MAKING WATCH KEYS UPON A NEW CONSTRUCTION BY MEANS OF A SPRING, SO AS TO PRESERVE WATCHES FROM INJURY WHEN KEYS ARE. TURNED THE WRONG WAY
Year: 1789

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
BOULTON HARLOW, of Ashborne, in the County of Derby, Watchmaker, send
greeting.
هم
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent bearing date at Westminster, the Sixth day of November
last, in the thirtieth year of His reign, did give and grant unto me, the
said Samuel Boulton Harlow, His, especial license that I, the said Samuel
Boulton Harlow, during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "MAKING WATCH KEYS UPON A NEW
CONSTRUCTION BY MEANS OF A SPRING, SO AS TO PRESERVE WATCHES FROM INJURY
WHEN KEYS ARE. TURNED THE WRONG WAY;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Samuel Boulton Harlow,
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular, description of the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bé performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters. Patent, as in and by
the same Letters Patent, relation being thereunto bad, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Bolton Harlow, do hereby declare that my said Invention of Making

page_text: Watch Keys upon a New Construction by Means of a Spring, so as to
Preserve Watches from Injury when Keys are turned the wrong Way, is
described in manner following, that is to say:-
The pipe or spout of watch keys, or that part which is inserted into the
watch for the purpose of winding it up, has been hitherto so fixed to the lever,
fly, or handle part of the key as to occasion the fuzee of the watch, and
also the other interior work, to be acted upon or turned round in the same
direction as the fly is going, whereby very material injury is frequently done to
the watch in attempting by force to wind it up the wrong way. In order to
remedy this defect, I have added to the old construction of watch keys a
friction joint, which turns round the top of the spout without moving it when
going the wrong way, but which, by means of a click or spring catch, is made
to turn the spout round whenever the fly goes in the right direction for
winding up the watch.
The following is a description of the watch keys which I have hitherto
made on this improved principle:-I fix to the spout immediately below the
friction joint a flat horizontal plate about a quarter of an inch in diameter, and
to the under part of this plate I fasten one end of a spring which lics flat
against it, and is of a semicircular or curved form nearest the center of the
plate, but made to fit the size and form of the plate towards the outside, and
is in length about two-thirds of the circumference of the plate. To the other
end of the spring I put a click or catch, which passes upwards through the
whole thickness of the plate, and rises a little way above its upper surface in
the shape of a common sliding bolt to a spring latch or lock, that is to say,
made slopewise or bevil on one side, and square or upright on the other, so that
when the handle or fly of the key is turned the wrong way the lever or fly
passes over and presses down the spring in going round the plate without
moving the spout, but when turned in the right direction the lever or fly is
then forced against the upright side of the click or bolt, which resists its
farther progress round the plate, and thereby gives motion to the spout. In
another watch key made upon the same principle the upper side of the plate-
that is fixed to the spout is hollowed out deep enough to receive the spring
within it, which is made fast to the bottom of it at one end, and made of such
a curve as nearly to touch the inner sides of the hollow, but yet not quite close,
except at the other end, which is filed square and a little broader than the rest
close under the friction joint. I fix another thin plate of a proper size
to run within the inner sides of the other, to conceal the spring from
sight, and having a small nib or catch on the under side of it, which, when
turned the right way, comes against the end of the spring, and consequently

page_text: forces the spout round along with it, but, going in the contrary direction, passes
between the inner side of the hollow and outer edge of the spring, which,
being pressed inwards, allows it to pass round without giving any motion to
the spout. In another watch key of the same kind I form a part of the plate
itself into a spring, by disjoining such a portion from the rest as is capable of
acting with the desired elasticity, at the end of which part I put a click or
catch, or simply raise it a little higher than the other surface of the plate, and
is either pressed down by the lever or fly when turned wrong, or catches against
it when passing in the right direction, and thereby gives the desired movement
of the spout.
From the foregoing descriptions it will be evident to any workman that
these keys and the springs may be made in a great variety of forms, and the
springs placed in many different directions, according to the fancy of the
operator, but that the principle and utility of my Invention consists in the new
application of a friction joint over the spout of the key acting upon a spring.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Boulton Harlow, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of December, in the thirtieth year
of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of
God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the
Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand seven
hundred and eighty-nine.
Inrolled the Second day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.