Ar HYDRAULIC CLOCK
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Athanase Airiau, of Paris, Department of Seine,
in the Empire of France, Gentleman, for the Invention of "Ar
HYDRAULIC CLOCK."
Sealed the 12th May 1868, and dated the 15th November 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Athanase Airiau at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th November 1867.
I, ATHANASE AIRIAU, of Paris, Department of Seine, in the Empire of
France, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN HYDRAULIC CLOCK," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is a clock in which water acts as the motor.
Introduced continually into a reservoir placed at the upper part of the clock,
where it is kept at a uniform level, the water flows through a small opening,
and falls from a slight height on a small boat or vessel A, B, divided into two
equal compartments soldered at right angles on the axle of the rod which
pushes the pendulum C (see Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying Sheet of
Drawing). When the pendulum has lost its vertical position and begins to
oscillate the small boat brings one of its compartments successively beneath
the orifice of the reservoir, so that while one lowers under its load of water
the other rises to take in a quantity of water. This alternation engenders the
movement which perpetuates the oscillation of the pendulum, and the pen-

page_text: dulum in its turn regulates the speed of the movement. At the same time
the water which overflows at each oscillation of the pendulum falls on a
second small boat D, E, and causes it to oscillate independently of the
pendulum. A pendulum bob F fixed on a rod f, g, on which D, E, is soldered
regulates the movement by giving it a uniform speed. A lever h forming part
of the oscillating rod f, g, communicates motion to the wheel S which gives
the seconds from this wheel, the movement is transmitted to another by
means of a disc R of an eccentric shape fixed upon its axle, and on this diso
rests a first lever G, which following the lifting movement transmitted to it by
the eccentric gives a rotary motion to the minute wheel by means of the second
lever I (see Figs. 2 and 3) in suchwise that the second wheel is obliged to
make an entire turn in order to advance the minute wheel one tooth. The
communication with the hour wheel is made in the same manner. The water
which has served for the movement passes out by the tube H at the lower
part of the clock.
On the annexed Sheet of Drawing Fig. 1 is a back, Fig. 2 a side, and
Fig. 3 a front elevation of my hydraulic clock, Fig. 4 being a top plan view of
same.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Athanase Airiau in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th May 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ATHANASH
AIRIAU, of Paris, Department of Seine, in the Empire of France, Gentleman,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Athanase Airiau, Her special licence that I, the said Athanase
Airiao, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Athanase Airiau, 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
HYDRAULIC CLOCK," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said

page_text: Athanase Airiau, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Athanase Airiau, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
The object of this Invention is a clock of which water is the motive power;
and the Invention consists in the application of water as a motive power to
mechanism, and in the arrangement of the same to form a timekeeper.
To make the Invention better understood I will proceed to describe the
same by reference to the accompanying Drawing in the several Figures, of
which the same letters of reference indicate similar parts.
Figure 1 shows a back elevation, Figure 2 side elevation, Figure 3 front
elevation, and Figure 4 a plan of hydraulic clock. The water is supplied
in excess through a pipe at the upper part of the case of the clock in a
continuous manner into a receiver L placed at the upper part of the clock, in
which it is kept at a uniform level by means of an overflow pipe P. The
water flows through a small pipe M, the opening of which is adjuste.l to the
required flow, and falls vertically from a small height into a small boat or
vessel divided into two equal compartments A, B, fixed on an arbor a, b,
which is connected to the cranked rod or lever c, d, the extremity d of which
is forked as usual to receive the rod of the pendulum C. When the
pendulum C is moved from the vertical position and let go, it oscillates
alternately from right to left, and moves with it the lever c, d, and the
boat A, B. The effect of this oscillation is that the water accumulates
alternately in each compartment A, B, of the boat, and falls out alternately.
Thus supposing the pendulum in oscillating bears on the left the compart-
ment A will rise and come under the pipe M, and will be charged with water.
The compartment A will then press on the pendulum rod by means of the
forked lever c, d, and will tend not only to stop the motion of the pendulum
to the left, but also to give it an impulse to the right; the lever c, d, and
pendulum will then incline to the right, and the compartment A will fall and
discharge the water it contains, At the same time the compartment B will
rise and go through the same movements as the compartment A, videlicet,
get charged with water, push the pendulum to the left and fall and discharge

page_text: the water accumulated. This alternation of impulses to the right or left
keeps the pendulum in motion by restoring at each oscillation (as in ordinary
clocks,) the force necessary for overcoming the various resistances to its motion,
but in this case the arrangement employed allows the pendulum to be inde-
pendent of the mechanism of the clock, consequently of doing away with the
cause of stoppages which might result from this mechanism, besides having
the advantage that the action on the pendulum is always equal. This com-
bination of independent pendulum and uniform flow of water ensures great
regularity.
The mechanism by means of which the marking of time in hours, minutes,
and seconds is obtained has no other connection with the preceding than by
reason of the water which in running off the compartments A and B of the
boat falls freely and alternately on the spoons or double boat D, E, fixed on the
arbor f, g, with which they oscillate like a scale beam. This arbor is connected
to a rod f, g, provided with a ball or bob F, which may be fixed at different
heights of the rod f, g, and which acting as a pendulum renders the
oscillations of the mechanism of the double spoon isochronal with the
oscillations of the pendulum C. On the opposite end of the arbor f, g, is
fixed a small lever, to which is jointed a click h which when the spoon E falls
under the weight of the water falling from the compartment B, the click h
meets a tooth of the ratchet wheel S, and being prevented from slipping over
the edge of this wheel draws it in its motion towards the right. As soon as
the spoon E is empty and rises again by the effect of the fall of the spoon D
fixed to it, and which is charged by the water which has fallen from the
compartment A, the click ceases to act on the wheel S, the recoil of which is
prevented by the pressure of a spring; the click in its backward movement
slides over, the following tooth is disengaged and takes its first position, ready
at the next fall of the spoon E to strike the tooth over which it has slid and
push it forward, and thus move on the wheel S another tooth. This wheel
having sixty teeth will make one complete revolution in a minute if the
spoon E falls once per second, and if for that purpose the pendulum C beats
the half second, for then the boats A, B, will have in one second or two
oscillations once poured their contents into each corresponding spoon, and the
spoons will have fallen and risen successively during this time. The arbor of
the wheel S is extended beyond the dial of the clock, and carries a hand (not
shown in the Drawing) which moves with the wheel S and marks the second<.
On this arbor freely turns the hollow cylindrical arbor or socket of the wheel T
to the extremity of which is fixed the minute hand (not shown in the Drawing),
this wheel has sixty teeth similar to those of the wheel S. An eccentric disc or

page_text: cam R, Figure 3, of a spiral form fixed to the wheel S. raises by. degrees &
ever G and its click J; this click pushes progressively the tooth of the
wheel T until the spiral disc has made a whole revolution; at this point the
lisc allows the lever to fall and with it its click, which falls, sliding-over the:
ollowing tooth into the position shown at Figure 3, and rising again takes
At each rotation.
nto this tooth and pushes it forward in the same manner.
of the disc at each minute a fresh tooth of the wheel T is propelled by the.
catch as far as the point at which the preceding one has stopped, so, that the
wheel T having sixty teeth makes one entire revolution in one hour, and one-
sixtieth of a revolution (or one tooth) in one minute. There are similar
arrangements between the wheel T and the wheel U, the arbor of which
carries the hour hand (not shown in the Drawing), and in which the first
causes two teeth to advance at each elevation of the second lever I. Twelve
teeth only are necessary for the third or hour wheel, so that it makes one
entire revolution while the minute wheel makes twelve. As these teeth would
be very large and would require a great motion of the lever I, I prefer
quadrupling the number and having forty-eight teeth to the wheel U, and
dividing the disc R' into four parts like four large teeth, so that the lever I
rising four times along these teeth during one revolution of the minute
wheel T causes four teeth of the hour wheel to advance successively during
this revolution, the hand of the arbor of the wheel T advances therefore like
it or one hour of or 12th of a revolution. I can adopt for the number of
teeth of the wheel U any other multiple of 12, such as 24, 36, 48, or 60,
provided the elevator disc be divided into 2, 3, 4, or 5 parts. The recoil of
the 3 wheels is prevented by the slight pressure of a spring to each. N is
the spring to the wheel T. When the water which has moved the two spoons
is discharged by them into a lower receiver, which may be so formed as to be
used as an aquarium, it is carried off through a pipe K, or by any other pipe
suitably placed.
The seconds hand wheel need not necessarily be divided into 60 teeth,
this is only the case when the pendulum beats half seconds, if it were
arranged to oscillate quicker or slower the number of teeth will necessarily
vary.
llaving now described my said Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to the
precise details berein laid down and shown in the accompanying Drawing;
but what I claim is,―
Firstly. The employment of water as a moving power for horological
mechanism.

page_text: Secondly. The general arrangement and construction of the apparatus, as
herein-before described and represented in the accompanying Drawing.
Thirdly. The rendering the pendulum independent of the other mechanism,
as herein-before described and represented in the accompanying Drawing.
Fourthly. The arrangement for obtaining a regular flow of the motive
water, equalizing its power, and distributing it equally over both sides of the
apparatus, as herein-before described and represented in the accompanying
Drawing.
Fifthly. The employment of discs or cams, levers, and clicks, for regulating
the relative speed of the wheels, as herein-before described and represented
in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Athanase Airiau, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
A.
זזחזו
ALMAU.
(་ཁྲ་ཀ)