Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

THE MAKING OF WATCHES AND CLOCKS. 345 was formed, and it is doing useful work in providing young watch and clock makers with the means of pursuing their theoretical studies at evening classes, while they are engaged upon the practical study of their craft during the day. The course may be pursued for two winters, and it is gratifying to know that the sons of master manu- facturers may be found seated side by side with their fathers’ workmen in thus acquiring the lessons taught by centuries of experience in this absorbing pursuit. The comparatively small place occupied by the factory system may be gauged from the figures furnished by the Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops for 1901. He reported 74 factories in the country, with 3,501 operatives, of whom 1,554 were female, and out of this number of women no less than 582 were under the age of eighteen. In other words, watch-making is still very largely, as it has always been, a home industry. Customs statistics must always be treated with caution, but it may be added in con- clusion that during a recent year the number of watches and clocks imported into Great Britain from every source was 1,983,147 and 1,546,210 respectively. The average value of each watch was 13s., and of each clock 6s. 6d., thus showing that the foreign influx is to be feared mainly in the cheapest branches of the trade. The value of the parts of watches imported was less than ^24,000, a great change having- been brought about by the recent Act of Parlia- ment which makes it an offence to put foreign movements into English hall-marked cases. Of the imported watches and clocks about 5 per cent, are re-exported, and in addition to these there was during the year in question an exportation of British watches, clocks, and parts to the extent of £83,602, of which £13,380 went to the United States. E G Harmer. (The illustrations accompanying this article are from photographs specially taken by Cassell & Co., Ltd.) BELL-CASTING ROOM. 44