IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Marks Leopold Muller, of Coleman Street, in the
City of London, Watch Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
WATCHES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Marks Leopold Muller
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 26th August 1864.
I, MARKS LEOPOLD MULLER, of Coleman Street, in the City of London,
Watch Maker, do bereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN WATCHES," to be as follows:-
My Invention of improvements in watches relates to arrangements for
obtaining dead beat independent seconds. These arrangements consist of
an additional wheel with a pinion, so placed as to be driven from the third
wheel of the watch; a pressure spring, spring clawker, spring detent, or like
contrivance works into the teeth of the additional wheel and regulates its
motion, so as to produce the division for obtaining dead beat seconds. I drive
the seconds hand from the additional wheel by mounting the seconds hand on
an axis provided with a toothed disc plate, wheel, boss, or clutch in gear with
a corresponding toothed disc, plate, wheel, boss, or clutch on the axis of the
additional wheel, so that when I wish to stop the seconds hand I do not
disconnect the additional wheel from the going part of the watch, but I

page_text: disconnect or disengage the seconds band from the additional wheel by dis-
engaging one of the toothed discs, plates, bosses, wheels, or clutches from the
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Marks Leopold Muller in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 25th February 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARKS
LEOPOLD MULLER, of Coleman Street, in the City of London, Watch Maker,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Marks Leopold Muller, Her special licence that I, the
said Marks Leopold Muller, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Marks Leopold Muller, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Marks Leopold Muller, 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 Marks Leopold Muller, 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 fol-
lowing statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My Invention of improvements in watches relates to arrangements for
obtaining dead beat independent seconds. These arrangements consist of
an additional wheel with a pinion, so placed as to be driven from the third

page_text: wheel of the watch; a pressure spring, spring clawker, spring detent, or like
contrivance works into the teeth of the additional wheel and regulates its
motion, so as to produce the division for obtaining dead beat seconds. I drive
the seconds hand from the additional wheel by mounting the seconds hand on
an axis provided with a toothed disc, plate, wheel, boss, or clutch, which
engages a corresponding toothed disc, plate, wheel, boss, or clutch on the axis
of the additional wheel, so that when I wish to stop the seconds hand I do
not disconnect the additional wheel from the going part of the watch, but I
disconnect or disengage the seconds hand from the additional wheel by
disengaging one of the toothed discs, plates, bosses, wheels, or clutches from
the other by means of a push-piece or slide, or other convenient contrivance.
Having thus set forth the nature of my said Invention, I proceed to
describe in what manner the same may be carried into effect.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings is a plan of a watch with my
Invention applied thereto; Figure 2 is a plan of same with dial removed;
Figure 3, elevation, looked at in the direction of the arrow a, Fig. 2 (the
case being removed). Only sufficient of the works are shewn as are necessary
to explain my improvements.
a is the pillar plate, and 6 the third wheel of the watch; c is an additional
wheel on a pinion d, pivoted at one end in the pillar plate, and at the other in
a cock e; fis its upper pivot. This pinion is in gear with the wheel b. The
wheel c is toothed; g is a spring detent or clawker, which is fixed at one end
to the plate a, and takes into the teeth of the wheel c; h is a clutch wheel
fitted on the pivot f above the cock e; this wheel is toothed on its upper face
with teeth like ratchet tecth or briquet teeth, standing or projecting upward;
I is a corresponding clutch wheel fitted on an axis i directly over the wheel h.
This wheel is toothed on its under face with ratchet teeth, which correspond
with those on the wheel h, so that these wheels engage or clutch one another,
and when so engaged they turn together upon rotary motion being com-
municated to the wheel c by the wheel b, and thus rotary motion is imparted
to the axis ; this axis i also carries a seconds handj; m is a spring lever or
arm fixed at one end to the pillar plate, and carrying at its other end the
axis i, in such manner that the axis is free to turn in it; this piece m has on
its under surface a projection m*; n is a push-piece or slide projecting through
a slot in the watch case, so that it may be worked from outside to the right
or left. When slidden in one direction it comes under the projection m*, and
lifts the spring lever m, thereby raising the axis i, and disengaging the wheel l
from the wheel h. The wheels h and I are shewn as disengaged in Figure 8,
and they are shewn engaged in the detached view, Fig. 3. When the push-

page_text: piece is moved in the opposite direction the wheels or clutch faces and h
become again engaged, and clutch each other, so as to turn together.. The
wheel drives the pinion d, and thence the wheel c, and as the latter turns
the detent g catches into the space between every two of its teeth successively,
thereby regulating, controlling, or dividing the motion of the wheel to produce
the dead beat seconds; the axis i and therefore the hand j turn with the
wheel c when the clutch wheels and are engaged. Sometimes the lower
clutch face or wheel h may be in a piece with the upper side of the wheel c,
which may be fitted on the pivot f above the cock e; or sometimes, as shewn
in the plan of a centre seconds watch, Figures 4 and 5, and elevation, partly
in section, Figure 6, the cock e may be dispensed with, the pinion & being
pivoted in the plates or frame. The parts corresponding to those in the pre-
ceding Figures are lettered like them. The spring detents g are not shewn
in Figures 3 and 6, for the sake of clearness. The wheels and c are, of
course, toothed all round their respective peripheries, though only a few of
their teeth are shown.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim,-
First, the employment in a watch of an additional wheel driven by the
third wheel of the watch, for the purpose of obtaining dead beat independent
seconds, substantially as described.
Second, the general arrangement and combination of parts, substantially as
described, for the purpose set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Marks Leopold Muller, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
S. E. A. NEWSOME.
M. L. MULLER. (L.S.)