Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-09-17
SOME COMPLICATED WATCHES. Ingenious Results of European Me-
 chanical Skill.

| Chhucdl oklll.
 | The construction or complicated
 timepieces has always been favorite
 amusement of the mechanic. Some of the most complex and ingenious
 large clocks, like the famous one al
 Strasburg, were the product of for
 mer centuries. but probably compli-
 cated watches have never been made
 more accurately and cheaply than to-
 day. Some of these are described In
 the Paris Cosmos by l.. Reverchan,
 First he takes up watches that indi-
 cate the time by sound-slgnals of
 some kind He says: The striking
 watch (repeater) Is very old Near
 ly 2h centuries ago 1t was invented
 simultaneously by two English
 watchmakers, Barlow and Quare. .
 Watches that strike the hour when
 desired are now made like ordinary
 watches, in metal cases, striking the
 quarter hours, may be bought for 100
 francs ($20.) On the other hand
 watches are now made .. {. | that not only strike when desired by
 pressing spring. but also strike the
 hours and quarters regularly like a
 clock. The mechanism is much the
 same in both cases Not
 only are ordinary bells for sounding
 the hours and quarters placed in
 these watches-some of which do not exceed AZ millimeters (one-fifth
 inch) in thickness-but real little
 chimes.
 We may pass from consideration
 of repeaters to that of the more re- cent stop-watch. In its most elemen- tary form this has simply second
 hand on small dial graduated in minutes. In the most complicated form the mechanism operates the two ordinary hands, a primary chrono- graph-hand called the 'overtaking hand, minute-counter, and finally small lightning hand, which makes the entire revolution in one second, quarter at time. In stop-watch of this sort the four hands last described may all be brought back to zero at once. It may be imagined with what precision the construction must be carried out that this may be done. .. Practically stop-watches without the 'overtak- ing and lightning hands are used. .. and even these give trou- ble enough to repairers of watches A third complication in watches is the calendar. Everyone is now familiar with watches that show the day of the month and the phases of the moon, for they may be obtained at all the shops at low prices This type of calendar watch is old. The perpetual calendar, which is quite complicated, dates only from 1860. There are two systems In one the month dial has Subdivisions, which facilitates construction. In In the sec~nd, called the 12-month calendar, .. the month-hand makes it's revolution in one year in- stead of four years, which makes it easier to read. The hands change also made with openings, through which the numbers indicating month and day are shown.
 The lunar phases are shown by means of a wheel of 59 teeth, which involves an error of nine hours a year. The mechanism of calendars should receive special care Their working requires considerable pow CT. and this is why in most nonper- petual calendars, the moon obstin- ately refuses to budge.,,
 There are still, we are told more complicated watch-movements, in which all the features described above are combined. For instance, the writer tells of watch that is at once repeater, a "chronograph" or stop watch, and perpetual calendar. A mechanism such as this consists of no less than s22 pieces, pierced with 752 holes and held together by IF screws some of which are not more than 0.3 millimeter (about 1-S0th inch) in diameter. He describes also an astronomic- watch constructed by Paul .Ditisheim, on whose dial hours appears hours, minutes, seconds, lu- mar phases, days of the month, the time of sunrise and sunset, and a de- vice for showing the equation of time. The writer concludes: Tn such com plicated pieces of mechanism it is evident that all the wheels cannot be arranged in one plane. They must be | disposed in layers, which of course | makes the watches thicker. than us- ual. From the point of view of the complexity and multiplicity | of the effects obtained we may note that the record is held by our con- patriot Louis Leroy. who made, sey- eral years ago, watch with two | dials giving 25 different indications | The mechanism of this l watch is arranged in four layers and its construction required several i years and the use of 975 different | pieces.-Literary Digest