IMPROVEMENTS IN CLOCK-WORK, PART OF THESE IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLICAILE TO OTHER REGULATING PURPOSES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexandre Tolhausen, of No. 7, Duke Street, Adelphi,
London, County of Middlesex, Sworn Interpreter at the Imperial Court
of Paris, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLOCK-WORK, PART OF
THESE IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLICAILE TO OTHER REGULATING PURPOSES."
A communication from Yves Marie Thomas, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexandre Tolhausen at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd May 1856.
I, ALEXANDRE TOLHAUSEN, of No. 7, Duke St., Adelphi, London, County of
Middlesex, Sworn Interpreter at the Imperial Court of Paris, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CLOCK-WORK,
PART OF THESE IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLICABLE TO OTHER REGULATING PURPOSES,"
being a communication from Yves Marie Thomas, France, to be as follows:-
The said improvements relate, 1st, to a pendulum; 2nd, to an escapemen ;
& 3d, to a calendar work.
The pendulum (of steel, copper, or any other metal or substance,) is com-
posed of a horizontal cross bar of a vertical column with slides, & of two
inclined arms, forming the two sides of a triangle whose base is formed by
the cross bar. At each extremity of those arms there is a weight suspended,

page_text: which may be raised or lowered by means of a regulating screw on the vertical
column, & by means of screws at the ends of the weights themselves. From
2,000 to 13,000 vibrations pr. hour may thus be obtained, the oscillating
movement being regulated upon the centres of the weights being nearer to
or more distant from the centre of gravitation. Beneath the centre of gravita-
tion or oscillation is placed the anchor, at the proper height; expansion &
contraction acting equally upon the metals of the different parts of that pen-
dulum, a constant compensation is effected thereby; thus, if the cross bar
dilates, raising thereby the weights, the arms carrying those weights & the
vertical column dilating likewise, the weights will lower, whereby they will
be kept in a constant state of immobility. Those weights when at repose are
in such a perfect equilibrium that the least touch will impart them an
oscillating movement. This regulator may be applied to any mechanism
where an uniform oscillation is required. The escapement, which may be
applied underneath as well as above the regulator, is composed of a sharp
beviled anchor, suspended on two steel pivots, & of a wheel with salient
beviled lifters. This escapement wheel may be worked by the cutting
engine, & made of a single piece; it may be very light & much numbered;
its beviled lifters allow the anchor to travel without any hindrance over an
extensive circle of repose or dead-beat. The teeth salient at right angles to
the wheel may be ranged so as to leave as much intermediate space as there
is solid work, which will admit of a small diameter of the wheel, or of giving
it a great number of teeth without fear of disproportion. The diameter of
the escapement wheel & the number of those lifters are in proportion both of
the desired movement & the kind of regulator used. It is applicable to all
systems of clock-works, & may be made of copper, steel, or any other metal.
The clock-work with the said pendulum & escapement is calculated to go
504 days or 16 months.
The calendar work is arranged so as to indicate precisely the date of the
month, the common & bissextile years, the months of 28, 29, 30, and 31 days.
The handle, after having indicated the 28 Feb. in a common year, moves
back to mark 1 on the following day. The annual wheel has only one more
tooth every four years for bissextile years. The said calendar work has its
own motive-weight, which descends only 2/5 of an inch every year. This
calendar-work is not intended to be applied to common clocks.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexandre Tolhausen in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
.21st November 1856.
.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDRE
TOLHAUSEN, of No. 7, Duke Street, Adelphi, London, County of Middlesex,
Sworn Interpreter at the Imperial Court of Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexandre Tolhausen, Her special licence that. I, the said Alexandre
Tolhausen, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Alexandre Tolhausen, 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 for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CLOCK-WORK, PART OF THESE IMPROVEMENTS BEING APPLICABLE
TO OTHER REGULATING PURPOSES," a communication from Yves Marie Thomas,
France, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexandre
Tolhausen, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
, 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 Alexandre Tolhausen, 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 :—
The object of this Invention is to produce a universal regulator for all-
kinds of clock-work to which pendulums are applicable, and to do away
with the frequent winding up of clocks, so as to obtain in a small compass
clocks and time-pieces that will go a long time without winding up and
regulating.
The accompanying Drawing illustrates the Invention; Fig. 1 being a general
front view of the pendulum and the escapement; and Fig. 2, a side view of
the teeth of the escape wheel on an enlarged scale. A is a column-of brass

page_text: or other substance, supported on a cross bar B, which oscillates on two small
pins 6 of steel or other hard substance. At the top of the column is a slotted
cross bar C, the centre part C being bored so as to slide up and down the
upper part a of the column; this upper part a is also tapped to receive a
screw d, the head of which D permits the cross bar C to be raised or lowered,
at the same time preventing it from sliding off. Through the slots in this
cross bar C pass two small screws or pivots e, the ends of which are fixed into
the extremities of two weighted arms E, E; the slots are sufficiently wide
to allow the screws e to move freely in them. The arms E, E, are connected
towards their lower extremities by pivots f, f, to a cross bar F, projecting on
both sides of the column A, and are finally passed through the. weights b, b,
which are prevented from sliding off the arms E, E, by nuts g, g, by means
of which they may also be raised or lowered, so that they may exactly balance
each other. The position of those disk-shaped weights with respect to the
points of oscillation permits of their free vibration without any great expense
of power, at the same time they may be so large as not to be susceptible of
any changes from shocks or irregularities of the moving power: The cross
bar B has attached to it a column H, which carries an anchor I, furnished
with two beviled pins i, i, which work across the teeth ; of the escape which
J. In order that the vibrations may be as long as possible the sharp beviled
teeth are made projecting outwards in right angles from the plane of the rim
of the wheel, as shown in Fig. 2, thus permitting a long dead bent. The
action of this anchor on the escape wheel is similar to most of the known
forms of escapement. The number of the lifters, which latter must be twice
as wide as thick, and the diameter of the escape wheel, are optional; they
must, however, be in proportion to the movement and nature of the regulator
employed. The clock is made to go slower by screwing in the screw d; which
lowers the bar C, and consequently raises the weight G, G; it is made. to
go faster by turning d in the opposite direction, thereby lowering the weights.
G, G. As the temperature affects all parts of this regulator equally, it follows
that if the heat causes the column A to dilate, the arms E, E, and cross
bar F will dilate also, thus compensating for the tendency of the column A
to lower the weights G, G.
The wheel gear from the spring barrel is or may be constructed as follows,
or in any other suitable manner for getting down the angular speed of the
spring barrel, as compared with that of the escapement wheel. Between the
spring barrel and escapement arbor there are four arbors, having each a
small follower and a large driver fixed on them; the first follower is driven.
by a large wheel on the spring barrel, and it will be seen that by this train

page_text: of clock-work the angular speed of the spring barrel is much diminished with
regard to that of the escapement, and thereby the clock-work when wound
up may go much longer. The long duration of the action of the clock-work
when once wound up is, however, chiefly due to the improved and novel
construction of the pendulum and escapement wheel above described; the
former of which by its particular construction allows giving a very slow
oscillatory movement with a very compact and small pendulum; and the
latter of which, by its bevilled teeth standing parallel to the axis of revolutions,
allows increasing the number of teeth without exceeding the usual diameter
of escapement wheels, and also allow the anchor to travel through a greater
are of oscillation than in ordinary clock-work, thereby rendering possible a
slow oscillation of the pendulum and ensuring a steady action of the same.
Motion is given to the hands of the clock by means of a suitable gear on the
third and fourth arbors above mentioned.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is or may be performed, I wish it to be distinctly understood
that I do not confine myself to the precise details contained herein; but
what I claim is, the particular construction of the pendulum above described,
or any analogous one, for producing slow motion and compensating the effects
of contraction and expansion, combined or not, as this construction may be,
with the improved escapement wheel described above, and illustrated in
Fig. 1 and 2.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexandre Tolhausen, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November, One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-six.
A. TULHAUSEN. (L.S.)