IMPROVEMENTS IN UNIVERSAL DIALS FOR CLOCKS AND WATCHES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Van Laethem at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th May 1870.
I, HENRY VAN LAETHEM, of Berlin, Prussia, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN UNIVERSAL DIALS FOR
CLOCKS AND WATCHES," to be as follows:-
Watchmakers of all countries have long sought to solve the problem
of the universal dial, but the only expedient they have hitherto found
consists in employing a number of movements and separate dials equal
to the number of places of which it is desired to give the time. This
was not difficult, for if I take ten watches or clocks and regulate each
one for the time of a different place, I have the hour in ten different
places. This system however presents certain inconveniences; one
watch or clock will be too slow, another too fast, and their regulation
will exact constant attention; again to carry. ten watches would be
inconvenient, and the purchase of ten watches or of ten clocks would be:
very-costly, and-no one-would dream of doing so.... -

page_text: Watchmakers often exhibit a large dial around which are placed
several smaller dials, each one in connection with a separate movement,
and giving the time of a different place. Such a piece of clockwork is
very costly, is considered a sort of masterpiece, and watchmakers employ
it to enhance their reputation. Now to show on one dial the time of
four or more well-known parts of the world, employing but a single
movement and without any increase in the price of manufacture, was the
problem I put to myself and which I have solved.
I make no change or alteration in the movement of the watch or
clock; I do-not even touch it. I take a watch or clock, and under my
first system 1 supplement its two hands with others of a different colour,
and the operation is terminated. Can anything be more simple ?
Henceforth everyone may always have in his pocket or in his house
with but one single watch or clock the time in four or more parts of the
world, which it is easy to comprehend may be very important and 1
extremely useful both scientifically and commercially.
To apply my second system to a watch or clock I have but to efface
the graduated circle of the existing dial plate, and to imprint upon it in
a certain order as many graduated circles of different colours as there
may be places of which I desire to have the time; I change the hands, 2
and my object is attained without having touched the interior movement
of the clock.
It may be said that these systems are so simple that it needed but a
little reflection to arrive at them, that is to say, our eyes being opened
the impossibilities of yesterday become the simplest facts of to-day. 2
Columbus' egg is the history of most Inventions. A problem is started,
a new want arises, and our brain drives us into ardent and fantastic
combinations until the moment, when fatigued with searching, we cry
out impossibility, although the truth, the expedient is there and eventually
springs to sight in all its simplicity.
It is precisely the simplicity of this Invention that makes its importance,
inasmuch that it permits its application at such a minimum outlay as to
be, so to say, quite insignificant.
It would be easy and cost but little to furnish London with universal
dials which could be placed at the corners of the principal streets. To 3
adapt my system to the existing clocks of observatories or railway

page_text: stations it will only be necessary to euace the marks on the dial plates
în actual use and mark them in accordance with my system.
My Invention will be found very useful in schools, telegraph offices,
and for the navy.
The following is a description of my universal dials, reference being
had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawing.
Description of the First System (Figure No. 1).-This first system
consists in the addition of as many times two hands (one small and one
large) as there may be places of which it is desired to give the time. Thus
the illustration of the first system (Figure No. 1) giving the hour of five
different places is provided with ten hands. The five small ones are
fixed on the same socket, and the five large ones are also all fixed on a
second socket in such a manner that they necessarily turn altogether
and at the same speed (sec Figure No. 2) of the first system representing
the five small hands, and Figure No. 3 of the same system representing
the five large hands. Now after having placed on the axis or spindle
which passes through the centre of the dial plate, firstly, the socket
carrying the five small hands, and thereupon that with the five large
hands we have the time of five different places.
Thus for Berlin both the small and the large hand are coloured black,
and indicate Figure 1 of the Drawing, 1-4 minutes past 2 o'clock; for
Paris both small and large hand are green, and indicate 27 minutes past
1 o'clock; for New York they are red, and indicate 1 minute to 8 o'clock;
for St. Petersburgh they are blue, and at 19 minutes past 3 o'clock; for
London they are yellow, and it is 15 minutes past 1 o'clock.
This little combination of hands and different colours may be com-
mitted to memory, or a table written on the watch dial may be consulted
in order to ascertain which hands indicate the time of any particular
place.
It will be easily understood that the number of places of which the
time is given may be increased at will in this first system; all that is
needed is to increase the number of hands, and to make them light
enough not to fetter the action of the movement within the watch. If
necessary the spring of the watch might be replaced by a more powerful
one. As in ordinary watches the socket of the large hands makes the
circuit of the dial, whilst that of the small hands pass only over the

page_text: space of five minutes, and it will be at once comprehended that with
regulating the watch for one place necessarily regulates it at the same
time for all the other places which are represented upon it..
Description of the Second System (Figure A).-In this second system
each graduated circle on the dial plate is printed in different colours, and
in such a manner that its hour corresponds with the position of the small
hand, which is the same for all the circles. It matters little whether the
noon of each circle be at the top, on the side, or beneath. See illustration
of this second system at Figure A. The small hand (Figure B) being.
placed on its socket, the socket of the large hand (Figure C) is placed 1
over it. These large hands are set on their socket in a similar manner to
the large hands of the first system, and necessary all turn together.
Thus the black graduated circle or dial indicating the time in Berlin
shows on the Drawing, Figure A, 14 minutes past 2 o'clock; the green
dial, Paris, time, is at 26 minutes past 1 o'clock; the red dial, New 1
York time, 8 o'clock; the blue dial, St. Petersburgh time, 19 minutes.
past 3 o'clock; the yellow dial, London time, is at 15 minutes past.
1 o'clock. Thus the interior movement of the clock is untouched, the
dial plate above being according to our system imprinted with a differently
coloured graduated circle or dial for each place, and hands of corro- 2
sponding colours being applied.
In the first system the number of graduated circles or dials can be
multiplied at will, and regulating the time for one place necessarily
regulates at the same time that of all the others on the clock, so that no
variation is possible.
2