Electric Motor for Clocks and for other Industrial Purposes Requiring Small Power.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Sept., 1887
Specification Accepted, 22nd Nov., 1887
Electric Motor for Clocks and for other Industrial Purposes
Requiring Small Power.
1, MARIANO VIAU, Clock and Watchmaker, of Bilbao, Spain, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Up to the present, for the purpose of working clocks directly by electricity, it has
only been attempted to replace the motive power obtained by means of springs or
weights by electricity only. For this reason, till now, the employment of electricity as a
real motive power for working clocks has not been perfectly successful because
electricity requires, when it is applied as a motor, powerful elements and in spite of
this it gives only a proportionately small amount of power, which is also most
unsteady.
For the purpose of making this inconstancy of electricity harmless to the working
and to obtain a motor, which will give the clock a perfectly regular action I proceeded
from the following facts.
If electricity has not always the same constancy and power it has generally in
exchange a great superfluity of velocity or speed. This velocity of speed being trans-
formed in power and applied mechanically, the inconstancy of the electricity is made
barmless to the working and power is gained, which has not been hitherto found for
the hereinbefore mentioned purpose, because it was sought for in the electricity itself.
Moreover it is well-known, that power can be transformed by means of a series
or train of large and small gear wheels, into speed, and by the same means but in the
reverse order, speed into power.
The construction of the hereinafter described motor rests upon both of these
principles. From this motor is obtained sufficient constancy and power for several
industrial purposes without creating much cost for maintenance; again the necessarily
powerful batteries used hitherto which worked without interruption, are not required
with the new motor, this only necessitates the employment of small batteries or only
one weak element to obtain the power.
The motor consists of an automatic interruption (that is to say, an electro-magnet,
the armature of which acts as an alternate maker and breaker of the circuit, and a

page_text: so-called Huyghens' Pulley Elevator which is actuated by means of a ratchet wheel
operated by the motion of the said armature.
Figure 1 of the annexed drawings is a side elevation of the automatic interrupter.
This is different from the clicking arrangement of ordinary bell magnets in the
following particulars.
The armature d of the electro-magnet E has on one of its ends a pawl b which is
caused by a spring c to take into a ratchet wheel a, which transmits the motion from
the armature, or to a clockwork or to a pulley mechanism as will be seen from the
following. The armature d has two portions and y Figure 2, the portion y
which carries the ratchet pawl being able to be more or less pushed into the first
portion and when in the desired position, is secured firmly by means of screws, so
that the distance of hody of the armature from the portion which carries the ratchet
pawl can be varied as desired, that is, so that the grip of the ratchet pawl into the
ratchet wheel a can be accurately adjusted.
The construction of the armature in two distinct parts enables the front (right)
part of the said armature to be insulated from the back (left) part by means of wood
plates or in any suitable manner in the joint of the two portions, so to avoid the
electrifying or magnetization of the ratchet pawl and also the ratchet wheel and
mechanism connected therewith.
In ordinary bell mechanism the armature has at its end a spring by means of
which it is either fixed to part of the base plate or to a projection on the base plate.
The disadvantage of this spring arrangement is that it does not allow the armatur-
enough free play of motion and it is for this reason that in my automatic inter-
rupter it is held by means of a hinge de Figure 1, which enables the armature to have
the required free motion.
As it is advantageous for the armature always to move in the same curve and
operate the ratchet wheel in a regular manner, it is necessary for said armature in its
up and down motion always to go to the same points.
In coming down this is obtained by the screw e which is screwed into the upper
surface of the armature, the under surface of the head of which, the moment the
armature is actuated, strikes on the end of interrupting spring and always to a
determined point. This spring when the armature is caused to descend has a
tendency to move in the reverse direction but can only move until it catches against
the head of the screw e, from which in one position it is held away by the screw so
that the circuit is always broken at the same point and it is therefore obvious that
the armature by the striking away action of the screw e upon the spring must
always fall down upon the same point.
At the rising of the armature the same purpose is obtained in arranging a bridge h
on the baseplate over the armature, which bridge carries a micrometer screw i for
always stopping the armature at exactly the same point. Moreover, the armature is
connected to the bridge by means of a spiral spring ; which has a continual tendency
to draw the armature towards it.
It remains to mention that for the purpose of damping the blow of the armature
two india rubber blocks and k are provided, against which the armature presses
alternately in its motion.
The ratchet wheel a moved by means of the armature of the electro-magnets is
prevented from moving in a backward direction by a stop or click paul 1 and carries
on the other end of its spindle a° a chain wheel m Figure 3, which forms 'the lower
wheel in the well known Huyghens' weight elevator shown in Figure 4. "The upper
large wheel of this one is also constructed as a chain wheel, the weights p and q
being carried by a Vaucauson chain o. The rollers or pulleys y, p', on which the
weights bang, move freely on the chain. The small chain wheel m'is prevented,
by means of a ratchet paul thereon, from moving in 'the direction of the arrow so
that the free wheel n will be rotated by the weight, that is the weight resulting
from half the difference of the active weight.
When the automatic interrupter is in operation and the ratchet wheel a 'is rotated,
it 'follows that the chain wheel m also rotates, and so the large weight p of the

page_text: "
elevator rises and the small one q falls unless during the raising of the weight, the
wheel ceases to rotate. This wheel m is in connection with the train of a pendulum
clock or of a balance clock and secures to the clock to which it is applied a perfectly
"regular motion.
Supposing the period of falling of the large weight is five minutes the proper
electrical inòtor need only be in activity for five minutes and only so long as is
necessary to again raise the large weight to the required height and to allow the small
weight to sink, so that the large wheel is never without the power required to
keep up its motion.
For the purpose of obtaining this periodical work of the motor, arrangements must
be made by which the circuit of the motor is broken and inade again at the proper
time. The following is a description of an advantageous mode of doing this. The
first wheel Figures 5 and 6 of the clockwork, which receives its motion from the
weight elevator and makes for example one revolution in five minutes, carries a pin
projecting from the side. Next this wheel is a star wheel with four teeth arranged
on a shaft s so that the teeth of it sometimes must come in the way of the pin when
the wheels is correspondingly rotated.
The wheel is moved, as hereinafter explained, and then again kept still so that,
at the time of the passing of the pin one tooth of the star wheel s' has reached far
into the way of the pin, that it can only move the star wheels one twelfth of a
revolution. The motion thus given to the star wheel will be transmitted to the
wheel't on the same shaft (igures 6 and 7), said wheel being provided on 'its
periphery with 12 teeth and on its side with four circular ribs as shown.
These ribs t allow a nose of a lever u or rather the left arm of it which reaches
into the way of them, to ride out of the gap between two of the ribs on to the
periphery of one of the ribs as soon as the wheels s' and are moved of a revo-
lution by means of the pin . The lever u is in this manner so moved that its under
arm u presses together the ends w, w, of the circuit conducting wires of the motor,
which are arranged one over the other, and brings the said ends w, w into contact
so that the circuit is thereby completed.
As long as the left arm of the lever wrests on one of the ribs t', the electric circuit
will remain continue. completed and the wheel m of the weight elevator will rotate.
But as soon as the weights of the said elevator have arrived at their highest or lowest
position the circuit must again become interrupted i.c. the end of the lever end u
slides off the rib t¹ and drops in between two of the ribs, into a gap. This is carried
out in the following manner.
The large wheel n, Figure 4, of the weight elevator; makes (being put in motion
by the weight) one revolution in 5 minutes, while the 'weight descends from the
highest to the lowest point and the small wheel in being only half as large as the
wheel 72, the wheel m has to make two revolutions for the purpose of again rising
the weight. Under these considerations 'therefore 'the electrical motor only has to
work, until the wheel'm has.completed two revolutions and it must then immediately
stop. For this purpose an angle or knee (Figure 3) is arranged on the shaft. a"
which is the axle both of the ratchet wheel a and of the little wheel m; said knee z
reaches to the intermediate wheel t, Figures 6 and 7 and can take into its teeth so
that when the wheel has revolved of a revolution and the motor has commenced
working, the knee after the first revolution of the shaft a moves the intermediate
wheel t the distance of one tooth and after the second revolution of the said shaft
moves it round a second tooth. Now while the knee is moving the first tooth of the
wheelt the lever u remains resting on the rib t¹ which is opposite to it and slides on
its periphery, but, as soon as the knee z moves the second tooth of the wheel t, the
lever u slides by its own weight off the rib into the gap between two ribs thereby
releasing the contacts w, w³, breaking circuit and causing the motor to stop
immediately. At the same time a tooth of the star wheel s Figures 5 and 6 has
arrived within reach of the pin r' and the before described motions take place again
after five minutes passed.
It is not always necessary that the pin on the wheel Figures 5 and 6, shoald

page_text: move the star wheels one twelfth of a revolution, as it may be desirable in order to
avoid the disadvantageous stopping of the clockwork, that the pin on the wheel r
should only move round the star wheel a little more than one twenty fourth of a
revolution, and that the necessary farther rotation for the entire revolution may
be executed by the pawl 2 employed to prevent the backward motion of the wheel t.
To obtain these results the teeth of the wheel must be made equilateral and equi-
angular and the paw! 2 supported as shown by means of a strong spring 3 must
receive the obtuse angled shape as shown. Supposing the star wheels is caused to
make a little more than one twenty fourth of a revolution by means of the pin the
pressure of the spring 3 will be overcome and the pawl 2 will be raised so far out of
the teeth of the wheel that the top of the pawi 2 will come together with the top of
the next following tooth of the ratchet wheel and then slide a little over the top.
The force of the spring will now move the wheel quickly farther round until the
pawl 2 snaps into the next space, whereby the left arm of the lever a has arrived on
one of the ribs and so the circuit has been completed by means of the contacts 20, w¹.
The rest of the operation is as before described.
The number of teeth and the size of the wheels can be varied as desired, the above
being only given as an example.
Moreover the circuit can be made and broken by any other suitable means instead
of by the lever ». The entire mechanism works briefly in the following manner :-
The electricity causes the armature of the automatic interrupter to move to and fro,
said armature moves the ratchet wheel and this transfers its motion onto the weight
clevator, which transforms speed into power, whereby the mechanism itself controls or
directs the electricity to produce a regular motion.
By this invention a motor is obtained which can be employed for clock mechanism,
and also for other industrial purposes requiring small power.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
and in what manner the same may be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
First. An electrical motor for clocks and the like, which is formed in such a
manner of an electrical automatic interrupter and a Huyghen's or other weight
elevator, that the upward or downward motion of the interrupter armature by means
of intermediate gear (ratchet pawl and ratchet wheel) actuates the weight elevator
substantially as described.
Secondly. In combination with the electrical motor, referred to in claim 1, an
arrangement for timing the working of the motor, consisting of a pin on the
wheel, the star wheels and intermediate wheel with ribs t¹ fixed on the same
axles and ratchet pawls 2, the circuit maker and breaker u, u', operated from the
ribs t' and the knee on the shaft a° as set forth and substantially as shown.
Dated this 27th day of September 1887
H. GARDNER,
166, Fleet Street, London.
Agent for the said M. Viau.