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The History of Louis Levin & Son, Inc. - Page 4

In 1939, Louis Levin presented a paper entitled "Practical Bench Work" at a meeting of the Horological Institute of America held at the National Academy of Science building in Washington D.C. By this time, Louis and Samuel Levin had learned a great deal about how to design and manufacture a great many of the tools needed for repairing watches and other small precision instruments and devices In fact, they were already manufacturing and selling some small tools for horologists and contemplating the manufacture of others. The June, 1939 issue of Horology included the following photograph of a "horologist's lathe." This lathe consisted of a Cone Bearing Headstock fitted with a Lever Collet Closer. Double Tool Cross Slide, and a 6-position self-indexing Turret Attachment. The lathe had a 12" bed length. The turret, cross slide, and automatic collet closer were designed and manufactured by the staff of Horology in their laboratory.

In July, they published a photograph of a "horologist's lathe" equipped with a Screw Cutting Attachment and a picture of a similar lathe equipped with a Spiral Milling Attachment. For the next several years, Horology continued to publish well illustrated articles describing how to design and manufacture and use a wide variety of horologists' tools and lathe accessories.

By June of 1940, Horology was warning about the possible consequences of a German invasion of Switzerland and the need for horologists to be prepared to make parts which were previously imported from Switzerland. In that editorial, Samuel Levin said "While horologists can, if necessary, make a great many of the replacement parts ordinarily used, they cannot make such things as mainsprings or jewels and a shortage of these items would be felt seriously."

World War II did, indeed, produce shortages of the tools used by horologists and instrument makers as the nation expanded its military and industrial capacity. Horologists and instrument makers now recognized the possibilities of productively using the tools of both trades. Watches and a host of different instruments shared common types of parts and similar mechanisms; but they also shared one absolutely indispensable item, the sapphire jewel bearing, a product whose primary source was then in Switzerland. The means of manufacturing sapphire jewel bearings had always been veiled in secrecy and the United States Government determined that it would establish five factories, spread throughout the U.S. to produce such bearings in the quality and quantities that might be required if supplies from Switzerland were cut off by Nazi Germany.

World War II created increased need for watchmakers' lathes and tools. Since most such tools had been manufactured in Europe, the supply of such tools had now been severely curtailed. This gave Louis Levin & Son, Inc. the opportunity to begin producing a line of watchmaker's lathes and tools. The first commercial lathes they produced were WW style machines with a 50 mm center height, a 12 in. bed length and a collet holding push type tailstock. The headstocks were available with either bronze or hard steel tapered cone bearings. These machines were produced during a time of material shortages and were not as well made as they could have been if the preferred materials and equipment had been available for this purpose. However, by 1948, the factory was producing a full line of tooling for their lathes including a full line of split collets and a variety of watchmakers hand tools.

Louis Levin & Son, Inc. expanded production of their line of watchmaker's lathes and hand tools. During the war years, the Government, either directly or indirectly, purchased virtually all of the tools the factory could produce and for years to come, these fine tools were in great demand by horologists throughout the world because of their quality and precision. They became the standard against which such products were judged. After WW II, lathe and tool production increased and by 1956 the list of products being manufactured and stocked included more than 300 different items, all related to the manufacture and assembly of small watch sized precision parts. But by this time, it was evident that the demand by horologists for these tools would certainly diminish due to technological changes in the watchmaking industry. As watches became less expensive and their mechanisms became less mechanical and more electronic, the need for most of the products then being manufactured by Louis Levin & Son, Inc. would evaporate except for the few horologists able to find work repairing very expensive old watches. However, the same wave of technological change was also creating an increasing industrial demand for the tools needed to handle smaller and smaller parts. The Levins saw what appeared to be an increasing need to produce very small parts and an expanding market for the type of tools made by Louis Levin & Son, Inc. The company began to alter their machine designs to improve the performance and accuracy of its machine tools and accessories. These changes were required to accommodate new industrial requirements that were developing at an accelerating pace. The industrial demand grew rapidly, accelerated by the demands of the Korean War. In a period of about 15 years the demand for horologists tools had all but disappeared and was replaced by an increasingly large worldwide demand for the industrial versions of these products.

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