Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

344 BRITAIN AT WORK. CLOCK-MAKING : PUTTING THE MOVEMENTS TOGETHER. risk of damage through exposure to all weathers, and other considerations. When a striking train is attached to the timepiece all the parts have to be strengthened ac- cordingly. The triumph of engineering is reached in such clocks as that erected in the Clock Tower at Westminster or in the tower bf the Toronto Town Hall, the largest clock in the New World, whose four dial faces alone have a weight of fifteen tons, of which the opal glass of the transparent faces is responsible for three tons. This was produced in Messrs. Gillet and Johnston’s steam factory at Croydon, where the photo- graphs illustrative of this section of the industry were specially taken, by the courtesy of the proprietor. A passing reference may be permitted to the art of bell casting, which at Croydon is carried on under the same roof as that which shelters the makers of wheels and pendulums. An iron core is buried in a pit, with a cover- ing mould, and the bell metal—a mixture of copper and tin—is run into the mould with extreme care, the resultant casting being left to cool, sometimes for several days, before it is dug up again. The task of turning down the surface is achieved by reversing the bell and fixing it into a huge vice, the cutting tool being devised to travel round the periphery. By means of carillon machines, which are actuated by barrels upon which the airs are pinned out, clocks may be made to play a hymn tune or a national air every three hours, and as seven airs are usually put upon one cylinder a change may be made upon each day of the week. 1 his, however, is to be regarded rather as one of the auxiliary industries connected with the making of clocks and watches, which also demands the exertions of the glass-blower, the leather case maker, the key manufacturer, and a score of crafts- men whose services are requisitioned in order to complete the instrument. It will be perceived from this brief survey of the trade that the old days, when a watch and clock maker was apprenticed to his trade, and began by cutting up pinion wire, passing thence to all the other parts of the mechanism, have gone never to return. In the year 1858 the British Horological Institute