IMPROVE- HENTS IN NOCTUARYS OR TELL-TALES FOR ASCERTAINING, THE FIDELITY OF WATCHMEN AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY TO SUCH APPARATUS
Year: 1856

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Symons and Edward
Burgess at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 11th August 1856.
We, ALEXANDER SYMONS, of George Street, Mansion House, in the City
of London, and EDWARD BURGESS, of Clerkenwell Green, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
HENTS IN NOCTUARYS OR TELL-TALES FOR ASCERTAINING, THE FIDELITY OF WATCHMEN
AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN THE APPLICATION OF ELECTRICITY TO SUCH
APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
Our improvements in noctuaries consist, first, in the introduction of a new
means of noting or marking the periods of timo at which the watchmen
or other person to be regulated is to give evidence of his having performed the
required duty. For this purpose we apply to the clock or other suitable going
train a roller or drum, which has a constant slow motion imparted to it from
the going train. Another roller is pressed up against the first by a spring to
produce frictional contact. Between the two rollers a strip of paper is passed
continuously, which travels at any determined rate, say six inches an hour..
This paper is marked every six inches as the hour marks, and with inter-
mediate marks for the quarters or other periods of time. The paper in being
thus transmitted passes over a flat plate or surface, perpendicular to which

page_text: are placed one or more pencils or markers, one for each watchman or person
to be regulated. When it is the watchman's duty to depress the pencil, he
does so by a direct push of a rod projecting through the clock case, or through
the medium of other rods or wires, such as bell wires, or by electricity, as will
be herein-after described; during the time the pencil is so depressed it marks
the paper, and if the watchman is to remain, say five minutes, pressing the
pencil it will make a mark on the paper in length equivalent to that duration
of time as graduated on the paper. By thus noting the periods of time, the
watchman, if not exactly correct to time, can still make the mark, at the
same time the irregularity will be clearly exhibited on the paper. Supposing
tho noctuary to be fitted to a clock, and that its operation is only required
during twelve hours, we place a cam on-an axis of the train that rotates once
in the twenty-four hours, and by it cause the pressing roller for feeding the
paper to be thrown back from contact with the train, drum,. or roller, and so
stop the transmission of the paper during the time it is not wanted for use.
The second part of our Invention refers to the use of electricity, whereby the
watchman or other person can from any distant place actuate the marking
pencil from time to time. For this purpose we place an electro-magnet near
the clock train; the armature of this magnet carries the marker or pencil;
whenever the magnet is excited by the passing current the armature is
attracted, and the pencil thereby pressed against the paper, which it marks;
when the electric current ceases, a spring or weight withdraws the armature
and the pencil from the paper. A circuit wire from a galvanic battery is carried
from the instrument to the point where the watchman is to act upon it, where
a break occurs, and by its making contact at the break the circuit in con-
nection with the electro-magnet will be completed, and so produce the mark on
the paper, as described.