IMPROVEMENTS IN STRIKING CLOCKS
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Stevens at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th May
1860. A communication from abroad by Curé Valla, of Paris, in the
Empire of France.
I. CHARLES STEVENS, Manager of the British & Foreign Office for Patents,
1", Welbeck Street, Cavendish Square, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STRIKING
CLOCKS," & that it has been communicated to me from abroad by Curé Valla,
of Paris, in the Empire of Franco, to be as follows:-
For a striking clock with pendulum & weights all the striking work is
suppressed except the snail, the scale, the stay of the scale, and the fork-shaped
detent falling at the hours and half hours. The large minute wheels are moved
by the weight of the small striking wheels, which are suppressed. A wheel
with 60 teeth gears with a pinion having six teeth. On the shaft of this
pinion are fixed six rods, one of which is straight, and the other bent down
alternately. An angle piece is employed, the ends of the arms of which aro
bent; one acts on the thirty bevelled teeth of the small wheel added to the dial,
and moves with the large hand; the other by a slight backward and forward
movement equal to the depth of the teeth slides slowly, now on the bent arm,
now on the straight arm, falling suddenly every two minutes on the bent arm.
The bent arm escapes in the middle, and the straight one at the end of the
movement. There is a large outer dial face, the bands of which move every
minute, as in electric clocks. The striking work has two levers without cog

page_text: work, and consists of the following pieces:-A wheel with eight pins moved by
a weight, the supporting cord of which passes up above the clock, and descends
on return pullies; the hammer lever acting on the hammer by means of an
iron rod, and connected with the pin of a wheel, the only one required in the
striking work; an escapement lever with unequal arms, the shortest of which
is connected with the pin above mentioned, & the large one with a detent, the
end is hinged, so that it remains in its place on the lever rising, and bends
slightly when the lever falls a rolling detent in the right-hand supports of the
clock; a pin placed near the centre of rotation communicates with the move-
able end of the detent lever; a lever striking on the stay of the scale inside
the clock; a moveable counterweight, more or less heavy according to the
power of the counter beam, bearing the pressure at a certain point, which is
always light, however great the force of the detent lever; a small rod of iron
wire raising the scale one notch at each stroke of the hammer lever; a third
lever moving three-fourths of the distance from one pin to the other, and a
fourth lever performing half the distance, so as to catch in when the opposite
one is about to escape. In the working of the above pieces the fly wheel is
carried from right to left, now simultaneously, now separately, by each of the
levers drawn on its axis by small weights. The third lever causes the hammer
to move, striking the hours, and the fourth lever is stayed at a part of the
detent as soon as the end of the arm is met by the inner stop of the clock.
If it is desired to have the quarters struck, a second wheel is adjusted with
two levers making one revolution each hour. It is furnished with a number
of pins sufficient for the quarter strokes, & after each rotation freeing the
detent of the hour wheel; in this case also one fly wheel only is required for
the two striking works, with four clicks & springwork on its axis, two to the
right for one striking work, & two to the left for the other, the fly wheel being
in the middle.