.IMPROVEMENTS IN DOUBLE-PACED WATCHES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Courvoisier Jonais, Watch and Clock
Manufacturer, of Chaux de Fonds, in the Republic of Switzerland,
for the Invention of ".IMPROVEMENTS IN DOUBLE-PACED WATCHES."
Sealed the 22nd March 1870, and dated the 15th January 1870.
"
.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Alfred Courvoisier
Jonais at the Office, of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition and Declaration, on the 15th January 1870, pursuant to
the 9th Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
3
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I ALFRED
COURVOISIER JONAIS, Watch and Clock Manufacturer, of Chaux.de
Fonds, in the Republic of Switzerland, send greeting.
.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN: DOUBLE-FACED 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 I am the
I truc and first Inventor thereof.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Courvoisier Jonais, 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, that is to say:-
"This Invention relates as will be shown by the following description
and accompanying Drawings to watches having on one side a dial
and hands indicating the hours and minutes, and on the other a dial
showing the days, months, and dates, the arrangement being such as to
permit of the isolation of the works of the hour hands from those of the
indicator, the two can be easily separated or worked conjointly by a
simple chain, and the opening of either is effected without in any way
interfering with the general working of the system, the advantago
of which is that in case of repairs the mechanism is at once
visible.
The adoption of the chain before alluded to admitting of the opening
of Figs. 3 and 4; the separating barrels should be fixed in the centre
of Fig. 4, and the wheel j instead of being borne as shown in the plan
Fig. 4 is placed as represented by Fig. 3.
1
Figs. 1 and 2 represent the two sides of a single plate, Fig. 1 shows 2
the external arrangement of the winding up mechanism marked 1, 2,
and 3, accompanied by the minute hand works, Nos. 4, and 5, and
those for the hours Nos. 6 and 7; Fig. 2 shows the disposition of the
works placed between the first two pallet plates. In these first two
Figures it will be remarked that the several wheelworks, are so 2
arranged that either an anchor escapement with short or long fork or
spring ratch escapement or otherwise may be employed.
This arrangement also favours the employment of several systems of
winding up, as to the number of simple wheels they are the same as those,
ordinary employed.
;
In order to arrive at a complete and clear understanding of the whole
system it is above all necessary to take exact notice of the manner in
which motion is transmitted from the wheelwork to the date indicator.
The motive power originates in the wheel a, Fig. 2, which gears with the
first pinion 6 of the centre or minute wheel.

page_text: It would be without doubt unnecessary to develop the transmission of:
this power through the simple wheelwork to the escapement, but it is
most essential to remark that if the motive power was. communicated. to
this wheelwork by aid of the centre or minute wheel it is also by means
of this latter, or more exactly speaking by its second eccentric pinion,
shown at. c (Fig. 3, that the motive power is transmitted to the date
mechanism, this result is produced in the following manner :-The pinion.
or the centre or minute wheel b, Fig. 2, is pierced to receive the shaft d, d,
of the pinion shown in Fig. 6; the lower part of this shaft bears a
screw thread e, which receives the grooved pinion c, Figs. 3 and 6, which.
are securely fixed by a pin g; when this pinion c is fixed on the shaft d, d,
it conducts a thirty-six toothed wheel h, shown in Fig. 3, which represents.
a second plate supported by the three pillars (1', 21, 31, see Fig. 2): the:
wheel bears a pinion i having ten flies,, this latter conducts in its turn.
an 80-toothed wheel; borne by the third plate shown by Fig. 4; this
wheel completes a rotation in 24 hours and bears two pins one acting on.
a thirty-one toothed wheel me and the other on a seven-toothed¨wlicel n,.
and thus causes these two wheels m and n to turn each day so that the
hands fixed on their sockets show one the date and the other the day of
the month.
The wheel m bears a metal piece o against which a spring p
presses, and at the end of every month it escapes and drops on one of the
twelve teeth of the wheel q the socket of which bears the month hand.
Having thus far described the principal functions of the mechanism I
will now enter more minutely into the details. of some of the principal
features of the Invention, for instance,―
""
Firstly. The separating barrel is fixed in the middle of the second
plate, Fig. 3, the centre of this barrel is not shown in the Figure, it
has been omitted in order to show the pinion c; the object of this
barrel is to completely isolate from the wheelwork the constant pressure
of the springs and p, Fig. 4, this suppression of constant pressure is.
essential as it reduces friction and facilitates regulation. . .
Secondly. The regulator and its accessories 8, 8, Fig. 3. It may well
be conceived that it would be a difficult matter to act on the regulator
of a double dialed watch without removing one of the faces, but in
order to obviate this inconvenience it is furnished with a rack s, s, moved
by a wheels, the end of the steel socket of which is square bearing a
pin or hand suitably arranged on the date dial which can be directed in

page_text: a latitude of 30 degrees according to the indications marked on the
dial.
Thirdly. The mechanism for setting the date indicator, which is
effected by two detents t, t, Fig. 4, the ends of which when the case has
a spring lid projects on the flat edge, see Fig. 8, they are perfectly inde-
pendent and serve to set the dates should the watch have been stopped
for any length of time, this mechanism has no relation with the wheel-
work by which it is uninfluenced.
Fourthly. The ratchet wheel mechanism, which may be used advan
tageously which may be used advantageously in place of the pins of the
80-toothed wheel j, Fig. 4, which are replaced by the two ratchets k
and w, Fig. 5, each furnished with a circular spring and are retained by
stops. This arrangement admits of setting the watch even whilst the
teeth m and n are engaged with the ratchets k and w.
Fifthly. The six movements of the winder up are, first, that of
winding up; secondly, that of the Brequet key in case of overwinding;
thirdly and fourthly, the putting forward or backward of the hands;
and fifthly and sixthly, the separate or simultaneous opening of the
cases.
In the four first movements there is nothing novel with the exception
of their remarkable union with the two latter represented in Figs. 6,7,..
and 7. At the head of the crown a, Fig. 6, is a passage receiving
two pins b, b, having the appearance of a cylinder divided in the centre
in two equal parts, these pins b, b, entering the gold of the crown also
enters a part of a steel socket d, d, d, d, soldered to the centre of the
crown a; they receive two shafts c, c, with slides ƒ, ƒ, Fig. 7, screwed
into their respective bases; these two shafts and slides glide in the steel
socket d, d, d, d, which latter bears in its centre a square aperture for
receiving the winding up shaft g, when tho slides f,f, receive impulsion
from the pressure of the nail on the pins b, b, they act on two half
tubes h, k, Fig. 7b, inserted in the pendent gliding on two slides soldered
to the internal sides of the pendent and surrounding the winding up
shaft g. It is by the aid of these tubes that the opening of the case is
effected.
My improved system is applicable to spring cased or other watches.
In the Drawings accompanying this' description the plans shown by

page_text: ALFRED COURVOISIER JONAIS. (L.s.)