Usage, or, to
put it in other words, experience derived from the actual manufacture of
the cylinder escapement, settled the best forms and proportions of the
several parts years ago. Still, makers vary slightly on certain lines,
which are important for a man who repairs such watches to know and be
able to carry out, in order to put them in a condition to perform as
intended by the manufacturers. It is not knowing these lines which
leaves the average watchmaker so much at sea. He cuts and moves and
shifts parts about to see if dumb luck will not supply the correction he
does not know how to make. This requisite knowledge does not consist so
much in knowing how to file or grind as it does in discriminating where
such application of manual dexterity is to be applied. And right here
let us make a remark to which we will call attention again later on. The
point of this remark lies in the question--How many of the so-called
practical watchmakers could tell you what proportion of a cylinder
should be cut away from the half shell? How many could explain the
difference between the "real" and "apparent" lift? Comparatively few,
and yet a knowledge of these things is as important for a watchmaker as
it is for a surgeon to understand the action of a man's heart or the
relations of the muscles to the bones.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220