US25468A - la due - Google Patents

Description

s. P. LA DUE.

Time Piece.

No. 25,468. Patented sept. 13, 1859.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

S. P. LA DUE, OF ROCKEORD, IOWA, ASSIGNOR TO THOMAS S. LA DUE, OF SAME PLAGE.

CALENDAR-CLOCK.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 25,468, dated September 13, 1859.

To all whom it 'may concern:

Be it known that I, S. P. La DUE, of Rockford, in the county of Floyd and State of Iowa, have invented a new and Improved Tiinepiece; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure l represents a back view7 of a time piece constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of ditto partly in section.

Similar letters of reference in both views refer to corresponding parts.

This invention consists in arranging the wheels in the clock with figures and letters in such a manner that the same by their relative position toward an opening, or openings, in the lower part of the case or toward a` stationary point indicate the seconds, the minutes, the hours and the days of the week,vand those of the month, without the aid of movable hands or indexes, and these wheels, therefore, serve at the same time as driving parts of the clock, and as dials, and hands, those wheels being dispensed with which usually serve to operate the dials or hands; and those wheels, which indicate the hours, the days of the week and the days of the month, are so arranged that they have an intermittent motion, keeping the respective figures or letters in view during the whole hour or during the whole day, the changes taking place almost instantaneously with the wheels which indicate the days of the week and month, and at shorter or longer intervals according to the hour that the clock has to strike, with that wheel which indicates the hours; which latter however may also be made so as to have a continuous motion, as will be hereinafter more fully explained; and this invention also consists in arranging the wheel which indicates the hours in such a manner that it serves the double purpose of indicating the time and of actuating the bell hammer.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my time piece I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A represents a case, to the top of which the clock work is secured. The verge, a, works on an arbor, o, to which the pendulum, B, is attached, and the verge engages with the pallet or escapement wheel, C,

which turns loosely on the arbor, c, between the frame P, and rigidly attached to this arbor is a ratchet wheel, c, and a pinion, c2, and a pivot, 0*, is secured to the side of the pallet, C, so that the same opposes the motion of the arbor in the direction of arrow l, whereas when turned in the opposite direction, it moves independent of the arbor, and of the pinion, c2. The pendulum and the pallet are so proportioned that the pallet rotates once in three minutes and its face is marked with figures, commencing with 0 and running up to 60, and thus three times in the same manner. The pinion, c2, meshes into a cog-wheel, D, the diameter of which is 20 times as large as that of the pinion, c2, so that this wheel rotates once in an hour. This wheel is iirmly secured to an arbor (Z, which .has its bearings in the frame, P; and attached to its outer end is a pinion, (Z, which engages with a cog wheel E, which turns loosely on an arbor, e, to which a ratchet wheel, e, is iirmly'attached, and a pawl, c2, which is secured to the side of the cog wheel E, catches into the ratchet wheel, causing the same together with the arbor to rotate in one direction, whereas the wheel E can be rotated in the other direction independent from the arbor, e. The diameter of the cog wheel E, is twelve times greater than that of the pinion d, which latter rotates with the wheel D once in an hour. The wheel E, will, therefore, rotate once in twelve hours, and its face is inscribed with figures, which run from I up to XII, each ligure standing for an hour. Motion is imparted to the arbor, e, by means of a weight, F, which is attached to a rope or cord, f, which winds on the arbor c, so that the teeth of the ratchet wheel, e', slide under the pawl, c2. Another wheel, Gr, which serves also to indicate the hours by an intermittent motion, is attached to a tube, g, which is slipped loosely over the arbor, (Z, and which has its bearings in the frame, P, and a cord, g, winds on this tube, to which a weight, F, is attached. The wheel, G, has seventy-eight spaces, z', cut into its circumference, some of which, z, are deeper than the others, and a latch, H, which rocks on an arbor, L, by falling into these deeper spaces, serves to arrest the wheel, which otherwise would continue to rotate impelled by the weight F. Those parts of the wheel, Gr, between the spaces, z' z", form cogs or projections, which serve to actuate a hammer, I, so that it strikes against a bell, J, once for every cog or projection; and the deeper spaces, z', are divided over the circumference of the wheel in such a manner that one cog stands between the first pair of deeper spaces, two cogs between the next pair and three cogs between the next succeeding pair, and so on until twelve cogs or projections stand between the last pair of deeper spaces so that the hammer strikes one as the latch passes from the first space to the second, and two as the latch passes from the second space to the third and so on until it strikes twelve as the latch passes frome the last one of the deeper spaces back to the first one.

The face of the wheel, Gr, is provided with a series of roman figures, running from I to XII which are so divided that the figure XII stands before the opening, K, in the front side of the case, when the latch is in the first one of the deeper spaces, i', and as it strikes one, and when the latch passes from the first to the second space, the figure I is turned before the opening K, where it remains until it strikes two, when the figure II appears before the opening K, and so on until with every fresh hour a new figure appears before the opening, K, and remains there to the end of the hour.

The latch H is released from the spaces, i', by means of a cam, 7c, which is secured on the shaft, CZ, and which acts on a weighted lever, L, and as the shaft cl, rotates once in an hour the latch, I-I, is released at the end of every hour so that the hammer strikes the requisite number of times. In order to wind up the wheel Gr it is only necessary to disengage the latch H from the cogs between the spaces, z', and the wheel can be turned back by hand or by means of a suitable key. Attached to the back side of the wheel, G, is the spring catch, Z, which acts on a pallet, m, once for every revolution of the wheel, G. This ring rotates in sockets formed by arms, N, and it is marked on its face with 31 figures corresponding to the number of the days in some of the months, and its back is provided with 31 cogs, 0, which are at equal distances one from the other, and in such a position that the cam,

p n, strikes against them and that by this action the ring, M, is turned over the space contained between two of the cogs, 0, on its back or between two of the figures on its face, and an opening, O, is cut out of the front part of the case, in such a position that the figures on the face of the ring, M, are brought before the same, one after the other, as the ring is pushed on by the action of the cam, n, on the cogs, 0. Secured to the front side of the ring, M, is another smaller ring, Q, marked with letters, which indicate the days of the week, and the number of these letters corresponds with the number of gures on the ring, M, each of the letters being placed in line with one of the gures, and the ring, Q, rests in guides, g, so that it can be rotated independent from the ring M.

An endless strip of cloth, R, is arranged in the lower part of the case on pins so that it can be drawn over these pins, and that different parts of the same can be brought in front of the case. This strip of cloth is marked with the names of the different months in successive order, and secured under each of these names is the order of the days, together with the time of the rising and setting of the sun and moon, as the same is given in the almanac for the current year.

The operation is as follows The clock is wound up and set in motion, in the usual manner, and it will be easily understood that springs may ybe employed for driving the same as well as weights. The several dials are set according to the hour, and to the day of the week and month, and the case is so arranged that the required figures and letters are exposed to view: for instance, seventeen minutes past 12 oclock on the 10th day of May 1859 is indicated by turningthe wheel, C, so that the zero stands before the corresponding opening in the case, and the wheel, D, is turned so that the second cog, beyond the figure 15, appears before the opening or mark which appertains to this wheel. At the same time the figure XII on the hour Wheel, G, will be kept before the eye of the observer, and the figure 12 on the hour wheel, E, has passed over the marker placed in front of it. And the day being Tuesday the letter T will be exposed through the opening in the case corresponding to the ring Q, and the ring, M, is turned so that the figure 10 stands opposite the opening O. As the clock goes on, and when it is one oclock, the latch, H, is released from the wheel Gf, and the hammer, I, strikes once, and the figure I appears before the opening, K, and so on until midnight, when, by the action of the spring catch, Z, and cam, n, the ring, M, is turned so as to bring the figure 11 before the opening O, and, at the same time, the letter I/V, on the ring Q, appears instead of the letter T. If the month has only 30 days the ring, M, has to be set on the first of the next succeeding month, which will be easily understood from the previous description, and the ring, Q, must be turned so as to make its position correspond with the ring, M.

Vhat I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:-

1. The arrangement and combination of the wheels C, D E and Gr, and the rings M and Q, the faces of which are marked with the proper figures and letters, so that they indicate the seconds, the minutes, the hours, and the days of the week and month, substantially in the manner herein specified.

2. Arranging the Wheel, Gr, in such a mantion, also to indicate the hours either by a ner that it serves the double purpose of accontinuous or intermittent motion substan- 10 tuating the bell hammer and to indicate the tially in the manner described. hours of the day substantially in the mim- 5 ner described. S' P LA DUE' 3. Placing the figures and dials on the vWitnesses: faces of the driving Wheels to indicate the ELIHU KNAPP,

Seconds and minutes by a continuous ino- SARAH WV. POINDEXTER.

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