The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-04-15

This work." said he, "has been my
recreation, and now that the final patents
have been granted l believe l can talk
with freedom on the Subject You know
that for centuries the minds of mechanical
engineers have been busted solving the
amount of power that could be conserved
In steel spring. They have made in
Vulnerable estimates and tests, but the
difficulty seems always to have been that
only sufficient power could be gained for
use in watch, clock and other light move
ments, and even in these instances the ex-
penditure of the power they found they
were able to get out of spring was of COM
paratively small duration.
For instance, when an effort was made
in Philadelphia to apply spring motor
to street car system there the engineers
soon found that their power was not suffi-
Gent at any time to get Q car up more
than twenty miles on a small grade. In
fact, engineers of the present day have de-
voted most of their time to steam, electric
and pneumatic motive powers, and have
allowed the spring idea to remain
quiescent, hoping for development In that
field by future generation.
81 have worked quietly aud unostenta-
tiously here in my workshop, taking such
time as l could from my business, and if
the verdict of the scientists who have
viewed my invention is to be taken as a
criterion l can say that l have solved the
spring motor problem. The nature of
my invention is mechanical move
ment designed to utilize the power of a
coiled steel spring for operating or run
ming clocks or other machines and taking
its first power from another source of
energy, transmitting it then to the OPP
Grating mechanism. The object of my
invention is to obtain, under the unwind
ing of spiral spring, an increased num-
Der of revolutions of the spring axle or
shaft. These revolutions are from ten to
100 times the number of rotations per-
formed in the first winding The inven-
ton comprises in mechanical movement
prime moving wheel adapted to be actu-
ated by the spring, another wheel fast to
the spring arbor or shaft and of differs 1t
diameter, either larger or smaller than
the prime moving wheel. and compound
wheel or transmitting device operating in
connection with the prime moving wheel
and the fast wheel so that the power of
the spring is transmitted through the
prime moving wheel and the compound
wheel to the fast wheel and axle.
I'm adapting the spring motor to the
propulsion of machinery there is a ten
dency for the spring to uncoil rapidly and
break | overcome this objection by CON-
bining an automatically operating clutch
with loose wheel forming a part of the
ditferential gear between the spring axle
or shaft and countershaft. In my first
invention | employed single primary
axle, a coiled spring, drum which con-
tanned the spring and in which it was
loosely mounted on the axle, a shaft par
allel with the axle. dltierential gearing on
the axle, and the counter shaft with two
primary wheels loose on the axle. One of
these primary wheels is rigid with the
drum, and an automatic clutch mechan-
ism operating in connection with the gear
ing to free the axle from the influence of
the spring when the drum has attained ITS
maximum of speed enables me to secure
an increased number of rotations of the
axle and shaft on the uncoiling of the
spring.
In the invention just granted aim to
secure the multiplied number of rotations
of the axle and power shaft as the springs
uncoil to a still greater degree. A still
furthar object is 10 nartiallN reMind each