IMPROVEMENTS IN CHIME CLOCKS, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO WATCHES
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henri Robert and Henri Felix
Gouvernon at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 31st August
1882.
HENRI ROBERT, of Saint John Street Road, Clerkenwell, Watch and Clock
Manufacturer, and HENRI FELIX GOUVERNON, of Theobald's Road, in the County
of Middlesex, Manufacturer, IMPROVEMENTS IN CHIME CLOCKS, PART OF WHICH
IMPROVEMENTS IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO WATCHES,
Our first improvement consists in converting a quarter chime clock into a clock
that will play a tune or air at each hour, and without necessitating the taking to
pieces of the movement, but simply by changing the pin cylinder or barrel.
For this purpose we mount the pin cylinder or barrel on an arbor which is
maintained in place, in the side plates carrying the movement and the ends of the
arbor lie in removeable bearings secured to the side plates by screws. To remove
the barrel or cylinder, in order to introduce another, or for any purpose whatever,
the bearings are removed, and the arbor with its barrel or cylinder is then free to
pass along a slot, contrived for the purpose in one of the side plates. But the pin
cylinder or barrel may also be removed by making the orifices larger in the side
plates, in which the bearings of the arbor rest, thereby allowing one end of the
arbor to play freely therein.
A comb, similar to that used in musical boxes, may be substituted for the
hammers and bells. Or the hammers and bells may be retained and used
alternately with the pin barrel, or with the comb, by shifting the barrel.
Another improvement consists in an arrangement of mechanism for effecting the
changes in the "8 bells," "4 bells," "Silent," and "Striking," whereby the indi-
cations thereof are brought together on one dial indicator, instead of on two or
more, as heretofore. This mechanism consists of a cam, mounted on an axis, which
is provided with a hand or pointer, moveable over the face of the dial indicator,
and on the other side of which cam is a pin. By moving the hand or pointer the
cam is caused to turn and to act against levers or rods which are so arranged both
in relation to the outline of the cam, and its pin, and to the various connections
therewith, that the desired changes can be effected as required.

page_text: The chiming and striking squares are according to our invention placed in the
same position as in chime clocks having fusees, although we construct our clock
without any fusee, that is to say, the striking and chiming squares are in a
horizontal line between the 3 and the 9, and the winding up square is perpendicular
between the 6 and the centre of the dial. To obtain these positions of the striking,
chiming, and winding up squares we employ a pinion and cause the same to work
into a large wheel fitted on the arbor of the spring barrel.
Another improvement consists in the use of a single rack provided with a double
set of teeth, instead of two racks, for chiming 8 and 4 bells.
Another improvement consists in arranging the various barrels so as to cause the
clock to chime, strike, and go for a fortnight, without the use of a fusee. We obtain
this result by giving to the chime spring barrel 96 teeth, to the wheel driving the
said chime spring barrel 84 teeth, and to the pinion on the arbor of the driving
wheel 10 teeth. This arrangement also permits of the use of a spring, in the chime
barrel, longer by one quarter only, than that ordinarily used in 8 day chime clocks,
and the inner end of this spring is made thinner so as to obtain 1 turn more on
the arbor and to regulate the chimes and prevent them from chiming quicker at
the beginning of the unwinding of the spring than at the end of it. We however
reserve to ourselves the right to increase or to decrease the number of teeth in the
said chiming barrel and wheel, according to the size of the movement.
Another improvement consists in an indicator (visible on the dial) for showing
when it is necessary to rewind the clock; this indicator is also applicable to all
ordinary clocks going either 8 days, or a fortnight.
The mechanism for operating the same consists of a ratchet wheel mounted on
an arbor which carries a hand, this wheel is driven by a cam, or a wheel, fixed on
the arbor of the intermediate wheel of the going train, and is placed above the said
ratchet wheel and so arranged that when thrown into gear therewith moves it one
tooth in any desired number of hours. The hand indicates on the dial when it is
necessary to rewind the clock.
This mechanism is also applicable to watebes.