in the previous one. A 
 good mixture for effecting the same result 
 may be made by dissolving verdigris in vine¬ 
 gar. 
 
 TESTING SILVER WARE. 
 
 AKE nitric acid, 6 ounces ; water, 2 
 ounces; bichromate of potash, 1 ounce. 
 Reduce the salt of potash to a powder and 
 mix it well with the acid and water. The 
 solution is used cold, and should be placed 
 in a stoppered glass bottle, the stepper hav¬ 
 ing a long dropper extending into the mixture, 
 which acts as the agent for conveying the 
 liquid from the bottle to the article to be 
 tested. The surface of the article should be 
 perfectly clean; and to make certain what 
 kind of metallic substance you are testing, it 
 is advisable to rub a file over some obscure 
 part of the surface and to apply the liquid to 
 that part. The test liquid should be used, 
 by means of the glass stopper; to the filed 
 part, and immediately removed by a sponge 
 dampened with cold water. If the article 
 consists of pure silver there will appear a 
 clean blood-red mark, which is less deep and 
 lively in proportion to the quality of the 
 metal. Upon platinum the test liquid has 
 no action whatever; on German silver at 
 first a brown mark appears, but this is re¬ 
 moved by the sponge and cold water; on 
 Britannia metal a black mark is produced; 
 and on all the various metals an entirely 
 different result takes place to that on silver; 
 therefore the test is a simple one, and may 
 be advantageously employed for the detec¬ 
 tion of any fraud in relation to the precious 
 metal. 
 
 ANOTHER TEST. 
 
 Water, 2 oz.; sulphuric acid, 2 drs.; 
 chromate of potash, 4 dwts. This mixture 
 
 is applied in the same way as before and 
 produces a purple color of various depths, 
 according to the quality of the silver. No 
 other metallic element exhibits the same 
 color with this preparation. 
 
 ANOTHER TEST. 
 
 The testing of silver is far more difficult 
 than that of gold; an experienced eye 
 and a steady hand are necessary for doing 
 it. By laying bare a spot with a scraper an 
 expert will easily distinguish whether the 
 silver has been alloyed with white nickel 
 metals, such as cadmium, aluminum, bis¬ 
 muth, zinc, etc., which are generally em¬ 
 ployed for the purpose; or whether it was 
 alloyed with copper, in which case the fine¬ 
 ness is easily ascertained by the use of a 
 test-needle upon the touch-stone. The eas¬ 
 iest test for distinguishing silver from silver¬ 
 like metals that can be employed, even by a 
 layman, is by scraping or filing a place of 
 the article rather heavily, so as to remove 
 the coating, for fear that it might be silver- 
 plated, and then to moisten the spot with 
 nitric acid; if, after -wiping it off again, a 
 dirty white ground has formed, it is silver; 
 if no essential alteration of color has ensued, 
 it is a base metal. 
 
 TO REFINE SILVER. 
 
 A FTER having rolled the silver, cut it 
 . into pellets, and curl them to prevent 
 them from lying flat; then drop them into a 
 vessel containing 2 ounces of good nitric 
 acid, diluted with one-half ounce clean rain¬ 
 water. When the silver has entirely disap¬ 
 peared, add to the 2^ ounces of solution 
 nearly one quart of clean rain-w^ater. Then 
 sink a clean sheet of copper into it; the sil¬ 
 ver will collect rapidly upon the copper, and 
 you can scrape it off and melt it into a but¬ 
 ton. _ 
 
 TO WHITEN SILVER ARTICLES. 
 
 O wffiiten silver articles, boil them in a 
 solution of 1 part of cream of tartar, 2 parts 
 of salt, and 50 parts of water, until they as¬ 
 sume a fine, unpolished white. 
 
 DEAD-WHITE ON SILVER ARTICLES. 
 
 EAT the article to a cherry-red or a 
 dull red heat, and allow it to cool; 
 then place it in a pickle of 5 parts sulphuric 
 acid to 100 parts water, and allow it to re- 
 
CLEANING SILVERWARE. 
 
 i6 5 
 
 main for an hour or two. If the surface is 
 not right rinse in cold water, and repeat the 
 heating and pickling operation as before. 
 This removes the copper from the surface of 
 the article, leaving pure silver on the sur¬ 
 face. When sufficiently whitened, remove 
 from the pickle, well rinse in pure hot water, 
 and place in warm boxwood sawdust. 
 
 WHITE-PICKLING SILVER. 
 
 HE purpose of pickling silver is the 
 same as that of the coloring of gold; 
 the alloy lying immediately exposed upon 
 the surface is dissolved by the acid in the 
 pickle, whereby the metal upon the surface 
 is made purer and appears of the color of 
 the pure and unalloyed metal. After the 
 article has been ground well it is heated to 
 red heat and, when cold, boiled in water 
 which has been charged with a sufficient 
 quantity of sulphuric acid, so that it has the 
 acid taste of sharp vinegar, in which fluid it 
 is boiled for one or two minutes. The crust 
 formed upon the surface of articles which 
 are to be burnished is rubbed off with fine 
 sand or with the scratch-brush and beer; 
 articles which are to be matted with the mat- 
 brushing machine, are brushed off with chalk 
 and alcohol. This process of heating, pick¬ 
 ling, and brushing is to be repeated three 
 times. There is another kind of pickling, 
 by boiling the heated article in water which 
 -contains in solution one part cream of tartar 
 and two parts table salt. Silver articles 
 which are to preserve the hardness imparted 
 to them by rolling or hammering, which 
 consequently cannot be heated, are pickled 
 by being uniformly coated with nitric acid 
 or by being silver-plated. 
 
 TO SEPARATE SILVER FROM 
 COPPER. 
 
 IX sulphuric acid, i part; nitric acid, i 
 part; water, i part. Boil the metal in 
 the mixture until it dissolves; then throw 
 in a little salt, to cause the silver to deposit. 
 
 IMITATION SILVER. 
 
 ILVER, i ounce; nickel, i ounce 11 
 dwts.; copper, 2 ounces 9 dwts. Or, 
 silver, 3 ounces; nickel, 1 ounce 11 dwts.; 
 ■copper, 2 ounces 9 dwts. ; spelter, 10 dwts. 
 
 RAPID SILVERING. 
 
 HE watchmaker is occasionally called 
 on to resilver old clock faces or other 
 parts belonging to clocks. When the article 
 is not exposed to handling, the following re¬ 
 cipe for silvering will be found to be very 
 efficacious: Get ounce of nitrate of sil¬ 
 ver, to be had at every drug store, dissolve 
 in a teaspoonful of water, and then add 
 pound of cream'of tartar and pound of 
 common table salt; thoroughly mix these 
 ingredients together with a wooden stick, 
 adding sufficient water to make a thick paste. 
 Put this by in a glass-stoppered bottle for 
 use as required, and it will keep any length 
 of time. This is the silvering powder, and 
 before applying it to the brass this must be 
 made quite clean and bright. Get a piece 
 of chamois leather, and fold it up small 
 enough to be handy; with this rub on the 
 silver paste thoroughly all over, till by the 
 appearance of the brass work you judge the 
 silvering to be properly effected. Now wash 
 the article quite clean, finally polishing off 
 with a little whiting; this will finish, as far 
 as the silvering process is concerned; but 
 to make the coating last under atmospheric 
 influences, it must be protected by a coat of 
 varnish. Any colorless varnish will answer 
 for this, which can be procured anywhere. 
 Of course the more silver powder is rubbed 
 on the thicker the coating, and it will stand 
 good for years. _ 
 
 TO REDUCE CHLORIDE OF SILVER. 
 
 NE of the best methods for reducing 
 chloride of silver to the metallic state 
 is in use in the mint at Paris; it consists in 
 mixing 5 parts of dry chloride of silver with 
 1 part of freshly calcined lime, and to melt 
 it. The chloride of lime thus formed melts 
 easily, without rising in, and running over, 
 or adhering to, the crucible, which takes 
 place by almost every other method, and 
 produces a loss of silver. 
 
 CLEANING SILVERWARE. 
 
 A CCORDING to Professor Davenport, 
 
 ■ hypo-sulphurous soda is the simplest 
 and best cleansing agent for silverware. It 
 operates quickly, is cheap, and has not yet 
 been proposed for the purpose. A rag or 
 brush moistened with the saturated solution 
 of the salt cleans, without the use of cleaning 
 powder, strongly oxidized silver surfaces 
 within a few seconds. 
 
i66 
 
 MAT BRUSHING. 
 
 ANOTHER RECIPE. 
 
 Carbonate of ammonia, i oz.; water, 4 
 oz.; Paris white, 16 oz.; well mix the in¬ 
 gredients together, and apply to the surface 
 of the plate by means of a piece of soft 
 leather or sponge. 
 
 LIQUID FOR CLEANING SILVER. 
 
 HE following solution will be found to 
 produce a high brilliancy in silver 
 work : Cream of tarar, 30 parts ; sea salt, 30 
 parts; sulphate of alumina and potash, each 
 39 parts; water, 1,500 parts. Boil the arti¬ 
 cle in this mixture. 
 
 TO CLEAN SILVER FILIGREE WORK. 
 
 ANY goldsmiths encounter great diffi¬ 
 culties in cleaning silver filigree work. 
 Put the article to be cleaned in a solution of 
 cyanide of potassium. It will come out per¬ 
 fectly white and frosted, as when new. 
 Rinse with water, and dry by shaking in a 
 bag of boxwood sawdust. Another method 
 is to boil for a few seconds in a strong pot¬ 
 ash lye, take out and rinse in hot water, and 
 allow to dry in hot boxwood sawdust. If 
 the filigree has worn bright, its appearance 
 can be improved by a very slight dip in the 
 cyanide of silver bath of the electro-plater; 
 this dulls and whitens it, and gives it a very 
 chaste appearance. 
 
 ANOTHER RECIPE. 
 
 Anneal your work over a Bunsen flame 
 or with a blow-pipe, then let go cold 
 (and this is the secret of success), and then 
 put in a pickle of sulphuric acid and water, 
 not more than five drops to one ounce of 
 water, and let your work remain in it for 
 one hour. If not to satisfaction, repeat the 
 process. This is undoubtedly the best pro¬ 
 cess that can be used. 
 
 RECOVERING SILVER. 
 
 CORRESPONDENT inquires of the 
 “Workshop Notes” editor how he can 
 recover the silver from silver-plated iron. 
 We furnish him with two recipes : Pour some 
 concentrated nitric acid on the electro-plated 
 iron. It will dissolve the silver, leaving the 
 iron intact. When the operation is finished, 
 pour the liquid off and dilute with water; 
 add a solution of common salt. Silver 
 chloride will settle as a bulky precipitate, 
 
 which must be filtered and well washed,. 
 Remove the silver chloride from the filter,, 
 put it in a porcelain dish, add a few cuttings 
 of sheet zinc and a little water, and allow to 
 stand for a week or two. The silver will 
 then be reduced, forming a heavy gray pow¬ 
 der. Remove what remains of the zinc, 
 wash well and melt in a crucible, adding 
 some sodium carbonate as a flux. Or, pro¬ 
 cure an earthenware pan (of course the size 
 is determined by the quantity of material to 
 be treated) and into it lay the pieces of iron 
 until about three-quarters full. Cover them 
 with concentrated nitric acid and gently 
 warm. As soon as all effervescence is fin¬ 
 ished, the pieces are fished out and replaced 
 by others. This is continued until the effer¬ 
 vescence becomes slight; the pieces of iron 
 being washed and the washings added to the 
 main quantity of acid. Muriatic acid is 
 now added until no further white precipitate 
 is thrown down, at which point the whole is 
 heated and allowed to stand for some time; 
 the clear liquid is decanted off, and the pre¬ 
 cipitate thrown into a thick calico bag and 
 well washed with hot water and dried. Mix 
 the dried mass with carbonate of soda and 
 fuse in an earthen crucible, when the silver 
 will be found in a button at the bottom. 
 
 INK STAINS FROM SILVER. 
 
 HE tops and other portions of silver ink- 
 stands frequently become deeply dis¬ 
 colored with ink, which is difficult to remove 
 with ordinary means. It may, however, be 
 completely' eradicated by stirring a little 
 thloride of lime into a paste with water and 
 rubbing it upon the stain. 
 
 MAT BRUSHING. 
 
 ERY excellent results are obtained by 
 running the fine wire matting brush at 
 about 2,500 revolutions per minute, applying 
 rain-water or sour beer diluted with water at 
 the place where the brush strikes the work; 
 occasionally hold a piece of sandpaper to 
 the brush. Should the points of the brush 
 be too straight, let them strike over a piece 
 of wire, but do not hook them too much, as 
 this would prevent matting. Always pre¬ 
 serve the brush in a good condition ; should 
 the wires become entangled or twisted into 
 knots, separate or cut them out. After the- 
 work is matted take a soft hair-brush and 
 brush it in soap water, then rinse it in. warm. 
 
A NEW ALLOY. 
 
 167 
 
 water charged with a small quantity of spirits 
 of ammonia and caustic potash; immerse it 
 in pure alcohol for a short time and finally 
 dry it in sawdust. 
 
 TO CLEAN PEARLS. 
 
 OAK them in hot water, in which bran 
 has been boiled, with a little salts of 
 tartar and alum, rubbing gently between the 
 hands when the water will admit of it. 
 When the water is cold, renew the operation 
 until the discoloration is removed ; rinse in 
 luke-warm water, and lay the pearls in white 
 paper in a dark place to cool and dry. 
 
 CHARCOAL. 
 
 HE charcoal used in soldering, nor, in 
 fact, any other charcoal used by the 
 goldsmiths, should not possess the evil habit 
 of viciously snapping and cracking. Coal 
 burned from oak, or any other coarse-grained 
 wood, will snap and crack, while a close, 
 fine-grained, soft-wood coal will not. The 
 underlay coal may have its snap taken out 
 by being heated very hot in an oven or by 
 blowing the flame with a blow-pipe upon it. 
 
 JEWELERS’ SOLDER. 
 
 O make platinum firmly adhere to gold 
 by soldering, it is necessary that a small 
 quantity of fine or 18-karat gold shall be 
 sweated upon the surface of the platinum at 
 nearly white heat, so that the gold soaks into 
 the face of the platinum ; ordinary solder will 
 then adhere firmly to the face obtained in this 
 manner. Hard solder acts by partly fusing 
 and combining with the surfaces to be joined, 
 and platinum alone will not fuse or combine 
 with any solder at a temperature anything 
 like the ordinary fusing point of ordinary 
 gold solder. _ 
 
 ACID-PROOF CEMENT. 
 
 CEMENT that resists acid is made by 
 melting one part India rubber with two 
 parts linseed oil; add sufficient white bolus 
 for consistency. Neither muriatic nor nitric 
 acid attacks it; it softens a little in heat, and 
 its surface does not dry easily ; which is cor¬ 
 rected by adding one-fifth part litharge. 
 
 GERMAN SILVER. 
 
 HE following alloy has recently been 
 invented on the continent, and comes 
 highly recommended. It is similar to Ger¬ 
 
 man silver, contains no nickel, but man¬ 
 ganese instead. It consists of seventy-two 
 and one-half per cent, of copper, sixteen and 
 one-half of manganese, eight and three- 
 fourths of zinc, and two and one-half of iron. 
 This alloy is malleable, does not change when 
 immersed in water for forty days, takes the 
 silver plating well, but is a little yellowish. 
 
 TO RESTORE GERMAN SILVER. 
 
 N order to restore the silver luster to 
 articles from German silver which they 
 have lost by repeated cleaning, use the fol¬ 
 lowing silvering process: Ten parts dry 
 chloride of silver, sixty-five parts cream of 
 tartar, and thirty parts table salt are pulver¬ 
 ized and intimately mixed. This powder is 
 then with water stirred to a thin paste, and 
 the article is rubbed with it, left to dry, 
 rinsed off well with water, and finally rubbed 
 off with washed chalk. 
 
 TO SOLDER GERMAN SILVER. 
 
 ISSOLVE granulated zinc in muriatic 
 acid in an earthen vessel. Cleanse the 
 parts to be soldered and apply the acid. 
 Next put a piece of pewter solder on the joint 
 and apply the blow-pipe to it. Melt German 
 silver 1 part, and zinc in thin sheets 4 parts; 
 then powder it for solder. 
 
 NON-CORROSIVE SOLDERING FLUID. 
 
 7\/I ANY years ago I used to add bicarbonate 
 1 V 1 of soda to the soldering fluid to neutral¬ 
 ize the acid (or nearly so), and found that or¬ 
 dinarily it worked just as well, and did not 
 rust steel but very little, if any. The best 
 way to remove the fluid from the work is to 
 boil it out two or three times in alcohol (fresh 
 every time); this removes the acid much 
 more surely than any other plan I have ever 
 known. Soldering fluid should never be 
 used in watch work or allowed about the 
 bench. _ 
 
 A NEW ALLOY. 
 
 NEW alloy, which is known as Nurem¬ 
 berg gold in Germany, is at present fre¬ 
 quently employed for the manufacture of 
 cheap gold ware, and is most excellently 
 suited for the purpose; since, as far as its 
 color is concerned, it is absolutely identical 
 with that of pure gold, nor is it in any manner 
 influenced by a continued exposure to air. 
 
168 
 
 CROCUS FOR POLISHING STEEL. 
 
 The alloy will retain its color even after 
 violent use, and the fracture will exhibit the 
 pure gold color. Its composition is as fol¬ 
 lows: Copper, 18; gold, 2 ]/ 2 ; aluminum, 
 
 7 #- _ 
 
 MYSTERY GOLD. 
 
 A T the present time a considerable amount 
 . of jewelry made of this alloy is believed 
 to be manufactured chiefly with the object of 
 defrauding pawnbrokers to whom it is offered 
 in pledge; and as it will stand the usual 
 jewelers’ test of strong nitric acid, the fraud 
 is often successful. The article examined 
 was a bracelet that had been sold as gold to 
 a gentleman in Liverpool. 
 
 The alloy, after the gilding had been 
 scraped off, had about the color of 9-karat 
 gold. Qualitative analysis proved it to con¬ 
 sist of platinum, copper, and a little silver; 
 and quantitatively it yielded the following 
 
 results: 
 
 Silver. 2.48 
 
 Platinum. 32.02 
 
 Copper (by difference).65.50 
 
 100.00 
 
 Strong boiling nitric acid had apparently 
 no action on it, even when left in the acid 
 for some time. 
 
 ARTIFICIAL GOLD. 
 
 ETALLIC alloy, at present very exten¬ 
 sively used in France as a substitute for 
 gold, is composed of: Pure copper, 100 
 parts; zinc, or preferably tin, 17 parts; 
 magnesia, 6 parts; sal-ammoniac, from 3 to 
 6 parts ; quicklime, part; tartar of com¬ 
 merce, 9 parts, are mixed as follows: The 
 copper is first melted, and the magnesia, sal- 
 ammoniac, lime, and tartar are then added 
 separately and by degrees, in the form of 
 powder ; the whole is now briskly stirred for 
 about one-half hour, so as to mix thoroughly, 
 and then the zinc is added in small grains by 
 throwing it on the surface and stirring until 
 it is entirely fused ; the crucible is then cov¬ 
 ered and fusion maintained for about thirty- 
 five minutes. The surface is then skimmed 
 and the alloy ready for coating. It has a fine 
 grain, is malleable, and takes a splendid pol¬ 
 ish. It does not corrode readily, and is an 
 excellent substitute for gold for many pur¬ 
 poses. When tarnished its brilliancy can be 
 restored by a little acidulated water. If tin 
 be employed instead of zinc, the alloy will 
 be more brilliant. 
 
 ABYSSINIAN GOLD. 
 
 HIS compound was so called because it 
 was brought out in England during its 
 war with Abyssinia. It consists of copper, 
 90.74; zinc, 8.33. This alloy, if of good 
 materials, and not heated too highly, has a 
 fine yellow color, resembling gold, and does 
 not tarnish easily. 
 
 ALUMINUM GOLD. 
 
 NE part of aluminum to 99 of gold gives 
 a metal the color of green gold, very 
 hard but not ductile. An alloy of 5 parts of 
 aluminum to 95 parts of gold gives an alloy 
 that is nearly as brittle as glass. An alloy 
 of 10 parts of aluminum to 90 parts of gold 
 is white, crystalline and brittle. An imitation 
 of gold, used as a substitute for the precious 
 metal in cheap jewelry, is made by fusing 
 together 5 to 7^ parts of aluminum, 90 to 
 100 parts of copper, and 2^ of gold. The 
 color of this alloy resembles gold so closely 
 as to almost defy detection. 
 
 CROCUS FOR POLISHING STEEL. 
 
 HE commercial crocus does not at all 
 times possess the properties necessary 
 for polishing the different metals, and it is 
 advisable, therefore, for the consumer to 
 prepare it for himself, and the manipulations 
 to effect this are easy. Take pure and the 
 clearest obtainable sulphate of iron (iron 
 vitriol, green vitriol, copperas), heat it in an 
 iron pan up to fusion, and permit to remain 
 over the fire, while constantly stirring it with 
 an iron spatula, until it is thoroughly dry and 
 drops into a pale yellow powder. This is 
 then triturated in a mortar and sifted, placed 
 in a new crucible and left in the fire of a 
 smelting furnace, or calcined until no more 
 vapors are evolved. After cooling, the pow¬ 
 der appears as a handsome red material, 
 which represents the crocus for the use of 
 gold and silversmiths, etc. The crocus is 
 found in several color gradations, from pale 
 red to brown, red, blue, and violet. The 
 cause of the diversity of its colors is due to 
 the different degrees of heat made use of in 
 its manufacture, the darkness, of the color 
 increases with the degree of heat, and the 
 hardness of the crocus also increases thereby ; 
 for which reason a pale red (rouge) is used 
 for gold and silver, while violet is employed 
 in polishing steel, and known u”^er the name 
 of “steel red.” Each one of the different 
 
JEWELERS’ ARMENIAN CEMENT. 
 
 169 
 
 kinds of crocus, in order to obtain a favor¬ 
 able result, must be ground as fine as possi¬ 
 ble, and then washed in water. Three clean 
 glasses are used for the purpose, one of which 
 is filled with water, and the quantity of the 
 crocus is well stirred in with a wooden stick, 
 and left to stand for about one half minute; 
 the fluid is then carefully decanted from the 
 sediment gathered in the glass in the second ; 
 after it has stood in this for about two minutes 
 the fluid is again poured into the third glass 
 and left in it for several hours, to permit the 
 complete settling of the powder. The sedi¬ 
 ment of the first glass is useless; that of the 
 second is a crocus of an inferior quality, while 
 that of the third is crocus of the best grade. 
 It simply requires to dry slowly to be fit for 
 use. It is also advisable to moisten the dried 
 powder with alcohol, and in some iron vessel 
 to ignite it, whereby the last traces of fat con¬ 
 tained in it are destroyed. 
 
 ANOTHER RECIPE. 
 
 Readers living at a distance from ma¬ 
 terial houses will sometimes run short of ma¬ 
 terial, and it is safe for them to have the 
 formulae for manufacturing stuff needed in 
 this manner. For instance, crocus is pre¬ 
 pared as follows: Table salt and sulphate 
 of iron (iron vitriol) are well mixed in a 
 mortar. The mixture is then put into a 
 shallow crucible and exposed to a red heat; 
 vapor escapes, and the mass fuses. When 
 no more vapor is evolved, remove the cruci¬ 
 ble and let it cool. The color of the oxide 
 of iron produced, If the fire was properly reg¬ 
 ulated, is a fine violet; if the fire was too 
 high, it becomes black. The mass when cold 
 must be pulverized and washed to separate 
 the sulphate of soda. The crocus powder is 
 then to be subjected to a process of careful 
 elutrication, and the finer particles reserved 
 for the more delicate work. 
 
 SOLDER FOR ALUMINUM. 
 
 HE following alloys are recommended 
 for the purpose : 1. Melt twenty parts of 
 aluminum in a suitable crucible, and when 
 in fusion add eighty parts zinc. When the 
 mixture is melted, cover the surface with 
 some tallow, and maintain in quiet fusion for 
 some time, stirring occasionally with an iron 
 rod; then pour into molds. 2. Take fifteen 
 parts of aluminum and eighty-five parts of 
 zinc ; or twelve parts of the former and eighty- 
 
 eight parts of the latter; or eight parts of the 
 former and ninety-two parts of the latter: 
 prepare all of them as specified for No. 1. 
 The flux recommended consists of three parts 
 of balsam copaiba, one of Venetian turpen¬ 
 tine, and a few drops of lemon juice. The 
 soldering iron is dipped into this mixture. 
 
 ETCHING ON GLASS AND METAL. 
 
 LASS is etched by means of hydrofluoric 
 acid gas or liquid hydrofluoric acid, that 
 is, a solution of the gas in water. The 
 former in contact with glass produces a rough 
 surface, as on ground glass, while the latter 
 ordinarily leaves the surface clear. The gas 
 is prepared by mixing together finely pow¬ 
 dered fluor-spar, calcium fluoride, three parts, 
 and strong sulphuric acid, two parts, in a 
 leaden dish, and applying a very gentle heat. 
 The plates to be etched may be placed over 
 the dish. The operation should be conducted 
 under a hood or in the open air, to avoid in¬ 
 haling the pernicious fumes. The plates are 
 prepared by cooling them while warm with 
 wax or paraffine, through which to the surface 
 of the glass the design is cut with suitable 
 graving. In preparing the liquid acid, the 
 mixture of spar and oil of vitriol is placed in 
 a leaden or platinum retort which is heated 
 and the gas given off is conducted into a 
 leaden bottle partly filled with water, which 
 absorbs it. In contact with the flesh the 
 acid produces stubborn sores. Metals are 
 usually etched with dilute nitric acid, or niter 
 and sulphuric acid, or sulphate of copper 
 and salt, or hydrochloric acid and chlorate 
 of potash. 
 
 JEWELERS’ ARMENIAN CEMENT. 
 
 HIS cement hasextraordinarilygreat bind¬ 
 ing powers, and is used by the Oriental, 
 principally the Armenian, jewelers for gluing 
 jewels to metals. It is prepared as follows: 
 Soak two ounces of isinglass in water, put it 
 into a bottle together with one ounce of very 
 pale gum arabic (in tears), cover the ingredi¬ 
 ents with proof spirits, then add six large 
 tears of gum mastic, dissolved in the least 
 possible quantity of rectified spirits. Cork 
 loosely and boil it until a thorough solution 
 is effected; then strain it for use. When 
 carefully made, this cement resists moisture 
 and dries colorless. Keep in a closely stop¬ 
 pered vial. 
 
170 
 
 COLORING GOLD AS IN ETRUSCAN JEWELRY. 
 
 ALUM. 
 
 LUM is sometimes used for removing 
 the stains left by soldering in lieu of acids, 
 and is also used in removing broken screws 
 from brass plates by immersing the plates in 
 a strong solution of alum and water, the best 
 results being obtained from a boiling solu¬ 
 tion, which rapidly converts the steel into rust, 
 while it does not attack the brass plate. 
 
 CEMENT FOR GLASS AND METAL. 
 
 RASS letters may be securely fastened 
 on glass panes with a cement composed 
 of the following ingredients: Litharge, two 
 parts; white lead, one part; boiled linseed 
 oil, three parts; gum copal, one part. To 
 be mixed just before using, and it will form 
 a quickly-drying and secure cement. 
 
 VARNISH FOR BRASS. 
 
 ELLOW brass may be made to keep 
 its color without appearing to be var¬ 
 nished, by means of a thin varnish of white 
 shellac or a coating of collodion. 
 
 BRITANNIA. 
 
 HIS alloy as prepared by Roller consists 
 of 85.72 parts of tin, 10.34 of antimony, 
 0.78 of copper, and 2.91 of zinc. 
 
 BELL METAL. 
 
 A N alloy of copper and tin, in proportions 
 . varying from 66 to 80 per cent, of cop¬ 
 per and the balance tin. 
 
 SUPPORT OF ARTICLES IN HARD 
 SOLDERING. 
 
 SUPPORT for articles in hard soldering 
 can be recommended—asbestos board 
 —a thick layer of asbestos fibers. This sub¬ 
 stance is well known to be incombustible, 
 and when felted together loosely makes a 
 very good support for heating articles on. 
 It resembles thick blotting paper in appear¬ 
 ance, holds pins well, and does not burn away 
 any to speak of, at least during any ordi¬ 
 nary mending operation. It has been con¬ 
 siderably used by jewelers, assayers, and 
 others, but had one fault—it would curl up. 
 It was made of two or more layers, and when 
 heated the layers would separate and the 
 outer one curl out of shape. This fault has 
 
 been remedied by making a solid block in a 
 single layer, with wooden frame or sides to 
 keep it in shape and hold it by, thus making 
 a very excellent support. This improvement 
 is brought out by the Chalmers-Spence Com¬ 
 pany, 419 Eighth street, New York, where it 
 can be obtained in various forms. One form 
 sold by them is a solid block having a cavity 
 scooped out, large enough to hold a lot of 
 pieces of gold or other metal to be melted. 
 At one side of this cavity is a slot extending 
 out a short distance. The scraps are put into 
 the cavity and a flat piece of asbestos board 
 laid over the slot, then the scraps are melted 
 as usual. A piece of coal can be laid over 
 them to increase and confine the heat if neces¬ 
 sary. When all is fluid, it is only necessary 
 to tip the block up endways and let the metal 
 run into the slot between the two asbestos 
 blocks, where it will soon cool into an ingot. 
 This saves the risk and trouble of pouring the 
 melted metal into another dish or mold to 
 make an ingot. Before the melting, the as¬ 
 bestos pores are closed by rubbing whiting 
 over the surface. _ 
 
 SILVERING SOLUTION. 
 
 T HE following is a good silvering solution 
 for electrotype plates : Nitrate of silver, 2 
 drs.; distilled water, 37 drs. Dissolve and 
 add sal-ammoniac, 1 dr. ; hydrophosphite of 
 soda, 4 drs.; precipitated chalk, 4 drs. ; agi¬ 
 tate the preparation occasionally for twelve 
 hours, when it will be ready for use. Appty 
 with a fine sponge. 
 
 COLORING GOLD AS IN ETRUSCAN 
 JEWELRY. 
 
 HERE are various methods for coloring 
 gold as in Etruscan jewelry; in fact, 
 every jeweler has a method of his own. The 
 following, however, has been successfully 
 used for some years, and has given general 
 satisfaction: 2 y 2 ounces crocus, 2 ounces 
 yellow ocher, 1 y 2 ounces verdigris, 
 ounces copperas, y 2 ounce white vitriol, 
 ounce borax. All these ingredients are to 
 be reduced in a mortar to an impalpable 
 powder and intimately mixed with 5 ounces 
 yellow beeswax; or, 20 dwts. saltpeter, 20 
 dwts. common salt, 2j^ dwts. copperas, 2j4 
 dwts. white vitriol, 2 dwts. alum. The in¬ 
 gredients are to be put into an old crucible, 
 and set over the fire, and the articles to 
 be colored boiled in it until on trial they are 
 found to have acquired the desired color. 
 
GOLD-LIKE VARNISH. 
 
 The beautiful satin finish is given to the class 
 of goods called Roman gold by carefully 
 brushing the dead gold surface with a 
 scratch-brush made from spun glass. 
 
 RING STICK. 
 
 CONSIDERABLE misapprehension 
 exists in the matter of measuring a ring on 
 a gauge ; we would say that the edge of the 
 ring should come as far as the mark, while 
 some contend that the mark on the stick 
 should come inside the ring. This is not 
 right, because any ring properly made is of 
 the same size at the center as it is at the 
 edges, and the ring stick is made tapering, 
 so that when the edge of the ring is pushed 
 up as far as it will go, the center of the ring 
 will necessarily stand off from the stick. In 
 a narrow ring this would make little differ¬ 
 ence, but in a wide ring it amounts to 
 something. ___ 
 
 CEMENT FOR PETROLEUM LAMP. 
 
 OIL 3 parts of resin with i part of caus¬ 
 tic soda and 5 of water. The compo¬ 
 sition is then mixed with half its weight of 
 plaster of paris, and sets firmly in from y 2 
 to y of an hour. It is of great adhesive 
 power, and not permeable to petroleum, a 
 low conductor of heat, and but superficially 
 attacked by hot water. 
 
 SOFT SOLDERING ARTICLES. 
 
 OISTEN the parts to be united with 
 soldering fluid, then, having joined them 
 together, lay a small piece of solder upon 
 the joint, and hold over the lamp, or direct 
 the blaze upon it with your blow-pipe, until 
 fusion is apparent. Withdraw them from 
 the blaze immediately, as too much heat will 
 render the solder brittle and unsatisfactory. 
 When the parts to be joined can be made to 
 spring or press against each other, it is best 
 to place a thin piece of solder between them 
 before exposing to the lamp. When two 
 smooth surfaces are to be soldered one upon 
 the other, you may make an excellent job 
 by moistening them with the fluid, and then 
 having placed a sheet of tinfoil between 
 them, holding them pressed together over 
 your lamp till the foil melts. If the surfaces 
 fit nicely, a joint may be made in this man¬ 
 ner so close as almost to be imperceptible. 
 The bright-looking lead, which comes as a 
 lining of tea-boxes, is better than tinfoil. 
 
 17B 
 
 HOW TO MELT ALUMINUM. 
 
 O melt alumina use a black-lead cruci¬ 
 ble. Drive the alumina foil into an 
 iron cone much the same shape as the bot¬ 
 tom of the crucible, place the alumina in the 
 crucible and cover with crude soda and 
 charcoal pulverized together. Heat slowly. 
 
 NON-CORROSIVE SOLDERING FLUID. 
 
 HE different fluids bearing this pompous 
 name all labor only under a common 
 disadvantage, viz., that they corrode the ar¬ 
 ticle for which they are used. We cannot,, 
 however, vouch for the fact whether the fol¬ 
 lowing will do the same or not: Small grains 
 of zinc are thrown into muriatic acid until 
 this is saturated, to be recognized by the 
 cessation of the ebullition ; the zinc also being 
 added after this point remains undissolved; 
 add about one third the volume of spirits of 
 ammonia, and dilute with a like quantity of 
 rain-water. The solution of the zinc is ma¬ 
 terially accelerated by slightly warming the 
 acid. This fluid causes no rust on iron or 
 steel. 
 
 GOLD-LIKE VARNISH. 
 
 N excellent gold varnish which gives 
 bronze the color of gold is prepared in the 
 following manner: Three ounces bright gum- 
 lac are dissolved in 2 pounds best alcohol, and 
 tinctured either with annatta or gamboge; 
 the first gives it a handsome dark gold, the lat¬ 
 ter a lemon-yellow color. The bronze to be 
 treated is slowly heated over a fire of char¬ 
 coal, left to cool a little, and them dipped 
 in a mixture of 3 parts water and 1 part nitric 
 acid, and left in it until entirely black, which 
 requires time of about one or one and a half 
 hours. Then take it out, brush it with a stiff 
 brush, and dip into strong nitric acid; seize 
 it with copper tongs, as those of iron and 
 steel are very injurious. When the black 
 coating of the first immersion has entirely 
 disappeared, take out the bronze, rinse it off 
 clean in lukewarm water, and dry in sawdust. 
 The operator must be cautioned that the 
 smallest part of iron in the bronze will ruin 
 the whole piece, by showing itself in the 
 shape of a large black spot, which cannot be 
 removed or covered. When the piece has 
 been thus treated, it is laid upon a red-hot 
 iron plate, until so hot that it would burn the 
 hand. Apply the varnish in one or several 
 coats. 
 
i7 2 
 
 UNITED STATES OUNCES (AVOIRDUPOIS) IN GRAMS. 
 
 WRITING INSCRIPTIONS ON 
 METALS. 
 
 AKE one quarter pound nitric and one 
 ounce muriatic acid. Mix, shake well 
 together, and it is ready for use. Cover the 
 place you wish to mark with melted bees¬ 
 wax ; when cold, write your inscription plainly 
 in the wax clear to the metal, using a sharp 
 instrument; then apply the mixed acid with 
 a feather, carefully filling each letter. Let it 
 remain from i to io minutes, according to 
 appearances desired, then throw on water, 
 which stops the process, and remove the wax. 
 
 GOLD TINGE. 
 
 BRIGHT gold tinge may be given to 
 silver by steeping it for a suitable length 
 of time in a weak solution of sulphuric acid 
 and water, strongly impregnated with iron 
 rust. 
 
 REFINING SWEEPINGS. 
 
 HE sweepings of the workshop contain 
 quite a quantity of gold and silver. To 
 8 ounces of the dirt, which has been washed 
 and burnt, add salt, 4 ounces ; pearl ash, 4 
 ounces; red tartar, 1 ounce; saltpeter, y 2 
 ounce; mix thoroughly in a mortar, melt in 
 a crucible, and dissolve out the precious 
 metals in a button. 
 
 POLISHING POWDER. 
 
 N excellent polishing powder for gold 
 and silver consists of burnt and finely 
 pulverized rock alum, 5 parts, and levigated 
 chalk, 1 part. Mix and apply with a dry 
 brush. 
 
 FICTITIOUS SILVER 
 
 O. 1. Silver, 1 ounce; nickel, 1 ounce 
 11 dwts. ; copper, 2 ounces 9 dwts. ; or, 
 No. 2. Silver, 3 ounces; nickel, 1 ounce 11 
 dwts. ; copper, 2 ounces 9 dwts. ; spelter, 
 10 dwts. _ 
 
 PECULIAR QUALITIES OF ALU¬ 
 MINUM BRONZES. 
 
 SCIENTIFIC journal says: Five per 
 cent, aluminum bronze is golden in color, 
 polishes well, and casts beautifully; is very 
 malleable cold or hot, and has great 
 strength, especially after hammering. The 
 7 l / 2 per cent, bronze is to be recommended 
 as superior to the 5 per cent.; it has a 
 peculiar greenish-gold color, which makes it 
 
 very suitable for decoration. All these good 
 qualities are possessed by the 10 per cent, 
 bronze. It is bright golden, keeps its polish 
 in the air, may be easily engraved, shows an 
 elasticity much greater than steel, and can 
 be soldered with hard solder. It gives good 
 castings in all sizes, and runs in sand molds 
 very uniformly. Thin castings come out 
 very short, but if a casting suddenly thick¬ 
 ens, small off-shoots must be made at the 
 thick place into which the metal can run, 
 and then soak back into the castings by 
 shrinkage at the thick part. Its strength, 
 when cast, is between that of iron and steel, 
 but when hammered is equal to the best 
 steel. It may be forged at about the same 
 heat as cast steel, and then hammered until 
 it is almost cold without breaking or ripping. 
 Tempering makes it soft and malleable. It 
 does not foul a file, and may easily be drawn 
 into wire. Any part of a machine which is 
 usually made of steel can be replaced by this 
 bronze. The 10 per cent, bronze has a tenac¬ 
 ity of about 100,000 pounds, compressive 
 strength 130,000 pounds, and its ductility 
 and toughness are such that it does not even 
 crack when distorted by this load. It is so 
 ductile and malleable that it can be drawn 
 down under the hammer to the fineness of a 
 cambric needle. It works well, casts well, 
 holds a fine surface under the tool, and when 
 exposed to the weather it is in every respect 
 the best bronze known. Aluminum brass, 
 consisting of 67 parts copper, 30 parts zinc, 
 and 3 parts of aluminum, possesses a break¬ 
 ing strain of 48 kilogrammes per square mil¬ 
 limetre, and an extensibility of 21 per cent. 
 A beautiful alloy is produced by adding a 
 small proportion of pure silver to pure alu¬ 
 minum. _ 
 
 UNITED STATES OUNCES (AVOIR¬ 
 DUPOIS) IN GRAMS. 
 
 Oz. 
 
 Grams. 
 
 
 Oz. 
 
 Grams. 
 
 % 
 
 7 
 
 
 8 
 
 227 
 
 % 
 
 14 
 
 
 9 
 
 2 55 
 
 % 
 
 2iy 
 
 
 IO 
 
 283 
 
 I 
 
 28-35 
 
 
 11 
 
 3 I 2 
 
 2 
 
 57 
 
 
 I 2 
 
 340 
 
 3 
 
 85 
 
 
 J 3 
 
 369 
 
 4 
 
 1J 3 
 
 
 14 
 
 397 
 
 5 
 
 142 
 
 
 15 
 
 425 
 
 6 
 
 170 
 
 
 l6 
 
 454 
 
 7 
 
 198 
 
 
 
 
COLORING AND LACQUERING BRASS. 
 
 
 FLUORIC ACID FOR ETCHING GLASS. 
 
 T HE operator can make his own fluoric 
 (sometimes called hydro-fluoric) acid, 
 by getting the fluor, or Derbyshire spar, 
 pulverizing it, and putting as much of it in 
 a quantity of sulphuric acid as this will dis¬ 
 solve. Inasmuch as the acid is very destruc¬ 
 tive to glass, it can only be kept in lead or 
 gutta-percha bottles. 
 
 TO SOLDER A PEARL RING. 
 
 HE country watchmaker, who is sup¬ 
 posed to be conversant with the art of 
 soldering, must be very careful when he has 
 to perform this on a pearl-set ring, as it is 
 quite a risky job, and difficult to hard solder 
 under any circumstances; in fact, should it 
 be broken up, it can in no other manner be 
 hard soldered, except by taking out the 
 pearls. If, however, the break is at the 
 bottom, or far from the set, it can be hard 
 soldered as follows: First, clean the ring 
 well, make it the size wanted, fit close and 
 even to where to be soldered; make the size 
 a little smaller than wanted, to allow for 
 dressing and toning up; tear tissue paper 
 into strips, twist it loosely, wrap around the 
 sets every way, thoroughly covering them; 
 take one coil of binding wire, twist it around 
 the paper so as to hold it together; put the 
 set part of the ring in clean, clear water, un¬ 
 til the paper swells full; lay or pin on a 
 piece of good charcoal; put a slip of coal 
 between paper and the part you wish to sol¬ 
 der ; apply the borax; use good, easy-flow¬ 
 ing solder; make a large blaze; blow di¬ 
 rectly on the point you wish to solder; keep 
 as much of the blaze off the paper as possi¬ 
 ble ; make the solder flow quick, and stop as 
 soon as it flows; take the ring off the coal 
 and put it in the water to cool off. Should 
 the paper, during soldering, become dry and 
 commence to burn, stop, and apply more 
 water on it, tear the paper off and finish. By 
 working it this way, the expert man will 
 never fail to save the most delicate setting, 
 unless the ring is extra heavy all round. 
 
 SOLDERING STONE-SET RINGS. 
 
 HERE are various ways for doing this, 
 but the following will be found to be as 
 good as any: Take tissue paper and tear it 
 into strips about three inches wide ; twist them 
 into ropes, and then make them very wet, 
 and wrap the stone with them, passing around 
 
 the stone and through the ring until the cen¬ 
 ter of the ring is a little more than half full 
 of paper, always winding very close, and then 
 fasten upon charcoal, allowing the stone to 
 project over the edge of the charcoal, and 
 solder very quickly. The paper will prevent 
 oxidation upon the part of the ring it covers, 
 as well as protect the stones. 
 
 TO PROTECT THE POLISH OF 
 METALS. 
 
 ELT one part by weight of best wax par¬ 
 affine, and when sufficiently cooled, add 
 three parts of petroleum. Mix well together, 
 and apply to the polished article by means of 
 a soft brush. The protecting film need only 
 be very thin, wherefore not too much should 
 be applied. _ 
 
 CEMENT FOR FASTENING METAL 
 UPON GLASS. 
 
 N order to quickly and well fasten metal¬ 
 lic objects upon glass, the use of the fol¬ 
 lowing cement is recommended: ioo grams- 
 of finely pulverized litharge and 50 grams 
 dry white lead are intimately mixed together, 
 and with boiled linseed oil and copal varnish 
 worked into a half stiff paste. The propor¬ 
 tion between boiled linseed oil and' copal 
 varnish hereby is as follows: 3 parts linseed 
 oil and 1 part copal varnish. The quantity 
 of the latter depends upon the quantity of 
 the litharge and white lead used. In every 
 case sufficient of the oil is added to the lat¬ 
 ter to make a suitable paste. The cement¬ 
 ing is very simple: The lower face of a 
 medallion, etc., is filled with the cement, 
 pressed upon the glass, and the exuding ex¬ 
 cess is removed. The cement dries very 
 rapidly and becomes very hard. 
 
 COLORING AND LACQUERING BRASS. 
 
 HE FOLLOWING general descrip¬ 
 tion of the methods employed in color¬ 
 ing and lacquering brass work are useful for 
 all metal workers, goldsmiths, mathematical 
 and optical instrument makers, etc. Brass, 
 it may be remembered, is an alloy of copper 
 and zinc, and, by dissolving or cutting out 
 either of those metals from the surface, a 
 certain amount of variety of color can be 
 produced. For instance, if brass is left for 
 some time in moist sand it assumes a very 
 handsome brown color, which, if polished 
 with a dry brush, remains constant, and re¬ 
 quires no cleaning or polishing. A darker 
 
>74 
 
 THE SIZES OF WATCH MOVEMENTS. 
 
 •or lighter green color may be imparted if a 
 thin layer of verdigris is created upon the 
 surface by means of dilute acids, which are 
 to be left on until dry. The antique appear¬ 
 ance imparted to the brass in this manner is 
 very handsome and more or less durable. 
 But it is not always possible, for want of 
 time, to do this with each article, and a more 
 rapid method for effecting the end is there¬ 
 fore necessary, and the simplest way to do 
 it is to cover the brass with a coat of var¬ 
 nish. All the necessary work to be done is 
 performed before the bronzing. The brass 
 is annealed, dipped in old or dilute nitric 
 acid until the scales can be loosened from 
 the surface, and is then treated with sand 
 and water and dried. The next step is to 
 produce the necessary bronze. Although 
 this word actually signifies a bronze color, 
 it is rather loosely applied in the trades at 
 present and applied to all colors. Brown of 
 all shades is produced by immersion in a 
 solution of nitrate or chloride of iron, the 
 strength of the bath determining the depth 
 ■of the color. Violet shades are obtained by 
 immersing in a solution of chloride of anti¬ 
 mony ; olive green, by means of a solution 
 •of iron and arsenic in muriatic acid, polish¬ 
 ing afterward with a plumbago brush, and, 
 when warm, coating with a lacquer com¬ 
 posed of one part varnish lacquer, four parts 
 turmeric, and one part gamboge. A steel 
 gray color is precipitated upon brass by 
 means of a weak boiling solution of arsenic 
 •chloride, and a blue by an attentive treat¬ 
 ment with strong sulphide of soda. Black 
 is much used for optical instruments, and is 
 produced by painting with a platinum solu¬ 
 tion or with chloride of gold mixed with 
 nitrate of tin. 
 
 The success in the art of bronzing chiefly 
 depends upon circumstances ; for instance, 
 the temperature of the alloy or solution, the 
 proportions and qualities of the material 
 used for alloying, the proper moment at 
 which the article is to be withdrawn, its dry¬ 
 ing, and a hundred other minutiae of atten¬ 
 tion and manipulation, require a skill only 
 taught by experience. 
 
 If the brass is to receive no artificial color, 
 but simply to be protected against tarnishing 
 and oxidizing, it is to be lacquered after hav¬ 
 ing been thoroughly cleansed. In order to 
 prepare the brass for this coating it must be 
 dipped, after having been annealed, and, as 
 aforesaid, rinsed and washed, dipped either 
 for a moment in pure commercial nitric acid 
 
 ahd then washed in clean water and dried in 
 sawdust, or immersed in a pickle of equal 
 parts of nitric acid and water, until covered 
 with a white coating of the appearance of 
 curdled milk, when the article is taken out, 
 rinsed in clean water and dried in sawdust. 
 In the first case the brass becomes lustrous, 
 in the latter it becomes mat, which is gen¬ 
 erally improved by smoothing and polishing 
 the prominent places. The article is then 
 dipped for a moment in nitric acid as found 
 in commerce, and containing a little crude 
 cream of tartar in order to preserve the color 
 up to the moment of lacquering, and finally 
 dried in warm sawdust. When prepared in 
 such a manner the article is taken in hand to 
 be lacquered, for which purpose it is first to 
 be heated upon a hot plate to be lacquered 
 afterward. For this purpose is used a sim¬ 
 ple alcohol varnish, consisting of i ounce 
 shellac dissolved in i pint alcohol. To this 
 simple varnish are afterward to be added 
 the coloring substances, such as sanders 
 wood, dragon’s blood and annatto, which 
 increase the luster of the color. In order to 
 moderate the shading of the color, turmeric, 
 gamboge, saffron, cape aloes, and gum san- 
 darac are added. The first colors make the 
 lacquer reddish, the second yellowish, while 
 the two, when mixed, give a nice orange. 
 
 A good pale lacquer consists of 3 parts 
 aloes and 1 part turmeric, to one part of the 
 simple varnish. A gold lacquer is obtained 
 by adding 4 parts dragon’s blood and 1 part 
 turmeric to 1 part of the simple varnish, 
 while a red lacquer is produced from 32 
 parts annatto and 8 parts dragon’s blood, to 
 1 part of the varnish. 
 
 THE SIZES OF WATCH MOVEMENTS. 
 
 HERE are four different methods of ex¬ 
 pressing the sizes of movements. The 
 French and Swiss measure across the dial, 
 and give its diameter either in millimeters or 
 in French lines. A millimeter is about four 
 one-hundredths (j^y) of an inch ; or, more 
 accurately expressed in decimals, 0.03937 
 inch. A French line is about nine one-hun¬ 
 dredths ( T ^o) °f an inch, or, in decimals, 
 0.0888 inch. 
 
 English movements are sized by what is 
 called the Lancashire Movement Gauge, 
 which is a three-inch measure. The sizes 
 begin with one inch, i. e., a movement 1 inch 
 in diameter is size o. The sizes differ by 
 one-thirtieth ) of an inch. Size 16 Eng- 
 
HOW TO CONVERT THE THERMOMETER SCALES. 
 
 175 
 
 lish would, therefore, be iff inch in diame¬ 
 ter, and so on. But it must be remembered 
 that English sizes refer to the diameter of 
 the pillar plate of the movement, not that of 
 the dial. As everybody knows, the dial of 
 an English watch is considerably larger than 
 the movement, to allow the dial plate to rest 
 upon the watch case, while the movement 
 goes inside of the case and is supported in 
 its place by the dial plate—the movement 
 itself not being allowed to touch the case. 
 The dial is five sizes larger than the move¬ 
 ment ; so a^ 16 size English watch would 
 have a dial iff inch in diameter, or, in deci¬ 
 mals, 1.700 inches. A French or Swiss watch 
 having approximately the same size of dial 
 would be called a 19 line watch or a 43 
 millimeter watch. The American move¬ 
 ments are sized by the Lancashire gauge, 
 only omitting the allowance of five sizes be¬ 
 tween the movement and the dial—measur¬ 
 ing the dial itself to get the size of the watch. 
 The table will be found on p. 176. 
 
 CONVERSION OF WEIGHTS AND 
 MEASURES. 
 
 ANY people who have no difficulty in 
 reading a French journal or book find 
 it a nuisance to translate the metric into 
 English measures and weights. For such the 
 following rule may be useful. To convert 
 grams to ounces, avoirdupois, multiply by 
 20 and divide by 567. To convert kilo¬ 
 grammes to pounds, multiply by 1000 and 
 divide by 454. To convert liters to gallons, 
 multiply by 22 and divide by 100. To con¬ 
 vert liters to pints, multiply by 88 and divide 
 by 50. To convert millimeters to inches, 
 mutiply by 10 and divide by 254. To con¬ 
 vert meters to yards, multiply by 70 and di¬ 
 vide by 64. _ 
 
 HOW TO CONVERT THE THER¬ 
 MOMETER SCALES. 
 
 ORMERLY, when the different nations 
 of Europe kept more secluded one from 
 the other, by reason of the want of facilities 
 of rapid locomotion, each adopted a coinage, 
 weights, and measures, etc., best suited to its 
 requirements; their little traffic jogged along 
 all right, and every other nation accommo¬ 
 dated itself to the peculiar institutions of its 
 neighbors. Times have changed since then, 
 however, and international traffic has as¬ 
 sumed proportions which even the boldest 
 minds of our forefathers did not foresee, and 
 
 we are beginning to sadly want all our coin¬ 
 age, measures of time, of bulk, etc., reduced 
 to an international standard, so that one na¬ 
 tion living thousands of miles away from 
 another will readily be able to understand 
 its local institutions in this regard. None of 
 the least perplexing are the various thermom¬ 
 eter scales; the educated man, of course, 
 understands how to compute one differing 
 from that used in his country, but then we 
 have not all had the opportunity of becom¬ 
 ing educated men, and for the latter the fol¬ 
 lowing ready means of converting one scale 
 into another may be of interest. By the 
 way, the thermometer scales are a forcible 
 illustration of the Biblical verse about the 
 prophet enjoying the least honor in his own 
 country. Reaumur, whose scale is princi¬ 
 pally used in Germany, was a Frenchman, 
 but the French use the Celsius scale (100 °), 
 who was a Swede. Fahrenheit was a Ger¬ 
 man, but his scale, although almost unknown 
 in Germany, is exclusively used in England 
 and America. Again, the latter scale, al¬ 
 though apparently the most irrational and 
 arbitrary of the three, is nevertheless about 
 the best for our moderate zone. The render 
 of these Notes is well aware that both Cel¬ 
 sius (the centigrade scale) and Reaumur fix 
 their freezing point at the congealing point 
 of water—a very unsafe point, for irrelevant 
 reasons, and call it o 0 ; Fahrenheit, how¬ 
 ever, has his zero at a temperature pro¬ 
 duced by the mixture of ice and salt, while the 
 freezing point is located at 32 0 . The range 
 from the boiling point at 212 0 and o° F. 
 embraces about all the degrees of heat and 
 cold likely to occur in our zone, and thereby 
 dispenses with the + or — necessary to be 
 added to the other scales ; plus (+ ) for de¬ 
 grees above the freezing point, and minus 
 (—) for those below. For instance, when 
 Celsius has— 17 0 , Fahrenheit has still 
 + I - 4 °- 
 
 Fahrenheit into Centigrade (or Celsius ).— 
 Subtract 32 0 from Fahrenheit’s degrees, mul¬ 
 tiply the remainder by 5, then divide by 
 9. The product will be the temperature in 
 Centigrade. 
 
 Fahrenheit into Reaumur. —Subtract 32 0 
 from Fahrenheit’s degrees, multiply the re¬ 
 mainder by 4, and divide by 9. The prod¬ 
 uct will be the temperature in Reaumur’s 
 degrees. 
 
 Centigrade into Fahrenheit. —Multiply the' 
 Centigrade degrees by 9, divide by 5, and 
 add 32 to the product. The sum will be 
 
SIZES OF WATCH MOVEMENTS. 
 
 176 
 
 the temperature according to Fahrenheit’s 
 scale. 
 
 Reaumur to Fahrenheit .—Multiply the 
 degrees on Reaumur’s scale by 9, divide by 
 4, and add 32 to the product. The sum 
 will be the temperature by Fahrenheit’s scale. 
 Tables will be found on p. 178. 
 
 DIAMOND, GOLD, ETC., WEIGHTS. 
 
 TROY WEIGHT. 
 
 I N Switzerland the old French ounce, = 
 30.59 grams, is still much used. It is 
 divided into 24 deniers, each at 24 grains. 
 
 In England the Troy ounce is divided 
 into thousandths. 
 
 In the United States the English Troy 
 ounce is divided into 20 dwts. (penny¬ 
 weights), each at 24 grains. 1 pound Troy 
 r= 12 oz. - - 24 grains = 373*/^ grams. 
 
 4 grains = 1 karat. 
 
 24 grains = 1 pennyweight. 
 
 20 dwts. or 480 grains = 1 ounce. 
 
 12 oz., or 5760 grains = 1 pound (ft.) 
 
 DIAMOND WEIGHT. 
 
 16 parts = 1 grain. 
 
 4 grains = 1 karat. 
 
 1 karat =314 grains Troy (nearly). 
 
 151*4 karats = 1 oz. Troy. 
 
 According to this the karat = Stwt grains 
 Troy. 
 
 In giving the weight of a diamond we say 
 it weighs so many karats, or a fraction of 
 such karat, and do not express it either in 
 grains or pennyweights. 
 
 AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHT. 
 
 I drachm (dr.) = 2 7**- grains. 
 
 16 drachms = 1 ounce (oz.) or 437*4 grs. 
 16 ounces = 1 pound (ft.) or 7000 grains. 
 28 pounds = 1 quarter (qr.). 
 
 4 quarters = 1 hundred-weight (cwt.). 
 
 20 cwts. = 1 ton. 
 
 RANDOM WEIGHTS. 
 
 i ducat = 3)4 grams fine gold. 
 
 1 mark gold weight = 8 ounces avoirdu¬ 
 pois. 
 
 i loth (German) =16^4 grams. 
 
 1 pound, German (avoirdupois) = 500 
 grams. 
 
 *1 pound, English and American (avoirdu¬ 
 pois) = 453.59 grams. 
 
 1 ounce, English and American (avoirdu¬ 
 pois) = 28.35 grams. 
 
 GRAM 
 
 WEIGHT 
 
 IN TROY 
 
 WEIGHT. 
 
 Grams. 
 
 
 Oz. 
 
 Dwts. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 IOOO 
 
 = 
 
 32 
 
 3 
 
 o -34 
 
 9OC 
 
 
 28 
 
 18 
 
 17.10 
 
 800 
 
 = 
 
 2 5 
 
 *4 
 
 9.86 
 
 700 
 
 : 
 
 22 
 
 10 
 
 2.63 
 
 600 
 
 — 
 
 *9 
 
 5 
 
 19.40 
 
 5 °° 
 
 — 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 12.17 
 
 400 
 
 r:: 
 
 12 
 
 *7 
 
 4-03 
 
 3 °° 
 
 rr: 
 
 9 
 
 12 
 
 21.70 
 
 200 
 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 14.16 
 
 100 
 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 7.08 
 
 SIZES OF WATCH MOVEMENTS. 
 
 English. 
 
 
 Swiss. 
 
 
 size in 
 Millimeters. 
 
 0 
 
 Size 
 
 
 
 
 30.48 
 
 1 
 
 U 
 
 *4 Ig- 
 
 (31-58 
 
 m.) 
 
 3 * -33 
 
 2 
 
 tl 
 
 
 
 
 32.18 
 
 3 
 
 ti 
 
 
 
 
 33 -° 2 
 
 4 
 
 a 
 
 i 5 " 
 
 
 
 33-87 
 
 5 
 
 it 
 
 
 
 
 34 - 7 2 
 
 6 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 35-56 
 
 7 
 
 a 
 
 16 “ 
 
 (36.09 
 
 ") 
 
 36.41 
 
 8 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 3 7 - 2 5 
 
 9 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 38.10 
 
 10 
 
 a 
 
 17 “ 
 
 (38.35 
 
 “) 
 
 38.95 
 
 11 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 39-79 
 
 12 
 
 a 
 
 18 " 
 
 
 
 40.64 
 
 *3 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 4*-49 
 
 *4 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 4 2 -33 
 
 *5 
 
 a 
 
 19 “ 
 
 (42.86 
 
 “) 
 
 43 - lS 
 
 16 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 44-03 
 
 *7 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 44.87 
 
 18 
 
 a 
 
 20 “ 
 
 ( 45 - 12 
 
 “) 
 
 45 - 7 2 
 
 *9 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 46 57 
 
 20 
 
 a 
 
 21 “ 
 
 
 
 47.41 
 
 21 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 48.26 
 
 22 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 49.11 
 
 2 3 
 
 a 
 
 _ _ if 
 22 
 
 ( 49-63 
 
 “) 
 
 49-95 
 
 2 4 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 50.80 
 
 2 5 
 
 a 
 
 it 
 
 2 3 
 
 (51.88 
 
 “) 
 
 5 i - 6 5 
 
 26 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 5 2 -49 
 
 2 7 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 53-34 
 
 28 
 
 a 
 
 . . ft 
 
 24 
 
 
 
 54 -i 9 
 
 2 9 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 55-°3 
 
 3 ° 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 55-88 
 
THE NEW METRIC SYSTEM OF SPECTACLE LENSES. 
 
 1 7 7 
 
 SPECIFIC GRAVITY. 
 
 AKING water at i.o, the specific weight 
 of aluminum is 2.56; zinc, cast, 6.80; 
 -zinc, rolled, 7.20; iron, cast, 6.90-7.50; 
 iron, wrought, 7.60-7.84; German silver 
 and brass, 8.55; copper, cast, 8.75; cop¬ 
 per, wrought, 8.78-9.00; bell metal, 8.80; 
 nickel, 8.82 ; silver, 10.57 ; palladium, 
 11.80; mercury, 15.60; gold, 19.26; plat¬ 
 inum, 21.50. 
 
 CONVERSION OF MILLIMETER AND 
 INCH MEASURES. 
 
 Millimeter. 
 
 Inch. 
 
 Millimeter. 
 
 Inch. 
 
 0.01 
 
 0.0003937 
 
 18 
 
 0.70866 
 
 0.02 
 
 0.0007874 
 
 x 9 
 
 ro 
 
 O 
 
 00 
 
 ’'d- 
 
 r— 
 
 O 
 
 0.03 
 
 0.0011811 
 
 
 
 0.04 
 
 0.0015748 
 
 20 
 
 0.78740 
 
 0.05 
 
 0.0019685 
 
 21 
 
 0.82677 
 
 0.06 
 
 0.0023622 
 
 22 
 
 0.86614 
 
 0.07 
 
 0.0026559 
 
 2 3 
 
 0.90551 
 
 0.08 
 
 0.0031496 
 
 24 
 
 0.94488 
 
 0.09 
 
 0-0035433 
 
 2 5 
 
 0.98425 
 
 
 
 26 
 
 1.02362 
 
 0.1 
 
 0-003937 
 
 2 7 
 
 1.06299 
 
 0.2 
 
 0.007874 
 
 28 
 
 1.10236 
 
 o-3 
 
 0.011811 
 
 2 9 
 
 1 • X 4 X 73 
 
 0.4 
 
 0.015748 
 
 
 
 °* 5 
 
 0.019685 
 
 3° 
 
 1.18110 
 
 0.6 
 
 0.023622 
 
 3i 
 
 1.22047 
 
 0.7 
 
 0.026559 
 
 3 2 
 
 1.25984 
 
 0.8 
 
 0.031496 
 
 33 
 
 1.29921 
 
 0.9 
 
 0-035433 
 
 34 
 
 1 -33858 
 
 
 
 35 
 
 1 -37795 
 
 1 
 
 0-03937 
 
 3 6 
 
 1 -41732 
 
 2 
 
 0.07874 
 
 37 
 
 1.45669 
 
 3 
 
 0.11811 
 
 38 
 
 1.49606 
 
 4 
 
 0.15748 
 
 39 
 
 x -53543 
 
 5 
 
 0.19685 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 0.23622 
 
 40 
 
 1.57480 
 
 7 
 
 0.26559 
 
 41 
 
 1.61417 
 
 8 
 
 o. 3 t 49 6 
 
 42 
 
 x .65354 
 
 9 
 
 o-35433 
 
 43 
 
 1.69291 
 
 
 
 44 
 
 1.73228 
 
 1 0 
 
 0-3937° 
 
 45 
 
 r.77165 
 
 I I 
 
 o-433°7 
 
 46 
 
 1.81102 
 
 12 
 
 0.47244 
 
 47 
 
 1.85039 
 
 X 3 
 
 0.51181 
 
 48 
 
 1.88976 
 
 x 4 
 
 o-55 IlS 
 
 49 
 
 1.92913 
 
 x 5 
 
 0.59056 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 0.62992 
 
 5° 
 
 1.96850 
 
 17 
 
 0.66929 
 
 
 
 CONVERSION OF MILLIMETER AND 
 INCH MEASURES—Continued. 
 
 Inch. 
 
 Millimeter. 
 
 Inch. 
 
 Millimeter. 
 
 0.001 
 
 0.025399 
 
 0.2 
 
 5.0798 
 
 O . 002 
 
 0.050798 
 
 0.3 
 
 7.6197 
 
 O . OO3 
 
 0.076197 
 
 0.4 
 
 IO.1596 
 
 O . OO4 
 
 0.101596 
 
 0.5 
 
 12.6995 
 
 O.OO5 
 
 0.126995 
 
 0.6 
 
 x 5-2394 
 
 O . 006 
 
 0• 1 5 2 394 
 
 o-7 
 
 17-7793 
 
 O . OO7 
 
 o- 1 77793 
 
 0.8 
 
 20.3192 
 
 O . 008 
 
 0.203192 
 
 0.9 
 
 22.859I 
 
 O . OO9 
 
 0.228591 
 
 
 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 25.899O 
 
 O . OI 
 
 o- 2 5399 
 
 1 .1 
 
 27.9389 
 
 O .02 
 
 0.50798 
 
 1.2 
 
 3O.4788 
 
 0.03 
 
 0.76197 
 
 1 -3 
 
 33• oi8 7 
 
 O . 04 
 
 1.01596 
 
 1 -4 
 
 35-5586 
 
 O.05 
 
 1.26995 
 
 1 - 5 
 
 38.0985 
 
 O . 06 
 
 x .52394 
 
 1.6 
 
 40.6384 
 
 O.07 
 
 1 •77793 
 
 1 • 7 
 
 43. x 783 
 
 O.08 
 
 2.03192 
 
 1.8 
 
 45•7 i8 2 
 
 O . 09 
 
 2.28591 
 
 1 -9 
 
 48.2581 
 
 O . I 
 
 2-5399 
 
 2.0 
 
 50.7980 
 
 THE NEW METRIC SYSTEM OF 
 SPECTACLE LENSES. 
 
 OLD SYSTEM. 
 
 Numbers in 
 inches. 
 
 NEW SYSTEM. 
 
 Numbers in 
 Dioptrics. 
 
 OLD SYSTEM. 
 
 Numbers in 
 inches. 
 
 NEW SYSTEM. 
 
 Numbers in 
 Dioptrics. 
 
 (160) 
 
 2.25 
 
 8 
 
 5- 
 
 80 
 
 °-5 
 
 7 
 
 (5-25) 
 
 60 
 
 (0.67) 
 
 7 
 
 5-5 
 
 5 ° 
 
 o-75 
 
 6^ 
 
 6. 
 
 40 
 
 1. 
 
 6 
 
 6-5 
 
 36 
 
 (1.11) 
 
 sH 
 
 7- 
 
 30 
 
 1.25 
 
 5 X 
 
 7-5 
 
 24 
 
 x -5 
 
 5 
 
 8. 
 
 (22) 
 
 M5 
 
 4^ 
 
 9 - 
 
 20 
 
 2. 
 
 4 
 
 10. 
 
 18 
 
 2.25 
 
 3^ 
 
 10.5 
 
 16 
 
 2-5 
 
 3^2 
 
 11. 
 
 14 
 
 2-75 
 
 3 % 
 
 12. 
 
 x 3 
 
 3- 
 
 3 
 
 X 3* ! 
 
 12 
 
 3-25 
 
 23 ^ 
 
 14. 
 
 Ii 
 
 3-5 
 
 2 ^ 
 
 16. 
 
 10 
 
 4- 
 
 
 18. 
 
 9 
 
 4-5 
 
 2 
 
 20. 
 
CONVERSION OF THE DIFFERENT THERMOMETER SCALES. 
 
 THE SCALES BELOW ZERO. 
 
 c. 
 
 R. 
 
 F. 
 
 c. 
 
 R. 
 
 F. 
 
 c. 
 
 R. 
 
 F. 
 
 —30 
 
 - 24.O 
 
 - 22.0 
 
 - 20 
 
 - 16.O 
 
 - 4.0 
 
 —10 
 
 —8.0 
 
 14.O 
 
 —29 
 
 - 23.2 
 
 - 20.2 
 
 —19 
 
 — 15-2 
 
 - 2.4 
 
 — 9 
 
 — 7-2 
 
 15.8 
 
 —28 
 
 - 22.4 
 
 - 18.4 
 
 —18 
 
 — 14.4 
 
 0.4 
 
 — 8 
 
 —6.4 
 
 17.6 
 
 —27 
 
 - 2 1.6 
 
 - 16.6 
 
 —17 
 
 — 13.6 
 
 1.4 
 
 — 7 
 
 — 5-6 
 
 19.4 
 
 —26 
 
 - 20.8 
 
 - 14.8 
 
 - 16 
 
 — 12.8 
 
 3-2 
 
 — 6 
 
 —4.8 
 
 2 1.2 
 
 —25 
 
 - 20.0 
 
 — 13.O 
 
 —15 
 
 - 1 2.0 
 
 5 -° 
 
 — 5 
 
 —4.0 
 
 23.O 
 
 —24 
 
 - 19.2 
 
 - 1 1.2 
 
 —14 
 
 — 11.2 
 
 6.8 
 
 — 4 
 
 — 3-2 
 
 24.8 
 
 —23 
 
 — 18.4 
 
 — 9-4 
 
 —13 
 
 —10.4 
 
 8.6 
 
 — 3 
 
 —2.4 
 
 26.6 
 
 - 22 
 
 - 1 7.6 
 
 — 7 - 6 
 
 - 1 2 
 
 — 9.6 
 
 10.4 
 
 — 2 
 
 — 1.6 
 
 28.4 
 
 -2 I 
 
 — l6.8 
 
 - 5-8 
 
 - 1 I 
 
 — 8.8 
 
 12.2 
 
 - I 
 
 —0.8 
 
 30.2 
 
 THE SCALES ABOVE ZERO. 
 
 c. 
 
 R. 
 
 F. 
 
 c. 
 
 R. 
 
 F. 
 
 c. 
 
 R. 
 
 F. 
 
 0 
 
 0.0 
 
 32.O 
 
 34 
 
 27.2 
 
 93-2 
 
 68 
 
 544 
 
 1544 
 
 I 
 
 0.8 
 
 33 - 8 
 
 35 
 
 28.0 
 
 95 -° 
 
 69 
 
 55-2 
 
 156.2 
 
 2 
 
 1.6 
 
 35 - 6 
 
 36 
 
 28.8 
 
 96.8 
 
 70 
 
 56.0 
 
 158.O 
 
 3 
 
 2.4 
 
 37-4 
 
 37 
 
 29.6 
 
 98.6 
 
 7 1 
 
 56.8 
 
 159.8 
 
 4 
 
 3-2 
 
 39-2 
 
 38 
 
 304 
 
 100.4 
 
 72 
 
 57 - 6 
 
 161.6 
 
 5 
 
 4.0 
 
 41.0 
 
 39 
 
 3 1 -2 
 
 102.2 
 
 73 
 
 584 
 
 1634 
 
 6 
 
 4.8 
 
 42.8 
 
 40 
 
 32.0 
 
 104.0 
 
 74 
 
 59-2 
 
 165.2 
 
 7 
 
 3-6 
 
 44.6 
 
 4 i 
 
 32.8 
 
 105.8 
 
 75 
 
 60.0 
 
 167.0 
 
 8 
 
 6.4 
 
 46.4 
 
 42 
 
 33 - 6 
 
 107.6 
 
 76 
 
 60.8 
 
 168.8 
 
 9 
 
 7.2 
 
 48.2 
 
 43 
 
 344 
 
 109.4 
 
 77 
 
 61.6 
 
 170.6 
 
 10 
 
 8.0 
 
 50.0 
 
 44 
 
 35-2 
 
 111.2 
 
 78 
 
 62.4 
 
 172.4 
 
 11 
 
 8.8 
 
 51.8 
 
 45 
 
 36.0 
 
 113.0 
 
 79 
 
 63.2 
 
 174.2 
 
 12 
 
 9.6 
 
 53-6 
 
 46 
 
 36.8 
 
 114.8 
 
 80 
 
 64.0 
 
 176.0 
 
 13 
 
 10.4 
 
 55-4 
 
 47 
 
 37 - 6 
 
 116.6 
 
 81 
 
 64.8 
 
 177.8 
 
 H 
 
 11.2 
 
 57-2 
 
 48 
 
 384 
 
 118.4 
 
 82 
 
 65.6 
 
 1 79-6 
 
 15 
 
 12.0 
 
 59 -o 
 
 49 
 
 39-2 
 
 120.2 
 
 83 
 
 66.4 
 
 181.4 
 
 l6 
 
 12.8 
 
 60.8 
 
 5 ° 
 
 40.0 
 
 122.0 
 
 84 
 
 67.2 
 
 183.2 
 
 17 
 
 1 3.6 
 
 62.6 
 
 5 1 
 
 40.8 
 
 123.8 
 
 85 
 
 68.0 
 
 185.0 
 
 18 
 
 14.4 
 
 64.4 
 
 S 2 
 
 41.6 
 
 125.6 
 
 86 
 
 68.8 
 
 186.8 
 
 *9 
 
 15.2 
 
 66.2 
 
 53 
 
 424 
 
 127.4 
 
 87 
 
 69.6 
 
 188.6 
 
 20 
 
 16.0 
 
 68.0 
 
 54 
 
 43-2 
 
 129.2 
 
 88 
 
 70.4 
 
 190.4 
 
 21 
 
 16.8 
 
 69.8 
 
 55 
 
 44.0 
 
 I 3 I -° 
 
 89 
 
 71.2 
 
 192.2- 
 
 22 
 
 17.6 
 
 71.6 
 
 56 
 
 44.8 
 
 132.8 
 
 90 
 
 72.0 
 
 194.0 
 
 2 3 
 
 18.4 
 
 73-4 
 
 57 
 
 45 - 6 
 
 134.6 
 
 9 1 
 
 72.8 
 
 195.8 
 
 24 
 
 19.2 
 
 75-2 
 
 58 
 
 46.4 
 
 1364 
 
 92 
 
 7 3 - 6 
 
 i 97.6 
 
 25 
 
 20.0 
 
 77.0 
 
 59 
 
 47.2 
 
 138.2 
 
 93 
 
 744 
 
 199.4 
 
 26 
 
 20.8 
 
 78.8 
 
 60 
 
 48.0 
 
 140.0 
 
 94 
 
 75-2 
 
 201.2 
 
 27 
 
 21.6 
 
 80.6 
 
 6l 
 
 48.8 
 
 141.8 
 
 95 
 
 76.0 
 
 203.c 
 
 28 
 
 22.4 
 
 82.4 
 
 62 
 
 49.6 
 
 J 43 - 6 
 
 96 
 
 76.8 
 
 204.8 
 
 29 
 
 23.2 
 
 84.2 
 
 6 3 
 
 5°4 
 
 1454 
 
 97 
 
 77.6 
 
 206.6 
 
 3 ° 
 
 24.0 
 
 86.0 
 
 64 
 
 51.2 
 
 147.2 
 
 98 
 
 784 
 
 208.4 
 
 3 1 
 
 24.8 
 
 87.8 
 
 65 
 
 52.0 
 
 149.0 
 
 99 
 
 79.2 
 
 210.2 
 
 32 
 
 25.6 
 
 89.6 
 
 66 
 
 52.8 
 
 150.8 
 
 IOO 
 
 80.0 
 
 2 I 2.'“ 
 
 33 
 
 26.4 
 
 9 r 4 
 
 67 
 
 53 - 6 
 
 152.6 
 
 
 
 
KARATS IN THOUSANDTHS. 
 
 179 
 
 CONVERSION OF GRAM WEIGHT INTO TROY WEIGHT. 
 
 Grams. 
 
 SWISS. 
 
 ENGLISH. 
 
 AMERICAN. 
 
 O z. 
 
 Deniers. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 0z. in 
 
 Oz. 
 
 Dwts. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 18.83 
 
 0.032 
 
 
 
 1 5-43 
 
 2 
 
 
 I 
 
 1 3- 6 7 
 
 0.064 
 
 
 I 
 
 6.86 
 
 3 
 
 
 2 
 
 8.50 
 
 0.096 
 
 
 I 
 
 22.30 
 
 4 
 
 
 3 
 
 3-33 
 
 0.1 29 
 
 
 2 
 
 x 3-73 
 
 5 
 
 
 3 
 
 22.17 
 
 0.161 
 
 
 3 
 
 5.16 
 
 6 
 
 
 4 
 
 17.00 
 
 0.193 
 
 
 3 
 
 20.59 
 
 7 
 
 
 5 
 
 18.83 
 
 0.225 
 
 
 4 
 
 12.03 
 
 8 
 
 
 6 
 
 6.67 
 
 0.257 
 
 
 5 
 
 346 
 
 9 . 
 
 
 7 
 
 1.50 
 
 0.290 
 
 
 5 - 
 
 18.89 
 
 10 
 
 
 '7 
 
 20.33 
 
 0.322 
 
 
 6. 
 
 10,32 
 
 20 
 
 
 US 
 
 16.70 
 
 0.644 
 
 
 12 
 
 20.60 
 
 3 ° 
 
 
 23 
 
 13.00 
 
 0.965 
 
 
 J 9 
 
 7.00 
 
 40 
 
 I 
 
 7 
 
 9 - 3 ° 
 
 1.288 
 
 I 
 
 5 
 
 1 l-3° 
 
 48 
 
 I 
 
 1 3 
 
 16.00 
 
 1 *545 
 
 I 
 
 10 
 
 20.70 
 
 MELTING POINTS OF THE PRIN¬ 
 CIPAL METALS. 
 
 Names of elements. 
 
 Fahrenheit. 
 
 Centigrade. 
 
 Platinum *. 
 
 Cast-iron. 
 
 2786 
 
 1 53 ° 
 
 Nickel. 
 
 2700 
 
 1482 
 
 Gold. 
 
 2016 
 
 1102 
 
 Copper. 
 
 1984 
 
 1090 
 
 Silver. 
 
 i8 7 3 
 
 1023 
 
 Aluminum. 
 
 1300 
 
 7°5 
 
 Zinc. 
 
 773 
 
 412 
 
 Lead. 
 
 612 
 
 322 
 
 Bismuth. 
 
 497 
 
 258 
 
 Tin. 
 
 442 
 
 228 
 
 Antimony t. 
 
 * Infusible, except by the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, 
 t Fuses a little below red heat 
 
 KARATS IN THOUSANDTHS. 
 
 FINENESS IN 
 
 
 FINENESS IN 
 
 Karats. 
 
 Milliemes. 
 
 
 Karats. 
 
 Milliemes. 
 
 24 
 
 1.000 
 
 
 12 
 
 • 5 00 
 
 23 
 
 • 95 8 
 
 
 I I 
 
 • 45 8 
 
 22 
 
 • 9 T 7 
 
 
 10 
 
 • 4 1 7 
 
 21 
 
 •875 
 
 
 9 
 
 •375 
 
 20 
 
 • 8 33 
 
 
 8 
 
 •333 
 
 X 9 
 
 .792 
 
 
 7 
 
 . 292 
 
 18 
 
 • 75 ° 
 
 
 6 
 
 .250 
 
 1 7 
 
 . 708 
 
 
 5 
 
 . 208 
 
 16 
 
 . 667 
 
 
 4 
 
 . 167 
 
 *5 
 
 .625 
 
 
 3 
 
 • I2 5 
 
 14 
 
 . 5 8 3 
 
 
 2 
 
 .083 
 
 13 
 
 .542 
 
 
 1 
 
 .042 
 
i8o 
 
 LETTER ENGRAVING. 
 
 LETTER ENGRAVING. 
 
 OR practice, not only in setting up the 
 tool, but also in using it, the learner will 
 find a square graver the best. A square 
 graver is also the best for cutting coarse let¬ 
 tering, such as is required upon door-plates, 
 coffin-plates, satchel-plates, dog-collars, etc. 
 For cutting upon articles of jewelry, watch 
 cases, cane heads, and such like, where a 
 smaller and lighter cut lettering is needed, a 
 graver somewhat on the lozenge in shape 
 should be used, the point of which, when the 
 surplus steel is ground away, would be of 
 about the same shape as a three-cornered file 
 —the width of it across the face, from side 
 to side, equalling the width of either face of 
 its belly. 
 
 In setting the face of any graver for ordi¬ 
 nary use, grind it back so as to be at an an¬ 
 gle of about sixty degrees from the line of 
 the edge of its belly. A less acute angle can 
 be given to a graver and fair work be done 
 with it. This is sometimes a necessity aris¬ 
 ing from the quality of the metal to be cut 
 with it, or the temper of the tool used. In 
 cutting such articles as solid-handled silver- 
 Tplated table knives, stock mountings to re¬ 
 volvers, plates made of rolled nickel or brass, 
 a graver that will continually keep losing its 
 point when its face is set at sixty degrees will 
 often retain it with average pertinacity when 
 its face is set at an angle of forty-five degrees. 
 
 Good work cannot be done with a graver 
 the face of which is set at a less acute angle 
 than forty-five degrees. So much force has 
 to be used in displacing the metal that the 
 strokes cut with it, if so set, are apt to be 
 A ‘ burry ” instead of “ clean,” and their termi¬ 
 nations in manyinstances, especiallyin cutting 
 script lettering, are too blunt to be beautiful. 
 
 In practicing it is not necessary to use a 
 polished graver, but in actual business it is 
 very often requisite. Silver and plated ware, 
 both flat and hollow, are now so largely fin¬ 
 ished with what is known as the “ satin finish ” 
 that a polished graver is a tool always needed 
 ■on the bench, for the strokes cut with the 
 graver, the surfaces of the belly and the face 
 of which are finished with no finer finish 
 than an Arkansas oil-stone will give them, 
 will not show effectively, the surface of the 
 article having a dead style of finish given 
 to it, demands that the work upon it, in 
 order to be seen, must possess a finish which 
 shall be exactly opposite in kind, and so 
 produce the desired effect by contrast—the 
 .sharper the contrast the better. 
 
 The face, as well as both sides of the belly 
 of the tool, should be polished when “ bright- 
 cut ” work is to be done. 
 
 The materials ordinarily used for the pur¬ 
 pose of graver polishing are the same as used 
 by watchmakers for polishing steel; chief 
 among which are diamantine, Vienna lime, 
 crocus and saphirine. In using any or all of 
 them, a small quantity should be put upon a 
 piece of wood, hard and close in texture, 
 and finished down as flat as can be. In us¬ 
 ing, moisten the material with a little alcohol 
 and apply the piece of wood so charged to 
 the graver and after the manner of a buff; 
 or, reverse the process and apply the graver 
 to the wood, in the same manner as though 
 it were an oil-stone. 
 
 In country towns it is not an easy thing 
 to get any of the materials named, and so it 
 may come “ handy ” to know of some means 
 always available, if not quite so effective, for 
 doing the work. A very fair polish can be 
 put upon the belly and face of a graver in 
 the following manner: Take an Arkansas 
 oil-stone, clean the flattest part of it; then rub 
 the point of a lead-pencil over the cleaned 
 portion of the stone until the pores are well 
 filled with the lead. When this is done, ap¬ 
 ply the surfaces of the tool to be polished to 
 the stone as though sharpening the graver 
 upon it. The polish on the tool can be im¬ 
 proved by mixing a little rouge with the lead 
 upon the stone. The pencil should be one 
 having a fine quality of lead in it—free from 
 all traces of grit. 
 
 It may be well to say a word right here 
 about the quality of the various makes of grav¬ 
 ers in the market. The Vautier and Baumel 
 gravers are the cheapest—and they ought to 
 be, for they are the poorest. Few of them 
 will “ stand ” for any length of time, if used 
 in cutting other metals than the soft white 
 metal, of which hollow silver-plated ware is 
 made, and silver. Experience has shown 
 to the writer that the most reliable gravers 
 for general use are those made by Renard, 
 John Sellers, and Stubbs. Stubbs’ gravers are 
 good for cutting German silver and brass, 
 whether rolled or cast, and for all heavy 
 work, such as door-plates, etc. The others 
 named have no superiors for the ordinary 
 run of letter engraving in demand by jewel¬ 
 ers and silversmiths. Burt makes a good, 
 fine-finished, and consequently high-priced 
 graver. The next best gravers are also of 
 the Burt make. 
 
 The amount of pressure needful for the 
 
THE CARE OF THE EYES. 
 
 propulsion of a graver in cutting script let¬ 
 tering in silver is about from one to three 
 ounces, according to the fineness or breadth 
 of the stroke made with it. 
 
 In holding a graver, it should be placed 
 diagonally across the palm of the hand, with 
 the bulb of the handle resting a trifle below 
 its center. From the palm of the hand, and 
 from no other source, should the graver re¬ 
 ceive all the force necessary at any time in 
 using it. The hand is steadied while cutting 
 by the thumb resting upon the block, or the 
 work in hand, as the case may be. The 
 thumb forms a sort of side rest for the graver 
 in its forward and backward motion, the 
 thumb moving its position but little, excepting 
 in cutting very extended straight lines. The 
 fingers are gathered lightly around the blade 
 of the tool, which in no case must be grasped 
 and held down by them, as such action in¬ 
 terferes, if not entirely prevents, the freedom 
 of motion necessary to its successful use, 
 making out of it either a scraper or a digger, 
 and incision in metal cannot be made in free 
 and graceful forms in any fashion, let alone 
 with the perfection of “ cleanness ” and 
 smoothness that must be given to the strokes 
 in good letter engraving. 
 
 THE CARE OF THE EYES. 
 
 APTAIN MARRY AT has justly said: 
 “A man may damn his own eyes, but 
 has no right to exercise a similar prerogative 
 over other people’s visual organs; ” and 
 while a Chicago contemporary does not pre¬ 
 sume to “ damn ” at all, it proceeds in the 
 following interesting article to endeavor to 
 lead those who are suffering from remediable 
 ocular defects—enduring the inconvenience, 
 the headaches, and other afflictions which 
 such defects occasion—to conduct, as it 
 were, their visual organs through the courts 
 of retributive justice, so that if they have 
 given trouble, they may not only be sworn 
 at, but also indicted, condemned to trial, 
 and sentenced to proper correction. 
 
 Throughout life, from youth to old age, 
 there is a process of change occurring in the 
 refractive media of all eyes, so that every one 
 who attains to a ripe old age will, at some 
 time or other during his or her existence, be 
 a fit subject for the oculist—or, in other 
 words, will need to wear glasses. In young 
 people this change is usually gradual and 
 unperceived, but from middle life onward its 
 effects are plainly apparent. Those who have 
 
 181 
 
 normal vision while young will require glasses 
 for reading when they have passed beyond 
 the age of forty, and those who are near¬ 
 sighted before the age is reached, need glasses 
 in early life, if the degree of near-sightedness 
 (myopia) be at all great, and yet they may 
 be able to read perfectly well without glasses 
 when fifty or even sixty years of age. Per¬ 
 sons who are included in this category are 
 apt to consider themselves as lucky excep¬ 
 tions to general laws, and are usually very 
 proud of their sharp sight. 
 
 But not only does the eye undergo certain 
 normal changes as age advances, but it may 
 be abnormally formed; and hence optical 
 defects are not only possible, but quite com¬ 
 mon in infants. The eye is a camera, and, 
 while it may be free from disease and per¬ 
 fectly sound, still vision may be bad because 
 the rays of light are not focussed upon the 
 retina. Hence comes the necessity for wear¬ 
 ing glasses, for, by placing suitable lenses be¬ 
 fore these eyes, normal, distinct vision may 
 —within certain limits—be obtained. It is 
 not generally known that it is the exception, 
 and not the rule, to find eyes that are perfect 
 in shape, or, technically speaking, that are 
 “ emmetropic.”- Still it does not follow that 
 all eyes that are not perfect in shape should 
 have glasses fitted to them, for some errors 
 of refraction do not interfere seriously with 
 vision, and never give rise to disease or de¬ 
 cided discomfort to the patient; but, as a 
 rule, persons whose eyes are “ weak,” or who 
 suffer from complaints similar to those which 
 we shall soon consider, should present them¬ 
 selves to some competent oculist for the 
 detection and subsequent correction of any 
 existing errors of refraction. Let me briefly 
 say that by “ competent oculist ” is meant 
 one who has not only a knowledge of the 
 delicate mechanism of the eye, but of the 
 other organs of the body as well; for abnor¬ 
 malities and diseases of the eye link them¬ 
 selves very closely to diseased conditions of 
 other portions of the physical economy. 
 Consequently, the competent oculist is a doc¬ 
 tor of medicine, although he may devote him¬ 
 self entirely to the study and practice of oph¬ 
 thalmology. The jeweler is not always and 
 the peddler is never a proper person to fit 
 glasses; and, while it is true that certain op¬ 
 ticians are conscientious enough to send the 
 party to an oculist when they find that they 
 cannot correctly fit a patient with glasses, still 
 there are opticians who are less conscientious, 
 and who, lest the acknowledgment of inca- 
 
182 
 
 THE CARE OF THE EYES. 
 
 pacity might lower their standard in the pub¬ 
 lic mind, or cause the loss of a customer, 
 advise glasses which are not correct in every 
 respect. Moreover, the oculist has means 
 at his command for the detection of errors 
 of refraction which cannot be applied by the 
 optician, and possesses a knowledge of the 
 proper correction of these errors which years 
 of study and experience can alone bestow. 
 
 There still exists quite a prejudice in the 
 minds of many against the use of glasses; 
 but why such prejudice should exist is very 
 difficult of explanation on any other grounds 
 than wilfulness and ignorance. All ophthal¬ 
 mologists teach the great necessity of correct¬ 
 ing errors of refraction by wearing proper 
 glasses, and we shall herein endeavor to show 
 some of the undesirable, and even portentous, 
 results of permitting optical defects to go 
 uncorrected. As a rule, glasses add nothing 
 to the appearance of the wearer, and they 
 are often a source of inconvenience, and, un¬ 
 less there is a definite object to be attained 
 by their use, patients are better without them; 
 but where they are indicated and advised by 
 one competent to decide, neither vanity nor 
 prejudice should prevent their being em¬ 
 ployed. 
 
 The purposes for which glasses should be 
 prescribed may be briefly summed up thus: 
 First, to prevent disease of the eyes from 
 “eye strain”'; second, to aid in the curing 
 of certain diseases and abnormal conditions, 
 by releasing all strain and giving the eyes 
 rest; third, to enable the patient to better 
 pursue his avocation in life; and fourth, for 
 his comfort and convenience. Our consid¬ 
 eration of these items must necessarily be 
 brief, and consequently imperfect. The first 
 two are of paramount importance, and afford 
 material for many chapters in the study of 
 refraction. In general, it may be said that 
 all eiTors of refraction which reduce the 
 patient’s vision to any extent below the nor¬ 
 mal, or which produce any marked change 
 in either the near or the far points, require 
 correction by the use of suitable glasses. 
 These errors are: hyperopia , or far-sight; 
 myopia , or near-sight; presbyopia , or old- 
 sight ; and astigmatism , or irregular sight. 
 
 Let us first consider the dangers from hy¬ 
 peropia. There is x constant strain, known 
 as “ an effort of accommodation,” upon every 
 far-sighted eye when viewing both near and 
 remote objects. This effort of accommoda¬ 
 tion is a muscular exertion, and hence a tax 
 upon the nervous system, and, if long con¬ 
 
 tinued, results in more or less exhaustion. 
 When far-sighted eyes are used for reading 
 or near work for any considerable period of 
 time, the effort required produces congestion 
 and redness of the eyes, a larger flow of blood 
 is sent to them, and hence there is an in¬ 
 creased secretion of mucus, or “watering of 
 the eyes ” ; and, if the work be still continued, 
 dizziness, headache, a feeling of sickness, or 
 even actual vomiting, may be induced. But 
 in far-sighted children another condition not 
 infrequently arises as soon as they are made 
 to apply themselves to books. A child be¬ 
 gins to have a cast in the eye—that is, to 
 squint, or look “cross-eyed.” At first the 
 squint may be periodic, and appear only 
 when close work is undertaken; but unless 
 means are employed to prevent it, it soon 
 becomes permanent. In the great majority 
 of cases, internal squint is due to hyperopia. 
 An excessive effort of accommodation is 
 always associated with increased conver¬ 
 gence, and, as a far-sighted eye must always 
 increase its accommodation in order to gain 
 clear vision, it naturally squints inward. 
 Nervous twitchings of the eyelids and other 
 portions of the face are sometimes occasioned 
 by hyperopia. Fortunately, the condition 
 of hyperopia can be easily corrected by suit¬ 
 able convex spherical glasses, and thus the 
 conditions of weariness and exhaustion of 
 the eyes, catarrh of the eyes, twitching, head¬ 
 ache, etc., can be prevented ; or, where they 
 have already occurred as consequences of 
 long sight, they are usually at once and per¬ 
 manently removed as soon as the hyperopia 
 is corrected by appropriate glasses. Squint 
 is also thus prevented by glasses, and in a 
 certain number of cases where it is already 
 manifested in children, it may be remedied 
 by correcting the existing error of refraction. 
 
 Myopia, or short sight, is often hereditary 
 or congenital, but may be acquired from 
 prolonged straining of the eye. This condi¬ 
 tion is not infrequently the precursor of se¬ 
 rious, and sometimes irremediable, impair¬ 
 ment of vision, and hence skilled advice and 
 proper glasses are of highest importance to 
 the patient in preventing the accidents to 
 which every myopic eye is liable. In high 
 degrees of myopia there is an excessive de¬ 
 mand made upon the muscles that converge 
 the eyes, in the efforts made to keep them 
 both fixed upon small objects held close to 
 the face, and sometimes, being unable to 
 withstand this strain, they give out, and one 
 eye is then turned outward by the opposing 
 
THE CARE OF THE EYES. 
 
 muscle, forming a divergent squint. Very 
 -serious intra-ocular changes, that are beyond 
 rhe reach of therapeutic measures, are some- 
 rimes-occasioned by high degrees of myopia. 
 Short-sighted eyes, above all others, require 
 the most rigid hygiene. 
 
 The vision should be rendered normal— 
 except in very high degrees—by the use of 
 concave spherical glasses, and everything 
 which tends to congest the eyes—such as 
 reading or writing in the recumbent or stoop¬ 
 ing posture, or by faulty light—is to be most 
 carefully avoided. 
 
 Presbyopia, or the far sight of old age, is 
 caused by a lack of power of accommoda¬ 
 tion, and although distant vision remains un¬ 
 impaired, there is a constant recession of the 
 near point. This is first noticed by the pa¬ 
 tient when he finds that he is obliged to hold 
 his paper farther away from his eyes than 
 before, and that the print is not so clear as 
 Tormerly. Presbyopia is easily corrected by 
 convex glasses for reading, and they should 
 be employed as soon as the affection becomes 
 manifest. It does not usually cause incon¬ 
 venience until after the age of forty. Far¬ 
 sightedness, when not corrected by appro¬ 
 priate glasses, causes the condition of pres¬ 
 byopia to manifest itself earlier in life than 
 it does in eyes not thus affected, or in those 
 in which the error has been properly cor¬ 
 rected. 
 
 In astigmatism, or irregular sight, the 
 refraction differs in different portions or me¬ 
 ridians of the eye, and the retinal image is 
 thus confused. This condition is usually con¬ 
 genital and may be hereditary; it is, how¬ 
 ever, sometimes acquired, often occurring 
 after inflammations of the cornea, and may 
 even be occasioned by the use of improper 
 glasses. It is a very common optical defect, 
 and is corrected—according to the variety 
 —either by cylindrical lenses or by .combin¬ 
 ing cylindrical with spherical lenses. Irreg¬ 
 ular astigmatism cannot be entirely corrected. 
 As astigmatism is either a variety of hyper¬ 
 opia or of myopia, or a mixture of both, it 
 can be productive of the train of symptoms 
 already shown to be occasioned by these 
 errors of refraction—such as headache, diz¬ 
 ziness, nausea, and nervous irritability—and 
 consequently, in all varieties of astigmatism, 
 suitable glasses (preferably spectacles) should 
 be worn continually, for both distant and 
 mear vision. 
 
 A different refractive condition in the two 
 ■eyes of the same person is quite common. 
 
 183 
 
 One eye may be correct, and the other long¬ 
 sighted or short-sighted ; or they may have 
 different degrees of the same defect; or, 
 again, one eye may be long-sighted and the 
 other short-sighted. And since, in such 
 cases, the condition of one eye can scarcely 
 be improved by the same glass adapted to 
 correct the error in the other, the vast im¬ 
 propriety of selecting glasses at random from 
 the counter of a dealer is plainly obvious. 
 Both eyes must be tested separately, and 
 fitted acordingly. Where it is known that 
 presbyopia—the condition due to age—alone 
 exists, patients may select their own glasses, 
 for any given distance, according, to the 
 needs of convenience of the patient. As 
 age advances, the amount of presbyopia in¬ 
 creases, and new and stronger glasses will be 
 from time to time required. 
 
 Heterophoria, or weakness of some one 
 or more of the ocular muscles, is very often 
 a complication of some error of refraction. 
 In this condition there is a continual strain 
 upon the weaker muscle in order to do its 
 work, and this alone will cause very many 
 headaches, neuralgias, and general nervous 
 symptoms. We have already considered this 
 subject in cases where the irregular action of 
 the muscles of the eyeball is sufficiently 
 marked to produce squint, but ofttimes there 
 is merely a loss of function, which can be 
 determined only by careful examination. 
 This condition, which is termed muscular 
 insufficiency, is overcome by correcting the 
 refractive error, and combining the glasses 
 thus required with properly selected and ap¬ 
 plied prisms. 
 
 Let us now look at some common troubles 
 not generally known to be due to ocular de¬ 
 fects. Not a small number of reflex neuroses 
 are caused by these defects. Headaches 
 which come on after sewing, reading, watch¬ 
 ing a play, or otherwise using the visual or¬ 
 gans in a special direction for a period of 
 time, are usually the direct results of these 
 defects. Neuralgia, dizziness, mental depres¬ 
 sion, melancholia, chorea (St. Vitus’ dance), 
 and even epilepsy, have been shown to be 
 directly dependent, in certain cases, upon re¬ 
 fractive errors for their causation. Out of 
 nine cases of epilepsy in which there were 
 optical defects, recently experimented upon, 
 four cases were positively cured by correc¬ 
 tion of the defects; two of the cases were 
 entirely relieved for periods of four and six 
 months respectively ; in another case the fits 
 were greatly reduced in number during a 
 
184 
 
 SPECTACLES AND EYE-GLASSES. 
 
 I 
 
 given period of time, after the application of 
 proper spectacles ; while two cases were not 
 influenced by glasses. Recurring styes are 
 not infrequently due to some optical defect, 
 and when thus occasioned they are to be 
 cured, not by pulling out the lashes, but by 
 having the defect corrected. 
 
 That by improving his defective vision 
 one is enabled to pursue life’s duties to bet¬ 
 ter advantage and with increased conven¬ 
 ience to himself, need not be insisted upon. 
 Some people go through much or all of life 
 content—through ignorance or prejudice— 
 without seeing but half of their surroundings, 
 and often enduring the ills which we have 
 seen to result from remediable ocular defects. 
 To some people glasses are a revelation— 
 revealing powers and beauties of vision never 
 before known to exist. 
 
 SPECTACLES AND EYE-GLASSES. 
 
 ENSES are ground in the following man¬ 
 ner: pieces of glass are cemented on 
 tools of the required curve and ground with 
 emery of different grades until very fine is 
 used, and they are polished on cloth cemented 
 to the tools, rouge or putty powder being 
 used to give them the last finish. The tools 
 are made of any required curve; say a five 
 inch glass is wanted. Open a pair of dividers 
 five inches, draw a curve with them, take a 
 section of the curve, make a wooden pattern 
 like a saucer with a peg on the under part to 
 hold the tool by, then make another tool just 
 the same, but on one you put the peg on the 
 convex side, and on the concave side of the 
 other get two pairs of castings made; get 
 them turned out by a machinist to the shape 
 of the curve, then with emery grind them 
 together. One pair has to be finished with 
 rough emery for roughing down the glass; 
 the other pair finish off with fine emery for 
 finishing and polishing on. Now, if you 
 want glasses of five inch focus : convex pitch 
 on pieces of flat glass until the convex tool 
 is full; fasten to a block your concave tool, 
 and before the pitch is too cold lay the con¬ 
 vex tool with the glasses on it upon the con¬ 
 cave tool. To get the glasses down even let 
 the pitch get cold, then put on some rough 
 emery in the concave tool and commence 
 grinding. The emery will touch the glass 
 on the edges, and keep on grinding until the 
 glasses are of the same curve as the tool; 
 then wash out all the rough emery and use 
 some finer; then wash that off and repeat 
 
 the process with fine or flour emery, and after 
 grinding a little while the emery will get 
 finer; then with a wet sponge wipe off half 
 the emery and add a little water, and com¬ 
 mence again. Get the glasses so fine and 
 smooth that when you wet them they look 
 like polished glass. Now dissolve a little 
 pitch in turpentine and paint the tool with 
 it; lay on your cloth, and by rubbing with 
 your hand you will get the cloth to lay down 
 flat to the tool. Let it dry for a few minutes 
 and add rough or putty powder; wet the cloth 
 a little and commence polishing, which will 
 be very quickly done if you have smoothed 
 the glasses nicely. For concave glasses re¬ 
 verse the process by pitching the glasses on 
 the convex tool and let the convex tool be 
 the grinder. Then reverse the glasses and 
 grind the other side, and when done you will 
 have glasses of five inch focus. 
 
 If you took a ball of glass five inches in 
 diameter, it would be five inches focus. Cy¬ 
 lindrical glasses are made just the same way, 
 but are ground on cylindrical shaped tools, 
 and the focus or curves are measured in the 
 same way by inches or meters. The latter 
 is a good scale, but causes a great deal of 
 confusion and trouble because tools are made 
 in this country and England by the inch 
 scale, and if the English inch was divided by 
 tenths and not by eighths, it would be very 
 simple and convenient. The way of making 
 odd glasses, say five and one-half inches, or 
 any odd number that may be required, can 
 be done by grinding a glass on one side on 
 the five-inch tool, and the other on a six-inch 
 tool, which would give you a glass of five 
 and one-half inches focus. 
 
 Periscopic glasses are concave on one side- 
 and convex on the other, and they are used 
 to give more clearness of vision when looking 
 obliquely through the glasses, and give a 
 larger field of vision. In setting the glasses- 
 into the spectacle or eye-glass frame take a 
 piece of thin brass or tin, make it the shape 
 of the frame, but a trifle smaller, lay it on the 
 glass, then with a glazier’s diamond cut round 
 the pattern, break off the edges with a pair 
 of pliers, and grind it to the required size on 
 a grindstone, care being taken to get the 
 center of the lens in the center of the frame. 
 
 And this is very often the cause of a great 
 deal of trouble to the seller and pain to the 
 wearer. Be sure that your glasses are of 
 exactly the same focus, and they vary con¬ 
 siderably. Take a five-inch French glass and 
 it will be different in power to a five-inch 
 
 I 
 
ETCHING FLUID FOR STEEL. 
 
 English glass; and this is not the worst of 
 it, but glasses of first quality will be different 
 in power to second, second quality will be 
 different from third, and so on. Therefore 
 in matching glasses, except you keep a large 
 stock of glasses of all qualities and numbers, 
 it is better to put in a pair; if not, you can 
 never match a glass, and the wearer will com¬ 
 plain of not seeing as well with his spectacles 
 since he had a new glass put in, and give him 
 pain caused by seeing sometimes two objects, 
 or seeing one like a shadow and the other 
 one clear and sharp. 
 
 Periscopic glasses are sometimes called 
 meniscus, and the focus is determined by the 
 following rule: 
 
 Divide twice the product of the two radii by 
 the difference of the radii. 
 
 Thus: say a glass is ground on one side 
 on a six-inch convex curve, and on the other 
 side it is ground on a fifteen-inch concave 
 curve, the focus would be twenty inches. 
 
 Glasses are numbered as follows: 5, 6, 7, 
 
 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 
 54, 30, 36, 42, 48, 60. Some English op¬ 
 ticians call 60-inch focus No. 1 ; 48, No. 2, 
 and so on. It is a very arbitrary rule for 
 some to commence at 48 and call it No. 1, 
 others again to commence at 42 and some 
 at 36, and only use fourteen numbers, as fol¬ 
 lows : 
 
 Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, n, 
 12, 13, 14. 
 
 Inches, 36, 30, 24, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, io, 
 
 9 , 8, 7, 6, 5. 
 
 A new scale is being introduced into oph¬ 
 thalmology, and is giving to opticians no end 
 of trouble. By the following rule it will be 
 seen that one dioptric is equal to about a 
 36-inch focus: 
 
 Dioptrics— 0.5, 0.75, 1., 1.25, 1.5, 1.75, 
 2., 2.25, 2.5, 3., 3.25, 3.5, 3.75, 4., 4.5, 5., 
 6 ; 7 -, 7 - 5 - 
 
 Inches -72, 48, 36, 30, 24, 20, 18, 16, 
 
 15, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, sy 2 , 5- 
 
 It is a very good scale, and calculations 
 can be very easily made with it. One meter 
 is the unit, and it is called one dioptric. 
 
 TO WORK HARD STEEL. 
 
 F steel is rather hard under the ham¬ 
 mer when heated to the proper cherry- 
 red, it may be covered with salt and ham¬ 
 mered to about the shape desired. More 
 softness can then be obtained, if required to 
 give a further finish to the shape, by sprink¬ 
 
 185, 
 
 ling it with a mixture of salt, blue vitriol, sal- 
 ammoniac, saltpeter and alum, made cherry- 
 red again, sprinkled with this mixture, and 
 hammered into shape. This process may 
 be repeated until entirely finished. When 
 ready, the steel is hardened in a solution of 
 the same mixture. This method is recom¬ 
 mended by prominent workers. 
 
 SOLDERING CAST STEEL. 
 
 HE material employed is pulverized 
 white marble. The two pieces to be 
 soldered are simply heated, rolled in the 
 marble dust, then quickly placed one to the 
 other and hammered. This recipe is by Mr. 
 A. Fiala, an eminent mechanician of Prague, 
 and was communicated by Mons. G. Ber¬ 
 trand to the Revue Chronometrique. 
 
 BRONZE COATING ON IRON, ETC. 
 
 N order to cover articles of iron and 
 brass with a durable, antique bronze 
 coating, 100 grains of protosulphate of nickel 
 and ammonia, 100 grains of hyposulphate 
 of soda, and 50 grains sal-ammoniac are 
 dissolved in 10 quarts boiling water, and the 
 well-cleaned metallic articles are laid in at 
 once. After a few minutes they have as¬ 
 sumed a handsome lustrous bronze color. 
 By a prolonged exposure in the bath, sus¬ 
 tained at a heat of from 70 0 to 8o°, cast or 
 wrought-iron articles have become hand¬ 
 somely coated with sulphide of nickel, but 
 they must be made lustrous again by clean¬ 
 ing, since they have become mat in color. 
 The bath may be used again until its bluish- 
 green color has disappeared as well as the- 
 hydroxide of iron. 
 
 ETCHING FLUID FOR STEEL. 
 
 E find the following praised highly for- 
 being an excellent etching fluid for 
 steel: Mix one ounce of sulphate of copper,, 
 one-half ounce of alum, and one-half a tea¬ 
 spoonful of salt reduced to powder, with 
 one gill of vinegar and twenty drops of nitric 
 acid. This fluid may be used for either 
 eating deeply into the metal or for imparting 
 a beautiful frosted appearance to the surface, 
 according to the time it is allowed to act. 
 Cover the parts necessary to be protected 
 from its influence with beeswax, tallow, or 
 some other similar substance. 
 
i 86 
 
 EXCELLENT CEMENT. 
 
 BRONZING IRON AND STEEL. 
 
 F IRST clean the piece to be treated in 
 the usual manner, for which a bath of 
 strong soda water is one of the quickest 
 methods, and most thorough; then expose 
 the piece to the action of vapors arising 
 from a mixture of equal parts hydrochloric 
 and nitric acids, temperature 550 to 6oo° 
 F. When the piece has cooled, rub over 
 Avith vaseline; heat until this begins to 
 decompose, then allow to cool and repeat 
 the dose of vaseline. Should the color 
 .appear darker than desired, mix acetic acid 
 with the other acid in proportion to the 
 change desired. 
 
 PAINT FOR SHEET IRON. 
 
 G OOD varnish, one-half gallon ; add red 
 lead sufficient to bring to the consist¬ 
 ency of common paint; then apply with a 
 brush. This paint is applicable to any kind 
 of iron tvork which is exposed to the 
 weather, thoroughly protecting the metal 
 from rust. 
 
 PALE GOLD LACQUER. 
 
 B EST shellac (picked pieces), eight 
 ounces; sandarac, tAVO ounces; tur¬ 
 meric, eight ounces ; annatto, two ounces ; 
 -dragon’s blood, one-fourth ounce ; alcohol, 
 one gallon. Mix, shake frequently, till all is 
 -dissolved, and the color extracted from the 
 coloring matter, and then allowed to settle. 
 
 PREVENTING RUST ON MACHINERY, 
 ETC. 
 
 T HE folloAving formula can be recom¬ 
 mended for the prevention of rust on 
 machinery. One ounce of camphor dis¬ 
 solved in one pound of melted lard ; take off 
 the scum and mix in as much fine black lead 
 as will give it an iron color. Clean the 
 machinery and smear it Avith this mixture. 
 After about twenty-four hours, rub clean 
 with soft linen rags. It will keep clean for 
 months under ordinary circumstances. Iron 
 and steel may be kept bright, even in the 
 presence of dampness, by giving them a coat 
 of chlorate of potash. 
 
 Nuts are frequently rusted so tightly upon 
 the screAVS that the wrench will not loosen 
 them ; kerosene or naphtha, turpentine, even, 
 Avill, in a short time, penetrate between the 
 nut and stem. Next heat them in a fire, 
 which Avill quickly sever them. In fact, 
 
 kerosene is excellent for removing rust; leave 
 the article for some time in it and the rust 
 will come off easily. 
 
 Cast-iron is best preserved by rubbing it 
 with black lead. For polished work, varnish 
 Avith wax dissolved in benzine, or add a little 
 olive oil to copal varnish, and thin with 
 spirits of turpentine. To remove deep- 
 seated rust, use benzine and polish off with 
 fine emery; or use tripoli, 2 parts; pulver¬ 
 ized sulphur, 1 part. Apply with soft 
 leather. Emery and oil is also very good. 
 
 METAL LETTERS ON PLATE-GLASS. 
 
 I T is often necessary to attach glass or 
 metal letters to plate-glass. Use the 
 following binder: Copal varnish, 15 parts; 
 drying oil, 5 parts; turpentine, 3 parts; oil 
 of turpentine, 2 parts; liquefied glue, 3 
 parts. Melt in a Avater bath, and add 10 
 parts slaked lime. ■ " 
 
 TO PREPARE CHALK. 
 
 P ULVERIZE the chalk thoroughly, and 
 then mix Avith clean rain-water, in 
 proportions of two pounds to the gallon. 
 Stir well, and let it stand for about two 
 minutes. In this time the gritty matter will 
 have settled to the bottom. Slowdy pour 
 the water into another vessel, so as not to 
 stir up the sediment. Let stand until en¬ 
 tirely settled, and then pour off as before. 
 The settlings in the second vessel will be 
 prepared chalk, ready for use as soon as 
 dry. Spanish whiting, treated in the same 
 Avay, makes a \ r ery good cleaning or polish¬ 
 ing poAvder. Some watchmakers add a little 
 crocus, and, Ave think, it is an improvement; 
 it gives the powder a nice color at least. 
 
 ALABASTER CEMENT. 
 
 M ELT alum and dip the fractured faces 
 into it; then put them together as 
 quickly as possible. RemoA^e the exuding 
 mass with a knife. 
 
 EXCELLENT CEMENT. 
 
 A CEMENT for fastening glass upon 
 wood is prepared by dissolving 1 part 
 India rubber in 64 parts chloroform, to which 
 16 parts mastic haA^e been added. Let the 
 mixture stand until dissolved. It is then ap¬ 
 plied with a brush. 
 
POWDERED GLASS. 
 
 187 
 
 SMOOTHING OIL-STONES. 
 
 IL-STONES are apt to wear hollow, 
 and it is necessary to smooth them. 
 For this purpose take coarse emery and 
 water upon a slate or marble slab, and with 
 a circular motion grind the oil-stone. An¬ 
 other very good way is to nail a piece of 
 coarse emery paper upon a board, and treat 
 it in the aforesaid manner. Paper is best, 
 because the grains of emery remain station¬ 
 ary, while, when loose upon a slab, they roll 
 around, and therefore are less effective. 
 
 TO CLEANSE BRUSHES. 
 
 HE best method of cleansing a watch¬ 
 makers’ and jewelers’ brush is to wash 
 it out in strong soda water. If the back is 
 wood, favor that part as much as possible, 
 for being glued, the water may loosen it. 
 
 piece of iron wire put on the spot a drop or 
 two of fluoric acid and it will eat through 
 the glass. If not sufficient, make a second 
 or third application of the acid. After this 
 has eaten quite through, it may be enlarged 
 or shaped with a copper wire with rotten- 
 stone and oil; or use dilute (1:5) sulphuric 
 acid with the ordinary drill. When shaping 
 or enlarging the hole, also apply this fluid to 
 the file from time to time while using; when 
 finished wash the latter well. 
 
 ALLOY FOR MODELS. 
 
 GOOD alloy for making working 
 models is four parts copper, one part 
 tin, and one-quarter part zinc. This is easily 
 wrought. The hardness increases by doub¬ 
 ling the proportion of the zinc. 
 
 CEMENT FOR MEERSCHAUM. 
 
 A CEMENT for meerschaum can be 
 made of quicklime mixed to a thick 
 ■cream with the white of an egg. This 
 •cement will also unite glass or china. 
 
 BENDING GLASS TUBES. 
 
 F ILL the tube with finely sifted sand, 
 close both ends, and heat it over the 
 flame of a Bunsen burner. It can thus 
 easily be bent without losing its roundness 
 at the elbow. 
 
 TO DRILL ONYX. 
 
 I N order to drill onyx, the simplest meth¬ 
 od is to use a diamond drill (cost about 
 $2) with oil, turning the drill with the bow 
 which gives the necessary back and forward 
 motion. Another, but slower, way is to 
 use a hollow iron wire with diamond pow¬ 
 der. The wire is placed in the chuck of a 
 lathe perpendicularly. It ought to run 
 2,500 or 3,000 turns per minute. A good 
 way of starting or countersinking the stone 
 is by using iron wire turned into a little 
 wheel or knob at the end, according to the 
 size of the hole desired. This can only be 
 used in a horizontal lathe. 
 
 TO MAKE A HOLE IN GLASS. 
 
 S PREAD on thinly some wax after 
 warming the glass. Remove the wax 
 where you wish the hole to be made; with a 
 
 TRANSPARENT CEMENT. 
 
 O RDINARY cements generally leave 
 yellowish traces which look disagree¬ 
 able, especially with transparent objects. 
 The following recipe, according to the Mon. 
 des prod. Chim ., makes a perfectly colorless 
 varnish: Sixty grams chloroform are poured 
 over 7.5 grams India rubber, cut into small 
 pieces, and contained in a bottle which can 
 be closed air-tight. When the India rubber 
 has been dissolved thoroughly, 15 grs. mastic 
 are added and digested for about 8 days 
 until dissolved. The cement prepared in 
 this manner is used like any other. 
 
 POWDERED GLASS. 
 
 P OWDERED glass is largely taking the 
 place of sand in the manufacture of 
 sandpaper. It is readily pulverized by heat¬ 
 ing it red hot and throwing it into cold 
 water, the finishing being done in an iron 
 mortar. By the use of sieves of different 
 sizes of mesh the powder can be separated 
 into various grades, from the finest dust to 
 the very coarse, and these grades should be 
 kept separate. A strong paper is tacked 
 down and covered with a strong size or glue, 
 and the coating covered with powdered 
 glass of the desired fineness; when the glue 
 is dry, the surplus glass is shaken or brushed 
 off. Muslin is much better than paper and 
 lasts much longer. 
 
MAGNETIZED WATCHES. 
 
 188 
 
 MAGNETIZED WATCHES. 
 
 T O ascertain if any part of a watch is mag¬ 
 netized, take a small piece of iron wire 
 (jewellers’ binding wire), attach it to a silk 
 thread, and fasten the silk thread' to a small 
 brass rod, or a pegwood, and approach the 
 part or parts suspected. If the iron is at¬ 
 tracted or set in motion, magnetism is the 
 cause, and the suspected piece is affected. 
 Before making a test, remove the watch move¬ 
 ment from the case; if this contain case 
 springs, try these separately, as in most in¬ 
 stances case springs are affected by magnet¬ 
 ism, while parts of the movement are not. It 
 is also advisable, in testing a watch move¬ 
 ment, to take the movement apart and test 
 the pieces separately. The parts most likely 
 to be affected are the balance, the balance 
 spring, and the fork. In some instances, 
 very rare, however, every part of the move¬ 
 ment is affected. 
 
 PROTECTIONS, REMEDIES, AND PREVENTA- 
 TIVES. 
 
 There are methods and means for protect¬ 
 ing watches from magnetism, remedying the 
 evil after they have become affected, and for 
 preventing them from being magnetized. 
 The present article will deal with the second 
 proposition, as a debate of all three would 
 make it too lengthy for these Workshop 
 Notes. 
 
 i. The employes around electric-light sta¬ 
 tions practice what might be called an “ em¬ 
 pirical ” method with the “ turnips” they wear 
 in the shop. They hang the watch by the 
 pendant at the end of a stiff cord, twist the 
 cord tightly, then, holding the upper end of 
 the cord in one hand, let the watch hang near 
 the pole piece of a powerful dynamo. Hold 
 ing it still with the other hand for a moment, 
 to let the magnetism get “soaked in,” they 
 “ then let her spin,” and as the string gradu¬ 
 ally untwists, slowly walk away, removing the 
 whirling watch further and further from the 
 source of magnetism. The dose is repeated 
 whenever the watch shows signs of ailments. 
 
 2. When the work of demagnetizing is to 
 be performed on a watch of good quality, it 
 is necessary to have three or four magnets of 
 different sizes, also a good horse-shoe mag¬ 
 net for recharging, for these straight magnets 
 soon lose strength. A piece of bar steel of 
 the required size, hardened first, and then 
 charged by the horse-shoe magnet, answers 
 the purpose, or an old worn-out round or 
 square file, or stump of an old graver, will do 
 
 equally well, and save the trouble of harden¬ 
 ing. The size of the magnet used must be 
 determined by the size of the article operated 
 on. Take a watch-balance, for instance— 
 which is one of the most troublesome things 
 to treat. Take a magnet about three inches 
 long and one-quarter inch square. It will be 
 found that polarity is situated principally in 
 the neighborhood of the arms, and these are 
 the points to be first attacked. Hang the 
 balance by its rim on a piece of brass wire, 
 and approach the magnet toward the rim in 
 the direction of one of the bars. If it should 
 be attracted toward the magnet, try the other 
 pole, and it will be found to repel. Now 
 take the balance in your hand and bring the 
 repelling pole of the magnet in momentary 
 contact with the balance at the point tried, 
 then test it with a minute fragment of small 
 iron binding wire, as directed in the introduc¬ 
 tory ; if still magnetic, bring the magnet in 
 contact again, and so on—trying after each 
 •contact—till the magnetism is entirely out at 
 that point. Suspend the balance on the brass 
 wire, as before, and proceed to try the rim at 
 the point where the second arm comes, and 
 the same with the third. Having expelled 
 the magnetism at these three points, there 
 will be but little remaining in the balance. 
 However, try it carefully all round, when sev¬ 
 eral places will probably be found retaining 
 sufficient magnetism to pick up a small frag¬ 
 ment of iron. These must all be treated in 
 the manner before described ; but when the 
 magnetism is very feeble, a smaller magnet 
 must be used, for if the magnet is too power¬ 
 ful, the article operated upon discharges what 
 little remains, and, before contact can be 
 broken, begins to be charged again by the re¬ 
 verse pole. After having operated success¬ 
 fully on the other portions of the balance, it 
 frequently happens that it has become slightly 
 charged again by one of the arms; try the 
 pole, as before, and a few contacts, some¬ 
 times but one, of one of the smaller magnets 
 will suffice. 
 
 A little patience is required, for it is often 
 twenty minutes or more before the desired 
 end is accomplished. After treating a bal¬ 
 ance, always try it whether it is in poise. 
 The balance spring stud, which is usually 
 found to be charged when the balance is so, 
 is easily treated. Try the poles, and a few 
 contacts will draw all the magnetism out of 
 one end, when so little will be found remain¬ 
 ing in the other that one touch of the other 
 pole will usually be sufficient. Even the bal- 
 
THE PENDULUM AND ITS LAWS OF OSCILLATION. 
 
 189 
 
 unce spring may be successfully treated, 
 though so strongly charged as to be “ feath¬ 
 ered ” with iron filings after being immersed 
 in them. 
 
 A good way to try the polarity of many 
 pieces is to suspend the article, by means of 
 a particle of wax, to a piece of the finest silk. 
 Steel filings, or fragments of chain wire, should 
 on no account be used for testing ; for if not 
 magnetic to begin with, they speedily become 
 so by contact with the article under treatment. 
 Even with soft iron, it is well to occasionally 
 charge the fragment you are testing. 
 
 THE PENDULUM AND ITS LAWS OF 
 OSCILLATION. 
 
 I STORY furnishes us with the informa¬ 
 tion that Galileo in 1542, while in the 
 cathedral at Pisa, observed the oscillations 
 of a lamp which had been accidentally set 
 in motion. He was struck with the apparent 
 measured regularity of its vibrations, and 
 tested this observation by comparing these 
 oscillations with his own pulse. Galileo there 
 invented the simple pendulum as a means 
 of measuring short intervals of time. But 
 for many years the pendulum was used with¬ 
 out the clock movement, and astronomers 
 counted the oscillations performed in a given 
 time to measure the periods of celestial phe¬ 
 nomena. 
 
 THE THEORETICALLY PERFECT PENDULUM. 
 
 In describing the pendulum I will first 
 begin with a theoretically perfect pendu¬ 
 lum, which would consist of a heavy mole¬ 
 cule suspended at the extremity of a perfectly 
 flexible cord, and oscillating in a vacuum. 
 This ideal pendulum, of course, could not 
 exist, but to demonstrate the simple pendu¬ 
 lum, we will use a small metal ball suspended 
 by a silk thread ; if this freely-suspended ball 
 is drawn from the vertical and allowed to 
 oscillate, these oscillations will gradually di¬ 
 minish in extent on account of the earth’s at¬ 
 traction, producing what are called long and 
 short arcs. The function of the clock move¬ 
 ment proper, besides registering the time and 
 number of oscillations on the dial, is to fur¬ 
 nish to the pendulum the small amount of 
 impulse that is necessary to carry the same 
 in its excursion from the vertical line up¬ 
 ward, so it will return each time to the orig¬ 
 inal point of starting and thus overcome the 
 influence of gravity, and add enough force 
 ‘ in its descent toward the vertical to maintain 
 
 a uniform arc of oscillation to the required 
 number of degrees. The oscillations of 
 the pendulum were thought and affirmed 
 by Galileo to be made in the same inter¬ 
 val of time, whether the arcs were long or 
 short. 
 
 That there is a difference, although very 
 slight, between long and short arcs, where 
 the distance passed over is not too great, is 
 nevertheless true; and it was not till 1658 
 that Huyghens discovered and proved that 
 long arcs required more time than short arcs 
 to perform the oscillations of the same vibrat¬ 
 ing length of pendulum. I will add here, as 
 the question is often asked, what constiutes 
 the length of a pendulum. It is the distance 
 from the point of suspension to the center 
 of oscillation. This point is, in theory, very 
 near the center of gravity of the pendulum, 
 and it is described as being just below the 
 gravity point. In order to describe the cen¬ 
 ter of oscillation more clearly, I will make 
 this simple illustration: 
 
 If a blow is struck with a club and the 
 impingement takes place beyond the point 
 of concussion, the blow is partially inflicted 
 on the hand; and the same result is expe¬ 
 rienced if the impingement takes place be¬ 
 tween the hand and the point of concussion, 
 only in a reversed manner. The full force 
 of the blow is obtained only when the exact 
 point of concussion meets the object. Now, 
 it is true that the center of oscillation in the 
 pendulum is identical with the point of con¬ 
 cussion in the club, and the time-producing 
 qualities of a pendulum depend entirely on 
 the above mentioned oscillating point. 
 
 THE LAWS CONTROLLING THE PENDULUM. 
 
 I will first call your attention to the laws 
 of motions controlling the simple pendulum, 
 and will refer to the cycloidal pendulum later. 
 First, the pendulum is a falling body, and 
 is controlled by laws governing such a body, 
 and when at rest points directly toward the 
 center of the earth. Next, the square of the 
 time of oscillation is directly as its length, 
 and inversely as the earth’s attraction. 
 
 For instance, a pendulum vibrating sec¬ 
 onds at the level of the sea in the latitude 
 of New York city, would be 39.10153 inches, 
 and a pendulum vibrating two seconds in 
 the same location would be the square (of 
 the time) or two seconds, which squared 
 would be four, multiplied by the length of 
 the one second, 39.10153 pendulum, which 
 is equal to 156.4 inches, something over 13 
 
igo 
 
 CYCLOIDAL PENDULUM. 
 
 feet long. This rapid increase in length for 
 a comparatively small change in the time of 
 oscillation has resulted in fixing two seconds 
 as the limit for any precision pendulum, as 
 beyond this point the instrumental errors 
 would be increased in the same ratio and 
 would be difficult to overcome. The great 
 Westminster pendulum vibrates in two sec¬ 
 onds, and is probably the most accurately 
 compensated long pendulum in the world. 
 The correction for errors of lateral and cub¬ 
 ical dilatation, barometrical error, long and 
 short arcs of oscillation, are all reduced to a 
 minimum. 
 
 As we have said so much about seconds, 
 it might be in order to say there are two 
 kinds, solar and sidereal, and they differ from 
 each other in length. 
 
 The interval of time we call a second is 
 reduced from the solar day, which is the 
 time between two successive returns of the 
 sun to the same meridian, and this interval 
 divided into 86,400 parts. These solar days 
 are not equal , but are made so by the daily 
 equation of time added to or subtracted from 
 the apparent solar day. 
 
 The sidereal day is the interval between 
 two successive returns of a fixed star to the 
 same meridian, and is 3 minutes, 56.5 sec¬ 
 onds shorter than the solar day, and this day 
 divided into hours, minutes, and seconds fur¬ 
 nishes us with the sidereal seconds. The 
 sideral day represents the time of the rotation 
 of the earth on its axis, and is the most 
 accurate observation of time that can be 
 made, as it requires no equation, and has not 
 changed as much as one-hundredth part of 
 a second in over two thousand years. As¬ 
 tronomers use astronomical clocks reading 
 24 hours on the dial, with pendulums vibrat¬ 
 ing sidereal seconds, and by this time only 
 do they find and locate celestial bodies. 
 
 ATTRACTION OF GRAVITATION. 
 
 Another law governing the pendulum is 
 this: The action of gravity or the mutual 
 attraction between bodies varies with their 
 masses, and inversely as the square of their 
 distances. Following from this, a pendulum 
 will vibrate seconds only in a given place. 
 Our standard of measurement is taken from 
 a pendulum vibrating seconds in a vacuum 
 at the level of the sea. It also follows that 
 the further a pendulum is removed from the 
 center of the earth the less it will be attracted 
 in. its descent toward the vertical. This ex¬ 
 plains why a pendulum loses on being trans^ 
 
 ferred from the sea level to the mountain, or 
 from one of the earth’s poles toward the 
 equatoi, as the earth is a spheroid slightly 
 flattened at the poles. 
 
 A very interesting experiment can be made 
 to show the influence of mutual attraction 
 between masses. Take two well-regulated 
 astronomical clocks with second pendulums, 
 place them side and side, and cause each 
 pendulum to oscillate simultaneously on the 
 same side of the vertical; the pendulums will 
 oscillate to the right together, and to the left 
 for a time together, then they will change so 
 as to oscillate in opposite directions, and will 
 never depart from this motion. Another rea¬ 
 son why a pendulum loses on being trans¬ 
 ferred to the equator lies in the fact that the 
 rotation of the earth gives rise to centrifugal 
 force at its surface. This, being zero at the 
 poles, gradually increases to a maximum at 
 the equator; and, as it acts in opposition to 
 the force of gravity, it counteracts a gradu¬ 
 ally increasing proportion of this force which 
 shows in the time of oscillation. The rota¬ 
 tion of the earth on its axis also has another 
 effect upon the oscillation of the pendulum, 
 as you have just seen by the demonstration 
 of the pendulum of Foucault by Prof. K. 
 Ellicott. The error caused by the tendency 
 of the pendulum to oscillate in one given 
 plane is reduced to a minimum by the use 
 of short arcs of oscillation, and is of very lit¬ 
 tle importance in comparison with other er¬ 
 rors. 
 
 CYCLOIDAL PENDULUM. 
 
 HE arcs of oscillation of any ordinary 
 simple pendulum are a part of a circle 
 with the point of suspension as a center. 
 
 Now, a pendulum producing isochronal 
 oscillations, namely, producing unequal arcs 
 in equal time is called cycloidal , because the 
 center of oscillation must describe a cycloidal 
 path during each excursion on either side of 
 the vertical line. 
 
 This curve is one of the most interesting, 
 of any known, both in respect to its geo¬ 
 metrical properties and connection with fall¬ 
 ing bodies, and is described in this manner: 
 
 If a circle roll along a straight line on its own 
 plane, a point on its circumference will de¬ 
 scribe a cume which is called a cycloid. The 
 peculiar value of this curve in relation to the 
 pendulum will be better shown by inverting 
 a cycloid curve. 
 
 The time of a body descending from a 
 point of rest which we will call A to the 
 
CYCLOIDAL PENDULUM. 
 
 lowest point of the curve at B will be the 
 same from whatever point it starts. In other 
 words, a pendulum will fall from A to the 
 lowest point £ of the curve in precisely 
 the same time it would from a point C 
 lying between A and B, which is, say, about 
 half the distance. Following from this, a 
 cycloidal pendulum produces unequal arcs 
 in equal time or isochronism. The extreme 
 mechanical difficulty of executing a pendu¬ 
 lum that will describe a cycloidal path dur¬ 
 ing each excursion has led horologists to orig¬ 
 inate many ingenious devices to accomplish 
 this end. The pendulum described here 
 is constructed so as to cause the center of 
 oscillation to move in a cycloidal path, by 
 coming in contact with cycloid cheeks near 
 its point of suspension, but the effects of 
 moisture, friction, dilatation and adhesion of 
 contact against these cheeks would in time 
 give rise to errors as great as those sought to 
 be overcome. We therefore must make 
 efforts in another direction. 
 
 The best method of to-day for producing 
 isochronism is to cause the arc of oscillation 
 to be as short as possible, and also have the 
 suspension spring of a given length and given 
 strength in proportion to the length and 
 weight of the pendulum. Then we will only 
 have to deal with the molecular arrangement 
 of the spring, which is constantly changing; 
 but this error is very small and exceedingly 
 regular. 
 
 The length of the pendulum rod is just 
 double the diameter of the generating circle. 
 .Now, from relations of parts of the cycloid, 
 it is shown that the time of falling down the 
 semi-cycloid is to the time of fall through 
 the diameter of the generating circle as a 
 quadrant is to a radius. 
 
 THE BAROMETRICAL ERROR. 
 
 A pendulum is affected by the density of 
 the atmosphere, but to a degree that would 
 only be of importance in a precision time¬ 
 piece, where all the errors are reduced to a 
 minimum. An increase of density of the air 
 is equivalent to reducing the action of gravity , 
 while the inertia of the moving body remains 
 the same. The rule is, that the velocity of 
 the pendulum varies directly as the force of 
 gravity and inversely as the inertia, and it 
 follows then that an increase of density di¬ 
 minishes the velocity and shortens the time 
 of oscillation, causing the clock to gain time. 
 The barometrical error can be reduced to 
 within three to four tenths of a second in 
 
 191 
 
 twenty-four hours for each inch rise or fall 
 of the barometer. Short arcs of oscillation- 
 are also essential in reducing the barometrical 
 error. An apparatus is sometimes attached 
 to the pendulum to assist in reducing this 
 error. 
 
 THE COMPENSATED PENDULUM. 
 
 Bodies increase in volume with an eleva¬ 
 tion of temperature and diminish when it 
 falls. The pendulum then changes its di¬ 
 mensions with every variation of temperature, 
 and the same is the case with all other parts 
 of the machine. 
 
 The elongation of a body in any one direc¬ 
 tion by heat is known as its linear dilatation , 
 and its increase in volume, that is, in all three 
 directions, is the cubical dilatation; this 
 depends on its linear dilatation in length,, 
 breadth, and thickness. 
 
 The result to be obtained in a pendulum 
 by compensation is to so construct the same 
 that the center of oscillation will always be 
 in the same point. It is evident that heat 
 lowers this point and cold raises it, and, as 
 we said before, that the time-producing qual¬ 
 ities of the pendulum depend on this oscillat¬ 
 ing point, and only by compensation is the 
 desired effect obtained. 
 
 I will show you two of the best methods- 
 of producing compensation, and begin first 
 by using two metals. The principle under¬ 
 lying this method is the unequal expansion 
 of different metals in the same temperature. 
 This furnishes us with the first step toward 
 compensation. 
 
 Let us take a steel rod of the length ar¬ 
 rived at by calculation, with a nut and screw 
 on the lower end; resting on this nut is a 
 brass collar with a groove cut in the top. 
 Here is a rolled and drawn zinc tube of a 
 calculated length and thickness in proportion 
 to the main rod. This zinc tube is drawn 
 on over the main rod, and rests on the brass 
 collar at the lower end and at the upper end 
 of the zinc tube; and resting on the same is 
 an iron collar into which is firmly screwed 
 an iron tube which is slipped on over the zinc 
 tube, and at the lower end of this iron tube 
 is attached the weight or bob. It will be 
 seen that this main rod lengthens with heat, 
 and as it lowers, the zinc tube which sur¬ 
 rounds it lowers also; but the upper end of 
 the zinc being free, and this metal possessing 
 greater linear dilatation, moves upwards on 
 the main rod, and with it draws up the iren 
 tube that surrounds the zinc and carries wiVi 
 
192 
 
 CYCLOIDAL PENDULUM. 
 
 it the weight or bob. The upward dilatation 
 -of the zinc tube is just sufficient to overcome 
 the downward dilatation of the main rod, 
 thus keeping the center of oscillation in the 
 same point. In order to construct a com¬ 
 pensated pendulum of this kind it is necessary 
 to have the proper proportions of one metal 
 to the other; and besides this, corrections 
 are made from actual tests in different de¬ 
 grees of temperature. 
 
 The principal objection to this kind of 
 ■compensation is that metals expand and con¬ 
 tract by infinitesimal waves or jumps, prob¬ 
 ably owing to the molecular friction of the 
 metals, and this is most apparent in zinc, 
 owing to its crystalline formation; and this 
 metal is useless unless carefully drawn and 
 prepared before using for the purpose in 
 •question. 
 
 THE. MERCURIAL COMPENSATION. 
 
 This pendulum is constructed in the fol¬ 
 lowing manner: A steel rod of the calcu¬ 
 lated length and diameter is selected, and at 
 its lower end is firmly attached a brass stir¬ 
 rup, into which is placed and secured from 
 one to four glass jars containing mercury. 
 If one jar is used, the volume must be suffi¬ 
 cient to allow its cubical dilatation to raise the 
 center of oscillation just as the longitudinal 
 dilatation of the rod has lowered this point; 
 •md if four jars are used, their diameters 
 shall be reduced to the point that the four 
 will contain the volume of the one jar, and 
 be filled each to the same level as it rose in 
 the single jar. This represents more exposed 
 surface to the changing temperatures and 
 improves the conductibility of the mercury , 
 •causing the compensation to respond more 
 promptly to sudden changes. The four-jar 
 compensation is the most difficult to con¬ 
 struct, but when well made and carefully ad¬ 
 justed is exceedingly satisfactory, and has 
 
 the preference in seconds pendulums when 
 greater accuracy is required. 
 
 THE SEISMIC ERROR. 
 
 This uncontrollable error is caused by earth 
 waves, and may occur at any time. One pe¬ 
 culiarity is, that many hours elapse before 
 this error shows in the time of the instru¬ 
 ment. This error may not be suspected un¬ 
 til compared by transit observations. 
 
 The time it takes to develop this error is 
 probably due to the molecular disturbances 
 and re-arranging of particles that is taking 
 place in the mercury used for compensation. 
 The most accurately compensated pendulums 
 have been known to vary several seconds in 
 a day. I remember while in Geneva in 1872 
 that twice in one summer the standard pen¬ 
 dulum of the Cantonal Observatory varied 
 once seven and one-half seconds, and at an¬ 
 other time five seconds in twenty-four hours; 
 at that time it was not well understood what 
 caused these sudden variations in a pendu¬ 
 lum having a known daily equation. But 
 later experiments have shown this error to 
 be caused by seismic waves. 
 
 From the simple observation of the lamp 
 swinging from the roof of the cathedral at 
 Pisa, more than three hundred and forty 
 years ago, has grown the thought included 
 in the foregoing laws. The laws of inverse 
 squares and mutual attraction as shown in 
 the simple pendulum, the properties of the 
 cycloid and cycloidal pendulum, the influ¬ 
 ence of the linear and cubical dilatation, the 
 influence of atmospheric pressure on the pen¬ 
 dulum and the centrifugal force from the 
 revolution of the earth on its axis, and by 
 reducing all these errors to a minimum we 
 are furnished with an instrument that per¬ 
 forms its work with as much accuracy as 
 any piece of mechanism ever produced by 
 man. 
 
PART II. 
 
Note to Third Edition. 
 
 HEN the first edition of “Workshop Notes 
 
 for Jewelers and Watchmakers” was 
 
 K * offered to the craftsmen for whom it was pub¬ 
 lished, we were convinced that its elements of utility 
 would be evident to the average observer, but we 
 hardly hoped that it would meet with the hearty re¬ 
 ception it did, that an entire edition would be, com¬ 
 paratively speaking, so rapidly exhausted, and that 
 the demand for it would necessitate not only a second 
 edition but now a third edition. For it must be re¬ 
 membered that the field for its distribution is limited, 
 and that in every craft there is a number of workers 
 who possess little or no ambition to increase their 
 store of knowledge. But while this number of non¬ 
 readers is considerable the demand for such a book as 
 “Workshop Notes” is evidence that more workers 
 are desirous of perfecting themselves in their crafts 
 and of performing their work satisfactorily than gener, 
 alizing pessimists are inclined to assert. 
 
 The virtue of “ Workshop Notes ” resides in 
 the fact that it brings together in convenient and 
 handy form for reference numerous stray and isolated 
 recipes and processes distinctly applicable to the var¬ 
 ious branches of horology, gold and silversmithing, 
 and their allied crafts. In printing a third edition, 
 we have accepted the opportunity to add to the volume 
 new matter to the extent cf about 50 per cent., occupy¬ 
 ing the pages 195 to 290, this new matter being prop¬ 
 erly classified and indexed. 
 
 1899. 
 
 The Publishers. 
 
NOTES ON HOROLOGY. 
 
 RELATION OF ESCAPEMENT TO 
 BALANCE SPRING. 
 
 he relation of the lever escapement to 
 the balance spring is quite an impor¬ 
 tant matter. Most workmen imagine that 
 adjusting is a great mystery, and that the 
 man who masters this portion of the watch¬ 
 maker’s art must necessarily stand at the 
 head of the profession. The word “pro¬ 
 fession ” is used advisedly, and it is to be 
 hoped that the different horological schools 
 will sooner or later bestow degrees as do 
 schools of law and medicine. 
 
 It is well known that a balance spring 
 adjusted to isochronal vibrations in a 
 duplex or chronometer watch would not 
 possess this property if placed in a de¬ 
 tached lever. To make this proposition 
 better understood, suppose we were to make 
 two movements, one of which was provided 
 with a detached lever escapement of the 
 most perfect construction, the other a 
 detent or so-called chronometer escape¬ 
 ment, the trains of each watch as far as the 
 scape wheel being precisely alike; for these 
 movements we made but one balance staff 
 and balance spring. In other words, the 
 balance staff and balance spring were in¬ 
 terchangeable after we changed the rollers 
 on the staff to adapt it to the escapement 
 of the particular movement to be experi¬ 
 mented with. The balance and its spring 
 were perfectly adjusted to isochronism with 
 the lever escapement. 
 
 Now, if we changed the balance with its 
 spring to the chronometer movement we 
 would find the general rate of the watch 
 about the same ; that is, if the weights of 
 the rollers were alike; but the spring, 
 which was perfectly isochronal with the 
 lever escapement, was badly out with the 
 chronometer. What does this tell us? 
 
 Simply, that the escapement is a great fac¬ 
 tor in isochronal adjustments. This influ¬ 
 ence does not exist in an abstract sense, 
 because one is a lever escapement and the 
 other a chronometer escapement, and that 
 if the balance had been changed to 
 another lever escapementthat was adapted 
 to receive it, it would have been per¬ 
 fectly isochronal, as it was with the first 
 movement. One fault in watch manu¬ 
 facture should be remedied, viz.: the 
 watch constructor and watch adjuster 
 should be one person, because the ad¬ 
 juster is constantly trying to remedy the 
 defects of the constructor. If the maker 
 did the adjusting also, he would be able 
 to correct the fault and remedy it instead 
 of trying to make one error correct 
 another, which is much like the doctrine 
 of doing evil that good may come of it. 
 Much of the adjusting, especially of the 
 more delicate methods relating to posi¬ 
 tion, consists of remedying downright 
 mechanical defects. 
 
 Adjusting is divided into three depart¬ 
 ments, viz. : heat and cold, isochronism, 
 and position, and it is the adjuster’s prov¬ 
 ince to treat his balance and balance 
 spring in such a way that they are ren¬ 
 dered proof against any alterations occur¬ 
 ring in the latter, jointly or severally. 
 
 TRUING AN EXPANSION BALANCE. 
 
 T he truth of an expansion balance plays 
 a very important part in the time¬ 
 keeping of a watch, and with practise the 
 truing of one is a very easy and simple 
 thing; but in this as in all operations con¬ 
 nected with the watch, great care and 
 judgment are essential to success. The 
 delicacy of the arms and segments requires 
 
 J 95 
 
DECEPTIVE BALANCES. 
 
 196 
 
 that they be so handled that the metal is 
 strained the least amount possible when 
 restoring them to their original shape; 
 with this point in view as well as that of 
 convenience and ease of handling, there 
 is no form of tool better adapted to this 
 job than the figure-8 caliper made so heavy 
 that there is no perceptible spring even 
 with a pressure in excess of what is re¬ 
 quired to do the actual work of truing. 
 
 The joints must be well made so as to 
 work somewhat stiffly, yet smoothly, so 
 that when in putting the balance into the 
 caliper, it can be done with no danger of 
 injury to the pivots. The staff must he 
 wholly supported by the cones of the pivots 
 and not on the ends of them, as they would 
 be bent or broken. A cross hole should be 
 drilled so that the point of the pivot may 
 be seen when the staff is in the caliper, 
 this being necessary as well to keep the 
 holes free from any foreign particles. The 
 index or guide is a very important part 
 and should be so made as to get a delicate 
 adjustment in any direction, the best form 
 being an arc of a circle about one-eighth 
 of an inch long and conforming to the cir¬ 
 cle of the balance rim. Such a guide will 
 facilitate the ease and accuracy of the work, 
 as will be proven by a trial. The tool for 
 bending the rim in the round is made of a 
 pifce of brass wire about three and one- 
 half inches long flattened for about half an 
 inch from the end by filing on both sides, 
 leaving it about one-sixteenth of an inch 
 thick; then cutting several slots crosswise 
 to fit the different thicknesses of the bal¬ 
 ance rims. 
 
 When it appears that a balance is not 
 true, first examine the staff to see if it is 
 bent ; being satisfied that it is true, exam¬ 
 ine to see if the balance is fastened firmly 
 on the staff, as otherwise it wdl be impos¬ 
 sible to do a good job. Now examine the 
 balance, by twirling it around, and if it is 
 badly out, it must be first approximately 
 trued in the flat and round before the final 
 finishing. The arms of the balance must 
 be tested to see that they are of exactly the 
 same length, and if they are, the truing 
 may be proceeded with, but if they are not 
 they must be made so by stretching. This 
 may be done best in the staking tool by 
 putting in a flat-faced stump and using 
 the punch with which most staking tools 
 are provided. This punch resembles a 
 chisel, but instead of being sharp, the 
 edge is slightly rounded. One arm 
 shorter than the other indicates unskilful 
 
 work in the making, and while such a de¬ 
 fect might be corrected by taking out the 
 staff and boring the hole out true in the 
 lathe, by using the boring tool in the 
 slide rest, yet it would be doubtful, as 
 there is liable to be other faults that 
 could not be seen. Consequently should 
 this occur in any except the cheapest 
 grades, the surest way would be to put in 
 a balance that is known to be well made. 
 When the arms are equal, true them in 
 the flat, that is so that each is in the 
 same plane. When truing a balance it is 
 necessary to get the body in such a posi¬ 
 tion that it will be perfectly steady, and 
 this can be best done by using a seat as 
 low as possible so that the elbow and 
 forearm will rest on the bench. If the 
 shoulders are almost on a level with the 
 top of th6 bench the position is right. 
 
 Truing in the round is done by bend¬ 
 ing the rim where needed with the piece 
 of slotted wire, but in the flat it is best to 
 use only the fingers. The guide must at 
 all times be set as close as possible, with¬ 
 out touching at any point, to get the 
 greatest accuracy. If the light is strong 
 it will be an advantage to shade the top 
 of the balance with the left hand while 
 holding the tool so that the light will be 
 reflected from a white bench paper below. 
 The temperature of the room should be 
 about 70 degrees, this being about the 
 mean ; above or below this, the balance rim 
 will not he true in the round owing to the 
 expansion and contraction, but this change 
 will have no effect upon the poising if the 
 balance be a good one. If necessary a 
 screw should be removed to make a bend 
 at the proper place. With some experi¬ 
 ence there need be no fear of bending the 
 staff even with a balance having heavy 
 arms. When the truing is done, test the 
 poise. 
 
 DECEPTIVE BALANCES. 
 
 n evil that watch repairers may justly 
 complain of, as it also is a growing 
 one, is the number of what are called com¬ 
 pensation balances that are now to be met 
 with in the commonest of watches. For¬ 
 merly, these sham compensation balances 
 were not cut through, but occasionally a 
 nick was cut on the upper side of the rim, 
 for the sake of appearance, so these bal¬ 
 ances were no worse than the ordinary solid 
 metal ones; but now the practise, having 
 its origin in the same motive that induces 
 
IMPROVED METHOD OF STRAIGHTENING BENT PIVOT. 
 
 I 9 7 
 
 manufacturers to apply Breguet springs to 
 this class of watch, is to cut the balance 
 through ; and, as these balances are of the 
 commonest make and the softest materials, 
 it is difficult to handle them without bend¬ 
 ing. If the balance be bent, it will be out 
 of poise, and of course the time of the 
 watch in different positions will be all out. 
 Bat even if the equipoise of balance was 
 perfect, a balance out of circle would be an 
 eye-sore to even the wearer, and so the re¬ 
 pairer must spend as much time over get¬ 
 ting the balance true as it takes him to 
 clean the watch. But supposing, as must 
 often be the case, that the balance has been 
 bent and tried by some not very skilful 
 operator, the repairer’s task of making it 
 look nearly true has become infinitely 
 greater, if not impossible, as the first oper¬ 
 ator has no doubt used either pliers or 
 tweezers freely, and here the illustration of 
 the bent pin becomes applicable and im¬ 
 portant. 
 
 Watch repairers, and even watch manu¬ 
 facturers, have sometimes strange notions 
 as to the division of labor, and the difficulty 
 of doing certain things that appear diffi¬ 
 cult and mysterious, only because they 
 hive not taken the trouble to ascertain 
 where the difficulty lies, nor why one man 
 should be able to do a certain thing better 
 thrn another man who is equally capable. 
 And one of the things assigned to a certain 
 trade is the cutting and truing of compen¬ 
 sation balances. A repairer should be able 
 to do this as well as any balance maker, as 
 he has certainly far more opportunities of 
 seeing balances in all forms of distortion, 
 and more practise in correcting them than 
 a balance maker can have. It is true that 
 the cutting of balances is not very much in 
 the line of the watch repairer, but getting 
 them true is his every-day work, and he 
 should be able to do this efficiently and 
 quickly. Although it is both the precept 
 and practise of some people to take the 
 screws out of the balances before com¬ 
 mencing operations, I should never think 
 of doing so, even to a new balance; it is a 
 mere waste of time, as in those jobs that 
 oftenest require the balance to be trued, 
 the balance rim is soft and the screws so 
 badly fitted that screwing them into the 
 holes again would frequently make the bal¬ 
 ance as untrue as it was at first. 
 
 The first requisite then is a pair of cali¬ 
 pers with good centers that move moderately 
 tight and without guard or adjusting bar 
 screwed on to them. As the cross bar or 
 
 touch piece is better held by the finger and 
 thumb of the left hand this bar should be 
 of thin sheet brass and the point for touch¬ 
 ing the inside of the rim of the balance 
 filed up small and square ; this point can 
 be brought to bear on the inside corner of 
 the balance, free of the taps of the screws. 
 If the rim is bent outward there is no other 
 way so good as bending it in with the 
 fingers ; if the circle of the rim is complete, 
 this bending will be sufficient, but if it is 
 only complete in a small segment close to 
 the arm, and is bent either outward or in¬ 
 ward after that, the rim of the balance 
 should be held tightly in the finger and 
 thumb of the left hand, at the part where 
 it deviates from the circle, and the outer 
 end of the lamina bent either out or in by 
 holding a peg against the inside of the bal¬ 
 ance in the right hand, pressing the thumb 
 against the outside, always taking care not 
 to bend too much. This process might be 
 called the rule of thumb; but it is the 
 simplest and best way of truing a compen¬ 
 sation balance, and under no circumstances 
 should pliers or tweezers be used, except 
 in a case where these tools have been used 
 freely before, and where the bends are so 
 sharp and numerous that the process de¬ 
 scribed would be ineffectual, when bending 
 with a pair of tweezers, made of hard wood 
 or ivory, may be resorted to. 
 
 IMPROVED METHOD OF STRAIGHT. 
 ENING A BENT BALANCE PIVOT. 
 
 A ny workman who has tried to straighten 
 a bent pivot knows how uncertain and 
 unsatisfactory are the results obtained bv 
 the ordinary method, generally resulting in 
 a broken pivot, or at best in not being able 
 to get it as true as is desirable. It is not 
 to be understood that such a course is to be 
 recommended in the higher grades where 
 accurate work is required, but as there are 
 a great many cases in which the customers 
 would refuse to pay a price sufficient to al¬ 
 low the workman to put in a new staff, it is 
 well for him to know how such a job may 
 be done with the least expense, doing the 
 best he can in each instance. 
 
 It will not be necessary, except in rare 
 cases, to draw the temper of the pivot, as 
 the strain is only what is required to bend 
 it back to its original position—no bending 
 back and forth. The only tool required in 
 addition to an American lathe, which every 
 workman should have, is a small tool 
 
198 
 
 ISOCHRONISM IN FLAT AND BREGUET SPRINGS. 
 
 which can be easily made, resembling one 
 of the small pivot gauges with the long 
 tapering slot; in fact it is the same tool ex¬ 
 cept that the sharp corners of one side are 
 rounded so as not to mar the pivot if con¬ 
 ical, or, if a shoulder, the side having the 
 sharp corner may be used. The making 
 of such a tool is so simple that any work¬ 
 man can do it in a short time ; but it must 
 be borne in mind that the sides of the slot 
 must be smooth and polished and exactly 
 at right angles to the outside faces of the 
 tool. Having such a tool on the bench, 
 put the staff in the lathe so that it will run 
 true and clamp it firmly so that it will not 
 move with the pressure necessary to bend 
 the pivot to its original position. Now 
 place the tail-stock in position with a flat¬ 
 faced brass taper in it. Carefully place the 
 tool on the pivot with the corner next that 
 fits the pivot best, at the same time holding 
 the tail-stock spindle against it lightly to 
 keep it from rocking with the pivot, as the 
 lathe is turned slowly. As the lathe is 
 turned, the tool must be forced gently down 
 so that the slot fits the pivot and so trues 
 it. The pivot should be well oiled to 
 prevent sticking. Repolishing the pivot is 
 now all that remains to be done, after which 
 the repairer will have performed a job that 
 it will be difficult for anyone to detect. 
 
 ISOCHRONISM IN FI/AT AND BRJ5- 
 GUFT SPRINGS. 
 
 BY M. SANDOZ. 
 
 B y isochronism, from the Greek, meaning 
 equal time, is designated the property 
 possessed by the pendulum and balance 
 spring of accomplishing their arcs of vibra¬ 
 tions of different amplitudes in the same 
 space of time. In a pendulum, the only 
 condition required is that its length be such 
 as to make the center of gravity move ac¬ 
 cording to its cycloid curve ; but in the bal¬ 
 ance spring the means change with the form 
 of the spring. In the spherical or conical 
 springs, the extreme curves, constructed 
 after the mathematical rules discovered by 
 Professor Philippe, of the Polytechnical 
 School of Paris, will produce an isochron¬ 
 ism very nearly perfect. In the flat springs 
 these curves cannot exist; therefore other 
 means must be resorted to. I shall now 
 give the result of several years of experi¬ 
 ment and study embodied in the follovying 
 theorems. 
 
 1. In the flat spring, every coil has, theo¬ 
 
 retically, a point where the vibrations are is- 
 ochronical. 2. t hat point of isochronism is 
 determined by the relative positions of the 
 two points connecting the balance spring 
 with the collet and stud, called points d’at- 
 tache. 
 
 These two propositions form the base of 
 isochronism in the flat spring ; therefore the 
 idea generally accredited among watch¬ 
 makers that the isochronical property of a 
 flat spring is incorrect, since the tenth as well 
 as the twentieth coil of the spring is able to 
 produce isochronism, the only limit being 
 such size of springs as would perfect the 
 freedom of its action. 
 
 Freedom of action being necessary for the 
 isochronical properties of the spring to de¬ 
 velop themselves, the spring must be bent 
 to the center. If the first coil is too near 
 or the curve too flat, so that even a minute 
 part of the spring touches the collet, it will 
 hinder isochronism. Next, the spring must 
 be pinned perfectly tight in the collet and 
 stud, and move freely between the regulator 
 pins. These conditions being complied 
 with, the watch is run three, six or twelve 
 hours with just strength enough to keep it 
 going; the result is compared with a regu¬ 
 lator and set down. Next, the watch is 
 fully wound up, and after a space of time 
 equal to the first trial, the result is set down 
 again. 
 
 The watch will generally run slower in the 
 short vibrations than in the long, and con¬ 
 sequently lose time in the pocket in the last 
 twelve hours of its running. Having set 
 down as a principle that every coil has an 
 isochronical point, we have now to deter¬ 
 mine that point, remembering that as a gen¬ 
 eral rule every increase of length of the 
 spring over that point will cause the watch 
 to gain in the shortest vibrations, and every 
 decrease back of that point will cause it to 
 gain in the long vibrations. This rule is 
 correct only for certain limits, as I shall ex¬ 
 plain. Supposing that a balance spring of 
 fifteen coils is perfectly isochronal, with 
 the two fastening points just opposite each 
 other, the fourteenth and sixteenth coil, as 
 well as the fifteenth, will produce the iso¬ 
 chronism very nearly at the same point. 
 Suppose that we increase gradually the 
 length of that balance spring of fifteen coils, 
 pinned up so that the two points of fasten¬ 
 ing are placed opposite each other, so that 
 its length will now be fifteen and a half 
 coils ; the two points of fastening are now in 
 a position where they are said to be pinned 
 to the half coil. The result will be that 
 
ISOCHRONISM IN FLAT AND BREGUET SPRINGS. 
 
 l 99 
 
 the balance spring will cause the watch 
 to gain in the short vibrations in the very 
 same proportions in which it has been 
 gaining by the increase of the length of the 
 first half. This change will continue until 
 we reach the same point on the sixteenth 
 coil that we started from on the fifteenth, 
 and the two pins are opposite to each other, 
 at which point we shall again have isochron- 
 ism. The same method is applicable to the 
 fourteenth coil with the same result. 
 
 Now it is immaterial whether we take half 
 the coil to the center or to the outside of the 
 spring, because both of these operations will 
 produce the same result, viz., the change of 
 the relative places of the points of fastening 
 of the spring. Therefore the workman has 
 his choice and is guided by the size of the 
 spring and the weight of the balance ; for 
 taking half a coil to the center of the spring 
 will not much affect the rate of the watch, 
 but taken outside the difference will be 
 great. On the other hand, a very shortcut 
 to the center will greatly affect the isochron- 
 ism, and at the outside a full half-coil will 
 generally produce from fifteen to twenty-five 
 seconds difference in twenty-four hours. 
 Of these the watchmaker would produce the 
 greatest possible changes of isochronism in 
 a watch ; the change of position of the two 
 points of fastening of the spring of one coil 
 around will give him the two highest degrees 
 of gaining and losing in the short vibrations. 
 
 It follows from the foregoing remarks that 
 if a watch loses in the last running (short 
 vibrations) the first thing to do is to increase 
 the length of the balance spring from the 
 outside ; if the result is good, but not yet 
 sufficient, give still more length ; if the re¬ 
 sult is worse, it shows that you are too far 
 on the coil. Take back the whole length 
 that you had given in the first operation and 
 draw more length so as to affect the spring 
 the other way ; or if your spring is already 
 small, or your balance pretty heavy, cut to 
 the center so as to come around to the re¬ 
 quired positions. 
 
 Some springs cannot produce isochron¬ 
 ism because of a defect in their make, or on 
 account of a want of homogeneity in the 
 metal. The only remedy for this is a new 
 spring. In the Breguet spring, the iso¬ 
 chronism is produced in the same manner 
 as in the flat springs ; but great care is to be 
 taken in making the curve, for if it is not 
 made in conformity with the principles of 
 Philippe, the isochronism will be disturbed. 
 
 Few watchmakers understand the art of 
 adjustment in positions, and those few make 
 
 it a regular business. It requires of the 
 operator considerable manual skill and re¬ 
 flective powers. The great principle is to 
 equalize the frictions, so that the pivots will 
 offer to the action of the spring the same 
 resistance in the four positions generally 
 required, viz., dial up, XII., cock up, and 
 III. up. 
 
 After having inspected and corrected the 
 train, so that the motive power is trans¬ 
 mitted uniformly to the balance, the pivot 
 and jewels of the lever should be polished 
 and shortened so as to have very little fric¬ 
 tion ; next, the base should be poised as 
 perfectly as possible, the notch in the fork 
 where the ruby pin acts should be polished, 
 and the balance jewels made short enough 
 to have the holes square, rounded inside 
 and perfectly polished, the balance pivots 
 well burnished, their ends half rounded, and 
 the balance poised very carefully. The 
 English method of throwing the balance out 
 of poise, to obtain the same rate in different 
 positions, is not generally accepted, and is 
 considered a bad practise by the most emi¬ 
 nent watchmakers. The balance spring is 
 put in position without the balance, and 
 bent so that the collet of the cock jewel will 
 have the same centers. 
 
 The watch being now in good running 
 order, is put on trial for twelve or twenty- 
 four hours, and the rate in each position care¬ 
 fully noted. If there is any difference in 
 the running with the cock up or dial up, this 
 slight defect can probably be remedied by 
 making the ends of the pivots even and 
 equally polished. If the watch loses with 
 XII. up, which is generally the case and the 
 friction on the balance jewels is reduced as 
 much as possible, the remedy is to increase 
 the friction when the watch is either dial up 
 or cock up. This is done by throwing the 
 balance spring a little out of the center of 
 the cock jewel, thereby adding to the fric¬ 
 tion on the pivot end a lateral pressure 
 against the balance jewels. If the watch is 
 well regulated with XII. up and loses with 
 III. up, throw the spring a little toward the 
 figure III. ; this operation lifts up the bal¬ 
 ance when the watch is in losing position, 
 and diminishes the friction of the pivots in 
 the particular case. Making the ends of 
 pivots perfectly flat has a tendency to cause 
 the watch to gain with dial up or cock up. 
 The sound of the watch must be clear in all 
 positions, or else friction is indicated, such 
 as is due to rough jewels or pivots and 
 the rubbing of the safety pin against the 
 roller. 
 
200 
 
 HAIRSPRINGS AND REGULATOR PINS. 
 
 CONCERNING THE BREGUET 
 SPRING. 
 
 A s to the application of Breguet springs 
 . to common watches, or even to watches 
 that may not be described as common, they 
 are certainly worse than flat springs, even 
 if they were not shams, which most of them 
 are, as it is much easier to get an ordinary 
 watch to time in position with a flat spring 
 than with a spring that has an overcoil. In 
 the first place, these springs are always a 
 great deal too large, the overcoil is turned 
 up anywhere, without reference to where it 
 is to be pinned in. They are generally soft, 
 and, if the overcoil is bent, as it so often is, 
 the difficulty of straightening it is so great 
 that it is no wonder watch repairers generally 
 dislike them. 
 
 The Swiss make their overcoils by bend¬ 
 ing the spring up at a sharp angle and then 
 bending it down again at the height above 
 the spring which they require ; therefore, 
 it is impossible to do anything with this 
 kind of a spring but break it off. As most, 
 1 may say all of such watches, have balances 
 with screws, a couple of screws added to 
 the balance will compensate for the loss of 
 the half turn of the spring, and turning up 
 a new overcoil is not so formidable a job 
 as it appears to some. If a piece of brass 
 wire is driven into a small wooden handle, 
 and the end of the wire has a hole drilled in 
 it, and is filed up to something of the form of 
 the spring stud of a full-plate watch ; if the 
 end of the spring is brought through the hole 
 in this little spring-holder, say two-thirds 
 of a turn, and made fast there with a pin 
 that has a flat side, the end of the spring 
 can then be lifted gradually the required 
 height over the body of the spring, and the 
 overcoil can be bent in with the tweezers 
 while the spring is held in the left hand 
 by the spring-holder, without any fear of 
 bending or disturbing the coils, even if the 
 spring is a very soft one. 
 
 A workman often finds difficulty in bend¬ 
 ing this overcoil in consequence of the 
 shape of his tweezers, the points of which 
 are usually tapered, and consequently, as 
 the end is bent inward, it keeps bending 
 downward. This must be watched, and 
 the overcoil should be the right height 
 from the spring, and the curve the proper 
 diameter before the spring is unpinned 
 from the holder. Although this looks for¬ 
 midable, a little practise will make it simple 
 and easy enough, and the workman will 
 find that it takes far less time than it will 
 
 take him to cobble and try to restore the 
 shape of a spring that has already been a 
 trial to some one. 
 
 HAIRSPRINGS AND REGULATOR 
 PINS. 
 
 great deal has been written and said 
 about the Breguet hairsprings, and 
 almost invariably in their favor, particu¬ 
 larly by the advertisements, and to-day 
 nine out of ten retail jewelers will speak of 
 a watch that has a Bre'guet spring in it 
 as something superior, when, as a matter 
 of fact, other things being equal, it has no 
 advantages. The most popular errors seem 
 to be, that as the “ throw out ” of a Brdguet 
 is so nearly equal all round, and as that of 
 a flat spring is mostly on one side, there 
 must be less friction on the pivots with a 
 Bre'guet spring than there would be with 
 a flat spring ; therefore the watch must be 
 a better timekeeper ; also that a Brdguet 
 spring is less liable to get caught in the 
 regulator pins. There is a great deal of 
 truth in the latter argument, but the advan¬ 
 tage does not arise entirely from the shape 
 of the spring. In regard to the time¬ 
 keeping qualities of a Bre'guet spring, they 
 are very much overrated. 
 
 While it is admitted by adjusters that 
 they prefer Breguet springs to flat ones, 
 this is because these springs are easier to 
 handle, and in bringing a watch to time in 
 positions, a Breguet can be “juggled ’’more 
 and will show less than a flat spring; but 
 no adjuster will claim that he can get bet¬ 
 ter results from a Breguet spring. That 
 he cannot has been proved to the satisfac¬ 
 tion of every adjuster in the business. The 
 explanation of the “throw out” of a flat 
 spring not affecting the timekeeping qual¬ 
 ities is, that while it is an admitted error, 
 it is a constant error, and happens nine 
 thousand times every hour, and is a sim¬ 
 ple matter of regulation. If it happened 
 only once or twice a day, or only in cer¬ 
 tain positions, then there would be some 
 excuse for lauding the Breguet in compari¬ 
 son. Perhaps the strongest argument ad¬ 
 vanced in favor of the Breguet springs is 
 that they are less liable to get caught in 
 the regulator pins. There are several rea¬ 
 sons for this. One is that the Bre'guet 
 springs are put in the better class of 
 watches, and more attention is paid to the 
 fitting of the regulator pins ; again, the regu¬ 
 lator pins are almost always nearer the 
 
EAR TESTS FOR ADJUSTMENTS. 
 
 201 
 
 hairspring stud. The principal reason 
 why a flat spring gets caught is that the 
 pins are not tiled properly, and this fault 
 is aided very materially by the fact that 
 the pins are so far from the stud that the 
 spring has considerable action between the 
 two. " This should be prevented, as far as 
 possible, by changing the mean time screws 
 in the balance, so that the regulator can be 
 moved over to “slow.” An improved rate 
 would then be noticed. 
 
 A glance at the diagrams will give an 
 idea as to properly and improperly fitted 
 regulator pins. Usually, they are left too 
 lon°\ In No. i it will be seen that the 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 pins do not extend below the spring; in 
 fact, they are hardly as low, and are closed 
 so that there is not space between them for 
 two coils. Should the watch receive a 
 blow hard enough to throw the second coil 
 over the pins, the position of the outside 
 coil and the shape of the point of the out¬ 
 side pin would prevent its catching, and, 
 should it catch on the inside pin, it would 
 be immediately pushed out by the outer 
 coil, which is, of course, stiffer than the 
 second coil on account of its being fast¬ 
 ened to the stud. But in the case shown 
 by diagram No. 2, things would be differ¬ 
 ent, and I am sorry to say No. 2 is better 
 than six out of ten watches that leave the 
 jeweler’s hands in supposedly correct con¬ 
 dition. It is very easy to see how the 
 second coil, or almost any coil, could get 
 caught in pins like these, and stay so, 
 too. 
 
 A little more attention to details like 
 these will prevent criticism, at least of the 
 last man who repaired the watch. 
 
 TO COII, THE BALANCE SPRING 
 ROUND THE COEEET. 
 
 T he following process may be useful to 
 those who experience difficulty in 
 coiling a balance spring after it is pinned 
 
 to the collet : Take a small eyed blue 
 sewing needle, file off the extremity up to 
 the eye and smooth the corners. You 
 have then a kind of fork by which you can 
 form the center coils without fear of dam¬ 
 aging the spring. 
 
 TO REPLACE AN ODD BALANCE 
 SPRING. 
 
 T o substitute a new balance spring for an 
 old one the repairer should place an¬ 
 other watch going to time on the work board ; 
 having selected a sprjhg, bend the inner 
 turn and place it so that it bends or catches 
 the cylinder ; lift it up with the tweezers 
 and cause the balance to vibrate, letting 
 the bottom pivot touch a smooth surface, 
 such as the top of the glass oil cup. By 
 catching hold of one or more turns and 
 altering the position of the tweezers, the 
 arms of the balance must be made to vi¬ 
 brate in unison with those of the watch 
 going to time, which may be known by lis¬ 
 tening to one and observing if the ticks 
 correspond with the motions of the loose 
 balance, or by looking at both balances to 
 see if they appear to trace together. The 
 size of the spring is reckoned from where it is 
 held by the tweezers as a temporary stud; 
 by this means a suitable spring can always 
 be secured without the trouble of putting 
 on the collet and spoiling a number, and 
 wasting time by mere guesswork, and 
 watching second hands for a time; the 
 spring being suitable, its size should be 
 half the balance diameter, which is con¬ 
 sidered as most correct by good authori¬ 
 ties. 
 
 THE EAR TESTS FOR ADJUST¬ 
 MENTS. 
 
 T he ear tests for adjustments is one of 
 the most thorough and complete. It 
 must not be understood that any and all 
 corrections can be determined by the ear ; 
 but it is a fact known to most adjusters that 
 many irregularities which the eye will fail 
 to detect can be detected by the ear. We 
 are all aware that the sense of sound is 
 conveyed to us by vibrations carried 
 through the air to the tympanum of the ear. 
 Now, asks the reader, what has this to do 
 with the adjustment of a watch ? Much, if 
 the vibrations of the parts which emit the 
 
202 
 
 EAR TESTS FOR ADJUSTMENTS. 
 
 noise detected by the ear are not in 
 harmony ; they must be in discord, or in 
 other words, disagree, and become antago¬ 
 nistic. To analyze the effect, let us make a 
 few experiments in acoustics. 
 
 As a primary experiment let us strain 
 two wires upon a board ; we first set up 
 one wire, until its vibrations emit to the air 
 waves corresponding to the middle C of a 
 pianoforte; in this condition the wire will 
 give 525 vibrations to the second, if the 
 piano is up to the concert pitch. We next 
 set up the tension of the companion wire to 
 yield the same tone, that is to give the same 
 number of vibrations to the second. When 
 the two wires are on the same board, we 
 can allow a sensible difference of tension to 
 exist, and still the two wires will vibrate in 
 unison, one yielding a little to the other, in 
 order that the vibrations of both shall be 
 synchronous. If we separate the two wires, 
 or put each wire on a separate board, and 
 place one on one side of the room and the 
 other on the opposite side, and one wire is 
 caused to vibrate, the sound waves in the 
 air will immediately cause the other to set 
 up synchronous and harmonious vibrations 
 in response. But when the wires are sep¬ 
 arated, as just described, the tension on 
 each wire must be more nearly alike thafi 
 when the wires are attached to the same 
 board ; but, even when so separated, a 
 small amount of license is admissible in the 
 tension of the two strings. 
 
 Perhaps some reader will ask, how are 
 the deviations of such small intervals of 
 time determined ? The reply is : by com¬ 
 parison with light waves ; but the methods 
 by which the tests are made are too com¬ 
 plicated to allow of explanation in the 
 present article. To profit by such instruc¬ 
 tion in adjusting, one should accept the 
 assertion that, if we desire to arrive at fine 
 and close results in watch work, we must 
 render those parts which constitute the 
 sound-emitting portions of the escapement 
 harmonious—that is, they must vibrate in 
 unison , and produce a clear , harmonious , 
 musical tone. If we strike one hand down 
 on the key-board of a piano with our fingers 
 extended so that each finger will strike a 
 white key, we make a musical noise , but there 
 will be no harmony in it. So in the tick 
 of a watch, if the sound-emitting parts are 
 synchronous they will be melodious, not 
 discordant. This should be looked to and 
 studied by workmen. Let any workman 
 make a practise of noticing the sound of the 
 tick of a watch, and he will, in a very brief 
 
 period of time, be able to judge of the 
 average performance of a fine watch by the 
 purity of tone. Not one watch in ten will 
 have the same tone with dial up and dial 
 down ; but this is not of very great import¬ 
 ance so long as the tone in each position is 
 clear and melodious. 
 
 The course to pursue to remedy an im¬ 
 perfect tone in the tick of a watch is not 
 easy to point out; oftentimes it can be 
 effected by simply repinning the balance 
 spring at the outer end of the coils. Again, 
 both ends will need to be repinned ; occa¬ 
 sionally it will require an entirely new 
 spring. The tick is given at the time of 
 the escape of the tooth, and probably most 
 of the sound comes from the fork striking 
 the jewel-pin when the impulse commences 
 to act. At this time the balance spring is 
 free from contact, except at each end, where 
 it is attached to the collet at one end and 
 the stud at the other. In this position, the 
 balance spring is free to receive such initial 
 forces as to establish the vibration in it 
 which embodies in it the tone we hear 
 when listening to the tick, and a cause 
 which will in any way affect the tension of 
 the spring will affect the character of the 
 vibrations, and consequently, the tone. 
 All these tones could give us intelligence 
 of a change in the rate of our watch, if we 
 could only interpret them. 
 
 The writer is led to speak at this length, 
 from a conviction that the next great ad¬ 
 vance in adjusting will be governed by 
 attention to what can be heard as well as 
 seen in this matter. We cannot instruct 
 you to adj-ust and arrange your balance 
 spring so that it will emit a sound of any 
 one musical note, or a combination, an oc¬ 
 tave, or fifth, but we should strive to avoid 
 as much as possible a tone of dissonance 
 and discord, because such sounds tell be¬ 
 yond dispute that the parts are each acting 
 at variance one with the other. Frequently 
 by taking up the balance spring a mere frac¬ 
 tion, and placing a pair of light washers 
 under a pair of screw-heads at the op¬ 
 posite sides of the balance, it will entirely 
 change a discordant tick to a clear musi¬ 
 cal one. A slight change in the lock 
 of the banking screws may also do much 
 in this way. A tension force in the bal¬ 
 ance spring will also affect the tone—I 
 mean by this that a spring which is not 
 true in the flat and the round, particularly 
 in the flat. To explain : Suppose we 
 are putting on a new balance spring, 
 we true it in the calipers until it runs 
 
ADJUSTING THE ESCAPEMENT OF AN l8s AMERICAN WATCH. 
 
 203 
 
 true in the flat before we pin it into 
 the stud ; in pinning into the stud we dis¬ 
 tort the spring so that the center has a 
 tendency to rise or fall ; such a spring will 
 give a pronounced difference in tone in the 
 positions dial up and dial down. A bal¬ 
 ance spring, after it is turned in the flat, 
 should be removed from the balance to be 
 pinned into the stud, and the fastening 
 points arranged so as to bring the point 
 where the spring is pinned into the collet 
 opposite the curb pins, when the regulator 
 stands in opposite the center of the index 
 plate. The spring is next pinned into the 
 stud, so that it lies flat with the cock when 
 held vertical ; that is, the flat of the bal¬ 
 ance spring, when held perpendicular, is 
 pirallel with the under side of the cock. 
 The cock should then be laid down, and 
 the point where the spring enters the stud 
 bent so as to bring the center of the collet 
 to correspond with the center of the jewel 
 hole. This will probably require the outer 
 coil of the spring to be bent away from the 
 next inner one, as the spaces between coils 
 of a closely dialed spring are not sufficient 
 for the stud or the curb pins to act freely. 
 What is required is that the outer coil of 
 the spring should be so manipulated that 
 the normal coils of the spring shall be con¬ 
 centric to the hole in the jewel which re¬ 
 ceives the pivot of the staff. 
 
 These precautions taken, usually the tones 
 of the ticks, if one may be allowed the ex¬ 
 pression, will be nearly or quite alike (if 
 the frictions are the same), with the dial 
 up or dial down. The same precautions 
 should be taken if the balance spring is 
 one with an over-coil, usually called a 
 Breguet spring; it should lie flat, and the 
 center of the collet correspond to the 
 center of the jewel. A very little practise, 
 after one has had his attention called to it, 
 will enable him to make small changes 
 which will effect the desired result—that is, 
 in obtaining a clear musical tone in the tick. 
 
 Of course, all scraping and rubbing 
 noises should have been remedied before 
 any attempts of the kind just noted are 
 made. A tremulous motion of the balance 
 spring should be carefully avoided, watch¬ 
 ing that such a condition does not estab¬ 
 lish itself in certain positions, as we often 
 see a watch in which the spring coils and 
 uncoils freely in all but perhaps one or two 
 positions, while in the sea rapid vibratory 
 motion is established which gives out to the 
 ear a sizzing sound that would lead an in¬ 
 experienced workman to imagine there was 
 
 an undetected friction in that position. 
 Such vibrations are more apt to be detected 
 in close than in open coiled springs. Springs 
 developing such vibrations will usually be 
 found a little out of sound, or to have an 
 unequal space between the coils, from being 
 tampered with ; if restoring the spaces to 
 their natural order and toning in the sound 
 does not correct the trouble, a new spring 
 is about the only remedy. 
 
 ADJUSTING THE ESCAPEMENT OF 
 AN 18s AMERICAN WATCH. 
 
 F irst we will suppose the scape teeth 
 are all right, and the pallet stones 
 whole, balance in and dial off; then we will 
 examine the lopk. Use a double glass and 
 look througbthe “ peep holes ” in the pillar 
 plate ; now slowly turn the balance first to 
 one side, then to the other. Notice partic¬ 
 ularly the lock on both pallet stones. You 
 can form a more correct opinion if you stop 
 the balance the exact instant the scape 
 tooth drops, and then turn the other way. 
 The lock should be just as light as it can 
 safely be—that is, to have all the teeth stay 
 on the locking face and not slip down on 
 •the impulse face of the pallet stone. A deep 
 lock retards the motion. Do not depend 
 on the examination of two or three teeth, 
 but try every one ; there may be a short 
 one or the wheel may be out of round. In 
 the latter case do not try to improve it; get 
 a new one if the customer will stand the 
 cost, if not let it alone unless you have 
 special facilities for doing that kind of 
 work. 
 
 After correcting the lock see that the 
 guard pin is not bent sideways, then close 
 the banking pins until the guard pin just 
 rubs on the roller—not hard, but so that 
 there is no shake. Now turn the balance as 
 before and see if the teeth of the scape wheel 
 will “ let off ” the pallet stones. If a tooth 
 sticks on one stone, open that banking pin, 
 and see if the tooth on the other pallet stone 
 sticks on it ; if it does then move the fork 
 toward the roller a little, then close the 
 banking pins as before and try the “ let 
 off; ” if the teeth stick on one side and do 
 not on the other, move the pallet on the 
 fork until the teeth will “let off” both 
 stones. 
 
 Now try the pin action. Move the bal- 
 lance so that the jewel pin is toward one 
 side of the fork ; then slowly move the bal¬ 
 ance back until the jewel pin touches the 
 
204 
 
 INFLUENCE OF MAGNETISM ON CHRONOMETERS RATE. 
 
 slot in the fork ; then move the balance 
 back enough to bring the flattened face of 
 the jewel pin opposite the corner of the slot 
 in the fork it has just passed. Now, while 
 holding the balance at this point, use the 
 tweezers and try the shake of the fork on the 
 face of the pin. The pin should just clear 
 on entering and'the shake should be almost 
 imperceptible. Then try the entrance with 
 the fork on the other banking pin. One 
 side or “Torn” may be longer than the 
 other ; if there is much difference, it should 
 be corrected with a very fine, round file 
 about the diameter of the circle in the end 
 of the fork. Remove the burr and try 
 again. It may be that before this the jewel 
 pin has refused to enter the slot. In that 
 case it was too far forward and should have 
 been moved back a little. 
 
 If these directions have been closely fol¬ 
 lowed, the watch will be in this condition : 
 No slide of scape teeth on pallet stones after 
 dropping; no shake of fork on banking pins 
 or of guard pin on the roller ; no shake 
 of fork slot corner on the face of the jewel 
 pin. The watch is now “ banked up to the 
 drop.” Now open the banking pins just 
 enough to alii? Mthe guard pin to clear the 
 roller all round, and your escapement is ad¬ 
 justed as perfectly as it is possible to doit. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF MAGNETISM ON A 
 CHRONOMETER’S RATE. 
 
 A n issue of the Annalen der Hydrogra- 
 pliie, etc., contains an interesting arti¬ 
 cle on this subject. 
 
 The problem whether any, and if so, 
 which, influence is exerted upon a chro¬ 
 nometer by magnetism, has not, by any 
 means, been decided. The observations 
 made hitherto only showed a noticeable in¬ 
 fluence, cases of which were mentioned at 
 proper occasions. Airy found among hun¬ 
 dreds of chronometers examined by him 
 only one that showed a pronounced devia¬ 
 tion, although of various others observed in 
 the Kiel Observatory, a few exhibited an 
 influence of magnetism upon their rate, still 
 the change produced amounted to not more 
 than a second. Nothing was said specially 
 about the metal of the several parts of the 
 chronometers examined. More weight is 
 attached to the observations established by 
 the French lieutenant of marines, Le Goa- 
 rant de Trotnelin, which he discussed in an 
 article published in the Revue Maritime et 
 Coloniale , and in which he arrives at the 
 
 conclusion that the influence of magnetism 
 upon the rate of a chronometer depends 
 simply upon the metals of which the two 
 parts of the balance are composed, and to 
 a lesser degree, upon the metal of the bal¬ 
 ance spring. It may be interesting to the 
 reader to debate upon a few of the observa¬ 
 tions and discussions, and to mention their 
 most salient points. 
 
 Isochronism, amplitude, and duration of 
 vibrations, and consequently, also the rate 
 of the chronometer, all depend essentially 
 upon the balance spring and balance, and it 
 may, therefore, also be assumed a priori , 
 that when an influence of magnetism upon 
 the rate is suspected, it must first be looked 
 for in the last mentioned parts. Observa¬ 
 tions confirm this in such a manner that a 
 stronger influence of magnetism could be 
 found only in those chronometers, the last 
 mentioned parts of which consisted of met¬ 
 als with a tendency to be influenced. 
 Specially interesting in this regard are the 
 observations of Arnold and Dent, who used 
 chronometers, the balances and springs of 
 which w r ere of steel, as well as other mate¬ 
 rials, and the following observations were 
 made : 
 
 A chronometer with balance spring of 
 steel only, simply showed trifling alterations 
 of a few seconds, while chronometers, the 
 balance spring and balance, or the balance 
 only of which was of steel, showed very 
 great deviations up to thirty-seven minutes. 
 The magnetic influence upon a chro¬ 
 nometer, the balance of which together with 
 its spring contained no iron, was nil. 
 
 Mr. Fischer, who also experimented in 
 the same manner, placed a strongly mag¬ 
 netic rod at a distance of two inches from 
 his timekeeper; he noticed with all chro¬ 
 nometers an acceleration of 8 to 9 seconds. 
 It is to be regretted that nothing regarding 
 the structure of the balance and its spring 
 is mentioned in the dissertation of Mr. 
 Tromelin. 
 
 Messrs. Delamarche and Ploix instituted 
 analogous experiments by approximately 
 placing the chronometers on land under 
 analogous conditions to which they are ex¬ 
 posed on board ship—that is, they placed 
 a magnetic rod at such a distance from the 
 chronometers in which it is able to deviate 
 an ordinary magnetic needle from 15 0 to 
 40°. After having finished this experiment 
 these engineers came to the conclusion that 
 the magnetic condition of the ship exerts 
 no noticeable influence upon the rate of the 
 chronometers, and that the rate deviations 
 
INFLUENCE OF MAGNETISM ON CHRONOMETER’S RATE. 
 
 205 
 
 generally experienced in the transport from 
 land to aboard ship, and vice versa , must 
 be ascribed to other causes. The latter re¬ 
 mark is perhaps made because sea captains 
 were for a time inclined to ascribe these de¬ 
 viations to magnetic influence due to the 
 transport of the chronometers from land to 
 on board ; this erroneous opinion, however 
 was proved to be fallacious long ago. The 
 experimenters, Delamarche and Ploix, for¬ 
 got to state, however, of what materials the 
 balance and spring were composed, and for 
 this reason the results found are of a limited 
 value only r in view of the above remarks 
 concerning the composition of these parts. 
 
 Mr. Tromelin accidentally experienced an¬ 
 other occurrence with his own watch which 
 stopped while he experimented with strong 
 electro-magnets. This phenomenon caused 
 him *to institute further investigations con¬ 
 cerning the influence of magnetism upon 
 watches and chronometers. The balance 
 arm of his watch was of steel, as is gener¬ 
 ally the case in a good watch with com¬ 
 pensated balance, and, as he expressed it, 
 changed the watch into a compass, which 
 indicated not the time, but the magnetic 
 meridian. 
 
 In order to explain the action of mag¬ 
 netism upon the balance spring, let us im¬ 
 agine a circular steel hoop that vibrates 
 near a magnet lying in its plane. The mag¬ 
 net will exert no influence upon the vibra¬ 
 tions as long as it is in the plane of the 
 hoop; but if this is not the case, then the 
 hoop will endeavor to vibrate in the direc¬ 
 tion of the magnet. This explains the 
 phenomenon why the experiments instituted 
 by Arnold and Dent produced barely notice¬ 
 able alterations in chronometers, only the 
 balance spring of which consisted of steel, 
 because this spring may be regarded as 
 composed of a number of such hoops. A 
 deformation of the spring is produced only, 
 and it is known that such a one has almost 
 no influence upon the rate of a chronometer. 
 But it is otherwise with a balance contain¬ 
 ing steel parts; if it is placed to one side 
 of a magnet it will seek to accommodate it¬ 
 self with its steel arms until it has assumed 
 an equipoise. During its vibrations it is 
 constantly subjected to a magnetic attrac¬ 
 tion, and the regular motion produced by 
 the balance spring changes into a pendulum 
 motion, due to the attractive force of the 
 magnet. When the arm is permanently 
 charged with magnetism, the terrestrial 
 magnetic elements also influence it, and 
 even after it is no longer exposed to further 
 
 magnetic influences, the motion of the bal¬ 
 ance spring must then combine with the 
 terrestrial magnetism. The magnetism 
 acts upon the arched parts of the balance 
 in about the same manner as upon the bal¬ 
 ance spring. 
 
 If from the preceding it appears estab¬ 
 lished, on the one hand, that by the opera¬ 
 tion of magnetic forces upon the balance 
 and balance spring, if of steel, the isochron- 
 ism of their vibrations can be impaired, they 
 may on the other hand, occur also of such 
 strength as to cause a noticeable alteration 
 of the rate. When in a thunderstorm, after 
 strong flashes of lightning, a sudden simul¬ 
 taneous jump is observed in six chronom¬ 
 eters, there can no longer exist a doubt but 
 that the cause is due to magnetic influences. 
 The only lesson to be drawn from this is, 
 that the use^Ttron or steel is to be avoided 
 as much as possible in the construction of 
 chronometers, but more especially in the 
 balance and its spring. Before everything 
 else, the captain should know the composi¬ 
 tion of his chronometer, not only for cor¬ 
 rectly judging incidental changes observed 
 in the timepiece, but also for employing 
 precautions, by a judiciot placement, to 
 guard against all disturbing influences if 
 his chronometer contains steel parts. 
 
 To be correctly informed about the faulty 
 condition of the location where the chro¬ 
 nometer is to be placed, Lieutenant Trome¬ 
 lin proposes to employ a small quickly- 
 moving hanging magnetic needle. To show 
 how easily alterations in the magnetic char¬ 
 acter are produced by trifling causes he 
 mentions a very interesting case which 
 happened on board the 1 'onnere. The 
 steering compass, enclosed in a compass 
 house entirely of sheet iron, showed notice¬ 
 able and very irregular differences of from 
 5 0 to 15 0 in the deviation of the compass, 
 both day and night. It v'as at first believed 
 that this phenomenon was due to the heat¬ 
 ing of the compass house and ship by day 
 and the subsequent cooling at night ; but 
 the insufficiency of this assumption was 
 quickly seen, because this thermic difference 
 could not produce these large magnetic de¬ 
 viations. The compass house was over¬ 
 hauled thoroughly witli the small magnetic 
 needle, and it was found that there were in 
 it a few movable parts of a strongly pro¬ 
 nounced magnetic polarity, to wit, the doors 
 and windows, which were opened in day 
 time on account of the heat, and closed at 
 night. They were replaced by others of 
 brass, after which the occurrence ceased. 
 
206 
 
 FRICTION. 
 
 In order to protect the chronometershav¬ 
 ing steel balance arms against the magnetic 
 influences induced by the alterations of the 
 course of the ship, Tromelin proposes to 
 enclose them in their iron receptacles. 
 Other propositions made for the placement 
 of a chronometer on board and remote from 
 all iron parts, especially the vertical, are 
 doubtless known and do not require eluci¬ 
 dation. 
 
 MAGNETISED WATCHES. 
 
 o ascertain if any part of a watch is mag¬ 
 netized, take a small piece of iron wire 
 (jewelers’ binding wire), attach it to a silk 
 thread, and fasten the silk thread to a small 
 brass rod or a peg-wood, and approach the 
 part or parts suspended. If the iron is at¬ 
 tracted or set in motion, magnetism is the 
 cause, and the suspected piece is affected. 
 Before making a test remove the watch 
 movement from the case, if this contains 
 case springs, and try these separately, as in 
 most instances case springs are affected by 
 magnetism, while parts of the movement are 
 not. It is also advisable in testing a watch 
 movement to take the movement apart and 
 test the pieces separately. The parts most 
 likely to be affected are the balance, Hhe bal¬ 
 ance spring and the fork. In some instances, 
 very rare, however, every part of the move¬ 
 ment is affected. 
 
 To divest steel of magnetism, a strong 
 horse-shoe magnet, or several of them, is 
 attached to a lathe, pointing outward. 
 When this is set in motion, the parts to 
 be operated upon are brought close to the 
 magnet, and are likewise rotated by means 
 of a twisted cord or any other appliance and 
 gradually withdrawn from the effects of the 
 magnet. More than one application may 
 sometimes be necessary to remove all traces 
 of magnetism, but with some practise suc¬ 
 cess is assured every time. The springs of 
 a watch case had better be annealed, re¬ 
 hardened, and tempered, or, what is still 
 better, be replaced by new ones. 
 
 FRICTION. 
 
 ith that kind of dead-beat escape¬ 
 ment, says Robert Immisch, where 
 the friction remains active throughout, as 
 in duplex and horizontal watches, the gyra¬ 
 tion is, of course, much less, and here it is 
 imperative that attention should be paid to 
 a proper proportion of weight and diameter 
 
 of the balance. In the case of a cylinder 
 watch, no amount of change in the balance 
 spring will make long and short vibrations 
 equal, if these proportions are incorrect. 
 The friction on the sides of the cylinder is 
 a given factor, and must be turned to a 
 proper account; the gyrations being small 
 in themselves, the arc of escape bears a 
 large proportion to the whole extent of the 
 vibration. During this arc of escape there 
 is no side pressure against the cylinder, and 
 a stronger impulse will consequently propel 
 the balance forward with a greater velocity 
 This increase during the arc of escape in a 
 properly constructed watch will be compen¬ 
 sated for by the increased friction on the 
 cylinder. 
 
 If a balance is too small and too heavy 
 it is clear that its greater momentum will 
 overcome this friction easier, and so Yieu- 
 tralize the equalizing effect it would other¬ 
 wise have had. It follows, if a cylinder 
 watch gains with increased motive force, 
 the balance is too small and too heavy. By 
 making it lighter and putting in a weaker 
 spring, a change is certainly effected in the 
 right direction ; but as any change in the 
 motive force will be at too great a proportion 
 to the absolute power of percussion in a 
 slight balance and spring, any diminution 
 will cause the vibration to fall off consider¬ 
 ably ; any outward influence, such as thick¬ 
 ening of the oil, and imparted motion, will 
 also influence the going of the watch to an 
 undue extent. 
 
 There is, in a large and light balance, 
 not that alertness which we find in small 
 and heavy ones, and the wear on the edges 
 of the cylinder is certainly greater, but it 
 has the important advantage of greater 
 steadiness. In a watch having an escape 
 wheel of 15 teeth, making 18,000 vibrations 
 per hour, the extreme edge of the balance 
 should just reach up to the tooth of the 
 wheel, and the weight be so proportioned 
 that, being clear and fully wound up, it 
 should make a little less than two-thirds of 
 a turn. With slower vibrations, the size 
 must be increased proportionally. 
 
 In a duplex watch the friction is much 
 less ; but, as it continues throughout, a 
 change of the momentum of the balance 
 would also considerably affect the long and 
 short vibrations. This escapement affords 
 a facility of altering the proportions of the 
 impulse velocity to the friction in the re¬ 
 mainder of the vibration. If the angle 
 formed by the pallets and the notch in the 
 roller is lessened, the drop is increased, and 
 
ENGLISH, LEVER AND ITS REPAIRS. 
 
 207 
 
 the impulse power so lessened causes not 
 only the vibrations themselves to fall off, 
 but also the smaller ones to be slower than 
 the large. 
 
 The following rule will be a guide in con¬ 
 ducting experiments. All alterations which 
 increase the arc of vibration without chang¬ 
 ing the amount of friction, will make the 
 •long vibrations slower than the short. If 
 the impulse power remain the same and the 
 friction is increased, the long vibrations will 
 be quicker than the short, inasmuch as to a 
 smaller arc of vibration the same increase 
 of friction'bears a greater proportion than 
 to a larger. 
 
 If in a duplex watch the balance holes are 
 too large and the balance is brought into 
 such a position as to bring it into a closer 
 proximity with the escape wheel, the long 
 vibrations are sure to be quicker than the 
 small, for two reasons, firstly, on account 
 of increased friction on the rollers ; and 
 secondly, in consequence of the greater 
 droip in the escapement. The difference 
 caused by the change in friction on the 
 roller will be considerably influenced by the 
 momentum of the balance. We also find 
 that if the balance holes are large, a con¬ 
 siderable difference arises in the rate of 
 going in the four vertical positions. 
 
 The pressure of the wheel against the 
 roller is never directed to the center of the 
 latter, but acts obliquely, and if, according 
 to what position the balance is in, it becomes 
 more or less so, it will cause a variation of 
 friction in the pivots in different positions, 
 though it is less an amount than that on the 
 roller, it is extremely inconvenient, as its 
 variable effect can never be compensated 
 for. It is therefore of great importance in 
 a duplex watch that the holes should fit 
 exactly. When the escapement is set out 
 of beat, the point where the vibrations are 
 quickest does not correspond with the cen¬ 
 ter of the arc of escape, and therefore such 
 change will have an influence on isochron- 
 ism ; but of course this ought not to be done, 
 as it would make the escapement imperfect. 
 
 In a duplex watch the friction on the 
 roller is sufficient to exercise a proper con¬ 
 trol over the momentum of the balance, and 
 consequently the latter becomes liberated 
 and gets more free in its action when the 
 motive power relaxes. The balance is, on 
 the other hand, sufficiently independent of 
 the friction to allow the properties of the 
 balance spring to be brought into play. 
 Those circumstances combine to make the 
 general performance of duplex watches 
 
 very satisfactory. In lever watches and 
 chronometers the motion of the balance is, 
 except during the arc of escape, unfettered 
 by any escapement friction, and the prop¬ 
 erties of spring on balance have their full 
 sway. 
 
 ENGLISH I/EVER AND ITS 
 REPAIRS. 
 
 A frequent use of the depthing tool 
 is necessary in making alterations 
 and repairs to an English lever escape¬ 
 ment, as many errors are quickly detected 
 with the escapement in the tool, that are 
 troublesome to discover in the plates. 
 When practicable, alterations of the pallet 
 stones are best confided to a hand who 
 is thoroughly acquainted with the subject 
 of resetting stones and polishing them, 
 although most repairers understand how to 
 make mills for cutting corners of pallets by 
 charging a brass of soft metal ferrule with 
 diamond dust or bort. The method of 
 charging is very simple: some diamond 
 dust being mixed with oil is placed on the 
 flat stake of the vice, and the ferrule is 
 placed upon it and hammered ; the dia¬ 
 mond dust is imbedded in the brass, and 
 when mounted on an arbor may be used as 
 a circular file or grinder, against which the 
 pallet may be held and cut. 
 
 The cutting of pallets may often be 
 avoided by shifting the positions of the 
 jewels, which, being fixed with shellac or 
 cement, will, if warmed, allow the pallets to 
 be moved. Many repairers use spirits of 
 wine for cleaning; this dissolves shellac 
 and most cements, and escapements should 
 not be left in it any time, or the jewels will 
 be loosened. 
 
 Alterations of wheels and pallet depths 
 generally involve alterations of the angling 
 or position of the pallet on the lever, to 
 secure equality in the run and action on 
 each pallet as moved by the roller. Unpin¬ 
 ning may not be necessary, but the lever 
 being held edgewise in a suitable recess, a 
 brass punch applied with a light hammer 
 to the pallets will make great alterations of 
 the angles with little trouble or disturbance 
 of existing conditions. Where the holes 
 are jeweled, a favorite plan of altering 
 depths of escapement is the making of an 
 eccentric staff to the pallets. The staff 
 and bottom pivot are made in the usual 
 way, that is, turned and polished perfectly 
 true ; but before making the top pivot, the 
 center on which it has been turned is filed 
 
208 
 
 TO SET AN ENGLISH WATCH IN BEAT. 
 
 away, and a new point for it to be run on is 
 made, so that when in the turns, the pallet 
 arbor runs out of truth or eccentric, the top 
 pivot being now turned and polished in the 
 usual manner. With the staff in the pallets 
 we can make alterations of the escapement 
 deeper or shallower, or one deep and the 
 other shallow, as its position in the pallets 
 may be altered to vary both roller and lever 
 depths, and wheel and pallet depths, as may 
 be desired. 
 
 The correct depth of a wheel and pallet 
 is ascertained by placing them in a depth- 
 ing tool and observing three of the wheel 
 teeth pass freely inside the pallets, and 
 holding the lever tightly with the fingers, 
 see that the tooth falls on the inside locking 
 plane as shallow as possible, without miss¬ 
 ing or falling on the second impulse plane, 
 and that three teeth have a little shake be¬ 
 tween the corners of the pallet it has just 
 left and the one it has fallen on. Rather 
 more shake will be required on the outside 
 of the pallets, as these have to move be¬ 
 tween four teeth, and without fair shake 
 between the four teeth and the outside 
 corner of the pallets, the pallet, though it 
 may escape, is liable to dig into the back of 
 the teeth of the ordinary ratchet escape 
 wheel. The club tooth wheel, having sub¬ 
 stance which allows of the back being hol¬ 
 lowed, the inside and outside shake may be 
 equal; and in this respect it is preferable 
 as well for strength and the greater equality 
 of the impulse and locking frictions, as the 
 whole of the actions are more concentric. 
 
 If wheel and pallets are the right size, by 
 making the pallet deeper increases the 
 freedom on the inside of the pallet, but de¬ 
 creases it on the outside, and the level 
 escapement, unlike most others, is most 
 effective in being made as shallow and*light 
 on its actions as consistent with safety. 
 
 The replacing of any part of the lever 
 escapement, if lost, should not involve much 
 difficulty to the repairer, the mounting of 
 the wheel being much the same as every 
 other wheel, except in new work, when it is 
 usual to rub the brass rivet down with a 
 pointed center to secure the wheel to the 
 collet ; but riveting will be most reliable for 
 the repairer, if unpractised, and if unskilled 
 in polishing with grain tin polisher and 
 rouge, a sufficient polish may be given by 
 rubbing the wheel on the burnishing glass, 
 which is made by rubbing two pieces of 
 glass together with fine emery and water, 
 and keeping them, and whatever is polished 
 on them, perfectly polished. These glasses 
 
 serve the same purpose with brass that the 
 deal burnishing board, charged with emery, 
 does with steel and steel burnishers, and a 
 clean fiat gray is, even in new work, always 
 preferred to unflat high polishing, which, 
 to be done well, requires much application 
 and practise. This latter method is going 
 out of fashion in good work of all nation¬ 
 alities. A clean piece of wash leather must 
 be used to hold the wheel down on the 
 glass, and a light circular rub is given. 
 
 Repairers never seem to understand the 
 importance of clean linen in polishing. 
 Rouge, which in other hands polishes beau¬ 
 tifully, is with them no better than oilstone 
 dust. Burnishing with a clean brush is no 
 use in polishing. Nothing but soft bread, 
 kneaded in the palm of the hand to a dirty 
 paste, and the work to be cleaned imbedded 
 in it, will remove dirt properly for polishing 
 purposes ; or if a pivot or arbor, polishing 
 in the turns for burnishing, a clean card 
 scraped on the edge with a knife and ap¬ 
 plied to the polished surface, will clean and 
 dry sufficient for burnishing, or for observ¬ 
 ing what progress has been made in bur¬ 
 nishing. 
 
 TO SET AN ENGLISH WATCH IN 
 BEAT. 
 
 he method of setting an old English 
 watch, that is, a lever watch, in beat, 
 does not differ materially from setting any 
 lever watch in beat except as to the means 
 employed in some instances. Whereas most 
 lever watches are set in beat by shifting the 
 hairspring collet on the balance, some of 
 the old English watches sprung under the 
 balance are put in beat by unpinning the 
 spring at the stationary brass balance 
 spring-stud. This unpinning and thereby 
 lengthening or shortening the balance 
 spring if within moderate limits may be in¬ 
 dulged in if, as is usually the case, the reg¬ 
 ulator has a long range from “fast ” to 
 “slow” or vice versa ; and it depends on 
 the position of the regulator whether or not 
 it will be necessary fo move the hairspring 
 collet to avoid having the regulator too close 
 to “ slow ” or to “fast.” 
 
 To set a lever watch in beat as a general 
 thing is not and ought not to be done by 
 simply having the lever in the center be¬ 
 tween the banking pins, but depends en¬ 
 tirely on the conditions of the impulse 
 faces of the pallets and on the unlocking 
 resistance of the same. The balance, or 
 rather the jewel pin, ought to occupy such a 
 
POINTS FOR REPAIRERS. 
 
 209 
 
 position in the slot of the fork, that the es¬ 
 cape wheel by its action on the pallets im¬ 
 pels the balance on both sides with equal 
 facility. The point which we aim to make 
 clear is brought to notice more distinctly 
 by calling attention to the fact, that the en¬ 
 gaging pallet in its contact with the escape 
 wheel gradually lifts and drives the balance 
 with more difficulty, while the disengaging 
 pallet performs the same functions gradu¬ 
 ally with more ease; the former acting 
 progressively on a shorter lever and the 
 latter acting progressively on a longer 
 level. 
 
 The effects of these conditions are mod¬ 
 ified by the unlocking resistances which, as 
 a rule, act in the opposite direction. As 
 these conditions are variable factors and 
 different in almost any two individual es¬ 
 capements, the spring ought to be set on the 
 balance in such a manner that it is driven 
 to both sides with equal facility. 
 
 In this connection the fact might be men¬ 
 tioned, that theclub-tooth escape-wheel has 
 an advantage over the English or ratchet- 
 tooth escape wheel, provided the former 
 drives the pallets with the points of the 
 teeth first, and finishes driving them by the 
 incline of its club teeth towards the end, 
 which obviates the lengthening or shorten- 
 ing of the arms of the pallet towards the end 
 of the impulse of either. 
 
 THE BARREE ARBOR. 
 
 he most effective form of barrel arbor 
 and ratchet is the old form, now dis¬ 
 used, but for what reason it is difficult 
 to tell; but it seems that the law of con¬ 
 stant change governs watchmaking also, 
 even if there is no improvement. The 
 only ratchet and disk not liable to fail¬ 
 ure is that seen in old Swiss watches, 
 with the ratchet held by three screws 
 screwed into the steel barrel arbor, which 
 gives the best possible hold for them, and 
 this part of the arbor also forms the pivot 
 and bearing for the arbor’s support to the 
 bar. Its large circumference prevents 
 wear, and the effects of wear do not cause 
 so much motion of the barrel extremities, 
 while the pressure during winding is not on 
 the hole and its thin sink, but on the 
 large circumference embraced by the 
 ratchet; its superiority is shown by the 
 fact that watches with this form of ratchet 
 with fifty years’ wear are often seen in 
 sounder condition in this part than modern 
 
 watches and barrel arbors with only a few 
 years’ wear; and any damage to modern 
 ratchets involves a new entire arbor, the 
 ancient form involving only the replacing 
 of the ratchet, if damaged in teeth, by a 
 new one, which the repairer, if skilled with 
 the file, could make himself from a piece 
 of round steel tightly fitted on the winding 
 square by opening with a broach ; the screw- 
 holes are then marked and drilled through 
 the holes in the arbor; then opened wider 
 to let the winding key through the ratchet; 
 then two fine circles are turned for size top 
 and bottom of the teeth, and a three-square 
 file used to cut the teeth, great accuracy in 
 which is not requisite for effectiveness, as 
 the click will follow any sort of teeth in 
 this arrangement and be effective. 
 
 POINTS FOR REPAIRERS. 
 
 he chief fault in low class levers is that 
 they generate too much friction, and 
 that but a small portion of the motive power 
 is left for expenditure in vibrating the bal¬ 
 ance, which must have considerable impetus 
 to unlock the pallets. Hence we find strong 
 main-springs a necessity in this class of 
 watches, entailing much wear and damage to 
 the immediate connections. Accuracy in 
 any part of this work cannot be taken for 
 granted, and before taking the movement 
 out of the case, a suspicious vigilance is 
 desirable, to see that winding (if a key 
 winder) and hand square are free of case 
 and glass, and that the balance, end stones 
 and screws are free of the case. Most of 
 the watches have brass edges on which the 
 joint and dial are screwed (English low 
 class lever watches are taken as subjects 
 of these remarks), having three feet to 
 serve it to the plate. If the watch has 
 been going any time, the joint and three 
 feet are usually loosened, not having suffi¬ 
 cient substance in the brass edge to endure 
 the strain incidental to winding and open¬ 
 ing the watch. Soldering the feet care¬ 
 fully is sometimes done, but a better plan 
 is to put a hollow punch in the vise, which 
 will hold each foot loosely, and with a 
 sharp pointed three-square punch strike 
 one fair blow with a hammer in the center 
 of the rivet end of each foot. The joints 
 may be tightened with an ordinary round 
 punch. Some care is required or the dial 
 may be altered in position on the watch ; 
 and caution in repairing the dial is desir¬ 
 able, as the pins often project and come 
 
2 10 
 
 STEADY PINS. 
 
 in contact with parts of the train of 
 wheels. 
 
 REPAIRING A BATTERED WATCH. 
 
 correspondent of The Circular com¬ 
 plains that he repaired a battered 
 watch. It ran very loose. Since repairing 
 it, the best performance in the five posi¬ 
 tions is unsatisfactory ; he is answered as 
 follows : 
 
 It would have been cheaper and quicker 
 to have sent the movement to the factory, 
 but correspondent would have missed good 
 practise. If customer is patient the watch 
 can be made to perform again to satis¬ 
 faction. The slow rate, dial down, would 
 indicate some trouble in the potance jewels; 
 perhaps there is too much space between 
 the hole jewel and end stone, allowing the 
 pivot shoulder to touch slightly, or practi¬ 
 cally the same thing happening by reason 
 of the hole jewel being out of flat, i. e ., not 
 true in the setting, or the setting not true 
 in the potance ; perhaps the potance itself 
 was bent in the accident. See also that 
 the fork clears the roller in all positions, 
 and that the jewel pin is of the right size 
 and not tapered, and stands perfectly 
 straight with the staff. The rate in the 
 fourth position—pendant right—may be 
 caused by one or more of several things. 
 First, I should try the poise of the balance. 
 This is a branch of watchmaking which 
 few repairers appreciate the necessity of 
 doing well. In this case poise it as fine as 
 possible ; if it is found in poise, look to the 
 pin action and listen for “ strikes.” 
 
 If there is considerable difference in the 
 sound in different positions, you will gener¬ 
 ally locate the trouble in the pin action. 
 The bankings may be opened too wide, or 
 the jewel pin be too far back (toward the 
 staff), or the slot in the fork be rough or 
 cut. The opening in the collet should not 
 be wide ; if it is, then the poising of the 
 balance may be offset in a measure by it, 
 and counterpoising be resorted to, though 
 it is not considered the most workmanlike 
 method by some adjusters, and has the dis¬ 
 advantage of its liability of being undone 
 by some other repairer. Counter-poising 
 in this case should be done by holding the 
 movement pendant right, and after finding 
 which meantime screw came to the bottom 
 when balance is at rest, turn in this screw 
 one-half or three-fourths of a turn, and 
 turn out the opposite screw. If it happens 
 that two screws are equally near the bot¬ 
 
 tom, turn each one-half as much; the top 
 screws should also, of course, be so turned. 
 This is an operation that is often carried 
 to excess, even by adjusters who know, or 
 ought to know, better. However, act on 
 the above suggestions. 
 
 STEADY PINS- 
 
 T is of the utmost importance that the 
 steady pins of the balance cock should 
 fit closely. In saying this it is not to be 
 understood that loosely fitting pins in any 
 other part of the watch should be tolerated, 
 but particular attention should be given to 
 those in the balance cock. Sometimes one 
 pin will fit closely and the other will be 
 loose. This is just as bad as if both were 
 loose ; it may, in fact, be worse, as it cer¬ 
 tainly is more deceptive and would be 
 passed by most watchmakers. The cock 
 screw is not where it is as a steadv pin ; it 
 is only to hold the cock down to the plate. 
 The steady pins are what their name in¬ 
 dicates, and both should fit closely, as the 
 slightest variations of the cock will throw 
 the balance out of upright; and if the 
 watch has been adjusted—then good-by 
 adjustment. The effect is increased friction 
 on the pivots, and change of depthing of the 
 jewel pin in the fork. 
 
 It is not always advisable to put in a new 
 steady pin ; in fact it seldom is, except 
 where the old one has been so badly used 
 that it is past repairing, as in many cases 
 the pins extend through the cock, and. of 
 course, a new pin would show on the top 
 side of the cock. Neither is it a workman¬ 
 like job to close the pin holes in the plate 
 with a round-faced punch, as is often done. 
 The metal thrown in by the punch is simply 
 a thin burr, and the pin will be loose after 
 it has been tried a few times. Some watch¬ 
 makers (?) make a close fit by flattening the 
 pin with pliers ; this is a butcher’s job at 
 best, and should not be done on any watch 
 worth more than 50 cents. 
 
 There are several ways of making a close 
 fit, but probably the neatest is to “upset” 
 the pin. Use a concave-faced punch, pref¬ 
 erably one in which the hollow is about the 
 shape of the end of the pin ; lay a piece of 
 tissue paper on the steel bench block to 
 protect the damaskeening or gilding, and 
 then with the punch make the pin larger in 
 diameter by slightly shortening the pin. 
 This process leaves no visible mark on the 
 pin and the “upset’’pin is nearly if not 
 quite as good as a new one.. 
 
HANDS CATCHING TOGETHER. 
 
 21 I 
 
 REPAIRING A DIAE POST. 
 
 hen a repairer finds the post of an 
 enamel dial broken off in the notch 
 where the screw takes into it, it is most 
 advisable not to attempt splicing it, but to 
 put in a new post. First remove the old 
 stump down as low as convenient, with 
 sharp cutting pliers, being careful not to 
 exert the slightest strain or twist on the 
 post, but to let go of the dial while cutting. 
 The posts are riveted in the dial plate and 
 twisting will loosen them and scale off the 
 enamel on the face of the dial. 
 
 Next file it down to the enamel with a 
 sharp file and very light pressure, support¬ 
 ing the dial underneath on the tip of the 
 finger. Then take a small emery grinder, 
 made in either wheel or ball form running 
 in the lathe, and grind out a little hollow 
 through the enamel, having the post at a 
 center, and say 1-8 or 3-16 inch in diameter 
 cutting away both the enamel and stump, 
 and exposing a clean copper surface upon 
 which to solder a new post. 
 
 The post is to be made with an enlarge¬ 
 ment or foot, something like a dial screw. 
 This foot may be a copper disk riveted upon 
 the end of a wire of proper size for the 
 post, but preferably by taking a wire large 
 enough for the foot, and turning down the 
 body of the post to size. The foot is to be 
 fitted into the hollow and soldered there. 
 Its thickness should be such as to rest 
 upon the watch plate when the dial is down 
 properly in its place. If found a little too 
 thick when soldered on, the excess can be 
 dressed off with a “hollow drill” or cutter 
 fitting around the post. 
 
 All being finished ready for soldering, 
 tin over the surfaces which are to be joined 
 on both the dial and the foot. To tin the 
 hollow, heat the dial very evenly and 
 gradually till a little lump of soft solder 
 will melt. Keep the copper from tarnish¬ 
 ing by rubbing it with a bit of wood, like a 
 match, wet with soldering fluid. When the 
 solder melts, rub it around till the whole 
 surface is thinly covered with an adhering- 
 coat of solder. Do the same with the foot 
 of the post, which is easily done by rubbing 
 it over a flat piece of tin plate held in the 
 lamp flame till a lump of solder on it melts 
 and spreads, then rubbing the dial post 
 upon it and shaking off any surplus of 
 solder. Such a plate of common tin, or 
 several of different sizes, will be found more 
 handy than a soldering iron or a naked 
 flame for most of the jewelry repairing jobs 
 which require soft soldering. I T se plenty 
 
 of the soldering fluid ; put on with a soft 
 stick. 
 
 In soldering the post to the dial, different 
 ways are followed. Some wrap the dial in 
 several thicknesses of soft paper on the side 
 more distant from the broken post, so that 
 they can hold it without burning their 
 fingers. They then wave the dial over the 
 lamp flame, gradually bringing it closer, and 
 finally passing it through the flame from, 
 side to side, to avoid heating it too suddenly. 
 The dial-post wire is held in a pin vise in 
 the other hand, and is also heated. When, 
 the dial is hot enough to melt solder, a 
 small piece is placed in the hollow with 
 soldering fluid, the foot of the post put in 
 position, gently pressed down with a twist 
 or two to insure close contact and held so, 
 upright and ^correct, until cold. Some 
 workinenTfioce the fingers of the two hands 
 together, to facilitate the keeping of their 
 relative positions, and remove the dial from 
 the flame for the cooling. Others rest the 
 hands against some support, when the parts 
 are properly together, then blow out the 
 flame while the hands remain where they 
 are, till the solder sets. 
 
 Others make a light spring or wire clip, 
 which fits over both dial and post, and 
 clasps and presses them together. This 
 holds the post in place during the heating 
 and cooling. Still others lay the dial face 
 down on a flat metal plate which is slowly 
 heated up, and the dial post applied, either 
 by hand or by spring clips, as described. 
 These clips are something like a safety pin, 
 one-half resting against the face of the dial, 
 while the other presses upon the end of the 
 new post. Or it may have an eye or ring 
 on the end, to fit around the post and press 
 upon the foot by its spring. 
 
 HANDS CATCHING TOGETHER. 
 
 S ome repairers make a great mistake in 
 trying to cure this trouble without doing 
 much to the watch. They probably spend 
 double the time that would be necessary to 
 do a thorough job. The only right course 
 is to first upright the center and the fourth 
 wheels, so that the hands will all stand 
 level. It will do no good to bend the pivot 
 or second hand, nor the center staff. The 
 pinions of the wheels must stand vertically 
 to the plate, and stay so, and the fourth 
 wheel pivot and center staff must he 
 straight. Next the dial must be secured to , 
 the plate—not loosely, shaking up and 
 down, but tight. The hour wheel should 
 
2 I 2 
 
 TAKING DOWN A WATCH. 
 
 have just shake enough to be free, when 
 the center wheel is pushed up ; the thick- 
 mess of the third wheel pivot is ample 
 motion for any watch, and half of that is 
 enough for a good one. If it has more 
 play than that, fit a foil washer over it to 
 keep it in place. But, before leaving it, 
 push the center wheel to its highest point 
 to see if that pinches the hour wheel 
 against the dial—for it must of course be 
 free at all times. The same amount of end 
 shake is enough for the center and fourth 
 wheels, and they should be corrected if 
 they have more. All this may be called 
 putting the watch in order, for it should be 
 fixed that way, whether the hands make 
 trouble or not. 
 
 Now we come to the hands. Usually, it 
 should be easy enough to avoid any catching 
 together. But sometimes there is hardly 
 room enough for them to move in. First put 
 on the seconds hand as low as it can be with¬ 
 out touchingthe dial at the socket, and watch 
 during one revolution to see if the point 
 touches the dial anywhere—gently pressing 
 on the socket to keep the hand down to its 
 lowest point. Bend the hand down, at both 
 sides of the socket, to run close to the dial 
 but not touch it. If it tips, then it must clear 
 the dial -where it tips lowest. Do not leave 
 it till you have got it so. In very trouble¬ 
 some cases the seconds and hour hands can 
 be shortened, which will reduce the height 
 that they can stick up. The rule is for the 
 seconds hand to reach just over but not 
 beyond the dots; the hour hand reaches 
 nearly to the middle of the figures, while 
 the minute hand reaches beyond the figures 
 to the dots. In bad cases the seconds 
 hand can be shortened yg- inch, or even 
 more, with an hour hand which barely 
 reaches to the figures. 
 
 The hour hand is usually put on point¬ 
 ing about to the XL, then turn the hand 
 forward till it points exactly to the dot of 
 the XII., and put on the minute hand 
 exactly over the dot. But a better way, 
 when you expect interfering hands, is to 
 put the hour hand on over the VI., press it 
 to its lowest point and raise the seconds 
 hand to its highest, watching while it 
 passes under the hour hand at the 60, to 
 see that it clears safely. Then keep the 
 hour hand over the point of the seconds 
 hand as the latter revolves through an 
 entire turn, to be sure that it clears 
 the hour hand at every part of its circle. 
 Lift the seconds hand to its highest 
 position while trying this, say with a fine 
 
 knife-point at its socket, not prying it up, 
 but gently lifting. Adjust the hour hand 
 as low as can be without interfering 
 with the seconds hand. When you have 
 become sure that they will not catch, 
 by trying them turn after turn, these 
 two hands are right. Next turn till the 
 hour hand points to the dot of the XII., 
 and put on the minute hand. The hour 
 hand must not bi disturbed, but the 
 minute hand must be bent and made to 
 clear it, when the center staff is pressed 
 down and the hour wheel lifted up, each to 
 its extreme position. Then put the move¬ 
 ment in the case, with the crystal on, and 
 see if the point of the minute hand touches 
 the glass. If so, bend it down till it clears, 
 but do not alter the part over the hour 
 hand. If it touches the dial, clip off a 
 trifle of it. Then turn till it stands over 
 the VI., to see if it interferes with the 
 seconds hand at the 30, also if it touches 
 anywhere. Do not take anything for 
 granted, but look and see, at five or six 
 places around the circle. If it will touch 
 the glass, after you have done all you 
 can to avoid it, and especially if the part 
 over the hour hand touches, fit a higher 
 crystal. When you have done all this 
 thoroughly, you may feel secure against any 
 catching of the hands, if it is a half-way 
 decent watch. 
 
 TAKING DOWN A WATCH. 
 
 A ny one working largely in repairs to 
 foreign watches, will have been struck 
 at times by the inconsistent and ignorant 
 manner in which they have been repaired, 
 especially in the country. This arises in 
 many instances, I believe, more from igno¬ 
 rance as to the proper method to pursue 
 than lack of will on the part of the work¬ 
 man ; it is also, in many instances, due to a 
 want of the necessary tools with which to 
 do the work properly. The object of this 
 article is to show, if possible, how to avoid 
 these inconsistencies by substituting a 
 proper and comprehensive method of re¬ 
 pair ; and although I do not for a moment 
 wish to insinuate that this is the only 
 method that will produce good results, at 
 least I am assured that any one exchang¬ 
 ing their method for mine will not lose by 
 the exchange. 
 
 By far the greater quantity of foreign 
 watches that one gets to repair in the coun¬ 
 try are of common quality, and in these 
 cases it is very difficult to do all that is 
 
TAKING DOWN A WATCH. 
 
 necessary to put the watch in thorough or¬ 
 der, receive adequate remuneration, and 
 give satisfaction to the customer. As, how- 
 ever, there is no conjuring in the matter, 
 the man whose work gives the best results 
 will, in the long run, get the most patron¬ 
 age, and this will be the one who spares 
 neither time nor trouble to make his work 
 as perfect as possible. I will suppose that 
 you have a Swiss cylinder watch to exam¬ 
 ine and repair; then proceed in the follow¬ 
 ing order: 
 
 Preliminary examination before remov¬ 
 ing the movement from the case.—Wind 
 the watch a little, if down, and try it by the 
 ear in the following positions, viz.: with 
 the 6 up, the 12 up, dial and clock up. By 
 this method you can usually detect the fol¬ 
 lowing faults : Not in beat, wheel rubbing 
 in cylinder passage, cylinder pivots acting 
 on shoulders instead of their ends, incorrect 
 fourth depth with scape pinion, balance 
 spring rubbing, etc. Next ascertain that the 
 center pinion, or if a key-winder, set square 
 is free of glass, also of the bottom of case ; 
 see that teeth of barrel are well free of band 
 of case when shut; it is often free (in thin 
 gold cases), when open, but shutting the 
 case pinches the band in and fouls the bar¬ 
 rel ; to try it put a piece of paper between 
 teeth and barrel and shut the case; if foul, 
 it will mark or cut the paper. 
 
 See that the dirt cups on winding and set 
 squares are free of dome ; frequently the 
 dome presses on the center lid and binds 
 the center pinion, causing, if not instant 
 stoppage, the oil to disappear and the piv¬ 
 ots to cut. See that balance is free of 
 case; if it is much out of flat it will prob¬ 
 ably be foul of the case or center wheel. 
 See the fly spring, when the cover is shut, 
 is not foul of the balance. 
 
 Put a key on set square and turn the 
 hands to see that they are free of them¬ 
 selves, the dial and glass ; if they do not 
 turn truly it will proceed from either the 
 center hole being out of upright, a bent set 
 square, or a badly fitted pinion. Here let 
 me impress on those who take the trouble 
 to read this, to wit: the necessity of mak¬ 
 ing a note on your bench paper of all the 
 corrections as you come to them ; it is very 
 little trouble and saves the annoyance of 
 finding when your watch is, perhaps, 
 cleaned and together, that some important 
 item has been forgotten. 
 
 For taking the movement from the case 
 use paper—nothing is so slovenly as work¬ 
 ing without—and lock the train, by putting 
 
 2 13 
 
 a bristle through either fourth or scape 
 wheel; remove cock and balance, being 
 particularly careful not to strain the balance 
 spring; put the balance and cock in tray, 
 and remove the hands by means of two 
 pieces of steel; take one under each side of 
 hour hand boss, depress the ends, and both 
 hands are off at once without danger of 
 marking or slipping; the second hand can 
 be removed in the same manner without 
 danger of bending the pivot. Remove dial 
 and motion work, using brass pliers to take 
 hold of the canon pinion to avoid marking it. 
 
 At this stage, if 1 have reason to suspect 
 that the escapement is faulty, I generally 
 remove the balance spring from the bal¬ 
 ance, putting cylinder and cock in their 
 places, and Jry-the escapement. First, see 
 that the web of scape wheel is free of cyl¬ 
 inder passage, also that the top of tooth is 
 free of upper plug; then with a little power 
 on, and either a piece of paper or a cork 
 wedge under the balance to check its mo¬ 
 tion, try if all the teeth have sufficient clrOp, 
 both out and inside. If only one or two 
 teeth is tight, the vibration of the balance 
 is checked each time they are in motion ; if 
 the balance is watched when going (with 
 the balance spring on), it will be seen at 
 once how the vibrations fall off when these 
 teetli are in action. If the drop is suffi¬ 
 cient inside, but none out, it would show a 
 wheel too small; if the reverse, a wheel too 
 large —if the depth is correct. 
 
 The method of correcting the wheel, 
 where only some of the teeth are without 
 the necessary freedom, is to mark with red 
 stuff a tooth which has the proper amount 
 of shake, remove the wheel and open a hole 
 in a piece of thin sheet brass until this 
 tooth will just enter : this serves as a gauge 
 to shorten the other teeth by, being careful 
 to operate on the points of the teeth, either 
 with the ruby file or steel and oilstone dust,, 
 finishing with bell metal and red stuff 
 lengthways and followed by a burnisher. 
 The tooth should be rounded both ways so 
 that a mere point is in contact with the 
 cylinder. 
 
 The question of depth is a vexed one, 
 some workmen setting it deep and some 
 shallow, each having some supposed advan¬ 
 tage to urge for the practise. Saunier, in 
 his work says, “To insure that the drop is 
 no more than sufficient to secure proper 
 action of the mechanism, it is of the first 
 importance that the middle of a straight 
 incline corresponds to the center of the cyl¬ 
 inder.” Or suppose a line drawn from top 
 
214 
 
 TO REPLACE A BROKEN CYLINDER PLUG. 
 
 to point of tooth and bisected, that point 
 should pass the center of cylinder jewel 
 holes. 
 
 Further, he shows why this rule should 
 not be departed from : “ The older watch¬ 
 makers adjusted the escapement so that the 
 middle of a straight incline came rather 
 beyond the center of the cylinder, in order 
 that the point of rest might be tangential. 
 Among modern makers it is universally 
 recognized that more is lost by making the 
 outside drop excessive than is gained by a 
 slight diminution of the friction during rest.” 
 
 Some watchmakers of the present day 
 who, from insufficient knowledge are not 
 in a position to judge correctly as to the 
 cause of the circumstances which they ob¬ 
 serve, have asserted that they obtained “a 
 greater regularity by making the middle of 
 the plane fall a little short of the center of 
 the cylinder.” Before making any altera¬ 
 tion to the escapement, it is necessary to be 
 certain that the scape wheel is perfectly 
 upright, as a simple alteration to this may 
 correct one or all of these faults. 
 
 After examining the escapement, it will 
 be necessary to look over all jewel holes, 
 noting cracked ones, and, in brass, those 
 that are too wide, trying end shakes, 
 <etc. ; also tp see that the passage in the 
 •scape cock for the wheel teeth is not too 
 (dose, so as to draw off the oil, as when this 
 is the case it is impossible to get the piece 
 to go for any length of time. 
 
 You will now take the movement com¬ 
 pletely- down—foreign workmen use a brass 
 block with a series of holes drilled in, to 
 place the screws in ; it is a good plan, as 
 if left in their respective bars or cocks they 
 are apt to get lost. Having the piece 
 down, you will examine all pivots to see 
 that none is cut or bent. The barrel and 
 its arbor and stopwork should receive at¬ 
 tention ; it should turn with freedom and 
 perfectly true, any want of truth in these 
 particulars being fatal to good going. 
 
 1 have now, 1 think, touched on most of 
 those points that should receive attention 
 in examining a watch previous to repair : 
 not all, because to do that would require 
 much space to enumerate, but sufficient, and 
 the repairer may proceed to correct them. 
 
 Beats Per Hour. — The first thing to 
 do is to find how many beats per hour the 
 watch was intended to make. This is done 
 by “counting the train,” i. e., finding how 
 many revolutions the scape wheel will make 
 to each revolution of the center wheel, and 
 then multiplying that number by 30, or 
 
 double the number of teeth in the scape 
 wheel, as each tooth makes two beats—one 
 on each pallet stone. Probably the quickest 
 and most satisfactory way is to count the 
 number of teeth in the center wheel and the 
 leaves of the pinions and teeth of the third 
 and fourth wheels and the scape pinion. 
 For example : If the center wheel has 80 
 teeth, the third 60 teeth and 10 leaves, the 
 fourth 64 and 8, scape 15 and 8, it will be 
 seen that the third wheel will make eight 
 revolutions to every one made by the cen¬ 
 ter (10 into 80) ; the fourth will make seven 
 and one-half revolutions to each one of the 
 third wheel’s. Multiply the eight revolu¬ 
 tions by the seven and one-half, and we 
 have 60, the difference in speed of the cen¬ 
 ter and fourth. The scape wheel with 
 eight leaves will go eight times faster than 
 the fourth wheel; so we multiply the 60 by 8 
 and get 480, namely, the revolutions of the 
 scape wheel. Now, every revolution of the 
 15-toothed scape wheel gives us 30 beats; 
 so we multiply the 480 by 30, and find that 
 the watch was intended to beat 14,400 per 
 hour. For convenience in vibrating, divide 
 the 14,400 by the 60 minutes in an hour, 
 which makes 240, and this by the seconds 
 in a minute, and we find that the watch beats 
 quarter seconds—four beats per second. 
 
 Now select a spring of the right diameter 
 to touch the regulator pins and stud ; pin 
 it in the collet and put in the balance. 
 Then vibrate the usual way by taking the 
 outer coil in the tweezers and lifting so that 
 the lower pivot just touches some hard, 
 smooth surface ; now give the tweezers a 
 “ pin vise motion,” to get the balance 
 going. Then holding the tweezers as 
 steadily as possible, count the number of 
 vibrations in 10 seconds. In this watch 
 there should be 40; if more than 40, the 
 spring is too strong : if less than that num¬ 
 ber, it is not strong enough. If it cannot 
 be brought to time by either lengthening 
 or shortening the spring in the tweezers, 
 try another spring. With a little practise one 
 can count the vibrations of a balance and 
 the tick of the regulator at the same time, 
 but the second hand of a watch running on 
 time will do for all practical purposes and 
 rather more convenient. 
 
 TO REPLACE A BROKEN CYLINDER 
 PLUG-. 
 
 T O replace an old, worn, or broken cylin¬ 
 der plug do as follows : First take out 
 the old plug ; for this use a punch, the hook 
 
TO REPLACE A BROKEN CYLINDER PLUG. 
 
 215 
 
 of which is as short as possible, and has no 
 sharp but round corners. Beside the shape 
 of such a punch, also the care expended in 
 hardeningand annealing contributes greatly 
 to its usefulness. For hammering out the 
 broken plug, prepare also a piece of soft 
 steel sheet, about three millimeters [o.n of 
 one inch] thick, in which the holes, No. 54 
 to 70, English gauge, are drilled and num¬ 
 bered. These holes are almost impercepti¬ 
 bly countersunk: and from underneath en¬ 
 larged, funnel-shaped, to about one-half the 
 thickness of the plate. 
 
 Next try through which hole the cylinder 
 will pass closely, and then place it upon the 
 next following smaller hole, so that only 
 the cylinder shell will stand upright, and 
 the plug to be driven out cannot lodge in it. 
 If, in doing this, the gauged plate is laid 
 upon a large anvil or other block of iron of 
 considerable weight, it will be possible to 
 drive out very obstinately fixed plugs, which 
 cannot be moved in the ordinary manner, 
 with a slight tap of the hammer. The job 
 is made still more easy if the plug was pre¬ 
 viously rubbed with a little oil, both outside 
 and within. The plug having been driven 
 out in this manner, immerse the cylinder in 
 benzine for a few minutes, to clean it from 
 the adhering grease and filth. Then com¬ 
 mence with the making of a new steel plug. 
 It is generally turned; this is a very deli¬ 
 cate and tedious job, however, as many a 
 watchmaker will have found out to his cost. 
 It is far better if a piece of round steel, No. 
 54, English gauge, or correspondingly thin¬ 
 ner, from 0.79 to 1.18 inches long, is hard¬ 
 ened, annealed grayish blue, and fastened 
 in a small hand vise, fitted in by filing it 
 thinner upon the filing peg, taking pains to 
 make it imperceptibly tapering. It is evi¬ 
 dent that this work requires a file of the 
 finest cut. If the steel was taken one or 
 two numbers thicker, the job will not be in¬ 
 ferior to a turned pivot. Special care must 
 be had in the hardening of the steel, not to 
 heat it beyond red, as it becomes brittle and 
 cracked thereby, and generally breaks, when 
 the pivot is turned on or polished. 
 
 When the plug fits with tight friction into 
 the shell, shorten it so much that when 
 driven in it fits firmly, and is neither too 
 short nor projects inside. A little practise 
 and experience are necessary to hit this 
 point. It will seldom fail, however, if the 
 shape of the plug has been made very 
 slightly tapering. The lower the cylinder is, 
 the greater the attention to be paid to this 
 matter. Now measure, to ascertain what 
 
 height the cylinder must have from one 
 pivot end to the other, and according to 
 this determine the approximate length of 
 the plug. Then cut it off at the proper 
 length, fasten it in a true-running chuck of 
 the screwhead polishing tool, grind fiat and 
 polish first its lower end, and then file a cen¬ 
 ter for the upper end, after having previously 
 flattened it, constantly revolving the chucks 
 upon the screwhead polishing tool. Then 
 hammer the plug in the known manner fast 
 into the cylinder. A heavy support will 
 here again offer excellent service. In order 
 not to damage the center in hammering, use 
 a brass hammer. 
 
 Then begin with the turning of the pivot. 
 The cylinder shell, to keep it from break¬ 
 ing, is to be strengthened with shellac. 
 This is ckmeTy quickly moving it to and 
 fro through a small alcohol frame, paying 
 attention that beside the piece of shellac 
 laid upon, also the cylinder will become 
 sufficiently warm, whereby a more intimate 
 connection is effected, and it becomes more 
 capable of resistance. With a little care, 
 no annealing of the cylinder need be antici¬ 
 pated, a fairly high degree of heat being 
 necessary for this. Small cement chucks 
 are generally used for turning a short cylin¬ 
 der. They are mounted by heating; for 
 large cylinders, small screw chucks can also 
 be used. They must be lined with brass so 
 as not to injure the polish. Turn the plug 
 about two-thirds thinner, then let the cylin¬ 
 der revolve in a hole of the round truing- 
 tool, and take off the center point by gently 
 holding a fine file against it. The height 
 of the cylinder must be considered hereby, 
 which still must be one-half line more than 
 the actual measure. 
 
 It is important when doing this job, that 
 the shoulder of the cylinder shell runs with 
 easy friction in the lathe, in order that the 
 arbor projects through the hole of the 
 round truing-tool, so that the fastened end 
 can be turned pointed again with a sharply 
 ground graver. It is clear that the cylinder 
 must hereby run true. After the round 
 truing-tool has been taken off, and the 
 undercutting, as well as the arbor, shoulder, 
 and pivot, has between two ordinary cen¬ 
 ters been turned as smooth and thin as 
 possible, correct the length and thickness 
 of the latter according to the jewel hole, by 
 polishing and rounding upon the polishing 
 tool. 
 
 All cylinder pivots should be of conical 
 shape, as they are then much stronger, and 
 their making does not require more time 
 
2l6 
 
 THE REPAIRS OF THE BARREL. 
 
 and skill than ordinary cylindrical pivots. 
 They are made with a three-cornered pivot 
 polishing file, the edges of which are corre¬ 
 spondingly ground off. The file must be 
 well sharpened, to be done with medium fine 
 emery upon a flat piece of lead. 
 
 It depends generally upon the number of 
 the emery, to give to the burnishing steel 
 a gently cutting sharpness, and this is of 
 great importance. Workmen who attach no 
 importance to the frequent sharpening of 
 their polishing files must dearly pay for this 
 by long continued work and frequent break¬ 
 ages, because a dull polishing file generates 
 a glass-hard film upon the pivot, and re¬ 
 quires an inordinate pressure. It must not 
 be neglected that the polishing file, during 
 its use, must be repeatedly moistened with 
 oil, and that the bearings of the polishing 
 tool must often be cleaned from the collect¬ 
 ing steel dirt. For taking off the cylinder, 
 heat the cylinder a little, and place it in 
 alcohol, which is to be warmed for the pur¬ 
 pose of cleaning, so as to accelerate the 
 dissolving of the shellac. The remaining 
 thin resinous film upon it is removed by 
 careful rubbing with a pegwood saturated 
 with alcohol. 
 
 If above directions are attended to the 
 repairer will, with a little skill, only in rare 
 instances, fail to turn out a faultless pivot. 
 
 THE REPAIRS OP THE BARREE. 
 
 he click spring must not be too strong; 
 beside the screw, its foot must also 
 have a footpin, so that it can neither rise 
 up, nor come out of depthing, nor yet pass 
 downward and drag upon the barrel; the 
 point must enter securely down to the bot¬ 
 tom of the ratchet teeth, and be of a good 
 and sufficient shape to prevent the return 
 of the clickwork. The screws of the dust- 
 cap must be rounded off below. “ The 
 screws of the clickspring are the only ones 
 of the whole watch which I do not temper,” 
 says Herman Grosch, in his Manual for 
 Watchmakers, “because very disagreeable 
 consequences would ensue if one of these 
 screws were to break off in the barrel 
 bridge; all the other screws, especially 
 those for the stopwork and other parts, 
 must be tempered, the heads and slits 
 cleaned, and the points polished.” 
 
 It is necessary occasionally to make the 
 barrel holes smaller and to bush them. 
 The barrel must run flat and true and the 
 holes fit well; if the latter are too large 
 
 even by a trifle, and the metal only barely 
 thick enough, they may in exceptional cases 
 be made smaller with a center punch and 
 then be smoothed within with a round 
 broach or a polished turning arbor. 
 
 If the barrel holes are too large and un¬ 
 true, they are bushed with drilled bou- 
 chons, suitably turned in turning arbor. In 
 bushing, especially in riveting, great care 
 is necessary, because by too strong a ham¬ 
 mering the part may easily draw out of 
 shape—become untrue. Sometimes it is 
 necessary to bush the holes full and then 
 center again, which can be done in the 
 lathe. 
 
 The Uprighting of the Barrel. —If 
 the holes are not too large, and the barrel 
 does not run true, try first what can be 
 done by moving the cover in the groove to 
 different places; if in this manner a place 
 is found where the barrel runs true, make a 
 mark on the cover and side, or you may 
 also drill in a pin passing partly through 
 the cover into the bezel of the barrel. 
 
 If nothing can be done by shifting the 
 cover, find a place which runs closest, mark 
 it, and give a few light taps with the ham¬ 
 mer upon the edge of the cover, by laying 
 it upon a small anvil and an underlay of 
 silk paper; hit it at the place of the cover 
 at which the tooth rim runs farthest from 
 the card held against it. Do not hammer 
 too much at once; it is occasionally neces¬ 
 sary to take off a little with a file from the 
 opposite side of the cover; when doing 
 this, of course, the repairer must keep in 
 view' the contour of the edge. It is self- 
 evident that a barrel with the cover oppo¬ 
 site to the tooth rim is meant here ; one 
 with the cover on the same side with the 
 teeth, requires the opposite treatment. 
 
 A barrel, which otherwise runs true and 
 even, stands obliquely sometimes, when it 
 is screwed fast to the bridge; this may be 
 due to too great shake of the ratchpt or too 
 large a hole in the bridge, or else to a bad 
 recess in the bridge ; this may be remedied 
 occasionally by screwing the bridge upon 
 the plate, centering from below', and mak¬ 
 ing the recess parallel to the plate, but at 
 the same time making the recess for the 
 cap deeper. If it is a one-bar spring-arbor 
 with mounted ratchet, either one hole or 
 both holes of the outer arbor pivot would 
 have to be bushed. 
 
 The Stopwork. —The end of the screw 
 of the star must not project; it is to be 
 rounded off well and polished. If the 
 screws are so short that, as frequently hap- 
 
TO CORRECT THE END SHAKE OF A BARREL ARBOR. 
 
 217 
 
 pens, they can no longer be shortened in 
 the lantern of the screw-polishing machine, 
 this may be done by using a strip of very 
 thin brass, about twenty-five millimeters 
 long, and from three to four millimeters 
 broad, furnished with suitable small holes 
 for this purpose, in which the screws may 
 be inserted, and which are then laid upon 
 cork or the filing wood. 
 
 The screwhead of the star must not 
 scrape on the dial; the stopwork must 
 work with entire security, especially at the 
 end of the winding, when the full tooth 
 turns up. It is very advisable to round off 
 both parts, star and snail-stop, a trifle on 
 the lower side with a slip of oilstone or a 
 piece of wood covered with emery paper in 
 a turning arbor. The snail-stop must, 
 under no condition, touch its recess. 
 
 In order to satisfy one’s self of the 
 security of the stopwork, fasten the arbor 
 by its winding square in the clamps which 
 you press with the last three fingers against 
 the thumb hole of the left hand, while 
 thumb and forefinger catch around the 
 tooth rim of the barrel and rotate it from 
 left to right. During this performance try 
 with a pegwood, held in the right hand, to 
 move the star in a direction opposed to the 
 rotations, so that its points offer themselves 
 to the snail-stop under the most' unfavor¬ 
 able circumstances. If under these cir¬ 
 cumstances the stopwork works all right, it 
 will also perforin securely in the future. 
 
 To Fit Bouchons. —It was said above 
 that it was sometimes necessary to bush a 
 hole. For this purpose a bouchon is 
 selected as small as the pivot will admit, 
 for the smaller the bouchon is, the neater 
 will be the job. Open the hole of the plate 
 or cock, so that the bouchon which should 
 be previously lightly draw-filed at the end, 
 will stand, with a slight pressure, upright 
 in the opened hole of the plate or cock. 
 Then with a knife cut it across at the part 
 where it is to be broken off, so that it may 
 break very readily when required fo do so. 
 Press it in the plate on the side the pivot 
 works, break off, and then drive it home 
 with a small center punch. In every repair 
 of this nature, notice should be taken of 
 the amount of end shake of the pinion, and 
 allowance made by leaving the bouchon so 
 that any excess may be corrected. To 
 finish off the shoulder end, a small cham¬ 
 fering tool should be used with a hole 
 smaller than the pivot one to receive a fine 
 brass wire serving as a center to prevent 
 the tool changing its position while being 
 
 used ; or the wire may be put through the 
 bouchon hole, and then the hole of the tool 
 may be left open. This method is a far 
 more expeditious way than using the man¬ 
 drel. 
 
 TO CORRECT THE END SHAKE OF 
 A BARRED ARBOR. 
 
 T he beveling of the barrel teeth will 
 sometimes not free the center wheel; 
 when this is the case, we must look for other 
 cures, or perhaps, I should rather say, we 
 should look for other causes. In most cases, 
 the cause is in the end shake of the barrel 
 arbor. There is more than one way to cor¬ 
 rect this. WejadlT"suppose the excessive 
 end shaTe-wiU allow the barrel to get too 
 high and foul with the center wheel when 
 the inside shoulder is in contact with the 
 top shoulder of the barrel arbor ; yet we 
 find that if we press the barrel down so that 
 the shoulder on the barrel lid is in contact 
 with the bottom shoulder on the arbor, there 
 is then sufficient freedom for the center 
 wheel. Some would cure this by simply 
 striking the center of the barrel a sharp 
 blow on a large round-headed punch, which 
 would lessen the end shake of the barrel 
 arbor and most likely correct the fault. 
 But suppose this blow also puts the barrel 
 out of true, so that the workman will very 
 likely have produced a greater evil than be¬ 
 fore, and one which is corrected with much 
 greater difficulty. It is better, therefore, to 
 try some other method than to run the risk 
 of ruining the barrel. 
 
 Suppose we plant a small collet upon the 
 barrel arbor. In this case at the top 
 shoulder this will have the required effect. 
 Of course we must have the collet a little 
 smaller in diameter than the barrel arbor, 
 while the hole in the collet must be only 
 just large enough to fit on the shoulder ; 
 the thickness will vary according to the ac¬ 
 quired amount in order to correct the end 
 shake. I may say here that a barrel end 
 shake should never be more than just free. 
 Just notice the detrimental effects in some 
 cases of even the least amount of end shake, 
 where the fusee and chain are used. I 
 have no doubt that most watchmakers have 
 at some time or other had a little trouble 
 in this particular. With a very flat fusee 
 watch, the least thing in end shake, either 
 in the barrel or fusee, and cause the chain 
 to run out of the fusee grooves. We then 
 know what follows. 
 
218 
 
 HOW TO DRILL A STAFF. 
 
 Now, there are many who try to remedy 
 this defect by closing the holes in the plate, 
 which is in many cases done with a punch; 
 this simply means that the next man who 
 sees the job will be liable to ask if there 
 was a blacksmith at work. Yes, there are 
 times when it is a shame to see it. Why 
 hammer and bruise the plate, when the job 
 can be done without any such methods ? 
 There is nothing that looks so bad to a 
 practical man as a plate smashed about 
 with a punch. It may be excusable to use 
 a punch for closing a hole in an old thirty- 
 hour clock, but even in this case it is doubt¬ 
 ful in these days of bouchons. It is not 
 only the appearance of the botchery, but 
 just see what kind of a surface the hole has 
 for the pivot to work in. Take, for in¬ 
 stance, the fusee : it will alwa'ys be neat to¬ 
 ward the barrel ; hence, if the hole is closed, 
 it has to be done on the side nearest to the 
 barrel, in order to bring the fusee upright 
 to its original position. But when it is 
 punched on this side, in all probability, 
 there is only just one part of the hole in 
 contact with the fusee top pivot, and, 
 most likely this prominent part will very 
 soon become worn down again. 
 
 BROKEN PIVOTS. 
 
 P ivots are broken from many causes. 
 
 It’s “ the nature of the critter.” When 
 a new pinion is not practicable, says a Euro¬ 
 pean authority, a pivot can be put in and 
 with the exercise of care be made a good 
 job. Supposing the bottom pivot of the 
 third pinion is broken ; the best way to put 
 in another pivot is first to cement the wheel 
 into a chuck of the lathe. The chuck 
 should be true and fiat on the face. A ce¬ 
 ment strong enough to hold may be made 
 of equal parts of resin and shellac, and can 
 be easily removed from the work after¬ 
 ward. 
 
 The flame of a jet of gas or spirit lamp 
 applied to the back of the chuck will keep 
 the cement soft long enough, for the work 
 being brought concentric by holding a blunt 
 peg against the projecting pinion arbor, the 
 center can then be made, not with a graver, 
 but with a sharp auger pointed tool. The 
 drilling is the principal difficulty. If the 
 pinion is hard, the drill should have a 
 rounded point and be quite hard at the 
 point; it should be left as strong as pos¬ 
 sible, as some pressure is required to make 
 it bite. The hole need not be deep. When 
 
 the drilling is done the hole should be 
 broached and the pivot turned and smoothed 
 so that it fits the hole accurately. Fitting 
 it to go to the bottom of the hole and after¬ 
 ward taking a piece from its length is the 
 surest way of making a good fit. The hole 
 and pinion should be cleaned and the oil 
 removed in benzine. A few taps with the 
 hammer will make the pivot as fast as if 
 the pinion were solid. If the pinion head 
 is not quite true, the center must be 
 filed to get the pinion true, and then the 
 pinion can be made in the usual way. 
 
 The top pivot cannot easily be made in 
 this way. The hole for the pivot is better 
 drilled in the turns, and it is much easier to 
 drill the hole in the top of the arbor than 
 the one in the pinion or lower part of it, as, 
 if the arbor is hard, it can be softened 
 without injuring the pinion or wheel. A 
 brass runner is fitted to the turns, and a 
 hole is drilled in the end of the runner, near 
 the outside, a little smaller than the pinion 
 arbor to run in ; the runner should then be 
 filed away at the back of this hole, leaving 
 the sixteenth of an inch of the runner its 
 full diameter at the end. If a piece of 
 round steel is made to fit the hole in the 
 runner with a triangular (not a drill) point, 
 hardened of course, and is inserted in the 
 hole in the runner to meet the end of the 
 arbor, and the pinion made to rotate by a 
 ferrule and bow, then the center will at 
 once be found and the hole may be drilled 
 in the same manner as that in which the 
 center has been marked; but both the 
 centering tool and drill will require bend¬ 
 ing to enable the operator to use them in 
 this position. 
 
 It is not often that a fourth wdreel can 
 be made a good job of, if the pivot carries 
 a second hand, as the undercutting of the 
 pinion at the back leaves the arbor too 
 weak. The only way to make good job is 
 to make -a larger and longer hole in the 
 pinion, cutting away the projecting piece of 
 the pinion arbor and making new both the 
 pivot and shoulder. 
 
 HOW TO BRIBE A STAFF. 
 
 Correspondent desired to know how 
 to drill a staff for a new pivot. 
 He had hitherto used the old verge lathe, 
 but recently he bought an American lathe. 
 He has not yet been able to drill the hole 
 of a sufficient depth without taking all the 
 temper out of the staff ; he uses the Amer- 
 
watchmakers’ drills. 
 
 ican finished pivot drill and has tried every 
 shape of point, etc. An expert returns the 
 following answer: 
 
 After removing the table roller and bal¬ 
 ance spring, take a circular copper wire, 
 about the same size as a large silver case 
 bow, except that the ends come together 
 instead of being open as in the watch-bow ; 
 spring the ends far enough apart to insert 
 the broken end of the staff between, then 
 heat the copper wire ring in the alcohol 
 flame, holding the ring in a pair of pliers, 
 the ring will communicate the heat to the 
 staff, and the temper will be drawn from 
 the part to be drilled without discoloring 
 the balance or the opposite end of the staff. 
 The temper had better be drawn lower than 
 blue ; at any rate, draw it to a very light 
 blue, or even soften—that part of the staff 
 has no function to perform, and, therefore, 
 the temper is of little consequence. 
 
 The average staff as it comes from the 
 factory is not harder than a dark blue 
 shade will indicate. I do not mean to say 
 that when fitting a new staff the temper of 
 any part of it is of little consequence, be¬ 
 cause, if the temper is properly drawn, it 
 will be even throughout, and if drawn lower 
 than a dark blue it would be too soft, as the 
 pivots could not be turned down compara¬ 
 tively small without bending, and, even if 
 they were, a high polish could not be ob¬ 
 tained, and the result would be that after 
 running in the watch for a short time they 
 would show signs of wear and thereby 
 increase the friction. But in pivoting a 
 staff, as was said before, it will do no harm 
 to thoroughly soften that part of the staff 
 where the pivot is to be inserted, always 
 bearing in mind that the heat must not be 
 allowed to reach the balance, or the oppo¬ 
 site end of the staff, which is not broken. 
 
 After drawing the temper place the staff 
 in the lathe and smooth off the broken end 
 with stone slip sufficiently to get your cen¬ 
 ter by ; strike your center by means of the 
 graver, holding it in your hand. At first 
 you will be almost sure to leave a little con¬ 
 ical “tit” at the center instead of striking 
 the center correctly, so therefore it will be 
 better to practise a few times on a piece of 
 brass wire in place of the staff, and after a 
 few times you will be able to do it at once 
 and well. 
 
 'The reason why you cannot drill the staff 
 deep enough is because the drill is not 
 properly shaped or is allowed to get dull, 
 and instead of cutting, it burnishes the 
 metal and hardens it, thereby making it 
 
 219 
 
 difficult for a sharp drill to attack it suc¬ 
 cessfully. 
 
 Now, if the staff is softened as directed, 
 and the drill made to suit the purposes, 
 there will be no difficulty in drilling even 
 deeper than necessary, but you must of 
 course draw the drill occasionally across 
 the slip to renew the edge which may dull 
 before a sufficient depth is reached, but 
 after you get into the “ hang ” of it you can 
 drill a staff in half a minute. The wire for 
 the pivot should be a piece of a needle with 
 temper drawn to a dark blue. Almost any 
 graver that you can buy will cut any staff 
 if sharpened properly, which means a flat 
 face, a sharp edge and point. 
 
 WATCHMAKERS’ DRII/ES. 
 
 he drills used by watchmakers are 
 generally made by filing the cylindri¬ 
 cal steel wire slightly tapering and then 
 spreading the point with a single blow from 
 a tolerably heavy hammer. Using a light 
 hammer and effecting the spreading by a 
 series of gentle taps will effectually spoil 
 the steel. There is not the slightest occa¬ 
 sion to anneal the steel for hammering, pro¬ 
 viding it is moderately soft. For all drills 
 up to one-eighth of one inch in diameter, the 
 steel should not be forged, as the bulk of 
 the metal is too small to heat to any pre¬ 
 determined temperature with any degree of 
 certainty. 
 
 Pivot drills can be made from good sew¬ 
 ing needles, which are of a convenient form 
 to be readily converted into a drill. Firstly, 
 the needle must be made sufficiently soft 
 for working by heating until it assumes a 
 deep blue color The extreme end may be 
 made quite soft and filed slightly tapering 
 to a trifle less than the size of the hole to be 
 drilled. The point is now spread out by a 
 sharp blow of a hammer—not by a series of 
 gentle taps which would cause the metal to 
 crack—and filed up to shape, the point 
 being made more blunt than would be used 
 for drilling ordinary metal. For drilling 
 tempered steel the cutting angles must also 
 be much less than usual. The thickness of 
 the drill across the flattened part should be 
 about one-third of the diametrical measure¬ 
 ment. Finish up the end on a strip of 
 Arkansas stone, a file being too coarse for 
 such small work. 
 
 It is the great difficulty of getting such a 
 very small piece of steel to an exact pre¬ 
 determined degree of temperature-—hot 
 enough to harden, but not so hard that it is 
 
220 
 
 DIAMOND LAPS. 
 
 burned—which makes the manufacture of 
 these small tools uncertain, and this is 
 abundantly proved by the fact that of half 
 a dozen of drills made from the same wire, 
 thereby assuring uniformity of quality in 
 the material it often happens that some are 
 exceedingly good, and others of no use 
 whatever, the difference being caused by 
 the manipulation during hardening. This 
 does not apply to drills or other steel things 
 which are of sufficient size to show, by the 
 color of their surface, how hot they are, 
 but it is the tiny pieces which, by the con¬ 
 tact with the flame, are immediately ren¬ 
 dered white hot that are difficult to manage. 
 By heating the drill and plunging it into 
 the body of a tallow candle the hardening 
 will be effected, but the steel will not be 
 rendered so hard that it crumbles away 
 under the pressure in use. Thus, in one 
 operation the drill will be hardened and 
 tempered. In place of tallow, white wax, 
 sealing wax, and such like materials are 
 adapted to the purpose. 
 
 There is another method which finds 
 much favor with some workmen. It is to 
 envelop the thin point of the drill in a 
 metal casing, and so get a bulk of metal 
 which can be heated to a nicety, the drill 
 inside being, of course, raised to the same 
 temperature as the surrounding metal; the 
 whole is then plunged into oil or water. 
 Still, there is the difficulty of tempering to 
 overcome, though the danger of burning is 
 avoided ; burnt steel is of no use for tools. 
 
 The best plan is to exercise the greatest 
 possible care not to overheat the drill, 
 and harden and temper in one operation by 
 plunging into tallow. The following method 
 dispenses with the hardening process: 
 
 Select a round pivot broach ; as sold, they 
 will be found to be tempered to the correct 
 degree of hardness. By means of the split 
 gauge, measure the part of the broach 
 which is the exact diameter required for 
 the intended hole, and break off the steel 
 at that point; the small piece is used; it 
 must be broken off, if too long; and 
 cemented with shellac into a drill stock ; an 
 ordinary drill stock will do, or a piece of 
 brass pivot wire serves the purpose. Soft 
 solder may be used instead of shellac, and 
 if carefully heated, the temper will not be 
 drawn. The piece of tapering steel is now 
 formed into a drill by grinding down the 
 sides with a piece of Arkansas stone, and 
 the end shaped up to a cutting angle. The 
 thick end of the broach forms the cutting 
 end, and the ordinary taper of a broach 
 
 will be quite sufficient to give clearance to 
 the drill, which may be sharpened by grind¬ 
 ing until the whole is used. 
 
 TH® DIJPTHING TOOD. 
 
 A Depthing tool is an indispensable 
 auxiliary to the repairer, and it should 
 be the best that can be made. There are 
 many of these tools made and sold that are 
 worse than useless, as if the distance be¬ 
 tween the centers do not coincide at each 
 successive point, at which they may be 
 moved outward, it will be impossible to 
 pitch a depth correctly with them ; in other 
 words, the centers as runners should be 
 parallel to each other, whatever the size of 
 the wheel and pinion may be that is being 
 adjusted in them. When purchasing a new 
 depthing tool, great care is necessary. 
 The centers should be turned end for end 
 and transposed, asceiiaining after each 
 change if there is any deviation in a circle 
 described by the points ; also if the points 
 when they meet coincide exactly. If pos¬ 
 sible, a comparison should be made with 
 an approved tool by trying in both p. large 
 and also a small wheel and pinion. The 
 adjusting screw had better be removed so 
 as to see that the joints work smoothly and 
 that the spring has perfect control over it. 
 If the joint is stiff and appears to be dirty, 
 the joint pin may be taken out and the 
 joint thoroughly cleaned. 
 
 But however correct the tool may be, it 
 requires practise and skill to use it properly, 
 as, when the wheel and pinion are removed 
 from the tool, and the depth has to be 
 transferred to the plate, if the depthing 
 tool is not held at right angle to the plate, 
 but is inclined either to the right or left, 
 the depth will be either deeper or shallower 
 than it was seen while in the tool. Care 
 should also be taken not to screw the nuts 
 up too tight, as it is quite possible to spring 
 the runner a little from the way in which it 
 is gripped ; in fact, a watchmaker should 
 not be a strong man, otherwise he will 
 make many difficulties for himself by exer¬ 
 cising his muscular strength. 
 
 DIAMOND DAPS. 
 
 I n putting a pivot in a staff or pinion one 
 of the handiest tools the workman can 
 have is a diamond lap with which to flatten 
 and sharpen the drills. Every workman 
 knows that many times he has made what 
 he thought was a nice drill and on examina- 
 
k 
 
 USE AND ABUSE OF THE MAGNIFYING GLASS. 22 1 
 
 tion found the sides rounded and the end 
 "cross-eyed,” and had the work to do over 
 again. With a diamond lap it is very easy 
 to do these drills right, in fact so easy that 
 the workman is liable to makeup a number 
 of drills before they are needed, a proceed¬ 
 ing few watchmakers are guilty of when 
 they are obliged to flatten and point the 
 drills on an oilstone. Most watchmakers 
 have an idea that these laps are too expen¬ 
 sive. Such is not the case, when you con¬ 
 sider the time and material saved by the 
 use of them. If the watchmaker has dia¬ 
 mond powder he has no excuse for not mak¬ 
 ing one, unless he doesn’t know how. If 
 he does not have the powder he can easily 
 make the lap and any of the smaller watch 
 factories would charge it with the grade of 
 diamond needed at small expense. Prob¬ 
 ably this is the cheapest way to go to work, 
 as it is an everyday job in a watch factory, 
 where there are all the facilities for doing 
 rapid and economical work of this kind. 
 
 Soft steel is probably the best metal to 
 use. Copper was the favorite for many 
 years, and there seemed to be a prejudice 
 against anything else for a long time, but 
 this prejudice has worn away, and soft steel 
 is now generally used in factories for every¬ 
 thing except polishing. It holds its shape 
 better than copper. Cast iron is used to 
 some extent, and does very nicely for the 
 larger surfaces, but it is hardly adapted to 
 such small surfaces as pivot drills. A lap 
 one and one-half to two and one-half inches 
 in diameter and -Ag- or Ag- in thickness 
 is a very convenient size. It should be 
 mounted on a hardened steel arbor that fits 
 a large chuck or taper and trued. Do not 
 have the full face of the lap charged. You 
 cannot use the middle of it, and it is not 
 only difficult to charge it there, but it is a 
 waste of material. After facing the lap, 
 take another chip out of the center—about 
 ^2—leaving about two-thirds of the face 
 to be charged. No. 4 diamond should be 
 used for very small drills, if it is to be used 
 for that work exclusively ; No. 2 for rapid 
 cutting of larger surfaces. If the watch¬ 
 maker feels that he cannot afford more than 
 one lap, perhaps No. 3 diamond would be 
 the best for all-around work. 
 
 USB AND ABUSB OF THB MAGNI¬ 
 FYING GBASS. 
 
 lthough it is the opinion of eminent 
 ophthalmists that the judicious use of 
 the magnifying glass is by no means inju¬ 
 
 rious to the eye, it is well to point out that 
 this opinion is but conditional, and does 
 not apply to its abuse. On this subject a 
 correspondent of the Deutsche Uhrmacher 
 Zeitung says that a watchmaker very often 
 does not think to make use of his ordinary 
 sight. It is, then, the duty of the master 
 to make the pupil appreciate from the be¬ 
 ginning of his apprenticeship the advantage 
 he will find in the employment of the naked 
 eye, and how much time and pain he will 
 by that means avoid ; especially in measur¬ 
 ings and rough work. Want of habit in the 
 estimation of sizes, or rather in their exact 
 comparison ; inexperience, variety, or con¬ 
 venience ; perhaps also the idea of giving 
 more rapidly to the eye the necessary dex¬ 
 terity—all are apt to induce beginners to 
 use the eye glas s which they see employed 
 by the more advanced apprentices. They 
 do as the clown who, not knowing his 
 alphabet, thinks that by putting on spec¬ 
 tacles he will be able to read immediately. 
 The responsible master should absolutely 
 forbid the eyeglass to the beginner, and 
 not permit its use until actually necessary. 
 The habit which at first was only due to 
 vanity or inexperience, becomes in time 
 fixed. 
 
 But what a grotesque and at the same 
 time deplorable effect ! Only certain pieces 
 are produced, the thick pieces hardly 
 roughed out, when made by the aid of the 
 glass. It is no excuse to say that the work 
 has been badly done because the workman 
 has bad eyes. If he has not good sight let 
 him put on suitable spectacles. There are 
 many watchmakers who rarely use the eye¬ 
 glass and when they do it is only for fine 
 work. 
 
 What can be done by one can be done by 
 others. Nothing is requisite but a firm will. 
 
 Those who are not able to dispense with 
 the eyeglass, commit also from habit the 
 unpardonable fault of using glasses too 
 strong, which leave an interval of only two 
 or three centimeters between the work and 
 the glass. This is pernicious to the eyes, 
 because in using short focus glasses the 
 eyes become pained, and if they are con¬ 
 tinued an enfeeblement of the sight is pro¬ 
 duced. And in consequence of the ex¬ 
 citation of the optical nerves headaches 
 result, which in some circumstances may 
 become chronic. The eyeglass for ordinary 
 use should be weak and allow of an inter¬ 
 val of from six to eight centimeters between 
 it and the work. It is quickly got used to 
 and will not produce tiredness of the eyes. 
 
222 
 
 THE CORD AND TENSION PULLEY. 
 
 Besides the weak glass, it is necessary to 
 have a strong pebble eyeglass, but the 
 latter is required very seldom. 
 
 With use it sometimes happens that when 
 the eyeglass is held a long time near the 
 eye the glass becomes blurred. This is 
 very disagreeable, and proceeds from the 
 vapors which emanate from the eye and 
 become condensed on the eyeglass. It is 
 easy to prevent this by making two holes 
 opposite one another, so that the interval 
 between the eye and the glass may have 
 communication with the exterior air. 
 These holes are made just above the glass, 
 so that the current of air circulating touches 
 it lightly and prevents the condensation. 
 The lenses of eyeglasses are wiped ordi¬ 
 narily with an old piece of linen or with the 
 leather. Both are bad, because in proceed¬ 
 ing thus the glass is covered with imper¬ 
 ceptible rays. It is preferable to make use 
 of silk, or still better, of unglazed porous 
 paper that is not frayed, or filtering paper. 
 Breathe lightly on the glass before wiping it. 
 
 PICTURES ON WATCH DXAES. 
 
 OR the production of photographic pic¬ 
 tures on watch dials the Photograph- 
 ische Chronik recommends the following 
 method of procedure : Beat the white of 
 an egg, with addition of a little ammonia, 
 to a white foam, add 300 cubic centimeters 
 of water, and beat again. After the egg 
 has settled, filter and let the liquid run 
 once over the dial, which has previously 
 been thoroughly cleaned with ammonia. 
 After the surplus has run off coat once 
 more and allow to dry. The sensitive col¬ 
 lodion is now produced as follows : Dis¬ 
 solve 0.6 gram chloride of zinc in 20 
 cubic centimeters of alcohol, add o. 5 
 gram collodion cotton and 26 cubic cen¬ 
 timeters of ether, and shake the whole 
 forcibly. Then dissolve 1.5 grams of 
 nitrate of silver in hot water, add 6 cubic 
 centimeters of alcohol, and keep the whole 
 in solution by heating. The silver solution 
 is now added in small quantities at a time 
 to the collodion, which must have well set¬ 
 tled. This, of course, is done in the dark 
 room. After 24 hours the emulsion is fil¬ 
 tered by passing it through cotton mois¬ 
 tened with alcohol. This durable collodion 
 emulsion is now flowed in the usual way 
 thinly upon the prepared watch dial, which, 
 after tire collodion has coagulated, is moved 
 up and down in distilled water until the 
 fatty stripes have disappeared. The water 
 
 is then changed once, and the dial is, after 
 a short immersion, left to dry upon blotting 
 paper. It is now ready for exposure. Ex¬ 
 pose under the original in magnesium light 
 and develop with a nitrate oxalate developer 
 or in the following hydroquinone developer: 
 
 Hydroquinone. 4 grams 
 
 Bromide of potassium.25 grams 
 
 Sulphite of soda.48 grams 
 
 Soda. 10 grams 
 
 Water (cubic centimeters).450 
 
 After fixing and drying coat with a trans¬ 
 parent positive varnish. 
 
 In place of the developing process, the 
 printing-out process with chloride of silver 
 collodion can be applied, with the advan¬ 
 tage that the picture can be toned. The 
 collodion for this purpose is made as fol¬ 
 lows : Dissolve 8 grams of collodion cot¬ 
 ton in 100 cubic centimeters of ether and 
 100 cubic centimeters of alcohol ; add 0.3 
 gram chloride of strontia and then 0.2 gram 
 chloride of lithium, which has previously 
 been dissolved in alcohol slightly heated. 
 The solution is left standing for 24 hours, 
 and then is filtered through cotton. 
 
 THE CORD AND TENSION PUEEEY. 
 
 he cord which transmits motion from 
 the fly-wheel to the pulley of the dis¬ 
 tributor is always at the same tension. But 
 the cord that passes from the pulley to the 
 lathe must be tight or slack, according to 
 the dimensions and weight, etc., of the 
 work in hand. Moreover, if the ferrule be 
 not fixed concentric with the object that is 
 being turned, or if the pulley be not true 
 on its axis, the cord will be liable to hold 
 and to slip alternately. This inconven¬ 
 ience can be avoided, and the tension of 
 the cord maintained constant and sufficient 
 by using the tension pulley. 
 
 Another inconvenience is often occa¬ 
 sioned by the unskilful joining of the cat¬ 
 gut band. In delicate turning with the 
 hand or footwheel it is important that no 
 jerk should be communicated to the work 
 when the joint in the band passes over the 
 ferrule or the pulley of the mandril. Such 
 a jerk can only be avoided, moreover, by a 
 carefully-made joint. Several methods are 
 adopted ; for bands of large and medium 
 size it is best to use the steel hook and eye 
 screwed on to the ends of the band, these 
 ends being first tapered with a knife and 
 their ends burnt with a hot wire to cause 
 an expansion that will prevent their draw- 
 
PENDULUM FOR DETERMINING SHAPE OF THE GLOBE. 
 
 223 
 
 ing away from the screw. But such at¬ 
 tachments cannot be used with bands under 
 one-sixteenth of one inch in diameter, and 
 one of the following must therefore be re¬ 
 sorted to. 
 
 1. The most expeditious is a simple knot, 
 and the weaver’s knot is by far the best, as 
 it permits of the ends being cut off close, 
 and stands out to nearly the same distance 
 ail around the cord. The watchmaker in 
 making this knot need only observe that 
 the lower portion, representing the length 
 of lathe band, must be somewhat shorter 
 than is ultimately required, and the knot is 
 to be tightened by drawing the two free 
 ends, while the first point at which the 
 cord crosses is held between the thumb and 
 first finger. The ends must be cut off 
 nearly to the knot, and slightly singed, to 
 cause their expansion, and the knot rolled 
 between the finger and thumb with a little 
 beeswax. 
 
 2. The ends may often be spliced to¬ 
 gether, and although this occupies more 
 time, it has the advantage of producing a 
 gradual increase and decrease of thickness, 
 so that all jerk is reduced to a minimum. 
 The following method is given by Holtz- 
 apffel. Having stretched the band, meas¬ 
 ure off a length greater than is required 
 for the lathe and make transverse holes 
 through the catgut at two points rather 
 nearer together than the measure of the 
 lathe (to allow for further stretching). Pass 
 each end through the hole in the other and 
 draw tight; pierce two more holes at right 
 angles to the first and just above them, again 
 passing the ends through from opposite 
 sides of the band. Unravel the full ends, 
 cut away about one-fourth of their sud- 
 stance by a sloping cut from the inner 
 side next the splice. Re-twist and again 
 pass the ends through holes transverse to 
 the last and pull tight. If these instruc¬ 
 tions are followed, no trouble will be given 
 by the band. 
 
 THE PENDULUM FOR DETERMIN¬ 
 ING THE SHAPE OF THE GEOBE- 
 
 LL engaged in horological pursuits, 
 know that the velocity of the pendu¬ 
 lum oscillations depends upon the length 
 of the pendulum as well as upon gravity, 
 which varies at different points of the 
 globe. It is strongest at the poles and fee¬ 
 blest at the equator, for two reasons : first, 
 
 it is influenced by the centrifugal force of 
 the revolution of the globe, which opposes 
 it, and next by the greater or smaller dis¬ 
 tance from the center of the globe, or per¬ 
 haps better said, center of gravity. 
 
 When, now, pendulums of equal length 
 are caused to oscillate at different localities 
 upon the surface of the earth, the largqr or 
 smaller velocities tell us, first, the distance 
 of the corresponding locality from the ro¬ 
 tary axis, and, second, the distance from 
 the center of gravity. The established 
 formulae for calculation are generally for 
 the purpose of ascertaining the length which 
 the pendulum must have at different locali¬ 
 ties of the earth to produce a unit velocity 
 —one oscillation per second. 
 
 A noteworthy number of scientists, of all 
 countries —Sab jne^UFoster, Schmidt, Airy, 
 Bowditch, BaTTyj Borenius, Pouillet, Fischer, 
 and others.—have to ascertain the length of 
 the seconds pendulum instituted probability 
 calculations, each of which is based on a 
 certain number of pendulum measurements 
 (from 13 to 79) which have taken place at 
 different points of the earth. The results 
 of the calculations vary between 990.987 
 millimeters and 991.277 mm. length for a 
 seconds pendulum at the equator and 996.- 
 123 mm. and 996.419 mm. at the poles; 
 consequently they vary nearly 0.3 mm. 
 But since the entire increase of the pendu¬ 
 lum length for the 90° of latitude, from the 
 equator to the pole, amounts to only 5.14 
 mm., the seemingly trifling difference of 
 0.3 mm. corresponds to a latitude difference 
 of about 5°. 
 
 The following table is a summary of these 
 deviations : 
 
 Length of seconds 
 pendulum. 
 
 Localities. Latitude. Millimeters. 
 
 St. Thomas. o° 24' 41' 990.84 
 
 Mararhan. 2° 31' 43" 990.84 
 
 Ascension. 7 0 55' 48" 991.15 
 
 Sierra Leone. 8° 29' 28" N. i 
 
 Trinidad. io° 38' 56" N. ( 991 '° 2 
 
 Bahia. 12 0 59' 21" S. 991.15 
 
 Jamaica. 17 0 56' 7” N. 991.42 
 
 New York. 40° 42' 43" N. 993.15 
 
 London. 51 0 31' 8" N. 994-07 
 
 Drontheim. 63° 25' 54" N. 995-21 
 
 Hammerfest. 70° 40' 5" N. 995-4-9 
 
 Greenland. 74 0 32' 19" N. 995.69 
 
 Spitzbeigen. 79 0 49' 58" N. 995-99 
 
 To reiterate, the preceding table shows 
 that the second pendulum is shorter near 
 the equator than in the higher degrees of 
 latitude, from which scientists deducted 
 
224 
 
 TO ADJUST BALANCE SPRING. 
 
 that the earth is no true ball, but a spheroid, 
 that is flatter near the poles and arched 
 toward the equator. The shorter the di¬ 
 ameter of the earth is at a given locality 
 the stronger will an object upon its surface 
 
 be attracted by gravitation ; for which rea¬ 
 son, also, a pendulum will there oscillate 
 somewhat faster than in higher regions, and 
 must consequently be made longer to ob¬ 
 tain the same unit of time. 
 
 NOTES ON THE BALANCE SPRING. 
 
 A lteration Caused by Balance Spring. 
 
 —Assuming that the balance is in 
 perfect poise, then the moment the spring 
 is placed on it and the outer end pinned to 
 the steel, the spring at once forms a part of 
 the mass of the balance when both are rotat- • 
 ing, and its effect upon the balance when 
 in action is most peculiar. The first coil 
 near the collet passes through nearly as 
 many degrees of arc as does the balance. 
 The second coil describes a little less extent 
 of arc; the third still less, the fourth still 
 less, and so on, until at last we arrive at 
 the outer extremity—the end of the last 
 coil—which is stationary and rigidly fixed. 
 Now all of these different coils, while vi¬ 
 brating, have established in themselves a 
 certain momentum, each differing from the 
 other in their effects upon the balance,'ac¬ 
 cording to the mass of each, the velocity of 
 each, the position each occupies as regards 
 distance from their centers of motion, and 
 the degrees of arcs described by each. 
 Any portion, then, of this system of coils 
 which may be out of exact poise, is a dis¬ 
 turbing factor. If, however, after careful 
 trials, the proper distance is located at a 
 certain point, and the balance quarter 
 screws be changed so as to counterbalance 
 it, an improved condition would result so 
 long as the balance maintained arcs of 
 about 360°; but when the watch (going 
 barrel) is full wound and the balance de¬ 
 scribing arcs of not far from 540°, the error 
 would be more marked than it was before 
 the change in the poise of balance was 
 made. 
 
 Duplex Balance Spring. —The whole 
 secret of obtaining isochronous vibrations 
 of the balance of the duplex escapement 
 lies in the spring ; the fewer obstructions 
 placed upon the free vibrations of the 
 escapement, in the way of friction, etc., the 
 better will be the performance of the watch ; 
 and this is also the secret of the good going 
 not only of the well-made duplex, but also 
 of the chronometer and lever watches. 
 
 Fit in New Balance Spring. —Put the 
 collet on a round rat-tail file when you go 
 
 to put in the spring; the file will hold it 
 steady. File a pin so that it will fit the 
 hole in the collet loosely and cut it nearly 
 off; now put the end of the spring in its 
 place, put in the pin, and give the wire a 
 slight bend and you will break it off where 
 you cut it. Bring the spring to its position, 
 stake it on balance, pin with the other end 
 in the stud, where you held it with the 
 tweezers when you tried it, and you have 
 the spring fitted and trued. 
 
 Pinning in a Trial Balance Spring.— 
 When picking out a balance spring for trial, 
 the usual plan of pinning in is to put the 
 collet on a broach held between the thumb 
 and finger of the left hand, while the pin is 
 fitted and the spring pinned in, taking the 
 precaution to push a piece of paper on the 
 broach before the collet or the spring may 
 touch the fingers, as in the case of a damp 
 hand the spring would be likely to be injured 
 by rusting. 
 
 Another Mode of Pinning in Spring. 
 —Another mode of pinning in is to place 
 the collet on the board paper, and put the 
 spring over the collet. With a short piece 
 of boxwood sloped away at the end press 
 the collet on the board ; the pin can then 
 be fitted with comfort and without danger 
 of shifting the collet. The pin should be 
 flattened where it presses against the spring, 
 and when fitted and made can be pressed 
 in with a small joint pusher. The spring 
 should start away from the collet hole 
 with an easy curve, and must not hug the 
 collet, or isochronism will be out of the 
 question. 
 
 To Adjust Balance Spring. —I hardly 
 know how to give directions for the adjust¬ 
 ment of the balance spring, when it is dis¬ 
 arranged, and the procedure is more readily 
 shown by practical demonstration than by 
 description. To commence : a balance 
 spring, when there is no power applied to 
 the balance from the jewel pin, should be, 
 when pinned, just as free from any twist or 
 cramping as it would be if lying flat and 
 free on a smooth piece of glass, before it 
 has been pinned at either end. and when it 
 
ACCELERATION. 
 
 is pinned in the watch (at stud and collet) 
 it should be thus free. To bring it thus, 
 requires demonstration that cannot be made 
 on paper, unless diagrams are made. What 
 I have said, however, gives an idea of how 
 a balance spring should be pinned. Com¬ 
 mon sense is demanded here as elsewhere. 
 
 Balance Spring. —When taking down a 
 watch for cleaning, unpin and straighten 
 the balance spring by placing it on a white 
 paper and pinching the bent places with 
 pliers, making it flat, and all the coils true, 
 and see that they do not rub together ; if 
 they do, no" good time need be expected 
 from the watch. If the spring is not a 
 good one, replace it; have it large enough 
 to pass through the regulator without 
 bending. 
 
 Fastening the Balance Spring. —The 
 style of fastening is not by any means un¬ 
 important. If it were possible to make the 
 fastening upon the collet vertical to the 
 center it would be the best, according to 
 my opinion. This, however, cannot be 
 well done, and we are forced to follow the 
 old custom, but try to make the bend of 
 this inner curve not round, but as sharp an 
 angle as possible. This is to be done with 
 pliers, and at once lay the first coil at the 
 proper distance from the collet. The end 
 of the balance spring must be fastened 
 with pins of hardened steel, and the sides 
 turned toward the spring are to be fur¬ 
 nished with flat face ; they possess the ad¬ 
 vantage that they can be taken out or in¬ 
 serted conveniently. 
 
 Balance Spring. —When adjusting a 
 watch, see that the balance spring is flat 
 and true, and that it has a fly between the 
 regulator pins of about one-half the thick¬ 
 ness of the spring. Then if you will 
 shorten the pins until they do not project 
 below the edge of the balance spring, and 
 file the end of the outside pin at an angle 
 of 45 degrees, there can never be an extra 
 coil of spring caught up. This too frequent 
 trouble can be entirely prevented by the 
 adjusting just now described. 
 
 Advantage of Overcoil Spring.— The 
 great advantage of an overcoil spring is 
 that it distends in action on both sides, 
 and the balance pivots are thereby relieved 
 of the side pressure given with the ordinary 
 flat spring. The Breguet spring in common 
 with the helical and all other forms in 
 which the outer coil returns towards the 
 center, offers opportunities of obtaining 
 isochronism by slightly varying the char¬ 
 acter of the curve described by the outer 
 15 
 
 coil, and thereby altering its power of re¬ 
 sistance. 
 
 Manipulating a Spring. —There is no 
 doubt that the less a spring is “ manipu¬ 
 lated,” the better. Mr. Glasgow contends 
 that the whole question of isochronism re¬ 
 solves itself in the adoption of a spring of 
 the correct length, and recommends for a 
 lever watch 14 turns, if a flat, and 20 turns, 
 if a Breguet spring is used. He argues 
 that if a spring is too short, the short vibra¬ 
 tions will be fast and the long vibrations 
 slow, and that all bending and manipulat¬ 
 ing of the spring, with a view to obtain 
 isochronism, are really only attempts to 
 alter the effective length of the spring. 
 
 Flat Springs. —The length of a balance 
 spring, especiallytbe flat without overcoil, 
 is impoTttrrrtr^Tly varying the strength of 
 the wire, two flat springs may.be produced, 
 each of half the diameter of the balance, 
 but of very unequal lengths, either of 
 which would yield the same number of 
 vibrations as long as the extent of the 
 vibration remained constant, yet if the 
 spring is of an improper length, although it 
 may bring the watch to time in one position, 
 it will fail to keep the long and short vibra¬ 
 tions isochronous. Then again, a good 
 length of spring for a watch with a cylinder 
 escapement vibrating barely a full turn 
 would clearly be insufficient for a lever 
 vibrating a turn and a half. 
 
 Overcoil of Balance Spring. —When 
 the overcoil of a balance spring has been 
 much bent or “manipulated” in timing, 
 its acceleration is almost sure to be exces¬ 
 sive. This is just what might be expected, 
 for a spring unduly bent, so as to be weak¬ 
 ened but not absolutely crippled, recovers 
 in time some of its lost elasticity. But 
 however carefully a spring is bent, the ac¬ 
 celeration is not entirely gotten rid of, even 
 though the spring is heated to redness and 
 again hardened after its form is complete. 
 'There is little doubt that the tendency of 
 springs is to increase slightly in strength 
 for some time after they have been sub¬ 
 jected to continuous action, just as bells 
 are found to alter a little in tone after use. 
 
 Acceleration. —It is pretty generally 
 agreed among chronometer makers that 
 the cause of acceleration is seated in the 
 balance spring, although sotne assert that 
 centrifugal action slightly enlarges the 
 balance, if the arc of vibration is large, as 
 it would be when the oil is fresh, and that 
 as the vibration falls off centrifugal action 
 is lessened and acceleration ensues from 
 
226 
 
 TO FLATTEN BALANCE SPRING. 
 
 the smaller diameter of the balance. 
 Though the balances do undoubtedly in¬ 
 crease slightly in size in the long vibrations 
 from centrifugal action, this theory is dis¬ 
 posed of by the circumstance that old 
 chronometers do not accelerate after re-oil¬ 
 ing. Others aver that the unnatural con¬ 
 nection of the metals composing the com¬ 
 pensation balance is responsible for the 
 mischief, and that after being subjected to 
 heat, the balance hardly returns to its origi¬ 
 nal position again. If true, this may be a 
 reason for exposing new chronometers, be¬ 
 fore they are rated, to a somewhat higher 
 temperature than they are likely to meet 
 with in use, as is the practise of some 
 makers, but then chronometers accelerate 
 on their rates when they are kept in a con¬ 
 stant temperature, and also if a new spring 
 is put to an old balance, or even if a plain, 
 uncut balance is used. 
 
 To Harden and Anneal Springs. —To 
 give push and fly springs a good temper, 
 the following method may be employed : 
 The ready spring is first heated and well 
 rubbed with soap in a hot state. Next 
 heat it to a cherry red (not a white) heat, 
 and temper it in petroleum which does not 
 ignite from the heated steel. The black 
 •crust formed in the steel is readily brushed 
 off, and needs not be ground off, as is the 
 case with other methods of tempering. 
 The spring is then annealed to a light blue 
 upon the annealing plate, say a broad 
 clock spring, and at once rubbed in with 
 tallow, after which it is left to slowly cool 
 upon the annealing plate. A spring treated 
 in this fashion will render good service 
 and be durable. 
 
 Isochronism in Flat Springs. —Flat 
 springs which are to be adjusted to isoch¬ 
 ronism should have from 14 to 15 coils. 
 A still higher number of coils would be de¬ 
 sirable for the purpose of obtaining iso¬ 
 chronism, but springs with such a large 
 number are objectionable for position ad¬ 
 justments. The usual method for adjust¬ 
 ing a flat spring to isochronism is by pin¬ 
 ning the spring into the hairspring stud, so 
 that the pivot where it is pinned into the 
 collet comes opposite to the regulator 
 pins when the regulator stands in the 
 middle of its. arc ; and then bringing the 
 watch to time by changing the balance 
 screws ; of course, a spring should be 
 selected which is very nearly correct. 
 Consequently the taking out or putting in 
 of a pair of screws would bring the watch 
 nearly right. By cutting out a little from a 
 
 screw underneath the head, we can increase 
 the rate a minute or two a day; or by 
 punching out some small washers of the 
 size of a balance screw-head from thin 
 sheet silver, or even the same kind of 
 tinsel used for dial washers, and placing 
 them under the screw-head, we can cause 
 the watch to run as much slower. 
 
 Choosing a Spring. —When choosing 
 and timing a new spring some practise is 
 required to accurately count the vibrations 
 in a second, and many, after picking up 
 the balance by means of the bit of wax on 
 the pivot, give it half a turn, so that it will 
 vibrate for over a minute, and then count 
 every alternate vibration till a spring is 
 obtained that gives about 150 double vibra¬ 
 tions if it is for an 18,000 and about 135 if 
 for a 16,200 train. When a spring of the 
 right strength has been found, it may be 
 pinned in. 
 
 Making the Overcoil. —Two pairs of 
 pliers with curved noses lined with brass 
 are generally used for forming the overcoil 
 of marine chronometer springs. The coil 
 of the spring where the overcoil is to start 
 is grasped by one pair curved exactly to 
 correspond with the spring, and the other 
 pair is used to bend the overcoil. The op¬ 
 eration looks easy enough, but it really 
 requires great skill to get at once an over¬ 
 coil of the desired shape. The overcoils 
 of watch springs are turned with steel 
 tweezers having carefully polished curves. 
 In forming the Phillips curves some watch¬ 
 makers use hot pliers of the required shape 
 to set the curve to the required form. 
 
 Pinning in Short Springs. —A short 
 spring as 4 rule requires to be pinned in 
 short of complete turns, and a long one 
 beyond the complete turns. In duplex 
 and other watches with frictional escape¬ 
 ments, small arcs of vibration and short 
 springs, it will be found that the spring re¬ 
 quires to be pinned in nearly half a turn 
 short of complete turns. The marine chro¬ 
 nometer springs are found to isochronize 
 better and act more true when pinned in 
 about a quarter of a turn short of complete 
 turns. 
 
 Cockling Springs. —Watch springs of 
 thick and narrow wire are apt to cockle 
 with large vibrations, while springs of wide 
 and thin wire keep their shape and are 
 more rigid. It is of even greater impor¬ 
 tance that the springs of marine chronome¬ 
 ters, subjected to the tremor of steamships, 
 should be of wide and thin wire. 
 
 To Flatten Balance Spring. — To 
 
HOW TO TEST A BALANCE SPRING. 
 
 227 
 
 flatten an ordinary balance spring, remove 
 the collet and stud, and clamp the spring 
 by a central screw between two plates, 
 which are then placed on a bluing tray and 
 gently heated. A small piece of whitened 
 steel is laid on the plate, in order to see 
 that the heat does not exceed what is 
 needed to give a blue temper. Allow the 
 plates to cool and separate them. 
 
 Pinning in the Spring. —The end of 
 the overcoil of a Breguet spring should run 
 into the hole of the stud before being 
 pinned in, and if the stud is screwed into 
 the cock without the balance it will easily 
 be seen if the jewel hole is in the center of 
 the hole in the spring collet, as it should 
 be. This spring should also be pinned in 
 at equal turns. 
 
 Features of the Balance Spring.— 
 Sir G. B. Airy, of England, has demon¬ 
 strated that the loss in heat from the weak¬ 
 ening of the balance spring is uniformly in 
 proportion to the increase of temperature. 
 
 Choosing a Balance Spring. —A very 
 common and at the same time very uncer¬ 
 tain method of ascertaining the strength of 
 a spring is by lifting the balance itself. 
 The almost uselessness of this method is 
 seen when we know that the diameter of 
 the balance has very much to do with the 
 timing of a watch, and the diameter, when 
 the weight of the balance is considered 
 principally, counts for nothing. A spring 
 should be chosen that is smaller than the 
 circle of the steel hole and index pins. 
 That is, the spring should look small when 
 the balance is at rest, as a spring of this 
 size has more freedom at the coils and 
 assists in quickening the short arcs of the 
 balance. 
 
 Slow Action of Spring. —A spring too 
 large in relation to the position of the in¬ 
 dex pins and stud is pretty sure to be slow 
 in its short arcs. 
 
 Correcting the Spring. —I have seen 
 directions by experienced men for timing 
 in positions by the curb pins. This should 
 never be attempted. The curb pins 
 (always an evil) should be wide enough 
 apart to let the spring just move between 
 them and no more, and should never be 
 far from the stud. As “ manipulating ” the 
 curb pins, as it is termed, is done only 
 with the object of lengthening or shorten¬ 
 ing the acting length of the spring, this 
 should be accomplished in the proper way 
 at once by adding to or taking away 
 weight from the balance. 
 
 ISOCHRONISM OF BALANCE SPRING.-A 
 
 balance spring of whatever form, to be 
 isochronous, must satisfy with the follow¬ 
 ing conditions : Its center of gravity must 
 always be on the axis of the balance, and 
 it must expand and contract in the vibra¬ 
 tions concentrically with that axis. When 
 these conditions are secured in a properly 
 made spring, it will possess the quality of 
 isochronism—that is, its force will increase 
 in proportion to the tension, and it will not 
 exert any lateral pressure on the pivots. 
 Mr. Phillips, in his memoir, demonstrates 
 these conditions, and proves theoretically 
 that the terminal curves deduced with the 
 view of satisfying the one condition and 
 verify at the same time the other. 
 
 Breguet Spring. —A Breguet spring 
 
 shou 1 d ne ver-be.app 1 ied to a watch with an 
 
 index. It is perhaps the best form of spring 
 for a pocket watch, having all the prop¬ 
 erties in action of the cylindrical spring, 
 and the great advantage of flatness in form, 
 but any attempt at producing a good time¬ 
 keeper with this spring and index pins will 
 end in failure. And any attempt at getting 
 time in positions by pressing the outer 
 coil of the flat spring against the outer or 
 inner pin is mere botchwork, and, even if 
 successful, would require to be repeated 
 every time the balance had to be taken out. 
 
 Flat Spring. —For flat springs with index 
 I w'ould strongly recommend the plan of 
 pinning a spring into the collet in order 
 to get the stud hole and index pins to 
 correspond. 
 
 Attachment of Springs. —The position 
 of the points of attachment of the inner 
 and outer turns of a balance spring in re¬ 
 lation to each other has an effect on the 
 long and short vibrations quite apart from 
 its length. For instance, a very different 
 performance may be obtained with tw'o 
 springs of precisely the same length and 
 character in other respects, but pinned in 
 so that one has exactly complete turns and 
 the other a little under or a little over 
 complete turns. 
 
 Balance Spring. —The dimension of 
 the spring, its form at the attachments, the 
 position of the attachments with relation to 
 each other, are all factors affecting its con¬ 
 trolling power. 
 
 How to Test a Balance Spring.— Pick 
 out a balance spring which in size and 
 thickness appears to be suitable ; pin it in 
 the collet, which place on the balance. 
 Then enter the balance in the calipers 
 and straighten the spring to an exact flat¬ 
 ness and height. Now take a well regu- 
 
228 
 
 SPRINGING. 
 
 lated watch with seconds hand, seize the 
 outer end of the balance spring with the 
 tweezers and let the balance vibrate upon 
 the watch crystal, thereby counting the 
 double vibrations made by the balance in 
 one minute. Mark the place where you 
 commenced counting, and when the seconds 
 hand has arrived again at this place you 
 must be about to count the 150th double 
 vibration. If the balance makes fewer 
 vibrations catch the spring more to the in¬ 
 side with the tweezers and commence 
 counting again; repeat this until you have 
 found the correct place where the vibrations 
 coincide. At this place the spring must be 
 pinned in the stud. If the curb pins areas 
 open as they should be and the watch in 
 good order a difference of at most one 
 minute to two minutes in twenty-four hours 
 may be found, which can then be easily 
 corrected with the index. The counting 
 requires some practise, and the repairer 
 who is sufficiently skilled can regulate a 
 watch quicker in this way than by the ear. 
 If the balance with the new spring makes 
 in the first trial more than 150 double 
 vibrations in one minute the spring is too 
 strong, and a weaker is to be put in. 
 
 Momentum.— Momentum overcomes 
 some of the elastic force of the balance 
 spring and friction. It is the force of a 
 body in motion, and is equal to the weight 
 of the body multiplied by its velocity. 
 Velocity in a balance is represented by its 
 circumference, a given point in which it 
 travels a given distance in a given time. 
 Weight is that contained in its rim. A 
 balance may be said to have more or less 
 momentum in proportion as it retains force 
 imparted to it by impulsion. If a watch 
 has a balance with which it has been 
 brought to time and this is changed for one 
 of one-half its size it requires to be four 
 times as heavy, because its weight is then 
 only half the distance from the center, and 
 any given point in its circumference has 
 only half the distance to travel. On the 
 other hand, a balance twice the size would 
 have one-fourth the weight. In the first 
 case the balance would have twice as much 
 momentum as the original one, because if 
 we multiply the weight by the velocity we 
 have a product twice as great. 
 
 The Action of Br£guet Spring.— The 
 Breguet spring, although differing very little 
 in form from the simple volute, is essentially 
 different in action and principle ; the over¬ 
 coil, being fixed above the spring, and 
 nearer the center, gives it perfect freedom 
 
 to expand in a circle all around. 'This 
 spring must be longer than the fiat spring, 
 as the force of the outer curve inward 
 gives it more power of resistance, and also 
 an easy and perfect means of obtaining 
 isochronism. I find about 20, according to 
 the size of the watch, the best length for 
 this spring, and curb pins should never be 
 used with it, if perfect timekeeping be 
 aimed at. 
 
 Isochronism. — It may be taken as a 
 very good rule that a balance spring should 
 be half the diameter of the balance and 
 have 14 turns if it is a flat spring for a 
 lever watch, or 20 turns if a Breguet. These 
 lengths, it will be understood, only apply 
 where the work is good ; with coarse work 
 a shorter spring is required in order to get 
 the short arcs fast enough. Springs for 
 cylinder watches should have from eight to 
 twelve turns. 
 
 Short Arcs. —It is remarkable that while 
 in watches the difficulty is generally to get 
 the short arcs sufficiently fast, precisely the 
 reverse is the case with the marine chro¬ 
 nometer, in which the trouble is usually to 
 get the short arcs slow enough. The es¬ 
 capement is not responsible for the differ¬ 
 ence, because pocket chronometers follow 
 the same rule as watches with lever escape¬ 
 ments. The size of the pivots in propor¬ 
 tion to the size of the balance is partially 
 the cause, for in very small watches where, 
 of course, the pivots are relatively large, 
 the slowness of the hanging position is 
 proverbial, and a shorter spring by a turn 
 or two has often to be substituted. Very 
 quick trains should be avoided on this 
 account. 
 
 Isochronism. —Some are under the im¬ 
 pression that an isochronal spring will cor¬ 
 rect vertical position errors, but this is a 
 mistake ; still, it has much to do with the 
 horizontal positions as compared with the 
 vertical. There are many factors which 
 play important parts in the rate of any 
 watch to run in all the positions. Some¬ 
 times two of these will compromise favor¬ 
 ably with each other, while others will tend 
 to aggravate and augment the errors. Of 
 these factors, we mention a few, such as 
 want of isochronism, unequal friction in 
 the different positions ; side shake of balance 
 pivots ; slight errors in poise of balance ; 
 various escapement errors, etc., together 
 with the errors in the poise of the balance 
 spring. 
 
 Springing. —In all springing great care 
 is necessary in pinning the spring on the 
 
CHRONOGRAPH. 
 
 229 
 
 collet. Always broach the collet before 
 pinning in, and see that, in the case of a 
 flat spring, the hole is parallel with the 
 collet and properly chamfered at both 
 ends, that the spring has a flat side, and 
 that the spring is not permanently pinned 
 in till it is nearly true, for when once on 
 
 the collet, much difficulty is experienced 
 in bending the center inward. Put the 
 collet on an arbor, and in the calipers 
 you will see if the spiral is quite true ; if 
 not, bend it gradually until it is so. By 
 putting the arbor in the turns the spring 
 can be gotten flat. 
 
 NOTES ON THE ESCAPEMENT AND DIAL. 
 
 T he Action of the Escapement. —The 
 force of the balance mass in revolving 
 winds up the' reciprocating spring, and as 
 soon as this spring has secreted all the force 
 of the balance the motion is reciprocated by 
 the uncoiling of the spring. Arrived at the 
 place of the escapement arc (where the 
 lever is lying at the proper angle against 
 one of the banking pins), the roller pin 
 jewel enters the lever notch, and the recip¬ 
 rocated force of the balance, by the aid of 
 the roller pin, now moves around the lever 
 and pallets sufficiently to draw the locking 
 out from under the escape wheel tooth, and 
 all the mechanism being then set free the 
 escape wheel moves forward again over the 
 impulse plane of the opposite pallet, giving 
 another impulse to the pieces and again 
 another tooth of the wheel drops on to the 
 opposite locking, the wheel resting there and 
 stopping all the machinery, while the roller 
 and balance vibrate freely as before. 
 
 Escapement in Beat.— When the bal¬ 
 ance spring is at rest the balance should 
 have to be moved an equal amount each way 
 before a tooth escapes. By gently pressing 
 against the fourth wheel with a peg this 
 may be tried. There is a dot on the 
 balance and three dots on the plate to as¬ 
 sist in estimating the amount of lift. 
 When the balance spring is at rest the dot 
 on the balance should be opposite to the 
 center dot on the plates. The escapement 
 will then be in beat, that is, provided the 
 dots are properly placed, which should be 
 tested. Turn the balance from its point 
 of rest till a tooth just drops, and note the 
 position of the dot on the balance with 
 reference to one of the outer dots on the 
 plate. Turn the balance in the opposite 
 direction till a tooth drops again, and if the 
 dot on the balance is then in the same posi¬ 
 tion with reference to the other outer dot, the 
 escapement will be in beat. The two outer 
 dots should mark the extent of the lifting, 
 and the dot on the balance would then be 
 coincident with them, as the teeth dropped 
 ■when tried in this way, but the dots maybe 
 
 a little too wide or too close, and it will, 
 therefore, be sufficient if the dot on balance 
 bears the same relative position to them as 
 just explained ; but if it is found that the lift 
 is unequal from the point of rest the balance 
 spring collet must be shifted in the direc¬ 
 tion of the leastjrftr'till the lift is equal. A 
 new mark should then be made on the 
 balance opposite to the central dot on the 
 plate. 
 
 Recoil Escapement.— The recoil escape¬ 
 ment is used mostly for clocks with short 
 pendulums, for which it is well adapted 
 where no very great accuracy is required ; 
 it is easily made and performs regularly. 
 But although variations in the impulse pro¬ 
 duce less alteration in the arc of vibration 
 than similar variations would in the arc of 
 the Graham escapement, which for some 
 time led clockmakers to think that it was 
 the more reliable escapement of the two, 
 they affect the time of the vibrations very 
 considerably (the clock going faster for an 
 increase of the motive force and slower for 
 a decrease), as should be patent to any one 
 without further demonstration, after a little 
 consideration of the form of the pallets and 
 the direction of the forces. Yet after the 
 many years during which the two escape¬ 
 ments have been tried, and the experience 
 which has proved undeniably the superior¬ 
 ity of the dead-beat, people may still be 
 heard to assert that the recoil is the better 
 escapement of the two. 
 
 Remontoire.' —Those who read German 
 and French will in their horological litera¬ 
 ture often come across the word “ remon¬ 
 toire.” Originally it meant a spring or 
 other device which is wound by a clock and 
 discharged at regular intervals. The func¬ 
 tion of a remontoire is generally either to 
 impart impulse to the pendulum or to cause 
 the hands of the clock to jump through cer¬ 
 tain spaces. Though this word comes from 
 the French it is not now used in that lan¬ 
 guage, except in the sense of a stem-winder. 
 
 Chronograph.— Although the chrono¬ 
 graph, on account of its ability to measure 
 
230 
 
 ACTION OF CYLINDER ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 fractions of a second, has almost displaced 
 the independent center seconds watch, it is 
 by no means a perfect construction. The 
 serrated wheels are not calculated to with¬ 
 stand continuous wear, and it is evident 
 that, however fine the serrations, they 
 would cause the chronograph hand to jump 
 backward or forward when brought into 
 contact unless a projection and groove hap¬ 
 pen to exactly coincide. This is often ag¬ 
 gravated by minute portions of a broken 
 glass or other grit getting into the serrations. 
 
 Isochronism. —The eye of the balance 
 spring is occasionally operated on to obtain 
 isochronism, and is left more open for 
 that purpose. It is found that alterations 
 of the eye are most effective when the ends 
 are attached about one-eighth short of half 
 a turn or one-eighth short of a whole turn. 
 Great experience, which is only acquired 
 after many failures, is required to effect the 
 desired purpose, as in setting the spring 
 true again after the alteration, the effect is 
 easily destroyed. 
 
 Recoil Escapement v. Anchor. —There 
 are watchmakers who believe that the recoil 
 is a better escapement than the dead beat 
 —mainly because the former requires a 
 greater vibration of the driving power to 
 affect the extent of the vibration of the 
 pendulum than the latter does. But the 
 matter is beyond argument; the recoil can 
 be cheaply made and is a useful escape¬ 
 ment, but beyond question it is inferior to 
 the dead-beat in its time-keeping qualities. 
 
 Uniting Escapement Parts. —The mode 
 of connecting the balance and roller with 
 the lever and pallets is by planting the 
 pieces sufficiently close together, so that the 
 jewel pin of the roller is linked into the 
 lever notch, by which contrivance the lever 
 and roller can turn each other alternately. 
 It is well to remark, however, that the vibra¬ 
 tion of a watch balance is a reciprocating 
 circular motion, the motion being recipro¬ 
 cated by a spiral spring, usually called the 
 balance spring, one end of which is fast¬ 
 ened to the collet placed on the balance 
 axis, and the other end to a stud. 
 
 Testing Escapement. —When you have 
 mounted the watch after cleaning, wind a 
 little and test the escapement. Hold a fine 
 broach so that the end of the lever will 
 strike it; this will throw the guard point or 
 pin against the roller ; if this will catch and 
 hold the roller after the broach is removed, 
 the roller is probably rough and must be re- 
 polished ; if the lever will throw over so 
 far that the roller jewel will not enter the 
 
 fork without striking, then the lever is too 
 short and must be corrected by bending the 
 guard pin, or filing back the guard point, 
 drilling and putting in a pin American 
 style. In adjusting the guard pin, bend it 
 in such a shape that the end shake of the 
 part cannot change the action. If the roller 
 and guard action is all right, but the'roller 
 jewel strikes the corner of the fork when 
 the lever is thrown against the roller, then 
 the jewel must be changed for one more 
 flattened, or be set a little nearer to the 
 staff. 
 
 Pin Pallet Escapement.— This excellent 
 escapement, invented by Mr. Brocot, is 
 rarely seen except in small French clocks, 
 but appears to be worthy of more extended 
 use. The fronts of the teeth of the escape 
 wheel are sometimes made radial, some¬ 
 times cut back so as to bear on the point 
 only, like the “Graham”; and sometimes 
 set forward so as to give recoil to the wheel 
 during the motion of the pendulum beyond 
 the escaping arc. The pallets, generally 
 of ruby, are of semicircular form. The 
 diameter of each is a trifle less than the dis¬ 
 tance between two teeth of the large wheel. 
 The angle of impulse in this escapement 
 bears direct reference to the number of 
 teeth embraced by the pallets. Ten is the 
 usual number. The distance between the 
 escape wheel and pallet staff centers should 
 not be less than the radius of the wheel 
 multiplied by 1.7. This gives about 4 de¬ 
 grees of impulse measured from the pallet 
 staff center. 
 
 Value of Cylinder Escapement. —The 
 cylinder escapement is essentially a fric¬ 
 tional, as distinguished from a detached, 
 escapement. It performs fairly well and is- 
 just suited for the lower grades of watches. 
 The vibrations of the balance are not so 
 much affected by inequality in the force 
 transmitted and by other faults, if the escape¬ 
 ment is a frictional one, and the work com¬ 
 paratively coarse, as when a highly de¬ 
 tached escapement and very fine pivots are 
 used. 
 
 Action of Cylinder Escapement. —In 
 order to describe the action of the cylinder 
 escapement, let the watchmaker imagine 
 that the pivot of a tooth of the escape wheel 
 is pressing against the outside of the shell 
 of the cylinder. As the cylinder on which 
 the balance is mounted, moves around in 
 its proper direction the wedge-shaped tooth 
 of the escape wheel pushes into the cylinder 
 thereby giving it impulse. The tooth can¬ 
 not escape at the other side of the cylinder 
 
EXAMINING CYLINDER ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 23 I 
 
 for the shell of the cylinder at this point is 
 rather more than half a circle, but its point 
 rests against the inner side of the shell till 
 the balance completes its vibration and 
 returns, when the tooth which was inside 
 the cylinder escapes, and the point of the 
 succeeding tooth is caught on the outside 
 of the shell. 
 
 Drop in the Cylinder Escapement.— 
 Though excellent for ordinary pocket 
 watches, the cylinder escapement cannot be 
 said to be equal to the lever and some 
 others, where great accuracy is required. 
 The drop of the escapement is the cause of 
 much trouble to watchmakers, but the fol¬ 
 lowing method will enable them to ascertain 
 how far the drops are equal and correct. 
 The movement being slightly wound, turn 
 the balance with a fine wire or slip of paper 
 till a tooth falls ; now try how much shake 
 the escape wheel has and allow the tooth to 
 escape; then try again and go all round the 
 wheel to see how all the teeth and spaces 
 agree in size. To correct any inequality is 
 certainly a job for an expert hand ; direc¬ 
 tions will not avail much unless to an ex¬ 
 pert. When the tooth contained within 
 the cylinder has no freedom and rubs at 
 the point and heel, there is no internal 
 drop; when the tooth has escaped and the 
 cylinder rubs on the point of one tooth and 
 the heel of the next, then there is no out¬ 
 ward drop. The internal drop is increased 
 by reducing the length of the teeth ; the 
 external drop is increased by increasing 
 the space between the teeth. When the 
 drop is very slight, the watch is quite liable 
 to stop through excessive friction ; in the 
 case of unequal drop, the rate of a watch 
 cannot be maintained, and occasional stop¬ 
 pages will occur. This fault is found by 
 dotting the balance with spots of rouge, and 
 carefully noting the vibrations, which, if 
 unequal, indicate unequal drops. Though 
 this is the usual course, the same effect may 
 be the result if some teeth lift more than 
 others. A noisy drop is caused by badly 
 polished surfaces, and in such a case the 
 wheel of the cylinder should be carefully 
 noticed. 
 
 Cylinder Escapement. —One property 
 which the cylinder escapement possesses, 
 and which renders it peculiarly well adapted 
 for going-barrel watches is that it is not so 
 much affected by any change in the motive 
 power of the watch as any other escape¬ 
 ment, the friction rest of the tooth on the 
 cylinder exercising a compensating power 
 over the extent of the vibrations, so that 
 
 any addition to the motive force is attended 
 with additional friction on the cylinder, 
 while the balance is performing the supple¬ 
 mentary arcs of vibration, and so retarding 
 it and compensating for the additional force 
 of the impulses. This isochronizing power 
 was what recommended it especially to the 
 Swiss, who saw the possibility of suppress¬ 
 ing the fusee, of which they never had 
 been in favor, and which, in fact, they 
 never understood thoroughly. 
 
 Dead-beat or “ Graham ” Escapement. 
 —This escapement is considered to be the 
 best for regulators and other clocks with 
 seconds pendulum. The oTily defect in¬ 
 herent in its construction is that the thick¬ 
 ening of the oil on tfie pallets will affect the 
 rate of the ^jdoekafter it has been going 
 some time. Notwithstanding this, it has 
 held its own against all other escapements 
 on account of its simplicity and certainty of 
 action. The pallets of the Graham escape¬ 
 ment were formerly made to escape over 
 fifteen teeth of the wheel, and until recently 
 ten, but now many escapements are made 
 with pallets escaping over but eight teeth. 
 This reduces the length of the impulse plane, 
 and the length of the run on the dead face 
 for a given arc of vibration, and conse¬ 
 quently the relative effect of the thickening 
 of the oil. The angle of impulse is kept 
 small for the same reason. There is not 
 much gained by making the pallets embrace 
 a less number of teeth thin eight, for the 
 shake in the pivot holes and inaccuracies 
 of work cannot be reduced in the same ratio, 
 and are therefore greater in proportion. 
 This involves larger angles and more drop. 
 It is purely a practical question, and has 
 been decided by the adoption of eight teeth, 
 as a good mean. 
 
 Detached Levfr Watch. —The charac¬ 
 teristic of the detached lever is its fork, 
 which is solidly united with the pallets. 
 At the other end of the fork it is furnished 
 with a prolongation for establishing a cen¬ 
 tral poise, nevertheless, it may be observed 
 in many watches, that in spite of this pro¬ 
 vision attached to the fork, this body is far 
 from being perfectly and evenly balanced 
 upon its axis. As may be supposed, this 
 absence of equipoise prevents the adjust¬ 
 ment in the horizontal and vertical posi¬ 
 tions, and before the adjuster expends any 
 work, it is necessary to place pallets and 
 fork into the poising tool, and to establish 
 the equipoise in a suitable way. 
 
 Examining Gylinder Escapement.— 
 See that cylinder and wheel are perfectly 
 
DUPLEX SLAP E-W11E KI.. 
 
 upright. Remove the balance spring and 
 put the cylinder and cock in their places. 
 Then with a little power on and a wedge 
 of cork under the balance to check its mo¬ 
 tion, try if all the escape wheel teeth have 
 sufficient drop, both inside and out. If the 
 drop is sufficient inside, with none outside, 
 the wheel is too small; if the reverse, the 
 wheel is too large—that is, provided the 
 cylinder is planted the correct depth. If 
 some of the teeth only are without neces¬ 
 sary freedom, make a hole in thin sheet 
 brass of such a size that one of the teeth 
 that has proper ghape will just enter. Use 
 this as a gauge to shorten the full teeth by. 
 For this purpose use either steel and oil¬ 
 stone dust or a sapphire file, polish well 
 with metal and rouge, and finish with a 
 burnisher. Be careful to operate on the 
 noses of the teeth only, and round them 
 .both ways, so that a mere point is in con¬ 
 tact with the cylinder. If the inside drop 
 is right and there is no outside drop with 
 any of the teeth, although this would in¬ 
 dicate a wheel too small it may be prudent 
 to change the cylinder for one of the same 
 inside diameter, but thinner, rather than 
 remove the wheel, for it often happens that 
 a larger wheel would not clear the fourth 
 pinion. 
 
 Restoring the Color of a Nickel 
 Movement. —The following method for 
 restoring the color of a nickel movement is 
 recommended by a correspondent. Take 
 fifty parts rectified spirits of wine, one part 
 sulphuric acid, and one part nitric acid. 
 Dip the pieces for about ten or fifteen 
 seconds into this bath, then rinse them in 
 cold water, and throw into rectified spirits 
 of wine. Dry them with a piece of fine 
 linen or in sawdust. Nickel and the ma¬ 
 jority of other metals which are liable to 
 tarnish, may also be restored to their orig¬ 
 inal color by dipping into the following 
 bath : Dissolve in half a glass of water, six 
 or seven grains of cyanide of potassium ; 
 plunge the pieces into the solution, and 
 withdraw them immediately. As the cya¬ 
 nide mixes well with the water, it is suffi¬ 
 cient to rinse them at once in the latter to 
 destroy any traces of the acid. After this, 
 dip the pieces in spirits of wine, and dry 
 in boxwood dust to keep them from rusting. 
 The balance spring even may be subject¬ 
 ed to this operation without any danger. 
 If the pieces to be restored are greasy, they 
 must be cleaned in benzine before being 
 dipped in the cyanide because it will not 
 touch grease. Cyanide of potassium being 
 
 a voilent poison, great care must be exer¬ 
 cised and the operation should be per¬ 
 formed in a well-ventilated place. The 
 same bath, preserved in a bottle, may be 
 used for a long time. 
 
 Banking American Watch. —If an 
 American watch has movable bankings, 
 proceed to adjust them so that the guard 
 pin will stand as close to the roller as per¬ 
 fect freedom in all positions will allow. 
 The finer the watch the closer it can be 
 banked with safety; with a cheap affair, 
 plenty of play should be left. 
 
 Over ban king. —Overbanking depends 
 on the position of the guard pin or point, 
 with reference to the roller table. If the 
 guard pin stands too far from the roller 
 table, it will overbank. Some watchmakers 
 will advise to put in a large roller jewel ; 
 but this will not remedy the matter, and it 
 is therefore quite useless. We would sug¬ 
 gest that the repairer bend the pin, a fairly 
 sharp bend, close to the lever, and then a 
 little distance from this bend, bend it 
 straight up so that it will stand perpendic¬ 
 ularly where it works against the roller 
 table. The guard pin should always stand 
 perpendicularly where it touches the roller 
 table ; if it does not, the banking will be 
 different when the watch lies on its back 
 and when on its face, unless the end shape 
 of the lever and balance are exactly the 
 same : even then there is danger of trouble, 
 as the lever may not drop as soon as the 
 balance. Again the pin is liable to stick 
 or catch against the table when it stands 
 slanting. 
 
 Duplex Watch. — In affirmation of the 
 opinion some time ago expressed by The 
 Circular about the duplex watch, Mr. 
 Glasgow says: “When we consider the 
 delicacy of this escapement, its unsuitabil¬ 
 ity for a full plate watch, and the way many 
 of these watches were made, we may easily 
 understand why the duplex escapement 
 got a bad name in that quarter of the world, 
 and also how it was the Americans took to 
 machinery, and made watches themselves. 
 It must have taken a good deal of ingenuity 
 to devise so thoroughly bad a watch as a 
 full plate duplex, and what was bad in the 
 original construction was soon made worse 
 by the American repairers and the fitters of 
 these movements to the cases. The con¬ 
 sequence has been that an escapement 
 which is capable of and has given excellent 
 results, has gradually gone out of favor, 
 and almost out of use.” 
 
 Duplex Scape-Wheel.—T he train used 
 
USE OE WASHERS. 
 
 233 
 
 in duplex watches is invariably the 18,000, 
 as in the chronometer, and the balance usu¬ 
 ally vibrates nearly a turn. Overbacking 
 cannot take place with this escapement as 
 it does with the cylinder and the lever, the 
 effect of the balance vibrating too far will 
 cause the escapement to “run,” that is, 
 two or more teeth will escape at one vibra¬ 
 tion, causing the watch to gain a few sec¬ 
 onds. as is the case with the chronometer. 
 Various methods were tried to prevent this 
 running or tripping of the wheel. The old- 
 fashioned plan was to fix a stud or pin on 
 the balance staff just above the pallet, hav¬ 
 ing a slot cut in it into which a pin fixed in 
 the staff, projected, allowing it to move a 
 quarter of a turn. This stud had a sort of 
 pallet projecting from it, and, if the b alanc e, 
 moved more than half a turn either way, 
 this pallet came in contact with a banking 
 stud or pin fixed in the plate. 
 
 Graham Escapement. —The Graham es¬ 
 capement requires a heavy pendulum, es¬ 
 pecially if the train is comparatively rough. 
 The clock weight must be sufficient to 
 overcome increased resistance arising from 
 inaccuracy of work; consequently when 
 the train runs freely so much extra pres¬ 
 sure's thrown upon the dead faces of the 
 pallets that a light pendulum has not suf- 
 cient energy to unlock and the clock 
 stops. 
 
 Proportion of Scape-Wheel to Pinion. 
 — It is a good rule, when a repairer takes 
 an escapement into his hands, to first look 
 at the scapewheel and pinion to see that he 
 has not a fully large wheel to the pinion. 
 Next let him hold up the pallets to the 
 light to see that they have not very great 
 angles on them. Then let him compare the 
 radii of the lever and wheel and see that 
 the lever is not much longer than the wheel, 
 and finally see that the roller goes three or 
 four times in the lever, reckoning the roller 
 from balance staff to ruby pin. If he has 
 these things the escapement will do well as 
 regards its pieces, all the rest depending 
 upon properly fitted pivots, proper depth 
 and freedom, well uprighted staffs, poising, 
 hooking and equalizing. 
 
 Ratio of Spring to Balance.— The 
 momentum of a moving body varies with 
 its velocity, and in the coils of a balance 
 spring the variation is according to the 
 square of their distances from their centers 
 of motions, and as the center of gyration 
 in the mass of each coil is always nearer 
 the center of motion than are the balance 
 screws, it is self-evident that these two 
 
 factors bear unfavorable relations to each 
 other, and consequently the one cannot be 
 made to compromise with the other for the 
 faults of either. 
 
 The Safety Action. —See to the safety 
 action ; when the tooth drops on to the 
 locking, the safety pin should just be clear 
 of the roller. If it is not clear, the edge of 
 the roller should be polished down till it is 
 right. If there is more than clearance, the 
 safety pin must be brought closer to the 
 roller. See upon pressing the safety pin 
 against the roller that the tooth does not 
 leave the locking, and that the impulse pin 
 is free to/enter the notch without butting 
 on the horn of the lever; also that the 
 safety^ action is sound, so that the pin is in 
 __noAdanger of passing the roller. If the ac¬ 
 tion is not sound, the diameter of the roller 
 should be reduced and the safety pin 
 brought toward it sufficiently to get a broad 
 action, if it can be done ; but if the escape¬ 
 ment has been so badly proportioned as 
 not to allow of a second action being ob¬ 
 tained in this way the pin must be shifted 
 forward and the bankings opened to allow 
 more run. 
 
 Guard Pin Depth. —When a guard pin 
 depth is too shallow, the pin must be bent 
 minutely inward to the roller, and the bank¬ 
 ings opened a trifle. When a guard pin 
 depth is too deep, the edge of the roller 
 may be topped down with a bell metal 
 polisher and sharp rouge. If a screw is 
 placed up through the nearer of the turns, 
 part of the polisher will work on the screw 
 and part on the roller’s edge, so as to keep 
 the latter square. 
 
 No Washers. —Washers either laid un¬ 
 der or mounted upon the minute wheel pin 
 are occasionally found. This remedy, made 
 use of for raising the depthing of the min¬ 
 ute wheel to the plane of the cannon pinion, 
 is not permissible, because such a small 
 steel disc is lost only too readily. 
 
 Use of Washers.— If the watch accel¬ 
 erates its rate, bring it to time by means of 
 washers under the heads of the screws, if 
 the balance is not provided with mean-time 
 screws. These washers are cut out of 
 brass or gold plate rolled down to as thin 
 as rrnnr of an inch. It is best to have three 
 pieces of stock, toVtt, nunr, twtt, in thick¬ 
 ness. A half-dozen washer cutters will em¬ 
 brace all the sizes of American balance 
 screws. These washer cutters are punches 
 the size of the head of a screw with under¬ 
 cut end, a “ tit ” protecting the size of the 
 threaded portion of the screw. Place pairs 
 
234 
 
 BLEACHING WATCH DIAL, ETC. 
 
 of these washers under opposite screws, 
 usually the screws at the extremities of the 
 balance arms. A little experience will soon 
 guide you about the thickness of stock re¬ 
 quired to correct given errors ; also, you 
 can always present the watch with the reg¬ 
 ulator in the center, something which many 
 customers look at. Punch out the washers 
 on a lead block. 
 
 The Collet. —'The balance spring collet 
 often gives trouble, owing to bad fitting and 
 want of freedom of the cock and screw- 
 heads of the index piece. I usually put 
 my watches in beat by moving the collet 
 with a fine screw-driver or drill in the slot, 
 without shifting the stud slit of the cock, 
 resting the cock on the board paper, and 
 simply drawing the balance a sufficient dis¬ 
 tance to get at the collet. I find that being 
 out of beat is a greater source of stoppage 
 than anything else, and suppose the trouble 
 and danger attending frequent removal of 
 the spring and balance the reason why it is 
 overlooked, and devised this plan to save 
 trouble and insure accuracy of beat. 
 
 To Clean a Gold Dial. —First dis¬ 
 solve one-half ounce of cyanide of potash 
 in hot water; to this add two ounces of 
 strongest ammonia, and one-half ounce 
 spirits of wine. Dip the dial fora few sec¬ 
 onds and immediately immerse in warm 
 water, brushing it lightly; this will soon 
 show a clean dial; then rinse and dry off 
 in hot boxwood dust. Some use diluted 
 nitric acid for cleaning dials, or hvposul- 
 phate of soda will do it if dissolved and 
 mixed with ammonia; but with either of 
 these the painted numbers go with the dirt, 
 so only dials with gold numbers can be 
 done with this process. We could give 
 several recipes for dial cleaning, but the 
 above is as simple and effective as anything 
 we know of. 
 
 Safety Pin. —The object of the safety 
 pin is to prevent the wheel being unlocked 
 except when the impulse pin is in the notch 
 of the lever. The banking pins keep the 
 motion of the lever within the desired 
 limits. They should be placed where any 
 blow from the impulse pin on the outside 
 of the lever is received direct. They are 
 sometimes placed at the tail of the lever, 
 but in that position the banking pins re¬ 
 ceive the blow through the pallet-staff 
 pivots, which are liable to be broken in 
 consequence. 
 
 Length of Lever. —You may easily as¬ 
 certain whether or not the lever is of proper 
 
 length by measuring from the guard point 
 to the pallet staff, and then comparing with 
 the roller table; the diameter of the table 
 should always be just one-half the length 
 measured on the lever. The rule will work 
 both ways, and may be useful in cases 
 where a new table roller has to be supplied. 
 
 To Reduce Diameter of Dial. —Rest¬ 
 ing the dial in an inclined position against 
 a block, file its edge with a smooth or half¬ 
 smooth file, which must only be allowed to 
 act while advancing, and is at the same time 
 displaced sideways and turned so as to fol¬ 
 low the contour of the dial. The file should 
 be dipped occasionally in turpentine, and 
 when sufficient enamel has bee.n removed, 
 pass a new emery stick over it to remove 
 the file marks. 
 
 Replacing a Dial Foot. —To replace a 
 dial foot, prepare a piece of copper wire 
 with an enlarged surface where it is at¬ 
 tached to the dial. Tin this surface, scrape 
 away the enamel for its reception by means 
 of a graver moistened with turpentine, tin 
 the copper, place the wire in position and 
 gently heat with a blow-pipe. 
 
 Broaching Hole in Enamel Dial.— 
 Use a flat-ended drill or a conical broach 
 of copper into which diamond powder has 
 been hammered. A graver kept moistened 
 with turpentine is sometimes used. The 
 edges of holes in dials may be trimmed 
 with corundum sticks to be obtained in 
 material stores. 
 
 Dial Feet. —In common watches, pins 
 falling out of the dial feet are a fruitful 
 source of trouble. Sometimes a dial foot 
 is burst at the hole. In this case a better 
 plan than removing the foot is to encircle 
 it with a bit of tubing, soldered to the cop¬ 
 per of the dial. The hole in the pillar plate 
 can be opened to suit the tubing and anew 
 pin fitted, with the assurance that the posi¬ 
 tion of the foot has not been altered. 
 
 Bleaching Watch Dial, Etc.— Dis¬ 
 solve 1-2 oz. cyanide of potassium in a 
 quart of hot water and add 2 oz. strong 
 liquor ammonia and 1-2 oz. spirits of wine 
 (these two may have been mixed pre¬ 
 viously). Dip the dials, whether silver, 
 gold or gilt, in it for a few seconds, then 
 put them in warm water; brush well with 
 soap, and afterward with clear water ; rinse 
 and dry in hot box-wood dust. Another 
 good plan is to greatly heat the dial and 
 dip in diluted nitric acid, but this method 
 must not be adopted for dials with painted 
 figures, for these would be destroyed. 
 
TRUING THE BALANCE. 
 
 235 
 
 NOTES ON ADJUSTMENT AND COMPENSATED BALANCE. 
 
 A djustment. — When adjusting a de¬ 
 tached lever, examine the motion of 
 the balance with an attentive eye. A bal¬ 
 ance which does not run truly circular, the 
 rim of which does not everywhere show 
 the same breadth and thickness, or one in 
 which steel and brass are unequally di¬ 
 vided, is entirely unfit for close adjust¬ 
 ment. The writer saw, some months ago, 
 an excellent balance manufactured in Ger¬ 
 many, which he considered very proper 
 and useful. The timing screws were placed 
 in longitudinally cut holes in the balance 
 rim. A delicate incision in the direction 
 
 be divided by the second, the number ob¬ 
 tained gives the number of revolutions of 
 the escape wheel in an hour. Multiply 
 this figure by twice the number of teeth of 
 the escape wheel, and the product is the 
 number of single vibrations performed by 
 the balance or pendulum in one hour. 
 
 Balance Vibration. —The phrase com¬ 
 monly in use “ balance makes a turn,” or 
 “ a turn-and-a-half,” requires, perhaps, ex¬ 
 planation, as it is obviously impossible for 
 a watch with any ordinary escapement to 
 go if the balance swings round over a 
 complete turn ; the meaning is that it 
 
 of length is made through the screwTrctles—-rfiakes a turn, etc., at each complete vibra- 
 
 in such a manner that they have a slight 
 elasticity, which enables the screws to 
 move very gently, without becoming loose. 
 
 Point in Adjusting.— The distance of 
 the curbpins one from the other should, 
 under no consideration, be greater than 
 twice the thickness of the spring coil. The 
 center of the spring must coincide exactly 
 with that of the jewel hole. The inner 
 coil of the balance spring around the collet 
 must be at a sufficient distance from the 
 latter, so that there is no danger that it 
 will either touch this or the place of fasten¬ 
 ing in the folding of the spring. This con¬ 
 tact, which can be recognized by a jerk 
 similar to the crack of a whip, would'cause 
 acceleration of the large vibrations. 
 
 Compensation.— The principle of com¬ 
 pensation adopted has nearly always been 
 the construction of the pendulum with 
 two or more metals of different expansi¬ 
 bility, so arranged that the position of the 
 center .of oscillation shall remain approx¬ 
 imately unaltered. The most successful 
 inventions have been, for regulators and 
 house clocks, the mercurial and gridiron 
 pendulums, and for large turret clocks, the 
 zinc and iron compensation which, while 
 being as effective as the mercurial, is a 
 good deal cheaper. 
 
 To Calculate Vibrations. —In order to 
 calculate the vibration of a pendulum or 
 balance, multiply together the number of 
 teeth of the wheels, starting with the one 
 that carries the minute hand (which, there¬ 
 fore, makes one revolution in an hour, but 
 exclude the scape wheel. Next multiply 
 together the number of pinion leaves, com¬ 
 mencing with the one that engages with 
 the center wheel. If, then, the first product 
 
 tion—that is, in its backward and forward 
 arcs of motion added together. 
 
 Quarter Screws. —When withdrawing 
 or inserting the quarter screws, it is not 
 necessary to take the movement out of the 
 case : simply hold the balance rim at the 
 place where the screw to be operated on is 
 placed, with a pair of tweezers, and make 
 the alteration in such a manner as to exert 
 no latent pressure on the balance rim or 
 staff pivots. Very delicate and sharply 
 filed screw-drivers are necessary for this 
 job. 
 
 Balance Vibration. —The complete or 
 full vibration of the balance is a motion 
 produced by several additions of the im¬ 
 pulsive force, the excursion of the balance 
 emanating from the first impulse frequently 
 being about 120° by measure on the balance 
 circle, while the vibration at the end of the 
 additional impulse is, perhaps, 200° ; this, 
 doubled for both sides of vibration, makes 
 400° altogether, so that the impulses, as we 
 see them at the full vibration, are given 
 when the balance is already in motion, 
 and no mechanical power ever operates 
 with its full energy when the impelled body 
 is already in motion, and in this case the 
 force of pressure of the escape wheel and 
 lever gradually decreases, as the balance 
 crank or roller recedes faster from these 
 impulse agents. It is only at the first im¬ 
 pulse that the energy of the main power is 
 fully effective in impelling the balance ; all 
 the after impulses gradually decrease in 
 intensity up to the full vibration. 
 
 Truing the Balance. —- Truing the 
 balance is best done with copper-lined 
 tweezers. One pair needs a slot in each 
 jaw, transversely, so as to catch the arm 
 
ADJUSTING BALANCE. 
 
 236 
 
 near the rim to elevate the segments to 
 match. To make the arms the same height, 
 place the wheel on a stick with a large hole 
 in it, and when the staff is at one side and 
 the end of the arm at the other, rub the 
 arm with a piece of pegwood so as to 
 elevate the arm, and watch the height of 
 the two. Perfectly true and poised bal¬ 
 ances are very necessary to correct timing, 
 but recollect a perfect round is more essen¬ 
 tial than a perfect flat. 
 
 Examine the Balance. — I have been 
 in the habit for several years of putting my 
 balance wheel separate from all connec¬ 
 tions and trying its freedom in all posi¬ 
 tions, and if you will try this method you 
 will be surprised how many you will find 
 that bind or are not perfectly free in all 
 positions, when you give them the slightest 
 impulse by a trial of the hand holding the 
 plate. Then, too, carefully examine each 
 jewel ; you will be surprised how many are 
 either loose in the setting or plate. 
 
 End Shake of Balance.—W hen you 
 are through with cleaning a watch, and 
 ♦ have put in the balance, see that it has but 
 a slight end shake, and is in beat. 
 
 The Balance. —There are three factors 
 upon which the time of the vibration of 
 the balance depends : 1. The weight, or, 
 rather, the mass of the balance; 2. The 
 distance of its center of gyration from the 
 center of motion ; or, to speak roughly, the 
 diameter of the balance ; 3. The strength 
 of the balance spring, or, more strictly, its 
 power to resist change of form. 
 
 Removing Blue from Balance Arms. 
 —When it becomes necessary, in pivoting 
 an unduly hard staff, to partly draw its 
 temper, there is danger of bluing the bal¬ 
 ance arms. Nothing makes a more un¬ 
 sightly job than having the balance arms 
 blued or almost blackened, half way to the 
 rim as may sometimes be seen. If they 
 should become slightly colored by heat, 
 the blue may be removed by dilute hydro¬ 
 chloric acid, cleaning thoroughly with 
 alcohol after to prevent their rusting. 
 
 Conditions of the Balance. —The time 
 in which a balance will vibrate cannot be 
 predicted from its dimensions alone. A 
 pendulum of a given length always vibrates 
 in the same time, as long as it is kept at 
 the same distance from the center of the 
 eartli, because gravity, the force that im¬ 
 pels it, is always the same, but the want of 
 constancy in the force of the balance 
 spring, which, in watches and chronome¬ 
 ters, takes the place of gravity and governs 
 
 the vibrations of the balance, is one of the 
 chief difficulties of the times. There is 
 another point of difference between the 
 pendulum and the balance. The time of 
 vibration of the former is unaffected by its 
 mass, because every increment of the mass 
 carries with it a proportional addition to 
 the influence of gravity, but by adding to 
 the mass of a balance the strength of the 
 balance spring is not increased at all, and 
 therefore the vibrations of the balance be¬ 
 come slower. 
 
 The Compensated Balance. — It is well 
 known that the linear extension of all 
 balance springs is the same by increasing 
 heat, but the diminishing of the elasticity 
 is disproportionate, and corresponds to the 
 degree of hardness of the spring. This 
 fact may explain the variation of watches 
 that have been regulated in temperate 
 climates, when exposed to the extremes of 
 the heat or cold. A well-lrardened balance 
 spring retains its elasticity best, and in 
 some temperatures insures the best rate. 
 Not so, however, in extreme ones, since it 
 is subjected to a greater change. The gen¬ 
 eral compensated balance is unable to 
 remedy this defect. It is apt to increase 
 it, because its compensating arms do not, 
 by increasing heat, move toward the center, 
 but toward the sides. Ingenuity has for a 
 long time been at work to overcome this 
 evil, and has devised many contrivances, 
 of which the auxiliary compensation by 
 springs, dating to 1835, an< ^ more recently 
 added compensating arms, need only to be 
 mentioned. Both contrivances, however, 
 do not work to satisfaction, and have not 
 been adopted in practise. 
 
 Adjusting Balance. —The compensat¬ 
 ing balance fails to meet the temperature 
 error exactly ; the rims expand a little too 
 much with a decrease of temperature, and 
 with increase of temperature the contrac¬ 
 tion of the rims is insufficient ; consequently 
 a watch or chronometer can be correctly 
 adjusted for temperature at two points 
 only. A marine chronometer is usually ad¬ 
 justed at 45 degrees and 90 degrees, unless 
 special adjustment is ordered to suit par¬ 
 ticularly hot or cold climates ; pocket 
 watches at about 50 degrees and 85 de¬ 
 grees. In this range there would be what 
 is called a middle temperature error of 
 about two seconds in 24 hours. To avoid 
 this middle temperature error in marine 
 chronometers various forms of compensa¬ 
 tion balances have been devised and num¬ 
 berless additions or auxiliaries have been 
 
CARE OF PALLETS. 
 
 237 
 
 attached to the ordinary form of balance 
 for the same purpose. 
 
 Balance Vibrations. — It should be re¬ 
 membered that if the vibrations of a bal¬ 
 ance are to be isochronous the impulse 
 
 must be delivered in the middle of its vi¬ 
 bration, and that therefore no spring will 
 be satisfactory if the escapement is defec¬ 
 tive in this particular. 
 
 NOTES ON BALANCE TRUING. 
 
 In truing a balance do not use pliers 
 nor any tool that leaves a mark on 
 the rim. Every kink can be taken out 
 with the fingers ; sometimes it is necessary 
 to use the thumb-nail or finger-nail as a 
 fulcrum, but they leave no mark, while 
 pliers or tweezers always do. Thousands 
 of balances have been ruined in appear¬ 
 ance by the reckless use of suctL'Leolsr' 
 The ability to put two and two together, 
 and a little patience with the first two or 
 three balances, ^re all that is necessary to 
 convince the average watchmaker that 
 “ bending tools ” are out of place in such 
 work. Calipers adapted for this kind of 
 work can be obtained from any material 
 dealer to-day, and while they cost more 
 than the articles of Swiss manufacture, 
 there is no comparison between them in 
 actual value. It is not necessary to have 
 them jeweled; hardened steel ends with a 
 lateral hole to give the pivot clearance, 
 allowing the conical shoulders only to bear 
 the strain, without touching the pivots, is 
 all you need. Then you can “ touch up ” 
 a balance without taking it out of the cali¬ 
 pers or breaking a pivot. 
 
 Compensated Watches. — No 
 watch is now made without a compensation 
 balance, but there are also many bad ones 
 made with them, and it has become the 
 custom to put what are called compensa¬ 
 tion balances in the very worst of the for¬ 
 eign watches sold everywhere ; these bal¬ 
 ances are infinitely worse than brass or 
 
 good 
 
 steel ones, especially if they are cut open, 
 as the material of which they are composed 
 is so soft that the least touch puts them 
 out of shape, and consequently out of 
 poise, so essential to the going of even the 
 worst of watches. Cheap watches with 
 compensation balances should be dis¬ 
 couraged by both the sellers and wearers 
 of them, and instead of a compensation 
 balance in such a watch being a recom¬ 
 mendation it should be considered as indi¬ 
 cating a sham, which it generally is. 
 
 Adjusting a Watch. —As soon as a 
 watch is brought to within 10 seconds a 
 day of correct time, the work of adjusting 
 to isochronism can be commenced. If the 
 balance is one which has been previously 
 adjusted to heat and cold, it is highly prob¬ 
 able that we will have to change no more 
 than one pair of screws to restore this ad¬ 
 justment. 
 
 Putting in Collet. —The collet should 
 be put on an arbor with a bow and the 
 spring carefully set true and flat in the 
 turns. In setting the spring it must only 
 be touched close to the eye. Steady time¬ 
 keeping will be out of the question if the 
 eye of the spring is bent to and fro in reck¬ 
 less attempts to get it' true. The eye 
 should be brought around gradually to get 
 it in circle, taking care not to overdo it. 
 When this is right and the spring is also 
 true on the face many good timers heat 
 the spring and collet to a blue to set the 
 eye. 
 
 NOTES ON PALLETS. 
 
 P oising Pallets, Etc. —A correspond¬ 
 ent desires to know how to poise 
 pallets and balance. In the first place, 
 pallets are not poised without the lever, 
 and then only approximately, as they can¬ 
 not be so weighted with the ordinary con¬ 
 struction that they will not gravitate in 
 some positions. The balance cannot .be 
 poised in any quick and easy method, but 
 this can only be done by a rather long 
 
 and tedious manipulation, too lengthy 
 to be described in a short Workshop 
 Note. 
 
 Care of Pallets. —Pallets should be 
 washed in benzine and dried in sawdust, 
 or with the edge of a fresh piece of blotting 
 paper ; under no circumstances should pal¬ 
 lets or roller go into the alcohol, except to 
 remove old shellac preparatory to resetting. 
 Ninth-tenths of the pallets and jewel pins 
 
238 
 
 CANNON PINION. 
 
 that are found’loose, come so by having 
 been in the alcohol. 
 
 Freeing Jewel Pallets. —The way 
 some repairers free garnet stone pallets is 
 with a sapphire file, which is only a fair¬ 
 sized piece of sapphire flattened down in 
 the ordinary way and cemented into a brass 
 handle. The sapphire should not be flat¬ 
 tened too rough, or it will chip the pallet 
 stone. Ruby or any other jewel pallets 
 may be freed by making a small mill, to be 
 placed in the turns, of tortoise shell or vege¬ 
 table ivory: some diamond powder is to be 
 rubbed on the mill. A quarter of a karat 
 of diamond powder should be well mixed 
 with about a dessert spoonful of sweet oil, 
 and allowed to settle for about two hours ; 
 it should be poured off into another vessel, 
 and allowed to stand a long time—until it 
 settles and leaves the oil clear again. The 
 first sediment will be too sharp to rub on 
 the mill; it is the second sediment that is 
 to be used. A good, useful article can also 
 be obtained at a material dealer’s. 
 
 Unequal Pallets.— When the pallets 
 are unequal, but too shallow on one pallet 
 only, the pallet should be fixed in some sort 
 of clamps, and the clamps made warm, the 
 stone raised up sufficiently, and the pallets 
 afterward forced—if they require it. When 
 a pallet depth is too deep, the wheel must 
 be topped. The topping of the wheel does 
 not cause them to be foul outside, al¬ 
 though the wheel is then smaller, the 
 wheel being drawn farther away altogether 
 by the topping. -When a lever is not 
 equalized on the pallets, it mostly happens 
 that the two pins are slight enough to per¬ 
 mit the pallets to be so minutely twisted 
 further round on the lever; but if the pins 
 are thick, they must be taken out and the 
 holes drawn which ever way they re¬ 
 quire. 
 
 The “ Setting.” —When a watch “ sets ” 
 on the impulse face of a pallet, the “ set ” 
 can be removed by polishing the faces to 
 a smaller angle, but the repairer must see 
 
 that the pallet depth is deep enough to 
 allow of being made shallower and yet be 
 safe, because, by reducing the impulse 
 angles, the wheel will drop shallower, and, 
 although the watch will go while it is clean 
 if the pin and notch is not altered, yet if 
 the pallet depth is not quite secure, the 
 wheel may sometimes pitch on the locking 
 edge, and probably stop the watch. If the 
 depth is made too shallow by reducing the 
 angles of the pallets, a slightly larger wheel 
 must be put on. 
 
 Pallet Lockings. —In respect to the 
 pallet lockings the equality of sharpness of 
 draft inward is readily judged. Some per¬ 
 sons try them by placing the guard pin 
 against the round edge of the roller, and 
 gently putting the peg on the escape wheel. 
 But the equality of the draft inward does 
 not quite prove their equal resistance to 
 the reciprocated force of the balance, nor 
 does the writer know of any way to prove 
 when they are so strictly, but he will make 
 some remarks about them. It is to be ob¬ 
 served that the two lockings are at unequal 
 distance from the center of the pallet, and 
 also that with deeper depths the wheel drops 
 further under the inside locking, so that in 
 unlocking the wheel has to be moved 
 further back to get the locking out from 
 under the tooth ; still, as the radius to the 
 inside locking is the shorter, therefore the 
 long arm of the lever bears a greater ratio 
 to that shorter pallet radius, and although 
 the inside locking of itself may be a trifle 
 the hardest, yet it may not subtract any 
 more velocity from the balance in unlock¬ 
 ing than the outside one ; and, indeed, if 
 the inside locking' of itself was as easy to 
 unlock as that of the outside we should 
 then be certain that the resistance to the 
 force of the balance would be unequal, as 
 the two radii of the unlockings were un¬ 
 equal. Unequal radii must have unequal 
 resisting lockings to subtract equal por¬ 
 tions of velocity from the same reciprocated 
 force of the balance. 
 
 NOTES ON PINIONS. 
 
 C leaning Pinion Leaves.— Take a 
 piece of pegwood and clean the leaves 
 of pinions. If you find any of them rusty, 
 clean with pegwood and oilstone powder 
 and oil. 
 
 Oiling Roller Jewel. —Some watch¬ 
 makers recommend oiling the roller jewel. 
 Never do this, as the roller jewel in its fly¬ 
 
 ing motion (being sticky from oil) will 
 gather dirt and foreign substances, and soon 
 clog in the fork, and beside this, it is per¬ 
 fectly superfluous, as it does not lessen the 
 friction or improve the fork and jewel action. 
 
 Cannon Pinion.— When putting on the 
 cannon pinion, see that it is tight enough, 
 and give it very little oil : the friction lasts 
 
PIVOTING. 
 
 2 39 
 
 better than if it is dry. To tighten a can¬ 
 non, file in the side with a small round file, 
 and punch in until right; to tighten the 
 ■Swiss center arbor, roll it between two files 
 and oil it slightly when you put it in. 
 
 Cannon Pinion.— A loose cannon pinion 
 can be made to fit snugly by running the 
 center-point of the center pinion back and 
 forth between two files. 
 
 Pinion Leaves. —If the repairer comes 
 across rusty pinion leaves, he must clean 
 them with pegwood and oilstone powder 
 and oil. 
 
 Replacing Pivot of Hollow Pinion.— 
 It often happens that the pivot of a hollow 
 center pinion is so deeply cut that it cannot 
 be repolished in consequence of the care¬ 
 less manner in which too manyTacttrrffisT 
 finish their center holes. If the pinion it¬ 
 self is found to be still in a good condition, 
 it can be made serviceable as follows: 
 Cement the pinion, with its wheel attached, 
 firmly to the chuck of a lathe after having 
 removed the two worn pivots, and when it 
 is accurately centered, increase the hole by 
 means of a drill that is a trifle larger than 
 the original pivots; in the hole thus en¬ 
 larged and carefully smoothed, insert a 
 close fitting steel tube that has been hard¬ 
 ened and tempered to a blue color, which 
 must be smoothed and run true. The por¬ 
 tion of this tube that projects on either 
 side is then adjusted to the proper length, 
 and it only remains to polish the pivots. 
 
 Loose Cannon Pinion.— Remove the 
 center wheel and put the end of the staff in 
 a solution made as follows : i part cyanide 
 of silver, to parts cyanide of platinum, ioo 
 parts of soft water. Leave it in the solu¬ 
 tion till the proper size is obtained—the 
 size it was when new, or till it fits the can¬ 
 non pin. Immerse the worn part only. 
 
 Tightening a Cannon Pinion.— The 
 best way to tighten a cannon pinion is to 
 take the pinion and place it between two 
 files of medium fine cut, placing one file on 
 the edge of the brush and the other in the 
 hand. Place the center pinion between the 
 
 files and run the file in the+iand in a parallel 
 direction. This raises a little burr on the 
 pinion and does not bind it, and is sufficient 
 to hold the cannon. Cutting around with 
 the cutting pliers is apt to bend if not 
 break the pinion, besides spoiling both 
 pinion and cannon in a little while if the 
 watch is set often. 
 
 Beveled Pinions. —In watch work bev¬ 
 eled pinions are seldom or never formed 
 correctly, the teeth being formed by one 
 cutter, which cuts the spaces out the same 
 width throughout, instead of tapering them, 
 as they should be, and consequently the 
 teeth (even if they were cut at the right 
 angle, which they seldom are) are only 
 touching at the extreme points ; but as they 
 are only used for the winding work, and 
 are in action for only a short time, not much 
 attention need be paid to this, the main ob¬ 
 ject being to get a good depth and a smooth 
 action, and this will be best secured by at¬ 
 tention to the shape of the teeth and to 
 their angles with regard to one another. 
 
 Lantern Pinion. —The lantern pinion, 
 as used in the German clock, is a very good 
 form of pinion for a follower, all the action 
 taking place, even in low numbered ones, 
 after the line of centers; but it is not suit¬ 
 able for a driver, because then the action 
 would be reversed, and would all come be¬ 
 fore the line of centers. It is much used in 
 French turret clocks, but it is not used much 
 elsewhere, though there is no reason why it 
 should not be, it being especially suited for 
 the cheaper clocks, and it might be made as 
 cheaply as the ordinary drawn pinions. 
 Of course, it could not be used for watches 
 or very small clocks, as the collets or 
 bushes into which the pins forming the 
 leaves are riveted would take up too much 
 room. 
 
 Parachute.— Breguet devised the para¬ 
 chute, thinking that if the watch is let fall 
 or subjected to sudden jerks in any other 
 way, the balance staff pivots may be saved 
 from breaking by the yielding of the end 
 stones. 
 
 NOTES ON PIVOTS. 
 
 P ivoting.— Everybody knows what it 
 consists of, but there are few who 
 can take a fine staff, pivot it, and hand it 
 over to some colleague for inspection, 
 and not have something said about one 
 thing or the other not being just right. In 
 the first place, the broken staff must be 
 
 accurately centered in a finely centered 
 chuck, and then the end should be smoothed 
 off, but no more than enough to present 
 just enough surface to catch a center with 
 a fine graver point, and do not cut the 
 center any larger than the diameter of the 
 drill to be used. Should the shoulder at 
 
240 
 
 BALANCE STAFF PIVOTS. 
 
 the rut of the pivot be very small in di¬ 
 ameter and inconvenient to drill with a 
 small drill, it may be turned off even with 
 the hair-spring shoulder and a hole drilled 
 of sufficient size to hold a plug from which 
 a new shoulder and pivot can be turned. 
 I generally use for plugs needles which 
 have been tempered to the proper degree. 
 In filing them into shape do not temper 
 them too much, for they are almost sure 
 to split the staff when driven home, or will 
 be very apt to work out of the hole while 
 being turned. Get the taper to be almost 
 imperceptible ; it is better to have them 
 parallel than too tapering. Never draw 
 the temper from the staff. If the graver 
 can be made to cut the center very readily, 
 there is no reason why a drill could not be 
 made to cut, for if the graver can be made 
 hard enough, there is no reason why the 
 drill cannot be made just as hard or 
 harder. 
 
 Polishing Pivot. —After the pivot has 
 been turned and satisfactorily finished, 
 take the square-edged polishers and pro¬ 
 ceed to polish the shoulder at the root of 
 the pivot, and at the same time face the 
 top of the hair-spring shoulder, if it has 
 been left square. First use your steel 
 polisher and oil-stone dust to remove any 
 graver marks, and follow with the bell 
 metal polisher and crocus-antimony, and 
 finish with diamantine; then burnish. 
 
 High Finish on Pivots. — If you are 
 not satisfied with the finish on a pivot pro¬ 
 duced by the pivot polisher, you may put 
 on a higher finish with another lap (bell 
 metal) and diamantine, or jewelers’ rouge 
 and oil. To finish by hand, you had better 
 turn the cuts out with the graver, as it 
 takes too long to dress down with soft iron 
 file and oil-stone. To get nice corners, 
 always dress polisher with the file, after 
 each application of polishing material, and 
 use a polisher curved on its face next to 
 the shoulder. 
 
 Pivots Blackening. —The quality of 
 the oil has much to do with the blackening 
 of the pivots, and those which have the 
 greatest friction will become discolored 
 first. In ordinary watches jeweled in the 
 third and fourth wheel holes, the lower 
 third wheel pivot will be blackest, it having 
 the greatest friction, from being so close to 
 the action of the center wheel in the pinion; 
 ancl if the center holes be jeweled, the bot¬ 
 tom pivot will generally be found more dis¬ 
 colored than the top one from the same 
 cause. 
 
 Shape of Pivots. —It is somewhat of a 
 disputed question what is the best shape 
 for pivots that turn on cap jewels. In my 
 opinion the cylindrical decidedly is, but the 
 bearings should be conical. Not only does 
 this shape give more solidity, as pivots with 
 rectangular bearing are always more liable 
 to break than the former, but the conical 
 pivots can always be made shorter and 
 consequently finer. They also present less 
 surface for capillary attraction, and there 
 is less likelihood of the oil running from 
 the pivot hole. 
 
 Length of Balance Pivots. —For cen¬ 
 tering the balance spring, remove the end 
 stone from the chariot, and see that the 
 pivot projects enough beyond the pivot 
 hole when the plate is inverted. T hen re¬ 
 move the cock and detach it from the bal¬ 
 ance. Take off the balance spring with 
 its collet from this latter and place it on 
 the cock inverted, so as to see whether the 
 collet is central when the outer coil is mid¬ 
 way between the curb pins. Remove the 
 cock end stone and end stone cap, place 
 the top balance pivot in its hole and see 
 that it proiects a little, beyond the pivot 
 hole. Place the balance in the figure of 
 eight caliper to test its truth, and, at *he «- 
 same time, to see that it is sufficiently in 
 poise; it must be remembered, however, 
 that the balance is sometimes put out of 
 poise intentionally. 
 
 Play of Train-Wheel Pivots. —Allrw 
 the train to run down ; if it does so noisfiy 
 or by jerks it may be assumed that some 
 of the depthings are bad, in consequence 
 either of the teeth being badly formed or 
 the holes too large, etc. To test the latter 
 point, cause the wheels to revolve alter¬ 
 nately in opposite directions by applying a 
 finger to the barrel or center-wheel teeth, 
 at the same time noting the movement of 
 each pivot in turn in its hole ; a little prac¬ 
 tise, comparing several watches together 
 will soon enable the workman to judge 
 whether the play is correct. The running 
 down of the train will also indicate whether 
 any pivots are bent. . 
 
 Balance Staff Pivots. —The pivots to 
 the balance staff should always be carefully 
 examined. See that they are not too wide 
 in their jewels; if so, replace by closely 
 fitting jewels. Watch the cap jewels to 
 see that they are not pitted : if so, replace 
 or polish them with fine diamond dust on 
 black tin or tortoise shell. 
 
 Balance Staff Pivots. —There is no 
 part of a watch repairer’s work that requires 
 
LAP FOR POLISHING PIVOTS, ETC. 
 
 24I 
 
 so much constant attention as the pivots of 
 the balance staff, either from the watch 
 having had a blow or a fall ; or very often, 
 from the balance having been put into the 
 frame carelessly, the end of the pivot will 
 have become flattened or will have a burr 
 thrown up on one side of it which, although 
 it may not be sufficient to stop the watch, 
 will certainly prevent anything like good 
 timekeeping. 
 
 Broken Balance Pivot.—I f a job 
 comes in with only one pivot gone on the 
 balance, always make a new staff; never 
 put in a new pivot, which, if done, nine 
 times out of ten will spoil the staff, and 
 then it will not ran true. 
 
 End of Pivot. —-As—fo^-tbe"'end of a 
 pivot there is considerable controversy as 
 to how it should be shaped and finished. 
 Some workmen claim that a pivot left only 
 slightly rounded will give better results 
 than when entirely rounded, and in some 
 watches either one or both pivots are found 
 perfectly flat, which is usually done to cor¬ 
 rect certain position errors. I generally 
 finish my pivots slightly round. 
 
 New Center Pivot. —It occurs quite 
 often, says a writer in a Continental ex¬ 
 change, that one of the center pivots is 
 Badly worn, and can no longer be made to 
 serve by polishing; nevertheless, many re¬ 
 pairers try to do it, with the one never 
 failing result, viz. : it breaks under the 
 polishing file. In such cases the pinion 
 must be renewed if the repairer cannot put 
 in a new pivot. 
 
 Some time ago, I learned a new knack 
 from a very skilful fellow-journeyman, by 
 which one may put a pivot into a center 
 pinion just as easily and nicely as can be 
 done into a balance staff, etc. If correctly 
 made the pivot sets as firmly as if it were 
 of one piece with the pinion ; this is not in¬ 
 jured at all, and the place where inserted 
 cannot be recognized after finishing the re¬ 
 pair, and which of the two pivots has been 
 inserted cannot be distinguished. 
 
 No one can say that this is a piece of 
 botch work, and I make use of this method 
 and advise others to do the same thing, not 
 only on account of the saving of time, but 
 also in all cases where I meet with a defec¬ 
 tive center pivot in a fine grade watch. It is 
 true, the good repairer will, by using suffi¬ 
 cient time, make just as good a new pinion 
 as the old was ; still the wheel will be 
 strained more or less by taking it off ; 
 but this danger is entirely avoided by in 
 serting a new pivot as follows • 
 
 Mount the pinion first on a turning arbor 
 and turn off smoothly to the injured pivot, 
 without, however, injuring the burnishing 
 of the pivot shoulder. Then choose a drill 
 corresponding exactly to the thickness of the 
 new pivot, and take the wheel directly upon 
 the lathe, by letting the other pivot run 
 backward in a center, while in front you 
 have set the T-rest squarely to the wheel 
 and have laid the drill upon it. You may 
 hereby let the carrier pin operate directly 
 upon the wheel crossing, and in this man¬ 
 ner you will drill into the pinion a hole 
 which must be times as deep as the pivot 
 is long. 
 
 After having performed the drilling, begin 
 with the pivot by making a steel tube, the 
 inner width of which truly corresponds to 
 the thickness of the center staff. Before it is 
 finished harden and anneal it blue, then re¬ 
 duce it by grinding so that it fits precisely 
 and truly into the hole, after which burnish 
 it handsomely. Corresponding to the bot¬ 
 tom of the hole, taper the entering end of 
 the tube, afterward insert it and drive it 
 home with a few taps of the hammer if 
 necessary, chamfer the hole in the center 
 pinion, shorten the new pivot to its correct 
 length, and the job is ready, without occu¬ 
 pying more than one-fourth, or at most 
 one-third the time necessary for inserting a 
 new pinion. Not a trace can be seen of the 
 pivot shoulder, provided the job lias been 
 done in a workmanlike manner. In this 
 way it is possible to oftentimes preserve 
 a handsome and well-made center pinion, 
 which could never be replaced by one bought 
 in some material store. 
 
 To Repair the Fusee Top Pivot. —First 
 file up and repolish the square, taking off 
 the corners sufficiently to prevent them 
 standing above the pivot when it is repol¬ 
 ished. Put the square into an eccentric 
 arbor, and get the fusee quite true. Now 
 put a screw ferrule on to the fusee back 
 arbor, and put the whole piece in the turns 
 with the eccentric in front, using the bows 
 on the ferrule at back. If the pivot is much 
 cut it should be turned slightly with the 
 point of the graver. Polish first with steel 
 and coarse stuff, and finish with the glossing 
 burnisher. 
 
 Lap for Polishing Pivots, etc. —Those 
 who have much experience in polishing 
 may, with advantage, use a lap for straight 
 pivots and shoulders. The lap and pinion 
 are rotated in opposite directions by means 
 of two bows held in the right hand, the lap 
 being centered in the back limb of a depth- 
 
242 
 
 BROKEN PIVOT. 
 
 ing tool and the pinion in the front one. 
 An arm is fixed to the depthingtool to hold 
 it in the vise, and a piece of brass wire 
 clasps the rudders of the front limb, so that 
 the operator can move the pinion to and fro 
 with his left hand. A soft steel lap at first, 
 and a fine lap afterward, are generally used. 
 They should be turned true on the edge and 
 the face slightly undercut. 
 
 To Redress a Bent Pivot. —For this 
 purpose some workmen merely use a pair 
 of pliers or tweezers; others place the pivot 
 in a slot of the Jacot tool, and press on it 
 with a burnisher that has little or no cut, 
 at the same time causing the shaft to ro¬ 
 tate. Another good method is to drill a 
 number of straight holes in a plate exactly 
 at right angles to its surface. Now intro¬ 
 duce the pivot into a hole that fits it with 
 little play, and redress it by causing the 
 staff to rotate, and the same time holding 
 the plate in the hand. Caution is neces¬ 
 sary, since there is some risk of bending 
 the pivot too far. 
 
 Foot Pivot in a Cylinder. —A steel 
 stake with a large number of closely grad¬ 
 uated holes is essential for this purpose ; 
 stakes of this kind, especially made for the 
 purpose, are kept for sale in many watch¬ 
 makers’ material stores. Having tried the 
 cylinder into the holes until one is found 
 that fits tightly, then the hole immediately 
 sm filer is .the proper one to use while push¬ 
 ing out the plug, which is done with an ap¬ 
 propriately shaped plug made from a p'iece 
 of mainspring hook wire. A new plug is 
 then turned: up and fitted carefully, so that 
 a tap of a hammer will drive it home to its 
 place. Before placing it in the cylinder, the 
 end should be polished off square with the 
 lap in a screw-head tool. The plug is then 
 driven into its place. 
 
 Rounding a Pivot. —-In rounding a pivot 
 a highly polished burnisher is used. 
 Always begin from the edge to the center of 
 the pivot, for if it is polished from the 
 center to the edge a burr will be formed 
 which will sometimes give trouble. 
 
 Bent Pivots. —If a pivot is bent, place in 
 pliers and blow the fiame-from your lamp 
 on to the pliers until the temper is drawn 
 from the pivot ; then press them together, 
 and the pivot will be straightened in two 
 or three trials. 
 
 Bending Pivot. —If a cylinder pivot is 
 bent it may very readily be straightened 
 by placing a bouchon of a proper size 
 over it. 
 
 Polishing Conical Point. —A soft steel 
 polisher made to suit the pivot is used with 
 
 either oilstone dust or rouge. It should be 
 used with a backward and forward as well 
 as a rolling motion, till the pivot is reduced 
 so that it will just fall off the hole. The 
 pivot is then finished with a very smooth 
 burnisher and oil. Instead of the soft 
 steel polisher some prefer to use a hard 
 steel burnisher roughened on a piece of 
 lead with emery, which makes an equally 
 good pivot. 
 
 Balance Staff Pivot. —There is a little 
 difference of opinion as to the proper shape 
 for the ends of balance staff pivots. Many 
 manufacturers say the watches time better 
 if the ends are left nearly flat ; this, how¬ 
 ever, is disputed by others, who prefer the 
 pivot ends to be left rounded. 
 
 Conical Point. —The cone should be an 
 easy curve dying away into the pivot 
 proper, which runs in the hole ; this part 
 must be perfectly straight and parallel. 
 The pivot having been turned to a little 
 over the required, size, its end is laid on a 
 bed formed in a runner of the turns. 
 Every time the work is examined the bed 
 of the runner must be cleaned and the run¬ 
 ner adjusted to a slightly different length, 
 so that it does not bear on the same part of 
 the pivot. If this is neglected the pivot is 
 sure to be marked. 
 
 Broken Pivot. —If a job comes in with 
 one pivot gone on the balance, put the bal¬ 
 ance in a split chuck, and proceed to stone 
 off the end of the staff. Then take a graver 
 with a fine point and center it nicely for 
 drilling. If possible, always make your own 
 drills. A correspondent makes them of 
 Sharpe’s best needles, which he considers 
 better than wire. He draws the temper, 
 files down to size, and hammers the end flat, 
 shapes and sharpens it, and then tempers it. 
 Resin is used for tempering, but we all have 
 our own way of doing that. The drill being 
 ready, the lathe is run at a slow speed, and 
 the operation commences. When you have 
 drilled twice the length of the pivot, stop 
 and clean out the hole thoroughly with a 
 piece of pegwood. Then select a nice piece 
 of Stubbs’ steel wire, and getting the right 
 temper, file down to size, making sure at 
 the same time that you do not get it taper¬ 
 ing. When you have it down to size, take 
 a hammer and tap the end gently until you 
 get it down to the bottom, then turn down 
 the pivot to size to fit the jewel ; next finish 
 it, and the job is complete. In finishing, 
 first use a small oilstone slip to get a gray 
 finish, and then use lime and crocus mixed 
 on a square piece of boxwood, which leaves 
 a fine finish on it. 
 
THE MAINSPRING. 
 
 243 
 
 NOTES ON THE MAINSPRING. 
 
 P utting in a New Mainspring.—I t 
 would be quite useless to lay down any 
 rule for the length or strength of a main¬ 
 spring to be put into a watch coming for 
 repairs, as in nearly every case the matter 
 is arbitrary and must be determined, not 
 by any principle, but by the work the main¬ 
 spring has to do. In full-plate watches, 
 of foreign manufacture, the balances are 
 generally too large, and if the escapements 
 are also large and not very good, a spring 
 as strong as the capacity of the bqrTel will 
 
 admit of will be acq uired 'The number of 
 
 turns of the spring in thebarrel is no sure 
 indication of the number of turns the barrel 
 will make by the spring unwinding, as the 
 spare space in the barrel, which is partly 
 governed by the size of the barrel arbor and 
 partly by the thickness of the spring, deter¬ 
 mines the number; but the mainspring 
 should only occupy half the space of the 
 barrel bottom with the arbor in the place. 
 
 The best method of attaching a main¬ 
 spring to a going barrel has given rise to 
 much controversy, any addition to which 
 would be out of place here ; nor would it 
 be very useful to repairers, the manner be¬ 
 ing generally settled for them, as a new 
 spring must be hooked in as its predecessor 
 has been ; and, as it is now the universal 
 practise to put a simple steel hook in the 
 barrel and a hole in the end of the spring, 
 it is only necessary to see that the hook 
 projects very little beyond the eye of the 
 spring, and that it is at a sufficient angle 
 to prevent the spring from slipping off. 
 The hole in the spring should be oblong, 
 and made with the lever punch, which is 
 much used for this purpose. The hole 
 should be square at the end, and beveled 
 off from the inside to give it a good hold 
 on the hook; and the end of the spring be¬ 
 yond the hole should not be left longer than 
 what is necessary for strength ; but should 
 be made square at the end and rounded off 
 from the outside. One often finds main¬ 
 springs choked up by having a quantity of 
 oil put on them which has not been re¬ 
 moved when other parts of the watch were 
 cleaned. The spring in a fusee watch 
 should not have oil put to it ; all that is 
 necessary is to see that the spring is put 
 into the barrel in such a state that it will 
 not rust; and the best way to insure this 
 is to apply a small quantity of oil to a nar¬ 
 
 row strip of wash leather and draw the 
 spring through it before winding it into the 
 barrel. 
 
 If a strong mainspring breaks in a going 
 barrel, it sometimes breaks a leaf or two 
 out of the center pinion, as neither Swiss 
 nor English watches are furnished with 
 Fogg’s patent pinion ; but I oftener have 
 found a broken third-wheel pivot to be the 
 result; and if the spaces of the center pin¬ 
 ion were cut round at the bottom, as they 
 should be, the patent pinion would be of 
 very little use in so far as the center pinion 
 is concerned. 
 
 Great care should always be taken when 
 winding a spring into a barrel ; the winder 
 should be quite true and never smaller than 
 the barrel arbor. 
 
 Not 'Fake Out Mainspring. —If it can 
 possibly be avoided, a mainspring should 
 never be taken out of the barrel, because 
 the spring is thrown into an unnatural 
 shape in so doing, and is afterward much 
 more inclined to break. Many a good 
 spring has been spoiled in this way. Some 
 watchmakers think benzine will cause a 
 mainspring to break if washed with it. 
 This can be avoided by washing in alcohol 
 and letting it dry before being oiled. I have 
 used benzine for many years and never 
 could see that it caused aspring to break. 
 
 Traction Force. —In order that the main¬ 
 spring may comply with its functions pass¬ 
 ably, it must be capable of exerting a uni¬ 
 form traction force for at least twenty-four 
 hours; and it would thereby favor the reg¬ 
 ularity of the amplitude of the balance 
 vibrations, which circumstance is very im¬ 
 portant for the adjustment. But experi¬ 
 ence has taught us that it is not always an 
 easy thing to attain this result, because it 
 is well known that the manufacturers of 
 steel have not yet been able to produce it 
 with a regular force, and, consequently, a 
 uniform action in the same conditions is 
 not the result. Nothing indeed is more in¬ 
 teresting than experiments on their action, 
 to prove the irregularity produced by them, 
 as far as this action is concerned, even with 
 springs of the same height and thickness 
 of blade ; this irregularity is a great defect. 
 
 The Mainspring.— Pay particular at¬ 
 tention to the mainspring. There are lots 
 of theories why a spring will break just 
 after cleaning, but I only know that since 
 
2 44 
 
 BARREL ARBOR. 
 
 I have adopted the method of never taking 
 out the spring, except when, after taking 
 off the cap of the barrel, I find it is all 
 gummed up with bad oil, and then of 
 course I clean it. I have found that a 
 spring does not break any oftener than is 
 common, even if the watch is not cleaned ; 
 but I invariably remove the barrel arbor and 
 clean out the holes and the barrel itself. 
 
 Cleaning Mainspring. —The main¬ 
 spring should be cleaned by wiping it with 
 soft tissue paper, being careful not to pull 
 it out straight. It must never be put in 
 the benzine, for this would remove that 
 peculiarly oily surface which is obtained 
 by working in the barrel. Put the spring 
 in with a winder. • 
 
 Fastening Mainspring. —Among other 
 methods of attaching the outer end of the 
 mainspring to the burrel, one of the most 
 simple and effectual, by Mr. Philippe, is to 
 coil inside of the barrel a piece of thicker 
 mainspring of a little more than one com¬ 
 plete turn in length, so that the ends just 
 overlap. The mainspring of the watch is 
 riveted to this loose piece, the adhesion of 
 which against the barrel is sufficient to 
 drive the watch. Three or four half-round 
 grooves are cut inside the rim of the barrel, 
 and a corresponding projection riveted to 
 the outside of the loose piece, and the 
 clicking of this projection as it enters the 
 grooves indicates when the spring is fully 
 wound. 
 
 Friction of Coils. —In order to di¬ 
 minish the friction of the coils in a going 
 barrel, mainsprings have been made here¬ 
 tofore with the outer coil curved backward, 
 so that the spring, when unconstrained, 
 takes a form something like the letter s. 
 This spring is made with a view to the 
 better separation of the coils upon the 
 spring’s unwinding as the outer coils will 
 fall more readily away from the inner ones 
 toward the edge of the barrel when the 
 spring is bent in this way than when it is 
 straight or of the usual form. It is said to 
 be freer in the barrel, but more liable to 
 break. 
 
 How to Select a Mainspring. —Of all 
 parts of a watch, the mainspring is perhaps 
 oftenest repaired. Before proceeding with 
 our remarks we would advise the repairer 
 to always buy the best material, as it pays 
 both the repairer and the customer. When 
 you replace a spring examine whether the 
 breaking of the old spring has not bent 
 any teeth on the barrel or center wheel. 
 See if the hook on the barrel arbor is not 
 
 too long, so as to break the spring you are 
 about to put it in. If everything is right 
 in your judgment, select a spring of the 
 proper thickness and width; wind it and 
 put it in, taking care that the brace end 
 does not stick through so as to catch the 
 center wheel or balance as it comes round. 
 If these points have been observed you 
 cannot help but have a good job. 
 
 Mainspring Fastening. —It is worthy 
 of notice that all the best Swiss watches 
 have a rigid attachment of the mainspring 
 to the barrel, as, although the hook is in 
 the barrel, and the usual oblong hole in 
 the spring, the attachment is made rigid 
 by the pivotal brace or post, which contrib¬ 
 utes greatly to the free action of the spring, 
 and prevents to some extent the friction 
 and adhesion from the coils rubbing against 
 one another. 
 
 Mainspring to Be Put In. —When a 
 mainspring is to be put in, care should be 
 taken not to move the regulator when 
 removing the balance. Put in the new 
 spring of the same length and strength as 
 the old one. Oil it and wind it three or 
 four times to test it before replacing the 
 barrel. The cannon pinion can best be 
 tightened by rolling the part between two 
 fiies. 
 
 Experiments with Mainsprings.— 
 From a great many experiments with main¬ 
 springs made by French watchmakers, in a 
 variety of ways the result seems to be that 
 a spring of moderate length, set up about a 
 turn, with something to spare, will have an 
 easier action in the going barrel and be 
 freer from adhesion and clustering than 
 a spring of greater length, although the 
 longer spring may give a more uniform 
 pull if set up several turns. 
 
 Mainspring Uncoiling. —A mainspring 
 in the act of uncoiling in its barrel always 
 gives a number of turns equal to the differ¬ 
 ence between a number of coils in the up 
 and down positions. A celebrated watch¬ 
 maker says : “ Thus if 17 be the number of 
 coils when the spring is run down, and 25 
 the number when against the arbor, the 
 number of turns in the uncoiling will be 8, 
 or the difference between 17 and 25.” 
 
 Barrel Arbor. —In the absence of a 
 suitable top or screw plate when turning in 
 a Geneva barrel arbor, if the collet is good 
 it may be used as a plate. Soften the col¬ 
 let and file two slight passages across the 
 three with a fine three-sided file, screw a 
 piece of brass wire through the collet so 
 as to clear the threads of burr, then re- 
 
TO MAKE A BALANCE STAKE. 
 
 245 
 
 harden the collet and cut the screw or the 
 arbor with it. A pair of pliers with faces 
 curved to suit the collet are used to hold 
 it In an emergency the old arbor maybe 
 prepared for use as a tap if the old collet 
 is not available. 
 
 Displaced Barrel.— Remove the arbor 
 from the barrel. Turn a washer of brass 
 or steel the same size as the arbor. Put it 
 —the washer—on the inside of the barrel 
 on the arbor below where the mainspring 
 winds. 
 
 Self—Winding.— It is well to know 
 that several styles of self-winding are in 
 existence. Among others, one by M. Le- 
 bet, for winding; the watch by action of 
 closing the huntmg^rxrverTDut as it can be 
 applied only to a hunting watch, the ar¬ 
 rangement is of limited use only. Another 
 
 invention of Herr von Loehr utilizes the 
 motion of the wearer’s body for winding. 
 There is a weighted lever pivoted at one 
 end, and kept in its normal position against 
 the upper of two banking pins by a long 
 curved spring so weak that the ordinary 
 motion of the wearer’s body causes the 
 lever to continually oscillate between the 
 banking pins. Pivoted to the same center 
 as the weighted lever is a ratchet wheel 
 with very fine teeth, and fixed to the lever 
 is a pawl which engages with the ratchet 
 wheel. This pawl is made elastic so as to 
 yield to undo strain caused by the endeavor 
 of the lever to vibrate after the watch is 
 wound. For setting hands there is a disc 
 which has a milled surface slightly cupped 
 to suit the point of a finger. 
 
 NOTES ON THE STAFF, ARBOR, WHEEL, TEETH AND DEPTH1NG. 
 
 T urning in Staff.— Should you be 
 unable to get the rough staff to run 
 exactly true, just get it to run as true as 
 you can, as it will not make any difference 
 whether it is exactly true or not at this 
 stage of the work. Now, with a medium¬ 
 sized and well-sharpened graver proceed to 
 turn the shoulder to fit in the hole of the 
 balance. There is no necessity for taking 
 the measurement with an instrument, for 
 we have the hole, and it must be tried fre¬ 
 quently to avoid turning it too small ; for if 
 it is too small it will be impossible to fasten 
 the wheel on centrally. It should fit very 
 snugly and at the same time not so tightly 
 as to require any force to putin place. The 
 corner must be cut out clean and sharp, 
 which can only be done with a very finely 
 pointed graver. Another point to be ob¬ 
 served at this stage is to see that the seat 
 for the balance is perfectly fiat; for if it is 
 undercut, even to a slight degree, it will 
 have a tendency to throw up the other ends 
 of the balance arms, and thus distort it 
 and change seriously, if not entirely ruin, 
 its rate. * 
 
 Balance Staff Complete. —When you 
 have one end of the balance staff complete, 
 carefully turn off the shellac and turn down 
 the center or hub of the staff to proper size, 
 and cut back from the left-hand side to 
 proper thickness, and then with the fiat 
 polishers proceed to polish the outside of 
 the hub ; then turn off the shellac, gradu¬ 
 ally turning the staff true as you go along, 
 until it is cut back far enough for the length 
 
 of the roller end ; cut it off at this point 
 and preserve as fine a point as possible, as 
 it is to be used as a center. 
 
 Pivoting Balance Staff.— Never pivot 
 the balance staff of a fine watch, especially 
 an adjusted movement, as removing the 
 temper from any portion of the balance 
 staff destroys the adjustment to heat and 
 cold. If your customer insists upon cheap 
 work, explain to him the injury it will do 
 his watch, and, if he still insists, it may then 
 be permissible to put in a pivot. 
 
 To Temper a Staff.— For tempering a 
 staff, the best way is to pack it into a metal 
 receptacle, similar to a baling-out cup, 
 filled with fine brass filings, in such a man¬ 
 ner that the color may be observed as the 
 changes occur. Hold the receptacle over 
 an alcohol flame and subject it to about 
 530° F., which would bring the color of the 
 staff to a dark purple. This, I think, is 
 sufficiently hard for a balance staff, which 
 should by no means be made softer. It 
 will upon a fair trial be found that a staff 
 of such a degree of hardness can be very 
 readily turned with a good graver in good 
 condition, is capable of taking a very fine 
 polish, will produce a good coloring pivot, 
 and will stand more hard usage, while in 
 the watch, in the way of sudden shocks 
 and falls, than a staff either of a greater 
 or less degree of hardness. 
 
 To Make a Balance Staff.—A sub¬ 
 scriber says that in the making of a good, 
 fine balance staff, the steel from which the 
 staff is to be made is the first consideration. 
 
246 
 
 STEEL WINDING WHEELS. 
 
 As to quality, it is beyond question that the 
 very best only is suitable for such a pur¬ 
 pose. When he turns his own blanks, he 
 uses Stubbs’ wire steel of the required diam¬ 
 eter, than which nothing better can be pro¬ 
 cured. Material stores occasionally have 
 .some very good blank staffs, sold at from 
 40 to 50 cents per dozen. They are sup¬ 
 posed to be tempered, but it is advisable 
 for the watchmaker to attend to this part 
 himself, so as to know exactly what kind of 
 metal he is working. 
 
 Center Wheel Arbor. —The arbor of 
 the center wheel is sometimes cut or worn. 
 Put it in the lathe and turn it down smooth ; 
 but always stop before turning off the 
 shoulder entirely, as enough must be left 
 for the cannon pinion to rest on, or it will 
 bind on the plate. 
 
 Size of Barrel Arbor.—A good deal 
 of stress is laid by various writers on the 
 necessity of a proper, sized barrel arbor; 
 but if the arbor used is too small, as it is 
 often, especially in fusee watches, when 
 too thick a spring is used, the mainspring 
 will break at the eye, unless it is made very 
 sofi at that part, when the only effect will 
 be that it will bend round the arbor, acting 
 as a larger arbor and reducing the acting 
 length of the spring. The size of arbor 
 found to answer best, allowing of the neces¬ 
 sary length of spring and preventing too 
 small .a circle at the eye, is one-third the 
 inside diameter of the barrel; the arbor 
 should be snailed, so that when the spring 
 is wound on to it, it will take a spiral form, 
 and not be disturbed, as it would be by 
 winding on a circular arbor. 
 
 Wheels and Pinions. —Wheels and pin¬ 
 ions are divided into two kinds, which are 
 called drivers and followers. In watches 
 and clocks, the wheels are the drivers and 
 the pinions the followers, except in the dial 
 wheels, or motion work, the winding work 
 of stem-winders, and some parts of compli¬ 
 cated 'Swiss watches. The main object to 
 be aimed at in the gearing of wheels is to 
 avoid “ engaging friction,” that is friction 
 which takes place through the teeth coming 
 into action before what is called the “line 
 of centers” (a straight line drawn from 
 center to center of wheels gearing together), 
 and the reduction to a minimum of the 
 drop or shake of the teeth. This object is 
 best attained by the use of epicycloidal 
 teeth for the drivers and hypocycloidal for 
 the followers, and these forms of teeth are 
 me only ones the watchmaker has to con¬ 
 sider. 
 
 Sizing Wheels and Pinions.— The num¬ 
 bers of a wheel and pinion and their dis¬ 
 tance apart from center to center being 
 given, their respective pitch diameters may 
 be obtained by means of the sector, pro¬ 
 vided it is equally divided all through. 
 Suppose a wheel of 60 and a pinion of 8 
 are to be planted 75 apart ; open the sector 
 so that at 68 (which is the sum of then 
 wheel and pinion teeth) the width between 
 the limbs is double the distance of centers 
 -—that is, 1.5 inch. Then the width be¬ 
 tween the limbs at 60 will represent the 
 pitch diameter of the wheel, and at 8 the 
 pitch diameter of the pinion. Or the ful- 
 diameters may be obtained at one opera¬ 
 tion instead of the pitch diameters by add¬ 
 ing three to the number of the wheel- 
 teeth and 1.25 to the pinion, if it has cir¬ 
 cular, or two if epicycloidal addenda. Say 
 it is a circularly rounded pinion, the sector 
 would then be opened so that at 72.25 the 
 width was 1.5 inch, and the width at 63 
 would represent the full diameter of the 
 wheel and the width at 9.25 the full diam¬ 
 eter of the pinion. 
 
 New Wheels.— When a new wheel is ap¬ 
 plied to a watch under repair, it is neces¬ 
 sary that the angle of the old wheel’s tooth 
 should be looked to, as well as the wheel’s 
 size and thickness of the tooth’s point. If 
 a pallet depth is shallow, and a new wheel 
 is put on of a trifle larger size, care should 
 be taken that the new wheel is not more 
 sloping in the teeth than the old one, or 
 else the pallets will be bound unduly hard ; 
 it is best to have the new wheel a little 
 straighter in the teeth, if possible. 
 
 Wheel Gauging.— In gauging wheels 
 and pinions round holes should be used as 
 sizes where practicable, as the full diam¬ 
 eter cannot be measured on a slide gauge 
 if the teeth are not immediately opposite 
 one another; and. it should be remembered 
 in depthing wheels and pinions that it is 
 the pitch circles of the wheels and pinions, 
 and not the diameters, which are propor¬ 
 tional to the number of teeth contained in 
 them, so that allowance must be«made for 
 the parts beyond the pitch circles, which 
 vary with the width of the teeth and the 
 size of the generating circle used in tracing 
 them. 
 
 Steel Winding Wheels.—I invariably 
 lubricate them slightly, not only to make 
 them move easier, but also for the follow¬ 
 ing reason : I have often noticed that after 
 they have been in use for some time a red 
 dust is formed, especially when the depth 
 
VISIBLE DEPTHINGS. 
 
 247 
 
 ing was not truly exact. This dust con¬ 
 sists of oxidized parts of steel, and will 
 find its way into the movement. It is 
 most dangerous, especially at the pallets, 
 as it dries the oil. This occurrence is fol¬ 
 lowed not only by a deviation of rate but 
 may also provoke the standing of the water, 
 especially if the draw is somewhat deep. 
 
 Club-Toothed Scape Wheel. —A club¬ 
 toothed scape wheel allows of a closer 
 action than a ratchet tooth. Grossmann, in 
 his Essay, chapter 7, gives three degrees 
 for drop with a ratchet tooth, but that 
 is more than sufficient. If the wheel is a 
 good one, with a fine tootfyfwo degrees 
 are enough and leave one-half degree of 
 shake, thbughja allet sjije more often made 
 with three degrees of drop than they are 
 with two degrees. 
 
 Cylinder Half-Shell Foul of Wheel. 
 —In the repairing of Swiss watches, the 
 cylinder half-shell will sometimes be found 
 foul of the wheel. In this case, it may 
 sometimes be found possible to raise the 
 cylinder sufficiently bv stoning down the 
 brass setting of the lower cylinder end- 
 piece, where there is much space between 
 it and the jewel holes ; at the same time it 
 should not touch it, as in that case the oil 
 would be prevented from entering the res¬ 
 ervoir, and the pivot would speedily run 
 <iry. If this method is not available, the 
 cylinder notch can be lowered by either a 
 ruby file or steel polisher and oilstone dust, 
 resting the balance on either a piece of 
 pith or cork while doing so. 
 
 Cylinder Scape-Teeth. —If the teeth of 
 a cylinder escape wheel are too high or too 
 low in passing the opening of the cylinder, 
 the wheel should be placed on a cylinder of 
 soft brass or zinc, small enough to go in¬ 
 side the teeth, with a hole through it and 
 with a slightly concave face. A hollow 
 punch is placed over the middle of the 
 wheel while it is resting on the concave 
 face of the brass or zinc cylinder, and one 
 or two light taps with a hammer will bend 
 the wheel sufficiently. In fact, care must 
 be taken not to overdo it. It really 
 happens that the wheel is free neither of 
 the top nor bottom plug, but should this be 
 the case sufficient clearance may be ob¬ 
 tained by deepening the dust or with a 
 sapphire file. A cylinder with too high an 
 opening is bad, for the oil is drawn away 
 from the teeth by the scape wheel. 
 
 Shape of Tooth. —Although epicycloidal 
 teeth are practically the nearest thing to 
 perfection it is possible to attain, they have 
 
 the disadvantage of a slight rubbing fric¬ 
 tion on one another in receding from the 
 line of centers; and what are called in¬ 
 volute teeth—that is, teeth having the act¬ 
 ing curves of the shape described by any 
 point in a string unwound off the circum¬ 
 ference of a circle—were sometimes used 
 in order to prevent this, and where several 
 pinions geared with the same wheel in the 
 old French turret clocks and train remon- 
 toires ; but notwithstanding any advantage 
 they possess in the saving of friction on 
 the pivots caused by their obliquity and the 
 squeezing pressure they produce, and al¬ 
 though they are theoretically the perfect 
 teeth, the surfaces rolling on-one another 
 throughout the contact without any rubbing 
 friction, they are now looked upon as 
 entirely useless. 
 
 Broken Teeth. —The best w y ay to re¬ 
 place a broken tooth is to discard the 
 wheel and supply a new one. To replace 
 a broken tooth in a barrel, drill in about 
 one-eighth of an inch w'ith a drill smaller 
 than the thickness of the back of barrel; 
 lap the hole and turn a piece of brass wire 
 to fit the hole ; cut the thread and screw in, 
 then file down to match the center pinion. 
 
 Broken Tooth.— If there is a tooth 
 broken on the barrel, I drill a small hole 
 and cut a thread into it. I then take a 
 piece of brass wire, file it down, cut a 
 thread on it, and screw it down tight. 
 Then file off the right length and thickness 
 of the other teeth. If there is a tooth 
 broken on any of the other wheels, I always 
 put in a new wheel. 
 
 Putting Teeth into Wheel. —Suppose 
 a tooth is broken out of the barrel—which 
 is the case nine times out of ten when any 
 is broken at all—take your saw, cut a slot 
 as deep as the barrel will bear, shape a 
 piece of brass to fit the slot tightly. Now 
 take one ounce alcohol, one half-ounce 
 chloride of zinc, mix the two ingredients 
 and let stand twenty-four hours. Now 
 take a small piece of tinfoil and solder the 
 new tooth in, using the above solution in¬ 
 stead of acid, and proceeding just the same 
 way as you would solder anything else. 
 This, after being dressed up, will show 
 little or no lines of solder, will not rust the 
 pinion, and will stand as much pressure as 
 any tooth in the barrel. Any wheel may 
 be mended in like manner. 
 
 Visible Depthings. —While the train is 
 in motion through the force of the main¬ 
 spring. or the pressure of a finger against 
 the barrel teeth, examine with a glass all 
 
248 
 
 JEWEL HOLES. 
 
 the depths that are visible. That of the 
 escapement, for example, can be easily 
 seen through the jewel pivot hole, when 
 this is flat, the watch being laid horizontal 
 and a powerful glass used. When the 
 action cannot be seen in this manner with 
 sufficient distinctness, hold the watch up 
 against the light and look through it. 
 Depthings that cannot be clearly seen or 
 about which any doubt exists, must be sub¬ 
 sequently verified by touch. If examining 
 a new watch it may be found necessary to 
 form inclined notches at the edges of the 
 cocks or near the centerhole of the plate 
 so as to see the action of the depthings. 
 But it is important that the settings of the 
 jewels are not disturbed, and indeed that 
 enough metal is left round these holes to 
 admit of their being rebushed, if neces¬ 
 sary. 
 
 Invisible and Doubtful Depthings.— 
 These must be tested by touch in the man¬ 
 ner well-known to every repairer, and the 
 requisite corrections applied after having 
 polished the pivots, etc., as may be neces¬ 
 sary. We would observe that holes a trifle 
 larger are less inconvenient than those 
 which afford too little play, providing the 
 depthings are in good condition. 
 
 Effect of Bad Depthing.—R epairers 
 
 are often puzzled by the statements of 
 owners who bring their watches for clean¬ 
 ing that they are good timekeepers, but 
 after having been cleaned and put together 
 again they are everything but that. This 
 is due to the depths having been set bj 
 forcing the cocks with the pliers the last 
 thing, in the required direction, and when 
 unscrewed they will resume their original 
 position. 
 
 Securing the Depth. —When the pallet 
 depth is barely safe , and the pallets exceed¬ 
 ingly full to the wheel, the depth may be 
 made secure by polishing up both locking 
 a good bit. They must be done a good 
 bit, else it will not be any use; this will 
 save putting on a new wheel. 
 
 Trains.—T he train of wheels in a watch 
 or clock is the method of applying and the 
 medium for regulating and distributing the 
 power from the prime mover to the escape¬ 
 ment, which regulates the speed. l'he 
 power exerted by wheels on pinions is in¬ 
 versely proportional to the relative diame¬ 
 ters of their pitch circles, and they may for 
 purposes of calculation be considered as a 
 series of levers, the centers being the ful¬ 
 crum, and the acting parts of each tooth at 
 the line of centers being their effective 
 strength. 
 
 NOTES ON JEWELING. 
 
 S tones for Jeweling. — The stones 
 used for jeweling watches are the 
 ruby, sapphire, chrysolite and garnet ; a 
 thin rose diamond is generally put as an 
 endstone to the balance cock of English 
 watches, but only as an ornament, and that 
 is the only diamond ever used in the jewel¬ 
 ing of a watch. There is an uncharitable 
 belief that watchmakers sometimes change 
 the jewels in watches for stones of inferior 
 value, but there is no foundation for the 
 calumny, as the time spent in making the 
 exchange would certainly exceed the value 
 of the jewels. 
 
 Loose Jewel Holes. —Loose jewel holes 
 will often cause the watch to stand, espe¬ 
 cially lever watches. It is advisable, there¬ 
 fore, when repairing a watch to examine the 
 state of the holes, best in the following 
 way : After having laid into benzine all the 
 parts with jewels until the old oil is all dis¬ 
 solved, take them out and dry ; then take 
 a short annealed round broach, insert it 
 with a light push carefully into the pivot 
 hole and turn it to the right and left. It 
 
 will often be found that jewel holes hav¬ 
 ing every appearance of being quite firm 
 can easily be turned with the broach, care 
 is necessary when doing this not to exert 
 any down pressure with the broach, be¬ 
 cause it might injure the hole. This ex¬ 
 amination must be conducted with great 
 care in cheap watches with inferior jewels, 
 as these might burst thereby. Set cap 
 jewels are best tested with a broken broach 
 ground to a point, by trying to push the 
 jewel with it in four different directions— 
 obviously before the pivot hole is lubri¬ 
 cated. These tests must always be made 
 by using the magnifier; burst jewels, even 
 though they look ever so innocent, should 
 not be left in a watch. 
 
 Jewel Holes. —There are so many rea¬ 
 sons in favor of good jewel holes that every 
 good watch should have all the train holes- 
 jeweled. Garnet is largely used for jewel¬ 
 ing common watches, especially in the col¬ 
 lets to lever escapement ; it is of the same 
 hardness as chrysolite, but not so brittle. 
 The pallets are soon cut, a few years’ wear 
 
RESETTING JEWELS. 
 
 249 
 
 pitting the rubbing face of the stone on 
 which the escape wheel tooth drops, in 
 which case the only remedy is new pallets, 
 as to polish out the pits would spoil the 
 escapement. Chrysolite would answer 
 better for pallet stones, only it is not so 
 like ruby as garnet is. Garnet is also used 
 for the impulse pins of lever escapements, 
 but the least violent external motion to the 
 watch will break off the pin, if the balance 
 is a heavy one, and the cost of replacing it 
 will be many times the difference between 
 the original price of ruby and a garnet pin. 
 
 Shape of Jewel Hole.— There has been 
 considerable difference of opinion among 
 watchmakers as to the best shape of a hole ; 
 some advocate a long straight hole with a 
 pivot largest at the extreme end to lighten 
 the friction ; but no person who has had 
 much experience with the going of watches 
 would think of making a balance-staff pivot 
 unnecessarily weak, and of a form most 
 liable to injury. A jewel hole should not 
 be straight, but rounded from both ends 
 to the middle, so that the rubbing surface 
 shall be small and equal, whatever the 
 amount of end shake may be. 
 
 Widening a Jewel Hole.— Chuck a 
 hole in the lathe with cement. Place a 
 spirit lamp underneath to prevent the 
 cement hardening. Hold a pointed bit 
 against the hole while the lathe is running 
 until the hole is true, then remove the 
 lamp. The broach to widen the hole should 
 be made of copper, of the size and shape 
 required, and the point, after being oiled, 
 should be rolled in diamond dust until it is 
 entirely covered. The diamond dust should 
 then be beaten in with a burnisher, using 
 very light blows, so as not to bruise the 
 broach. After the hole is widened as de¬ 
 sired, it requires polishing with a broach 
 made of ivory and used with oil and the 
 finest diamond dust, loose, not driven into 
 the broach. 
 
 Watch Jewels.— When fitting hole or 
 cap jewels always try to get a good fit, never 
 cement or fasten them with shellac. Should 
 a roller jewel be lost or broken, select one 
 that fits the lever fork closely, as much 
 of the impulse is lost by a jewel being too 
 small. Use a jewel pin setter to set the 
 jewel, and always fasten with shellac, being 
 careful to put on as little as possible. The 
 jewel, if rightly set, should carry the lever 
 clear into the locking; if this is not the 
 case the safety pin will roll on the edge of 
 the roller table. Backing pins should be 
 so set that the roller jewel on its return will 
 
 strike into the lever fork and not on the 
 edge. Pallet jewels also should be fastened 
 with shellac. 
 
 Thickness of Jewel Holes. —When 
 adjusting a watch, the thickness of the 
 jewel holes is quite an important factor. 
 Unduly thick jewel holes cause difference 
 of rate between the horizontal and perpen¬ 
 dicular positions ; they must either be re¬ 
 placed by new or reduced to proper size, 
 should they be too thick. This reduction 
 is done with a copper chamfer, and dia¬ 
 mond powder (not to be mistaken for 
 diamantine), mixed with oil. This diamond 
 powder can be bought at every watch 
 material store ; there are three numbers, 
 Nos. 1, 2, and 3. No. 1 is used for grind¬ 
 ing ; No. 2 for first polishing, and No. 3 
 for fine polishing. The reduction of the 
 hole is continued until the hole is as thin 
 as the length of the pivot. The sharp edge 
 of the hole produced by the correction of 
 the jewel is chamfered with a pivoted cop¬ 
 per chamfer, by twirling the tool. 
 
 Setting Pallet Jewels, Ruby Pins, Etc. 
 —A good course to pursue when setting 
 pallet jewels, ruby pins, etc., is to heat a 
 piece of shellac over the lamp and draw it 
 out to a long, slender thread ; then break 
 the end in small particles of suitable size 
 for cementing the jewel ; by this means the 
 shellac may be placed just where it is 
 needed, and it will not run over the pallets 
 or table roller. 
 
 End Stone. —A good way to clean ar_ 
 end stone or cap jewel is to lay it down 
 on the bench paper and rub the stone on it 
 with the finger. When about to put in the 
 cock and foot jewels, put in the hole jewel 
 first; then put a little oil on the jewel be¬ 
 fore putting in the end stone. Pie sure to 
 get this in as far as it will go. 
 
 Ruby Pin.—A matter that is very essen- 
 senttaTToU gdUd timing result is the ruby 
 pin ; see that it fits loosely in the fork. If 
 you are compelled to replace it and do not 
 have one just right, select a slightly wide 
 one and scratch the fork with the soft iron 
 file and oilstone dust. If the hole in the 
 table will not take a proper one, enlarge 
 with a piece of soft iron wire in the lathe. 
 Draw-file the wire, cover with oilstone dust 
 (with oil, of course), and be careful or you 
 will have the hole too large in a jiffy. 
 
 Resetting Jewels. —There are many 
 ways to jewel or to reset jewels. A cap 
 jewel is the one we mostly have to deal 
 with, many of fyhich are not set at all. 
 These we will leave unnoticed. Nearly all 
 
250 
 
 TO REPLACE A ROLLER JEWEL. 
 
 American watches have their cap jewels in 
 settings. When one of these is broken or 
 rough, press it out with a piece of pegwood, 
 and then with a cannon jewel-bezel opener 
 turn the bezel back as far as it will go 
 easily, and select a jewel that goes in tight; 
 then with a small burnisher turn the old 
 bezel back far enough to hold the jewel in 
 place firmly. A great many watchmakers 
 do not try to reset them at all. They knock 
 the old ones out and countersink the cap, 
 and lay a cap jewel in the same as a Swiss 
 watch. This is not exactly a piece of good 
 workmanship, but, nevertheless, it will an¬ 
 swer all purposes and satisfy the custom¬ 
 er. I always have found that a cap jewel 
 with a nice and perfect face fitted close and 
 even to the jewel hole, in or out of setting, 
 gives my customers satisfaction. 
 
 Cutting Down Jewels. —-To cut down 
 balance jewels to fit smaller sinks, shellac 
 the setting and jewel on the point of a stiff 
 wire held in the lathe and turned down to a 
 perfect point to enter the jewel hole. Cut 
 with the point of a very sharp graver to the 
 size required. 
 
 Replace Broken Foot Jewel.— Remove 
 the broken jewel from the collet or setting; 
 place the collet or setting in one of your 
 lathe chucks, large enough to hold the 
 same; start in motion, and with a fine 
 pointed burnisher raise the bezel sufficient 
 to receive a new jewel; select a jewel to fit 
 both pivot and setting, replace in chuck, 
 and with 'a little larger burnisher close 
 down the bezel on pivot, and your job is 
 complete. 
 
 Jeweling. —There are doubtless no 
 watches made nowadays that have not at 
 least the balance staff holes jeweled, and 
 there is perhaps no watchmaker who will 
 not admit that the holes of the escapement 
 would in all cases be better for being 
 jeweled. I am sure that there are thou¬ 
 sands of European watches that would have 
 gone longer and cost less to repair if they 
 had been jeweled in a few more holes, the 
 Swiss alone excepted, as they are jeweled 
 in even the worst watches in as many holes 
 as possible, but done so badly that brass 
 holes would in many cases be preferable. 
 
 To Replace Roller Jewel. —The roller 
 jewel requires careful attention in fitting it. 
 as a great deal in the motion of the watch 
 depends on it. Select a jewel that fits the 
 fork, for if it is too small the watch will not 
 take a good motion. Now place it in the 
 hole of the roller, putting a small piece of 
 shellac behind it; the tool I use for heat is 
 
 one of my own contrivance, and in my esti¬ 
 mation, is ahead of anything 1 have come 
 across. Take a piece of brass about as 
 thick as a five-cent piece, about one-eighth 
 of one inch wide, and about half an inch 
 long; take a small round rat-tail file, put 
 the piece of brass in a pin vise and file a 
 half circle in the end of it. Now from the 
 center of this half circle file a slit a little 
 further down, make the slit wide enough so 
 it will take in a very wide roller jewel with¬ 
 out touching it. Now shape up the outside 
 hard, solder the other end to a heavy piece 
 of wire for a handle. Heat this a little and 
 lay it on the roller table with the roller 
 jewel fitting in the slit and the wider part 
 of the staff. You will be pleased to see how 
 nicely the shellac will run around the jewel. 
 
 To Replace a Roller Jewel.— Select a 
 jewel which fits the fork, holding with 
 tweezers at the end, dip in shellac dissolved 
 in alcohol and place it in the collet of the 
 roller. Take a piece of brass wire one inch 
 in length and one-eighth of - an inch in 
 width, hold the wheel in the right hand and 
 wire in left with tweezers. Place one end 
 of the wire in the flame of an alcohol lamp. 
 Remove tweezers and let the wire rest on 
 the burner of the lamp. When the shellac 
 boils down, if it is crooked, heat the tweez¬ 
 ers and grasp the jewel while the shellac 
 softens, straighten, and when the shellac 
 cools the work is done. 
 
 Another method of about the same im¬ 
 port, furnished by a correspondent, is as 
 follows: The ruby pin comes loose and 
 many times breaks off, when it becomes 
 necessary to insert a new one. When this 
 is the case, I generally use the lever fork 
 or slot as a sure means. ' Don’t select one 
 that is tight, but choose one that is loose 
 enough in the slot to allow you to pass a 
 double sheet of tissue paper on each side; 
 then set the pin. This is a job I always 
 had the least difficulty with, although there 
 has been much comment, plans, modes and 
 machines for this work. After you have a 
 pin the correct size, insert it in the table 
 roller, being careful to remove all the old 
 pieces. Generally,, the pin will go in with 
 sufficient tightness to hold it in place. 
 Then lay on a small lump of shellac—say 
 half or one-third the size of a grain of 
 wheat. After you have this done heat a 
 small piece of steel—say a pivot file handle 
 —and hold it under the table or against it, 
 letting one end of the handle remain in the 
 flame of your lamp, and in a second or so 
 the shellac will melt and run to its place 
 
REGULATING IN THE TEMPERATURES. 
 
 251 
 
 nicely and you can guide it to perfection 
 while the cement or shellac is warm. Set 
 the stone straight with the staff and 
 straighten up and down, and you have 
 your job done right and one that will last. 
 
 Another correspondent says : Should the 
 roller jewel be broken take out the pieces 
 and match a new one by the lever fork. 
 Do not get it too small or too large, but 
 select one that will clear the fork with a 
 good piece of tissue paper by its side. 
 Then place it in the pin holder, put on 
 your table and tire in with a piece of shel¬ 
 lac. Do'not use cements, as they are all 
 spoiled sooner or later by exposure to air. 
 The shellac holds them forever, if a good 
 job is done. 
 
 Roller Jewel. —To put in a roller jewel, 
 select one as large as the fork will take and 
 be free ; any unnecessary shake in the fork 
 is not merely a loss of power, which may 
 be supplied by a strong spring, but is det¬ 
 rimental to good timekeeping. Do not 
 attempt to set the jewel with the roller on 
 the staff; and to remove it the best appli¬ 
 ance I have seen is a little table made for 
 the purpose, and which can be had at the 
 tool stores. If you have no special tool for 
 setting pins, it can be done very well by 
 holding the roller in the brass- lined pliers, 
 and the latter in the flame of the lamp 
 until heat enough is imparted to flow the 
 shellac; see that the pin is upright to the 
 face of the roller, and that the flat surface 
 of the pin is at right angles to a line 
 through it, and staff center, without refer¬ 
 ence to passing hollow, as that is often too 
 much out of correct position. After clean¬ 
 
 ing off the superfluous surface, which should 
 be done with a brass scraper similar to a 
 chamfering tool, put the roller on the staff 
 and the balance in the watch, and see if 
 the jewel pin will pass freely in and out of 
 the fork, and if it performs its function 
 of supplementary safety-action ; if not, it 
 must be put forward or back, as the case 
 demands. 
 
 Watch “Setting” on Locking. —When 
 a watch “sets” on a locking, and you are 
 sure that the locking angles would still 
 detach after being made to unlock easier, 
 the outside locking may be made a trifle 
 more sloping, and the inside locking more 
 straight (not so much cut under) ; this will 
 also cause the wheel to take a deeper hold 
 of the lockings, which will be no harm if the 
 pallet depth is not too deep already. If the 
 watch is a small one, having a little steel 
 balance and consequently a very weak bal¬ 
 ance spring, the spring, when it is so very 
 near its rest, has not power to twist round 
 the pieces to extricate the locking from 
 under the tooth of the wheel. In such 
 cases, the lockings would sometimes have 
 to be so much altered to completely prevent 
 a set, that the wheel should remain station¬ 
 ary where it dropped instead of drawing the 
 pallet inward, and then the guard pin must 
 trust to the momentum of the balance carry¬ 
 ing round the lever sufficiently to free the 
 pin of the edge of the roller. Such watches 
 are constantly stopping, and never can be 
 altered until the lockings are made to draw 
 into the wheel. In all such cases it is best 
 to let them set a little, rather than persist in 
 completely getting off the set. 
 
 — 
 
 NOTES ON TSniNG. 
 
 R egulating in the Temperatures.— 
 It is a well-known physical law that 
 heat expands bodies, while cold contracts 
 them ; the balance spring is naturally also 
 subject to this law. An increase of the 
 temperature lengthens, and at the same 
 time weakens, the spring, causing a re¬ 
 tardation of the watch. In cold it con¬ 
 tracts, its elasticity is increased, and the 
 rate of the watch is accelerated. In order 
 to compensate these influences of the tem¬ 
 perature, a specially constructed balance— 
 the compensated balance—has been gotten 
 up. It consists of two rims, or parts. The 
 inner part of the rim is of steel, and the 
 outer part, which is of brass, is twice the 
 thickness of the inner, and is melted onto 
 
 the steel. As bra^g expands more than 
 steel, the effect of an increase of tempera¬ 
 ture is that the br(iss, in its struggle to 
 expand, bends the rim inward, thus prac¬ 
 tically reducing the size of the balance. 
 With a decrease of temperature the action 
 is reversed. The action, which is very 
 small at the fixed ends of the rim, increases 
 towards the free ends, where it is greatest. 
 The rim is cut, thus dividing it into halves, 
 each of which is free at one end and fixed 
 at the other to the central arm. 
 
 As already said, the brass expands more 
 strongly in heat than the steel, in conse¬ 
 quence of which the rim bends inward 
 with an increase of temperature; the ex¬ 
 treme part of the rim at the cut approaches 
 
252 
 
 THE TIMING OF A LEVER WATCH. 
 
 toward the center of the balance, thereby 
 making this smaller, as it were, and accel¬ 
 erates the motion, whereby the retardation 
 produced by the balance spring growing 
 weaker in heat is counteracted or com¬ 
 pensated. In cold, brass contracts more 
 strongly than steel, so that the rim expands, 
 and the extreme ends bend outward, thereby 
 enlarging the balance and causing a retarda¬ 
 tion of rate, which counteracts or compen¬ 
 sates the acceleration, which would occur by 
 the increasing elasticity in cold of the spring. 
 The extreme ends of these rims are the 
 most active parts of the compensated bal¬ 
 ance. and their effectiveness increases with 
 the division of the weight upon them, and, 
 inversely, their effect decreases in ratio 
 witli the amount of w r eight taken off, and 
 upon this circumstance is based the pro¬ 
 cess of regulating the compensation. If a 
 watch with compensated balance retards 
 in heat and accelerates in cold, the com¬ 
 pensation is too feeble; more weight must, 
 from the main body of the balance, be 
 placed toward both ends of the rims ; take 
 out two screws standing opposite to each 
 other, and place them into other holes 
 opposite each other, but lying nearer to 
 the effective extreme ends. By this greater 
 .weight of the outer parts more weight is 
 carried toward the center of the balance by 
 the bending by expansion, and this affects 
 the retardation of the watch. If the watch 
 accelerates in heat and retards in cold, 
 then too much weight is carried to the 
 center; the compensation is too strong. 
 'Two screws, standing opposite to each other, 
 must be moved away from the ends. 
 When the difference is but trifling, it 
 suffices to file away a little from the cut, 
 and to compensate the loss of weight by 
 two other and heavier screws on the first 
 parts of the balance. 
 
 'The Timing of a Lever Watch. —The 
 greater weight of the balance of a detached 
 lever watch causes a greater friction of 
 pivots in a vertical position, which friction 
 must therefore be reduced to an amount 
 equal to that in a horizontal position, by 
 flattening the pivots and increasing the 
 friction in a horizontal position. 
 
 The adjuster must first try the rate of 
 the movement in a vertical position. An 
 approximately close rate is produced by 
 tile index, which manipulation requires no 
 description; the last exact timing in this 
 position is effected by the four so-called 
 timing screws. Should the watch retard, 
 screw in two of these screws standing 
 
 opposite one to the other, but when it ad¬ 
 vances, draw them out a little, but be care¬ 
 ful to do it cautiously ; turn one as many 
 turns as the other, otherwise the equipoise 
 of the balance is destroyed. \\ hen a cor¬ 
 rect rate has been obtained in lying, try 
 the watch by suspending. If there is a 
 difference, do as recommended for the 
 vertical position, by means of the timing 
 screws—in such a way, however, that 
 nothing is changed in the timing of the 
 rate in lying. Some equalize differences 
 by changing the equipoise of the balances 
 a mere trifle. This is done as follows : If 
 the watch advances in hanging, the balance 
 is overpoised above toward the pendant; 
 but an overpoise below is required when it 
 retards. If by taking the pendant as start¬ 
 ing point, lines drawn between the timing 
 screws would form a cross (+), then, in ad¬ 
 vancing, the upper screw is to be drawn 
 out a trifle, and the lower one screwed in 
 by that precise quantity ; if the watch re¬ 
 tards, proceed in an inverse manner—screw 
 in the upper screw and draw out the 
 lower and opposite. If the above men¬ 
 tioned lines form a sign of multiplication 
 (X), treat the upper pair or the lower pair 
 as described for the single screws. 
 
 When the watch is laid flat, the balance 
 sinks by reason of its weight, so that the 
 lower pivot rests upon the lower cap jewel; 
 the cone (that part of the arbor passing 
 over into the pivot) comes thereby closer 
 to the oil sink of the jewel hole, and the 
 friction is increased by the adhesion of the 
 oil which enters between. The thicker the 
 cone the greater this friction, and reverse; 
 it is lessened and finally ceases entirely, 
 according to the degree of tapering of this 
 part of the arbor, and herein do we possess 
 a means of equalizing small differences of 
 rate between hanging and lying. If the 
 watch retards in lying, its rate in lying 
 must be retarded somewhat, which is done 
 by increasing the friction by adhesion, 
 moving the cone closer to the oil sink of 
 the jewel hole ; in other words, by shorten¬ 
 ing the two pivots to enable the cone to 
 sink in deeper. The expert watchmaker 
 will know the true quantity to be re¬ 
 moved by careful manipulation and exam¬ 
 ination of the rate. If. however, the watch 
 advances in hanging, its rate in lying must 
 be accelerated bv diminishing the friction 
 bv adhesion ; this is done by grinding more 
 or less, tapering with an iron grinding file 
 the conical shoulders, according to the 
 quantity of the difference of rate observed 
 
253 
 
 OIL ^ADHERING TO PIVOTS. 
 
 Calculating a Lever Watch Train.— 
 The fourth wheel turning 60 times for one 
 turn of the center wheel, the numbers of 
 teeth in center and third wheels, multiplied 
 together, must be 60 times the product ob¬ 
 tained by multiplying together the teeth of 
 third and fourth pinions. For example, to 
 take the seconds train most in use for 
 lever watches having third and fourth pin¬ 
 ions of 8, we should have 8X8 = 64, and 
 64 X 60 = 3.840. Any two numbers which, 
 when multiplied together, make 3,840,- 
 would be. suitable for the center and third 
 wheels. But, unless some special numbers 
 are desired, the calculation need not be 
 carried further, because it is evident the 
 
 two numbers we already have (64 and 60) 
 will answer the condition. The escape 
 wheel, having 15 teeth, turns once for every 
 30 vibrations of the balance, and with the 
 train of 16,200 we have 16,200 -5- 30 = 540 
 turns per hour for the escape pinion. As 
 the fourth wheel turns 60 times an hour, 
 the number for fourth wheel and escape 
 pinion must be in the same ratio as 540 
 and 60, that is (540 60 = 9) as 9 to 1. An 
 
 18,000 train is calculated in similar man¬ 
 ner ; the escape pinion has six leaves; 
 first wheel, 80 with pinion of 10 ; second 
 wheel, 64, pinion 8; third wheel, 60, pinion 
 8 ; fourth wheel, 60, pinion 8 ; fifth wheel, 
 48, pinion 6. 
 
 NOTES ON OILING AND OIL. 
 
 A cid Oil. —The mode adopted fortest¬ 
 ing either the acidity or the purity of 
 oil will afford no evidence as to how long 
 it will maintain its fluidity, and very good 
 results have at times been secured by the 
 use of oils that were slightly acid, or from 
 mixtures of oils of two or more quali¬ 
 ties 
 
 Acidity in Oil. —The oil should be free 
 from free water or acids, and should not 
 change its chemical constitution through 
 age or exposure to light. If a little of the 
 oil is shaken up with distilled water and 
 then the water, after settling, is carefully 
 siphoned from under the oil, the water can 
 be easily tested by a piece of blue litmus 
 paper. If it turns red in the water, acid, of 
 course, is present. The action of light on 
 the oil can best be ascertained by exposing 
 a bottle of the oil to the sun for several 
 weeks. A dark or brownish deposit indi¬ 
 cates a disintegration of the oil. 
 
 Mixed Oils.— Good results, said Cl. 
 Saunier, are frequently obtained by mixing 
 together two different kinds of oil. Thus, 
 American watch oil, which is very fluid and 
 apt to evaporate at the temperature of the 
 pocket, is improved by the addition of a 
 somewhat thicker oil. A mixture of real 
 American oil with the Rodanet oil has been 
 recommended as excellent. Although no 
 results have been published on the ques¬ 
 tion, it seems probable that some of the 
 modern mineral lubricating oils might be 
 added with advantage in small quantities 
 to the ordinary oils. 
 
 Oil Sinks.— In cleaning, it is important 
 to avoid removing the gilding in the oil 
 sinks of watches or the superficial oxide in 
 
 the sinks of clocks that have been going for 
 a considerable time. For, if it be removed, 
 there will be a fresh coating formed in 
 time, and this, too, at the expense of the 
 oil. 
 
 Oiling Watch.— The oil in a cylinder 
 escapement will always deteriorate very 
 rapidly ; some watchmakers coat over the 
 inside of the dome-joint and recommend 
 the owner not to open it. By doing so the 
 oil can be maintained in good condition at 
 the escapement for a long time. 
 
 Lubricating. —An excess of oil will 
 cause an infinity of errors to arise, and 
 should be most carefully guarded against. 
 
 Deterioration of Oil. —The only evi¬ 
 dence on which the watchmaker can rely 
 is that which he obtains by experiment¬ 
 ing on watches which he keeps to lend to 
 his customers, wliile their own are under¬ 
 going repairs ; and these trials should last 
 at least for a year. \ And there is a great 
 variety among the\ wearers of watches. 
 Some live in constantly varying tempera¬ 
 tures, often dusty;! many ladies use per¬ 
 fumes ; some persons perspire more than 
 others; all these causes influence the oil 
 and make it alter or evaporate more rapidly 
 in one watch than in another. 
 
 Oil Adhering to Pivots.—A high or 
 projecting finish, flat pivots, and the inside 
 and outside turned at an acute angle, make 
 the oil adhere better and prevent it from 
 spreading. In a case where the holes are 
 wrinkled there is more room for the oil, and 
 it is, therefore, more rapidly decomposed. 
 The smaller the pivot, the less it is affected 
 by changes in the oil, and, consequently, 
 the less will it vary in its working in various 
 
254 
 
 OILING STEM-WIND. 
 
 positions. Pivots, however, should never 
 be made so fine that their solidity will be 
 jeopardized. 
 
 Meaning of Capillarity. —Capillarity 
 is the property which all liquid bodies have 
 of adhering to the sides of vessels at a 
 greater elevation than their own surface. 
 When a capillary tube is inserted in a ves¬ 
 sel containing any liquid, this will rise in 
 the tube to a certain height, and the smaller 
 the tube tha higher it will ascend. Oil 
 possesses this capillarity in a marked de¬ 
 gree, and readily settles in the depressions 
 beside the pivot holes. If the rectangular 
 bearing enters the hole jewels horizontally 
 the oil adheres more firmly than if the 
 bearing were hollow turned. 
 
 Oiling.^— Oil the escapement by touching 
 the escape-wheel teeth with oil; do not oil 
 the fork. 
 
 Oiling the Parts. —In setting up a 
 watch, see that the jewels are all firmly set; 
 put oil to barrel pivots (and ratchet, if a 
 Swiss watch) but leave all pivots dry that 
 are not covered until the balance is in 
 place and you know that it is in beat and 
 everything right; then take the balance 
 out and put a very little oil in the caps of 
 jewel holes ; if it does not draw through to 
 the endstone, take a pivot broach, and, 
 after drawing the temper, reduce it under a 
 slip of oilstone, until a little smaller than 
 the pivots, and with this lead the oil to the 
 endstone ; or when the jewels are separated 
 too much for the oil to follow this instru¬ 
 ment, cut a peg very slender and use it; if 
 this does not succeed, the endstone must 
 come out and have oil applied directly to 
 it; but it is seldom in American watches 
 that it will not draw through from the cup 
 by using the leader, if the proper quantity 
 only is applied. As it disappears, put more 
 on using the leader, but no more than will 
 draw through. If you happen to get too 
 much, filling the cup, sop it up with a 
 freshly cut peg. 
 
 Results of 'Testing Oil.— Tests made 
 on a whetstone and on a window pane, as 
 well as observations made on drops of oil 
 placed in jewel holes, or in oil cups in a 
 metal plate kept for the purpose—some of 
 the drops being exposed to the air, while 
 others are in closed boxes—will afford val¬ 
 uable indications ; and, according to the 
 observations of W. Robert, it is safe to con¬ 
 sider an oil bad if at the end of six or eight 
 days after being placed on a plate of good 
 brass it shows a marked green tinge, es¬ 
 
 pecially so, if a clearly defined fringe forms 
 round the drop, or else if the brass itself is 
 discolored. 
 
 To Test Watch Oils. —Two preliminary 
 tests will afford some indication as to the 
 quality of an oil. A thick layer is placed 
 on a small portion of the surface of a glass 
 plate, and side by side a similar layer of 
 another oil is used for comparison, and they 
 are exposed to the air for some time with¬ 
 out being touched. The one that is found 
 to be sticky under the finger when the other 
 has dried up will, in all probability, be 
 preferable. The second preliminary test is 
 made on a whetstone; it is usually found 
 that the oil which takes the longest time to 
 thicken is of better quality. Of course, 
 these tests will only suffice to afford a rough 
 approximation and cannot be accepted as 
 conclusive. 
 
 Testing Oils. —Many of the methods 
 recommended for purifying oils are illusory 
 to a great extent, for they cannot impart to 
 the fluid those characteristics that are 
 wanting from the beginning. Success de¬ 
 pends largely on the skill of the manipu¬ 
 lator, and if he is not endowed with the 
 power of judging, mainly by the taste, 
 whether oil satisfies certain prescribed con¬ 
 ditions, he can never be certain of the 
 results. Crops differ as regards degrees of 
 maturity, etc., from year to year, and the 
 animals from which oils are procured are 
 rarely in the same condition as regards 
 health, age, nourishment, etc. 
 
 The Lubricant. —The oil intended for 
 use as a lubricant for watch work should be 
 kept away from the light, as otherwise it 
 would be discolored ; it is on this account 
 best that the bottles for such oil are pre¬ 
 served by being covered with black paper. 
 Only the quantity wanted for immediate 
 use should be placed in the oil cup. 
 
 Oiling Center Wheel. —Before putting 
 in the center wheel, oil its lower pivot. 
 Here is a place where the watchmaker 
 must use careful judgment ; if too little 
 oil is used it will run dry, if too much, it 
 will be drawn away upon the plate and can¬ 
 non, with the same result. It is often ad¬ 
 visable to counter-sink the center hole 
 slightly, even making the hole thinner; the 
 oil is retained better in its place. 
 
 Oiling Stem-Wind.— When putting the 
 watch up, replace the stem-wind work and 
 oil the crown and intermediate wheels with 
 clock oil ; this will be found best, on ac¬ 
 count of the great pressure which the wheels 
 
POLISHING MATERIAL. 
 
 255 
 
 receive. Do not oil the setting wheels, for 
 they run idle and it would only serve to 
 make them stick. 
 
 No Oil on Dial Wheels. —Do not oil 
 the dial wheels, as it could only serve to 
 stick the minute wheel to the plate and 
 increase the friction. 
 
 Oiling Detached Lever. —The repairer 
 is frequently at a loss whether he should 
 oil the roller pin jewel in the fork—in fact, 
 all the pieces of a detached lever escape¬ 
 ment. To this we would say that the fork 
 of the lever should never be oiled. If it is 
 properly shaped and polished and of the 
 proper size for the ruby pin which plays 
 into it, no oil is required, and if applied, it 
 would do more harm than good. As for 
 
 oiling the lever pallets and escape wheel 
 teeth, it is considered a mark of poor work¬ 
 manship to oil them in a fine watch, but in 
 a cheap movement it is often better to oil 
 them than to let them dry. Where it is a 
 choice of evils, the workman may be al¬ 
 lowed to do things which in other cases 
 would be entirely inadvisable. But only 
 very little oil should be used in any case, 
 just enough to lubricate the surface, but 
 hardly enough to be perceptible with the 
 eyeglass. When the escape wheel teeth 
 run very close up under the lever fork 
 above the pallets, particular care must be 
 taken to avoid any surplus of oil, as it 
 would soon gather dirt and clog the pass¬ 
 ing teeth. 
 
 NOTES ON CLEANING, AGENTS, REPAIRING, ETC. 
 
 C hamois Leather. —To clean a chamois 
 leather, make a solution of weak soda 
 and warm water, rub plenty of soft soap 
 into the leather, and allow it to remain in 
 soak for two hours; then rub it well until 
 it is quite clear. Afterward rub it well in a 
 weak solution composed of warm water, 
 soda and yellow soap. It must not be 
 rinsed in water only, for then it would be 
 so hard when dry as to be unfit for use. 
 It is the small quantity of soap left in the 
 leather that allows the finer particles of the 
 leather to separate and become soft like silk. 
 After rinsing, wring it well in a rough 
 towel and dry quickly, then pull it out and 
 brush it well. In using a rouge leather to 
 touch up highly polished surfaces, it is fre¬ 
 quently observed to scratch the work; th.s 
 is caused by particles of dust arid even hard 
 rouge, that are left in the leather and which 
 may be removed by a clean rough brush. 
 
 Diamantine. —There is nothing like dia- 
 mantine for giving a good black polish. 
 It is, however, very'quick in its action, and 
 requires some little experience to avoid over¬ 
 doing it and making the work foxy. The 
 work, polishers, etc., must be kept scrupu¬ 
 lously clean. Diamantine consists of crys¬ 
 tallized boron, the basis of borax. By 
 melting loo parts boric acid and 80 parts 
 aluminum, crystals are obtained, the so- 
 called bort, which even attacks diamond. 
 Diamantine bought in commerce is very 
 hard. 
 
 Diamantine used as a polishing agent re¬ 
 quires even more care and cleanliness than 
 rouge, and as the grains are sharper it 
 must be beaten until it is very smooth, and 
 
 used a little thicker than the rouges, as 
 even the smallest quantity will polish; if 
 too much is taken on the polisher, it cuts 
 quickly, but does not polish. There is a 
 prejudice against using diamantine for pol¬ 
 ishing pivots, as it is thought that some of 
 the sharp grains become embedded in the 
 metal and afterward cut the holes or pivots ; 
 if this is so, the diamond powder, used by 
 watch jewelers to polish the jewel holes- 
 with, would have even a worse effect, but in 
 practise we hear nothing of it. 
 
 English Polishing Agents. — An Eng¬ 
 lish polishing agent consists of 94.25 per 
 cent, oxide of iron and 5.75 finely pow¬ 
 dered charcoal. The mixture is ground in 
 a moist state upon the slab, and the mass 
 is again pulverized after drying. 
 
 Rouge.— Rouge, or, as it is called in 
 England, red stuff, is prepared of various 
 degrees of fineness. The coarsest, known 
 as ‘‘clinker,” is use^l for giving a surface to 
 steel after it is tempered. “Coarse” is 
 used next for steel and for polishing brass. 
 “ Medium ” is used to finish steel that has 
 been blued, and “fine” for polishing bright 
 steel. The latter must not be used for steel 
 that has been blued, or the color will not be 
 even. 
 
 Polishing Material.— To mix polish¬ 
 ing material properly requires a fair amount 
 of care. Rouge should be thoroughly 
 beaten up on glass or a polished steel stake 
 to a stiff paste with very little of the best 
 oil that can be obtained. It is very poor 
 economy to use inferior oil. Far too much 
 oil is often used and the mixture left thin¬ 
 ner than it should be. Olive oils not suit- 
 
256 
 
 WATCH CLEANING. 
 
 able, and if used the polishing stuff be¬ 
 comes sticky in a day or two. Refined 
 sperm oil, such as is used for watches, an¬ 
 swers well. Diamantine should be mixed 
 on glass with a glass beater in the same 
 way. as dry as possible, so that when it is 
 used the polisher is only just damped with 
 it. If diamantine is brought into contact 
 with metal in mixing it turns black. 
 
 Cleaning Agents. —In cleaning a watch 
 I never use benzine or potash, or any patent 
 article. Benzine leaves a greasy look which 
 it is impossible to get off; besides this, it 
 destroys the oil, while the potash makes 
 spots on the plates, if in moist places. Bure 
 alcohol and well crushed chalk do the best 
 work and give the best results. The chalk 
 is unequaled for cleaning the case. With a 
 stiff brush it is also excellent for cleaning 
 jewelry. 
 
 Chalk Box. —A little box for holding a 
 lump of chalk, upon which to rub the 
 brushes used in cleaning, to free them from 
 grease and dirt, is readily made by nailing 
 up a small box from three to four inches 
 square underneath the work bench, with a 
 small piece of wood to prevent the chalk 
 from falling out in front; or by fixing a 
 piece of wood from the right hand support 
 to a place underneath the workboard, where 
 the chalk will wedge itself sufficiently firm 
 for the purpose. 
 
 Burnt Bone. —Many watchmakers prefer 
 burnt bone for cleaning brushes in prefer¬ 
 ence to chalk, as being less gritty and 
 dusty. Burnt bone may easily be prepared 
 by placing ox bones in a crucible and ex¬ 
 posing them in a brisk fire for several hours. 
 The crucible should remain in the fire un¬ 
 til it has died out; when the bones are cold, 
 soft white pieces may be selected for rub¬ 
 bing the brush upon and so cleaning it. 
 
 Benzine. —Benzine that becomes dirty 
 in cleaning watch-work may again be ren¬ 
 dered fit for use by filtering through animal 
 charcoal. A certain good workman stops 
 the end of an ordinary pint glass funnel 
 with paper and places therein calcined bone 
 dust until about three parts full. On the 
 top of this he pours the benzine to be 
 filtered. 
 
 Cyanide for Cleaning. —Although cya¬ 
 nide of potassium in the proportion of two 
 ounces to one quart of water, is frequently 
 used for cleaning watches, its use is after 
 all not to be recommended, as its careless 
 employment may injure the gilding, if it 
 does not entirely remove it. If every trace 
 is not removed by hot water, alcohol, etc., 
 
 the parts are sure to tarnish badly, and the 
 steel will rust speedily. It is far better and 
 safer to use benzine and alcohol, and finish 
 up with dry bone dust. A mutton bone 
 calcined in a slow fire will have a coating 
 of fine dust on its surface which, when ap¬ 
 plied with a soft brush to the gilding, will 
 impart a superior luster, and its use does 
 not leave anything behind which could in 
 the least either injure the steel or the 
 gilded parts. Precipitated chalk mixed 
 with alcohol and used moderately is also 
 an excellent medium to remove grease or 
 stains from gilded or polished brass. 
 Strong caustics or acids of any kind are 
 always to be avoided as much as possible 
 in watch work, and their presence on the 
 watchmaker’s bench is very much to be 
 deprecated. A clean brush is of para¬ 
 mount importance in all cases. 
 
 Brushes. —Watchmakers' brushes are in 
 constant requisition, but are seldom kept 
 in proper order. A soft brush for rough 
 work is useless, a hard one for fine work is 
 ruinous, and a dirty brush of any kind is a 
 nuisance. Some brushes are cleaned with 
 dry bread ; some by laying a piece of tissue 
 or other paper across the wide-open jaws 
 of the bench vise, the corners formed by 
 the jaws taking off on the paper a little of 
 the dirt. These methods are imperfect. 
 A good way to clean a brush is with soap 
 and water—warm water being preferable. 
 Wet two brushes, soap them, and then rub 
 them together in plenty of water till per¬ 
 fectly clean. An objection to this method 
 is the delay in drying. Much injury is 
 done to the appearance of the movement 
 by injudicious brushing, and the watch 
 grows prematurely old in looks by such 
 treatment. 
 
 Precaution.- —While treating of watch 
 cleaning, it is worth mentioning that in the 
 brushing of the plate a bristle of the brush 
 may easily catch in some screwhole and 
 seriously interfere with the action of some 
 wheel. Before mounting the watch, inspect 
 the plate carefully for some such occur¬ 
 rence. Plappily, the disturbance is easily 
 noticed and quickly corrected. 
 
 Watch Plates. —When cleaning the 
 watch, never brush the plate with a stiff 
 brush and chalk or polishing powder; it 
 not only spoils the appearance of the work, 
 but ruins the gilding. Work is never 
 cleaned in factories otherwise than by 
 washing. 
 
 Watch Cleaning. —When cleaning a 
 watch, the work should be conscientiously 
 
WATCH CLEANING AGENTS. 
 
 257 
 
 done. This is very important, as when the 
 parts are carelessly cleaned with soap or 
 impure benzine, they will, after a few 
 months, assume a dull color, in conse¬ 
 quence of a thin layer of the materials used 
 in cleaning having been left on the surface. 
 It has at times been noticed that steel work 
 was preserved from rust through the 
 perspiration of the wearer, after having 
 been cleaned with certain fluids. Evi¬ 
 dently this was due to a thin coating hav¬ 
 ing been left on the surface of the metal. 
 The conclusion to be drawn is obvious— 
 clean carefully, push the pivots into rather 
 hard pith, finish with a soft brush in proper 
 condition, and clean out all pivot-holes 
 with pegwood. 
 
 To Clean a Watch. —“ For cleaning,” 
 says a correspondent, “ I use benzine and 
 alcohol. I have two wide-mouthed bottles, 
 one for benzine, one for alcohol. I also 
 use two camels’ hair brushes, one for each 
 bottle. Take up one piece at a time in a 
 stiff pair of tweezers, dip one brush in the 
 benzine, and brush off well with the ben¬ 
 zine, and then take the other brush and 
 brush off with alcohol. The benzine takes 
 off the dirt and oil, and the alcohol takes 
 off the benzine. Always take out the 
 mainspring. Clean the mainspring by 
 holding in your tweezers and brush off with 
 benzine, putting plenty on, and let it run 
 off at the end of the spring ; brush over 
 with alcohol. Clean the barrel the same 
 way. Lay the pieces to one side as you 
 clean them.” 
 
 Examination.— When a watch is handed 
 to you to be cleaned, and it has stopped, 
 examine it to see what stopped it. Perhaps 
 the minute hand cannot pinion, or center 
 post may touch the glass; this can be found 
 out by placing the thumb nail on the glass 
 and running it along just over the hand, 
 and by getting the light right so that you 
 can see through between the nail and the 
 hand, and be able to tell the exact distance 
 between the under surface and the hand 
 pinion, or center post; if the pinion or post 
 touch the glass, put in a higher one, and if 
 that cannot be done, lower the pinion or 
 stop a little. 
 
 Safe Rules. —I cannot resist the temp¬ 
 tation of giving my ideas about the clean¬ 
 ing and repairing of watches. First and 
 foremost, do not undertake any job that 
 you have any or considerable doubt 
 that you can do it successfully'; never 
 leave a job worse than you found it, and 
 never mar, cut or slash any part of a watch. 
 
 In other words, do not undertake a job 
 that you have any doubt as to whether you 
 can do it correctly. One of my old mas¬ 
 ters told me never to undertake to improve 
 on the maker’s work, and this, while not 
 true in every case, particularly in cheap 
 watches, is a safe rule to go by. Never 
 allow your file, screw-driver, plyers, tweez¬ 
 ers, or any tool to deface any part of a 
 watch. Be careful and not let the move¬ 
 ment swing so as to in any way injure the 
 balance in taking from case, and if a lever 
 watch, take out the balance the first thing 
 after uncasing the movement. 
 
 Watch Cleaning Fluid.— Prepare the 
 following in a tin vessel : Two quarts of 
 soft water, one and one-half ounces castile 
 soap, one-half ounce aqua ammonia. Meas¬ 
 ure out two quarts soft water, which heat 
 to a boil over a small lamp ; cut the soap 
 fine, and dissolve it in the water, after 
 which pour in the ammonia. This fluid 
 can be kept in a corked bottle or jar. 
 When cleaning a watch, heat one-half pint of 
 it to a boil, then have a small sieve, which 
 can be bought in any tin store, and put 
 in all parts except the roller-table, spring, 
 lever, screws and dial. Dip in'the prepa¬ 
 ration about half a minute, take out, and 
 rinse in soft water ; after this dip the parts 
 in alcohol and put them in a small paper 
 box with boxwood sawdust; shake them 
 from side to side until dry. 
 
 The Use of Benzine.— We frequently 
 see benzine recommended for cleaning 
 watches, and, frankly speaking, do not hes¬ 
 itate to recommend it. But it should be re¬ 
 membered that only the purest should be 
 used, as the ordinary contains a number of 
 hydro-carbons that do not evaporate easily, 
 but remain on the metal, soak into it and 
 combine with the oil subsequently applied, 
 making it thick and gummy. Pure ben¬ 
 zine should evaporate completely. If the 
 slightest smell can be detected on a piece 
 of brass dipped into it, after exposure for 
 some minutes to the air of the room, it is 
 entirely unfit to be used for a timepiece. 
 It is always well to warm the article 
 cleaned with benzine to insure its complete 
 evaporation, and afterward to thoroughly 
 clean out the holes with soft pegwood. 
 
 Watch Cleaning Agents.— During an 
 experience of more than one-third of a 
 century, always striving to improve, and 
 testing about all methods—solutions that 
 do not require the use of a brush until the 
 work is dry—the writer knows of no 
 method so satisfactory as washing with 
 
258 
 
 EXAMINING PIECES. 
 
 good soap and water ; rinse thoroughly (at 
 a running stream, if possible), and dry in 
 sawdust, or, if gilding is very delicate, a 
 piece of old, soft cotton cloth. If plates 
 or bridges show tarnish that washing will 
 not remove, dip them in a solution of cya¬ 
 nide of potassium (about an even table¬ 
 spoonful to a pint of water), rinse again very 
 thoroughly, and put in alcohol for a half 
 minute and dry as before. 
 
 Cvanide of Potassium. —For all parts 
 of the movement that have been stained or 
 will not come bright in cleaning, I use cy¬ 
 anide of potassium and water; in the pro¬ 
 portion of one ounce to the quart of water 
 is about enough, but about one-fourth part 
 of each will suffice to make at one time. 
 Place on the dark spots with a small brush, 
 wash with alcohol, and be very careful to 
 get off all the potassium from the steel if 
 any is on it. The plates are placed on the 
 mixture after all parts are removed, then 
 brushed with alcohol. 
 
 Use no Chalk.— When after having 
 cleaned a watch, and while the parts are 
 still in the sawdust, it will be necessary to 
 go over all pieces, one by one, with a 
 brush to remove particles of sawdust or 
 lint, if a cotton rag has been used. If the 
 washing has been thorough, very little peg¬ 
 ging will be requisite at jewels, except there 
 should be noticed a deposit of gum, which 
 should have been removed before washing. 
 Plates and bridges will need brushing to 
 make them look well; brush in circles, 
 breathing on the work frequently; it ap¬ 
 plies just enough of moisture to facilitate 
 the work, and to show when brushed suf¬ 
 ficiently. Under no circumstances should 
 chalk—dry, or in solution—or any other 
 abrading substance be used on movements 
 that are in a respectable state of preserva¬ 
 tion. 
 
 Avoid Alcohol. —When cleaning a 
 watch, remember that under no circum¬ 
 stances should the pallets or roller go into 
 the alcohol, except to remove old shellac 
 preparatory to resetting. You may think 
 it impossible that a momentary immersion 
 can do harm, if dried at once, but it does, 
 and if it is proper to put pallets or roller 
 into alcohol once, it is equally proper to do 
 so at every subsequent handling of the 
 watch, and they certainly cannot stand such 
 treatment many times without destroying 
 the life of the shellac. That pallet stones 
 and jewel pins are found loose in new 
 watches is no refutation of the charge that 
 contact with alcohol is a prolific source of 
 
 loosening jewels that are set with shellae ; 
 pernicious habits prevail in factories as well 
 as out of them, and washing balances with 
 springs and rollers attached is one of them, 
 and surely the cause of many loose pins 
 and rusty springs. 
 
 Cleaning Watches. —In cleaning I use 
 the old method (after trying all ways sug¬ 
 gested), that of chalk. I use the old lump 
 chalk, because the carpenters’ chalk balls 
 are made with some kind of paste that ad¬ 
 heres to the plate, and have this lump chalk 
 at my right hand, in a perforated bottom 
 box, so that any coarse pieces fall through 
 to the floor, and by rubbing the brush 
 across it and then giving it a slight rap, be¬ 
 fore applying it to the plate, any hard or 
 heavy substance will fall out. 
 
 Taking a Watch Down. —When I get a 
 watch for cleaning and repairs, I take the 
 movement out of the case, and then remove 
 the dust-band, dial and hands. I then take 
 off the regulator, first noting the ex¬ 
 act place it marked on the index, thus mak¬ 
 ing sure that it will run nearly right when 
 put up again. After removing the regula¬ 
 tor, I unscrew the cock or balance bridge 
 and remove the balance from it, noting at 
 the same time the condition of the balance 
 pivots, hairspring, and cock jewel. I then 
 see if my watch is run down, and removing 
 the pillar and case screw, take off the top 
 plate and barrel bridge; I then take out the 
 train, pallets, escape wheel, 4th, 3d, and 
 center wheels, and remove the spring from 
 the barrel. 
 
 Tools in Watch Cleaning. —Besides 
 three widths of screw-drivers have the same 
 number of tweezers (3), one of good, solid, 
 heavy points, one-sixteenth inch wide at 
 the points for taking down a watch, and 
 handling the heavier parts ; next, one a 
 little finer, and one very fine to work in about 
 the train, balance, spring, etc. Always, 
 keep the tweezers in perfect order at the 
 points, so that whatever you handle you 
 will not mar or drop the things. If you 
 cannot find tweezers that will suit you, 
 make your own, by selecting some nice 
 steel. Then a good assortment of plyers, 
 cutting, flat and round. 
 
 Examining Pieces. —When the watch is 
 all in pieces, before you proceed to clean 
 it, examine with a strong glass to see if 
 the rim of any wheel is rubbing or clashing 
 with anything, particularly the center wheel 
 in any full-plate American watch, for these 
 wheels are often dragging on the plate or 
 striking the rachet wheel because it is not 
 
ADJUSTED WATCH. 
 
 true, and if examined before cleaning the 
 places where it drags are a tell-tale of the 
 mischief. Also make any diagnosis of the 
 watch that is ne'eded to discover any errors 
 from wear or accident, and correct them 
 before going further, such as looking to 
 each jewel, pivot and other parts, and make 
 all necessary repairs before cleaning. 
 
 Putting Up a Watch. —Lay the bottom 
 plate on a movement rest, and proceed to 
 set up your watch in the usual way. Put 
 in the center wheel first, then the fourth 
 wheel,Then the third wheel, and lastly the 
 escape wheel. Then put on the top plate. 
 Lay a piece of tissue paper on the plate to 
 keep your fingers from touching it. Take 
 up the movement between the thumb and 
 finger. Take up the lever in your tweezers 
 and slip it in place. Then press lightly on 
 the plate and with a pair of slim pointed 
 tweezers bring the upper pivots to their 
 holes; put in screws which hold on the 
 plate and see if all the wheels have end- 
 shake enough. Put in a hair-spring stud 
 in the cock. Put cock and balance in 
 place. Be sure you get the roller jewel in 
 the fork and then put in the bridge screws. 
 Shake the movement a little as you screw 
 down the bridge, and as long as the balance 
 swings you will know that the pivot is 
 going in the hole all right. Wind the 
 spring a turn or so, and see if the balance 
 has a good motion ; if it has, wind and put 
 on the motion work. See if the cannon 
 pinion fits tight enough ; if not and it is a 
 solid pinion take a small square file and 
 with the corner file a notch across the 
 pinion. Cut it almost or quite through, 
 then takd a sharp-pointed punch and drive 
 in the bottom of the notch very little. 
 Take an oilstone slip and remove the burr 
 from the outside of the pinion. Put on the 
 dial, examine the hour wheel to see if it 
 works free under the dial. If it has too 
 much play put on a dial washer. Put on 
 the hands ; see if they pass without catch¬ 
 ing. Put your movement in the case, set 
 the hands, and the job is done. 
 
 To Put a Watch in Beat.— To put the 
 lever watch in beat the most perfectly, 
 wind the spring a quarter or half turn, and 
 stop the balance with a tooth of the wheel 
 on the impulse face of the pallet, allow it to 
 pass off, and note the stopping point on the 
 other pallet; if not equal, make them so, or 
 if difficult to get just equal let it pass off 
 the entrance pallet the freest. Same with 
 the cylinder escapement; if not equal, let 
 the tooth pass freest going into the cylin¬ 
 
 259 
 
 der, rather than out of it. A duplex will 
 be very nearly in beat if it starts off when 
 loosening the balance at the point of first 
 and third drops. A chronometer should 
 start off letting go the balance at the point 
 where the jewe'l passes away from the gold 
 spring, and where the tooth passes off the 
 pallet. 
 
 Watch in Beat. —To put a watch in 
 beat is a very important item, which is 
 done by some by placing a sharp-pointed 
 tweezer, first on one side of the arm of the 
 balance and then in the other, and so pin¬ 
 ning in the hairspring in the stud that it 
 will let off as readily on one side as on the 
 other. 
 
 To Bush a Hole. —To bush a hole, 
 broach it out in the plate. Turn up a bush 
 in the lathe to fit. My way of putting in a 
 bush is to turn the bush tapering a little 
 with a hole in the plate to match, drive the 
 bush in from the inside of the plate; hav¬ 
 ing countersunk the hole in the plate on 
 the outside, take a large punch from your 
 staking tool and rivet the bush on the out¬ 
 side just enough to force the metal out in 
 the countersink. Put the plate in the 
 lathe and turn off even with plate. I cen¬ 
 ter and drill the bush before putting in, 
 and then broach out to fit pivot; after put¬ 
 ting in and finishing up, countersink the 
 whole a little at both ends so as to hold oif. 
 
 Lubricating Watch. —It is a good plan 
 to put a drop of oil on center pinion lower 
 bearing, before inserting in place. The 
 stem wind should be judiciously oiled with 
 clock oil, although some watchmakers use 
 a compound of beeswax and oil to lubri¬ 
 cate stem wind, which gives a very smooth 
 winding. To oil pallet action, sharpen a 
 piece of pegwood down to a thin blade and 
 dip it in the oil cup. As the escape wheel 
 is revolving touch each tooth with the oiled 
 wood. The capillarity of the wood will 
 keep the oil from leaving in large drops, as 
 it will from a metal oiler, and each tooth 
 will receive a modicum of oil. In oiling all 
 capped settings, after placing a drop of oil 
 in the oil sink, take pegwood sharpened to 
 a fine point and insert in hole; this will 
 carry the oil down between the cap and the 
 hole jewels where it belongs. Oil the in¬ 
 side of barrel and place some oil in the 
 coils ; clock oil should be used for barrel 
 and center pinion. 
 
 Adjusted Watch.— The balance spring 
 of a fine watch should never be disturbed 
 when repairing the watch, unless in some 
 very exceptionable circumstances. Its. 
 
26 o 
 
 TRANSMISSION OF POWER. 
 
 length and curvature have probably been 
 carefully adjusted to secure isochronal vi¬ 
 brations of the balance, and taking it up or 
 letting it out will at once damage the isoch- 
 ronism. Even taking up a balance spring 
 and afterward putting it back where it was 
 originally will often spoil it for fine run¬ 
 ning, because the shape of the spring and 
 the condition of the metal have been so 
 altered by the pressure of the pin in the 
 hole, the bending or straightening of the 
 coil, etc., as to unfit it for isochronal action, 
 it is difficult, in fact, for a workman who is 
 not fully posted in fine watch work, to han¬ 
 dle a fine movement without injuring it 
 in some way, although he may not know 
 how he did it, or discover the fact till the 
 owner complains of its inferior perform- 
 a nee. 
 
 To Regulate a Fine Watch. —A cor¬ 
 respondent addressed The Circular some 
 time ago to know how to regulate a very 
 fine watch made by a celebrated English 
 watchmaker. He stated that although he 
 had tried to alter the balance spring by 
 taking up and letting out, yet he could not 
 obtain the desired effect.” When a watch 
 has no regulator, it is timed by the timing 
 screws in the balance rim at the end of the 
 center bar. They are turned very slightly 
 inward to make the watch gain, and out¬ 
 ward to lose. Both screws must be turned 
 the same quantity or the balance will be 
 thrown out of poise, and regular running 
 will be impossible. Should the amount of 
 regulation wanted be too much to be easily 
 corrected by these screws, it shows that 
 there is some fault in the movement which 
 should be repaired. This fault may be in 
 the escapement or elsewhere. It is some¬ 
 times caused by the balance rim having 
 been injured by careless handling. 
 
 Extracting Broken Screws. — When 
 the cramp cannot be used, because the 
 screw hole is drilled only partly through 
 the plate, do as follows : Slightly warm the 
 plate and well cover it with beeswax. Be 
 careful not to let the wax touch the broken 
 screw, then make a solution of oil of vitriol, 
 i pint of oil of vitriol and 4 of water. Let 
 it stand until quite cold, then put the plate 
 in, and in a few hours the acid will dis¬ 
 solve the screw. The wax maybe removed 
 by warming it in olive oil, and washing in 
 hot soap and water. 
 
 Headless Screw from Plate. —Take 
 two pieces of steel wire, three-quarters of 
 an inch in length, one size smaller than 
 the screw; file one edge wedge shape. 
 
 Put one piece in the head and the other in 
 the tail stock of the lathe ; push them near 
 together with the plate between and the 
 wire touching each end of the screw. Push 
 hard, and turn the plate with your hand. 
 
 Removing Broken Screw. —When all 
 other means fail for getting out a broken 
 screw and the watchmaker does not like to 
 resort to the punch, he may use the follow¬ 
 ing chemical method : Mix four parts of 
 distilled water with one part of sulphuric 
 acid, and put the plate in the solution over 
 night, when the acid will generally eat 
 away sufficient from the thread of the 
 screw to cause a distinct separation between 
 the steel and the brass, and the screw may 
 then be removed by mechanical means. 
 
 Left-Handed Screw. —To make a left- 
 handed screw plate, screw a piece of steel 
 of the desired size in an ordinary right- 
 handed screw plate. Then file it away to a 
 feather edge and harden it. A good left 
 handed screw plate may now be cut with 
 the tap thus made if it is turned the re¬ 
 verse, or left-handed way. 
 
 Chain in English Lever.- —Sometimes, 
 because of a defect in the fusee, the chain 
 of an English lever will fall over flat on 
 the barrel. It can be restored to its proper 
 position with the point of a graver in the 
 circumference of the barrel by forcing this 
 forward, thereby taking off the power of 
 the mainspring; and the defect in the 
 fusee can often be corrected without taking 
 the watch down. 
 
 To Resharpen Old Files. —According 
 to the Eiseii Ztg., cleanse the old files with 
 soda and warm water, then immerse them 
 in water, to which add sulphuric acid in 
 drops until gas bubbles begin to form on 
 the files. Leave for a few minutes in this 
 bath, then take out and rinse with clear 
 water. The files are said to be good again 
 for work. 
 
 Soldering Broken Broaches. —Steel 
 broaches and other tools are soldered by 
 cleaning well the parts broken, then dip¬ 
 ping them into a solution of sulphate of 
 copper and soldering them with ordinary 
 soft solder. The joint is a good one and 
 will stand ordinary hard wear. 
 
 Small Drills. —In hardening small drills 
 very good results are obtained by enclos¬ 
 ing the blade in a pellet formed of prussiate 
 of potash, lard and Castile soap, and cool¬ 
 ing in beeswax. Or the surface may be 
 protected by a layer of soft soap. 
 
 Transmission of Tower. —One of the 
 principal conditions of a good and regular 
 
TO SMOOTH AN OILSTONE 
 
 261 
 
 transmission of power is a good and suit¬ 
 able shape of the wheel teeth, and it is 
 astonishing to see in what an indifferent 
 way this important matter is treated. It is 
 a well-known fact that the wheel teeth in 
 order to act properly, ought to have an 
 epicycloidal rounding, and no engineer 
 would suffer any other form for the teeth 
 of the wheels. Berthoud treated this sub¬ 
 ject in a most elaborate way about a cen¬ 
 tury ago. Reid and others have also 
 explained the principles of the construction 
 of toothed wheels most explicitly, but in 
 vain. -It seems that the greater part of the 
 horological community have resolved to 
 view the shape of the wheel teeth as a 
 matter of taste. 
 
 Tightening Seconds Hand, etc.— 
 Seconds hands may be tightened, by in¬ 
 serting the socket in a wire chuck and 
 pinching by severe drawing in ; also hair¬ 
 spring collets that are loose may be tight¬ 
 ened in the same manner, holding the spring 
 by inserting apegwood in the center of the 
 collet. 
 
 To Clean Top-Plate. —To clean the 
 top-plate so as not to destroy the gilding 
 or scratch the plate, wash this with jeweler’s 
 cleaning soap and a soft brush, which 
 makes the plate look like new; rinse off in 
 clean water or alcohol, and dry in sawdust. 
 Then sharpen a piece of pegwood so it 
 will have three corners ; it can be sharpened 
 .with three cuts of the knife. Clean out all 
 the holes carefully. Again sharpen the 
 pegwood in the same way, only make it 
 blunt so that it will fit in the oil sinks, and 
 clean them out well; sharpen the pegwood 
 as it gets dirty. 
 
 Center Pinion Touching Crystal.— 
 A good way, besides the usual manner with 
 the thumb nail, to tell if the pinion touches 
 the glass, is by putting a little oil on the 
 part supposed to touch, and then shut the 
 bezel tight all around ; then raise it and 
 see if there is any spot of oil on the glass ; 
 if there is. the pinion touches. 
 
 Tightening a Glass. —To tightly fit a 
 glass on 3, 4 or 5 oz. open-face cases, where 
 the rim is cut under very deep, heat the 
 rim of the case over an alcohol lamp, when 
 you can easily put in a glass that will fit 
 tightly after the rim cools off. 
 
 Countersinks. — In hole jewels with cap 
 jewels over them, the countersink in the 
 jewels must be toward the shoulder of the 
 pivots; all without caps must be set the 
 opposite way. 
 
 Inserting Barrel Tooth. —To set a 
 
 tooth in the mainspring barrel, smooth the 
 broken part with a small file, drill a hole 
 where the tooth was, take a piece of brass 
 wire, file flat and to the thickness of the 
 other teeth ; then file round at one end to 
 fit the hole, solder with soft solder, and 
 then round up. For center wheel, file a 
 groove where the broken tooth was with a 
 screw-head file, and fit another tooth in the 
 same manner as specified for a barrel 
 tooth. 
 
 Hour Hand. —Before putting on the 
 dial, wind up the spring about half and see 
 if you can turn the hands back without 
 interrupting vibrations of the balance ; if 
 not, free until they will so turn without dis¬ 
 turbing vibrations, and be sure to carry. 
 Put on the dial, and if hour wheel has too 
 much shake, use a tinsel washer, concave 
 side to the dial. These are excellent 
 things to prevent “dipping ” of hour hand 
 when the wheel socket is too large for 
 cannon pinion. See that hands are free of 
 dial, glass, and each other, and the job is 
 done. 
 
 Spotting the Plates.— The spotting of 
 the plates is a branch in itself ; it is done 
 in an engine resembling a wheel-cutting 
 engine ; after the plates are polished with 
 rotten stone, the plate or piece that is to be 
 spotted being fixed to the dividing plate, a 
 small hollow ivory point charged with oil¬ 
 stone dust or emery and oil is attached to a 
 jeweled arm. This point is brought into 
 contact with the plate while it is rotating, 
 the plate being shifted after each spot, and 
 circular or geometrical patterns marked on 
 it as arranged on the dividing plate. The 
 steel works and the screws are blued, but 
 it is not thought safe to harden the large 
 screws, since, if a screwhead broke off and 
 stopped the timepiece, the result might be 
 serious. 
 
 Barrel Hook.— To put in a barrel hook, 
 drill a hole into the barrel, and cut a screw 
 into it; then cut a thread on a brass wire 
 the same size as the hole, file under on one 
 side to form a hook screw into the barrel, 
 and cut off. Select a suitable spring, put it 
 into the barrel ; if an American, see that 
 the catch on the end does not protrude too 
 far, or the balance will be apt to catch on it. 
 
 To Smooth an Oilstone.— Oilstones 
 are apt to wear hollow, and it is necessary 
 to smooth them. For this purpose take 
 coarse emery and water upon a slate or 
 marble slab, and with a circular motion 
 grind the oilstone. Another very good way 
 is to nail a piece of coarse emery paper 
 
202 
 
 MOVABLE BOUCHONS. 
 
 upon a board, and treat the stone in the 
 aforesaid manner. Paper is best, because 
 the grains of emery remain stationary, 
 while, when loose upon the slab, they roll 
 around, and therefore are less effective. 
 
 Tarnished Gilt Clock Bezels. —To re¬ 
 move tarnish from gilt clock bezels, dead 
 white silver work, etc., dissolve one ounce of 
 cyanide of potash in one quart of rain 
 water; bottle it, and label it “poison.” 
 Place the work in an earthen vessel, pour 
 sufficient of the cyanide solution on the 
 work to cover it, and the tarnish will dis¬ 
 appear in five minutes. Re-bottle the solu¬ 
 tion for future use. 
 
 To Make a New Collet. —Should the 
 contingency arise when the repairer is forced 
 to make a new collet, the old one being de¬ 
 fective, and that a material dealer does not 
 live near him, he can make one from a brass 
 stopping (bouchon). The drilling of a bal¬ 
 ance spring collet is not easy ; in fact, it is 
 the most difficult thing there is to drill, and 
 if the drilling is made easier by drilling in 
 both directions, great destruction of pivot 
 broaches results. In attempting to open a 
 hole that has two directions, a special soft 
 and fine pivot broach is needed to com¬ 
 mence the opening. Workmen who sing and 
 whistle over the finest pivoting, generally 
 look serious when drilling the collet. 
 
 The Double Roller. —The double 
 roller, as its name indicates, has two rollers 
 on the balance staff, the large one carrying 
 the impulse pin, as in the table roller, while 
 t he small one is used for a safety roller only. 
 In an ordinary escapement with a lifting 
 angle of 30° at the roller, the intersection 
 is only just safe when the escapement is a 
 good one and all the parts well made and 
 jeweled ; but if the pallet staff have 
 brass holes and less skilful workmanship 
 generally, pallets of higher angles and a 
 longer escaping are necessary. There are 
 no proportions of the lever escapement 
 upon which greater diversity of opinion ex¬ 
 ists than on the proper lifting angle of the 
 pallets. Lifting angles of 15 0 may be found 
 in old watches, while some modern watch¬ 
 makers advocate as low an angle as 6°. 
 Now, as the driving planes increase in 
 length with the lifting angles, and also 
 become more divergent from the course in 
 which the wheel is traveling, the friction in¬ 
 creases, and in an increasing ratio as the 
 planes approach more nearly to lines of the 
 wheel radii. 
 
 Riveting of Bouchons. —Some watch¬ 
 makers have found considerable advantage 
 in replacing the sudden and irregular im¬ 
 pacts of a hammer by gradual pressure, 
 without shock, obtained by a small press 
 worked by hand on the principle of a 
 punching machine. With a well made bou¬ 
 chon, the flat end of which is slightly 
 rounded and the inside of the hole in the 
 plate finished with a rattail rather than 
 with a cross-file, it is found that the rivet¬ 
 ing is always perfect. Others employ an 
 ordinary pair of sliding tongs, the noses 
 of which are drilled to receive two punches, 
 one flat and the other rounded, as in the 
 mainspring punch. Three pairs of punches 
 suffice for all sizes of bouchon, and the 
 same tool can be used for closing up screw 
 holes, etc. 
 
 Tapped Bouchon. —Every watchmaker 
 knows how to proceed in adjusting an or¬ 
 dinary perforated bouchon or stopping. We 
 would make a few remarks on the subject 
 of bouchons generally. The tapped bou¬ 
 chon is very firm, but in order that it may 
 be well centered, it is essential that its 
 thread fits exactly the tube of the tool, and 
 that the pointed rod is exactly central. A 
 turned bouchon, especially when a broach 
 can be passed into it after it is in position, 
 is more easily made central. 
 
 Solid Bouchon. —When bushing holes 
 that are rather large with solid bouchons, 
 after the hole has been marked with the 
 pointer, it must be drilled with a small drill, 
 a larger one being subsequently passed 
 through, so as to increase it. Otherwise 
 there is great danger of the hole turning to 
 one side. If a hole, say that of the center 
 wheel, is bushed with a perforated bouchon, 
 it will often be found to incline toward the 
 barrel, so that the hole is displaced. Such 
 an inconvenience may be avoided by using 
 a bouchon with a hole smaller than is ul¬ 
 timately required, afterward enlarging it 
 with the plate centered (by the bar pivot 
 hole) in the mandril or lathe. 
 
 Movable Bouchons. —These are for use 
 in regulator clocks and others of large di¬ 
 mensions, and a few words must suffice for 
 their description. It is always desirable, 
 with a view to prevent wear, that when 
 metal pivot holes are used the pivot should 
 bear on a length equal to about three times 
 its diameter ; but for such a condition to 
 be satisfied, it is essential that the axes of 
 both holes and pivots be absolutely parallel. 
 
MENDING MARBLE CLOCK CASES. 
 
 263 
 
 NOTES ON flENDING CASES, AND VARIOUS ITEflS. 
 
 G oing Abroad for Home News.— 
 The Moniteur de la Bijoicteric, etc. 
 •says that 1,200,000 watches are annually 
 manufactured in the United States which 
 require 12,000,000 precious stones, Or from 
 7 to 21 for each watch. The larger part of 
 these jewels are imported ; there is only 
 one company—the Waltham—which has 
 them cut by more than 30 workmen. 
 
 Magnetism in a Watch —To ascertain 
 whether any of the several steel parts of a 
 watch are magnetized, suspend the article 
 by sticking it with a piece of beeswax to 
 a fine silk thread, when the polarity may 
 be tried with a small magnet. On no ac¬ 
 count, however, should steel filings be used 
 in testing, because if not magnetic to begin 
 with, they will speedily become so when 
 brought into contact with the article under 
 treatment. With soft iron, even, it is well 
 to occasionally change the fragment used 
 for testing. 
 
 Age of a Watch. —If an old watch has 
 a balance spring, it is not older than 1660; 
 if it has a minute hand, its age is not greater 
 than 1770; should it have an enameled 
 dial, it was made in the 17th century. 
 
 The Astronomical Mean Solar Day 
 is reckoned from noon to noon, and the 
 hours are counted continuously from 1 to 
 24 instead of being divided into two equal 
 parts of 12 hours each, as is the ordinary 
 custom ; thus, half-past six o’clock in the 
 morning, say, of the second day of January, 
 would be expressed by astronomers as Jan¬ 
 uary 1, 18 hours, 30 minutes. In an as¬ 
 tronomical regulator the hour circle is ac¬ 
 cordingly divided into 24, and the hour 
 hand goes round once in 24 hours. 
 
 Solar Day.— A solar or civil day is the 
 time between the transits of the sun over 
 the meridian on two successive days ; but 
 as the sun revolves relatively in the same 
 direction in which the earth rotates (of 
 course, strictly speaking, it is the earth 
 which revolves round the sun ; it is only 
 apparently that the sun moves round us) 
 the sun requires nearly 3 minutes, 56 
 seconds on the average longer than any 
 particular star to bring him up to the same 
 meridian on every successive day; there is 
 therefore one more actual or sidereal day 
 in the year than there are solar days. 
 
 Sidereal Day.— The duration of a side¬ 
 real day is 23 hours, 56 minutes, 3 seconds. 
 
 Cycle of the Sun. —A cycle of the sun 
 is a period of 28 years, after which the 
 days of the week again fall on the same 
 day of the month as during the first year of 
 the former cycle. The cycle of the sun 
 has no relation to the sun’s course, but was 
 invented for the purpose of finding the 
 dominical letter which points out the days 
 of the month on which the Sundays fall 
 during each year of the cycle. Cycles of 
 the sun date nine years before the Christian 
 era. If it be required to know the year of 
 the cycle in 1882 nine years added will 
 make 1891, which, divided by 28, gives the 
 quotient 68, the number of cycles that have 
 passed, and the remainder 15 will be the 
 year of the cycle answering to 1882. 
 
 Sulphuric Acid.— Sulphuric acid will 
 dissolve iron, steel, copper, tin, silver, zinc, 
 brass, nickel, mercury, German silver. 
 
 Gilding on Marble. —To gild on marble 
 mix white lead to proper consistency with 
 fat oil, and then with turps ; paint the 
 portion to be gilded with the mixture, af¬ 
 terward sizing it with japanner’s gold size, 
 and when it is dry applying the gold leaf, 
 the best material being employed. 
 
 Marble Clock Cases.— To polish 
 marble clock cases make a thin paste of best 
 beeswax and spirits of turpentine, clean 
 the case well from dust, etc., then slightly 
 cover it with the paste, and with a handful 
 of clean cotton rub it well, using abundant 
 friction ; finish off with a clean old linen 
 rag, which will produce a brilliant black 
 polish. For light colored marble cases 
 mix quick lime with strong soda water, and 
 cover the marble with a thick coating. 
 Clean off after twenty-four hours and polish 
 well with fine putty powder. 
 
 Mending Marble Clock Cases.— 
 Plaster-of-Paris may be used, but it is bet¬ 
 ter, especially if the mended part is visible, 
 to soak the plaster-of-Paris in a saturated 
 solution of alum, and then bake it. It is 
 used with water, may be mixed with any 
 desired coloring material, and will take a 
 high polish. Lime and white of egg make 
 the best cement for closely-fitting surfaces, 
 but it requires using very quickly, as it 
 soon sets. Marble case makers use a 
 cement composed of Russian tallow, brick 
 dust and resin melted together, which 
 sets as hard as stone at ordinary tempera¬ 
 ture. 
 
264 
 
 BAROMETRIC ERROR. 
 
 NOTES ON THE PENDULUM. 
 
 T 'he Knife Suspension. —A watchmaker 
 complains in a German horological ex¬ 
 change about the irregular rate of a second’s 
 regulator, and is answered as follows : If the 
 clock has a knife suspension, as nearly all 
 the clocks made in the first part of this cen¬ 
 tury have, you will find that the pan causes 
 this irregularity. If the watchmaker omits 
 in the setting up of the clock to lubricate 
 the knife-edge and pan, steel rust will form 
 at the place of contact, and the knife wears 
 the pan no matter if it is glass hard and 
 polished black, and eventually forms a deep 
 gutter. I have found this true at least 
 twenty times in the course of my practise. 
 When I then restored the conditions of 
 knife-edge and pan, and lubricated both, or 
 replaced them with a suspension spring, 
 the arc of oscillation of the pendulum was 
 at once enlarged, essentially, and in all cases 
 the rate became more regular, and custom¬ 
 ers have often expressed their satisfaction. 
 But if the clock has a suspension spring 
 and has an irregular rate, there is some¬ 
 thing the matter with the fastening, so that 
 at the time when the pendulum is about to 
 return, the elastic force of the spring assist¬ 
 ing the specific gravity of the pendulum 
 bob is at fault. 
 
 Pendulum Bobs. —Variously shaped 
 bobs have been from time to time devised, 
 the most common in all the old clocks, 
 being the lenticular, or lens shaped, which 
 has been recommended by Reid and others. 
 If exactly made, this would not be a bad 
 form for the bob, but it is a very difficult 
 one to form accurately, one of the convex 
 sides being invariably more protuberant 
 than the other, or if these are properly 
 divided there is another difficulty in getting 
 the hole exactly in the middle of them. 
 Any inequality of this kind will cause the 
 pendulum to have a twist at every swing, 
 and prevent the good going of the clock ; 
 for this reason pendulums are now nearly 
 always made with cylindrical shaped bobs, 
 which is also a convenient shape for com¬ 
 pensation pendulums. 
 
 Torsion Pendulum. —Rotating pendu¬ 
 lums of this kind—that is in which the bob 
 rotates by the twisting of the suspension 
 rod or spring—will not bear comparison 
 with vibrating pendulums for timekeeping. 
 They are only used when a long duration 
 of the pendulum is required. Small clocks 
 to go for twelve months without winding 
 
 are made with torsion pendulums about six 
 inches long, making 15 excursions per 
 minute. The time occupied in the excur¬ 
 sion of such a pendulum depends on the 
 power of the suspending rod to resist tor¬ 
 sion and the weight and distance from its 
 center of motion of the bob. In fact, the 
 action of the bob and suspending rod is 
 very analogous to that of a balance and 
 balance spring. 
 
 Striking Half Hours. —The’ usual 
 way of getting the clock to strike one at 
 the half hour is by making the first tooth 
 of the rack lower than the rest and placing 
 the second pin in the minute wheel a little 
 nearer the center than the hour pin, so that 
 the rack hook is lifted free of the first tooth 
 only at the half hour. But this adjustment 
 is too delicate and the action is liable to 
 fail altogether or to strike the full hour 
 from the pin getting bent or from uneven 
 wear of the parts. An arrangement devised 
 by an English watchmaker appears to be 
 much safer. One arm of a bell crank lever 
 rests on a cam fixed in the minute wheel. 
 The cam is shaped so that just before the 
 half hour the other extremity of the bell 
 crank lever catches a pin placed in the rack 
 and permits it to move the distance of but 
 one tooth. After the half hour has struck 
 the cam carries the catch free of the 
 pin. 
 
 Length of Pendulum. —For regulators, 
 the one-second pendulum is never exceeded 
 and is generally adhered to, being a con¬ 
 venient length ; but of course any de- 
 rease of the length of a pendulum is at¬ 
 tended with a greatly increased effect of 
 errors in the escapement, shake in the holes, 
 etc. 
 
 Barometric Error. —The error caused 
 by variations of the density of the atmos¬ 
 phere is called the “ barometric error,” and 
 various methods have been tried for its cor¬ 
 rection, such as causing the pendulum to 
 vibrate in a vacuum, fixing small barome¬ 
 ters to the pendulum rod, etc. ; but the first 
 of these could hardly be adopted in turret 
 clocks, and in these the adjustment is very 
 troublesome. T'he best plan is to make the 
 pendulum describe so large an arc that the 
 circular error will correct the barometric. 
 With a decrease in the pressure of air and 
 consequent fall of the barometer the pen¬ 
 dulum increases its arc of vibration with an 
 increase in the pressure of the air and con- 
 
CENTER OE OSCILLATION. 
 
 265 
 
 sequent rise of the barometer the pendulum 
 diminishes its arc of vibration. 
 
 Regulators.— The pendulum lock of a 
 a regulator should be securely bolted to 
 the back of the case, which should not rest 
 on the ground, but be fixed to a permanent 
 wall of the room, and the back should be 
 suitably substantial, not less than 1^ inches 
 in thickness. Reid recommends that a 
 bracket be in this manner fixed to the wall, 
 and the movement screwed or bolted to it, 
 the front of the case being capable of being 
 pushed on or pulled off ; and this is the 
 method adopted in all the best regulators. 
 
 Timing French Pendules. —Escape 
 wheels of French pendules make two revo¬ 
 lutions a minute, so that the pendulum 
 makes four times as many vibrations per 
 minute as there are teeth in the escape 
 wheel. A pendule may therefore be quickly 
 brought to time by counting if the beats of 
 the pendulum per minute equal four times 
 the number of teeth in escape wheel. 
 
 Mercurial Pendulum. —In the mer¬ 
 curial pendulum the jar of mercury does 
 not answer so quickly to a change of tem¬ 
 perature as the steel rod, and preference is 
 therefore now generally given to the zinc 
 and steel arrangements ; still the elegant 
 appearance of the mercurial renders it 
 suitable for show regulators, for which it is 
 often used. The following are the dimen¬ 
 sions of a good pendulum of this class: 
 Steel rod 0.3 inch diameter, 34 inches long 
 from top of face part of suspension spring 
 to bottom of stirrup, side rods of stirrup 
 0.3 inch wide and 0.125 inch thick, height 
 of stirrup inside 8 inches, bottom of stirrup 
 0.5 inch thick with a recess turned out to 
 receive jar; glass jar 7.6 inches deep and 2 
 inches diameter inside, outside 2.25 inches 
 diameter and 7.8 inches high; height of 
 mercury in the jar about 7.4 inches ; the 
 weight of mercury entering such a jar is 
 about 11 pounds, 12 ounces. 
 
 Filling Pendulum. —Great care should 
 be taken when constructing a mercurial 
 pendulum to remove all the air bubbles 
 from the mercury. To facilitate this the 
 jar of mercury removed from the stirrup, 
 and with a piece of bladder tied over the 
 top, may be subjected to a temperature of 
 about 150° for a week or two. The parts 
 of the stirrup may with advantage be an¬ 
 nealed after they are finished, so as to 
 guard against the possibility of magnetism. 
 It is important to get the mercury as pure 
 as possible for a pendulum. A good way 
 for removing impurities is to add sulphuric 
 
 acid to the mercury, and shake the mixture 
 well. The metal is then washed and after¬ 
 ward dried on blotting paper. 
 
 To Purify Mercury. —Mercury often 
 becomes contaminated with alloys and 
 other impurities which may be removed by 
 simple filtration. This may be done in 
 simple glass funnels, the stems of which 
 are drawn out to a fine capillary tube. Put 
 this often becomes clogged after a short 
 time, and then ceases to act; besides this, 
 it acts very slowly. A chemist recommends 
 a method which has long been practised in 
 Bunsen’s laboratory. A filter is made of 
 writing paper and numerous fine holes are 
 punched into it. Instead of making these 
 round with a needle, it is better to use the 
 point of a pen-knife, which causes the little 
 holes to be triangular. The holes should 
 be pricked both vertically in the direc¬ 
 tion of the radius of the filter, and hori¬ 
 zontally at right angles with the former ; 
 part of the holes should be pricked from 
 the outside inward, and the other in the 
 opposite direction. A still better way to 
 purify mercury by filtration, according to 
 the same author, is the following: Select 
 a glass tube of about the thickness of a 
 lead pencil, and about a yard long. Ex¬ 
 pand one end to the shape of a funnel, and 
 the other to a tulip-shaped bulb, or expand 
 this end to a wave-like form such as is 
 customary when rubber tubing is to be 
 stretched and tied over the end of a tube. 
 A piece of linen or chamois is firmly tied 
 over the latter end, and the tube is then 
 suspended. On pouring the mercury into 
 the funnel, it will be pressed through the 
 pores of the filtering medium with a pres¬ 
 sure considerably exceeding that of the 
 atmosphere. 
 
 Center of Oscillation. —The center of 
 oscillation is that point in a vibrating body 
 in which, if all the matter composing the 
 body were collected into it, the time of 
 the vibration would not be affected. In a 
 straight bar suspended at one extremity, 
 the center of oscillation is at two-thirds of 
 its length, and in a long cone suspended at 
 the apex at four-fifths of its length from the 
 apex. From the irregular form of the pen¬ 
 dulum the position of its center of oscilla¬ 
 tion is not so easy to calculate, but it is 
 always situated below the center of gravity 
 or center of mass of the pendulum. In con¬ 
 structing a pendulum it will be sufficiently 
 near to assume the center of oscillation 
 to be coincident with the middle of the 
 bob. 
 
266 THE STOOL. 
 
 Pendulum Wire. —Always examine the ducing a piece of glass tube eight or ten 
 pendulum wire at the point where the loop inches long it will fill with mercury as high 
 of the fork works over it. You will gener- as the top line of the jar, and by placing 
 ally notice a small notch or at least a rough the finger on the top of the tube, the tube 
 place worn there. Dress it out perfectly can be lifted with its charge of mercury, 
 smooth, or your clock will not be likely to and in this manner, small quantities can be 
 work well. Small as this defect may seem, taken out when necessary. Usually the 
 it stops a large number of clocks. amount put in a jar is a little under the 
 
 Compensating Pendulum. —In adding amount required, and afterward additions 
 mercury to or taking it from the jar in ad- are made, which is more readily done than 
 justing, it is convenient to have a hole taking from the jar; all mercury added 
 through the cover of the jar, and by intro- should be pure, clean and dry. 
 
 NOTES ON THE BENCH AND TOOLS. 
 
 T oo Many Fancy Tools. —A great many and the tool becomes nearly useless. The 
 watchmakers have too large a num- same might occur with any other form of 
 ber of fancy tools, which they do not pliers or tweezers. In the hands of a good 
 know how to use. A good watchmaker can workman, they will last for a long time, but 
 do satisfactory work with a good lathe with if used unintelligently, without proportion- 
 all the chucks, a good vise, centering tool, ing the size of tool to the force that has to 
 a good set of pincers, drills, full set of files, be applied, taking up the first that comes 
 and other small tools generally used by a to hand, all the tools will soon become un¬ 
 watchmaker in repairing English lever, satisfactory and the work itself will suffer. 
 Swiss chronometers, split seconds, and all It is very desirable to have one or more 
 foreign watches. A watchmaker must have pairs of brass pliers and tweezers for han- 
 handled some of the above-mentioned time- dling metal work without the risk of scratch- 
 pieces ; and a great deal in repairing ing. 
 
 watches must lay with the ingenuity of the Files. —Watchmakers often fix files into 
 
 workman. handles by driving them firmly into round 
 
 The Eyeglass. —The usual form of a holes in the handles; this practise leads to 
 watchmaker’s glass is a convex lens one the handles being cracked, and the follow- 
 inch in diameter, mounted in a horn. Al- ing method is preferable: Take an old 
 though sometimes extra strong glasses are worn out file or a piece of iron of the same 
 used for special purposes, the focus for form as the tail of the file to be fitted ; heat it 
 •general work ranges from two to four inches, several times to bright redness and drive it, 
 Some workmen find the muscular exertion when so heated, into the handle, taking 
 of supporting the glass irksome, and attach care to maintain it perpendicular. A hole 
 it to a wire held in the mouth or behind the will thus be formed of the required size in 
 ear, or to a light spring coiled around the which the file will hold without there 
 head. Eyeglasses for lightness may now be being any occasion to apply excessive force 
 obtained mounted in cork. Holes are of- in fixing it in position. 
 
 ten drilled through the mounting to prevent The Bench. —This should be fixed in 
 the glass being dulled by the collection of front of a large window that affords a good 
 moisture on it. There is a very superior light. The various hooks, recesses, etc., for 
 achromatic glass with two plano-convex holding the bows, files, hammers, etc., as 
 lenses, which has the double advantage of well as the drawers, should be well in sight, 
 giving a perfectly colorless view with a flat not only in order that the hand can at once 
 field. Watch jewelers use a glass with take hold of whatever tool is required but 
 double lenses, half an inch in diameter and also to enable the workman to restore them 
 with a very short field. to their places immediately after use. By 
 
 Pliers, Tweezers, Ere.—It is advisable doing so he will have no occasion to retain 
 to have a considerable number of these, as on the bench any but those tools that are 
 their strength should always be proportional very frequently or continuously in use. 
 to the force that has to be applied to them. The Stool. —The stool used by workers 
 For example, if a pair of sliding tongues is at the bench is worthy of consideration, 
 used when a hand-vise is needed, the former Those with cane seats are to be preferred, 
 will be strained beyond its limit of elasticity, The height of the bench and stool should be 
 
RIVETING STAKE. 
 
 so related that the muscles of the chest are 
 not too much cramped, especially if the 
 workman is engaged on an operation that 
 occupies a long time and obliges him to 
 maintain a stooping position. The stool 
 with a screw is advantageous in this respect. 
 
 Making Odd Tools. —Says a correspond¬ 
 ent : I have adopted the plan of making 
 any tool I happen to need for any special 
 purpose, so that by making these at the 
 time I happen to want a tool that I cannot 
 purchase, I have accumulated quite a vari¬ 
 ety of odd tools; among them are a varied 
 lot of millers for milling and raising jewels, 
 and deepening the countersink holes for 
 jewel settings and screw-heads ; also a tool 
 for holding a roller, to set the jewel pin, 
 and one for holding the hairspring collet, 
 and a pair of tweezers for holding jewels 
 while cleaning, etc. 
 
 Rounding-up Tool. —This most in¬ 
 genious tool is one of the most useful to 
 watch repairers. By its aid a wheel may 
 be almost instantly reduced in diameter; 
 corrected, if out of round, or have the form 
 of its teeth altered as may be required. 
 'The cutters are little over half a circle and 
 terminate in a guide. While one end of 
 the guide meets the cutter, the other an¬ 
 gles a little, so that instead of meeting the 
 other extremity of the cutter, when the 
 circle is completed, it leaves a space equal 
 to the pitch of the wheel to be cut. By this 
 means after the cutter has operated on a 
 space the wheel is led forward one tooth by 
 the time the cutter arbor has completed its 
 revolution. 
 
 Selecting the Cutter. —Some little 
 practise is required to select exactly the 
 cutter required for the rounding-up tool. 
 Care must be taken not to use one too thick, 
 or the teeth will of course be made too thin, 
 and the wheel probably bent. When the 
 guide is adjusted to the pitch, it will be 
 well to see that it enters the space properly 
 before rotating the tool quickly. The wheel 
 should be held firmly, but not too tight be¬ 
 tween the centers, which should rest well 
 on the shoulders of the pinion. The rest 
 piece for the wheel should be as large as 
 possible to keep the wheel from bending, to 
 give it firmness, and to insure a clean cut. 
 
 Left-Handed Screw Plates. —Screw a 
 piece of steel of the desired size in an or¬ 
 dinary right-handed screw plate. Then file 
 away to a feather-edge, and harden it. A 
 good left-handed screw plate may now be 
 cut with the top so made, if it is turned the 
 reverse or left-handed way. 
 
 267 
 
 Composition Files. —These files which 
 are frequently used by watchmakers and 
 metal workers for grinding and polishing 
 and which in color resemble silver, are 
 composed of 8 parts copper, 2 tin, 1 zinc, 
 i lead. They are cast in forms; treated 
 upon the grindstone ; the metal is very hard 
 and is worked with difficulty with the file. 
 
 A Surfeit of Tools. —Some repairers 
 encumber themselves with a great variety 
 of useless or worn-out tools, pliers for in¬ 
 stance, of which two or three pairs are 
 quite sufficient. A watch-repairer should 
 never use hardened tooth pliers ; they spoil 
 the work and are not necessary ; a pair of 
 long-nosed pliers, softened with a good 
 point, filed up occasionally, and small at 
 the points, will be almost constantly in 
 use; they are much mbre reliable than 
 tweezers for all such work as picking up 
 pins, or for many other purposes for which 
 tweezers are commonly used. A greater 
 variety of tweezers are necessary, as those 
 with long thin points, that must be used 
 for such work as putting a chain on the 
 fusee, or getting the pivots into the holes 
 when putting a repeater together, should 
 only be used for some such purpose, as the 
 limbs are so weak that a pin is held in 
 them with difficulty. Very good tweezers 
 are now being sold, made light and stiff by 
 giving the middle part of each leg the form 
 of the segment of a tube. 
 
 Staff Punch.— The staff punch is a 
 useful tool for driving pallet and other 
 staffs and colletted wheels to correct posi¬ 
 tion. It may be made from a piece of 
 polished steel. A large hole is first drilled 
 transversely near one end and a smaller 
 one of a size to allow of the passage of 
 ordinary pivots is then drilled from the end 
 to meet it. The mouth of the smaller hole 
 is chamfered and rests on the shoulder of 
 the staff to be driven ; the pivot passing 
 into the larger hole is secure from damage 
 during the operation. 
 
 Riveting Stake.— The ordinary rivet¬ 
 ing stake is too well known to require de¬ 
 scription. Another form is circular, with a 
 shifting table or stake round which holes of 
 various sizes are arranged in a circle so 
 that any particular hole maybe brought ex¬ 
 actly under a suitable punch moving in a 
 vertical guide. A set pin fits a hole in the 
 edge of the table to secure it correctly to 
 position with relation to the punch. A 
 somewhat similar tool is used for closing 
 holes in watch plates. There are no holes 
 in the table and the punches are cupped so 
 
268 
 
 DEPTHING TOOL. 
 
 as to stretch the material of the watch plate 
 toward the hole. Sometimes the punches 
 are formed with a punch center to insure 
 their acting concentrically round the hole 
 in the plate. 
 
 Fly Cutters. —The usual form of fly 
 cutters has a single cutting edge used for 
 cutting the teeth of brass wheels. Flv cut¬ 
 ters are at present frequently made double. 
 A piece of steel fitted to the cutter holder 
 so as to project equally on each side is 
 turned to the form the cutter is to be. The 
 steel is thinned on opposite sides till the 
 faces are just coincident with the center of 
 the holder, and after being filed back from 
 the edge, to give requisite clearance, is 
 hardened and tempered. 
 
 Use of a Sector.— Suppose a pinion of 
 8 is required for a wheel of 75 teeth ; the 
 wheel is placed between the limbs of the 
 75 mark and the proper size for the pinion 
 is then the distance between the limbs at 
 the 8 mark. Of course, if the pinion is in 
 hand and the size of wheel is required the 
 operation is reserved; the pinion is placed 
 between the limbs at the 8 mark and the 
 distance between the limbs at the 75 mark 
 gives the size of the wheel. 
 
 Chamfers. —The best form of chamfer 
 for making the oil sinks around pivot holes 
 is a steel wheel mounted on a notch, cut 
 diameterwise, in the end of a properly 
 made shaft. The wheel projects slightly, 
 and when the tool is rotated with a recipro¬ 
 cating motion the wheel cuts a hollow of 
 circular section, the radius corresponding 
 to the size of the wheel. For cutting the 
 edge of the wheel is left quite square, but 
 when rounded it serves as a burnisher. 
 Two wheels of the same diameter, one to 
 cut and one to burnish, are usually mounted 
 in the opposite ends of one shaft. Differ¬ 
 ent diameters produce different sized 
 chamfers, wheels from one-tenth of an inch 
 to a quarter of an inch diameter being 
 commonly used. 
 
 Uprighting Tools. —The chief require¬ 
 ments in an uprighting tool are that the 
 holes in the arm and in the table shall be 
 exactly opposite and straight one with an¬ 
 other and also perfectly perpendicular with 
 the table. If the holes are in line a true 
 runner fitting them should pass from one to 
 the other without binding. The readiest 
 way for testing if the runners are perpen¬ 
 dicular to the table is first to ascertain that 
 the runners are true in themselves, and 
 then to fasten to each of the runners in 
 turn a piece of wire extending horizontally 
 
 to nearly the edge of the table. The point 
 of the runner is pressed on a plate and on 
 rotating the runner the wire will clear the 
 face of the table exactly the same distance 
 all round, if the tool is correct. Uprighting 
 tools are not used so much now as formerly, 
 for as accuracy of drilling is more absolutely 
 insured if the work rotates, the mandrel is 
 now generally preferred where extreme ex¬ 
 actness is required. From the readiness, 
 however, with which the work may be ad¬ 
 justed in the uprighting tool it is not with¬ 
 out its advantages. 
 
 Screw-driver. —A screw-driver for 
 watch-maker’s use should be as light as 
 possible, consistent with strength, properly 
 proportioned to the work, with well polished 
 point of a width nearly equal to the diameter 
 of the screw heads to be operated upon, and 
 of a thickness to fit the slits with only suffi¬ 
 cient taper to secure it from breaking. A 
 tool with a blunt taper will ruin the best of 
 screws. Screw-drivers made from pinion 
 wire collect dust in the ridges, and are 
 therefore objectionable. A better form is 
 readily made from square steel twisted 
 while hot. 
 
 Screw Taps. —When making a screw 
 tap the upper part is generally left larger 
 than the screw part, and in turning the tap 
 care should be taken to make a long curve 
 between the two, for if a square shoulder is 
 turned there the tap is very likely to break 
 usi ne. 
 
 Emery Grinders. —Shellac, melted to¬ 
 gether with emery and fixed to a short 
 metal rod, forms a grinder used for open¬ 
 ing the holes in enameled dials. The 
 grinder is generally rotated with the thumb 
 and forefinger, and water is used to lubri¬ 
 cate its cutting part, which soon wears 
 away. The grinder is reshaped by heating 
 the shellac and molding the mass while it 
 is in a plastic condition. 
 
 Depthing Tool. —Accuracy of construc¬ 
 tion is absolutely essential in the depthing 
 tool, and before venturing to use a new 
 one, it should be tested. The centers 
 should be turned end for end and trans¬ 
 posed, ascertaining after each change if 
 there is any deviation in a circle described 
 by the points ; also if the points when they 
 meet coincide exactly. If possible, a com¬ 
 parison should be made with an approved 
 tool by trying both a large and also a small 
 wheel and pinion. The adjusting screw 
 had better be removed so as to see that 
 the joint works smoothly and that the 
 spring has perfect control over it. If the 
 
SLIDING CARRIER. 
 
 269 
 
 joint is stiff and appears to be dirty, the 
 joint pin may be taken out and the joint 
 cleaned thoroughly. 
 
 Joint Pusher. —Quite a convenient tool 
 is a joint pusher, a round piece of tem¬ 
 pered steel, generally in a wooden handle, 
 for forcing small pins into or out of position. 
 A tight pin is started much easier by im¬ 
 pact than by pressure, and a good plan is 
 to have a punch or joint pusher with a 
 square body which is clasped in the vise 
 not tightly, but just so as to hold it in the 
 position. If then the work is held in one 
 hand against the point of the joint pusher 
 the other hand is at liberty to give the head 
 of the joint pusher a light tap with a 
 hammer. 
 
 Drawplate. —Every watchmaker should 
 possess a plate for drawing round wire so 
 as to be able to obtain it of any required 
 diameter. It can be had at any ordinary 
 store. In bushing holes in a brass plate it 
 not unfrequently happens that the brass 
 used for the bouchon is not of the same 
 color as the plate. To avoid such a differ¬ 
 ence, cut off a piece from a plate of the 
 same color and round it by hand, making 
 one end to taper. Fixing the drawplate in 
 the vise, pass this end through one of its 
 holes and gripping it in the hand vise, pull 
 the brass through the plate. Continue 
 this operation through successive holes un¬ 
 til the requisite thickness is attained. No 
 special precautions are necessary, further 
 than keeping the holes well greased and 
 annealing the brass from time to time so 
 as to counteract the hardening caused by 
 the operation. Such a plate can also be 
 used for steel wire and plates with holes of 
 special form ; for example, those for draw¬ 
 ing click and pinion wire are well known 
 in the trade. 
 
 Drifting Tool.— This appliance is very 
 useful for making holes of round, oval, 
 square or any required form. It takes the 
 place of a punching machine for light 
 work ; but for heavier work it will be nec¬ 
 essary to resort to the punching machine. 
 There are several constructions in use, but 
 the most usual is essentially the same as 
 that of the tool just described. The screw 
 works vertically in a strong bridge, that is 
 fixed to the bed in which the counterpart 
 of the punch is held. Great use is made 
 of this machine in factories at the present 
 day, almost every part of a watch being in 
 the first instance roughly shaped by its 
 means. Indeed, this metal is often left as 
 it comes from the punch, and very perfect 
 
 crossings of wheels, etc., are thus produced. 
 Steel does not cut well in the press unless 
 it is soft and homogeneous, and the final 
 dimensions of the object can be more 
 clearly approached according as these con¬ 
 ditions are satisfied. Attempts have been 
 made to cut levers, etc., of the exact di¬ 
 mensions requited, but it is better to leave 
 a slight excess of metal to be afterward re¬ 
 moved by a mill cutter or other means. 
 The crossings of steel levers and cylinder 
 escape wheels are punched out, but the 
 metal used is of special excellence. 
 
 Truing a Grindstone. —The best way 
 to restore the roundness of a small grind¬ 
 stone is by wearing it down. I had such 
 an untrue grindstone, and tried all kinds 
 of ways, but found the following the best: 
 I fastened the two sides of the shaft in a 
 block of wood, sufficiently tight to keep it 
 from wobbling, and then took a piece of 
 charcoal, which I held carefully against the 
 stone to mark the raised and uneven places. 
 I next took a sharp hammer, something 
 like a mason’s, and trimmed the high 
 places down, continuing until the stone ran 
 fairly true. This operation is so simple as 
 to be not worth explaining. I then re¬ 
 moved the stone to its frame, took a piece 
 of hard steel and turned the stone, which 
 became nice and round in a short time. As 
 the watchmaker’s grindstone is not large, 
 any fair-sized hammer (of course the sharp 
 or so called pcne end) may be used. If the 
 frame of the stone is sufficiently strong the 
 work of dressing may be performed with¬ 
 out removing the stone. 
 
 Diamond Broached.— These broaches 
 are made of brass, the size and shape de¬ 
 sired. Having oiled them slightly their 
 surfaces are rolled in fine diamond dust 
 until entirely covered. Place the broach 
 on the face of an anvil, and tap with a 
 light hammer till the .grains are imbedded 
 in the brass. Great caution is necessary 
 in this operation, so as not to flatten the 
 broach. Very light blows are all that will 
 be required; the grains will be driven in 
 much sooner than would be imagined. 
 Some roll the broach between two pieces 
 of smooth steel to imbed the diamond dust. 
 It is a good way, but somewhat more waste¬ 
 ful of the dust. Broaches made in this 
 way are used for dressing out jewel holes. 
 
 Sliding Carrier. —This useful adjunct, 
 the sliding carrier, although not generally 
 supplied with a Jacot tool, may with advan¬ 
 tage be fitted to it. It is often handier 
 than the screw ferrule, and saves time 
 
270 
 
 BOW LATHE VS. FOOT LATHE. 
 
 when used, instead of covering or cement¬ 
 ing. A small steel plug or arbor is fitted 
 to one of the centers. The ferrule of steel 
 runs on a collet of hard brass, and is kept 
 in its place by a small washer. The collet 
 is pierced to move freely on the steel arbor, 
 and its projecting end slit, and then 
 pinched together, so as to grip the ar¬ 
 bor sufficiently tight to remain in posi¬ 
 tion when in use, and yet not so tightly 
 that it cannot be moved to and fro without 
 trouble. Holes may be made at conven¬ 
 ient positions in the ferrule to receive the 
 carrier pin. The shake between the cross¬ 
 ings is not objectionable with small-sized 
 wheels, but for large and heavy balances, 
 etc., two pins and a large ferrule may be 
 used. To compensate for the room taken 
 up by the projecting end of the collet, a 
 little is sometimes taken off the boss of the 
 Jacot tool. 
 
 To Mount a Grindstone. —Small though 
 a watchmaker’s or jeweler’s grindstone be, 
 it is after all not a very large job to mount 
 it correctly, in such a manner that it shall 
 not “ wobble ” to and fro, or hang out of 
 
 true. The hole is to be at least one-half or 
 three-quarters of one inch larger than the 
 axis, and the former as well as the latter 
 must be square. Then make wedges for 
 each side, all of which are to be equal and 
 sufficiently thin, so that a wedge passes 
 from each side through the hole. These 
 wedges are to be inserted from both sides. 
 If the hole through the stone is regular and 
 equal, the wedges will fix the stone as it 
 ought to fit. But if it is not at right angles 
 to the stone, it is to be made so, or else the 
 wedge must be made accordingly, so that 
 they will equalize any irregularities. 
 
 Oilstone.- —An oilstone thoroughly sat¬ 
 urated with oil is often cast aside, but if it 
 is soaked in benzine for two or three days 
 it will be as good as ever. The ordinary 
 animal and vegetable oils are not so suit¬ 
 able for use with the oilstone as petroleum 
 especially for setting small tools. A mix¬ 
 ture of glycerine and alcohol is even better 
 than petroleum for watchmakers’ tools, or 
 glycerine alone may be used. Glycerine 
 has the advantage of neither evaporating 
 nor clogging, as oil is apt to do. 
 
 NOTES ON THE LATHE. 
 
 U SE of Lathe. —As to lathes, I have 
 found that there is a necessity of 
 about two lathes ; one a Swiss, light-run¬ 
 ning lathe for cementing any pivot work, 
 and I prefer these because they run 
 lighter and easier than American lathes; 
 and yet, if confined to but one, I would 
 use a small American, with a good assort¬ 
 ment of split chucks, particularly those 
 with the smaller-sized holes, for holding 
 balance staffs, wheel arbors, etc., which 
 come in use almost every day, for taking 
 off the burr from the point of a balance 
 pivot, which has come from a collapse of 
 the case; driving the end-stones down on 
 the end of pivots, even sometimes to the 
 extent of heading them on the inside of the 
 hole jewel. These small-size split chucks 
 I have found extremely useful for the last- 
 named purpose, and I am not so “senti¬ 
 mental ” but that I oftener use these split 
 chucks, even for setting fine balance pivots, 
 rather than take time to cement them ; and 
 while I do not advise the use of a split 
 chuck for this purpose in every case, yet 
 with a little experience one can tell when a 
 staff is held so that the new pivot, when 
 set, will “line” and be true, and of clear 
 
 beat or swing. To make a very nice pivot 
 the cementing process is preferable, and 
 yet, for nearly a year, my old No. i Amer¬ 
 ican lathe was not set up (for reasons irrel¬ 
 evant to mention), and during that time 1 
 employed a very skilful workman to do my 
 pivoting, and this man would not think of 
 ever doing a nice job unless he cemented 
 it; and I can assure you that he put more 
 pivots out of line and out of true, in the 
 course of a few months, than I had done 
 in all my life. Speaking of “ sentiment,” 
 I will say that too many young work¬ 
 men use the lathe too much, and seem 
 to depend on a fine-looking lathe and hand¬ 
 some tools, and spend too much time in 
 using the lathe and in decorating their 
 bench with a fine display. But do not con¬ 
 strue this as meaning that one can do nice 
 work with a jack-knife and handsaw'; for I 
 do most certainly believe in a good and 
 substantial set of tools. 
 
 Bow Lathe vs. Foot Lathe. —Some 
 workmen still insist that there is nothing 
 equal to the bow lathe, and I am willing to 
 admit that some of the finest of work has 
 been produced by this means. Others, 
 however, claim that continuous motion will 
 
TEMPERING STEEL. 
 
 produce as good work and do it quicker. 
 The writer is of the latter opinion ; he also 
 claims that a split chuck in a lathe of Ameri¬ 
 can or foreign make will not hold a piece 
 absolutely true. Such chucks will, no doubt, 
 do well enough for ordinary work, but when 
 a fine staff or pivot is to be turned, he 
 agrees with the manufacturer of the leading 
 American lathe, that nothing equals a well- 
 centered cement chuck. He has tried almost 
 every make of lathes, and has come to the 
 conclusion that for the finest kind of work 
 the Swiss or cement lathe is most suitable 
 on account of its lightness and the facility 
 with which the wearing parts may be ad¬ 
 justed ; or a cement brass may also be used 
 with an American lathe; and it must be 
 borne in mind that if the chuck is removed 
 from the lathe it must always be carefully 
 recentered when replaced, no matter how 
 true it may seem to run. 
 
 Care of Lathe. —To prevent the rust¬ 
 ing of the lathe, some use an oily cloth to 
 wipe it with, which is a very good plan 
 when one’s perspiration is very corrosive. 
 The lathe should be left under a glass 
 cover, when practicable, as it answers all 
 purposes as a protector, and has the advan¬ 
 tage of looking nice. When it is not, a 
 piece of chamois skin or cotton flannel 
 should be thrown over it when not in use, 
 especially when leaving the shop in the 
 evening. The heavier the foot wheel used 
 the more regular will be the motion of the 
 lathe. The swing treadle produces a more 
 uniform motion than the common foot 
 treadle, the advantage of which is obvious. 
 I use clock oil for oiling my lathe, but oil 
 with a little more body might not be objec¬ 
 tionable. The oil cups should always be 
 closed after oiling to prevent chips from 
 working into the bearings. There is noth¬ 
 ing to be saved in springing a chuck by 
 pressing work intb it which is too large for 
 it, or clamping upon it work which is too 
 
 small. Better use wax on such jobs than 
 spoil a $1.25 chuck. 
 
 A Nice Underturning. —To introduce 
 a nice underturning on a pinion, balance 
 staff, etc., remember the following points: 
 1. The object in hand must run between 
 good centers, without any side shake ; 
 every tremble is ruinous to the graver point 
 and the pinion or staff, which will bend 
 easily. 2. The graver used must be ground 
 carefully, so that it will attack well ; as 
 soon as it cuts no turnings, stop at once 
 and grind the graver, as otherwise the 
 turned place will simply polish, after which 
 it is quite difficult to make the graver catch 
 hold again. 3. The graver rest must stand 
 at an almost right angle to the running-bar 
 of the lathe, and be set as closely as possi¬ 
 ble to the object to be turned. 
 
 Turning. —Hardened steel that has 
 been let down to a blue temper requires 
 certain precautions. If the graver is found 
 not to cut cleanly, it must at once be sharp¬ 
 ened, and no attempt should be made to 
 remove more metal by increasing the pres¬ 
 sure of the hand, because the steel will 
 burnish and become hard under a point or 
 edge that is blunt, and the portions thus 
 burnished are sometimes so hard as to re¬ 
 sist the best gravers. The only way of 
 attacking them is to begin at one side with 
 a fine graver point, which must be sharp¬ 
 ened for each stroke; at times it becomes 
 necessary to temper the metal afresh before 
 it will yield. It is asserted that by moist¬ 
 ening the point of the graver with petro¬ 
 leum, it becomes more able to attack hard 
 substances, and that a mixture of two parts 
 petroleum and one part turpentine en¬ 
 ables it to turn very hard steel with com¬ 
 parative ease. Indeed, for all turning, it is 
 a common practise to moisten the graver 
 with oil, water, turpentine, or by simple 
 introduction into the mouth. 
 
 NOTES ON STEEL AND ITS TREATMENT. 
 
 T empering Steel. —It is known that 
 soft steel increases its volume when 
 it is hardened, and it is easy to arrive at 
 the conclusion that the steel is less dense 
 in proportion as it approaches the condition 
 of iron. If, therefore, a piece of steel is 
 heated in the open fire and an air current 
 passed over it, then the outer part of the 
 metal, in consequence of its decarbonization, 
 partakes less of the nature of steel than 
 
 formerly ; thence follows that the interior 
 part of the article, compared to the outer, 
 becomes too large, and the workman is 
 consequently exposed to the danger of see¬ 
 ing it burnt. But when the piece is sur¬ 
 rounded with a mixture suitable for effect¬ 
 ing cementation, or exposed to a fire, which 
 may also operate with a steel-forming ef¬ 
 fect, containing animal charcoal, then the 
 opposite phenomenon will result. The 
 
272 
 
 MAKING A DRILL. 
 
 outer part, instead of being decarbonized 
 by the fire, becomes richer in carbon than 
 the inner portion, in consequence of which, 
 in place of cracking during the cooling, it 
 will become harder and more dense. 
 
 Cracks in Steel. —The cracks which 
 often appear when steel is dipped into water 
 do not always seem to be due to the sud¬ 
 den contraction which the latter experi¬ 
 ences, while the interior portion remains 
 expanded by the heat, and retains its in¬ 
 crease of volume for another moment after 
 the exterior has been brought in contact 
 with the water. 
 
 Rust. —Nuts are oftentimes so tightly 
 rusted upon screws that other means than 
 unscrewing must be made use of to loosen 
 them; kerosene or naphtha, even turpen¬ 
 tine, will, in a short time, penetrate be¬ 
 tween the nut and stem. Next, heat them 
 in the fire, which will quickly loosen them. 
 
 Hardening Steel. —• In hardening, 
 bright steel should not be exposed naked 
 to a fire or flame. It may with advantage 
 be placed in a covered box containing bone 
 dust or animal charcoal in some other form, 
 or another plan is to smear soap all over the 
 article to be hardened. Water or oil is the 
 medium generally selected for plunging the 
 article in to cool it. Petroleum is recom¬ 
 mended, if extra hardness is desired. 
 Either mercury or salt water will give great 
 hardness, but the steel is rendered brittle. 
 Oil is the best medium for hardening steel, 
 if toughness is required. 
 
 To Frost Steel Work. —After the work 
 Iras been prepared with a surface free from 
 scratches, it is rubbed with a short back¬ 
 ward and forward motion on a small glass 
 slab, with a thickish paste of oilstone dust 
 and sweet oil. Before mixing this paste 
 look over the powdered oilstone with a 
 very strong magnifier and carefully remove 
 all the black atoms which, if left, would in¬ 
 evitably scratch the work. The work is 
 cleaned and finished by rubbing in a circu¬ 
 lar direction with pith; or instead of rub¬ 
 bing with pith, the work may be carefully 
 breaded and immersed in benzine. 
 
 To Prevent Rust. —Dip iron or steel 
 articles in a mixture of equal parts of car¬ 
 bolic acid and olive oil, rubbing the surface 
 with a rag. Others rub the metal with a 
 mercurial ointment, leaving a thin layer 
 over the entire surface. It is stated that, 
 if iron be dipped in a solution of carbonate 
 of potash or soda in water, the surface will 
 be protected against rust for a long time, 
 and objects can be protected for any period 
 
 by burying in quicklime. Rubbing the sur¬ 
 face with plumbago has a similar effect, 
 and Barff has pointed out that, by expos¬ 
 ing iron to the action of steam, heated 
 above the boiling point of water, a coating 
 of magnetic oxide of iron is formed, which 
 is equally serviceable. 
 
 To Keep Steel from Rusting. — To 
 keep steel articles from rusting, cover them 
 with powdered quicklime. If they must be 
 exposed, place near them a small open 
 vessel containing chloride of calcium. By 
 immersing rusted steel articles for a few 
 minutes in a strong solution of cyanide of 
 potassium, they will be cleaned much 
 easier. Steel or iron that has been im¬ 
 mersed in caustic soda will resist rust for 
 a long time. Spots of rust on chronometer 
 springs and other steel pieces are generally 
 rubbed with a piece of brass, but some say 
 the best plan after cleaning the spots is to 
 apply a little spirits of ammonia to them. 
 
 A Solvent of Rust. —It is sometimes 
 very difficult and occasionally impossible 
 to remove the rust on certain iron articles. 
 This, however, is quickly done by immers¬ 
 ing them in an almost saturated solution of 
 chloride of tin. The length of their ex¬ 
 posure in the bath is according to the 
 thickness of the layer of rust; generally 
 speaking, 24 hours are sufficient. The 
 solution must not contain a large amount 
 of acid, as this would attack the iron. Af¬ 
 ter withdrawal, the articles are rinsed, first 
 in water, next in ammonia, and rapidly 
 dried. The pieces are of a matt silver 
 color; a simple polish restores their gen¬ 
 eral appearance. 
 
 Making a Drill. —After having made 
 the drill, the greatest possible care must 
 be exercised in the hardening and temper¬ 
 ing, not to overheat it. The following 
 method dispenses with_ the hardening. 
 Select a round pivot broach ; as sold they 
 will be found to be tempered to the correct 
 degree of hardness. By means of the split 
 gauge, measure the part of the broach 
 which is the exact diameter required for 
 the intended hole, and break off the steel 
 at that point ; the small piece is used ; it 
 must be broken off if too long, and cement¬ 
 ed into a drill stock with shellac; an or¬ 
 dinary drill stock will do, or a piece of brass 
 joint-wire serves the purpose. Soft solder 
 may be used instead of shellac, and, if 
 carefully heated, the temper will not be 
 drawn. The piece of tapering steel is now 
 formed into a drill by grinding down the 
 sides with a piece of Arkansas stone, and 
 
HARDENING WITH DISCOLORING.. 
 
 the end shaped up to a cutting angle. The 
 thick end of the broach forms the cutting 
 end, and the ordinary taper of a broach 
 will be quite sufficient to give clearness to 
 the drill, which may be sharpened by grind¬ 
 ing until the hole is used. 
 
 Shape of Drill. —After the operator is 
 satisfied that his drill has a truly central 
 point, he must see to the getting of his cut¬ 
 ting edges in position, which is largely in¬ 
 fluenced by the material he desires to 
 drill. If it is brass, he may make the cut¬ 
 ting edges at about right angles ; if he'de¬ 
 sires to 'cut copper, he may make them 
 about an angle of 75°, and at the same time 
 give them a little more clearance, so that the 
 drill will not be so likely to bind; he will 
 find, if he has to drill pretty far into soft 
 metal, that it is somewhat difficult to keep 
 the drill from binding, unless he is careful 
 and gives it a good clearance. 
 
 To Drill Steel of Blue Temper. —At 
 first not much difficulty will be experienced 
 in drilling blue tempered steel, but when 
 the drill has reached a certain depth, and 
 the metal seems to oppose a gradually in¬ 
 creasing resistance, the operation must at 
 once be stopped. If the blade of the drill 
 be examined with a glass, it will be easy to 
 see which point has ceased to cut, produc¬ 
 ing instead a series of bright rings at the 
 bottom of the hole that are very difficult to 
 remove. Exchange the drill for one of a 
 different form ; or, without reducing its 
 width, change the form of the blade. If it 
 was arrow-headed, for example, make it 
 semicircular or semi-oval, or chisel-shaped 
 with sloping edges. All that is essential is 
 that the form be so changed that the bright 
 portion of the surface shall be gradually 
 removed, and that no attempt be made to 
 act on the whole bright surface at once. 
 Until this hard portion is removed, the 
 blade will require frequent sharpening. 
 Some recommend that the hole be moist¬ 
 ened from time to time with dilute nitric 
 acid, which is washed off and renewed 
 when a shiny surface is produced. Oil 
 may with advantage be replaced by turpen¬ 
 tine as a lubricant for a drill blade. 
 
 The formation of hard, shiny surfaces is 
 attributed to three causes : 1. To the cut¬ 
 ting edge being rounded, rolling, as it were, 
 and hardening the surface of the metal 
 against which it continues to move; 2. To 
 the drill being made of poor steel or imper¬ 
 fectly hardened, so that small particles 
 break off and are imbedded in the metal 
 operated upon ; 3. To a deficiency in the 
 18 
 
 273 
 
 supply of oil, or a too great velocity of ro¬ 
 tation of the drill. 
 
 To Drill into Hard Steel.— Make 
 your drill oval in form instead of the usual 
 pointed shape, and temper as hard as it 
 will bear without breaking. Then roughen 
 the surface where you desire to drill with a 
 little diluted muriatic acid, and instead of 
 oil, use with your drill turpentine or kero¬ 
 sene in which a little gum camphor has been 
 dissolved. In operating, keep the pressure 
 on your drill firm and steady, and if the bot¬ 
 tom of the hole should chance to become 
 burnished so that the drill will not act, as 
 sometimes happens, again roughen with di¬ 
 luted acid, as before ; then clean out the 
 hole carefully and proceed again. 
 
 Hardening Steel. —In the case of deli¬ 
 cate pieces, it is necessary to avoid the use 
 of the blowpipe, as the current of air causes 
 the surface to scale, and, as is well known, 
 the metal being unevenly heated, will be 
 distorted in hardening and will not be uni¬ 
 formly hardened. It is better to enclose 
 the article between two pieces of ignited 
 charcoal, or in a metal tube, or to bring it in 
 contact with a sufficiently hot piece of 
 metal, etc. An excellent plan is to heat 
 the article in a bath of hot lead, or of lead 
 and tin in proportions dependent on the 
 temperature required. The heating is thus 
 exceedingly uniform, and if operating in a 
 dark room, the temperature can be accu¬ 
 rately judged. 
 
 Hardening Punches. —Punches are 
 pickled by dropping upon their surface a 
 drop of muriatic acid ; they are then rubbed 
 off with a brush, washed and anointed 
 with fat. When fairly clean and without 
 flaws they are annealed pale yellow, and 
 they then possess sufficient hardness to be 
 driven cold into softened steel. 
 
 Hardening Without Discoloring.— 
 When it is required to harden an object with¬ 
 out discoloring the surface or destroying the 
 polish, it may be placed in a tube, and com¬ 
 pletely surrounded with powdered wood 
 charcoal, or preferably, animal charcoal. 
 The whole, after being heated is plunged 
 in water without the steel being in 
 any way exposed to the air. The powder 
 must be heaped up as a precaution against 
 access of air. On being taken from the 
 water the steel is at once placed in alcohol, 
 and if at all dull it will generally be only 
 necessary to rub the surface with a little 
 rouge. It is essential that the animal char¬ 
 coal be previously heated in order to expel 
 moisture, as otherwise it would adhere to 
 
2/4 
 
 GILDING STEEL. 
 
 the surface and produce marks and irregu¬ 
 larity in the. hardness. 
 
 Agents for Hardening Steel. —In re¬ 
 gard to hardening steel there is at present 
 considerable controversy and any number 
 of methods. A correspondent says that he 
 has at different times and for different pur¬ 
 poses tried castor oil, linseed oil, sperm oil, 
 petroleum, fresh water, salt water, and 
 mercury. The first three named oils, in his 
 opinion, gave the same results. Fresh 
 water gives the same degree of hardness, 
 but does not leave the steel as tough as the 
 oil does. Petroleum renders the metal a trifle 
 harder than the other oils do, and at no ap¬ 
 parent cost in regard to brittleness, while 
 either salt water or mercury renders the 
 metal so very brittle as to be suitable for 
 only large or medium sized drills, and is no 
 particular advantage in hardening such a 
 piece as a balance staff. 
 
 To Harden a Staff. —When a repairer 
 is working for future contingencies and 
 making a supply of balance staffs, his chief 
 consideration is how to harden them nicely. 
 Let him do as follows : Take about a dozen 
 blank staffs, lay them in a hollow in a piece 
 of charcoal and cover them with a thin 
 piece of soap, and by means of a good- 
 sized alcohol flame and blowpipe heat them 
 to a cherry red, and then plunge them 
 quickly into linseed oil. In preparing this 
 operation, see that as the flame is directed 
 the soap melts rapidly and covers the pieces 
 with a thin, black coating, which will serve 
 to exclude the air while heating. If it is 
 properly done the sudden cooling causes 
 this shell to chip off and leaves the blank 
 staff perfectly white ; but should the result 
 not be satisfactory, a little rolling between-, 
 the fingers will remove it, or should a better 
 polish be desired and the repairer has an 
 American lathe, he can quickly and nicely 
 polish them with a fine emery stick. 
 
 Bluing. —Before the operator places the 
 articles to be blued in the bluing pan, he 
 should have this well warmed to disperse 
 all moisture. Steel for bluing should be 
 finished with medium rouge and the last 
 few rubs given not with a metal polisher but 
 with a piece of boxwood or horn and plenty 
 of rouge and oil. Pieces that have been 
 cleaned in dirty benzine (that is, benzine 
 charged with oil) will become specky in 
 bluing. Difficulty is often experienced in 
 bluing soft screws, but an eminent author- 
 ity says that a good even color may always 
 Ire obtained if they are finished with a 
 slightly soapy burnisher. 
 
 Polishing Steel Pieces. —Large steel 
 pieces, such as in lever and repeater racks, 
 which are not solid, and springs should be 
 shellaced to a brass block and polished 
 underhand; aflat surface is first obtained 
 by rubbing with fine emery on a glass 
 plate; afterward with coarse rouge on a 
 bell metal block. The work is then finished 
 off with diamantine on a zinc or grain tin 
 block. The diamantine should be well 
 beaten up on glass with as little oil as pos¬ 
 sible, Such parts as rollers and collets 
 are polished in the same way. Levers are 
 pressed into a piece of willow held in the 
 vise and polished with a long, flat bell 
 metal or zinc polisher, moving the polisher 
 instead of the work. 
 
 Steel for Watchmakers. —Cast steel 
 is preferable for most horological purposes, 
 such as pinions, staffs, pivots, etc. It is 
 the only kind that can with certainty be 
 highly polished, turned perfectly round, 
 and that does not get distorted in the 
 smoothing. Moreover, when wear does 
 occur, it exhibits less irregularity. 
 
 Tempering Case and Other Springs. 
 —Draw the temper from the spring, and fit 
 it properly in its place in the watch; then 
 take it out and temper it hard in rain-water 
 (the addition of a little table-salt to the 
 water will be an improvement) ; after which 
 place it in a small sheet-iron ladle or cup, 
 and barely cover it with linseed oil; then 
 hold the ladle over a lighted lamp until the 
 oil ignites ; let it burn until the oil is nearly, 
 not quite, consumed ; then re-cover with 
 oil and burn down as before ; and so a third 
 time ; at the end of which plunge it again 
 into water. Main and balance springs 
 may, in like manner, be tempered by the 
 same process; first draw the temper, and 
 properly coil and clamp to keep in position, 
 and then proceed the same as with case 
 springs. 
 
 Tempering Small Steel Pieces.— The 
 tempering in kerosene gives excellent re¬ 
 sults. The pieces are first heated on a 
 coal in the usual way, then coated with 
 soap, and raised to a cherry red ; they are 
 then plunged into kerosene, and no fear 
 need be entertained that the liquid will 
 take fire. The pieces annealed in this 
 manner do not warp, small though they be, 
 and remain entirely white. 
 
 Gilding Steel. —-Polished steel may be 
 beautifully gilded by means of the ethereal 
 solution of gold. Dissolve pure gold in 
 aqua regia , evaporate gently to dryness, so 
 as to drive off the superfluous acid, re-dis- 
 
ETCHING ON GLASS. 
 
 solve in water and add three times its bulk 
 of sulphuric ether. Allow to stand for 
 twenty-four hours in a stoppered bottle and 
 the ethereal solution of gold will float on top. 
 
 Engraving on Steel.— Lightly heat the 
 metal and cover it with a layer of beeswax ; 
 hold it over a smoking flame to blacken the 
 wax so as to better see the lines drawn up¬ 
 on it either with a pin, pen, or point. This 
 done, run nitric acid, diluted with twice its 
 volume of water, over the lines laid bare. 
 Be careful to spread the liquid of a uniform 
 thickness. The operation will be finished 
 in about three minutes. 
 
 Bluing Steel.— In order to blue steel 
 easily, the following will give satisfactory 
 results: First blue the object without any 
 special regard to uniformity of color. If it 
 proves to be imperfect, take a piece of dead 
 wood that does not crumble too easily, or of 
 cleaning pith, and whiten the surface with 
 rouge, without having it too dry. Small 
 pieces thus prepared, if cleaned and blued 
 with care, will assume a very uniform tint. 
 
 Etching Liquid for Steel.— Mix x oz. 
 -of sulphate of copper, 1-4 oz. of alum, and 
 one-half a teaspoonful of salt reduced to 
 powder, with 1 gill of vinegar and 20 drops 
 of nitric acid. This liquid may be used 
 either for eating deeply into the metal 
 or for imparting a beautiful frosted ap¬ 
 pearance to the surface, according to the 
 time it is allowed to act. Cover the part 
 you wish to protect from its influence with 
 beeswax, tallow, or some similar substance. 
 
 Blue Color on Iron or Steel.— To 
 remove the blue color imparted to iron and 
 steel by exposure to heat, rub lightly with a 
 sponge or rag dipped in dilute sulphuric, 
 nitric, or hydrochloric acid. When the dis¬ 
 coloration is removed, carefully wash the 
 
 275 
 
 article, dry it by rubbing, warm it, and give 
 it a coat of oil or it will rapidly rust. 
 
 Hammering Steel. —Watchmakers who 
 are called upon to manipulate exceedingly 
 small pieces of steel can somewhat increase 
 the body and homogeneity of the metal by 
 cold hammering. After annealing, the ob¬ 
 ject is hammered with light, uniform blows, 
 again annealed, and the same operation is 
 repeated one or more times, according to 
 the degree of malleability already acquired 
 by the metal. Steel thus prepared has more 
 body; the particles composing it are more 
 closely pressed together ; it files and turns 
 well, can be heated more easily, and is not 
 distorted, or only very slightly, in harden¬ 
 ing, provided the requisite precautions are 
 taken. 
 
 To Anneal Hardened Steel. —It may 
 sometimes happen that hardened steel parts 
 require a few finishing touches, which can¬ 
 not be given because they are too hard, and 
 their polish would be ruined by annealing 
 them, as it turns blue, and the piece re¬ 
 quires then a renewed polish, which con¬ 
 sumes a great deal of time. The most 
 practical way is to cover it with the oily dirt 
 from the oilstone, after which it can be 
 annexed with impunity, that is, the flame is 
 with the blowpipe directed to the part re¬ 
 quired. The article is afterward cleaned 
 in benzine. 
 
 Whitening Iron. —To render iron as 
 white and beautiful almost as silver, take 
 ammoniacal salts in powder and mix it with 
 an equal quantity of quicklime. Dissolve 
 in cold water and mix well. When done, 
 immerse the red heated article in this bath 
 and it will become as white as silver. Be 
 careful not to burn the article by overheat¬ 
 ing. 
 
 NOTES ON GLASS AND ITS WORKING. 
 
 C EMENT FOR BRASS UPON GLASS.—C. 
 
 Pusher recommends in the Ind. Bl. 
 a very tenacious cement for fastening brass 
 upon glass, which is said to be very useful 
 for cementing brass burners upon the glass 
 bulbs of kerosene lamps, since the kerosene 
 cannot penetrate the cement, nor chip off 
 in heat (water will attack it superficially 
 only). This cement is prepared by boiling 
 one part caustic soda and three parts colo¬ 
 phony (yellow rosin) in five parts water. 
 A soap-like product is obtained, which is 
 ltneaded with gypsum, say about one-half 
 
 its weight. The cement obtained hereby 
 hardens in 30 to 45 minutes. 
 
 To Cut Glass Without a Diamond.— 
 Scratch the glass about the shape you de¬ 
 sire with the corner of a file or other hard 
 substance ; then, having bent a piece of 
 wire in the same shape, heat it red hot and 
 lay it upon the scratch ; sink the glass into 
 cold water just deep enough for the water 
 to come almost on a level with its upper 
 surface. The glass will rarely ever fail to 
 break perfectly true. 
 
 Etching on Glass.— Fancy work, orna- 
 
2/6 
 
 TO MOUNT PHOTOGRAPHS ON GLASS. 
 
 mental figures, lettering and monograms are 
 most easily and neatly cut into glass by the 
 sand-blast process. Lines and figures on 
 tubes, jars, etc., may be deeply etched by 
 smearing the surface of the glass with bees¬ 
 wax, drawing the lines with a steel point, 
 and exposing the glass to the fumes of hy¬ 
 drofluoric acid. This acid is obtained by 
 putting powdered fluorspar into a tray made 
 of sheet lead and pouring sulphuric acid on 
 it, after which the tray is slightly warmed. 
 The proportions will, of course, vary with 
 the purity of the materials used, fluorspar 
 (except when in crystals) being generally 
 mixed with a large quantity of other matter, 
 but this point need not affect the success of 
 the operation. Enough acid to make a 
 thin paste with the powdered spar will be 
 about right. Where a lead tray is not at 
 hand, the powdered spar may be poured on 
 the glass and the acid poured on it and left 
 for some time. As a general rule, the marks 
 are opaque, but sometimes they are trans¬ 
 parent. In this case, cut them deeply and 
 fill up with black varnish, if they are re¬ 
 quired to be very plain, as in the case of 
 graduated vessels. Liquid hydrofluoric 
 acid has been recommended for etching, 
 but is not suitable, as it leaves the surface 
 on which it acts transparent. The agent 
 which corrodes the glass is a gas which 
 does not remain in the mixture of spar and 
 acid, but passes off in the vapor. To mix 
 fluorspar and sulphuric acid and keep it in 
 leaden bottles under the idea that the mix¬ 
 ture is hydrofluoric acid is a gross mistake. 
 
 Drilling Glass. —A thick plate of glass 
 is perforated by using a revolving brass 
 tube which is kept filled with water during 
 the drilling; finely pulverized emery is 
 added to the water. A thinner glass plate 
 can be perforated in a simple manner by 
 spreading a moist disc of clay upon the 
 glass ; a hole of suitable size is then made 
 through the clay, laying bare the glass. 
 Melted lead is then poured into the hole, 
 whereupon the glass springs off at once and 
 opens the hole of corresponding size. This 
 method is based upon the sudden heating 
 of the glass, which causes the circular hole. 
 
 Drilling Glass. —For drilling holes in 
 glass, a common steel drill, well made and 
 well tempered, is the best tool. The steel 
 should be forged at a low temperature, so 
 as to be sure not to burn it, and then tem¬ 
 pered as hard as possible in a bath of salt 
 water that has been well boiled. Such a 
 drill will go through glass very rapidly if 
 kept well moistened with turpentine, in 
 
 which some camphor has been dissolved. 
 Dilute sulphuric acid is equally good, if not 
 better. It is stated that at Berlin, glass 
 castings for pump-barrels, etc., are drilled, 
 planed and bored like iron ones, and in the 
 same lathes and machines, by the aid of 
 sulphuric acid. A little practise with these 
 different plans will enable the operator to 
 succeed. 
 
 Turning Glass in Lathe. —Black dia¬ 
 monds are the best tools for turning, plan¬ 
 ing, or boring glass where much work is to 
 be done. With a good diamond a skilful 
 worker can turn a lens roughly out of a 
 piece of flat glass in a few seconds, so that 
 it will be very near the right shape- A 
 splinter of diamond may be very readily 
 fastened in the end of a piece of stout brass 
 wire so that it can be used for drilling or 
 turning glass. Bore a hole the size of the 
 splinter and so deep that the diamond may 
 be inserted beyond its largest part, but 
 leaving the point projecting. Then, by 
 means of a pair of stout pliers, it is easy to 
 press the end of the brass so that it will fill 
 in around the diamond and hold it tight. 
 Diamonds are sometimes cemented in such 
 holes by means of shellac, or even solder is 
 run around them. This answers for some 
 purposes, but not for drilling or turning. 
 
 To Mount Photographs on Glass.— 
 Dissolve ]/ 2 oz. of Nelson’s No. 2 gelatine 
 in 5 oz. of water, and place in a flat dish, 
 keeping it warm. The print should be 
 trimmed rather smaller than the glass to 
 allow for stretching. It is then immersed 
 in the gelatine solution. At the side of the 
 dish have another containing water at about 
 115 deg. F., and in this place the glass till 
 ready- Lift up the print by both ends and 
 lay it face downwards with a curl—similar 
 to when floating paper—on the glass. 
 Smooth gently into contact, drain off excess 
 and press down with a squeegee. When 
 dry, place a piece of white paper over the 
 back with stiff starch paste or gelatine, and 
 after again drying, mount on the strut back 
 with glue. The glasses and struts can be 
 obtained from any photographic dealer. If 
 preferred, the print and glass (warmed) may 
 be placed together in the gelatine solution 
 and brought into contact under the surface, 
 or a pool may be poured upon the glass, 
 which is laid flat on the table and the print 
 laid upon it. “Opalines” improve the 
 permanency of the print considerably. Old 
 negative glasses, a size larger, may be 
 cleaned and used, the edges being painted 
 with flowers or covered with some design 
 
POLISHING M A T1-'. RIAI 
 
 277 
 
 in stamped paper, etc.; if some spotting 
 and working up is required upon the print, 
 it should be done with oil paints or a lead 
 or chalk pencil, otherwise it will be dis¬ 
 solved away when mounting. 
 
 Ink for Etching on Glass. —An ink or 
 writing fluid that can be used for etching 
 directly on glass, may be made from the 
 following ingredients, which are kept sepa¬ 
 rate until the ink is required for use : a solu¬ 
 tion of ammonium fluoride, some sulphate of 
 baryta, and sulphuric acid. When required, 
 a portion of the sulphate of baryta is moist- 
 •ened with the fluoride solution, a few drops 
 ■of the sulphuric acid are stirred into the 
 mixture, and the thin fluid paste is at once 
 applied to the glass with a pen, with which 
 the desired characters are written. The 
 •etching will be found to be sufficiently 
 legible after the ink has remained on the 
 glass for an hour. This preparation will 
 corrode steel pens, but is otherwise free 
 from objections. 
 
 Fastening Letters on Glass. — For 
 fastening glass letters, figures, etc., on glass 
 (show windows), so that they, even when 
 submerged in water for several days, will 
 not become detached, use an India-rubber 
 cement. The best for this purpose consists 
 of one part India-rubber three parts mastic, 
 and 50 parts chloroform. Let the mixture 
 stand for several days in low temperature 
 to dissolve the parts. It must be applied 
 very rapidly, as it becomes thick very soon. 
 
 Gleaning Powder for Show Windows. 
 —A good cleaning powder which leaves 
 no dirt in the joints, etc., is prepared by 
 moistening calcined magnesia with pure 
 benzine so that a mass is formed sufficiently 
 moist to let a drop appear when pressed. 
 The mixture is to be preserved in glass 
 bottles with ground stoppers, in order to 
 retain the easily volatile benzine. A little 
 of the mixture when to be used is placed 
 upon a lump of cotton and applied to the 
 glass plate. 
 
 NOTES ON POLISHING IN WATCH WORK. 
 
 P olishing.— Those who have not had 
 much experience in polishing, may with 
 advantage use a lap for straight pivots and 
 shoulders. The lap and pinion are rotated 
 in opposite directions by means of two 
 bows held in the right hand, the lap being 
 centered in the back limb of a depthing 
 tool, and the pinion in the front limb. An 
 arm is fixed to the depthing tool to hold it 
 in the vise, and a piece of brass wire clasps 
 the runners of the front limb, so that the 
 -operator can move the pinion to and fro 
 with his left hand. A soft steel lap at first 
 and a fine lap afterwards are generally 
 used. They should be turned true to the 
 edge and the face slightly undercut. Above 
 method, however, is useful only for those 
 who have no American lathe, as a neat lap 
 holder accompanies this lathe. It may be 
 angled in any direction, and is also suitable 
 for damaskeening. 
 
 The tools used for producing the beau¬ 
 tiful polished and square surfaces to be 
 found in watch work may be divided 
 into two general principles: first, where 
 the work is rigid and receives a repro¬ 
 duction of a previously squared surface, 
 and, secondly, where the work is “swung,” 
 -or arranged so as to yield to unequal pres¬ 
 sure in polishing. Polishers for steel are 
 either of soft steel, iron, bell metal, tin. 
 zinc, lead or boxwood. They must in all 
 
 cases be formed of softer material than the 
 object to be polished ; for instance, bell 
 metal, which brings up a good surface for 
 hard steel, is unsuited for soft. Polishers 
 used for brass are generally of tin or box¬ 
 wood, with willow for finishing. The pol¬ 
 ishing medium is either emery, which is 
 used for gray surfaces, oil-stone dust, 
 rouge or diamantine, used with oil. Brass 
 surfaces are generally “ stoned ” prepara¬ 
 tory to polishing; that is, rubbed square 
 with blue stone and water of Ayr stone and 
 water or oil. 
 
 Success in polishing depends much on 
 the mode of mixing and using the pol¬ 
 ishing agent. Oil stone dust is often 
 recommended and employed, but in the 
 opinion of The Gircular it should 
 never be used by watchmakers. It is very 
 dirty, and it is impossible to make any¬ 
 thing flat with oilstone dust and a steel 
 polisher. Watch finishers used to be fond 
 of preparing their work for gilding with 
 steel polishers and oilstone dust; but it 
 was only necessary to rub a flat stone over 
 the piece to see how uneven it was. 
 
 Polishing Material. —The polishing 
 materials are oilstone dust, crocus-antimony 
 and diamantine. The oilstone dust should 
 be well mixed with refined sperm oil, as 
 should also the crocus-antimony. The 
 diamantine should also be well beaten up 
 
2/8 
 
 GRAVERS. 
 
 and mixed in a similar manner on glass 
 and with a glass beater, but it must be 
 used with as little oil as possible. One 
 thing must be borne in mind, however, in 
 regard to any polishing material, it must be 
 absolutely free from all dust or grit, or 
 good results will be impossible. I keep 
 polishing materials ready mixed in small, 
 round wooden boxes, which I procured at 
 the druggist’s and lit them inside with 
 thick flat glasses. 
 
 Polishing Pinions and Arbors. —The 
 pinions and arbors are to be polished 
 highly ; some workmen burnish the arbors, 
 but a high polish can be got very quickly 
 with a zinc polisher and diamantine. The 
 faces of the third and fourth pinions 
 are finished with the ordinary facing tool, 
 but as the large pivot on the center arbor 
 precludes the use of such a tool, it is faced 
 square down to the arbor; the pinion is 
 placed in the turns, and small turns that fit 
 into the rest holder carry a roller mounted 
 on an arbor ; this roller is brought to bear 
 against the face of the pinion, and the pin¬ 
 ion is rotated backward and forward with 
 the bow. The roller first used is steel, to 
 bring up the face flat and square, after which 
 soft metal rollers are used for finishing. 
 
 Polishers. —Among the several tools 
 used by the watchmaker and repairer, pol¬ 
 ishers are of a good deal of importance. 
 The polisher for square pivots and shoul¬ 
 ders consists of a strip of soft steel or iron 
 
 about six inches long and about three-six¬ 
 teenths square, with end curved, and the 
 edge that faces the shoulder should be filed 
 back at a very slight angle. A similar 
 strip of bell metal will also be required. 
 They should both be filed into shape with 
 a medium coarse file drawn crosswise so 
 that the grain made by the file will serve to 
 hold the polishing material. The edge also 
 should be very sharp and clean cut, so that 
 a sharp corner may be well polished. 
 They should be refiled as often as they be¬ 
 come worn smooth. For conical pivots 
 similar polishers are required, with the 
 edges left straight and the corners rounded 
 so as to exactly conform to the shape of 
 the pivot, and they should be made so that 
 either can follow the other without any 
 perceptible difference. 
 
 Polishing Roller Edges. — Roller 
 edges for lever and chronometer escape¬ 
 ments are often polished by means of a 
 rotating disk or mill of bell metal. The 
 roller on an arbor is fixed to the slide rest 
 of the lathe in a pair of turns or specially 
 adapted holder. When brought into con¬ 
 tact with the mill, it is turned with the bow 
 or the thumb and finger, and the slide rest 
 traversed the while so as to move the roller 
 in a plane parallel with the face of the mill. 
 After the edge is polished, if the corners of 
 the rollers are to be chamfered, the holder 
 is turned first one way and then the other 
 to an angle of 45°. 
 
 NOTES ON ENGRAVING IN WATCH WORK. 
 
 L ight in Engraving. —The engraver has 
 only the eye to guide him in the 
 various devices of his art, and as the result 
 depends upon the skill of the operator, 
 that eye should be a pretty correct one. 
 Good light is very necessary in engraving ; 
 gaslight being extremely tedious and try¬ 
 ing, globes filled with water are used, which, 
 being placed between the workman and the 
 gas jet, steady the light and throw it more 
 clearly upon the work. Besides this, the 
 light is perfectly cold, as no heat passes 
 through the water globes. 
 
 Stoning a Graver. —When stoning the 
 belly of a graver the blade should be held 
 as lightly as possible between the thumb 
 and second finger, the tool being barely 
 touched by them, they being used simply 
 as checks on either side of the tool to keep 
 it in position. The only pressure that 
 should be applied to the tool is that steady 
 
 power supplied by the tip of the forefinger 
 to its point, holding it down finnly upon 
 the stone. Pressure applied to any other 
 portion of a graver blade while stoning its 
 belly only hinders the work in hand as to 
 speed, and also diminishes the average cer¬ 
 tainty of securing for it a surface that shall 
 be perfectly flat. 
 
 Gravers. —As regards gravers, I would 
 have plenty of them—a good assortment of 
 shapes and sizes, and, above all, the best 
 quality obtainable. In sharpening or grind¬ 
 ing be sure and get the face flat, and if you 
 have never been able to accomplish the 
 latter feat, take an old graver and practise 
 for an hour or so, for you will never be able 
 to do any kind of good work unless a prop¬ 
 erly ground graver is used. 
 
 Gravers made by different makers will 
 be found to be of different lengths, and 
 very often in those of the same make will 
 
engravers’ border wax. 
 
 279 
 
 be found a like variation. To overcome 
 any difficulty this circumstance may pro¬ 
 duce graver handles of different lengths 
 should be procured. The hands of no two 
 persons, any more than their faces, will be 
 found to correspond exactly, and therefore 
 no rule as to size of handle and length of 
 blade of graver that is the most comfortable 
 to hold and easiest to use can be laid 
 down. The party must “fix” the tool to 
 the hand. It will be found upon inquiry 
 that, as with most things, habit has a good 
 deal to do with the matter. The length 
 of tools and the form given to them in set¬ 
 ting up, will be found to vary perceptibly 
 among engravers, no two men “fixing” 
 them, in either particular, exactly alike. 
 
 Good Advice. —The writer finds in a 
 horological exchange the following sound 
 advice to persons learning the art of en¬ 
 graving : “ There is no greater hindrance 
 to progress in learning to engrave than in 
 trying to cut with a badly-set or a half-sharp 
 graver. Such a practise speedily engenders 
 some of the worst evils—‘ constraint ’ and 
 
 ‘restraint’—in the use of the graver, by 
 which is meant that the wrist becomes 
 stiffened, the easy motion of the hand im¬ 
 paired, and the ability to hold a graver 
 lightly materially crippled, and thus the 
 power to cut strokes clean, true and free, is 
 largely destroyed.” 
 
 Graver Blade. —A graver blade having 
 its cutting edges at right angles one with 
 the other, as they must be if the graver is 
 square, will make too wide and shallow a 
 stroke. It will be found that from the 
 edge of the graver on one side to the cor¬ 
 responding edge on the other side, cross¬ 
 wise, as it is fitted into the handle, meas¬ 
 ures one-third more than it does across 
 either of the flat sides of its belly. For 
 certain kinds of work,^the tool to be used 
 should be diamond in shape endwise, and 
 the distance from edge to edge crosswise 
 of the blade should be equal to a width of 
 a side of its belly. 
 
 Engravers’ Border WAX.-Beeswax, one 
 part; pitch, two parts; tallow, one part; 
 mix. 
 
GOLD AND SILVER WORKING. 
 
 JBWEI/HY REPAIRING. 
 
 S ome manufacturers do not care to be 
 troubled with repairs, and when they 
 do take them, they are handed to some in¬ 
 ferior workman, who is ‘‘good enough for 
 such jobs.” This is a mistake ; it takes a 
 man of considerable skill and long experi¬ 
 ence to make repairing pay, as otherwise 
 the accidents will consume all the profits 
 that would otherwise be made. The re¬ 
 pairer must be on the alert for all the tricks 
 that are often used to patch up a piece of 
 work which has been repaired several 
 times ; he must know how to distinguish 
 an old gilt article from a colored one, and 
 be able to find all the weak points and thin 
 places before attempting to solder or repair 
 in any way, or he may find himself in “a 
 peck of trouble ” before he has been work¬ 
 ing at the job for five minutes. A few sug¬ 
 gestions showing how to avoid these traps 
 for the unwary are as follows : 
 
 Upon receiving a colored gold article to 
 be repaired, especially if it is an old one 
 that may reasonably be expected to have 
 been repaired several times before, the first 
 thing to do is to ascertain whether it has 
 been repaired with soft lead solder any¬ 
 where, as if this is the case and you 
 attempt to hard solder without removing 
 the lead, the result is that the soft solder 
 burns through the surface of the gold and 
 thus destroys it in such a manner as to pre¬ 
 vent a good job being made of it. If upon 
 examination you find soft solder present, 
 remove as much as possible by scraping, 
 and then immerse the article in a solution 
 of four parts muriatic acid to one part water. 
 This should be done in an earthenware 
 pipkin, and not a metallic vessel. Making 
 the solution warm will remove the solder 
 more quickly, but it is not altogether neces¬ 
 
 sary, as tlie cold solution will do it and is 
 more convenient, the warm acid eivine off 
 more fumes than the cold. When the 
 solder is gotten rid of, the article should be 
 boiled in clear water in a copper pan, to 
 remove all traces of acid. 
 
 Now, before attempting to hard-solder 
 the part to be repaired, cover the work with 
 a solution of borax rubbed fine in water and 
 mixed with charcoal dust into a thin paste. 
 Apply this all over the article with a cam¬ 
 el’s hair pencil, then anneal gradually, being 
 careful not to make it too hot. Afterward 
 boil out in a weak mixture of nitric acid 
 and water, and then dry in hot sawdust— 
 fine boxwood sawdust is the best, as it does 
 not give out resinous compound that com¬ 
 mon woods are liable to do. You will then 
 be able to solder in the ordinary way with 
 either gold or silver solder as the case may 
 require. If the article is strong enough to 
 stand recoloring, use gold solder; if it is 
 too far gone for this use silver solder and 
 gild. 
 
 It happens sometimes that the article to 
 be repaired has been so worn and patched 
 as to make it quite impossible to use hard 
 solder of either kind. In this case there 
 is nothing for it but to soft-solder, and this 
 may be done much neater and better than 
 is often seen. The important thing to re¬ 
 member is that soft solder will not take 
 where there is the smallest trace of dirt or 
 grease. Commence, then, by washing out 
 the work in hot soda water and soap, with 
 a moderately soft brush, dry in hot saw¬ 
 dust and then shrape the parts to be sol¬ 
 dered together bright and clean. If any 
 part has to be added, such as a joint or a 
 catch on a plate, put a coating of solder on 
 the sides to be mitered togetherby warming 
 them in the soldering gas or lamp, and 
 o 
 
GOLD SOLDERING. 
 
 rubbing a copper point, which has already 
 been tinned over the surface, using a little 
 soldering fluid or Venice turpentine. Then 
 place the two surfaces together, using a 
 a little fresh fluid, and warm them with a 
 a small blast from the blowpipe until the 
 solder runs, when the whole will be cleanly 
 and soundly joined, provided the two sur¬ 
 faces fit one to the other. This method is 
 far superior to that of putting small pellets 
 of solder along the mitered edges in hard 
 soldering and trying to draw it through, as 
 it is generally a failure, the solder running 
 about the outside surface and causing a 
 deal of trouble afterward. 
 
 Now, if fluid has been used, the article 
 must be washed out in cold water; hot 
 water will only fix it on and make it dirty 
 for finishing. If Venice turpentine has 
 been used as a soldering medium, wash 
 out in ordinary turpentine and dry in hot 
 sawdust ; after trimming up, polishing a 
 little where necessary, washing out in hot 
 water and soap, and again drying in hot 
 sawdust, it will be ready for gilding, sand¬ 
 blasting, etc. 
 
 SOLDERING. 
 
 he modus operandi of soldering is as fol¬ 
 lows : A thorough cleaning of the sur¬ 
 face to be united is always needful. This 
 may be effected by means of acids, or with a 
 graver or scraper, etc. ; the cleaned sur¬ 
 face must not be touched with the fingers, 
 and the soldering should be done at once, 
 if acids are employed ; the objects should 
 be thoroughly washed after soldering, and 
 after drying they should be rinsed with 
 alcohol. Before heating, if there are' al¬ 
 ready parts united with solder, they should 
 be covered with borax to prevent softening. 
 Only a moderate heat should at first be 
 applied, so as to melt the borax or sal- 
 ammoniac, without displacing it. The vio¬ 
 lent frothing up, which is very liable to 
 displace the parts or the pellets of solder, 
 can thus be avoided. If a naked lamp- 
 frame is used, or if it is directed on to the 
 object with a blow-pipe, it should be, so to 
 speak, large and soft, and the point should 
 not be directed to the place of juncture 
 until the solder is observed to have fused. 
 The hard solders for gold, silver, etc., re¬ 
 quire a considerable degree of heat. 
 
 On a hard wetted surface, marble, for 
 example, rub a piece of borax until a white 
 liquid paste is obtained, or the powdered 
 
 281 
 
 borax sold by druggists can be made into a 
 paste direct. Having prepared the borax, 
 the surfaces to be united are cleansed, 
 either by scraping, or with diluted nitric 
 acid ; the acid may be previously heated to 
 boiling, as it will then act more rapidly; 
 and the surfaces are subsequently scraped. 
 They are now covered with the borax with 
 a paint brush, set in position, and small 
 pieces of solder placed on the junction. 
 As already observed, the heating must at 
 first be gentle to avoid displacing the 
 solder by the frothing of the borax. 
 
 Soft Gold Solder for 14 Karats.— 
 Melt equal parts of 14-karat gold and silver 
 solder, and hammer it into thin sheets upon 
 the anvil. This solder will satisfy all the 
 demands of a watch repairer. It is advis¬ 
 able to use silver solder for a low grade, say 
 6 or 8 karat gold goods, which consists of 2 
 parts fine silver and 1 of brass, with the 
 addition of about 10 or 15 grains of tin. 
 
 Soft Gold Solder for 8 and 14 
 Karats. —A nice soft solder for 8 and 14- 
 karat gold consists of parts fine silver, 
 one-half part fine copper, 1.6 parts 14-karat 
 gold, and 0.4 part zinc ; the first three metals 
 are well melted and mixed together, and 
 when well in a fluid state, the zinc is added, 
 the whole left for a few moments in fusion, 
 until the latter melts, not volatilizes, and 
 then cast. 
 
 GOI/D SOLDERING. 
 
 he article to be soldered is placed upon 
 a bunch of old binding wire hammered 
 flat, or on a piece of charcoal. If a breach 
 or crack has to be filled, a small thin plate 
 of the same quality of gold as the article 
 under repairs should be used. Rub borax 
 and water to a thin paste on a piece of 
 slate, brush one side of the plate with this, 
 and run small pallions (or pellets as they 
 are also called) of suitable solder over it. 
 The plate is then boiled in diluted sulphuric 
 acid and hammered or rolled very thin. A 
 bit of this gold plate of a shape to fill the 
 breach is cut off. Any old soldering near 
 the breach should be coated with a paste 
 of rouge with water, and to preserve the 
 polish and color of the article it should be 
 covered with equal parts of borax and char¬ 
 coal pounded up together and mixed into 
 a paste with water. This “black stuff,” 
 which must be carefully excluded from the 
 part to be soldered, is dried. Any stone or 
 settings in the article should be covered 
 with a thick paste of whiting and water; 
 
282 
 
 STRIPPING ARTICLES. 
 
 some bury the part in a piece of raw potato, 
 others in wet sand. If it is a ring that is 
 being soldered on the opposite side of the 
 settings, a piece of charcoal may also with 
 advantage be placed through the ring. 
 When all necessary precautions have been 
 taken, the breach is boraxed and the piece 
 of plate laid in and heat directed to it by 
 means of a blow-pipe. Care must be taken 
 not to apply too much heat. When the 
 solder begins to flow, the plate will drop 
 slightly, and the solder round its edges 
 glistens. By following this method a strong 
 job is made, the color of the article pre¬ 
 served, and very little cleaning is required 
 afterwards. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest mistake made by 
 tyros in soldering is that in their anxiety 
 to see the solder flow they direct the flame 
 too suddenly to it, and in consequence the 
 dampness of the borax causes the solder, 
 if used loose, to corn, and it will not run 
 at all. The heat should be applied to the 
 surrounding parts first, gradually approach¬ 
 ing the solder, and stopped the moment 
 the solder glistens. 
 
 Great care is required in dealing with 
 very low quality gold rings when broken. 
 File the edges flat, so that no light is seen 
 when brought together. Cut a very thin 
 piece of silver solder, a trifle larger than 
 the section of the ends. Cover the ends 
 with borax, and place the piece of silver 
 solder between them. Apply heat with the 
 blow-pipe till the solder begins to glisten. 
 
 Gold Solder— For 18-karat gold : 18- 
 karat gold, 12 parts; fine silver, 2 parts; 
 .brass wire, 1 part. For lower qualities of 
 gold substitute for the 18-karat gold the 
 same standard as the article to be soldered, 
 and add the same proportion of silver and 
 brass wire as given above. For the brass 
 wire, pins are generally used, as they contain 
 a little tin, which is an excellent ingredient 
 for causing the solder to flow. Some jew¬ 
 elers use copper in place of the brass pins, 
 and add a little zinc. Ordinary silver sob 
 der is quite unsuitable for gold work which 
 has been colored. 
 
 Silver Solder —To one ounce of stand¬ 
 ard silver add pwt. of white pins ; melt 
 the silver first with a good piece of borax. 
 
 Jewelers’ Solder. —Fine silver, 19 parts; 
 copper, x part; brass pins, 10 parts. 
 
 White Silver Solder. —Equal parts of 
 silver and tin ; melt silver first. 
 
 Soft Solder. —Pure tin, 2 parts ; pure 
 lead, 1 part; melt lead first. 
 
 Soldering Fluxes. -With hard solder, 
 
 use borax ; with soft solder, chloride of zinc, 
 prepared by dissolving small pieces of zinc 
 in spirits of salt until no more can be 
 dissolved. 
 
 TO REMOVE SOFT SOLDER FROM 
 GOLD. 
 
 O NE of the most serious evils the repair¬ 
 er has to contend with is the presence 
 of soft solder on the piece under treatment, 
 being the imperishable record of some 
 botch ; all this must be removed or de¬ 
 stroyed before the article can be properly 
 repaired. Workmen generally believe that 
 annealing and boiling out will destroy it, 
 while, in fact, it has the very opposite effect. 
 The heat thus applied simply aids in driv¬ 
 ing it in and amalgamating the solder with 
 the gold. We have often tried to remove 
 the solder after the annealing process by 
 scraping and filing, but invariably found 
 that it had penetrated so deeply into the 
 gold that it would be utterly impossible to 
 eradicate it by any such means. 
 
 One of the common methods of treating 
 this class of solder in the workshop is to 
 remove whatever can be gotten off with the 
 scraper, which consists of a three-square 
 file sharpened at the point, and then to place 
 the article for some time into strong muri¬ 
 atic acid. Nitric acid would answer much 
 better, but it cannot be safely applied to 
 articles of inferior qualities of gold, as it 
 would act upon the alloy of which they are 
 partly composed. 
 
 For colored gold, however, it can be used 
 with advantage and safety. From a long 
 practical experience in the matter of soft 
 solder, we have arrived at the conclusion 
 that there is no better way of treating it 
 than that which we are about to point out. 
 The solvent to be employed is a mixture 
 of muriatic acid and crocus, and prepared 
 as follows : To 8 ounces of muriatic acid 
 add 1 ounce of crocus, and shake it well 
 to increase a perfect intermixing : to one 
 ounce of this mixture add 4 ounces of hot 
 water, place in a pipkin and keep up the 
 heat by means of a gas flame; then intro¬ 
 duce your soft soldered article and you 
 will soon be satisfied with the result. 
 
 STRIPPING ARTICLES. 
 
 ometimes articles composed of copper, 
 brass, or German silver which have 
 been silver-plated require to have the 
 
TO POLISH METALS. 
 
 283 
 
 coating entirely removed. Occasionally, 
 also, the plater desires to replate old arti¬ 
 cles, the coating upon which has partly 
 worn away; these require that the remain¬ 
 ing portions of silver be removed, in order 
 to obtain a uniform surface to deposit upon. 
 The removal is called “stripping.” To 
 effect this, add a very little nitrate of soda 
 (Chili saltpeter) to a quantity of strong and 
 hot oil of vitriol, and immerse the articles 
 in the mixture until all silver is dissolved. 
 If the action becomes slow, apply more 
 heat, and. add more saltpeter at the moment 
 of using. The copper will not be much 
 acted upon, if the articles are not allowed 
 to remain in too long. 
 
 Or, the silver may be removed, but more 
 slowly, without the aid of heat, by suspend¬ 
 ing the article for a greater or less length of 
 time, according to the thickness of the coat¬ 
 ing, in a bulky mixture of ten measures of 
 strong sulphuric acid and one measure of 
 concentrated nitric acid, contained in a large 
 stoneware vessel. The liquid must not be 
 diluted, but be kept as free from water as 
 possible, by not immersing wet articles in it, 
 and by keeping it covered from the air; 
 otherwise it will attack the copper, brass, 
 bronze, or German silver base of the articles. 
 This will also remove nickel plating. As 
 the liquid becomes weaker, very small por¬ 
 tions of strong nitric acid are added to it. 
 Its action is less rapid than that of the hot 
 mixture above described. 
 
 In stripping an article for re-plating, the 
 whole of the silver should be taken off, 
 otherwise the deposit is apt to show lines. 
 If the base of the article is composed of iron, 
 steel, zinc, or iead, the above mode of strip¬ 
 ping by acid cannot be employed, and the 
 coating is best removed by making the arti¬ 
 cles the anode, in an ordinary cyanide of 
 silver-plating solution until the silver is 
 dissolved. 
 
 The articles to be desilvered are first 
 cleaned in soda lye, next in a sulphuric acid 
 bath and then entered in an ordinary silver- 
 plating bath. The conducting wires are 
 now fastened in a reverse way, making the 
 article the anode. By this reversal, the 
 silver is loosened from the article and de¬ 
 posited upon the silver plate. In this 
 manner the desilvering is done so perfectly 
 that not a trace of silver remains on the 
 article. After all the silver has disap¬ 
 peared, the conduits are simply changed 
 into their customary positions, and the pro¬ 
 cess of silver-plating commences without 
 other trouble. 
 
 TO POLISH METALS. 
 
 etals are polished either by burnish¬ 
 ing or buffing. The process of bur¬ 
 nishing consists of rubbing down all the 
 roughness with a highly polished steel or 
 agate tool—none of the metal being re¬ 
 moved. The action of the burnisher ap¬ 
 pears to depend upon two circumstances : 
 First, that the harder the material to be 
 polished, the greater luster it will receive ; 
 the burnisher is, therefore, commonly made 
 of hardened steel, which exceeds in hardness 
 nearly every metallic body. Secondly it de¬ 
 pends on the closeness of the contact be¬ 
 tween the burnisher and the work; and 
 the pressure of the brightened burnisher 
 being, in reality, from its rounded or ellip¬ 
 tical section exerted from only one mathe¬ 
 matical line or point of the w'ork at a time 
 it acts with great pressure and in a manner 
 distinctly analogous to the steel die used 
 in making coin. In the latter case the dull 
 but smooth blank becomes instantly the 
 bright and lustrous coin, by virtue of the 
 contact produced in the coining press be¬ 
 tween the entire surface of the blank and 
 that of the highly polished die. 
 
 It by no means follow's, however, that 
 the burnisher will produce highly polished 
 surfaces, unless they have been previously 
 rendered smooth and proper for the appli¬ 
 cation of this instrument. A rough surface 
 having any file marks or scratches will ex¬ 
 hibit the original defects, notwithstanding 
 that they may be glossed over with the 
 burnisher, which follows every irregularity, 
 and extensive pressure, which might be ex¬ 
 pected to correct the evil, as in coining, 
 only fills the work with furrows and pro¬ 
 duces an irregular, indented surface, which 
 by workmen, is said to be full of utters. 
 
 Therefore, the greater the degree of ex¬ 
 cellence that is required in burnished work, 
 the more carefully should it be smoothed 
 before the application of the burnisher. 
 This tool should also be cleaned on a buff- 
 stick with crocus immediately before use ; 
 and it should generally be applied with the 
 least degree of friction that will suffice. 
 Cutters generally consider that burnishers 
 for steel are best rubbed on a buffstick 
 with the finest flour emery ; for silver, how¬ 
 ever, they polish the burnisher with crocus 
 in the usual way. Most of the metals, pre¬ 
 vious to their being burnished, are rubbed 
 with oil, to lessen the risk of tearing or 
 scratching them, but for gold or silver the 
 burnisher is commonly used dry, unless 
 soap and water or skimmed milk are em 
 
284 
 
 PARTING GOLD FROM OTHER METALS. 
 
 ployed. For brass furniture, beer or water, 
 with or without a little vinegar, is preferred 
 for lubricating: the burnisher. 
 
 Buffing is performed by rubbing the metal 
 with soft leather, which has been charged 
 with very fine polishing powder. The rub¬ 
 bing is sometimes done by hand, but more 
 frequently the buff is made into a wheel 
 which revolves rapidly in a lathe and the 
 work is held against it. The polishing 
 powder that is selected must be chosen 
 with special reference to the metal that is 
 to be buffed. Thus, for steel and brass 
 the best polishing powder is crocus or 
 rouge. The hardest part of the rouge must 
 be selected and great care should be taken 
 to have it clean and free from particles of 
 dust and sand, which would inevitably 
 scratch the article polished and render it 
 necessary to repeat all the previous pro¬ 
 cess of filing, grinding, etc. Soft metals 
 like gold and silver may be polished with 
 comparatively soft powder, such as pre¬ 
 pared chalk or putty powder (oxide of zinc). 
 
 When metals are to be polished on the 
 lathe, the process is very simple. After be¬ 
 ing turned or filed smooth, the article is 
 still further polished by means of fine 
 emery and oil applied with a stick, and in 
 the case of rods or cylinders, a sort of 
 clamp is used, so that great pressure can 
 be brought to bear on the part to be pol¬ 
 ished. The work must be examined from 
 time to time, to see that all parts are brought 
 up equally to the greatest smoothness and 
 freedom from scratches, and as fast as this 
 occurs, polishing powder of finer and finer 
 quality should be used, until the required 
 finish is attained. 
 
 In polishing metals or any other hard 
 substance bv abrasion, the great point is to 
 bring the whole surface up equally. A 
 single scratch will destroy the appearance 
 of the finest work, and it cannot be re¬ 
 moved except by going back to the stage 
 to which it corresponds, and by beginning 
 again from that point. Thus, if in working 
 with a smooth file, we make a scratch as 
 deep as the cut of a bastard file, it is of no 
 use to try and remove this scratch with the 
 smooth file ; we must go back, and, taking 
 a bastard file, make the surface as even as 
 possible with it, and afterward work forward 
 through fine files and polishing powder. 
 
 PARTING GOI/D FROM OTHER 
 
 metaes. 
 
 T hkrk are two principal methods of gold 
 parting, termed the wet and dry. The 
 
 wef methods are the sulphuric and nitric 
 acid processes. The chlorine, cementation, 
 litharge and sulphur are dry processes. 
 In the wet process there should be two or 
 three parts of silver to one of gold. The 
 metals can be alloyed by fusing in a plum¬ 
 bago crucible. The melted alloy is poured, 
 into cold water to obtain the alloy in a flake 
 condition, so that it can be readily acted on 
 by the acids. 
 
 In the sulphuric acid the alloy is boiled 
 with two or three times its weight of acid 
 in a cast iron vessel. After the gold has 
 subsided, the sulphates of silver and copper 
 are decanted. Repeat the process, wash 
 the gold, and boil again with acid. The 
 gold is obtained in the solid form by wash¬ 
 ing, drying, melting and casting into bars 
 or ingots. The silver is collected on cop¬ 
 per plates or turnings introduced into the 
 solution, and bar silver is obtained by 
 washing, drying, melting and casting. 
 
 In the nitric acid process, a platinum 
 vessel fitted with a lid from which issues a 
 stoneware pipe for condensing and collect¬ 
 ing nitric oxide and nitrous anhydride, 
 which are given off from the decomposition 
 of the acid by the copper and silver respect¬ 
 ively. The granulated alloy is introduced 
 into the platinum digested with nearly 
 twice as much acid. The lid is luted on 
 and the digester heated on a sand-bath. 
 When the violent action has ceased, the 
 digester is cooled and the liquor decanted. 
 The residue of gold is treated with acid 
 and the last operation repeated. The resi¬ 
 due of gold is obtained in the solid form, 
 as in the sulphuric acid process. 
 
 In the chlorine process the gold is melted 
 in a clay crucible fitted with a lid, in which 
 an opening for the introduction of a clay 
 pipe, by which the chlorine generated by 
 any of the usual processes is conveyed to 
 the bottom of the melted mass, while the 
 surface of the gold is covered with a layer 
 of borax. The chlorine is absorbed by the 
 metals that may be associated with the 
 gold, converting them into chlorides, which 
 are generally volatilized, except the silver, 
 which remains fused as chloride of silver. 
 As soon as orange-colored vapors appear 
 the current of chlorine is stopped, for the 
 chlorine attacks the baser metals first. 
 The crucible is taken from the fire, and 
 after 10 minutes the gold sets and the 
 chloride of silver is poured off. The gold 
 is melted and cast into bars. 
 
ALUMINIUM AND ITS ALLOYS. 
 
 HOW TO ANALYSE NATIVE AL¬ 
 LOYS CONTAINING GQLD.SILVEE, 
 PLATINUM, ETC. 
 
 M ay be the reader lives in a region in 
 which auriferous native alloys are 
 found combined by nature in the bosom of 
 the earth, and, as is very likely to be the case, 
 in absence of an analyzing chemist, he 
 may be called upon to determine the 
 different metallic substances of which a 
 given sample is composed. It would never 
 do for him to plead ignorance of the simple 
 method for doing this, and it is therefore 
 well to read the following carefully. 
 
 These affinities are well known in chem¬ 
 istry, and the analysis of a metallic com¬ 
 pound, consisting of a variety of different 
 metals, is an easy matter. Let us suppose 
 that a metallic mass is made up of plati¬ 
 num, gold, silver, bismuth, lead, iron and 
 copper ; we then separate the constituent 
 parts in the following manner : 
 
 i. The alloy must be comminuted by 
 either filling or granulation ; it is next 
 digested in diluted nitric acid, until this 
 agent exerts no further action on the resi¬ 
 due. In order to be certain that the diges¬ 
 tion of the soluble parts is completed, 
 decant the acid from the residue, and pour 
 small quantities of fresh acid, until all ac¬ 
 tion ceases. Add the last acid to the 
 former decantations; the residue, consist¬ 
 ing of gold and platinum, must be washed 
 with a small quantity of lukewarm water, 
 which is also added to the decanted acids. 
 
 2. Pour quantities of cold water into the 
 solution, until all turbidity ceases, then per¬ 
 mit the precipitate to settle, after which dry 
 it. This is the oxide of bismuth, of which 
 123 parts, dry, equal 100 parts metallic bis¬ 
 muth; the analyzer may, if he chooses, re¬ 
 duce it to its metallic state by mixing the 
 dry precipitate with oil to the consistency 
 of a thick paste, and fusing it briskly under 
 a cover of charcoal dust. 
 
 3. Concentrate the fluid from which the 
 bismuth was separated, by boiling it to 
 about half its volume, and immerse into it 
 a clean copper plate; the silver will then 
 settle on the copper in a metallic state ; 
 collect the former from the latter by wash¬ 
 ing, and repeat the process of immersion, 
 etc., until no more precipitate is formed. 
 The silver may then be dried and reduced 
 to a button bv melting it with a little car¬ 
 bonate of soda. 
 
 4. Next separate the lead by dropping 
 sulphuric acid into the fluid of the last pro¬ 
 
 cess until precipitation takes place no 
 longer. The precipitate obtained is sul¬ 
 phate of lead, of which 100 parts, when per¬ 
 fectly dry, equal 30 parts metallic lead. 
 
 5. The fluid is then mixed with liquid 
 ammonia, by which a brown precipitate is 
 thrown down ; this is iron which was con¬ 
 tained in the alloy. 
 
 6. We have now obtained four metals : 
 bismuth, silver, lead and iron, from the 
 same fluid. It should next be tested for 
 copper. Pour into it a. saturated solution 
 of potash, and boil the fluid a little; the 
 ammonia is volatilized thereby, and an 
 oxide of copper is precipitated. To obtain 
 the copper in a metallic state, dissolve this 
 oxide in muriatic acid, and dilute with an 
 equal quantity of water; then immerse into 
 a clean iron plate, when the copper will ad¬ 
 here to it. 
 
 7. Next take the insoluble residue left in 
 the first process, and dissolve it in aqua 
 regia, a mixture of three parts of muriatic 
 and one of nitric acid, till a complete solu¬ 
 tion is effected. Mingle this solution with 
 a saturated solution of sal ammonia, and 
 the platinum will become separated as a 
 precipitate and leave the gold in the solu¬ 
 tion. The precipitated platinum is well 
 washed and boiled in clear water to soak 
 out the ammonia, and finally washed with 
 alcohol, it is then ready to be welded to the 
 metallic state. 
 
 8. To recover the gold, mingle the re¬ 
 maining solution from which the platinum 
 has been separated with a diluted solution 
 of sulphate of iron, a precipitate falls down, 
 which is metallic gold; collect and fuse it 
 with a little borax into a solid mass. 
 
 The analysis is now completed, and the 
 combined weight of the obtained products 
 will correspond with the weight of the sub¬ 
 stance submitted to examination, if the 
 manipulation has been done carefully. 
 
 ALUMINIUM AND ITS ALLOYS. 
 
 luminium is now very largely em¬ 
 ployed in the industrial arts, says 
 Le Monitcur de la bijcmterie, etc., although 
 for certain articles it is blamed for not 
 being sufficiently strong, and the attempts 
 to correct this defect will doubtless be suc¬ 
 cessful eventually, so that this very ’light 
 metal will be employed more and mote, 
 either in a state of purity or as alloy. The 
 Elcctrochimie published the very interesting 
 researches of Messrs. A. E. Hunt, T- W. 
 Langley and C. M. Hall on this subject. 
 
286 
 
 FRENCH FIRE-GILDING. 
 
 According to these specialists, silicium hard¬ 
 ens aluminium considerably, diminishes 
 its malleability, and augments its tenacity; 
 it prevents aluminium from taking a high 
 gloss, but guards that which it may have 
 received. A metal thus alloyed with sili¬ 
 con of more than 3 per cent, is covered 
 rapidly with a blackish coating disagree¬ 
 able to the eyes. Where a polish is not 
 necessary and the principal aim is to com¬ 
 pound a light metal, an alloy of 6 to 8 per 
 cent, silicium is of advantage. The silicium 
 is found in it in a graphitic condition. If 
 it were possible to mix the silicium in an 
 amorphous state it would be possible to 
 produce a metal possessing the required 
 hardness without its being impaired in 
 strength. 
 
 Small quantities of iron harden alumin¬ 
 ium and make it magnetic, but at the same 
 time its malleability is deteriorated and the 
 alloy does not take a high polish. I3y 
 melting equal parts of iron and aluminium 
 an alloy desirable in all respects is pro¬ 
 duced, but it is shortly afterward reduced 
 into powder. 
 
 Aluminium unites readily with copper, 
 nickel, brass, etc., but the proportions of 
 these metals must not exceed 3 per cent.; 
 beyond this, the alloy loses a large part of 
 its malleability. 
 
 Carbon combines with aluminium only 
 at a very high temperature, and in propor¬ 
 tions not to exceed 3 per cent. ; it renders 
 aluminium fragile and porous. 
 
 Sulphur combines with difficulty ; it is but 
 rarely found in the aluminium of commerce. 
 
 Lead is found sometimes, but in minute 
 proportions, which exert no appreciable in¬ 
 fluence upon the metal. • 
 
 Antimony does not unite with aluminium. 
 
 Chromium, however, enters readily into 
 an alloy, makes the aluminium harder, but 
 impairs its malleability. 
 
 Tungsten hardens aluminium. Platinum 
 combines with it, but makes a brittle alloy 
 and one of little homogeneity. 
 
 Silver, up to a proportion of 5 percent, 
 increases the elasticity and hardness of 
 aluminium without injuring its malleability. 
 The silver alloy is susceptible of taking a 
 beautiful polish. 
 
 Tin makes aluminium brittle. A pro¬ 
 portion of 2 per cent, of aluminium in tin 
 makes the latter harder and more elastic. 
 
 Cadmium unites with aluminium and 
 makes an alloy that is fusible and malle¬ 
 able, but wants strength. Bismuth forms 
 brittle but quite fusible alloys. 
 
 The alloys with zinc are brittle and very 
 crystalline; they make good solders for 
 aluminium and are applied with Venice 
 turpentine; deplorably the alloy does not 
 spread well upon the metal, and the sol¬ 
 dered joints do not resist a great strain. 
 
 FRENCH FIRE-GILDING. 
 
 s is known, says the Metallarbeiter, 
 immense quantities of imitation jew¬ 
 elry, such as watch chains, necklaces, 
 brooches, etc., are sent from the jewelry 
 manufacturing centers of Germany to Paris, 
 to be *‘ fire-gilt ” and returned to the Ger¬ 
 man jewelers. The price of this gilding 
 moves between 40 and 60 francs per kilo¬ 
 gram, according to the gold coating. This 
 proceeding essentially increases the price 
 of the articles, because the French under¬ 
 stand how to place an immense value on 
 their skill, and it would, therefore, be well 
 if the German manufacturer were to acquire 
 this skill himself. The method is based on 
 the fact that k is extremely simple to deposit 
 with a correctly working galvanic bath the 
 same quantity of gold upon a certain article 
 as can be done by fire-gilding when apply¬ 
 ing and dissipating the gold amalgam. 
 
 The objection that a heavy galvanic pre¬ 
 cipitation is very brittle, and does not enter 
 into the same intimate connection with the 
 underlying metal as the coating of the fire¬ 
 gilding does, is correct. In consequence of 
 this defect it is apt to rise up in polishing, 
 and scale when the article is worn, which 
 can be prevented by the following treat¬ 
 ment : 
 
 The articles are entered for from 30 min¬ 
 utes to one hour, according to the required 
 thickness of the coating, in a medium rich 
 gold bath, during which time they remain 
 suspended to the action of a correctly reg¬ 
 ulated current ; once or twice in the course 
 of the work they are entered into a cyanide 
 of mercury bath, in which they are exposed 
 to the influence of a weak current, until 
 well and equally quickened, for which from 
 one minute to two minutes is sufficient. 
 They are then carefully rinsed and re¬ 
 turned into the gold bath. When the 
 gilding operation is ended, they are quick¬ 
 ened another time, and the mercury is then 
 evaporated over a uniform charcoal fire, the 
 articles lying upon a wire netting. 
 
 The following method is still more simple: 
 The article is gold plated without inter¬ 
 mission, until a sufficiently heavy precip- 
 
PRACTICAL ELECTROPLATING. 
 
 287 
 
 itate is deposited ; then quickened in an 
 aqueous solution of proto-nitrate of mer¬ 
 cury and dissipated. A yellow deposit will 
 become green after the mercury is driven 
 ■off ; since, however, the gold plater must 
 imitate the alloys of genuine gold jewelry, 
 with the exception of a few articles like the 
 sprays of lightning rods, etc.,' he has to 
 imitate the color of 12, 13 and 14 karat gold, 
 and gold plate the articles red, which is done 
 by an addition of copper, to the gold bath. 
 This addition of copper, however, must be 
 made with care, because most of the baths, 
 after having been used for a time, are in¬ 
 clined to become red ; this caution must be 
 observed especially in cases when the bath 
 is to be used until exhausted, in place of 
 being renewed. If the gold plater is using 
 such a bath, he had better dispense entirely 
 with the addition of copper.using a new bath 
 for first gilding:, and an old for finishing. 
 
 Articles gilt red in this manner more or 
 less assume, after driving off the Mercury, 
 the colors of above stated alloys ; I say 
 more or less because even a skilful work¬ 
 man will experience great difficulties in 
 imitating a certain color precisely. Beside 
 this, the demands of customers vary great¬ 
 ly, and it is well to keep on hand several 
 small baths of different colors in which the 
 articles, after having been scratch-brushed, 
 are colored to shade. The coloring baths 
 consist of the ordinary fresh gold bath to 
 which, according to requirement, from ten 
 to thirty per cent, of cyanide of copper and 
 very small quantities of cyanide of silver 
 are added. 
 
 A definite formula cannot be given be¬ 
 cause the different colors vary too largely, 
 but the gold plater with even a little ex¬ 
 perience will quickly compose a, bath ap¬ 
 proximating very closely to the shade 
 desired. The following direction may serve 
 him in composing his bath : To a new 
 cold bath add sufficient cyanide of copper 
 until a rose color is produced in gold plating, 
 and when this has been obtained, an ad¬ 
 dition by drops, of silver, is to be made 
 until the shade is as desired. A platinum 
 wire is used as a rule, and as the coloring 
 is the work of a moment, it is advisable not 
 to hang in large lots, but always small ones 
 at a time. 
 
 In spite of the most thorough cleansing 
 by hand or revolving scratch brush, and 
 subsequent polishing with bloodstone, 
 strongly gilt small articles frequently show 
 disagreeable-looking spots ; these articles 
 sometimes have hollows into which the 
 
 cleansing apparatus cannot enter, and they 
 will subsequently look dull and unsightly. 
 In order to correct this, let the gold plater 
 procure a revolving drum, into which are 
 to be placed from six to nine pounds of 
 very small brass or copper grains of about 
 the size of half a pin head ; into this is to 
 be poured the necessary quantity of soap or 
 licorice root solution, and next a corre¬ 
 sponding quantity of articles, after which 
 the drum is revolved either by hand or me¬ 
 chanical pow'er. After revolving it for from 
 \]/ 2 to two hours, the articles are polished, 
 and the plater wall at first sight be satisfied 
 that this is a far more satisfactory wmy of 
 working than by scratch brushing. The 
 friction of the small grains polishes the hol¬ 
 lows as brightly as the outside, and beside 
 this, a large saving of time is effected. 
 
 As is well known, the articles require a 
 very thorough cleansing before they are 
 galvanized, and it must therefore never be 
 omitted to boil them in a potash or soda 
 solution, and then dip them in a pickle or 
 cooking salt and nitric acid, until certain 
 that no filth of any kind adheres to them. 
 
 PRACTICAL ELECTROPLATING. 
 
 T he following solution for gilding to be 
 used with a common battery is suf¬ 
 ficient for a four gallon jar : 
 
 Chloride of gold.4. oz. 
 
 Cyanide of potash.12 oz. 
 
 Concentrated ammonia. 
 
 Dissolve the chloride in pure boiling 
 water, then by the use of a very small quan¬ 
 tity of concentrated ammonia, precipitate 
 the gold from the solution. Let the water 
 stand until settled; pour off the water; re¬ 
 peat operation two or three times, taking 
 care not to wash out the gold. Now dis¬ 
 solve the cyanide in hot water ; this must be 
 done in a vessel which is to hold the solu¬ 
 tion ; pour in the gold and boil. 
 
 Nickel Solution. —To one gallon of 
 water add from one to two pounds of nickel 
 salts or crystals; boil and stir until cold. 
 
 Silver Solution.— 
 
 Chloride of silver.10 oz. 
 
 Carbonate of soda.12 oz. 
 
 Cyanide of potash, enough to take up silver. Make 
 same as for gold plating. 
 
 Brass Solution.— 
 
 Sulphate of copper.3 lbs. 6 oz. 
 
 Sulphate of zinc.3 lbs. 6 oz. 
 
 Carbonate of soda.10 lbs. 
 
 Carbonate of soda.5 lbs. 
 
 llisulphate of soda.5 lbs. 
 
 Cyanide of potassium.6 lbs. 
 
288 
 
 PRACTICAL ELECTROPLATING. 
 
 Dissolve 3 lbs. 6 oz. each of the sulphate 
 of copper and zinc in hot water ; dissolve 
 io lbs. of carbonate of soda in hot water, 
 and add to the first. Let the mixture set¬ 
 tle, then pour off the water and repeat 
 two or three times ; now dissolve 5 lbs. 
 each of carbonate and bisulphate of soda 
 and add ; then dissolve 6 lbs. of cyanide of 
 potassium in hot water ; add the other sub¬ 
 stances, and set the mixture aside for two 
 or three days before use. 
 
 Copper Solution.— 
 
 Sulphate of copper.10 lbs. 
 
 Carbonate of soda...17 lbs. 
 
 Carbonate of soda.5 lbs. 2 oz. 
 
 Bisulphate of soda.7 lbs. 6 oz. 
 
 Cyanide of potassium.5 lbs. 
 
 Dissolve first 10 lbs. of sulphate of cop¬ 
 per and 17 lbs. carbonate of soda ; pour 
 together, wash, and repeat as in brass solu¬ 
 tion ; now dissolve 5 lbs. 2 oz. carbonate of 
 soda and 7 lbs. 6 oz. bisulphate of soda ; 
 add ; dissolve 5 lbs. cyanide of potassium 
 and add. Let the mixture stand two or three 
 days, then use. 
 
 The above solutions may all be used 
 with the aid of a dynamo or common Bun¬ 
 sen or Smee cells. The solutions may be 
 placed in jars or tanks, over which two 
 brass rods are stretched, connecting witli 
 the poles of the battery. An anode, cor¬ 
 responding to the solution in the jar, must 
 be attached by means of a copper wire 
 to the rod connected with the positive 
 pole, while the cathode or article to be 
 plated should be attached to the negative 
 pole. 
 
 Bronze. —This result is obtained by plat¬ 
 ing the article in copper or brass, and dip¬ 
 ping it into a hot solution of sulphide of 
 potassium. 
 
 Oxidized Silver. —Plate the article in 
 silver, and dip it into a solution of any of 
 the following : bichromate of potash, bisul¬ 
 phite of soda, persulphite of soda, or chro¬ 
 mic acid. 
 
 Brass Dips. —Equal parts of sulphuric 
 and nitric acid, to which a small quantity 
 of muriatic acid is added, must be pre¬ 
 pared. Cleanse as if to plate ; that is, dip 
 into hot potash, then into cold water, before 
 placing in the acid, where it must remain 
 but for an instant, then at once into and 
 shaken about in cold water, thoroughly 
 washing off the acid ; then into hot water 
 and sawdust. 
 
 To secure the perfect cleanliness neces¬ 
 sary to the article to be plated, there must 
 
 be placed near at hand solutions of boiling 
 hot carbonate of potash, plenty of perfectly 
 clean hot and cold water and solution of 
 cyanide of potassium. 
 
 Operation. —First place the article 
 which is attached to a copper wire for a 
 moment in the hot potash to remove all 
 vegetable substance ; then quickly plunge 
 it into cold water, which should be run¬ 
 ning ; then into cyanide; once more into cold 
 water. The article is now chemically clean 
 and ready to be placed in the plating solu¬ 
 tion. Judgment must now govern the plater 
 when to remove the article and quickly into 
 clear, cold water, and then immediately 
 into the clean hot water and last into the 
 boxwood sawdust, where it must be shaken 
 until dry. 
 
 If the article should now be dim from 
 an excess of gold, a small wire scratch-brush 
 should be placed in the lathe and the arti¬ 
 cle gently brushed, all the time being kept 
 moist by frequent dipping into a solution of 
 soap and water. Silver may be brushed in 
 the same way, but it is generally burnished. 
 Nickel, copper and brass are buffed. 
 
 Gold Silvering By Rubbing with the 
 Thumb, .or a Cork, or a Brush. —The re¬ 
 sults are better than those by the so-called 
 whiteningprocess, but not so durable. The 
 method is useful for repairing slight defects 
 upon more durable silverings. It may 
 also be employed for producing a mixture 
 of gold and silver upon slightly gilt ob¬ 
 jects, thus avoiding the use of resist var¬ 
 nishes. 
 
 Make a paste by thoroughly grinding in 
 a porcelain mortar, or with a muller upon a 
 slab. Avoid the light, however, as far as 
 practicable. 
 
 Formula I. — 
 
 Water.. Ounces 3^4 to 5 
 
 White fusel nitrate of silver, or 
 
 preferable, the chloride. “ 7 
 
 Binoxolate of potash. 
 
 . “ 10% 
 
 Bitartrate of potash. 
 
 . “ ioj 4 
 
 Common salt. 
 
 . “ D 
 
 Formula II.— 
 
 Chlorate of silver. 
 
 . Ounces 334 
 
 Bitartrate of potash. 
 
 . “ 7 
 
 Common salt. 
 
 --- “ 1034 
 
 Pulverize finely in a porcelain mortar and 
 triturate under a muller upon a plate of 
 ground glass, until there is no granular 
 feeling. Keep the paste in a porcelain pot, 
 or in a black glass vessel to preserve it 
 from the light, which decomposes it rapidly. 
 When about to use, add a little water so as 
 to form a thin paste, which apply with a 
 
t 
 
 ELECTRO GOLD AND SILVER PLATING. 
 
 brush or pencil upon the cleansed articles 
 of copper, or upon those gilt by clipping; 
 or even upon those gilt by the battery, pro¬ 
 viding the coating is thin enough to allow 
 the copper to decompose the silver paste 
 through the coat of gold. Allow the paste 
 to dry naturally or with the aid of gentle 
 heat. The chemical reaction is more or 
 less complete, according to the thickness 
 of the gold deposit, and the dry paste is of 
 a pink shade, or entirely green. The salts 
 are removed by a thorough rinsing in cold 
 rvater, and the silver appears with a frosted 
 appearancg, the brightness of which may be 
 increased by a few seconds immersion in a 
 very dilute solution of sulphuric acid, or of 
 cyanide of potash. This silvering will bear 
 the action of the wire brush and of the 
 burnishing tool very well. It may also be 
 oxidized. Should a first silvering not be 
 found sufficiently durable after scratch 
 brushing, apply a second or third, coat. 
 This silver is not so adhering or so white 
 on pure copper as upon gilt surface. 
 
 For the reflectors of lanterns the paste is 
 rubbed upon the reflector with a fine linen 
 pad ; then, with another pad, a thin paste 
 of Spanish white, or similar substance, is 
 spread over the reflector and allowed to dry. 
 Rubbing with a fine and clean linen rag 
 will restore the luster and whiteness of the 
 plated silver. 
 
 EDECTro goed and sii/ver 
 
 PI/ATING. 
 
 C omplaints are quite frequent concern¬ 
 ing the non-durability of the ordinary 
 gold and silver plating by contact or 
 limited electro-battery, and to the wear 
 when exposed to friction or weather, and 
 unfavorable comparison has been made 
 with the old fire gilding. The former, how¬ 
 ever, is generally acknowledged to have the 
 richer appearance. The primary cause 
 for the complaint lies in the fact that de¬ 
 posits of the precious metal by the galvano- 
 electric system are not solid and compact. 
 Electro-gilt ornaments, balls, eagles and 
 other devices such as are used to decorate 
 monuments, public buildings, etc., tarnish 
 rapidly because of this unsound and porous 
 deposit upon the metal case. 
 
 To produce substantial and lasting de¬ 
 posits by electricity, it is necessary to use 
 dynamo-electric apparatus operated by 
 steam or batteries of great power. The ex¬ 
 pense necessary to the purchase and opera¬ 
 tion of such a plant is practically prohib- 
 
 289 
 
 itory to the jeweler or watchmaker whose 
 business is conducted upon a limited scale; 
 and who, even if in a financial position to 
 purchase and maintain these expensive ap¬ 
 paratus, does not have sufficient work to 
 realize a profit large enough to warrant the 
 entailed expense. To avoid this expense 
 and at the same time secure a good, lasting 
 deposit by electricity, the following method 
 is recommended as effective. 
 
 To the ordinary gold solution for electro¬ 
 gilding add some mercury previously dis¬ 
 solved in nitric acid. This solution should 
 be diluted with water and neutralized of 
 the acid by adding small quantities of 
 spirits of ammonia until immersed litmus 
 paper does not change its blue color into 
 red. Previous to dissolving the mercury in 
 the acid, it is necessary to free it from the 
 lead with which commercial mercury is 
 generally contaminated. This may be ef¬ 
 fected by pressing the mercury through a 
 piece of wash-leather which will allow the 
 mercury to pass through by squeezing. 
 The leather will retain the lead and leave 
 the mercury pure. 
 
 This prepared gold solution will be a 
 mercurial gold amalgam of a fluid or watery 
 nature, and should not be mixed in larger 
 quantities than required for immediate use. 
 The articles to be gilt are immersed in this 
 solution appended to the wire in connection 
 with the colbode (zinc) of any battery, and 
 will receive -a gold deposit of quicksilver 
 appearance after the article has remained 
 a sufficient time in the solution. When 
 withdrawn, rinse in water and lay on a 
 fresh fire made of small pieces of charcoal 
 until the mercury lias evaporated. This 
 will take place very soon, as the quantity 
 of mercury is small in proportion to the 
 gold deposit, although the color of the 
 former predominates. After the evapora¬ 
 tion of the mercury, the article has all the 
 characteristics in color and toughness of 
 fire-gilding—pale yellow and dead surface. 
 If the article is then scratch-brushed in 
 beer it will assume a fine luster I f a strong 
 deposit of gold is required the operation 
 may be repeated after each scratch-brush¬ 
 ing. By weighing the article before its first 
 immersion into the gold solution and again 
 after the last scratch-brushing, the weight 
 of the gold deposited can be ascertained 
 very accurately. In the last evaporation, 
 the article should be left for about one- 
 half minute or so longer on the fire than 
 necessary for driving off the mercury, to 
 deepen the color of the gilding. 
 
290 
 
 TO SILVER PLATE THINLY. 
 
 Mix together two parts of saltpeter, one 
 part of table salt and six parts of alum, with 
 six and one-half parts of water and warm 
 the mixture in a porcelain vessel. As soon 
 as it begins to rise add one part of hydro¬ 
 chloric acid and bring the contents of the 
 vessel to a boil, stirring in the meantime 
 with a glass rod. The articles to be 
 colored, suspended on hooks made of strong- 
 platinum wire or of glass, are first dipped in 
 sulphuric acid and then entered into the 
 slowly cooking solution last described and 
 moved to and fro in it. In about three 
 minutes they are taken out and dipped into 
 a large vessel of water, so as to see what 
 color they are. If the desired shade is not 
 yet obtained they are dipped in again as 
 often as necessary until it appears. 
 
 TO SIXVERPlyATE THINTY. 
 
 here are two ways by which a film of 
 silver may be precipitated on an ar¬ 
 ticle, viz., by boiling and by the cold way. 
 
 TO SlLVERPLATE BY BOILING. —Dissolve 
 six parts of tartar and six parts of table 
 salt in water, heat to a boil, and add to 
 this liquor one part freshly precipitated 
 chloride of silver; when this has dissolved, 
 enter the article to be silverplated into the 
 boiling hot bath, and connect it with a 
 piece of zinc corresponding to its size. 
 The galvanic current engendered in this 
 manner causes the rapid precipitation of a 
 uniformly thick silver film, which is almost 
 as handsome as that obtained by the elec¬ 
 tro-chemical way. The articles may also 
 be silverplated in this bath without the 
 contact (touch with the piece of zinc); the 
 time required in this case, however, is from 
 15 to 20 minutes, while by the use of the 
 contact, somewhat less than one-half of the 
 time only is necessary. 
 
 In place of the above detailed silverplat¬ 
 ing fluid the operator may also use one 
 prepared for the electro-chemical way of 
 silvering, to wit, a solution of cyanide of 
 potash and silver, using also in this in¬ 
 stance the contact with zinc. 1’he princi¬ 
 ple of the two is identical, the difference 
 
 consisting only in the circumstance that 
 for the latter the electric current is pro¬ 
 duced specially, while with the contact the 
 current is produced by the combination of 
 the two metals. 
 
 Although the silverplating is uniform, it 
 is of a matt luster; if desired to be of a 
 peculiar gray, the so-called luster, enter the 
 article coming immediately from the silver- 
 plating bath into another, a solution of 10 
 parts hyposulphite of soda in 100 parts of 
 water, to which liquor was added a solution 
 of 3 parts acetate of lead in 50 parts water, 
 and heat to from 155' to 175 0 F. Sulphide 
 of lead hereby precipitates upon the sur¬ 
 face, which assumes an agreeable gray- 
 color. 
 
 A more durable film is obtained by dis¬ 
 solving one part chloride of silver in 8 parts 
 caustic ammonia, to which solution is 
 poured another of 5 parts cyanide of pot¬ 
 ash, 5 parts crystallized soda. 2 parts table 
 salt, dissolved in 144 parts distilled water, 
 boiling the whole for 15 minutes in a por¬ 
 celain dish and filtering the liquor. Make 
 the articles desired to be silverplated as 
 clean as you can by pickling, scouring in a 
 strong soda lye, rubbing with bright silver 
 sand, etc. After having cleaned them, 
 never handle them with your fingers, 
 but make use of a pair of boxwood pliers. 
 
 Silverplating by the Cold W ay. —A 
 heavily diluted solution of nitrate of silver 
 in the proportion of one part of this to at 
 least 50 or 60 parts water may be used fur 
 silverplating by the cold way : in fact, the 
 greater the dilution the slower the precipi¬ 
 tation of the film, and at the same time the 
 more tenacious it becomes. By wrapping 
 the bright pickled article with a zinc wire 
 and setting or hanging it into the fluid, the 
 precipitation of the silver takes place 
 quicker in consequence of the contact. 
 
 The silver film forming at first is very thin, 
 but soon increases in thickness, if the bath 
 is kept at the same strength by occasion¬ 
 ally pouring in a small quantity of a con¬ 
 centrated silver solution. When the film 
 comes to be burnished, polish the well 
 rinsed article first with prepared chalk, and 
 next with the blood stone. 
 
THE DUPLEX ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 29I 
 
 THE DUPLEX ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 HE perfection of the Duplex Escape¬ 
 ment, which followed its adoption by 
 one of our great American watch compa¬ 
 nies, is another example of “ transforma¬ 
 tion, ” accomplished by the mechanical in¬ 
 genuity of the American mechanic. The 
 evolution of this escapement from the del¬ 
 icate old English model to the practical, 
 hardy, accurate one, which has been so 
 very extensively used in this country, is 
 one of the horological accomplishments of 
 the age. It may indeed be chronicled as 
 the birth of a new escapement, the Amer¬ 
 ican Duplex. As such we will treat it, for 
 it is this perfected duplex that the jeweler 
 will most frequently have occasion to 
 handle, the sales of the movement in many 
 grades and sizes now running into the 
 enormous thousands. 
 
 The first crude model of the Duplex 
 Escapement was designed by Dutetre, a 
 French watchmaker, during the first part 
 of the last century, but its real inventor 
 was Pierre LeRoy (about 1750), who, in 
 course of his numerous experiments, while 
 endeavoring to construct a time-piece suf¬ 
 ficiently accurate to be used in determin¬ 
 ing longitude at sea, constructed it in sub¬ 
 stantially its present form. At about the 
 same time he conceived the idea of the 
 “ spring detent ” or “ chronometer ” escape¬ 
 ment, which, as better suited for the con¬ 
 struction of marine chronometers, he 
 adopted, but not, as some claim, because 
 he formed an unfavorable opinion of the 
 Duplex Escapement. 
 
 No maker to-day would think of using 
 the Cylinder Escapement in a watch from 
 which more than a fair average rate was 
 expected, while those who have practically 
 studied the Duplex will agree that, when 
 carefully made by competent workmen, it 
 is capable of the finest results for a very 
 long period. Some of the old style English 
 specimens of this escapement have given 
 rates for accuracy that have never been 
 surpassed by any form of escapement. 
 
 M. Saunier, speaking of the Duplex, 
 said: 
 
 •• In the climate of England, the Duplex 
 Escapement is more satisfactory than any 
 other. Where the pivots are sufficiently 
 fine as to require but little oil, the Duplex 
 will continue in action and give an even 
 rate much longer than either the cylinder 
 or lever.” 
 
 To construct this Escapement by hand, 
 so as to get its best results, would require 
 
 a very high degree of mechanical skill, 
 which would make it unpractically costly, 
 both to build and repair. The American 
 Duplex is the English model modified and 
 perfected, and the accuracy of fit and pro¬ 
 portion which made the hand-made Duplex 
 so costly has been secured by a system of 
 duplicating machinery that works with 
 wonderful precision. In a recent test a 
 thousand parts were found to be accurately 
 interchangeable. 
 
 The Escape Wheel.— The Duplex, as 
 originally made, consisted of two sets of 
 teeth (hence the name), the smaller or im¬ 
 pulse wheel being above the larger rest 
 wheel on the same arbor. In the American 
 Duplex but one wheel is used, the smaller 
 or impulse wheel, being replaced by short 
 triangular pillars projecting upward from 
 the web of the wheel, inside the “rest” 
 teeth, which are in the same plane as the 
 web and arms of the wheel. These teeth 
 are so designated because, during that part 
 of the balance’s vibrations not included in 
 the lifts, one of the long teeth rests against 
 the roller or slot in the balance staff, while 
 the impulse is communicated to the bal¬ 
 ance by the impulse teeth driving against 
 the point of the impulse pallet during the 
 “ great lift.” The escape wheels are made 
 of fine brass, the points of the rest teeth 
 being carefully smoothed and polished. 
 
 The Balance Staff. —In the American 
 Duplex, the delicate ruby roller of the old 
 model is supplanted in the lower priced 
 watches by a notch made in the staff itself, 
 which, being hardened and polished, meets 
 every requirement. Repairers have found 
 that, even after several years’ running, the 
 tooth and slot have shown no perceptible 
 sign of wear. 
 
 The Impulse Pallet. —This is a little 
 steel finger by which the impulse is de¬ 
 livered by the impulse teeth of the escape 
 wheel. 
 
 Action of the Escapement.— It is not 
 self-starting. When at rest the hairspring 
 is in neutral position and the point of the 
 rest tooth directly in the slot of the balance 
 staff. 
 
 A slight rocking motion will start it, and 
 the rest tooth will escape from the slot. 
 The impulse pallet will then have reached 
 a point 10 deg. in front of one of the im¬ 
 pulse teeth of the escape wheel, and this 
 pallet will then strike the impulse tooth 
 and drive it forward, until the next rest 
 tooth enters the slot in the balance staff. 
 This operation is repeated at each full 
 
2 g2 
 
 THE DUPLEX ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 revolution of the balance, every second 
 vibration, as will be seen, being dumb. 
 
 The energy imparted to the impulse thus 
 must be sufficient to maintain the arc of 
 motion of the balance during two vibra¬ 
 tions. The arc traveled through by the 
 pallet, while receiving this impulse, consti¬ 
 tutes what is known as the “great lift,” 
 and its duration is measured by the arc 
 embraced between the two points of inter¬ 
 
 ing decrease of friction and wear. Having 
 nothing but balance and escape wheels act¬ 
 ing directly together for adjustment, ob¬ 
 viates many difficulties that are encoun¬ 
 tered in the lever escapement, which re¬ 
 quires the greatest accuracy to produce 
 proper results—the utmost nicety of the 
 locking, the drop, the slide, the impulse, 
 the roller pin, the size of roller, the guard 
 pm, the notch in fork; or, the pallet stone 
 
 section of the circle traced by the point of 
 the impulse pallet with the impulse circle 
 of the escape wheel, less rodeg. for drop. 
 
 The pressure of the point of the rest 
 tooth in the notch of the balance* staff, 
 from its entrance to its escape, is called 
 the “small lift,” and its duration is meas¬ 
 ured by the arc embraced between the two 
 intersections. 
 
 In the Duplex, the escape wheel acts di¬ 
 rectly on balance wheel, and hence requires 
 less power than a lever escapement ; con¬ 
 sequently, lighter mainsprings are used, and 
 they can be tempered higher, allowing a 
 more equal distribution of power than with 
 a heavy spring, and there is a correspond- 
 
 may be loose, the roller pin also not ce¬ 
 mented upright or tight, guard pin bent, or 
 many of the other tine points, not neces¬ 
 sary with the Duplex Escapement, may be 
 out of adjustment. 
 
 The Duplex will run much longer, with¬ 
 out cleaning, than a lever. The oil on a 
 lever escapement soon becomes heavy, and 
 the result is a dropping off in motion and 
 poor time, while the parts in a Duplex that 
 require oil for action are so few that the 
 thickening of the oil is not known by any 
 action of the movement, in cleaning a 
 lever escapement, the greatest care must 
 be taken not to loosen either pallet stones 
 cr roller pin. These are held in place by 
 
TIIE DUPLEX ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 293 
 
 shellac, and if they are loosened trouble is 
 at hand. With the Duplex, there are no 
 parts to get out of order, and should any 
 become broken they can be replaced with¬ 
 out fitting. 
 
 The American Duplex is the simplest 
 escapement made, and a remarkable thing 
 with the Duplex over any other escape¬ 
 ment is the fact that a compensation bal¬ 
 ance and isochronal balance or hairspring 
 is not essential, for a neutral compensation 
 exists between the several functions that 
 cannot be aided by either. It is not ef¬ 
 fected by magnetism, and it has other 
 natural advantages that no other escape¬ 
 ment possesses. 
 
 A FEW HINTS FOR INSPECTING 
 
 AND REPAIRING AMERICAN DU 
 PEEX WATCHES. 
 
 'O prepare a Duplex watch properly, it 
 should be thoroughly examined and ad¬ 
 justed from hair-spring to main-spring, not 
 forgetting the hands and dial train, also 
 winding and working parts of the case. 
 First, locate defects of cause of stopping 
 by tracing loss of power, beginning at 
 hands, then escapement, and back toward 
 barrel until found. Never attempt to start 
 or wind a watch running before trouble is 
 located. Note that crystal is not so low as 
 to touch cannon pinion. Note that hands 
 are free. Try and shake on cannon pinion 
 and hour wheel. 
 
 Hair-Spring. —Next inspect hair-spring. 
 See that it is not bent, is free from rust 
 and oil, is flat, centered and leveled, outer 
 coil vibrates between the regular pins and 
 does not strike stud. See that hair-spring 
 collet is not loose in staff. To separate 
 balance and hair-spring from plate, do not 
 unpin spring from stud, thereby destroying 
 the timing and beat, simply push the stud 
 out from opposite side of plate, or use 
 plyers and lift stud from plate. 
 
 Balance Wheel. —See that balance is 
 true, arms and rim do not strike stud, reg¬ 
 ular pin or escape bridge. 
 
 Balance Staff. —See that staff has suf¬ 
 ficient, and not too much, end shake, by 
 adjusting lower end stone screw under dial. 
 See that slot in staff is not badly worn and 
 is free from dirt. '■ 
 
 Impulse Finger (or pin).—See that im¬ 
 pulse finger is smooth and polished on 
 locking surface. See that impulse finger 
 (orpin) does not strike long teeth. 
 
 Escape Wheel. —See that escape wheel 
 is not bent, and that long teeth run in cen¬ 
 ter on slot in staff. All short teeth must 
 be alike and strike impulse finger (or pin) 
 the same. If escape wheel pivot-holes are 
 badly worn, causing too much side shake, 
 either bush or close with hollow punch. 
 If teeth are badly worn, bent or defective, 
 do not attempt to repair them. A new 
 wheel is invariably the best. See that 
 escape wheel has enough, and not too 
 much end shake. See that escape teeth do 
 not strike the bridge. See that escape 
 teeth do not strike fourth wheel pinion. 
 
 Train Wheels and Pinions.— See that 
 train runs free ; look for chip or dirt in 
 wheel teeth and pinion leaves. See that 
 wheels are true and teeth are not bent or 
 broken. See that pinions are free and 
 have end shake, and pivots are not badly 
 worn or bent. Bush or close pivot-holes if 
 too large. See that second wheel does not 
 rub on barrel or top plate. 
 
 Barrel and Main-Spring.— See that 
 barrel does not rub in the recess of bottom 
 plate. See that barrel teeth are not bent 
 and are free from chips or dirt. See that 
 barrel is free on arbor. See that barrel 
 cap is in place and time wheel fastened on 
 cap has strong and equal friction. Always 
 take out, clean and oil main-springs. See 
 that main-spring has good strength and 
 does not bind or rub on barrel cap. 
 
 Dial.— To remove dial, use screw-driver 
 and lift dial from friction posts. It is not 
 necessary to take off hands, hour wheel or 
 cannon pinion when removing the dial 
 from movement. 
 
 Dial Train.— See that dial train is free 
 and that no oil is left on minute or in¬ 
 termediate wheel. See that setting wheel 
 is free between the plates. 
 
 Jewels. —Examine hole jewels and bal¬ 
 ance end stones. (Lower balance end 
 stone is set in screw from opposite side of 
 plate, and used to adjust the end shake of 
 balance staff.) Unscrew, examine, clean, 
 and oil. Most jewels in American Duplex 
 watches are held in the plates by being 
 made in carefully made settings, friction 
 tight. To remove, use peg-wood or jewel 
 extracting tool from small end of setting. 
 
 Clean, Oil and Assemble: Clean all 
 parts of watch thoroughly with benzine, al¬ 
 cohol, chalk or other preparations, and as¬ 
 semble. Oil main-springs, pivot-holes, bal¬ 
 ance end stones with very little in slot in 
 balance staff ; but do not oil impulse finger 
 or pin. Use good quality of oil, a small 
 
294 
 
 THE DUPLEX ESCAPEMENT. 
 
 quantity in right place is sufficient. To 
 easily assemble the single top plate move¬ 
 ments where ratchet wheel and click are 
 underneath plate—put ratchet wheel on 
 barrel arbor square, insert small pillar screw 
 or pin in hole above click, force same 
 through and allow it to hold click back 
 until wheels, pivots, etc. are in their proper 
 position. 
 
 To Adjust the American Duplex 
 Escapement: See that the escapement is 
 in beat, and that the drop or lockings of 
 long teeth on staff and short teeth on im¬ 
 pulse finger (or pin) are safe. 
 
 To Put the Escapement in Beat: 
 Have the slot in balance staff facing in a 
 direct line with escape wheel pinions when 
 the balance is free and at rest. 
 
 To Change the Beat: 1 1 is not neces¬ 
 sary to take the movement apart. Simply 
 insert a small tool into slot of hair-spring 
 collet, and turn collet on staff in either di¬ 
 rection until slot in staff is in direct line 
 with escape wheel pinion . 
 
 To Adjust the Drop or Impulse: 
 See that the upright teeth have from four 
 to ten degrees of locking. If more or less 
 drop then required, use tool to move im¬ 
 pulse finger on staff in either direction as 
 desired. When impulse pin takes place of 
 
 finger, and it is necessary to change angle 
 or locking or drop—take balance out and 
 turn same on staff as required. See that 
 impulse pin or finger does not strike long 
 escape tooth. The short or impulse tooth 
 imparts the great lift. The long or rest 
 tooth imparts the small lift. 
 
 To Test the Depth ing and Proper 
 Action of Escapement : Turn balance 
 backward and forward, looking at points 
 described, as follows, viz. : When upright 
 tooth escapes from impulse finger the next 
 long tooth should jump to side of staff 
 where it rests until the balance returns and 
 allows long tooth to drop in slot. The 
 balance next returns, allowing the long 
 tooth to escape from slot, and the following 
 upright tooth should jump to locking face 
 of impulse finger. Continue this operation 
 until all teeth have passed their respective 
 points of contact. See that impulse finger, 
 after having allowed short tooth to escape, 
 does not strike same on its return. If im¬ 
 pulse is found too long, and strikes, use oil 
 stone and shorten. If the long escape 
 teeth are found to be either shallow or 
 deep (short or long), do not attempt to 
 shorten or lengthen. This is a rare occur¬ 
 rence, and should be replaced with a new 
 wheel. 
 
 SIMPLE TOOTS FOR THE DUPJbFX MOVEMENT. 
 
 THE BEAT SET is used to change ihe beat ot 
 watch. Insert point into slot of hair spring collet, and 
 turn same until slot in staff is on direct line with ihe 
 escape wheel pinion. 
 
 THE IMPULSE MOVER is used to change angle 
 or length of drop from point of upright tooth to poinf 
 of Impulse finger. Insert point of tool to cover Impulse 
 finger and turn same either direction to give more or 
 less drop, as desired. 
 
 IMPULSE MOVER. 
 
INDEX TO HOROLOGY. 
 
 A 
 
 Acceleration, 42, 225. 
 
 Action of the escapement, 9. 
 
 “Adjusted,” meaning of, 90. 
 
 Adjusted watch in order, put an, 91. 
 
 Adjusting balance, 236. 
 
 escapement, 185. 
 
 of large and small watches, 64, 237. 
 
 Adjustment, notes on, 235, 236, 237. 
 
 to isochronism, 69. 
 
 Adjustments, ear tests for, 201. 
 
 Agents, 255 to 262. 
 
 Alteration caused by balance spring, 224. 
 
 Annealing and hardening, 70, 275. 
 new method for, 31. 
 
 Arbor, art of turning, 97. 
 
 Arbors, polishing, 278. 
 
 the barrel, 21, 246. 
 notes on, 245, 246, 247, 248. 
 
 Attraction of gravitation, 76. 
 
 Audible unrolling of mainspring, 62. 
 
 B 
 
 Bad depthings, 248. 
 
 Balance, 45, 72, 236. 
 
 Balance spring, adjust, 224. 
 
 alteration caused by, 224. 
 centering the, 10. 
 correcting, 227. 
 hardening, 226. 
 
 . length of, 60. 
 
 lengthening a, 73. 
 pinning, 224, 226, 227. 
 relation to escapement, 195. 
 the, 30, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228. 
 to flatten a, 84, 226. 
 to replace, 201. 
 to test, 227. 
 
 Balance, compensated, 27, 236. 
 duplex, 224, 232, 233. 
 expansion and contraction of, 46. 
 fastening, 225. 
 
 importance of the proportions of a 
 watch, 34. 
 pivot, broken, 76. 
 pivot, centering a, 24. 
 pivots, length of, 10. 
 staff, centering a, 24. 
 staff, measure for the length of, 85. 
 staff, pivoting a, 39. 
 staff, replace a, 44, 78. 
 staff, truing. 235, 237. 
 vibration, observe, 29, 235. 
 
 Balances, deceptive, 196. 
 
 sizes and weights of, 47. 
 
 Banking American watch, 232. 
 error, 89. 
 pin, fit in, 50. 
 
 Barometrical error, 79, 264. 
 
 Barrel arbor, the, 21, 217, 244. 
 hook, 261. 
 
 relation of mainspring to, 27. 
 repairs, 216. 
 
 take down and repair the, n. 
 teeth, 261. 
 
 Beat of English watch, 208. 
 
 Beat of escapement, 229. 
 
 Bench, notes on, 266 to 270. 
 
 Bending pivot, 242. 
 
 Bent pivots, 242. 
 
 Benzine in watch cleaning, 84, 256, 257. 
 
 jars, improved, 57. 
 
 Beveled pinion, 239. 
 
 Blue for steel, transparent, 55. 
 
 Blue from balance arms, removing, 236. 
 Bluing, 274. 
 
 Bouchon, fit a, 49, 84. 
 
 Bouchons, movable, 262. 
 
 riveting of, 262. 
 solid, 262. 
 tapped, 262. 
 
 Bow, drilling, 59, 62. 
 
 Breguet spring, 71, 200, 227, 228. 
 
 isochronism in, 198. 
 Broach a hole, vertically, 56. 
 
 Broaches, polishing, 29.' 
 
 Broaching hole in dial, 234. 
 
 solder broken, 55, 260. 
 
 Broken balance pivot. 76. 
 
 cylirder plug, replace, 214. 
 pillar screw, 58. 
 pivots, 218, 241, 242. 
 screws. 44, 54, 55. 
 
 Brush, care of the, 57. 
 
 Brushes, 256. 
 
 Burnisher, make a, 29. 
 
 the use of the cutting, 06. 
 Burnt bone. 256. 
 
 Bush, fit center, 49. 
 a hole, 259. 
 
 C 
 
 Calculate vibrations, 235. 
 
 Calculating a lever watch train, 253. 
 Cannon pinion, 238, 239. 
 
 Cap jewel, care in repairing, 97. 
 
 to fix, 60. 
 
 Care of lathe, 271. 
 
 Cases, notes on. 263. 
 
 Catching hand together, 211. 
 
296 
 
 INDEX TO HOROLOGY. 
 
 Cement for brass upon glass, 275. 
 
 Luiur bush, lit in me, 49. 
 
 Centering a balance staff, 24. 
 
 balance pivot, 24. 
 the balance spring, 10. 
 
 Center of oscillation, 265. 
 
 pinion touching crystal, 261. 
 pivot, repair, 50. 
 staff, correct, 32. 
 wheel, bad uprighting, 10. 
 wheel arbor, 246. 
 
 Chamfers, 268. 
 
 Chamois leather, to clean, 255. 
 
 Chronograph. 229. 
 
 Chronometer, marine, 51. 
 
 Chronometer’s rate, Influence of magnetism 
 on, 204. 
 
 Chucks, care of, 58. 
 
 Clean a gold dial, 234. 
 
 a mainspring, good way to, 72. 
 a nickel movement, 28. 
 a watch, 7. 
 a watch case, 59. 
 pinion leaves, 238. 
 
 watches with cyanide of potassium, 7. 
 
 Cleaning agents, 255 to 262. 
 
 notes on, 255 to 262. 
 of a watch, 5. 
 pith, 63. 
 
 Click-work, lubricate, 92. 
 
 repair a cheap, 61. 
 
 Clock bezels, 262. 
 
 cases, marble, 263. 
 repairing, 39. 
 
 Clocks, motive power in, 92. 
 
 Close observation necessary, 74. 
 
 Club teeth, 86. 
 
 pins, influence of. 61. 
 tooth lever escapement, 4. 
 toothed scape wheel, 247. 
 
 Collet, 234, 262. 
 
 fasten spring on, 54. 
 putting in, 237. 
 to make a new, 262. 
 
 Color iron and steel brown, 84. 
 
 of nickel movement, 232. 
 
 Common hand screw plates, 88. 
 
 Compensated balance, 27, 235, 236, 237. 
 
 Compensating pendulum, 266. 
 
 Compensation, 235. 
 
 over-active, 29. 
 
 pendulums, rules governing, 81. 
 
 Composition file, make a, 62. 
 
 Conical pivots, 74, 242. 
 
 Corals, clean, 104. 
 
 Cord and tension pulley, 222. 
 
 Correct end shake of barrel arbor, 217. 
 
 Correcting the spring, 227. 
 
 Countersinks, 261. 
 
 Crutch, pendulum, 42. 
 
 Cut glass without a diamond, 275. 
 
 Cutters, 267, 268. 
 
 Cutting down jewels, 250. 
 
 Cutting of hollows, etc., 89. 
 
 Cyanide of potassium, to clean watches with, 
 7, 256, 258. 
 
 Cylinder escapement, inspection of the, 5. 
 pivoting a, 18. 
 pivots, 86. 
 
 pivots, size of the, 30. 
 
 Cylinder plug, replacing, 214. 
 
 wheel, straighten, 85. 
 
 D. 
 
 Damaskeening. Sec Spotting. 
 
 Dead-beat escapement, 231. 
 
 Deceptive balances, J96. 
 
 jJepthing, notes on, 245, 246, 247, 248, 268. 
 
 Depthings, inspect, 9/. 
 
 rules for, 96. 
 
 Depthing tool, use, 30. 220. 26S. 
 
 Depths, doubtful and invisible, 10. 
 visible, 10, 97. 
 
 Determining shape of globe, 223. 
 Development of the latne. 101. 
 
 Dial, cleaning, 234. 
 
 feet, fit the, 50, 234. 
 foot, to replace, 234. 
 mounting a, 20. 
 post, repairing, 210. 
 reduce, 54. 
 
 repaint the hours on, 103. 
 
 Dials, bleach watch, 43. 
 pictures on, 222. 
 repairing, 104. 
 watch, 31. 
 
 Diamantine, 255. 
 
 Diameter of dial, 234. 
 
 Diamond broaches, 269. 
 
 drills and gravers, mount, 43. 
 file, 63. 
 laps, 220. 
 
 Diamond-point tool, make a, 59. 
 
 Displaced barrel, 245. 
 
 Double roller, 262. 
 
 Drawpiate, 269. 
 
 Drifting tool, 269. 
 
 Drill a staff, 218. 
 
 hard steel, 85. 
 
 make a good, 58, 62, 272. 
 
 shape of, 273. 
 
 temper, 58, 59. 
 
 Drilling bows, 59. 
 
 glass, 276. 
 
 Drills, hardening small, 260. 
 steel for, 58. 
 watchmakers’, 219. 
 
 Drop in the lever escapement, too much, 23. 
 Duplex Escapement. 291. 
 
 Dust pipes, 20. 
 
 E 
 
 Ear tests for adjustment, 201. 
 
 Ease an index, 54. 
 
 Emery grinders, 268. 
 
 End-stone, 249. 
 
 End-shake, freedom and, 9. 
 
 of balance, 236. 
 
 of barrel arbor, to correct, 217. 
 English lever and its repairs, 207. 
 
 watch in beat, 208. 
 
 Engravers' wax, 279. 
 
 Engraving, notes on, 278, 279. 
 
 Escapement, 229 to 234. 
 
 action of the, 9, 229. 
 adjusting, 203. 
 club-tooth lever. 4. 
 cylinder, 230, 231. 
 
 Graham, 231. 233. 
 inspection of the cylinder, 5. 
 
INDEX TO HOROLOGY. 
 
 297 
 
 Escapement, lever, 2, 231. 
 
 proportion of, 85. 
 recoil, 229. 
 
 relation to balance spring, 195. 
 Etching on glass, 275, 277. 
 
 Examine a watch, 102. 
 
 Examining pieces, 258. 
 
 Geneva movement, 9. 
 watches, repairing and, 7. 
 Expansion.and contraction of balances, 46. 
 
 balance, truing, 195. 
 
 Extracting broken screws, 260. 
 
 Eyes, care of the, 92. 
 
 F 
 
 Fastening balance spring, 225. 
 
 letters on glass, 277. 
 mainspring, 244. 
 
 File, diamond, 63. 
 
 make a composition, 62. 
 make a pivot, 60. 
 
 Files,' 266, 267. 
 
 renew old, 53, 260. 
 sharpen fine, 56. 
 to re-sharpen old, 260. 
 
 Filling pendulums, 265. 
 
 Final review, 102. 
 
 Fit a bouchon, 84. 
 
 in a center bush, 49. 
 in a new scape wheel, 90. 
 in a scape pinion, 99. 
 in banking pins, 50. 
 
 Flat polish, 53. 
 
 Flat springs, 225, 227. 
 
 isochronism in, 198, 22G 
 Flatten a balance spring, 84. 
 
 Fluid for watch cleaning, 257. 
 
 Foot pivot in a cylinder, 242. 
 
 Foot wheel, 57. 
 
 Forks, long or short, 33. 
 
 Freedom and end-shake, 9. 
 
 French pendules, timing, 265. 
 
 Friction. 206. 
 
 of coils, 244. 
 
 Frosting. Sec Spotting. 
 
 Frost steel work, 272. 
 
 Frosting of wheels, handsome, 83. 
 Functions of inertia, 37. 
 
 G 
 
 Gauges, about, 69. 
 
 Geneva movement, examine a, 9. 
 
 Gild steel, 44, 274. 
 
 Gilding on marble, 263. 
 
 Glass, notes on, 275, 276, 277. 
 
 tightening, 261. 
 
 Gold spring, harden, 84. 
 
 Gravers, 278. 
 
 blades, 279. 
 stoning, 278. 
 temper, 53. 
 
 Gravitation, attraction of, 76. 
 
 Grindstone, to mount, 270. 
 
 truing, 269. 
 
 Guard pin, depth, 233. 
 
 H 
 
 Hairspring, put in a, 48. 
 
 and regulator pins, 200. 
 
 Hands, catching together, 211. 
 
 motion work and, 9. 
 
 Hand turning in watch work, 98. 
 
 Hardening, annealing and, 70, 226. 
 
 delicate steel parts, 82. 
 gold springs, 84. 
 without discoloring, 273. 
 
 Heavy wheels, 37. 
 
 Hole in dial, to broach, 234. 
 
 Hollows, the cutting of, 89. 
 
 Hook in the mainspring, 22. 
 
 Hour hand, 261. 
 
 I 
 
 Impulse, magnitude of pallet, 55. 
 
 Index, ease the, 54. 
 
 Inertia, 37. 
 
 Influence of curb pins, 61. 
 
 of magnetism on chronometer's rate, 
 204. 
 
 Ink for etching on glass, 277. 
 
 Inventions in horology, 103. 
 
 Isochronism, 35, 59, 228, 230. 
 
 adjustment to, 69. 
 in flat and Breguet springs, 198, 
 226, 277. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jewel holes, 248, 249. 
 
 thickness of, 249. 
 widening, 249. 
 pallets, freeing, 238. 
 
 pin into an American watch, to put a, 21. 
 Jeweling, notes on, 248, 249, 250, 251. 
 
 Jewels, cutting down, 250. 
 in watches, 96, 249. 
 re-setting, 249. 
 screwed, 96. 
 set. 23. 
 
 Joint pusher, 269. 
 
 K 
 
 Keep steel from rusting, 272. 
 
 Knack of pivoting, 92. 
 
 Knife suspension, 31, 264. 
 
 L 
 
 Lantern pinion, 239. 
 
 Laps, diamond, 220. 
 
 Lathe, development of the, 101. 
 
 notes on, 270, 271. 
 
 Length of balance pivots, 240. 
 
 of balance spring, 60. 
 of pendulum, 264. 
 
 Lengthening a balance spring, 73. 
 
 Letters on glass, 277. 
 
 Lever, and its repairs, 207.' 
 correct length of, 28. 
 escapement, 2. 
 
 the club-tooth, 4. 
 
 too much drop in the 25. 
 
 watch timing, 252. 
 
 Light wheels, errors of, 38. 
 
 Lockings, pallet, 63. 238. 
 
 Long or short forks, 33. 
 
293 
 
 INDEX TO HOROLOGY. 
 
 Loose jewel holes, 248. 
 
 Lubricate click-work, etc., 92. 
 
 Lubricating oil, 53, 253. 
 
 watch, 259. 
 
 M 
 
 Magnetism on a chronometer's rate, 204. 
 Magnetized watches, 188, 206, 263. 
 Magnifying glass. 221. 
 
 Mainspring, audible unrolling of, 62. 
 
 good way to clean a, 72, 244. 
 hook in the, 22. 
 manipulate the, 31. 
 notes on, 243, 244, 245. 
 relation of barrel to, 27. 
 uncoiling, 244. 
 watch, 77. 
 winder, use of, 28. 
 
 Make a balance staff, 245. 
 
 Marble clock cases, 263. 
 
 gilding, 263. 
 mending, 263. 
 
 Marine chronometer, 51. 
 
 Meaning of “adjusted,” 90. 
 
 of pitch-circle, 27. 
 
 Measure for the length of balance staff, 85. 
 Mem., 43. 
 
 Mending cases, notes on, 263. 
 
 Mercurial pendulum, 265. 
 
 Mercury, to purify, 265. 
 
 Method of straightening bent balance pivot, 
 197 - 
 
 Mix polishing material, 255. 
 
 Momentum, 228. 
 
 Motion work and hands, 9. 
 
 Motive force in watches, 75. 
 
 Mount photographs on glass, 276. 
 
 power in clocks, 93. 
 
 Movement, clean a nickel, 28. 
 
 N 
 
 New center pivot, 241. 
 
 New wheels, 246. 
 
 Nickel movement, clean a, 28. 
 
 restore color of, 232. 
 
 O 
 
 Oil, fine lubricating, 53. 
 how to supply, 54, 55. 
 notes on, 253, 254, 255. 
 
 Oiling center wheel, 254. 
 
 detached lever, 255. 
 notes on, 253, 254, 255. 
 pallets of levers, 29. 
 roller jewel, 238. 
 stem-wind, 254. 
 the parts, 254. 
 
 Oilstone, 270. 
 
 to smooth, 261. 
 
 Overactive Compensation, 29. 
 
 Overbanking, 25, 43, 232. 
 
 Over-coil making, 226. 
 
 spring, 225. 
 
 P 
 
 Pallet action, bail, 01. 
 
 impulse, magnitude of, 55. 
 lockings, 63, 238. 
 
 Pallets and their functions, 21, 237, 238. 
 
 Pallets, care of. 237. 
 
 freeing jewel, 238. 
 make, 43. 
 oiling, 29. 
 poising, 237. 
 unequal, 238. 
 
 Patent lever watches, repairing, 67. 
 
 Pendules, timing French, 265. 
 
 Pendulum bobs, 264. 
 
 crutch, 42. 
 wire. 266. 
 
 wood rod and lead bob for, 73. 
 
 Pendulums, 79, 189, 223, 264, 265, 266. 
 
 rules governing compensation, 81 
 
 Photographs on glass, 276. 
 
 Pictures on watch dials, 222. 
 
 Pillar screw, broken, 58. 
 
 Pinion, cannon, 238, 239. 
 harden a, 52. 
 leaves, 238, 239. 
 polish the fourth, 62. 
 polishing, 278. 
 repair a, 85. 
 
 Pinions, beveled, 239. 
 
 lantern, 239. 
 notes on, 238, 239. 
 
 Pinning in springs, 224, 226. 
 
 Pin pallet escapement, 230. 
 
 Pins, steady, 210. 
 
 Pitch-circle, meaning of, 27. 
 
 Pivot, broken balance, 76. 
 
 centering a balance, 24. 
 file, make a, 60. 
 new center, 241. 
 repair fusee top, 241. 
 size of the cylinder. 30. 
 straighten a, 60, 197. 
 
 Pivoting, 239. 
 
 a balance staff, 39, 245. 
 a cylinder, 18. 
 the knack of, 92. 
 
 Pivots, balance staff, 240. 
 blackening, 240. 
 broken, 218, 241. 
 conical, 74. 
 cylinder, 86. 
 
 length of balance, 10, 240. 
 notes on, 239, 240, 241, 242. 
 play of train-wheel, 10. 
 poising pallet, 237. 
 polish, 60, 240. 
 replacing, 239. 
 
 Play of train-wheel pivots, 10. 
 
 Pliers, 266. 
 
 Polish a wheel, 36. 
 flat, 53. 
 steel, 29, 52. 
 
 Polishers, 278. 
 
 Polishing broaches, 29. 
 
 conical pivot, 242. 
 fourth pinions, 62. 
 leathers, cleanse, 50. 
 material. 255. 277. 
 notes on, 277, 278. 
 pinions and arbors, 278. 
 pivot, 240. 
 steel pieces, 274. 
 
 Proportion scape-wheel to pinion, 233. 
 
 Punches, to handle, 273. 
 
 Purify mercury, 265. 
 
INDEX TO HOROLOGY. 
 
 299 
 
 Putting in a mainspring, 243, 244. 
 teeth into wheel, 247. 
 up a watch, 259. 
 watch in beat, 259. 
 
 Q 
 
 Quarter screws, 235. 
 
 R 
 
 Ratio of spring to balance, 233. 
 
 Recoil escapement, 229, 230. 
 
 Redress a bent pivot. 242. 
 
 Reduce diameter of dial, 234. 
 
 Regulate a fine watch, 90, 260. 
 
 Regulating in the temperatures, 251. 
 Regulator pins and hairsprings, 200. 
 Regulators, 265. 
 
 Relation of escapement to balance spring, 195. 
 
 of mainspring to barrel, 27. 
 Remontoire, 229. 
 
 Remove a broken screw, 55, 260. 
 
 Renew old files, 53. 
 
 Repaint the hour on dial, 102. 
 
 Repair a pinion, 85. 
 
 a Yankee clock, 82. 
 cheap clocks, 61. 
 fusee top pivot, 241. 
 
 English patent lever watches, 67. 
 notes on, 255 to 262. 
 
 Repairing and examining watches, 7. 
 clock, 39. 
 dial post, 210. 
 tools used in, 16. 
 
 Repairs of barrel, 216. 
 
 Replace a balance staff, 44, 78. 
 
 an old balance spring, 201. 
 broken cylinder plug, 214. 
 dial foot, 234. 
 
 Replacing broken foot jewel, 250. 
 
 pivot of hollow pinion, 239. 
 roller jewel, 250. 
 
 Restore color of nickel movement, 232. 
 Review, final, 102. 
 
 Riveting of bouchons, 262. 
 
 stake, 267. 
 
 Roller jewels, 251. 
 
 edges, polishing, 278. 
 oiling, 238. 
 
 tool for fastening, 64, 250. 
 Rounding a pivot, 242. 
 
 Rounding-up tool, 74, 267. 
 
 Ruby pin, fitting in the, 50. 
 reset, 54. 
 setting, 249. 
 
 Ruby pins, shape of, 21. 
 
 Rules governing compensation pendulums, 81. 
 Rust, 272. 
 
 S 
 
 Safety action, 233. 
 pin, 234. 
 
 Scape wheel,club toothed, 247. 
 
 cylinder, 247. 
 loss of, 89. 
 
 put in a new, 24, 90. 
 setting of, 26. 
 
 Scape wheels of Swiss watches, 78. 
 straighten, 53. 
 
 Screw, broken pillar, »8. 
 dies, 88. 
 driver, 268. 
 jewels, 96. 
 
 plate, clean a stopped hole in a, 89. 
 taps, 268. 
 thread, cut, 30. 
 
 to the fan of a music box, 61. 
 
 Screw plates and taps, 88. 
 
 common hand, 88. 
 fine threaded, 88. 
 
 Screws, broken, 44, 54, 55, 260. 
 quarter, 235. 
 
 Second-hand, tightening, 261. 
 
 Selecting a mainspring, 244. 
 
 Self-winding, 245. 
 
 Set English watch in beat, 208. 
 
 Setting of scape wheel, 26. 
 
 Shape of globe, 223. 
 
 of ruby pins, 21. 
 
 Sharpen cutting tools, 44. 
 fine files, 36. 
 
 Shellac for use, prepare, 62. 
 
 in horology, use of, 56. 
 
 Short arcs, 228. 
 
 Show windows, cleaning powder, 277. 
 Sidereal day, 263. 
 
 Size of the cylinder pivot, 30. 
 
 Sizes of weights of balances, 47. 
 
 Sizing wheels and pinions, 246. 
 
 Sliding carrier, 269. 
 
 Smoothing. See Spotting. 
 
 Snailing. See Spotting. 
 
 Solar day, 263. 
 
 Solder a stay spring, 60. 
 
 broken broaches, 55, 260. 
 
 Solvent of rust, 272. 
 
 Speed of different timepieces, 30. 
 
 Spotting, 103. 
 
 the plates, 261. 
 
 Spring, Breguet, 71. 
 
 flatten a balance, 84. 
 lengthening a balance, 73. 
 on collet, fasten, 54. 
 
 Springing, 228. 
 
 Springs, harden gold, 84. 
 
 throw away bad, 89. 
 
 Staff, centering, 24. 
 
 correct the center, 32. 
 drill, 218. 
 make, 23. 
 
 measure for the length of balance, 85. 
 
 notes on, 245, 246, 247, 248. 
 
 take out temper of, 55. 
 
 temper, 245. 
 
 to harden, 274. 
 
 turning, 245. 
 
 punch, 267. 
 
 Stay spring, solder, 60. 
 
 Steady pins, 210. 
 
 Steel and its treatment, notes on, 271 to 273. 
 bluing, . 275. 
 cracks in, 272. 
 drill hard, 85. 
 engraving on, 273. 
 for drills, 58. 
 gild, 44. 
 gilding,. 274. 
 hammering, 273. 
 hardening, 272, 273, 274. 
 
INDEX TO HOROLOGY. 
 
 300 
 
 Steel parts, hardening, 82. 
 polish, 29, 52. 
 temper, 58. 
 to drill, 273. 
 to temper, 274. 
 transparent blue, for, 55. 
 write upon, 55. 
 
 Stones for jeweling, 248. 
 
 Stoning a graver, 278. 
 
 Stoning. See Spotting. 
 
 Stool, 266. 
 
 Stop-work indispensable, 78. 
 test the, 11. 
 
 Straighten a pivot, 60, 197. 
 
 scape-wheel, 53, 85. 
 
 Strike half hours, 264. 
 
 Stud, movable, 63. 
 
 Suspension, knife, 31. 
 
 T 
 
 Take out temper of staff. 55. 
 
 Taking down a watch, 212, 258. 
 
 Taps, screw plates and, 88. 
 
 Teeth, notes on, 247. 
 
 Temper, a staff, 245. 
 draw, 53. 
 drill, 58, 59. 
 gravers, 53. 
 of staff, take out, 55. 
 steel, 58, 271. 
 
 Tempering case and other springs, 274. 
 Tension pulley and cord, 222. 
 
 Testing balance spring, 227. 
 
 escapement, 230. 
 
 Throw away bad springs, 89. 
 
 Tightening second-hand, 261. 
 
 Time a watch, 44, 65, 97. 
 
 Timepieces, speed of different, 30. 
 Timing, notes on, 251, 252, 253. 
 lever watch, 252. 
 
 Tool for fastening roller jewels, 64. 
 make a diamond-point, 59. 
 rounding-up, 74. 
 
 Tools in watch cleaning, 258. 
 notes on, 266 to 270. 
 used in repairing, 16, 266. 
 
 Tooth, shape of, 247. 
 
 Top-plate, cleaning, 261. 
 
 Torsion pendulum. 264. 
 
 Train, watch, 54, 86. 
 
 Trains, 248. 
 
 Train-wheel pivots, play-of. 10. 
 
 Truing a staff, 245. 
 
 balance, 235, 237. 
 expansion balance. 195. 
 
 Turning, art of, 97, 271, 276. 
 
 glass, 276. 
 
 T weezers, 266. 
 
 U 
 
 Unequal pallets, 238. 
 
 Uniting escapement parts, 230. 
 
 Uprighting tools, 268. 
 
 Use of lathe, 270. 
 
 V 
 
 Verdigris spots, 63. 
 
 Vibration, observe balance, 29, 235, 237. 
 
 calculate, 235. 
 
 Visible depths, 10, 247. 
 
 W 
 
 Washers, 233. 
 
 Watch case, clean, 59. 
 
 clean, 5, 7, 256, 257, 258. 
 cleaning agents, 257. 
 cleaning, benzine in, 84. 
 cleaning with cyanide of potassium, 
 ^ 56 . 
 
 dials, 31, 222. 
 
 dials, bleach, 43, 234. 
 
 examine, 102. 
 
 external examination of, 8. 
 
 hands, 102. 
 
 in beat, 259. 
 
 jewels, 249. 
 
 mainspring, 77. 
 
 oil, 43, 253. 254. 255. 
 
 oil, apply, 54. 
 
 regulate a fine, 90. 
 
 repairing, 11, 70. 
 
 screws, extract broken, 44. 
 
 “setting” in locking, 251. 
 
 taking down, 212. 
 
 the, 1. 
 
 time a, 44. 
 
 train, 54, 86. 
 
 work, hand-turning in, 98. 
 
 Watches, adjusting of large and small, 64. 
 jewels in, 96, 248, 249, 250. 
 motive force in, 75. 
 repairing and examining, 7. 
 repairing English patent lever. 67. 
 timing of. 44. 65, 97, 251, 252, 253. 
 Watchmakers’ drills, 219. 
 
 Wax, engravers' border, 279. 
 
 Wheel gauging, 246'. 
 
 magnifying glass, 221. 
 notes on. 245, 246, 247, 248. 
 polish, 36. 
 
 straighten cylinder, 85. 
 
 Wheels and pinions, 246. 
 frosting of, 83. 
 heavy, 37. 
 light, 38. 
 train of, 102. 
 
 Whetstone, make a, 85. 
 
 Widening jewel holes, 249. 
 
 Wood rod and lead bob for pendulum. 73. 
 Write upon steel, 55. 
 
 Y 
 
 Yankee clock, repair a, 82. 
 
INDEX TO GOLD, SILVER, ETC 
 
 A 
 
 Abyssfnian gold, 168. 
 
 Accidents in pouring. 141. 
 
 Acid coloring 123. 
 
 Alloy for models, 187. 
 gold, no, 285. 
 new, 167. 
 silversmiths’, 162. 
 
 Alloys, aluminium, 285. 
 gold and its, in. 
 native, 285. 
 
 of common silver, 145. 
 platinum, 285. 
 silver, 161, 285. 
 silver-aluminium, 161. 
 
 Alum, 170. 
 
 Aluminium, alloys, 285. 
 
 bronzes, 172. 
 gold, 168. 
 melt. 171. 
 solder for, 169. 
 
 Amalgam, make gold, 137. 
 
 Analyzing native alloys, 285. 
 
 Antimony and aluminium, 286. 
 Armenian cement, 169. 
 
 Artificial gold, 168. 
 
 Avoirdupois weight, 176. 
 
 B 
 
 Bell metal, 170. 
 
 Boiling process in plating, 290. 
 
 Borax and saltpeter, property of, 109. 
 Brass, coloring and lacquering, 173. 
 Brass dips, 288. 
 
 Britannij, 170. 
 
 Brittle gold, 121. 
 
 Bronze coating on iron, etc., 185. 
 Bronzing, 288. 
 
 BrPnzing iron and steel, 186. 
 
 Brushes, cleanse, 187. 
 
 C 
 
 Cadmium, 286. 
 
 Cast in fish-bone, 139. 
 
 Casting, 136. 
 
 best mold for, I09. 
 
 Cement, acid proof, 167. 
 alabaster, 186. 
 excellent, 186. 
 for fastening metal, 173. 
 for glass and metal, 170. 
 for lamps, 171. 
 for meerschaum, 187. 
 jewelers’ Armenian, 169. 
 transparent, 187. 
 
 Chalk, prepare, 186. 
 
 Charcoal, 167. 
 
 Chloride of gold, make, 137. 
 
 Chromium and aluminium, 286. 
 
 Clean silver, 160. 
 
 Cleanse silver tarnished by soldering. 160 
 Cleansing gold tarnished in soldering, 140. 
 mat gold, 141. 
 
 Cold silvering, 152, 160, 290. 
 
 Coloring and lacquering brass, 173. 
 gold, 138, 170. 
 soft solder, 140. 
 tin solder yellow, 142. 
 
 Colors of gold, 112. 
 
 Conversions, 175. 
 
 Cracked gold, correct. 109. 
 
 Crocus for polishing steel, 168. 
 
 Cyanide of gold, 140. 
 
 D 
 
 Dead-white on silver. 164. 
 
 Diamond weight, 176. 
 
 Dipping mixture, 162. 
 
 Dips, 288. 
 
 Dissolvents, 163. 
 
 Dissolving gold. 122. 
 
 silver, 154. 
 
 Drill onyx, 187. 
 
 E 
 
 Electro fire-gilding and silvering, 127, 286 
 Electro-plating, 287, 289, 290. 
 
 brass solution. 287. 
 common battery, 287. 
 copper solution, 288. 
 nickel solution, 287. 
 silver solution, 287. 
 Enameling, 129. 
 
 Engraving, letter, 180. 
 
 Etching fluid for steel, 185. 
 gold, 158. 
 
 on glass and metal. 169. 
 silver, 158. 
 
 Eyes, care of the, 181. 
 
 F 
 
 Facetious gold, 140. 
 
 Fire-gilding, 286. 
 
 Fish-bone, cast in, 139. 
 
 Fluid, soldering, 116. 
 
 Fluoric acid for etching glass, 173. 
 
 French fire-gilding, 286. 
 
 Friction powder, gold, 138. 
 
 Frosting gold. 138. 
 
 pickle for, 161. 
 polished silver, 161. 
 
INDEX TO GOLD, SILVER, ETC. 
 
 3 o2 
 
 Frosting silver, 157. 
 
 Fusing gold dust, 136. 
 
 G 
 
 German silver, 167. 
 
 restore, 167. 
 solder, 167. 
 
 Gilding, 286. 
 
 without a bath, 136. 
 
 Gilt metal, recover gold from, 141. 
 
 Glass tubes, bending, 187. 
 
 Gold, Abyssinian, 168. 
 
 and its alloys, in. 
 aluminium, 168. 
 artificial, 168. 
 changing color, 143. 
 coloring, 170. 
 dust, fusing, 136. 
 electro-plating, 289. 
 friction powder, 138. 
 mystery, 168. 
 parting, 284. 
 plating, 289. 
 
 removing solder from, 282. 
 salts, preparation of, 142. 
 scraps, 119. 
 silvering, 288. 
 solders, 114, 281, 282. 
 tinge, 172. 
 
 Goldsmith, mission of the, 105. 
 
 Gram weight in troy weight, 176, 179. 
 
 H 
 
 Hole in glass, 187. 
 
 I 
 
 Imitate inlaying of silver, 154. 
 
 Imitation silver, 165. 
 
 Ingot, malleability of the, 109. 
 molds, 137. 
 
 Inlaying of silver, imitate, 154. 
 
 Inscriptions on metals, 172. 
 
 Iron, case-harden, 187. 
 
 J 
 
 Jewelers’ pickle, 142. 
 
 solder, 167, 282. 
 
 Jewelry repairing, 128,280. 
 
 K 
 
 Karats in thousandths, 179. 
 
 L 
 
 Lacquer, pale gold, 186. 
 
 Lapping, 123. 
 
 Letter engraving, 180. 
 
 Luster of gold, restoring, 136. 
 
 of silver, restoring, 159. 
 
 M 
 
 Making gold roll well, 141. 
 
 Malleability of the ingot, 109. 
 
 Mat brushing, 166. 
 
 gold, cleansing, 141. 
 
 Melting and refining, 141. 
 gold, 108. 
 
 Melting waste, no. 
 
 Metal letters on plate-glass, 186. 
 
 Metals, parting gold from, 284. 
 
 polishing, 283. 
 
 Metric system of lenses, 177. 
 
 Millimeter and inch measures, 177. 
 Mold for casting, the best, 109. 
 Mystery gold, 168. 
 
 O 
 
 Oil-stones, smoothing, 187. 
 
 Ounces in grams, 172. 
 
 Oxidizing silver, 154, 162, 288. 
 
 P 
 
 Paint for sheet iron, 186. 
 
 Parting gold from other metals, 284. 
 Pearls, cleaning, 167. 
 
 Pickle for frosting, 161. 
 
 jewelers’, 142. 
 
 Plate powder, 163. 
 
 Plating by electricity, 287, 289. 
 
 Polish gold articles, 138. 
 
 metals, 283. 
 
 Polishing powder, 172. 
 silver, 158. 
 
 Pouring, accidents in, 141. 
 
 Powdered glass, 187. 
 
 Precipitating gold, 122. 
 
 Preparation of gold salts, 142. 
 Preparing for wet coloring. 125. 
 Protect polish of metals, 173. 
 
 Pure gilding, know, 137. 
 gold, 141. 
 
 R 
 
 Random weights, 176. 
 
 Real gold, how to distinguish, 137. 
 Recovering gold from coloring bath, 141 
 from gilt metal, 141. 
 from solution, 140. 
 lost in coloring, 139. 
 Reduce jewelers’ sweepings, 121. 
 Refining and melting, 141. 
 gold, 118. 
 
 Removing gold, 141. 
 
 soft solder. 282. 
 
 Repairing jewelry, 128, 280. 
 
 Resilvering brass clock dials, 162. 
 
 Resist varnish, 163. 
 
 Restore luster of gold, 136. 
 
 Restoring color of gold, 116. 
 
 luster of silver, 159. 
 
 Ring stick, 17J. 
 
 Rolling, gold smelting and, 106. 
 
 Rust on machinery, preventing, 186. 
 
 S 
 
 Saltpeter, property of borax and, 109. 
 Satinizing silver. See Frosting. 
 
 Scrap gold, use of, 109. 
 
 Separating gold, 117. 
 
 gold from silver, 138. 
 
 Silver, alloys of common, 145. 
 aluminium alloy, 161. 
 articles, whiten, 164. 
 dead white on, 164. 
 electro-plating, 289. 
 fictitious, 172. 
 filigree work, clean, 166. 
 
INDEX TO GOLD, SILVER, ETC. 
 
 3<>3 
 
 Silver from copper, separate, 165. 
 from wastage, 161. 
 imitation alloys, 145. 
 ink stains from, 166. 
 liquid for cleaning, 166. 
 oxidizing, 162, 288. 
 plating, 289, 290 . 
 plating by boiling, 290. 
 plating cold way, 290. 
 powder for copper, 163. 
 recovering, 166. 
 reduce chloride of, 165. 
 refine, 164. 
 solder, 152, 282. 
 solders, 147, 282. 
 stripping mixture, 163. 
 white-pickling, 165. 
 
 Silvering by dipping, 153. 
 cold, 152, 290. 
 gold, 288. 
 rapid, 165. 
 solution, 170. 
 without battery, 161. 
 
 Silverware, cleaning, 165. 
 
 testing, 164. 
 washing, 161. 
 
 Sizes of watch movements, 176. 
 
 Smelting and rolling gold, 106. 
 
 Soft solder, 163, 281, 282. 
 
 coloring, 140. 
 electro-plating, 163. 
 for gold, different karats, 281. 
 remove, 116, 117, 282. 
 
 Soft soldering, 171. 
 
 articles, 116. 
 
 Solder for aluminium, 169. 
 jewelers’, 167, 282. 
 pearl ring, 173. 
 remove from gold, 282. 
 silver, 152, 282. 
 soft gold, 281. 
 stain, remove, 116. 
 stone-set ring, 173. 
 wrong, 117. 
 
 Soldering, 281. 
 
 a ring with a jewel, 116. 
 fluid, 116, 163. 
 
 Soldering fluid, non-corrosive, 167, 171. 
 fluxes, 282. 
 gold, 281. 
 
 support in hard, 170. 
 
 Solders, gold, 114. 
 
 Solutions for electro-plating, 287, 288. 
 Specific gravity, 177. 
 
 Spectacles and eye-glasses, 184. 
 
 Stain horn black, 188. 
 
 Steel, etching fluid for, 185. 
 soldering cast, 185. 
 work hard, 185. 
 
 Stripping articles, 282. 
 brass, 282. 
 copper, 282. 
 
 German silver, 282. 
 gold, 118. 
 silver, 163. 
 
 Support in hard soldering, 170. 
 
 Sweepings, refine, 172. 
 
 T 
 
 Tarnishing of silver, 160. 
 
 Thermometer scales, 178. 
 
 Thin silver plating, 290. 
 
 Tin and aluminium. 286. 
 
 from stock, remove, 138. 
 solder, yellow, coloring, 142. 
 
 Toughen brittle gold, 122. 
 
 Troy weight, 176. 
 
 V 
 
 Varnish, gold-like, 171. 
 
 W 
 
 Washing silverware, 161. 
 
 Wastage, silver from, 161. 
 
 Waste, melting, no. 
 
 Watch movements, sizes of, 174. 
 
 Wet coloring by the German process, 126. 
 
 preparing for, 125. 
 
 White color after pickling, 137. 
 metal alloys, 143. 
 pickling silver, 165. 
 silver solder, 282. 
 
 
 
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^C^.C^C^C^.O^OCOOOOOOOCOOOCOCHt'OOOOCHX’C^OO 
 
 FRANCE 1 
 
 ocmx>oooooooooooo<xm:'Ooc<h:-oo»:.c<m;.ooch»^c»<:‘v 
 
 THE TRUE BLUE BEADED LABEL 
 
 THE 
 
 uENUINE 
 
 ARE 
 
 LABELED 
 
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 ™ Beware ofjj 
 Imitations. 
 
 = = WATCH GLASSES = = 
 
 ASK YOUR JOBBER FOR THEM. 
 
 SUSSFELD, LORSCH & CO., 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 LIQUID AMBER, "cement 
 
 ^ VET DISCOVERED. 
 
 For Cementing Roller Pins, Pallet Jewels, 
 Watch Glasses, Pearls, China, and Cut Glass 
 
 FOR SALE BY ALL TOOL AND MATERIAL JOBBERS. 
 
 SUSSFELD, LORSCH & CO., 
 
 WHOLESALE AGENTS. 
 
NO “STOPPER” ever gets as far as 
 our shipping room. The movements 
 must pass a rigid inspection at every 
 step in the manufacture; then, after 
 being put in their cases , they are timed for six 
 days in pivoted trays, these trays being so ar¬ 
 ranged that they can be turned to six different positions: 
 
 When delivered to the dealer our Watches are com¬ 
 plete— ready to pass over the counter to the wearer. No 
 case fitting, nor timing, nor regulating. We do all 
 that , and warrant our work to be perfect. No trouble 
 to handle such watches. Not much talking to 
 sell them. No complaints when they are sold.— 
 The New England Watch Co., Waterbury, Conn. 
 
 '4