IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES AND OTHER TIMEPIECES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Mortimer George Cole, of Belvedere House,.
Bexley Heath, in the County of Kent, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES AND OTHER TIMEPIECES."
Scaled the 17th August 1869, and dated the 4th March 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Mortimer George Colo
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 4th March 1869.
I, MORTIMER GEORGE COLE, of Belvedere House, Bexley Heath, in
the County of Kent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES AND OTHER TIMEPIECES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to that description of watches and other
timepieces acting with a balance wheel and lever escapement.
It sometimes occurs in this mechanism that by a greater than ordinary
impulse imparted to the balance wheel from any cause the ruby pin
after the lever has been moved over into the one position is carried

page_text: sufficiently far round to cause it to strike the outside of the fork of the
lever in the same direction, whereby, as the lever when thrown over is
in contact with the one banking pin and cannot therefore yield to such
striking of the ruby pin, it sometimes occurs that the ruby pin is
fractured or the balance wheel or pallet staff pivots broken or bent.
Various contrivances have been proposed to obviate these inconveniences,
but all have been either too complicated and consequently expensive in
their construction, or too uncertain in their action for general adoption;
and my present Invention has for its object to provide both an efficient
and simple means for preventing the above liabilities; it consists in
placing the banking pins so that they act against the tail of the lever,
and in so forming this tail as to act as a spring instead of making it rigid
as heretofore, such spring being sufficiently stiff as in coming in contact
with the banking pins to limit the ordinary motion of the lever to the
required extent, while it is sufficiently elastic to allow the lever to yield
to the before-mentioned second blow of the ruby pin, and to resume its.
correct position after the ruby pin has passed it.
In place of making the tail of the lever act as a spring, I sometimes
fit a spring on to the pallet staff in addition to the ordinary lever, so that
the spring shall act on the banking pins and yield to the second blow of
the ruby pin as in the other case.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Mortimer George Cole in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 1st September 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MORTIMER
GEORGE COLE, of Belvedere House, Bexley Heath, in the County of
Kent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine in
the thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unito me, the said Mortimer George Cole,
Her special licence that I, the said Mortimer George Cole, my exe-

page_text: cutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Mortimer George Cole, 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 for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES AND OTHER TIME-
PIECES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Mortimer
George Cole, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 Mortimer George Cole, 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 thereof, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to that description of watches and other
timepieces acting with a balance wheel and lever escapement.
It sometimes occurs in this mechanism that by a greater than ordinary
impulse imparted to the balance wheel from any cause the ruby pin
after the lever has been moved over into the one position is carried
sufficiently far round to cause it to strike the outside of the fork of the
lever in the same direction, whereby, as the lever when thrown over is
in contact with the one banking pin and cannot therefore yield to such
striking of the ruby pin, it sometimes occurs that the ruby pin is
fractured or the balance wheel or pallet staff pivots broken or bent.
Various contrivances have been proposed to obviate these inconveniences,
but all have been either too complicated and consequently expensive in
their construction, or too uncertain in their action for general adoption ;
and my present Invention has for its object to provide both an efficient and
simple means for preventing the above liabilities; it consists in placing
the banking pins at the tail of the lever, and in so forming this tail as to
act as a spring instead of making it rigid as heretofore, such spring

page_text: being sufficiently stiff as in coming in contact with the banking pins to
limit the ordinary motion of the lever to the required extent, while it is
sufficiently elastic to allow the lever to yield to the before-mentioned
second blow of the ruby pin, and to assume its correct position after the
ruby pin has passed it.
In place of making the tail of the lever act as a spring I sometimes
fit a spring on to the pallet staff in addition to the ordinary lever, so that
the spring shall act on the banking pins and yield to the second blow of
the ruby pin as in the other case.
Having thus set forth the nature of my Invention, I will now proceed
more particularly to-describe the manner of performing the same.
a is the
Figure 1 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings shews a plan of the
escapement of a watch with my Invention applied thereto.
balance wheel, with ruby pin b, which works in the fork of the lever c
in the usual manner; d is the escape wheel; and e are the pallets
carried by the pallet staff f, and secured to the lever c. The tail c¹ of
this lever is formed quite thin, as indicated, so as to act as a spring,
and works between the banking pins g, g. If now the balance wheel
having received the impulse given by the action of a tooth of the escape
wheel on one of the pallets communicated through the lever should
from any cause be moved so far round that the ruby pin b strikes against
the outside of the fork of the lever c, as shown in Figure 2, the tail c¹ of
this lever resting at the time against the one banking pin will, through
its spring action and the shape given to the fork end of the lever, allow
the ruby pin to pass by, when the spring tail will immediately cause
the lever to regain its correct position for the ruby pin to act upon it in
the contrary direction. The tail c¹ is, however, made sufficiently stiff to
limit the ordinary motion of the lever by coming in contact with the
banking pins.
Figure 3 shews a plan of another modification of the lever c in which
in place of forming the spring tail c¹ on the lever itself, such spring is
formed separate from the lever, and is secured to the pallet staff f and to
the lever, as indicated.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
I do not limit myself to the precise arrangements thereof as shewn on
the accompanying Drawings, as these may be variously modified without

page_text: departing from the nature of my Invention; but what I claim is,
forming or fixing upon the pallet lever a spring tail acting substantially
as and for the purposes herein-before set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Mortimer George Cole, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Thirty-first day of August,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.