Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 21st May, 1896
Complete Specification Left, 22nd Feb., 1897-Accepted, 27th Mar., 1897
We JOHN DAVIDSON of 272 Friern Road Dulwich, in the County of Surrey,
Clockmaker, and JOHN ROMBACH of 22 Long Lane in the City of London,
Merchant do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to improvements in clocks whereby a musical box is caused
to play a chime or chimes at each quarter of the hour or other desired interval.
For this purpose we provide upon a clock an ordinary pin-bearing barrel and comb,
such as are usually employed in musical boxes, and we arrange the pins on the
barrel in such a manner that upon the barrel being caused to turn by a weight or
spring, the said pins will play a chime or chimes (such as the Westminster chimes)
at each quarter of the hour, and after playing the chime or chimes for each
particular quarter of an hour the barrel is automatically arrested. Between the
pins devoted to the chime or chimes of each quarter, spaces are provided clear of
pins, and when such a space is opposite the aforesaid comb, a detent is, arranged to
engage with the mechanism operating the barrel which is thus arrested. A cam
operated by the action of the ordinary clockwork releases the said detent at each
quarter of an hour, and allows the barrel to rotate and the chime or chimes to be
played, after which the cam becomes freed from the detent which then re-engages
with the mechanism actuating the barrel and again arrests it.
The above-described mechanism may be easily added to an ordinary hour-striking
clock, which would thus be converted into a combined strike and chime clock. If
the clock employed is not an hour-striking clock, the barrel may be arranged to
play a tune at the hour, either after or instead of chiming.
Dated this 20th day of May 1896.
JOHN DAVIDSON.
JOHN ROMBACH.
. We, JOHN DAVIDSON, of 272 Friern Road, Dulwich, in the County of
Surrey, Clockmaker, and JOHN RоMвACH, of 22 Long Lane, in the City of
London, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of this invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to chime clocks and has for its object to provide a cheap
but efficient construction of quarter chime mechanism in which is employed a
pin-barrel acting directly upon a comb as in a musical box to produce the chimes.
The said barrel is driven by a strong spring acting through a suitable train of
boole

page_text: The invention will be readily understood by reference to the accompanying
drawings, in which
Figure 1 is a front elevation of so much of the clockwork as is necessary to
illustrate our invention, a portion of the front frame plate being removed to show
the arms behind it.
Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same looking from the left of Figure 1 the
pin-barrel and comb forming the musical mechanism of the chimes being removed.
Figure 3 is an elevation of the front frame plate and the parts in front of it in
the position they occupy after the hour striking mechanism has been released in the
usual manner but before the hour chimes have been completed and shows how
the chime mechanism is utilised for preventing the striking of the hour until the
chimes are completed.
Like letters of reference denote corresponding parts in the several figures.
A, A are the front and back plates of the clockwork frame. B is the minute
shaft upon which is fixed a wheel C having four ratchet-like teeth that operate as
cams to liberate the chime mechanism at the quarters as hereinafter described.
D is a lever loosely pivoted at D₁ and having its free end resting upon the
periphery of the wheel C, so that it will be raised by each tooth of said wheel in
succession and will then drop from the high poiut of one tooth into the bottom of
the next tooth as the wheel C revolves. Dis a link or rod connecting the lever D
to an arm E on a cross shaft E. The said link is threaded loosely through an
eye in the end of the arm E¹ but is formed with a head at its lower end so that it
may serve to lift the arm E¹ while allowing the said arm to descend under its own
weight alone.
In connection with the arm E' is mechanism for locking and unlocking the train
of wheels that drives the pin-barrel said mechanism being similar to that commonly
used in clocks for controlling the striking part, that is to say, the shaft E is
furnished with a finger E which projects under and is utilised for raising a
finger F upon a shaft F the latter being furnished with a second finger F that
locks the chiming mechanism after each chime is completed by dropping into a
notch in a locking disc G which is fixed on one of the shafts of the wheel train
that drives the controlling vane of said mechanism. The end of the finger F
rests upon the periphery of a disc H which is fixed on a shaft of the wheel train
of the chiming mechanism and notched with three notches viz. one long notch and
two shorter notches. The speed of the disc G is to that of the disc H as 10 is to 1
and the notches in the latter disc are so spaced that one rotation of the disc G can
take place while the finger F rests in the long notch, then two rotations of the
dise Gare required before the finger F¹ can drop into the next notch of the disc H,
then three more rotations before it drops into the next notch and finally four more
rotations before it drops into the long notch again. This arrangement of notches
is provided so that quarter chimes having one, two, three, and four bars respectively
denoting different quarters may be produced. The fingers F, F are so arranged
in relation to the discs G, H that when the finger FI is resting on an unnotched
part of the periphery of the dise H the finger F cannot drop into the notch of the
disc G so that the latter disc can only become locked when one of the notches of
the disc H is under the end of the finger F'; and similarly the finger F1 can only
drop into one of the notches of the disc H when the notch in the disc G is under
the finger F2.
When the arm E¹ has been raised by its connection with the arm D so as to lift
the finger Fout of the notch of the disc G the said disc immediately begins to
rotate under the force of the coiled spring that works the chiming mechanism and
thus brings an unnotched part of the disc under the finger F and prevents the
finger from falling back into the locking position. A slight movement only of the
train of wheels is however yet permitted by reason of a finger J on the warning
shaft of the train, which pin encounters a finger E on the shaft E bereinabove
referred to and is thereby prevented from rotating further until the said finger E
is suddenly removed by the falling of the lever D from one tooth to the next of the

page_text: wheel C, whereupon the chiming mechanism being thus freed sounds one of the
quarter chimes.
K is the vane for controlling the speed of the chime, and in this instance it is
shown driven through the medium of a long-pitched worm K' to secure very high
speed.
The disc G rotates once during the performance of each bar of the chimes and
hence it will be observed that the notched part of the said disc comes under the
finger F at the end of each bar and is in position to be locked by said finger and
will be locked if the finger can drop into the notch. As above stated however it
can only drop into the notch when a notch of the disc H is at the same time under
the finger F. It will thus be seen from the arrangement of notches in the disc H
that at the first quarter the disc G can only make one turn, at the second quarter
two turns, at the third quarter three turns, and at the fourth quarter four turns.
The chimes are produced by a pin-barrel L and a comb L' similar to those
employed in a musical box. One rotation of the barrel corresponds to the
completion of the four quarter chimes. A space is provided on the pin-barrel
between adjacent sets of pins corresponding to the several bars of the chimes so
that no pins will be in engagement with the comb during the time that the chiming
mechanism is at rest.
To prevent the hour from striking before the chimes at the fourth quarter are
completed we provide as follows, that is to say, upon the shaft F is fixed another
arm F3 to the end of which is connected a rod M. The upper end of the said rod
is supported by a bearing bracket M' through which it can slide. Upon the
warning shaft N of the striking part of the clock we fix a finger P so arranged as
to be prevented from rotating when the rod M is raised as indicated in Figure 3.
The action of this device is as follows; When the chiming mechanism is unlocked,
the rod M is obviously at the same time raised and the said rod falls again when
the chiming mechanism becomes re-locked. The normal position of the finger P
when the striking mechanism is not in action is about vertically upward as indicated
in Figure 1 but during the warning it makes nearly half a turn and is stopped in
the usual manner being then nearly in contact with the rod M. As soon therefore
as the striking mechanism becomes released the finger turns again and this time is
stopped by the rod M and so the striking cannot proceed until the rod M descends
sufficiently far to release the finger P which descent does not happen until the
chiming is completed and the fingers F1, F2 have dropped into their respective
notches.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is
1. In a quarter chime clock the combination with a pin-barrel and comb, and
means for rotating the barrel, of the means for locking and unlocking the chiming
mechanism, substantially as, and for the purpose, specified.
2. The combination with the parts referred to in the preceding claim of the
means for preventing the striking of the hour until the hour chimes are completed,
substantially as described.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicants.