IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR KEEPING TIME
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tosco Peppé, of Peak Hill, Sydenham, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR KEEPING TIME."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tosco Peppé at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th December 1859.
I, GEORGE TOSCO PEPPE, of Peak Hill, Sydenham, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR KEEPING
TIME," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for keeping
time. For these purposes a tube is employed bent into the form of a ring or
other
spiral. This ring or spiral is by preference of gutta percha, tho' glass or
material not prejudicially acted on by mercury may be used. This hollow ring
or spiral is mounted on and turns with an axis, on which there is a pointing
hand, which points to a graduated fixed dial. The axis of the hollow ring or
spiral turns in bearings, so as to bring the centre of the axis to correspond
with the centre of the graduated dial. The two ends of the hollow ring or
spiral are connected together by a tube, in which is placed cotton or other
suitable material, such as will allow water or other liquid to filter through
gradually. A portion of the interior of this hollow ring or spiral is occupied
by a small quantity of mercury, and the rest of the interior of the hollow ring.

page_text: or spiral is filled with a liquid, by preference, water, having mixed with it such
a quantity of alcohol as will present the mixture freezing. The axis of the
hollow ring or spiral has on it a pulley or drum, on which is wound a cord, the
end of which is weighted to such an extent as to tend to rotate the axis;
together with the hollow ring or spiral in the opposite direction to that in
which the mercury tends to settle down to the lowest point or part of the
hollow ring in which it is contained. By this arrangement the mercury will
be constantly forcing the other liquid to filter through the parts where the two
ends of the ring or spiral are connected, and have interposed between them
filtering or porous matters, and the requisite adjustment is obtained by
applying additional or removing part of the weight which is suspended to
the cord or chain, or a spring may be employed in place of a weight. In
some cases, in place of connecting the two ends of the tube or spiral, and
applying the porous matters between them, I apply such porous matters at
each end, and place the spiral or hollow ring in a cylindrical or other suitably
formed case, which I fill with a like liquid to that employed in the ring or
spiral with the mercury, by which means air is more readily prevented being
enclosed in the ring or spiral. I would state that the peculiarity of my Inven-
tion consists in the combined use of mercury and a liquid in contradistinction
to air or aeriform fluid in apparatus such as herein described, the uso of air
with a small quantity of glycerine to lubricate the mercury having before been
published by me.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Tosco Peppé in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th June 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
Tosco PEPPE, of Peak Hill, Sydenham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third.
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant:
unto me, the said George Tosco Peppé, Her special licence that I, the said
George Tosco Peppé, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said George Tosco Peppé, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any tinic agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully:

page_text: 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 APPARATUS FOR KEEPING TIME," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said George Tosco Peppé, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their bands 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 George Tosco Peppé, 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 apparatus for keeping
time. For these purposes a tube is employed bent into the form of a ring or
spiral. This ring or spiral is by preference of gutta percha, though glass or
other material not prejudicially acted on by mercury may be used. This
hollow ring or spiral is mounted on and turns with an axis on which there is a
pointing hand which points to a graduated fixed dial. The axis of the hollow
ring or spiral turns in bearings so as to bring the centre of the axis to corre-
spond with the centre of the graduated dial. The two ends of the hollow ring
or spiral are connected together by a tube, in which is placed cotton or other
suitable material, such as will allow water or other liquid to filter through
gradually. A portion of the interior of the hollow ring or spiral is occupied
by a small quantity of mercury, and the rest of the interior of the hollow ring
or spiral is filled with a liquid by preference water having mixed with it such
a quantity of alcohol as will prevent the mixture freezing. The axis of the
hollow ring or spiral has on it a pulley or drum on which is wound a cord,
the end of which is weighted to such an extent as to tend to rotate the axis
together with the hollow ring or spiral in the opposite direction to that in
which the mercury tends to settle down to the lowest point or part of the
hollow ring in which it is contained. By this arrangement the mercury will
be constantly forcing the other liquid to filter through the parts where the
two ends of the ring or spiral are connected, and have interposed between
them filtering or porous matters, and the requisite adjustment is obtained by
applying additional or removing part of the weight which is suspended to the
cord or chain. Or a spring may be employed in place of a weight. In some
cases in place of connecting the two ends of the tube or spiral, and applying

page_text: the porous matters between them, I apply such porous matters at each end,
and place the spiral or hollow ring in a cylindrical or other suitably formed
case, which I fill with a like liquid to that employed in the ring or spiral
with the mercury, by which means air is more readily prevented being
enclosed in the ring or spiral.
I would state that the peculiarity of my Invention consists in the com-
bined use of mercury and a liquid, in contradistinction to air or aeriform fluid
in apparatus such as herein described, the use of air with a small quantity of
glycerine to lubricate the mercury having before been published by me.
In witness whercof, I, the said George Tosco Peppé, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
G. T. PEPPE. (L.S.)