No. 239. A movement can never be regulated if the verge is not made according to the rules of the art. This part requires the greatest care and long experience, because it is the most delicate and most difficult part in the watch. You will make several before succeeding in making one of them which is good. However, do not get discouraged by the obstacles that you will meet; you will succeed with patience and constant work.
The two principal parts of the verge are the stem A, B, Pl. 8, Fig. 30, and the two pallets C, D. The part E, located between the two pallets, is called the body of the verge. The part from the pallet C to the point A is called the stem, and the end from the small pallet D to the point B is called the pivot shank.
The verge, which is a single piece, is thus made up of five parts: the body E, the two pallets C, D, the pivot shank B, and the stem A. Each pallet also has its name; the first, C, which is soldered to the seat, is called the large pallet; and the second, D, is called the small pallet.
How to Rough Out the Verge, Pl. 8, Fig. 31, 32, 33, 34.
240. Take good flat steel, and file it uniformly thick and proportioned to the size and the strength which the verge must have. See Pl. 8, Fig. 31.
Let us suppose that you want to make a verge. Having filed the steel flat and uniformly thick from one end to the other, Fig. 31, file from the pallet D to the end B with a barrette file, Fig. 32. Do the same to the other end from the pallet C to the point A. Make a notch E in the middle, which will form the body of the verge, and file this notch until it is quite square. If you have done this well, you will have a square stem quite equal in size and strength over all its length. Take this verge by the pallet C and give all the length which is the body and the pivot shank eight quite equal sides. This perfect equality is essential to make the body of the verge round and equal from one end to the other. Also file the two pallets to be of equal width and quite square, Round the body from one end to the other. Then hold the verge with pincers by the pallet C and press the small pallet D and the body E on a riveting stake. By striking the pallet D with small hammer blows, you will be able to turn it to the left; continue until the two pallets have between them an angle wider than square by about five degrees. If the body is distorted, straighten it, and if while turning the verge you find some defects, correct them with a file, and make the body and the stems perfectly round and of equal size from one end to the other.
Then hold the verge in loop pincers by the large pallet C, press the body and the pallet D on a flat vice block and thin the pallet with a good fine carrelet file until almost half its thickness, and as close to the body of the verge as you can. Notch the other pallet in same manner. And when you file it flat, you will use a fine file and file the angles which will be opposite each pallet, until the whole is rounded, and follows the body of the verge.
For a verge to be well roughed out, it is necessary that the body is even and centered, that the pallets are filed square, and are thinned flat close the body.
Make points on each stem of the verge, give it initially four, then eight faces, then round it as I have already explained several times. Fix a screw ferrule on the end of the stem of the verge, and after putting it in the turns, make it centered and true with a hammer. See NO 168.
File the bottom of the pallet C, which forms an angle with the stem, Fig. 32. This angle is left to enter the notch which you will make in the seat, Pl. 8 Fig. 29, so that when the verge is soldered to it, it will be more firmly fixed, and so that one can polish the pallet more easily, when one wants to finish it.
The Seat of the Verge.
241. Take a small brass rod and bore a hole as in No. 82. If by chance the drill grips, put a little saliva on the drill tip instead of oil, which would prevent the solder running. The seat bored, turn it to size, and cut off a suitable length. Make a notch in the head to receive the angle C of the pallet, Fig. 32.
If the hole in the seat is not large enough, enlarge it with a broach until the stem enters the seat exactly, and so that the angle C of the large pallet sits in the slit. The seat put in place, Fig. 34, see if the verge is open about five degrees more than square, and if the body turns centered and true.
These two parts thus set up, take a small piece of solder and put it behind the pallet on the seat. Put a little Spanish whiting crushed with saliva on the front of the pallet, so that the solder while running does not spread on the front of the pallet. This would cause great trouble when you try to smooth and polish the verge. Put a little borax on the solder, blow on it with a blow-pipe, and then harden the verge in oil. Then lightly press the verge on a vice block and rub it with pumice-stone. Do this operation carefully, because if you press the pumice-stone too hard against the part, it will break like glass. When it is well whitened, put it on a bluing pan and temper it deep yellow. Then put it in the turns and, if it does not turn centered, correct it with a hammer, in the way that we have already explained in No. 85 and 86.
242. You will proportion the body of the verge to its height. If it is too large, you would make the escapement with difficulty. Neither make it too thin; this part requires a certain strength, so that the weight of the balance does not make it whip. This defect would necessarily cause variations. Make the balance as I described in No. 164.
To Assemble the Rough Movement.
243. The rough movement made, pass a fine file over the plates and the various brass parts of which it is composed, and then smooth them with water stone until there are no more marks. Then polish all the stems, the faces, and the heads of the screws; and, after cleaning the movement, assemble it.
If you want to prevent the brass plates and parts becoming black, smooth them with water stone mixed with oil; your movement will have a more beautiful appearance.
End Of The Second Part.
PRACTICAL
WATCHMAKING
Part Three.
Chapter One: Finishing in General.
No. 244. To become a good finisher, make rough movements for a long time; it is the best way to become a great worker. When you make good rough movements, you will quickly progress in finishing. This first work having made you accustomed to scrupulously follow the various methods and proportions which one uses to make a watch, you will have much more ability to understand the defects that a rough movement maker will have made.
Finishing requires the greatest care and the most exact precision; the solidity and the fidelity of a movement depends on a good finisher. He can often make a good watch from a mediocre movement; but a bad finisher of an excellent movement will only make bad work from it. Thus you cannot apply yourself to finishing too much. This type of occupation, which is very delicate, will become familiar to you through practice, by the care with which you distribute the space in a movement, turn pivots cylindrical and well polished, and make teeth carefully. It is also necessary to form the gearing with precision, to lay out and make a good escapement and put the wheels free in the frame. Finally, you must file and finish all the parts with taste, as I will explain to you below, and to follow, in a word, all the rules that I propose to outline.