Improvements in Instruments for "Clocking" or Timing Horses, Men, or other Moving Bodies during Races, Trotting and Pacing, or other Trials, or other like purposes.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Jan., 1896-Accepted, 7th Jan., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Instruments for "Clocking" or Timing Horses,
Men, or other Moving Bodies during Races, Trotting and
Pacing, or other Trials, or other like purposes.
We, HENRY ALFRED LUGRIN, Watchmaker of the City of Brooklyn, in the
County of Kings and State of New York, and MAURICE DION FIELDING,
Merchant, of the City of New York, in the County of New York and State of
New York, United States of America do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the saine is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to improvements in instruments for timing horses, men,
etc., during races, trotting and pacing trials etc.
Heretofore it has been customary to provide ordinary time keeping watches with
an additional or fly back hand, which at the will of the operator, could be started
to indicate fractions of seconds, and stopped at will and returned to its original
position, and also to provide watches with two fly back hands, also arranged to be
started together and to be stopped independently of each other and to be returned
to the initial position, and it has also been customary to construct timing pieces
that were not provided with any time indicating hands but with a fly back hand
only.
The fly back hands and the mechanisms heretofore applied on ordinary time
keeping watches, made the latter very costly and apt to get out of order, requiring
frequent and expensive repairs and furthermore, the mechanism for operating the
fly back hands interfered seriously with the time keeping qualities of the watch,
thus materially reducing the reliability and value of the watch as a time keeper
and the ordinary time keeping mechanism also interfered with the proper action
of the fly back hands, frequently making the reliability of the latter very
questionable.
The devices constructed without time keeping mechanism were usually of a
cheap grade and not very reliable and had only one or at the utmost two fly back
hands.
The object of this invention is to provide a new and improved timing instrument
for taking the speeding time of a horse or man at the four quarters of a mile or
taking the time of from one to four horses or men and indicating the time elapsed
in minutes, seconds and fractions of seconds, and which instrument is so constructed
that the four hands can be started at the same time, and each stopped successively
for example, one at each quarter mile for one horse, or one when each horse or
man arrives at the goal, without interfering with the others and locked in this
position until the times have been recorded, when the several hands together can
be thrown back to the initial position.
A further object of this invention is to provide means for stopping the balance
wheel at the same time the last hand is stopped in such a manner, that as soon as the
hands are again started the balance wheel is also started.
A further object of this invention is to simplify the construction of the entire
mechanisin and to make it reliable, not apt to get out of order and to reduce the
cost of the instrument.
In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and in which
like letters of reference indicate like parts in all the figures:

page_text: Figure 1 is a view of the back of the movement of the improved timing
instrument the back of the case being open and parts being broken away.
Figure 2 is a vertical sectional view on the line 2 2 of Figure 1.
Figure 3 is a similar view to Fig. 1 (ie. a view of the face of the main plate
opposite the one on which the dial is fastened) showing that mechanism on that
side of said plate which is concealed by the quarter plate.
Figure 4 is a view of the other side of the main plate (with the dial removed)
showing the mechanism between said plate and said dial.
Figures 5 and 6 are similar detail views showing the parts in different
positions.
Figure 7 is a diagram showing in cross section a modified construction of the
mechanism.
Figure 8 is a modified construction of the locking lever for the balance wheel.
In the drawings A represents the main plate, which is held in a case A' of the
conventional style, the dial (not shown) being fastened over the back face of the
main plate as is customary in watches. The quarter plate A is fastened by posts
on the front face of the main plate, so as to leave a space between the front
surface of the main plate and the quarter plate.
On the quarter plate three superimposed bridges B2, B3 B4 are fastened one
resting on the other as shown in Figure 2.
The four seconds hands C1 C2 C3 C are secured on the four arbors D1 D2 D3 D4
of which arbors D' D2 and D³ are tubular one surrounding the other, the arbor D'
being solid and passing through the inner tubular arbor D³.
The exterior arbor D' is mounted in the main plate A, the arbor D2 in the
quarter plate A2, the arbor D³ in the bridge B2 and the central arbor D' in the
bridges B³ and B.
The wheels E' E2 E3 and E are fixed on the arbors D' D2 D3 and D
respectively and are all of the same size and are provided with fine teeth in
their rims.
The wheels E E E E are provided with the heart cams F1 F2 F3 and F' on
which the heart cam levers G''G' G³ and G can act, which heart cam levers are
pressed by springs H H against the heart cams.
On a spindle B on the main plate A four superimposed hubs C are mounted
eccentrically so as to be capable of adjustment on said spindle for adjusting gear
and on each hub an approximately V shaped lever J1 J2 J3 and J' respectively is
mounted to swing, one end of each of said V shaped levers being pressed by a
spring Dagainst a common cam barrel E to be fully described hereinafter and the
other end of each lever J J J and J carries a finely toothed wheel 11 12 13
and I respectively and all of the same size and gear as the wheels E' E' E' and E'
with which they can be engaged.
The toothed wheels III and I at all times remain in engagement with four
superimposed toothed wheels F of the same size and gear as the wheels 11 12 13
and I, E E E and E', said wheels F being fixed on the arbor G of the fourth
wheel of the ordinary watch movement.
The cam barrel E is mounted to turn on the pivot H on the top of the main
plate and is of such height that it can act on all the heart cam levers and on the
ends of the four V shaped levers J J J and J.
The cam barrel has six cam ridges and is provided at its base with two ratchet
wheels I and J, securely fastened thereto, of which ratchet wheels the wheel I has
as many teeth as there are cam ridges and the wheel J six times as many teeth as
there are cam ridges in the cam barrel.
The pivoted lever K has a book pawl K for engaging the teeth of the wheel I
and the pivoted lever L has a hook pawl L' for engaging the teeth of the
wheel J.
The springs K2 and L' acting on the levers K and L respectively, serve for
bringing them to their normal positions.
K³ and L3 are spring check pawls for the wheels K and L respectively.

page_text: A short arbor M is mounted in the main plate A and carries the arm M' at the
back face of the main plate and the arm M² at the front face.
The arbor N mounted in the main plate A carries a minute hand over the dial
(both not shown) and the heart cam O and ratchet wheel P, at the front face of
the main plate and behind the dial.
A heart cam lever O' is pivoted at O' and is acted upon by a spring O' which
presses the upper end of the said heart cam lever O against the arm M² of the
arbor M and at the same time presses the lower end of said heart cam lever toward
the heart cam O.
A short pushing arm Q is carried by the exterior tubular arbor D' and is located
in front of the main plate and behind the dial.
Said pushing arm Q which rotates with the tubular arbor D' can act on the
sboulder R of a slide R provided at one end with a bevel R and at the other end
with a longitudinal slot R³ into which a guide pin S projects from the front face
of the main plate.
A spring S' on the main plate bears with its free end against a shoulder of the
slide R and presses said slide in the direction of its length toward the slotted end
of said slide.
A curved lever T is pivoted on the rear face of the main plate and has two end
pins T and T
A lever U having one end shaped as a book pawl U' to engage the teeth of
the ratchet wheel P is pivoted to the slide R at U and a spring V fastened on
the slide R presses the hook pawl end of the lever U toward the rim of the ratchet
wheel P.
A guide piu W on which the bevel edge R² of the slide R is guided projects
from the plate A and below the slide an eccentric adjustable hub W' is mounted
on a pin W projecting from the plate A.
The balance wheel a has a pin 6, which is engaged by a lever d when the last
hand of the timing instrument is stopped, the lever d being operated by the spring
arm e from a lever factuated by the cam barrel E in that the balance wheel is
stopped when the last hand is stopped.
In the modification shown in Figure 8 the lever is provided with teeth d¹ for
engaging the pin b on the balance wheel a.
When the lever d is brought into the path of the pin that is when the last
hand is stopped, the balance wheel can complete its stroke, as the pin b can slide
over the beveled teeth d' and the hair spring is held in full tension until the device
is again started whereupon the balance wheel is released by the lever d and under
the action of its hair spring immediately starts.
In place of arranging the wheels F, 11 12 13 1 E E E and E in the
manner shown in Figures 1 and 2 the construction shown in diagram in
Figure 7 may be used without in any way departing from the spirit of this
invention.
The four hands C1 C2 C3 and C are also fixed on the arbors D2 D2 D³ and D*
and each arbor carries a wheel or disk m' m² m³ and m respectively on each of
which a spring of oo and o respectively acts to press it toward the adjacent disk
and to cause it to engage therewith by means of pins or pegs p on one surface of
cach wheel, which pins engage the opposite surface of the adjacent disk so that in
this case one disk or wheel is driven from the adjacent wheel or disk, the
wheel m' nearest the dial being driven by its pins or pegs p from a wheel which
is driven from the motor.
A cam lever is provided for each wheel or disk m² m² m² and m for moving it
from the adjacent disk or wheel so as to disengage it, the disk me being first
disengaged from the disk m², then the disk m from the disk m², then the disk m³
from the disk m' and finally the disk m' from the wheel r.
Said cam levers s are all operated by suitable devices from the cam barrel E so
as to work in proper order and each arbor has its usual heart cam and heart cam
lever which latter are operated from the cam barrel E.

page_text: The hands are all thrown in gear when the instrument is started, are successively
disengaged when they are to be stopped and are all together thrown to the starting
position.
The operation of the construction shown in Figures 1 to 6 is as follows:
The four hands C1 C2 C3 and C are normally at 60 of the dial, having its rim
divided into 60 seconds and fractions thereof.
When the upper end of the lever L is pushed inward by means of a push pin of
the usual construction the cam barrel E is turned axially a distance equal to
one sixth of the space between two of its succeeding cam ridges as indicated by the
arrow in Figure 1.
The ends of the V shaped levers J J J and J, which ends are of different
lengths as shown in Figure 1, slide off the cam ridges on which they rested, and
into a space between two ridges under the action of the springs D and thereby the
wheels 11 12 13 and 1 which are always engaged with the four wheels F are brought
into engagement with the four wheels E' EE and E on the four arbors D' D D
and D so that said four arbors and the bauds thereon are now rotated.
At the same time that the above mentioned V shaped levers slide off the cam
ridge, the heart cam levers G G G and G' are moved away from their respective
heart cams F1 F2 F3 and F by the action of the cam barrel either direct or by
means of pivoted intermediate pieces.
The four hands now continue to rotate until the upper end of the lever L is
again pushed inward, whereby the cam barrel E is again turned one eighteenth and
sufficiently to move the V shaped lever J in the direction from the centre of the
instrument whereby the corresponding toothed wheel 1 is disengaged from the
corresponding toothed wheel E but still remains engaged with the corresponding
toothed wheel F and thereby the hand C is stopped.
When the upper end of the lever L is again pushed inward the hand C³, is
stopped, then in like manner the hand C and finally the hand C'.
If then the upper end of the lever L is again pushed inward all the heart cam
levers G GG and G are pressed against their respective heart cams and all the
bands are thrown back to 60 that is, the starting point.
It sometimes occurs that a false start is made and it is desirable to bring all the
hands back to the starting point without operating the push pin of the lever L
five times successively.
In such case the upper end of the lever K is pushed inward, whereby the cam
barrel E is turned to such an extent as to throw all four hands back to the starting
point.
Ordinarily the lever L is used and the lever K is only used in case of a false
start or like error.
When the four hands are started the uppermost heart cam lever G presses the
arm M' Figure 1 to the right whereby the arm M of Figure 4 is moved to the left
and moves the heart cam lever O' against the tension of its spring 03, from the
heart cam O into the position shown in Figure 5 permitting the spring V to throw
the hook pawl end of the lever U into engagement with the teeth of the ratchet
wheel P and to throw the bevel edge R of the slide R against the pin W.
When the heart cam lever O' rests against the heart cam O it also rests against
the pin T2 of the pivoted lever T and thus prevents the spring V from throwing
the hook pawl U into engagement with the ratchet wheel P, but as soon as the
lever O is moved into the position shown in Figures 5 and 6 it permits of the
above described movements of the lever U and slide R.
The pusher arm Q rotates with the tubular arbor D' and acting on the
shoulder R of the slide R moves said slide against the tension of its spring S
until the arm Q slides off the shoulder R whereupon the slide R is thrown to the
right by its spring S' and as the lever U is engaged with the ratchet wheel P on
the minute hand arbor said wheel is turned the distance of one tooth the parts
assuming the positions shown in Figure 5 so that when the pusher arm Q mukes
a second rotation the above movements can be repeated.

page_text: Chet wheel is thus rotated the distance of one tooth each time the
hand C' makes a rotation that is once each minute.
When the hands C C2 C3 and C are thrown back to the starting point the
pressure of the arm M on the heart cam lever O' ceases and the spring O³ throws
the lever O' against the heart cam O and it and .the minute hand are brought to
the starting position, the lever U having first been disengaged from the ratchet
wheel P.
By means of the eccentric hub W the slide R can be so adjusted that the
pusher arm Q can engage the shoulder R. A spring X acts on the slotted end
of the slide R to throw up the bevelled end of the same.
A timing piece constructed with four hands has been shown, but it is evident
that more or less may be used without departing from the spirit of the invention.
Likewise the cam barrel can be so constructed as to start, stop and throw back
to the starting position each hand successively.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:
1. A timing instrument constructed with three or more concentric seconds hands,
a separate arbor for each hand, a driving mechanism, means for operating one of
the arbors from the driving mechanism, means for operating the remaining arbors,
one from the other, a heart cam on each arbor, a heart cam lever for each arbor,
a lever for each arbor for throwing the same in or out of gear and a single cam
barrel for actuating all the several heart cam levers and all the several levers for
throwing the arbors in and out of gear, substantially as herein shown and
described.
2. In a timing instrument, the combination with the main plate of a watch
movement, of a series of independent devices for starting, stopping and throwing
back to the initial positions, a series of three or more independent seconds hands
and a cam barrel for controlling all such mechanism, and mounted on the main
plate of said watch movement, substantially as herein shown and described.
3. In a timing instrument, the combination with the main plate of a watch
movement of three or more seconds hands, each mounted on a separate arbor, a
heart cam on each arbor, a heart cam lever for each heart cam mechanism for
throwing the several hands in and out of gear with a driving mechanism and a cam
barrel for operating all such heart cam levers and all the mechanism for throwing
in and out of gear, the said cam barrel being mounted to turn on the main plate of
the movement, substantially as herein shown and described.
4. In a timing instrument the combination with a fourth wheel of a swinging lever,
a toothed wheel mounted on said swinging lever, a central toothed wheel with
which the toothed wheel on the swinging lever can be engaged, an arbor on which
said central toothed wheel is fixed, a hand on said arbor, a hub on which said
swinging lever can swing and a pin on which said hub is mounted eccentrically,
substantially as herein shown and described.
5. In a timing instrument, the combination with the main plate of a watch
movement of a series of concentric arbors, a hand on each arbor, and a series of
superimposed bridge supports on the main plate, giving each arbor an independent
support, substantially as herein shown and described.
6. In a timing instrument, the combination with the main plate of a watch move-
ment of a series of concentric arbors, a hand on each arbor, a series of superimposed
bridge supports for the several arbors, giving each arbor its independent support
and a toothed wheel and heart cam on each arbor, above the support for such
arbor, substantially as herein shown and described.
7. In a timing instrument, the combination with the main plate of a watch
movement, a series of seconds hands, mechanism for starting and stopping said
seconds hands and throwing them back to the initial position, a cam barrel for
operating said several mechanisms, two different ratchet wheels on said cam

page_text: barrel and an independent lever and pawl for each ratchet wheel, substantially as
herein shown and described.
8. In a timing instrument, the combination with the main plate of a watch
movement, of mechanism for starting and stopping seconds hands, located on the
front of the main plate, heart cam levers also mounted on the back of the main plate,
a short arbor in the main plate, an arm on each end of said arbor, the arm at the
back of the main plate being influenced by the heart cam lever at the back of the
main plate, a heart cam lever on the front of the main plate, on which latter heart
cam lever the front arm of the arbor can act and a minute hand operating
mechanism on the front of the main plate controlled by said heart cam lever,
substantially as herein shown and described.
9. In a timing instrument, the combination with the main plate of a watch
movement of a series of concentric second hands arbors and means on the front of
the main plate for starting and stopping said arbors and throwing them to the
initial position, a pusher arm mounted at the back of the main plate on the outer-
most arbor, mechanism for moving a minute hand operated by said pusher arm,
a heart cam lever for throwing the minute hand into the initial position and means
for operating said heart cam lever from the mechanism on the front of the main
plate, substantially as herein shown and described.
10. In a timing instrument, the combination with the main plate of a watch
movement, of a series of concentric seconds hand and arbors, means on the front
of the main plate, for starting and stopping said arbors and throwing them back
to the initial positions, a minute hand arbor in the main plate, a toothed wheel
and a heart cam fixed on said minute hand arbor at the back of the main plate, a
pusher arm mounted on the exterior central arbor, back of the main plate, a slide
operated by said pusher arm, a pawl lever on said slide for engaging and turning
the toothed wheel on the minute hand arbor and a heart cam lever for the heart
cam on the minute hand arbor, substantially as herein shown and described.
1804
TONGUE & BIRKBECK,
Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicants.