1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Chaux de Fonds, La

CHAUX DE FONDS, LA, a large industrial town in the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel. It is about 19 m. by rail N. W. of Neuchâtel, and stands at a height of about 3255 ft. in a valley (5 m. long) of the same name in the Jura. Pop. (1900) 35,968 (only 13,659 in 1850); (1905) 38,700, mainly French-speaking and Protestants; of the 6114 “Catholics” the majority are “Old Catholics.” It is a centre of the watch-making industry, especially of gold watch cases; about 70% of those manufactured in Switzerland are turned out here. In 1900 it exported watches to the value of nearly £3,000,000 sterling. There is a school of industrial art (engraving and enamelling watch cases) and a school of watch-making (including instruction in the manufacture of chronometers and other scientific instruments of precision). It boasts of being le plus gros village de l’Europe, and certainly has preserved some of the features of a big village. Léopold Robert (1794–1835), the painter, was born here.  (W. A. B. C.)