Next the piece goes to the polisher, who polishes the back and attaches it to a frame or catch. Polishers in platinum factories are usually girls and are paid from $20 to $25 per week.
The stone setter then puts the piece into a bed of shellac to hold it firmly and mounts the diamonds, working up platinum beads out of the flat metal to hold the stones in place. Setting a row of diamonds so that they seem an uninterrupted line of brilliancy is called “pave work” and requires great skill. Stone setters are paid by the piece and make $40 to $125 per week.[19]
[19] Unions claim that the wage for this work ranges from $60 to $125 per week.
The metal is then taken off the shellac, goes once more to the polisher, and then to the finisher, who is merely a jeweler doing the particularly skilled work of final inspection and adjustment.
The number of processes in a platinum factory varies. In some cases they are so combined that one man performs several different processes. One expert may even make a whole piece from beginning to end. The tendency in this line is in fact back to the old Guild conditions at a time when the value of a jewel setting lay in its uniqueness. Very beautiful work is sometimes done in the homes of workmen. The material is called for, and the article is designed, wrought, and returned completely finished.
In cheaper-grade factories, on the other hand, processes are more subdivided, machine work being substituted for handwork. For instance, the engraver may be eliminated by stamping work out by dies instead of engraving it by hand. In this way platinum jewelry can be turned out faster, and in larger quantities than when engraved in single pieces, and of course the same skill is not required. The average wage is $25 per week. Cheaper grade factories all subdivide their processes more in this way, use more machines, and turn out work by the dozen in platinum and by the gross in gold, instead of by the piece.
PLAN No. 959. WORKING IN GOLD
A factory that works with gold employs designers in the same way as does the platinum factory.
The metal itself first goes to a melter and roller, who puts it into crucibles, then into the furnace, and then rolls it into ingots. The work is heavy, and necessitates standing and the use of both arms and feet. Wages are $25 per week.
In the cheaper-grade factories the gold, instead of going to the engraver for piecework, goes directly to the press and stamping room, where it is pierced by machines, stamped and pressed into patterns by the gross. Conditions of work are the same as in the first department, except the presswork, which is fairly light, but necessitates the use of one leg. Wages range from $18 to $25 per week.