IMPROVEMENTS IN DEAD-BEAT INDEPENDENT CENTRE SECONDS WATCHES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Marriott, of 88, Upper Street, Islington,
and Charles Radcliff, of 201, Hampstead Road, both in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DEAD-BEAT INDEPENDENT
CENTRE SECONDS WATCHES."
Sealed the 29th January 1864, and dated the 13th November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Marriott and
Charles Radcliff, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 18th November 1863.
We, BENJAMIN MARRIOTT, of 38, Upper Street, Islington, and CHARLES
RADCLIFF, of 201, Hampstead Road, both in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DEAD-
BEAT INDEPENDENT CENTRE SECONDS WATCHES," to be as follows:-
We place the seconds hand on a pivot, which passes through the centre
wheel arbor made large enough for this purpose. The arbor of this pivot
carries a contrate wheel, with teeth so placed as to pass through spaces in a
cylinder (somewhat in the manner of an escapement) at intervals, such that
the seconds hand has a dead beat. The power is taken from the centre wheel
through another wheel with a loose pinion with a friction movement and the
centre seconds hand may be stopped while the rest of the works go by the
action of a stop, which arrests the contrate wheel, and the wheel with the
loose pinion kept together by a detent spring, while the cylinder is still free
to move.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Benjamin Marriott and Charles Radcliff in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 12th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, BENJAMIN
MARRIOTT, of 38, Upper Street, Islington, and CHARLES RADCLIFF, of 201,
Hampstead Road, both in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Benjamin Marriott and Charles Radcliff, Her special licence
that we, the said Benjamin Marriott and Charles Radcliff, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Benjamin Marriott
and Charles Radcliff, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 for "IMPROVE
MENTS IN DEAD-BEAT INDEPENDENT CENTRE SECONDS WATCHES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Benjamin Marriott and Charles Radcliff,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or
one of our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 we, the said Benjamin Marriott and Charles
Radcliff, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
The construction of so much of a watch as is necessary to explain our
Invention is exhibited in the accompanying Drawings, wherein the same parts
are denoted by like letters.
Fig. 1 represents a plan; Fig. 2, a section of the wheel D, and of a
pinion E on its arbor; and Fig. 3, the wheel K and cylinder Q.
The Invention is supposed in this instance to be applied to a three-quarter
plate watch, with five beats of escapement. A is the barrel; B, the fuzee,
which moves the centre wheel C. We add now two wheels D and K; the

page_text: wheel D, of sixty teeth, is fixed on the arbor, has a pinion E, Fig. 2, with one
of its leaves F prolonged, so as to fit (with a little shake) a notch in the brass
tube, embracing the arbor, and holding it by the friction and elasticity
produced by a slit throughout the length of the brass, but so as to allow the
pinion to revolve while the wheel D and the contrate wheel K carrying the
centre seconds hand are stopped by the stop work L, M, N, so adjusted as to
hit at once either on a tooth or between two teeth with exactness. A delicate
spring, fixed at G, Fig. 2, and pressing on F, allows the fourth wheel acted
on by the third wheel to be continually moved as is requisite for the escape-
ment, while the spring gradually transmits the power to the wheel K until at
a proper interval (in this instance one second), during which the escapement
is making five beats, the wheel K is released, and the seconds hand on it
makes one beat, the effect of the action being somewhat like that of the
remontoir escapement. For this purpose the wheel K passes across the centre
of the cylinder Q, see Fig. 3, which has three cuts at equal distances, and is
of such size as to allow at least two teeth of K, as R, S, to be inside it, so that
one will strike on its inner edge, and at the next beat another T, then outside,
will strike on its outer edge, and thus the dead beat is alternately on the
outside and inside of the cylinder. The arbor of the wheel K passes through
the pivot of the centre wheel, and thus the centre seconds hand is moved by
the same train and from the same power, and with the same winding as the
rest of the watch, while the dead beat is steady and accurate, and the ordinary
seconds hand, the centre seconds hand, and the minute hand, are all in exact
accord without artificial or intermediate movement.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Marriott, on behalf of myself
and the said Charles Radcliff, have hereunto set my hand and seal,
this Twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four.
B. MARRIOTT. (L.S.)