How Elgin made Jewels for Chronometers

I was delighted to find this video …

**LINK**

https://youtu.be/C2WOqFw7MMo

absolutely fascinating, mind-boggling stuff.

MichaelG.

A very interesting find, Michael; a surprising number of stages.

However, posting at this time is not doing my sleep any good!

Bill

Alas I have only watched the first ten minutes as I have work to do but it is saved for later.

Thank you.

David.

Fascinating and Exhausting to watch the huge number of processes

Elgin watch company

"The operator puts a squirt of benzene onto the surface to stop the jewels sticking"

benzene is as nasty as it gets and should be totally avoided

Thanks for that Michael, no wonder that jeweled chronometers were so expensive to produce in those days with so much manual input required just to produce the bearings let alone the rest of the instrument. All I can say is thank goodness we don't live in the same world today. What with naked flames, exposed moving parts on machines, toxic/corrosive chemicals, and no PPE modern day HSE would have had a fit.

That said it is always interesting to look back to see how things were done, especially in times of need. Workshops with banks of lathes and their operators are now a thing of the past with cnc machines each producing more output and to a far higher standard than those workshops, progress yes I think so. You only have to look at modern car engines that run for over 200,000 miles and other than having a regular service never needing to be worked on.

Thanks again Michael for another interesting look at the world.

Martin W

Only quite recently that they started using electronic marine chronometers

A wrist omega chronometer is about £5k but as long as you know the periodic error of a half decent Seiko or whatever you can use it for basic celestial navigation for months before recalibrating it

You'll pay £200 for a Seiko which is out by 10secs a month and £5k for an Omega which is out 1 second a month

Edited By Ady1 on 23/06/2021 11:21:11

Benzine, not benzene. Different product entirely

I don't know about benzene or benzine but carbon tet which is also used in the process is frowned on today.

Presumably, olive oil, shellac and honey to name a few more are safe enough!

Benzene was used in cleaning aircraft instrument parts up until the early 80's when its carcinogenic properties got it replaced by trichloroethane 111. Carbon tetrachloride went out slightly earlier.

I apologise, you are quite right. I don't know why I come across as an opinionated bottom (Unless I am one!). I should have remembered that Schoolfriend Keith Ayres's dad, who was a watch repairer, used benzene to clean watches in the mid '70s, Even to the extent that wiseguy me told him that it was poisonous!

Trichlorethylene, ( pre Ethane) Carbon Tet, Ether, Nitromorse Sulphuric acid, how the hell have I managed to survive to mid septagenairian.

Regards Ian.

Add to that mercury being played with at school, making various explosives in my parent's garage (the best one was nitrogen tri-iodide), etching glass with hydrofloric acid, etc.

Regards from another mid septagenarian surviver.

Russell

Post deleted because it was more thread drift about poisons and stuff from a sexagenarian.

Edited By Mark Rand on 24/06/2021 16:28:59