When, in 1587, Charles Cusin, of Autun, settled at Geneva and introduced
the manufacture of watches there, he had no idea of the extraordinary
development that this new industry was to assume. At the end of the
seventeenth century this city already contained a hundred master watch
makers and eighty master jewelers, and the products of her manufactures
soon became known and appreciated by the whole world.
The French revolution arrested this impetus, but the entrance of the
Canton of Geneva into the Confederation in 1814, rendered commerce, the
arts, and the industries somewhat active, and watch-making soon saw a new
era of prosperity dawning.
On the 13th of Feb., 1824, at the instigation of a few devoted citizens,
the industrial section of the Society of Arts adopted the resolution to
form a watch-making school, which, having been created by private
initiative, was only sustained through considerable sacrifices.
[Illustration: CLASS IN ESCAPEMENTS AT THE WATCH MAKING SCHOOL, GENEVA.]
In 1840 the school was transferred to the granary building belonging to
the city. In 1842, when it contained about fifty pupils, it was made over
to the administrative council of the city by the committee of the Society
of Arts. From 1824 to 1842 the school had given instruction to about two
hundred pupils. From 1843 to 1879 it was frequented by nearly eight
hundred pupils, two-thirds of whom were Genevans, and the other third
Swiss of other cantons and foreigners.
The school, then, has furnished the watch-making industry with the
respectable number of a thousand workmen, among whom large numbers have
been, or are yet, distinguished artists.
The rooms of the granary, where the school remained for nearly forty
years, became inadequate, despite the successive additions that had been
made to them, and it became necessary to completely transform them. The
magnificent legacy that the city owes to the munificence of the Duke of
Brunswick was partly employed in the reorganization, and the school is now
located in a vast building designed to answer the requirements of
instruction. This structure, which is located in Necker Street, presents
an imposing and severe aspect. The main building embraces most of the
workshops, the office, the library, and the classroom for instruction in
mechanics, all of which receive a direct light. At right angles with the
main building are two wings. The one to the north contains in its three
upper stories workshops occupied by classes in escapements, bezil setting,
compensating balances, and ruby working. On the ground floor are installed
juvenile schools.
The south wing contains halls for lectures on theory, and two workshops
looking toward the north. The ground floor is used for the same purpose as
that of the north wing.
Finally, in the center of the main building is a wing parallel with its
two mates. It is in this that is located the vast staircase that leads to
spacious landings at which ends on every story a large corridor common to
all the halls and workshops. It is in this part of the building that we
find the amphitheater of physics and chemistry and the laboratories. Here
also is located the museum in course of formation (gotten up in view of
the historical study of watch-making), and the amphitheater designed for
certain public lecture courses.
In the way of heating and lighting all parts of the building nothing has
been neglected, and special care has been taken to have the ventilation
perfect.
At present the instruction comprises a practical and a theoretical course.
_Practical Instruction_.--This is divided into three sections: (1) an
elementary one having in view the construction of the simple watch in its
essential parts; (2) a higher section in which the pupils learn to
recognize the complicated parts; and (3) a section of mechanics applied to
watch-making and to the study of the construction of machines and tools
for facilitating and improving the manufacture.
1. _Elementary Section, First Year_.--The pupil must manufacture all the
small tools necessary for making unfinished movements; that is, drills,
reamers, punches, files, etc. He must then learn to file and turn, and to
make use of the finishing lathe with the bow, or of the foot lathe.
In general, the time taken by an apprentice to manufacture his tools is
from two to three months, and he can scarcely go to work on the movements
before this.
In this class the regular pupils have to execute seven pieces of work in
the rough, two for horizontal escapements with key and regulating wheel,
and five for various other escapements. Among these there is one for
simple repetition and one for minute piece. Aside from the work fixed by
the programme, the pupils may manufacture all the other complicated pieces
upon obtaining the authority for it from their masters and the director.
The average time employed in performing the work imposed by the programme
necessarily depends upon the capacity of the pupil, but we may say that in
general ten months are necessary.
_Second Year_.--After executing his last piece of work in a satisfactory
manner, the apprentice passes into the class in regulators, where he
begins to manufacture the small tools that he will require.
In this work, as in the preceding, he must take all his pieces from the
crude metal, and he must do the forging himself, as well as the roughing
down, the turning, filing, and shaping, and finally the finishing, without
the aid of any other machine than the dividing one.
In general, after eighteen months of work, the apprentice goes to the
finishing shop, where the delicate and minute work begins, pivoting,
putting the wheels in place, and practical study of gearings. After
learning how to divide a wheel correctly, he is set to work on pinions and
wheels in the rough, which he must rivet, finish, and pivot according to
the different planes of the pieces that have been calculated and executed
by him under the direction of the master.
The programme to be followed by the pupils of the class in finishing is,
as regards number of pieces, the same as that of the preceding classes,
that is to say, seven.
In general, the pupil passes from the class in finishing to the class in
dial-trains, where he makes two of these for his pieces--one a simple and
the other a minute train. The teaching of this part is very important as
regards the manufacture of escapements. In constructing the dial train,
the pupil perfects his filing and learns to make the adjustments correct.
The last class in the elementary instruction is the one in escapements
(Fig. 1), the programme of which includes several distinct parts: (1) The
tools that are strictly necessary; (2) escapement and cylinder adjustment;
(3) making the compensating balances for the pupil's pieces; (4) pivoting,
putting in place, and finishing the escapements in regulating pieces.
Here, as in the preceding classes, the pupils must do all the work
themselves. During their stay in the elementary classes the work done is
submitted to the director, who examines it and sends it back to the
instructors accompanied with a bulletin containing his estimate as to its
value, and his observations if there is occasion to make any.
Pupils who cannot or who do not wish to go over the entire field of the
programme stop here, and are now capable of earning their living and of
lightening the load that oppresses their parents.--_Science et Nature_.
* * * * *