[W&B] More on W Watson & Sons

[Michael Pritchard]

Further to my posting a couple of days ago (appended below) I can now
add a bit more about Watsons and mechanisation.
 
In May 1889 the works are described as a 'veritable factory'  with a
fifteen h.p. Crossley engine in the basement to power machines for
planing, cutting, moulding and shaping wood. Four sawing machines were
also present. With regard to the Acme camera:  'all the individual parts
are made by machinery as far as machinery is applicable to its
production, yet after everything is finished it occupies over two weeks
for a highly skilled workmen to put together and fit a full-plate one
for being placed on the shelves of the warehouse' . 
 
Hope that's of interest. 
 
Michael Pritchard 
www.mpritchard.com <http://www.mpritchard.com/>  
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
From: Michael Pritchard [mailto:michael at mpritchard.com] 
Sent: 03 February 2008 21:45
To: 'woodandbrass at Lists.KJSL.COM'
Subject: RE: [W&B] My New W&B web site


W Watson and Sons: The 'W' stands for William. It was really his son,
Thomas Parsons Watson, who extended the firm's business into optical
instrument making; and photographic equipment manufacturing also started
around this time. The company was certainly mechanised from 1888. I
wrote a piece on the company's history for the Encyclopedia of
Nineteenth Century Photography (Routledge, 2007).
 
Regards
 
Michael Pritchard 
www.mpritchard.com 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.kjsl.com/pipermail/woodandbrass/attachments/20080205/de0ac50d/attachment-0001.html