IMPROVEMENTS IN DIAL PLATES FOR CALENDAR CLOCKS AND WATCHES
Year: 1872

page_text: ETTERS PATENT to Edmund Edwards, of the Firm of Edwards and
Co., 22, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agents and Engineers, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN DIAL PLATES FOR CALENDAR CLOCKS AND WATCHES."-A
communication from abroad by James Crocker Dunn, Elam Clark
Lewis, Loring Atwood, Benjamin Ware Marshall, William Brown
Mussey, Bradbury Meloon Bailey, Charles Edwin Kilby, and David
Balch Channell, all of Rutland, in the County of Rutland and State
of Vanmont Inited States of Amerion
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Edmund Edwards at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 14th March 1872, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.

page_text: Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agents and
Engineers, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN DIAL PLATES FOR CALENDAR CLOCKS AND WATCHES," and have petitioned Her
Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn
Declaration that the said Invention has been communicated to me from
abroad, by James Crocker Dunn, Elam Clark Lewis, Loring Atwood,
Benjamin Ware Marshall, William Brown Mussey, Bradbury Meloon
Bailey, Charles Edwin Kilby, and David Balch Channell, all of Rutland,
in the County of Rutland and State of Vermont, United States of
America.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Edmund Edwards, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and seal,
fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement and accompanying Drawing:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the dial plates of calendar
clocks and watches in which the days of the week and month are
indicated, as well as the hours, minutes, and seconds.
In making such a calendar time piece it is desirable to accommodate
its construction as far as possible to the appearance of the approved
well known dial plate in common use, which has only an hour hand, a
minute hand, and a second hand thereon, and to which the public are
accustomed. With this object in view, the improved calendar time piece 2
is made to present the second hand to the eye of the observer in the
same relation in regard to the hour and minute hands as in the ordinary
time piece above alluded to. In doing this however the dial plate is
made consonant with the employment of two calendaring hands indi-
cating the days of the month and week, in addition to the ordinary hour 3
and minute hands, which calendaring hands by reason of the particular
construction of the dial plate are not liable in their revolution to interfere
either with the hour and minute hands or the revolution of the second
hand. And while by this improvement these objects are accomplished,
the multiplication of parts out of which the dial plate is made is avoided, 3
as well as the making of any more perforations through the dial plate
than are found in the ordinary time piece above alluded to. In other

page_text: VOOVIVO WIEW
words, by this improvement, as herein-after explained, the dial plate is
not only of a single piece, but all openings through it other than the
ordinary central perforation for the main post, and the opening for the
post of a second hand, are avoided, while at the same time two calendar
hands are utilized for designating the day of the month and week in
addition to the use of the hour, minute, and second hands of a common
time piece.
The accompanying Drawing is in illustration of this Invention.
Figure 1 is a view of a dial plate and frame of a time piece indicating
the hour, minute, and second hands, and also the day of the month and
day of the week hands. Figure 2 is a diametrical section through the
dial plate showing the several hands applied to the central post. Figure 3
shews a train of wheels for operating the day of the week and day of
the month hands. Figure 4 is a diametrical section through the dial
plate shewing the three planes thereof in connection with the relative
arrangement of the several hands, and also the calendar mechanism.
Figure 5 is a similar view of the dial plate only. Similar letters of
reference indicate corresponding parts in the several Figures.
In the Drawings A represents the dial plate made of a single piece of
the usual well known material, or combination of materials, and which
presents an external annular elevated surface a on which are marked the
hours and minutes, and a central circular depression 6 on which the days
of the month are marked in two separate circular rows, as shewn in
Figure 1. There is also another circular depression c still lower than the
surfaces a and b, on which are marked the seconds. The depression c is
of such depth as will allow the second hand z to turn freely below the
depressed surface b, and the depression is of such depth as will allow
two calendar. hands d and e to turn freely beneath the hour and minute
hands f, g, and thus insure the movement of all the bands without
interference with each other. The annular elevation a and the circular
depression are both concentric to the axis of the hour and minute hand
post C, and this depressed space b internal to the numbers indicating the
hours of the day is in part utilized for the day of the week and day of
the month dial. The internal circle of letters on the depressed surface b
indicates the days of the week, five weeks being represented; and the
external row of figures indicate the days of. the month, with four spaces
below the hour XII. The numbers and letters indicating the days of the
month and days of the week cross the depressed surface c without

page_text: materially interfering with the marks indicating seconds, as represented
in Figure 1. This depressed surface c for the second hand z, while being
of greater depth than is usual for the second hand of a time piece, is
nevertheless located in the same position usually occupied for the second
hands of time pieces in common use, and to the eye of the observer 5
appears of no greater depth.
In Figures 2, 3, and 4, the mechanism for operating the two calendar
hands d and e is represented. The minute hand post C, and the train of
wheels-connected therewith, together with other parts necessary to move
the second, minute, and hour hands, are or may be precisely the same as 1
are found in any of the well known or improved time pieces hitherto
constructed and used.
The mechanism for operating the hands d and e is as follows:-On a
tube which fits round the tube D of the hour hand f, there are
applied two calendar hands, one of which e points to the figures indi- 1
cating the days of the month, and the other d to the letters indicating
the days of the week. The circular collars e¹ and d¹ of the said hands
embrace the tube / with sufficient firmness to cause the hands to turn
with this tube, but not so firmly as to prevent them from being adjusted
around this tube by the human hand whenever it is necessary to change 2
them to any day of the week or day of the month. For instance, the
hande is to be moved over the blank space beneath the hour XII from
the last day of one month to the first day of the succeeding month.
It will be understood that on the last day or first day of every month
the hands d and e are to be adjusted on their arbor, after which they
move simultaneously every twenty-four hours, and point to the day of
the week and day of the month.
On the lower end of the hour hand tube D is a pinion j, which engages
with the teeth of a tripping or relief wheel k, which turns around a
stud o rising from the frame A' of the time piece. On this wheel k is a
pin n which at every revolution of its wheel engages with a tooth on a
ratchet or cam wheel h, and moves the hands d and e a distance equal to
the spaces marked off on the depressed face b. The wheel h is fast on
the tube of the hands d and e, so that these hands will move synchro-
nous with the said wheel h. To prevent this wheel / from moving:
except when acted on by the pin n, a friction pressure spring S which is
fastened to a studs is applied to it, so that its bent end i will engage

page_text: with its teeth, as shewn in Figure 3. By bending the spring S as at i
the wheel h can be adjusted around in either direction. On the lower
end of the hour wheel tube D is shewn one of the wheels B of the
regular" time piece train.
It will be seen from the description in connection with the Drawings
that the calendar dial is closed so that dust cannot pass through it into
the interior works of the time piece except at p, p¹, and that a depressed
space is utilized within the circle of numbers indicating hours by proper
notations to signify the days of the week and days of the month, and
two hands are employed therein for pointing to such notations. These
calendar hands d and e being arranged below the elevation a in a
depression b will not interfere with the hour and minute hands; and the
second hand being arranged in a depression c, which is deeper than
the depression b, also allows the said calendar hands d and e to revolve
without interfering with the second hand. In other words, by con-
structing the dial plate with an elevation a, a, depression b, and a still
deeper depression c, the several hands g, f, e, d, z, may all revolve
without liability to interfere with each other. And while this advantage
is gained by reason of such construction of the dial plate, the ordinary
length of the central post of time pieces having flat crystals is utilized
to receive the two extra hands d and e for calendaring the days of the
week and month. And in addition to such features a further advantage
remains (due to the particular construction of the dial plate) in that
while the means for indicating the days of the week and month are
furnished in addition to the indication of the hours, the minutes, and
seconds, as shewn by the ordinary time pieces in common use, the dial
plate A is at the same time not only made of a single piece, but it is also
closed at all points against the ingress of dust, which would derange the
works, except by two perforations, the same as in the time pieces in
common use. And finally, with the particular construction of the dial
the appearance of the usual location of the second hand with reference
to the minute hand and hour hand is maintained, while at the same
time the said second hand is not liable to be interfered with by the
calendar hands.
2
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, what I claim is,―
First. A dial plate for a calendar time piece which is made of a single
piece, having an outer annular elevation a, a depression 6 of sufficient

page_text: EDMUND EDWARDS. (L.S.)