Swiss Commissioner's Speech.

Otago Witness, Issue 1688, 29 March 1884, Page 19

Swiss Commissioner's Speech.

Extract from a speech delivered at the Amphitheatre of the Primary College of La Chaux-de-Fohds, Tueßday, the 14th day of November 1876, by M. Edourd Favre-Perrel, Swiss Commissioner and juror to the Philadelphia Exhibition : — On the Waltham " Riverside " Watch. . . . . *' The WaUham Company make the entire watch.— from the first scynw to the case and dial. It would even be difficult for them to use our products, so great is the regularity, so minute the precision, with which their machines work. They arrive at the regulation of the watch — so to say — without having seen it. When the watch is given to the adjuster, the foreman delivers to him the corresponding hair-spring, and the watch is regulated. (Sensation among the audience.) Here is what I have seen, gentlemen ! I asked from the director of the Waltham Company a watch of the fifth grade. A large safe was opened before me ; at random I took a Watch out of it and^ fastened it to my chain. The director having asked me to let him have the watch for two or three days so as to observe the motion, I answered, •' On the contrary, I persist in wearing it just as it is, to obtain an exact idea of your manufactute.' At Paris I set my watch by a regulator on the Boulevard, and on the Bixth day I observed that it had varied 32 seconds. And this watch is of the fifth Ameri- | can grade ; it cost 75 francs (movement with- j out case). At my arrival at Locle I showed the watch to one of our first adjusters, wljo asked permission to ' take it down ' — in other words, to take it to pieces. I, however, wished to observe it ; and here is the result, which I noted : hanging, daily variation 1\ seconds ; variation in different positions from 4 to 8 seconds ; in the ' heated room ' the variation was but very slight. Having thus observed it, I handed the watch to the adjuster, who took it down. After the lapse of a few days he came to me and said, word for word : ' I am completely overwhelmed ; the result is incredible ; one would not find one such watch amnner 50,000 of our manufacture.'

" This watch, gentlemen I repeat to you, I took at hazard — out of a heap, as we say, • You understand, from this example, that the Waltham watch.may be preferred. I have finished, gentlemen, and I have told you of things such as I have seen them. It remains for us to profit from this sad experience, and to improve our manufacture. Competent men are not wanting among us ; they must go to work at once." [A found of applause followed the speaker as he descended from the tribune;]— Adtt.