CHAUX DE FONDS

chaux de fonds, la, a large industrial town in the swiss canton of neuchatel. it is about 19 m. by rail n. w. of neuchatel, 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. leopold robert (1794-1835), the painter, was born here. (w. a. b. c.).