f
them piled up would measure only an inch. These are stuck to blocks
to be polished, cut into disks flat on one side but with a little
depression on the other to receive oil, bored through the center,
and placed wherever the wear is greatest--provided the purchaser is
willing to pay for them. A "full-jeweled" watch contains twenty-three
jewels; that is, in twenty-three of the places where the most severe
wear comes, or where friction might prevent the watch from going with
perfect smoothness, there will be practically no wear and no friction.
A low-priced watch contains only seven jewels, but if you want a watch
to last, it pays to buy one that is full-jeweled.

And now these plates and wheels and screws are to be put together, or
"assembled," as this work is called. This is a simple matter just as
soon as one has learned where the different parts belong, for they are
made by machinery and are sure to fit. After the assembling comes the
adjusting of the balance wheel and the hair spring. There is nothing
simple about this work, for the tiny screws with the large heads must
be put into the rim of the balance wheel with the utmost care, or
else all the other work will be useless, and the watch will not be
a perfect time keeper; that is, one that neither loses nor gains more
than thirty seconds a month.

It is said that the earliest watches made in Europe cost fifteen
hundred dollars and took a year to make. There has always been a
demand for a cheap pocket timepiece, and of late this demand has been
satisfied by the manufacture of the "dollar watch." Properly speaking,
this is not a watch at all, but a small spring clock. It has no
jewels, and its parts are stamped out of sheets of brass or steel by
machinery. The hair springs are made in coils of eight and then
broken apart; and the main springs are made by the mile. Twenty holes
are drilled at a time, and the factory in which "dollar watches" were
first manufactured is now able to turn out fifteen thousand a day.

IX

THE MAKING OF SHOES

Did you ever stop to think how many different qualities you expect
in a shoe? You want the sole to be hard and firm so as to protect
your feet in rough walking; and also soft and yielding so as to
feel springy and not board-like. You want the upper leather to
keep the cold air from coming in; and also porous enough to let the
perspiration out. Your feet are not exactly like those of any one
else; and yet you expect to f