CLOCKMAKERS BUSY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1941, Page 6

CLOCKMAKERS BUSY

EXPANSION OF BRITISH INDUSTRY. British clockmakers are the latest witnesses against Nazi sea claims. With a loss as low as from one-half to two per cent, they are continuing to send their clocks to Canada, Australia, India, South Africa and the South American Republics. They are shipping today half as many again as they were before the war. At first that was because the ocean lanes are barred to Germany; but now Britain is not only holding these new markets but increasing them on merit. Such at the moment is the flood of orders from overseas that her clockmakers are booked right into 1942; some of them are indeed doing export business only, so big is the demand. And they are adapting themselves readily to their new customers. Clocks for hot countries no longer go in wooden mountings but in plastics to resist the attacks of insects. Another line is in stainless steel with tile face, enamelled by hand. India is taking wall clocks, electric and spring, in large quantities. Canada and Australia are big buyers of these and of travellers' clocks in leather cases.

Since the days of Tompion, who developed the craftsmanship of clockmaking to such perfection that today specimens of his workmanship have fetched as much as £4OOO, and Harrison, the inventor of the chronometer, Britain has been known for design and workmanship wherever clocks tick. It was cheapness that let Germany in, and here Britain is now working out a campaign to sell cheap alarm clocks to all the world when peace comes.