IMPROVE- MENTS IN WATCHES AND OTHER TIMEKEEPERS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN WATCHES AND OTHER TIMEKEEPERS."-A communication from
DU
A
Sealed the 12th January 1864, and dated the 21st July 1863
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 21st July 1863.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN WATCHES AND OTHER TIMEKEEPERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of improvements in the springs and barrels of
watches and other timekeepers hereafter described whereby the mechanism
known as the fixed stop may be dispensed with.
I make the spring as an ordinary watch or clock spring except that I form
that part which is to become the outer layer of the coil thicker than the
remaining portion of the length thereof. This increase in thickness ensures a
sufficient pressure to allow the rolling of about six turns or layers before the
last layer slides against the interior face of the barrel. By dispensing with
the booking of the spring to the barrel all chance of accident is avoided,
because beyond the limit of its tension the spring may turn indefinitely in the
barrel without injury to the watch. However, it is not sufficient simply to
dispense with the cause of accident, but it is also necessary that the person

page_text: winding should be advised when the proper number of turns of the spring has
been attained; it might happen that the spring bad not been wound
sufficiently to insure the watch going its usual time. For this purpose
make in the interior cylindrical face of the barrel one or more channels, and
at the outer end of the spring I fix a projection which fits exactly into one or
other of the channels. When the spring is fully wound this projection falls
into one of the channels and produces a slight click sensible to the car and to
the touch, thus the person winding is advised that the watch is fully wound.
In some cases I produce an analogous effect by means of a steel hoop inde-
pendent of the spring and armed with a projection. This hoop also performs
the function of the spring thickened at the outer end before mentioned. Tho
hoop is provided with a hook to which the ordinary spring is attached, and
upon the spring being wound it causes the hoop to slide and the projection
thereon to enter the nearest channel in the interior cylindrical face of the
barrel, making the click to indicate the full winding of the spring.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st January 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said Richard
Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, 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 WATCHES AND OTHER TIMEKEEPERS,"
(communicated to me from abroad by Adrien Philippe, of Geneva, Switzer-
land,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Richard Archibald
Brooman, my executors or administrators, by au instrument in writing

page_text: under my, 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 Richard Archibald Brooman, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto
annexed, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in improvements in the springs and barrels of
watches and other timekeepers hereafter described whereby the mechanism
known as the fixed stop may be dispensed with.
1 make the spring as an ordinary watch or clock spring, except that I form
that part which is to become the outer layer of the coil thicker, as represented
at a', a", in Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying Drawings, than the
remaining portion a of the length thereof. This increase in thickness ensures a
sufficient pressure to allow the rolling of about six turns or layers on the
bung 6 of the arbor c, Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, before the last layer slides against
the interior face of the barrel d. By dispensing with the hooking of the
spring to the barrel all chance of accident is avoided, because beyond the limit
of its tension the spring may turn indefinitely in the barrel without injury to
the watch. However, it is not sufficient simply to dispenso with the cause of
accident, but it is also necessary that the person winding should be advised
when the proper number of turns of the spring has been attained; it might
happen that the spring had not been wound sufficiently to ensure the watch
going its usual time. For this purpose I make in the interior cylindrical
face of the barrel d, Figures 5, 6, and 7, one or more channels e, and at the
outer end of the spring I fix a projection f, Figures 1, 2, and 7, which fits
exactly into one or other of the channels. When the spring a is fully wound
this projection falls into one of the channels and produces a slight click sensible
to the ear and to the touch, thus the person winding is advised that the watch
is fully wound. Instead of this projection I sometimes form a bend near the
outer end of the spring, as represented at fin Figures 3 and 4, or I employ a
simple round button, in which case holes are formed in the side of the barrel
instead of the channels c. In some cases I produce an analogous effect by
means of a steel hoop independent of the spring and armed with a projection.
This boop also performs the function of the spring, thickened at the outer end
before mentioned. The hoop is provided with a hook to which the ordinary

page_text: spring is attached, and upon the spring being wound it causes the hoop to
slide and the projection thercon to enter the nearest channel in the interior
cylindrical face of the barrel, making the click to indicate the full winding of
the spring. The improved springs before described may be applied to
all ordinary barrels, while the fixed stop mechanism is retained. In the
employment of the springs in clocks the bend near the outer end of the spring
is unnecessary.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, constructing the
springs and barrels of watches and other timekeepers, substantially as herein-
before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, whereby the
mechanism known as the fixed stop may be dispensed with.
In witness whereof, I, tho said Richard Archibald Brooman, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of January, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.B.)