IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES."-A commu-
nication from abroad by A. L. Dennison, of Waltham, County of Middle-
sex and State of Massachusetts Tinited States of America
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd December 1860.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES,".to be as
follows:-:
It is well known that it is desirable to reduce the size of watches that are
to be carried about the person, not only in thickness, but also in diameter;
so far as this may be done without weakening or otherwise injuring the works.
It is also very desirable that a watch should have a large barrel, giving a large
spring space, also a large main gear, and particularly that the pinion with which
the main gear engages be large, and that it possess a great number: of teeth;
all these ends are accomplished by means of the first part of this present In-
vention, which consists in placing the pinion which engages with the main gear
upon a supplementary arbor out of the centre of the watch, which arbor carries

page_text: an intermediate wheel that engages directly with the centre wheel. The
retaining power which drives the train while the watch is being wound up is
attached to the intermediate wheel, which is constructed as follows:-The
upper plate or body of this wheel is attached to a central pinion and arbor,
and has a recess or groove on its under surface for the accommodation of
a maintaining spring, a projection on the wheel engaging with a corresponding
notch in the spring. The plate of the intermediate wheel is turned down
upon its periphery to a depth equal to the depth of the groove for the spring,
and upon the ledge thus formed is placed a toothed ring, having a notch into
which enters the hooked end of the maintaining spring. The under plate,
which forms the ratchet wheel of the maintaining power, is now secured by
screws to the upper plate, there being sufficent space between them to allow
the ring to move independently of the balance of the wheel. By thus placing
the retaining power upon the intermediate wheel the ratchet wheel of the
retaining power is brought into the same plane with the ratchet wheel of the
winding barrel, and thus the space is saved in the thickness of the watch here-
tofore occupied by one of them.
The ordinary method of regulating watches is by means of a small- hand
or index pivoting on the top of the cock or plate which forms one of the
bearings for the arbor of the balance wheel, a portion of the hair spring passing
between two pins or studs which project down from the hand. The said pins
do not actually bind or clasp the spring, but are placed close enough together
to interrupt its vibrations at the part of the spring opposite to which they
happen to be, and yet leave space enough between them to allow them to move
along the spring when the hand is moved. As this did not give a sufficiently
nice adjustment or means of regulating the vibrations of the hair spring,
further adjustment has been effected by changing the position of the pins, so as
to cause them to press more closely on the hair spring, and thus more entirely
check its vibration beyond the point at which the pins come in contact with
the spring. The means heretofore employed for giving this final adjustment,
as it may be termed, were not such as enabled the person regulating the watch
to define exactly the position of the pins, and therefore it was guess work with
him as to how much he really changed their position, and consequently how
much he accelerated or retarded the vibrations of the spring.
The object of the second part of this Invention is to remedy this defect, and
consists.in forming one of the pins excentric and attaching to its head a small
hand or index, which will shew the position of the pin and the degree to which
the spring is confined between the two pins on a graduated 'arc.
The third part of this Invention relates to certain improvements in the con-

page_text: struction of the scape wheel of lever watches, and consists in giving such a
form to the teeth of the wheel that the spaces between the teeth and the sides
of the teeth may be polished by a spindle in a lathe; this form will also permit
of the whole wheel being made and finished by machinery.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
< .
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in.the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st June 1861.
TO. ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, J, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
... WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of December, in the year of our
Lord 1860, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her
heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton,
Her special license that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton,
my executors, administrators, 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 of "IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES,"
a communication to him from abroad by A. L.. Dennison, of Waltham, County
of Middlesex, and State of Massachusetts, United States of America, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
Fig. 1 is a plan of the pillar plate with portions of the internal mechanism
necessary to illustrate my Invention; Fig. 2, a plan of the bridge plate;
Fig. 3, a section upon the line X, X, of Fig. 1; Fig. 4, a plan of the stop

page_text: wheels; Fig. 5, a plan of the under side of the intermediate wheel I, with the
maintaining power spring; Figs. 6, 7, 8, and 9, details of the separate parts
of which the intermediate wheel I is composed, and which will be referred to
hereafter; Fig. 10, a plan of part of the works of a watch, showing the hair
spring and regulator with my improvements attached; Fig. 11, a vertical
section on the line Z, Z, of Fig. 10; Fig. 12, a plan of my improved scape
'wheel; Fig. 13, detail showing the method of constructing said wheel.
'It is well known that it is desirable to reduce the size of watches that are
to be carried about the person, not only in thickness, but also in diameter, so
'far as this may be done without weakening or otherwise injuring the works.
It is also very desirable that a watch should have a large barrel, giving a large
spring space, also a large main gear, and particularly that the pinion with
which the main gear engages be large, and that it possess a great number of
teeth; all these ends are accomplished by means of the first part of this
present Invention, which consists in placing the pinion which engages with the
main gear upon a supplementary-arbor out of the centre of the watch, which
arbor carries an intermediate wheel that engages directly with the centre wheel.
I am aware that both in clocks and watches intended to run for a number
of days without winding, an intermediate wheel and pinion have been employed
between the main gear and centre wheel, but in such cases the intermediate
wheel has engaged with a pinion upon the arbor of the centre wheel, and not
with the wheel itself; but such device, which was used only for the purpose of
increasing the number of revolutions of the centre wheel; would not answer the
end which I have in view, but would, on the contrary, defeat it, as the inter-
mediate wheel and centre wheel lie one over the other, and consequently
increase the thickness of the watch, whereas by my arrangement the thickness
'as well as the diameter of the watch is diminished.
.
The ordinary method of regulating watches is by means of a small hand or
index, pivoting on the top of the cock or plate which forms one of the bearings
for the arbor of the balance wheel, a portion of the hair spring passing between
two pins or studs which project down from the hand, so that as the hand is
moved towards one side or the other over a graduated. scale, these pins will
be moved nearer to or farther from the point at which the hair spring is rigidly
attached to a part of the frame of the watch; this change of the position of the
pins permitting a longer or shorter vibration of the spring, and thus regulating
the rate of going of the watch. The said pins do not actually bind or clasp the
spring, but are placed close enough together to interrupt its vibrations at the
part of the spring opposite to which they happen to be, and yet leaving space
enough between, them to allow them to move along the 'spring when the hand

page_text: is moved. As this did not give a sufficiently nice adjustment or means of
regulating the vibrations of the hair spring, a farther adjustment has been
effected by changing the position of the pins, so as to cause them to press more
closely on the hair, spring, and thus more entirely check its vibrations beyond
the point at which the pins come in contact with the spring. The means
heretofore employed for giving this "final adjustment," as it may be termed,
were not such as enabled the person regulating the watch to define exactly the
position of the pins, and it therefore was guess work with him as to how much
he really changed their position, and consequently how much he accelerated or
retarded the vibrations of the spring.
The object of the second part of this Invention is to remedy this defect, and
consists in forming one of the pins excentric, and attaching to its head a small
hand or index, which will show the position of the pin and the degree to
which the spring is confined between the two pins.
The third part of this Invention relates to certain improvements in the
construction of the scape wheel of lever watches, and consists in giving such a
form to the teeth of the wheel that the spaces between the teeth and the sides
of the teeth may be polished by a spindle in a lathe; this form also permitting
the whole wheel to be made and finished by machinery.
In the accompanying. Drawings, A is the pillar plate; B, the stationary
barrel, which is secured to the pillar plate by. screws a; the cover plate for the
barrel is formed by the main gear C, through the centre of which passes
the winding arbor D. The main spring E is connected at its outer end and
to the stationary. barrel B, and at its inner end to a hub or collar F, secured
to the winding arbor. The power of the spring is transmitted to the main
gear through the ratch G and spring .n, the ratch being secured to the arbor
and the spring to the gear at. 2. The winding arbor and ratch are thus
allowed to turn in the direction of the arrow 1, independent of the gear when
the watch is wound up, and to communicate the recoil of the spring to the
gear in the opposite direction when the watch is going. The main gear C
engages with á pinion H. upon the arbor of the intermediate gear I, which
engages with the centre wheel K. It will thus be seen that, instead of the
pinion which was heretofore placed upon the centre arbor, and which limited
the size that could be given to the barrel and main gear, there is only the
arbor itself of the centre wheel, which being much smaller than the pinion,
leaves much more space for the enlargement of the barrel and gear; or if
the size of the barrel and gear remain the same, perinits the diameter of the
watch to be diminished. It will; also be perceived, that if the main gear was
crowded by the pinion, the latter was equally crowded by the gear, and conse

page_text: quently the size of this pinion was reduced to the minimum; but by the arrange-
ment above described of an intermediate wheel between the main gear and
'centre wheel, and engaging with the latter, I am enabled to enlarge the pinion
with which the main gear engages to any desirable diameter, and thus to reduce
the disparity between it and its driving wheel to a degree that shall be practically
unobjectionable. But as the pinion is enlarged, the power of the main gear
'upon it increases, consequently I am enabled to employ a much thinner
spring than has heretofore been used, which gives me a double advantage:→
1st, with a thin spring more turns may be given to the barrel and main gear,
and thus the amount of motion lost by the use of the large pinion may be
made up; 2nd, the thin spring is far less liable to breakage, and may be
tempered higher than one that is thicker. The retaining power which drives
'the train while the watch is being wound up is attached to the intermediate
wheel I, which is constructed as follows:-The upper plate or body of this
wheel (c, Figs. 1 and 3) is attached to the pinion H and arbor, and has a
recess or groove d, for the accommodation of the maintaining spring f, a pro-
jection 3 on the wheel engaging with a corresponding notch 4 in the spring.
The plate c is turned down upon its periphery to a depth equal to the depth
of the groove d; and upon the ledge x thus formed. is placed the toothed
ring g, having a notch 5, into which enters the hooked end of the spring f; the
under plate h of the wheel is now secured to the plate.c by screws i (Figs. 1
and 3), there being sufficient space between them to prevent them from binding
the ring g, and allow the latter to move independently of the balance of the
wheel. The plate h is also the ratch of the maintaining power, and is seen in
section in Fig. 3, detached in Fig. 7, and dotted in Fig. 2, together with its
pawl m and spring . It will be seen on inspection of Fig. 3, that the wheel I
lies partly within a recess turned in the bridge plate, so that the ratch h is
brought upon a level with its pawl m and spring 1, which are secured to the
'under surface of the bridge plate. By thus placing the retaining power upon
'the intermediate wheel I am enabled to place the ratch of the retaining power
in the same plane with the ratch of the winding barrel, and thus to save the
'space in the thickness of the watch heretofore occupied by one of them.
Were the maintaining power placed upon the winding arbor, the two ratches
'would necessarily fall one above the other, and would occupy a double amount
of space. In Fig. 4 is seen detached the stop wheels y and, which are
attached to the top of the bridge plate, as seen in Figs. 2 and 3.
In the said Drawings, A¹, Fig. 10, is the plate or frame of the watch; B¹,
a cock which forms one of the bearings of the arbor of the balance wheel; C³,
the hair spring,. one end of which is secured at a¹ to a stud b, the other end

page_text: being connected with the balance wheel (the wheel is not shown in these
Drawings). A hand or index D' is attached by a friction ring or band c' to
a hub f', rising from the top of the cock B'; this hand points to a scale E¹,
and by moving the hand towards one end or the other of the scale, the vibra-
tions of the spring C¹ are lengthened or shortened in the following manner :→
An arm e', Fig. 11, projects from one side of the ring c¹, and has two.pins 3
and 4 projecting down from its under side; these pins are in such a position
that the last coil of the spring C¹ passes between them near where its end is
secured at a'; they are placed just far enough apart to allow them to slide.
along the spring as the hand D' is moved, but near enough for the spring to
touch as it vibrates, and thus the vibrations of the spring are interrupted
between the point of contact with the pins and the point of attachment at a¹;
they are not, however, entirely caused to cease. After the watch has been
thus regulated by the movement of the hand D³, a still farther and .nicer,
adjustment may be effected by closing more or less the space between the pins
3 and 4, so that the amount of vibration allowed to that part of the spring.
between the point of contact with the pins and the point of attachment at a
may be regulated with great exactness; this is effected in the following
manner :-A semicircular dial ³, with a graduated scale or arc around its edge,
is attached to the top of the arm e, the pin 3 (the lower end of which is of an
excentric form) passes up through the arm e² and-dial i¹, and has a small hand
n² secured to its head, this hand pointing to the graduated arc on the dial
the hand thus indicating the position of this pin. As the pin 3 is turned, its side
which projects beyond the axis of the pin is brought more or less near to the
pin 4, and the spring C¹ is held more or less rigidly by the pins, and as before.
stated, a remarkably nice adjustment of the vibrations of the spring may be
had, the hand n¹ and scale on the dial guiding the operator. For the con-
venience of turning the pin 3, its head is cut or notched like that of a screw,,
so that it may be turned by a small screw driver.
The method of constructing the scape wheel A', Figs. 12 and 13, will now
be described. "A disk is first struck by a suitable die from a sheet of steel, the.
die forming the hub.a³, the arms b³, and the rim c³, Fig. 13, the inner edge of
the rim being scalloped, as shown in the Drawings at 3; the holes 4 are next
drilled through the rim entirely around it, and their edges polished by a suit-
able spindle in a lathe and diamond powder; this leaves a small quantity of
surplus metal around the outer edge of the rim, which is cut away, as shown
at 5, by a grinding wheel, leaving the teeth 6 finished and of the form shown
in Fig. 12, at much less expense of time and labor than a wheel having teeth
of the usual irregular form can be 'made; in the latter case the teeth.requiring

page_text: to-be formed and polished by hand. The scallops 3 being concentric with the
holes 4, the metal left around the inner part of the rim is of such a form as to
give the wheel great strength combined with lightness.
The advantages resulting from the employment of a stationary barrel are
very great, as the parts are not liable to be injured should the mainspring
break; and there are other methods of construction by which a stationary
barrel may be employed in connection with a retaining power; for instance,
the main gear may be placed over the stationary barrel, or may even serve as
a top or cover for it, and the winding arbor may pass through the centre of the
barrel and main gear, a maintaining power being interposed between the arbor
and the gear; such construction, although it would embrace a portion of my
Invention, and possesses certain of the advantages of a stationary barrel and
maintaining power, is inferior to that already described, as it does not reduce
either the diameter or the thickness of the watch.
Having now set forth the nature of this Invention, and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under
the above recited Letters Patent I claim,―
1st, the employment of a maintaining power between the mainspring and
the main gear in connection with a stationary barrel.
2nd, the intermediate wheel I in combination with the main gear C and
central wheel K, when the intermediate and central wheels are in the same
plane, as set forth.
3rd, I claim combining the maintaining power with an intermediate wheel
between the main gear and the central wheel, whereby the ratch of the wind-
ing arbor and the ratch of the maintaining power are placed in the same plane,
for the purpose set forth.
4th, I claim the excentric pin 3, with its index hand n³ and graduated are or
dial, in combination with the regulating hand D¹ and hair spring C³, arranged
and operating in the manner set forth, for the purpose specified.
5th, I claim the within described scape wheel A³, made and polished in the
manner substantially as set forth.
.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have here-
'unto set my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT, 66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)
S