Page 9 Advertisements Column 2

Otago Witness, Issue 1899, 13 April 1888, Page 9

HOW THE WATERBURY WATCH CAME INTO THE WOULD. The watch factories of Massachusetts had, for a long time, made it easy for people of moderate means to carry the time in theiv pockets before it occurred to some of tha long-sighted manufacturers of the N»B.ga-» tuck Valley that a good, reliable watoh, at a price of about 3dol would find a wide unoccupied iield, and might pay. The cheapesfe watch and best timekeeper then known was. constructed of more than 160 pieces, and was costly; the Qrst thing, therefore, required to carry out the proposed programme was a good timekeeper, no toy, which should have fewer pieces in it than any existing watch. " Thore oame one day into the Centennial Exhibition a Massachusetts watch-repairer, with a steam-engine in his waistcoat pockcjfc which, although a thimble would cover it, had a boiler, cylinder, piston, valves, governor, crank, and crank shaft, and woulfl work. The maker placed it side by side with the great Corliss engine, which was one of the wonders o£ the Philadelphia SJkw, and thus juxtaposed, these representatives of dignity and itnpudcnce remained throughoutgthe exhibition. Mr Charles Benedict, a partner in one of the largest, brtvss mills ou tha Naugatuck, and ov.to o£ the promoters of the cheap watch scheme, saw it, and presently asked the inventor to design the 3dol watch of the future. Ho undertook the commission and at fir&b failed. But a Yankee inventor follows a mechanical trail with the perseverance of an Indian, and within a year, with other assistance, the wa.tch-hunter had made a practical timepiece, having- only 58 pieces in it all told. He, took il to Mr Benedict, who tested it m every possible way, and the watch stood the tosfc. Preparations wore at onco commenced lo mako it on a large scale. A factory was erected, and two years were spent m iSllingifc with tho necessary tools and Kiaclunery. Although the watch was to bo cheap it did not follow that the plant, for producing it should be cheap also, aud so it happened tbafe when the building w^s Crushed and ihirrxfcliieij ; nearly half a millicvo at dollars had b*en exj pended. Munvrfnotwing operation were j commence** y& May 1881, and sinc*>that data the « \Va,terbiiry Watch," as it was called* has. i&ean steadily produced at the rate o£ udO a day, or one per initvate. The increasein speed of manufacture was ie 1884, 2000; in 188(5, 1500; ami flow in 1887, 2000 con>j plete watches v£* day. All the parts of this watch are- interchangeable. .If you hnd a pint each of wUvwJa,, pinions, springs,, and pivots you | cculd. put, any of them together and the watch so produ<jed would go and keep time. - That is because each piece is made by antomatio machinery, which cannot make> errors,, as the hand can. But if you tookSGi Swiss watohes to pieces and shuffled up iheir" parts yon would spoil 20 watches, awi not-, be able to make one that would go. without, fitting. & This system of interchangeabiflty reduces* the expense oC repairs to a more trifle, often/ less than Is and never mow than 2s 6d. (To he cotxaifiucd.) It is allege.-! iaat a proposal •&& recently [ made to Romania by Russia fos w> alliance of the two, powers in the event of. -war,, the basis of the »il iance being that in cac^a Austria should be- , Onfeated Transylvania (%hW.it be annexed toRoumania. The offev wap, however, declined. A cabiegram to lhs Axgus. under date Match 34, says that in collection with the recent disturbances at BuoSviiseat,. the Roumanian GoYernmenfr have obta&kßdpossessiotuvf documents belongingto KO3cne of the deputies, who were arrested for b#i*ig concerned in. the hostile manifestations' i^jlnsii the Ministry of M. Bratiano, whicb gravely compromise BJ. Biirovo, the Russiaa consul, and other members of- the Russian* legation at Bucharest. r Uhe documents eiearl7 shqw that Russia instigated the late distarbT a,pqes, and that the intentiou was to effect; a, re» vohjtibo iv Boucjania,.