Time Telling through the AgesBrearley, Harry Chase
History
Time Telling through the Ages
Brearley, Harry Chase
Clocks and watches -- History; Time measurements
BRÉQUET, ABRAHAM LOUIS—A celebrated Swiss mechanician and watchmaker
born at Neufchatel in 1747. He made several improvements in watches,
the most notable being the Bréquet hairspring still in use in the best
watches. He died in 1823.
[Illustration: BRÉQUET SPRING]
BRÉQUET SPRING—A form of balance spring which is a volute with its
outer end bent up above the plane of the body of the spring and carried
in a long curve towards the center near which it is fixed. Like all
other springs in which the outer coil returns towards the center, it
offers opportunities of obtaining isochronism by varying the character
of the curves described by the outer coil and thus altering its
resistance. So-called from its inventor, Abraham Louis Bréquet (q.
v.). Its advantage over the flat spring is that the overcoil allows
expansion and contraction in all directions, thereby avoiding a good
deal of side friction on the pivots as well as insuring more nearly
perfect isochronism in changes of temperature.
BRIDGE—A standard fastened to the plate, in which a pivot works.
BRIDGE MODEL—The term given to watch movements in which plates or
bridges carrying the upper pivots of the train rest firmly on the lower
or dial plate and are held rigid by steady pins on lower side of the
plate; the bridge being secured direct to the dial plate by screws
termed plate or bridge screws. This is the most common construction
of present-day manufacture and is utilized in three-quarter plate or
separate and combination bridges covering one or more pivots of train
wheels. Its alternate is "pillar model."
BUCK, D. A. A.—A watch repairer in Worcester, Mass., who designed a
model for the Waterbury watch. His first model was not successful, but
in 1877 he completed one which, a little later, the Waterbury Company,
with Buck as master watchmaker, started to make. He remained with the
company until 1884.
BUSH—A perforated piece of metal let into a plate to receive the wear
of pivots.
BUTTING—The engaging of the tips of the teeth of two wheels acting in
gear. The proper point of contact being in the line of the shoulders of
the teeth, butting is remedied by setting the wheels farther apart.
BUTTON—The milled knob used for winding and setting a keyless watch.
CALCULAGRAPH—Trade name for a device for automatically computing and
recording elapsed time in connection with factory jobs and other work
where it is necessary to show the amount of labor used.
CALENDAR—A system of dividing the year into months and days. The
principal calendars known to history are: the Julian calendar; the
Gregorian calendar; the Hebrew calendar; the Mohammedan calendar;
and the Republican calendar. None of them has been quite accurate in
dividing up the solar year, and frequent arbitrary corrections are
necessary to secure a practical approximation. See descriptive article
under each title.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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