IMPROVEMENTS. IN SPRING BALANCES WHERE SPIRAL SPRINGS ARE USED
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Fisher, of No. 7, Remington Street, City
Road, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS.
IN SPRING BALANCES WHERE SPIRAL SPRINGS ARE USED."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Fisher at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
September 1868.
I, THOMAS FISHER, of No. 7, Remington Street, City Road, in the County
of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE.
MENTS IN SPRING BALANCES WHERE SPIRAL SPRINGS ARE USED," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in spring balances where
spiral springs are used, and consists in applying a vernier scale to this
description of balance; this I do by forming a vernier scale on the moveable
stem or slide of such balances to which a pointer or marker only is now
usually attached. This scale I prefer to connect to the stem or slide by a
screw passing through a slot in the scale, and screwing into the stem or slide;
this will allow the position of the scale on the stem to be varied, and the
balance by this means can be readily adjusted. The vernier scale being con-
nected to the stem or slide rises and falls with it; the vernier scale works in
connection with a fixed scale on the stationary portion or case of the balance,
and when the lines of the scale on the case are. at such a distance apart that

page_text: the distance between any two of them represents a half pound, I prefer that
the scale on the vernier should be equal in length to 9 of the half-pound
divisions, and that it should be divided into 8 parts, so that the space between
any two of the lines can be divided into 8 parts, each division thus repre-
senting ounces; the vernier may, however, be arranged and divided in any
suitable manner.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Fisher in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 4th
March 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
FISHER, of No. 7, Remington Street, City Road, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of September, 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 me, the
said Thomas Fisher, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Fisher, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Fisher, my executors, administrators, or 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 SPRING
BALANCES WHERE SPIRAL SPRINGS ARE USED," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas Fisher, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, 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 I, the said Thomas Fisher, 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, that is to say :-
This invention has for its object improvements in spring balances where
spiral springs are used, and consists in applying a vernier scale to ibis

page_text: description of balance; this I do by forming a vernier scale on the moveable
stem or slide of such balances to which a pointer or marker only is now
usually attached. This scale I prefer to connect to the stem or slide by a
screw passing through a slot in the scale, and screwing into the stem or slide;
this will allow the position of the scale on the stem to be varied, and the
balance by this means can be readily adjusted. The vernier scale being con-
nected to the stem or slide, rises and falls with it. The vernier scale works
in connection with a fixed scale on the stationary portion or case of the
balance, and when the lines of the scale on the case are at such a distance
apart that the distance between any two of them represents a half pound, I
prefer that the scale on the vernier should be equal in length to 9 of the half
pound divisions, and that it should be divided into 8 parts, so that the space
between any two of the lines can be divided into 8 parts, each division thus
representing ounces; the vernier may, however, be arranged and divided in
any suitable manner.
And in order that
Invention may be fully understood, I will proceed to
describe the Drawing hereunto annexed.
The Drawing shows a front view of a spring balance constructed in the
manner I prefer for carrying out my Invention.
a is the outer case or framing of the balance, through front face of which
is a slot b, as is usual, and on one side of this slot is a scale c, the lines or
divisions of which are in the arrangement shown in the Drawing at such a
distance apart that for every half pound in weight placed on the book d of
the balance the hook is caused to descend a distance equal to the distance
between two of the lines of the scale. Every alternate line of the scale is thus
marked to denote the number of pounds; the other lines are marked as half
pounds. Working in the slot is a projection e from the rod, around which
the spiral spring is placed as is usual; the projection in spring balances as
heretofore constructed only carries a single pointer, such as is shown at f; in
place of this I connect to the projection e on the rod a plate g, on the edge of
which is a vernier scale to work with the scale on the outer case a. The
vernier scale is arranged so that each division of the scale on the case a can
be divided into 8 parts, and at the lowest line of the vernier a pointer fis
formed. The pointer f projects over the scale on the outer case, as is shown,
and when the pointer is exactly opposite any of the lines it indicates, as is
usual, that the article being weighed is many pounds or pounds and a-half in
weight according to the line the pointer is opposite to; if the pointer is inter-
mediate of any two of the divisions on the scale, then the weight of the article
being weighed is equal to as many pounds or pounds and a-half as is denoted

page_text: by the last line beyond which the pointer has been moved, and as many
ounces in addition as is, denoted by the figure opposite to the line of the
vernier that at the time corresponds with one or other of the divisions in the
scale a, the lines on the vernier scale being marked 1,2, 3, 4, &c., to represent
the number of ounces. The plate 9 is connected to the projection e (on the
rod around which the spiral spring is placed) by means of a screw h, the stem
of the screw passing through a slot in the plate, so that the plate may readily
be adjusted to its proper position in order that the pointer f and vernier scale
upon it may indicate the correct weight of any article suspended from the
hook d.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Fisher, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of March; in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
THOMAS FISHER. (L.S.)