AN IMPROVED TRAVELLER'S WATCH
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Modeste Anquetin, of Paris, in the Empire of
France, Watchmaker, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED TRAVELLER'S
WATCH."
Sealed the 31st July 1857, and dated the 17th March 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Modeste Anquetin at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th March 1857.
I, MODESTE ANQUETIN, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Watchmaker,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
TRAVELLER'S WATCH," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to an improvement in watches and portable time-
keepers, and has for its object to shew by means of two concentric dials and
one pair of hands, or by one dial and two pairs of hands the time at any part
of the world, together with the ordinary time of the watch. I employ two
concentric dials or circles of numeral characters, each to denote the time in
hours and minutes. One of these dials is fixed as usual, while the other may
be moved round on its centre by suitable means provided for that purpose.
Supposing the watch to be set with the fixed dial indicating Greenwich
mean time, and it is wished to show also the time at Liverpool, Paris, or
Brussels, the moveable dial is turned round, so as either to be before or behind

page_text: the fixed dial, so that same hands indicating Greenwich time by the fixed dial
will indicate Liverpool, Paris, or Brussels time, as may be required. This
may be either used in London to indicate the time at any one of those or other
places, or it may be used by a traveller to indicate the time of those or any
other place where he then may be, by simply setting the moveable dial to
indicate the time of the place, and without disturbing the Greenwich time, as
indicated by the fixed dial.
Instead of two circles of hours or dials, I sometimes use four hands and
one dial for the same purpose, turning one set of hands back or forward
before or behind the others, according to the time it is desired to indicate.
To facilitate the use of this watch, I prepare an index, shewing the difference
of time at different places, and indicating the extent to which the dial or hands
must be moved for the purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Modeste Anquetin in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MODESTE
ANQUETIN, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Watchmaker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
'One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, tho
said Modeste Anquetin, Her special licence, that I, the said Modeste Anquetin,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Modeste
Anquetin, my executors, administrators, and assigns,, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED TRAVELLER'S
WATCH," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Modeste
Anquetin, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner .the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Modeste Anquetin, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawings, hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):
My Invention consists in causing a clock or watch to indicate correctly in
hours and minutes two different hours at the same time. For this purpose I.
establish the ordinary dial twice repeated, that is to say, two circles indicating
the twelve hours, and two circles indicating the minutes for each hour circle,
respectively. Two of these circles (hour and minute) are fixed, and by the
aid of the hands, which go in the customary order, serve to show the hour of
the day, the other two circles (hour and minute) are moveable, and have a
mechanical relation with each other, which causes them to turn either in one
direction or in the other, in order to indicate by the same two hands any other
time desired, and will show the hours and minutes relatively correct when
moved to any other part of the circle. For this purpose, these two moveable
circles move with respect to each other in the established relation between
hours and minutes, that is to say, the minute circle makes twelve revolutions
while the hour circle is accomplishing one. Hence, it is easy to understand
that being able to cause the moveable dial to advance or retrograde at will, I'
remove it, so to speak, just as far from the hands and from the hour indicated
as the hour or time I desire to indicate differs from the former.
In order to render the use of this dial easy, I place an index on the move-
able minute circle above the number 60; I inscribe on the fixed dial or on
the case the name of any town at the place where the index should stop to
mark the hour given by the meridian of that town; I add the figure 1 or 2
if the index on leaving the datum should pass once or twice before the.
indication before stopping there.
In order to obtain the same result, I establish on paper or otherwise a
table indicative of all towns, with the indication given, according to their
different longitudes, and if I wish, I partially transcribe it on the cap of the
watch, or on the case.
a
I turn these moveable circles either by pointed object, or by a button
placed on the pendant of the watch, or by any other means, with or without'
an external index.
I also reserve the right of changing the arrangement of the circles, that
being mere detail. It is also evident that the communication between the
two circles may be established in several ways, and different to the manner
explained in the Drawing annexed to this description.
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page_text: My Invention, as herein-before particularly described, is represented as
carried out by the use of two moveable dials, communicating with each other,
but it will be observed that the order can be reversed, and the same result
obtained by establishing four hands, two of which are moveable in the same
manner, and in the same relation to each other as the moveable circles of the
dial, and which, although they can be removed as desired in relation to each
other, would, nevertheless, be controlled by them in their horal action, which
will be readily understood as being a mere modification of the arrangement
first herein referred to.
This can be effected in several ways; either by putting on the arbor carry-
ing the minute hand a second one, driven by a slight degree of friction with a
double hour wheel, for transmitting the motion; or it may be by separate
minute wheel work, the principal moving part of which would be connected
by frictional contact, just sufficient to communicate the motion. I make these
moveable hands communicate with the button on the pendant of the watch by
means of a small sliding carriage, which recedes when the hour is set. I form
these hands with a different shape or color from the ordinary hands, so that
the difference may be readily distinguishable.
My dial can also easily serve to register or mark the duration of time of any
operation, at the commencement of the operation, by placing the dial, at
noon, zero (0 minutes) under the minute hand, the hand by advancing will
naturally indicate the time the operation has lasted.
I further improve my system on either portable or non-portable clocks
by establishing either under, at the side of, or even above the hour dial, a
second dial, which is in some measure a geographical one, on which all the
towns of the earth are placed in positions according to their longitudes, as in
a map of the world.
The centre of this geographical dial is occupied by a hand mounted on a
wheel having the same number of teeth as the moveable hour circle of my dial,
Fig. 2. An intermediate wheel connects them together, see Figs. 5 & 6,
so that this hand makes one turn while the moveable dial accomplishes its
revolution of twelve hours, and the hand being moved over the names of each
town or place, the clock indicates on the moveable dial the hour of this town,
whatever may be its longitude.
The practical advantage derived from this improvement is, that having
already on my first dial the towns, the difference of the meridians of which is
found comprised in thirty minutes, on this second dial I can put the hours of
the other towns of the globe. I must observe that watches and clocks usually
do not indicate any difference between the hours of day and night; I do the

page_text: same in my method of indicating the hour, and, for example, 1 place Otaheite
and St. Petersburgh on the same radius, although it is midnight at one of
these places when it is noon at the other.
Lastly, I can establish a similar geographical dial, on the bottom of a watch
having a moveable dial, by making the moveable hour wheel and the geo-
graphical hand wheel communicate with the controlling pinion placed on the
nondant of the watch
same in my method of indicating the hour, and, for example, 1 place Utaheite
and St. Petersburgh on the same radius, although it is midnight at one of
these places when it is noon at the other.
Lastly, I can establish a similar geographical dial, on the bottom of a watch
having a moveable dial, by making the moveable hour wheel and the geo-
graphical hand wheel communicate with the controlling pinion placed on the
pendant of the watch
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
a, Fig. 1, is the fixed dial; b, c, moveable minute and hour circles. In
Fig. 2 their adjustment and action are seen.
The circle a has an open
sunk circular recess, in which the adjustable minute circle 6 is lodged. This
moveable minute circle has cut at its extreme edge ninety teeth; it has
itself an open circular recess in the centre to receive the part of the wheel c,
which is divided into two hundred and sixteen teeth; on which circle c the
moveable hour circle is represented, and the whole is sustained against the
side of the fixed dial by the barret d. e is a wheel, having thirty teeth, carry-
ing also a pinion, having six leaves or teeth, which gear into the two hundred
and sixteen teeth of wheel c. The following is the action:-By turning the
button of the pendant f when the wheel with thirty teeth has made three
revolutions, the minute circle b which has ninety teeth will have made one
revolution. The wheel c, with two hundred and sixteen teeth, will have
advanced the twelfth of a revolution in the same direction.
Figs. 3 and 4 represent the same system differently geared or connected.
a is the fixed dial; it has two pitches, on which the circles b and c are adjusted,
and a barret g, sliding dovetailed on circle a, holds them with slight friction
against this circle. This same barret or plate retains the pinions h and i, Fig. 4.
The following is the action:-The circle 6 has at its interior part twelve
teeth j,j, which, on passing near the six-fan pinion i, cause it to advance one
tooth, whence the ten-toothed pinion h, and the one hundred and forty-four
toothed wheel c also advance one tooth. Now this circle b, which is the
moveable minute circle (being toothed on the exterior), is actuated by the
button mounted on the pendant of the watch. It is evident that if I make
it advance or retrograde one revolution, it having twelve teeth, it would cause
the one hundred and forty-four toothed wheel c to advance twelve teeth in the
same direction. This latter circle is the moveable hour circle; therefore, this
latter circle going twelve times slower than the other, the necessary relation
will always be preserved.

page_text: It will also be understood that the number of wheels and pinions may be
varied..
I put different colors on the moveable dial and on the fixed one, so as to
facilitate their use.
By not placing the name of any town on my fixed dial, I can always,
by means of a little table annexed, take any town whatever as my hour
standard.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of carrying
the same into practical effect, I declare that what I claim as my Invention,
intended to be secured by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is
the apparatus above described applied to watches or timekeepers, serving either
by means of two dials (each consisting of hour and minute circles), one of
which dials is moveable and adjustable, or by means of two systems of hands,
one of which is moveable and adjustable, to indicate the exact hour in any two
localities whatever at the same time.
In witness whereof I, Modeste Anquetin, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.