IMPROVE- MENTS IN TELL-TALES' OR APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE HOUR AT WHICH ANY DESIRED APARTMENT OR SPOT HAS BEEN VISITED
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Willoughby Smith at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th May
1864.
I, WILLOUGHBY SMITH, of New North Road, in the County of Middlesex;
Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN TELL-TALES' OR APPARATUS FOR REGISTERING OR INDICATING THE HOUR
AT WHICH ANY DESIRED APARTMENT OR SPOT HAS BEEN VISITED," to be as
follows:-
The apparatus consists of an ordinary clock and other mechanism hereafter
described. To the dial of the clock are fixed six small steel springs, so
distributed that each hour to be recorded has a spring placed beneath it. On
the top of the clock case, or in any convenient position or place, is a box
containing six electro-magnets, so arranged that each one has in close proximity
to it a piece of soft iron, which is attached to the side of the box by a light
spring, which in its normal state presses the iron to the side of the box, and
thus holds in position a zine label, on which is marked the hour corresponding
to that on the dial under which one of the springs is placed. The springs on
the dial are brought in metallic contact with the electro-magnets in the
following order: A copper wire joined to the spring under Number 7 on the
clock face is joined to one end of the wire of the magnet in close proximity to
the spring in the box which holds in position the zinc label marked Number 7.
Numbers 9, 11, 1, 3, and 5 follow in the same order. The other ends of
wires from each magnet are connected to one terminal fixed outside the case.
A wire in metallic contact with the hour hand is also brought to a terminal
outside the case. If, therefore, the poles of a battery be attached one to each

page_text: terminal, it follows that as soon as the hour hand comes in contact with one of
the springs on the dial the battery circuit is complete, and one of the magnets
becomes active, which immediately attracts the piece of iron from the side of
the box, and thus releases the zinc label, which drops by its own gravity in a
groove prepared for it, and exposes the number through an aperture in the
box.
I prefer to apply my Invention as follows:-The clock is placed in a room
to which the watchman has not access. One pole of the battery is connected
to one of the terminals, the other pole being in contact with a gas or other
metal pipe in contact with earth in the same room. A wire in connection with
the other terminal is led to as many parts of the building as may be thought
necessary for the watchman to visit at stated intervals. The other end being
attached to a gas or other metal pipe in contact with earth. Now if the
connections remain as last described all that is required to complete the circuit
is that the hour hand should be brought in contact with one of the springs on
the disc. A simple time contact is placed in various parts of the circuit
throughout the building, and unless the person in charge of the premises visits
each one at stated hours the circuit would not be complete, and consequently
the hour would not be registered.
ܐ,
The time contact which I have invented consists of an ordinary sand-glass
fully suspended between two brass uprights. The glass in its normal state
takes a vertical position. From the side of one of the supports projects an
insulated spring, from which a wire is connected to a terminal on the wooden
base. On the axis by which the glass is turned is a metal cam, which is also
in metallic contact with a terminal upon the base board, the whole being
secured in a small box. One end of the axle is placed in close proximity to a
small aperture in the front of the box, so that the person in charge can, being
provided with a suitable key, give the glass a half turn, which brings the sand
uppermost, and it is kept in that position by the cam resting upon the
.spring. When the glasses are all turned the circuit is complete, and remains
so until nearly all the sand has passed into the lower compartment. of the
glass, when it again assumes a vertical position, and breaks the circuit.by
lifting the cam from the spring. The size of the glass and. the. quantity of
sand it contains regulates the time of contact.