IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC CLOCKS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, of 16, Castle
Street, Holborn, City, London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC CLOCKS."-A communication.
"
IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC CLOCKS."-A communication.
Sealed the 9th March 1855, and dated the 13th September 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition
on the 18th September 1854.
I, AUGUSTE EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 16, Castle Street, Holborn,
City, London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC CLOCKS" to be as follows, viz.:-
The nature & intention of the Invention is the construction & arrangement
of the moving part of clocks of every denomination in all their varieties of
character. In such construction and arrangement the agency of electricity is
applied to produce the movements required to measure & register time with
accuracy, to furnish the maintaining working power, discarding the usual spring
balance wheel, & the more costly part of the ordinary construction, & pro-
ducing the perfect precision required without the present variations. The
particular construction used to that end in the Invention is the known perfectly

page_text: simultaneous & instant interaction of all connected movements of electro-
magnetic apparatus; and this action being constant & self-productive, renders
every such instrument independent of all others, & each an original & standard
clock.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 13th March 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTE
EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 16, Castle Street, Holborn (City), London,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, Her special license that I,
the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC CLOCKS," a communication, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
The prime mover of this system of electric clocks is electricity, which acts by
means of a pendulum, whose vibrations are kept up by an escapement of

page_text: constant strength. The electric clock may be made either with or without the
striking part; but in either case the mechanism of this new species of clock is
very simple, its object being to give the hour with the utmost precision.
And in order that this Invention may be fully and clearly understood, I have
represented its different parts on the accompanying Drawing, which I now
proceed to describe.
Fig. 1 is an elevation of the mechanism of an electric clock without the
striking part; Fig. 2 is an elevation of the escapement of constant strength;
Fig. 3 is a side view of the same.
I use two coils a, like those represented on the Drawing, which are called
electros or multipliers, and are furnished with wire covered with silk. When
the electricity is conducted by those coils, it magnetizes the pieces of iron placed
in the centre of each coil, which are secured to the cross bar b.
For this purpose I employ any battery whatever which acts by means of two
conducting wires, one of which, proceeding from the positive pole, conducts the
electric current through the support c to the first coil a; the other wire, pro-
ceeding from the negative pole, conducts the electric fluid in the same manner
to the second coil a, by causing it to pass through support d, (which is insulated
from the mechanism,) on the second coil a, after having passed through another
support d', mounted on ivory, to insulate it from the rest of the mechanism.
By this arrangement the two rods placed in the centre of the two coils, and
which are united by the cross bar b, acquire the property of the loadstone, and
in consequence thereof the power of attracting another piece of iron e, having
a vertical branch e'; this piece of iron has an oscillating motion between two
points f, forming pivots, so that this piece of iron e can move freely; as soon
as it is no longer attracted by electricity, it gives way to the attraction of the
spring g, until it is attracted again by the iron of the coils a, and thus forms
contact with their upper part.
In order to allow this piece of iron e to return to its former place, we have
merely to insulate one of the two poles. To this end I cause the electric fluid
alternately to pass from the two poles to a single coil; then the iron piece e,
being no longer attracted by the electro-magnet, becomes free to return in a
contrary direction, which is effected through the spring 9 drawing back said
piece e.
In order to obtain this oscillating movement in a regular manner, a pendulum
h is used, which is hung to a slender blade of steel. Upon giving this pen-
dulum an impetus it touches on the right (Fig. 1) a very slight spring i, fixed
to the support d, mounted on ivory, as before' said. This support d receives
one of the two conducting wires coming from the battery, and conducts the.

page_text: electricity to the upper only of the two coils a, demagnetizing the central bar,
allowing the piece e to be drawn back to its place by the spring g; the pen-
dulum in returning breaks contact with the little spring g, & thus the electric
current passes freely along its conducting wire to arrive at the second coil a,
which causes each of the two coils a to receive the positive and negative
electricity, and the iron 6 placed in the centre becomes magnetized again, and
attracts the iron e; this to and fro motion lasting as long as the pendulum
vibrates. To keep up the vibrations of the pendulum h, there is a repose
scapement, Figs. 2 and 3, which receives its impetus from a spiral spring, one
end of which is fixed to the escapement ratchet or wheel j'and the other end
to another ratchet wheel k, mounted so as to be able to turn loose on the arbor
of the escapement wheel g. With this arrangement it will be seen that if the
ratchet wheel be turned, it draws the escapement wheel j, which will cause
the escapement to act as soon as the pendulum vibrates; but after what has
been said above, it is obvious that when the pendulum h vibrates, the iron e
follows its motion from right to left. Now, on the part e' of this iron a click
is mounted, which gears with the ratched k, & at each movement of the iron
moves the ratchet wheel one tooth. In order that this ratchet may not go
back by the action of the spiral spring, there is a second click m, which holds
it back. As the iron e follows the vibrations of the pendulum h, it is clear that
when it has moved tho ratchet wheel k by one tooth, the escapement wheel j
has passed one also; thus restoring to the pendulum the force that it had lost
both by friction and by the contact and the resistance of the air. With this
arrangement the force acting on the escapement is always precisely the same;
and as no piece of mechanism can interfere with the escapement, it is evident
that said motion is of constant strength. A wheel o, gearing into a pinion
placed in the centre of the escapement, works the mechanism of the hands,
which are of the ordinary description, shewing the hour on a dial. There may
also be a hand to mark the seconds, which would be moved by the wheel j, that
receives exactly one impulse per second. For the purpose of obtaining a
striking mechanism, winding itself up by the effect of electricity, I use the
means represented in front view, Fig. 4. This arrangement comprizes an ordi-
nary striking mechanism or clock-work; but, moreover, the barrel arbor carries
a second wheel bearing a click and spring work, which retains the end of the
moving spring of the striking work by pinions and wheels, which have such a
number of teeth that the time-piece in the four and twenty hours winds the
spring up as much as the clock-work has caused it to uncoil in striking the hours
and the half hours during the same time. This result is obtained by the to.and
fro motion of the iron piece e, by means of the click p on the piece e' gearing

page_text: The
into the ratchet wheel q, which in this clock-work becomes the last moving
implement of the remontoir, which is thus continually being wound up.
electric clocks generally, as hitherto constructed, work only by following up the
motions of an ordinary clock; hence, if this latter varics, all the electric clocks
do the same, and if the prime moving clock stops, all those connected with it
are stopped also.
It will be readily understood that in using my system these inconveniences
are avoided, since the driving clock is dispensed with, and as many clocks can
be obtained as is desired with or without the striking work, working by
electricity only, with the greatest regularity, and independently of each other.
I claim, the system of electric clocks above described, cach clock being
worked by an independent mechanism, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
have hereunto set my hand & seal, this 9th day of March, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
A. E. LORADOUX BELLFORD. (L.S.)