New and Complete Clock and Watchmakers' Manual
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i 381 1 'fva, 1 II m^^P I I i1 mI Hg m I K9ffl us' BB KiKfu I • 1 AHnSnuS ^H . Hi 30 4 CLOCK AND WATCHMAKERS' MANUAL. NEW AND COMPLETE CLOCK AND WATCHMAKERS' MANUAL. COMPRISING DESCRIPTIONS OP THE VAKIOUS GEARINGS, ESCAPEMENTS, AND COMPENSATIONS NOW IN USE IN FRENCH, SWISS, AND ENGLISH CLOCKS AND WATCHES, PATENTS, TOOLS, ETC. WITH DIRECTIONS FOR CLEANING AND REPAIRING. :ttf) Numerous BBrtjjrab in^H, Compile from tf)* jFretuf). WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING A HISTORY OF CLOCK AND WATCHMAKING IN AMERICA. By M. L. BOOTH, TRANSLATOR OF THE MARBLE WORKERS' MANUAL, ETC, NEW YORK: JOHN "WILEY, 56 WALKER STREET. I860. fs \ Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by JOHN WILEY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. ifi ' ^ <\ £ i R. CRAIGHEAD, Stereoiyper and Elecirotyper, CCai'ton iSuiDQinc[t 81, 83, and 85 Centre Street. TO HENRY FITZ, ESQ., OP NEW YORK CITY, AS A TOKEN OF APPRECIATION OF HIS KINDLY INTEREST AND AID, GENERAL INDEX. PAGE Preface, ix Explanation of Plates, . xv Introduction, 1 Watches, 4 Balance Wheel or Verge and Crown Wheel, . • . 6 Common Seconds Hand, ........ 14 Breguet, 16 Independent Seconds Hand, 24 Repeating, 28 Alarm, 36 Clocks, 41 Regulators, 42 Ordinary Pendulum, 42 Striking Hours and Quarters, 43 Belfry, 48 Pusee, the, . 53 Barrel, the, . 62 Stop works, the, j . 63 Workmanship in General, .......... 65 Gearings, 67 Cycloid, the, . 68 Epicycloid, the, 69 Escapements, 74 Balance Wheel, *75 Cylinder or Horizontal, . .15 Duplex, .80 M. Pons de Paul, of; . 81 Earnshaw's Detached, 267 Hook, 82 Spiral, 83 Vlll GENERAL INDEX. PAGE Gearing, . 83 Inclined Plane, . .85 Arnold, 86 Pendulum and Belfry Clock, 90 Graham, ........... 96 Pin, 97 Compensations in Watches with Circular Regulators, . .102 Destigny, 105 Perron, 105 Robert, 107 Pendulum Clocks, of, 108 Other Methods of, 114 Mercurial, . 117 Leroi and Arnold—Chronometer Balances, 117 Regulator of Portable Clocks, 125 Pendulum, The, 135 Theory of the, .... 136 Regulator of Stationary Clocks, .143 Problems for Determining the Number of Teeth to be given to "Wheels and Pinions, 146 Curious and Useful Inventions, . .156 Jurgensen's Method of Measuring Mean Temperature, . .200 Hermetically Covering Mantel Clocks, 201 Tools used in Clock and WatchmaKing, .204 Annulled Patents, 229 Cleaning and Repairing of Clocks and Watches, 261 True and Mean Time, 262 Regulation and Care of Clocks and Watches, 263 Appendix, . 270 Vocabulary, ... 281 COMPILER'S PREFACE. Among the mechanical arts, there is none more useful than that of horology, yet there are few less understood, or less practised in this country. Notwithstanding the great demand for time-pieces of various kinds, and the very general interest manifested in them by their owners, there are but few treatises on the subject in the English language, and those few too costly to be accessible to the million, while the most of the movements are imported from Europe instead of being manufactured by our own mechanics. But of late, more interest has been manifested, American clocks have won a world-wide reputation, and the manufacture of American watches has been attempted with a marked success, which augurs well for the future. It cannot be doubted that there is native ability enough among our artisans to execute superior workmanship ; the point in question is to afford it facilities for development equal to those enjoyed by other nations. The art of watchmaking requires as much theoretical as practical knowledge, and in Europe, where it has attained its greatest perfection, the workmen are instructed by numerous treatises, published under the supervision of 1* X PREFACE. distinguished mechanicians appointed by the government, which detail the mode of operation with scientific precision. to the European artisans and These books are invaluable ; such is the interest which they manifest in the subject that the most costly and elaborate treatises on the specialities of the art find a ready sale. The most of these are written in the French language—the universal language of the continent—and to them may be attributed much of the superior skill possessed by European artisans. The increasing interest manifested in the subject by our mechanics, together with the new impetus given to the trade by our manufacturing establishments, has led us, at the suggestion of a distinguished scientific man of this city, to compile a translation from the works before mentioned, for the use of American watchmakers. As the basis of our work we have selected M. Magnier's revised and enlarged edition of Le Norm and and Janvier's Manuel de VHorloger, recently published, and forming one of the volumes of the well-known Encyclopedic Roret—a condensed treatise on the art of horology which enjoys a high reputation in France. For the benefit of our numerous foreign workmen, we have endeavored to retain a literal translation of technical terms, so far as has been practicable without rendering the sense obscure to our native mechanics, adding a vocabulary of definitions of terms and synonyms of technicalities. The design has been to furnish to our artisans a com- prehensive treatise on watchmaking, which, without being confined to an elaborate description of a single speciality, should yet furnish details enough to be of real use to the workman as well as of interest to the amateur. The plan ; PREFACE, xi of the work, beginning with, a glance at the watches of Berthoud and Breguet, the principles of which still con- stitute the base of horological science, comprises descriptions and plates of the various gearings, escapements, and com- pensations in use among watchmakers, tools, patents, etc. together with instructions for cleaning and repairing watches and keeping them in order ; with such practical information as may render it useful to the general reader. Nothing has been adopted that has not been sanctioned by approved authority, and it is hoped that the present volume, without conflicting with other treatises, will prove a valuable addi- tion to our mechanical literature. The idea of the measurement of time dates back almost as far as Time itself; though its measure by mechanical means is of more modern origin, it is still so far distant as to be very uncertain. Four hundred years before the Christian era, Plato invented the clepsydra, the first clock of which we have any record, which marked the lapse of time by the falling of water, and indicated the hours by the sound of a flute. Since this time, the progress of watchmaking may be divided into nine distinct epochs, a sketch of which may not be out of place here. The first of these was marked by the invention of toothed wheels. But this must have been very ancient, for Ctesibius, who lived two hundred and fifty years B. c, used them in his clepsydra, and they were probably also employed in the moving sphere of Archimedes. In the second epoch, toothed-wheeled clocks were regu- lated by a balance whose alternate vibrations were produced by an escapement, and whose motive-power was a weight. xii PKEFACE. This invention is attributed to Pacificus, who lived about the ninth century ; but it seems more probable that it was discovered in Germany, and that it only dates back to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. In the third epoch, which may be fixed at the close of the fifteenth century, balance-clocks were constructed which marked the seconds of time, and were designed for astro- nomical observations. These were used by Tycho Brahe, and also by Yaltherus. The fourth epoch presented the valuable invention of the spring formed by a band, which, bent in a spiral form and enclosed in a barrel, serves as the motive-power, and is a substitute for the weight; to this invention we owe the portable clocks, or watches, which were first made towards the middle of the sixteenth century. In this epoch, the striking-clocks, alarm-clocks, etc. were first constructed. The discovery of the pendulum by Galileo, about the commencement of the seventeenth century, marked the fifth epoch, which has become especially memorable by the application of this pendulum to the clock as a substitute for the balance. This application was first made by Huyghens towards the middle of the same century. The sixth epoch was marked by the application of the spring to the balance-regulator of watches ; by means of which this regulator acquires the property of making oscil- lations which are independent of the escapement, so that the elastic force of this spring is to the balance what the weight or gravity is to the pendulum. This successful application was made in 1660, by Dr. Hook. In 1674, the Abbe d'Hautefeuille made use of a straight spring, which Huy- PREFACE. X1U ghens improved upon in 1675, by giving it a spiral form. Shortly after this time, the repeater was invented in Eng- land. It was first applied to clocks in 1676 by Mr. Barlow, and afterwards to watches by Messrs. Barlow, Tompion, and Quarle. The seventh epoch may be dated at the close of the seventeenth century. Towards this period, considerable variations were perceived in the pendulum-clocks con- structed by Huyghens, and a new escapement, called the anchor, was substituted for the Huyghens escapement, which possessed the property of causing the pendulum to describe small isochronal arcs, thus rendering the ingenious inven- tion of the cycloid of Huyghens wholly useless. The eighth epoch was ushered in just before the middle of the eighteenth century, when a mechanism was adjusted to clocks which corrected the variations caused in them by the changes of temperature.