The Auburndale Watch Company : $b first American attempt toward the dollar watch — John Shaqi
The Auburndale Watch Company : $b first American attempt toward the dollar watchBattison, Edwin A.
History
The Auburndale Watch Company : $b first American attempt toward the dollar watch
Battison, Edwin A.
Auburndale Watch Company (Auburndale, Mass.); Clock and watch making -- United States
The patent model of Jason R. Hopkins' revolving watch, now in the U. S.
National Museum,[4] was not the first in which the entire train
revolved but it was a very novel conception intended to reduce greatly
the number of parts usually associated with any watch. This may be seen
from figures 2 and 3, where everything shown inside the ring gear
revolves slowly as the main spring runs down. This spring is prevented
from running down at its own speed by the train pinion seen in mesh with
the ring gear. Through this pinion motion is imparted to the escape wheel
and balance, where the rate of the watch is controlled. The balance,
being planted at the center of revolution, travels around its own axis,
as in the tourbillon, at the speed with which the entire train revolves
around the barrel arbor. This arbor turns only during winding. No dial or
dial gearing is shown in the patent or exists in the patent model. The
patent merely says, casually, "By means of dial wheels the motion of the
barrel may be communicated to hands and the time indicated in the usual
manner." No fine finish or jeweling has been lavished on the model, the
only jewels present being in the balance cock which was utilized as it
came from its original watch with only minor modification to the shape of
its foot. Apparently the balance wheel itself is also a relic of the same
or a similar conventional watch. There is no jeweling in the escapement
or on the other end of the balance staff. In spite of this the model runs
very actively and will overbank if wound up very far. The beat of the
escapement is two per second and the movement revolves once in 20
minutes.
There are two great faults in the model. First is the lack of an adequate
bearing for the barrel to turn on. There is only one very short bearing a
long way removed from the point of engagement between the pinion and
internal gear, and no adequate support is given the barrel, with the
result that it tends to deflect from the ideal or true position and to
bind. This condition is aggravated by the fact that the ring gear was
made by cutting its teeth on an angle to the axis around which it is to
revolve, using only a saw of appropriate width. The teeth were then
rounded-up to form by hand in a separate operation which by its very
nature means that the teeth are not exactly alike. This lack of
uniformity of the ring gear coupled with an entirely inadequate bearing
for the barrel contributes to rather erratic transfer of power. These
irregular teeth would not, of course, be a factor in factory-made watches
where suitable machinery would be available for the work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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