IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MODE OF AND MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING WATCHES, PART OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE TO LATHES GENERALLY WHERE GREAT ACCURACY IS REQUIRED
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Wycherley at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th March
1867.
I, JOHN WYCHERLEY, of Prescot, in the County of Lancaster, Watch
Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MODE OF AND MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING WATCHES, PART OF
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS IS APPLICABLE TO LATHES GENERALLY WHERE GREAT ACCURACY
IS REQUIRED," to be as follows:-
The chief object of this Invention is to effect an economy in the manu-
facture of the parts constituting the framework of watches, and to form them
with such accuracy as to render the parts interchangeable instead of (as is
now the practice) making and fitting the parts for each watch separately.
There are six pieces which go to form the framework of a watch, and it is
these pieces which I design to conform to standard gauges by the means to be
presently explained. The pieces are, (1), the pillar plate; (2), the upper or
top plate; (3); the third wheel or pillar plate bar; (4), the pottance; (5), the
cock; (6), the name har. The pillar plate and the top plate are turned in
lathes of the ordinary construction, but fitted with the stop motion hereafter
described for ensuring accuracy of working. The positions of the drilled
holes are determined by pattern plates applied to the pieces, and through
which the drills have to pass to reach the pieces to be drilled. The pieces
Nos. 3, 4, 5, and 6 are stamped out in a press and then shaped up in a lathe
in the manner following:-

page_text: No. 8. A die plate is formed to receive and enclose the stamped out bar.
The cap plate is drilled with datum holes to enable a drill to pass through and
operate upon the enclosed bar and drill the required holes therein. To reduce
the stamped out bars to the gauge size a number of the bars is piled up in two
groups (concentrically) upon a chuck fitted with pins to enter the datum holes
and clamped, and the bars are then turned on their outer and inner edges.
No. 4. These pieces, say twelve in number, stamped out and drilled as
described, are arranged in a ring in recesses formed in a face chuck and
faced to form the shoulder called the pottance foot; they are then trans-
ferred to another and similar chuck, and arranged radially to enable the
outer edges of the whole group to be turned down simultaneously. The
pottance thus far shaped is transferred to another chuck fitted with pins
concentrically arranged to receive the pieces. The pins enter the drilled
holes and hold the pieces firmly (say a group of six), all in the same relative
position on the chuck, so that when their inner edges are turned they will still
all correspond in form. In the same way two other curved cuts are made on
the sides of the pottance; the other portion of the edges, the accuracy of
which is not important, are finished by filing.
No. 5. The cocks arranged concentrically in a recessed chuck (after being
faced and drilled) have their foot turned, say, 12 at one operation.
No. 6. The name plates having been stamped out, faced, and drilled
like the name-plate bar, are placed three on a chuck and arranged con-
centrically and held on with pins. The outer edge is then turned and
chamfered. For turning the inner or concave edge the cocks are placed
concentrically in three piles, say six in each, on a pinned chuck and turned.
This mode of operating ensures such accuracy as will allow of the assembling
of the parts to form a frame on their indiscriminate selection from piles of
prepared pieces, and at the same time great economy in manufacture is
effected. The holes for the pillars in the pillar plate are tapped and the
pillars are screwed into place; when thus secured they are subjected to the
operation of a gauge drill, which ensures for them a uniformity of height.
The pillar plate is secured to a steel gauge plate which is provided with holes
or sockets, the axes of which coincide with the axes of the pillars of the
pillar plate when the latter is in place, and the holes or sockets are intended
severally to fit upon a stud on the drill table set in a line with the drill; each
pillar is brought in turn under the drill, and the drill, which is made hollow
and moves down to a gauged position (by limiting the motion of its rocking
or depressing lever), brings the drill down into action and finishes the pillar
shoulder, making it slightly hollow. This operation, by giving a uniform

page_text: height to the pillars, ensures the proper fitting of the upper or top plate upon
its supports, a very important result, as the top plate carries the upper
bearings of the arbors of the barrel fusee pinions and balance wheel.
I will now describe the means whereby I ensure great accuracy in the
working of the lathes used to operate upon the several parts constituting the
framework of the watch. To determine the exact traverse of the cutter in
the slide rest lathe, and thus to secure the greatest accuracy in the turning
and facing of all the parts, a sliding gauge rod is fitted to the side of the
lathe. Adjustable stops are fitted to this rod, and a pin projecting down from
the slide rest travels over the rod in the space between the stops. A gauge
pin fixed in a bracket carried on the end of the rod, and set in a line with the
rod, is intended to intercept the rotation of a finger keyed on the traversing
screw shaft. The screw shaft is driven by a friction winch handle or friction
gear, and when the slide rest has arrived at the extreme of its determined
traverse motion its projecting pin will strike the stop on the slide rod and
move the gauge pin into line with the rotating finger. As therefore the
finger comes round its motion will be arrested by its striking upon the side of
the pin, and the driving gear or winch handle will slip and cease to drive the
screw shaft.
In adapting this stop motion to pillar lathes in which radial cutters
are moved to and from their work by a slotted cam, fingers are keyed to the
screw shaft which gears into the teeth of the disc that operates the slotted
cain. A pin on the toothed disc is embraced by a fork keyed on a sliding
stop rod, and this rod is so situated as to enable it when sufficiently advanced
to intercept the fingers, as before described. The continued axial motion of
the disc for keeping the cutters in work causes the stop rod to move forward
into the plane of rotation of the fingers, and thereby arrests the rotation of the
screw shaft.
As a modification of the above the screw shaft is fitted with a driving tooth
which operates upon a stud wheel mounted on the side of the slide rest, and
an adjustable stop is fitted on the opposite side of the wheel. A finger keyed
on the screw shaft will by driving the stud wheel bring up the stop pin into
contact with the rotating finger and arrest the rotation of the screw shaft,
thereby stopping the action of the lathe.