The Auburndale Watch Company - First American Attempt Toward the Dollar Watch

Edwin A. Battison

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Project Gutenberg's The Auburndale Watch Company, by Edwin A. BattisonThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.orgTitle: The Auburndale Watch CompanyFirst American Attempt Toward the Dollar WatchAuthor: Edwin A. BattisonRelease Date: September 8, 2009 [EBook #29934]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUBURNDALE WATCH COMPANY ***Produced by Chris Curnow, ronnie sahlberg, Joseph Cooperand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team athttp://www.pgdp.netTranscribers note:Possible printer errors have been retained as they appear in the original book.The words (above) and (right) in illustration captions have been retained although in this ebookthey have no relevance.Contributions fromThe Museum of History and Technology:Paper 4The Auburndale Watch CompanyEdwin A. BattisonTHE INVENTION 51DEVELOPING THE INVENTION 53THE NEW SPONSOR 57SUCCESS AND FAILURE 64THE LESSON 67By Edwin A. BattisonTHE AUBURNDALE WATCH COMPANY:First American Attempt Toward the Dollar WatchThe life of the pioneer has always been arduous. Not all succeed, and many disappear leaving no trace on the pages of history. Here,painstaking search has uncovered enough of the record to permit us to review the errors of design and manufacture that brought failure ...

Informations

• Publié par: sorij
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 50
• Langue: English

Extrait

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The Auburndale Watch Company Edwin A. Battison THE INVENTION   51 DEVELOPING THE INVENTION   53 THE NEW SPONSOR   57 SUCCESS AND FAILURE   64 THE LESSON   67

Produced by Chris Curnow, ronnie sahlberg, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Contributions from The Museum of History and Technology: Paper 4

Transcribers note: Possible printer errors have been retained as they appear in the original book. The words (above) and (right) in illustration captions have been retained although in this ebook they have no relevance.

N taoian luMesmu U’steniStd esatnainsnI utitnoit n thy, i thso e Smi dnT yra logocenhm euus Mtois Hofigne liv,gnireen

F IGURE  1.— B REGUET ’S T OURBILLON . A T  C IS   SHOWN   THE   CARRIAGE   WHICH   REVOLVES   WITH   PINION  B CARRYING   THE ESCAPEMENT   AND   BALANCE   AROUND   THE   STATIONARY   WHEEL G. (A FTER G. A. B AILLIE , Watches, their history, decoration, and mechanism , London, Methuen, n.d.)

His solution was to mount the escapement in a frame or “chariot” which revolved, usually once a minute, so that with each revolution all possible positions were passed through (fig. 1 ). This gave the watch an average rate which was constant except for variations within the period of revolution of the chariot. Only a very skillful workman could, however, work with the delicacy necessary to produce such a mechanism. The result was that few were made and these were so expensive that it continued to be more practical to poise the parts in a conventional movement. The idea of revolving the entire train of a watch, including the escapement, seems to have evolved surprisingly slowly from Breguet’s basic invention of the revolving escapement. In constructing a watch wherein the entire train revolves, no such delicate or precise workmanship is required as in the tourbillon. Due to the longer train of gears involved the period of revolution is much slower. Position errors average out as certainly if not as frequently. In Bonniksen’s “Karrusel” watch of 1893 [2] the duration of a cycle is 52.5 minutes [3] while in the Auburndale Rotary which we are about to discuss the period of each revolution is 2- 1 / 2 hours.

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F IGURE  3.— O RIGINAL  P ATENT  M ODEL   OF   THE  H OPKINS  W ATCH , U. S. P ATENT  161513, J ULY  20, 1875, NOW   IN   THE  U. S. National Museum ( cat. no. 309025).

Figure 2.—P ATENT D RAWING   OF   THE H OPKINS W ATCH . T HE   MAINSPRING   BARREL  E , OF   A   VERY   LARGE   DIAMETER   IN   PROPORTION to the diameter of the watch, occupies nearly the full diameter of the movement. The spring itself, narrower and much longer than usual, is made in the patent model by riveting two ordinary springs together end to end. Over THIS   BARREL   AND   ATTACHED   TO   THE   STATIONARY   FRAME   OF   THE   WATCH   IS   PLACED   A   LARGE   THIN   RING A, CUT   ON   ITS   INNER DIAMETER   WITH 120 TEETH . N EAR   ITS   EDGE   THE   BARREL E CARRIES   A   STUD   g   ON   WHICH   RUNS   A   PINION   OF 10 IN   MESH   WITH THE   RING   GEAR   A . O N   THIS   PINION   IS   A   WHEEL   OF 80 DRIVING   A   PINION   OF 6 ON   THE   ESCAPE - WHEEL   ARBOR . T HE 15- TOOTH ESCAPE   WHEEL   LOCKS   ON   A   SPRING   DETENT   AND   GIVES   IMPULSE   TO   THE   BALANCE   IN   ONE   DIRECTION   ONLY , BEING   A CONVENTIONAL   CHRONOMETER   ESCAPEMENT . T HE   INTERMEDIATE   WHEEL   AND   PINION , BALANCE   WHEEL , AND   BALANCE   COCK have been adapted from a Swiss bar movement of the time.

The second fault is in the ratio between the time of one revolution and the number of revolutions necessary for a day’s run. Three turns of the spring are, of course, required to run the watch for an hour, since the barrel and train revolve three times in that length of time. If we choose to have the watch run for 30 hours on a winding, and this leaves but a small safety factor, then we see that this will require 90 turns of the main spring, a manifest impossibility in view of the space available. [5]

Figure 5.—H OPKINS B ALANCE A RRESTING D EVICE , THE   SUBJECT ’ OF U. S. PATENT 165830. T HIS   AND   THE   DEVICE   ILLUSTRATED IN   FIGURE   4   ORIGINALLY   WERE   SUBMITTED   TOGETHER   TO   THE P ATENT O FFICE   ON J UNE 9, 1875, AND   LATER   WERE   DIVIDED into two patents.

Probably no attempt was made to produce a finished and practical watch at this time, although Hopkins, the inventor, was an actual watchmaker as well as a retail jeweler, with premises virtually in the shadow of the Patent Office. He was a native of Maine [6] and had been established in Washington since 1863, or perhaps some time in 1862. [7]

F IGURE  4.— D RAWING   FROM U. S. P ATENT 165831, SHOWING  H OPKINS ’ FIRST   DESIGN   IMPROVEMENT , AN   ARBOR   FOR   THE barrel and train to turn on and the balance displaced from center.

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