IMPROVEMENTS IN STOP- WATCHES OR CHRONOGRAPHS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arnold Huguenin at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th August 1883.
ARNOLD HUGUENIN of Chaux-de-fonds Switzerland "IMPROVEMENTS IN STOP-
WATCHES OR CHRONOGRAPHS
"
The Invention refers to improvements in stop watches or chronographs and the
object of which is to avoid the recoil usually accompanying the starting of the
quarter second hand and moving forward after each revolution of the latter a
separate minute wheel and hand.
For this purpose the dial is arranged with a separate small minute-dial, divided"
into thirty parts with a small hour and minute dial and with a circumferential
quarter-second sub-division
The starting of the quarter second hand is accomplished by means of a fulcrumed
lever which is arranged between the usual actuating ratchet wheel pawl and lever
mechanism and the moveable bridge of the moveable bridge of the quarter second
wheel so that the latter may be thrown in or out of gear with the transmitting gear
of the movement.
The entire mechanism for working the quarter second and minute hands of my
improved stop watch or chronograph is arranged immediately below the dial the
circumference of which is divided into quarter seconds along which the quarter
second hand moves. Above the arbor of the quarter second hand is arranged a
dial of a diameter of somewhat less length than the radius of the entire dial of the
same size as the usual hour and minute hands and below said arbor a second
smaller dial of the same size as the hour and minute dial. The second smaller dial is
divided into thirty parts to indicate minutes, by an extra minute hand which is
actuating in connection with the quarter-second hand and simultaneously shifted
therewith to the point of starting. By this arrangement all the hands and dials of
the chronograph are at the face of the watch and at one side of the movement.
The extra minute and quarter-second hands receive their motion from an arbor
which turns at its lower end in the casing of the watch movement and receives
motion from the movement by a toothed wheel at its lower end. The upper end
of the arbor turns in a fixed bridge and transmits its motion by a minutely-divided
pinion near its upper end to the quarter second wheel which is also provided at
its circumference with fine teeth. The quarter second wheel turns in bearings in

page_text: a bridge which is pivotted at its outer end to a pivot-screw and provided at its
inner end with a shorter piece below the main piece for supporting the arbor of the
quarter second wheel. A spring presses upon one side of the moveable bridge
and tends to throw it together with the quarter second wheel sidewise and into
gear with the transmitting pinion. of the arbor. From the fixed bridge over the
quarter second wheel a spring extends against which abuts a finger secured to the
top of the quarter second wheel when the turning mechanism is in a position of
rest said spring serving for the purpose of preventing the recoil of the quarter
second wheel at the moment of starting the same.
The said finger is an essential fenture of my Invention as thereby the quarter
second hand begins to move without any oscillating or lost motion as soon as it is
started. The said finger takes into a spur wheel provided with thirty pointed
teeth after each revolution of the quarter second wheel and moves it the distance
of one tooth
The different operations of starting stopping and returning the quarter-second
and minutes hands are all accomplished by a push lever pawl and ratchet wheel
with its recesses at the under side in the usual well know manner