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 ...
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.
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.
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.