American Horological Journal, Vol. I, No. 1, July 1869: Devoted to Pratical Horology — John Shaqi
American Horological Journal, Vol. I, No. 1, July 1869: Devoted to Pratical Horology
Science
American Horological Journal, Vol. I, No. 1, July 1869: Devoted to Pratical Horology
Clocks and watches -- Periodicals
In the London circle of Horologists, more attention is paid to the
scientific departments than the mercantile; but for all that, a Mr.
Henry Ganney has held forth before the “British Horological Institute,”
on “American Watch Manufacture.” Though an Englishman, with English
prejudices, he certainly gives a very fair and impartial statement
of the subject; yet he views it almost entirely in the money-making
aspect. He gives all the credit deserved to American enterprise and
ingenuity, and yet there is a certain sense of a drawback. He had
before him samples of machine work; among others, to quote, “several
movements made by the British Watch Company, which flourished and
failed about twenty-five years ago; these were machine-made, and the
perfection and completeness of the machinery they used for producing
these frames has not been equalled, I believe, in America; several
machines being used there to accomplish what was begun and completed by
one here.”
Mr. Ganney is right in his statement, but the example given by the
British Watch Company was the rock seen by the American navigators. One
tool, for facing off, truing up, drilling, depthing, and doing all the
work on the pillar plate, having cost, before completion, some three
thousand pounds sterling, and from its very complexity being utterly
inefficient--worse than useless. In the very inception of the American
watch manufacture a similar mistake was almost made. Experience and
sound reasoning proved, however, that a multiplicity of operations in
any one machine rendered it entirely too complex, the adjustments too
numerous, and the work totally worthless. We shall in another number
refer again to Mr. Ganney’s lecture, and perhaps give some beamings of
light on the early history of the American watch manufacture, derived
from personal observation at the time.
Correspondence.
EDITORS HOROLOGICAL JOURNAL:
I received a Prospectus a few days ago advising me of your
contemplated existence. I could hardly believe the fact; “the news
was too good to be true.” However, I shall take it for granted, for I
cannot see why somebody has not before had the enterprise to launch
out in the periodical line on subjects connected with Horology, the
field being so extensive and the want so severely felt. Enclosed
I send you the subscription price; in this much I have accepted
your invitation, but I also enclose some few lines on a subject not
particularly practical or theoretical, but very near the truth, and
may perhaps give you a view of our wants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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