“The merit of this escapement is in a newly invented escape-wheel which is self-locking and requires no banking pins; the pallets are curved inside the impulse and outside the locking, to work with the curved points of the teeth of the wheel; being made of gold the wheel will go without oil. From its form it has the power of double impulse and double locking with the lever. The first takes place at the discharge of the escapement, the second does not act unless the watch receives a sudden motion, and then the pin or pallet in the roller strikes lightly on the lever, when the propellant power drives it back again. The balance passes through two turns before the second locking takes place, and is formed so as to be able to take up the lever, and the watch soon rights itself, and its time will not be affected. Another advantage is, that the lever is made of a flat piece of steel, as I have introduced a gold stud to receive the ruby impulse stone, which is made to adjust easily so as to bring the escapement to the closest geometrical accuracy. By its formation this ruby guides the impulse to the external edge of the roller notch. These advantages, and its simplicity, render it suitable to the best chronometer watches.”
A FEW years ago, in 1859 or ’60, Mr. Peabody, a very talented gentleman of this city, patented a three-pin escapement that performed extremely well. A full description of his patent and plan is not at hand, but we will endeavor to give it to our readers in our next issue.
English Opinion of American Watch Manufacture.
In the London circle of Horologists, more attention is paid to the scientific departments than the mercantile; but for all that, a Mr. Henry Ganney has held forth before the “British Horological Institute,” on “American Watch Manufacture.” Though an Englishman, with English prejudices, he certainly gives a very fair and impartial statement of the subject; yet he views it almost entirely in the money-making aspect. He gives all the credit deserved to American enterprise and ingenuity, and yet there is a certain sense of a drawback. He had before him samples of machine work; among others, to quote, “several movements made by the British Watch Company, which flourished and failed about twenty-five years ago; these were machine-made, and the perfection and completeness of the machinery they used for producing these frames has not been equalled, I believe, in America; several machines being used there to accomplish what was begun and completed by one here.”
Mr. Ganney is right in his statement, but the example given by the British Watch Company was the rock seen by the American navigators. One tool, for facing off, truing up, drilling, depthing, and doing all the work on the pillar plate, having cost, before completion, some three thousand pounds sterling, and from its very complexity being utterly inefficient—worse than useless. In the very inception of the American watch manufacture a similar mistake was almost made. Experience and sound reasoning proved, however, that a multiplicity of operations in any one machine rendered it entirely too complex, the adjustments too numerous, and the work totally worthless. We shall in another number refer again to Mr. Ganney’s lecture, and perhaps give some beamings of light on the early history of the American watch manufacture, derived from personal observation at the time.
Correspondence.
Editors Horological Journal:
I received a Prospectus a few days ago advising me of your contemplated existence. I could hardly believe the fact; “the news was too good to be true.” However, I shall take it for granted, for I cannot see why somebody has not before had the enterprise to launch out in the periodical line on subjects connected with Horology, the field being so extensive and the want so severely felt. Enclosed I send you the subscription price; in this much I have accepted your invitation, but I also enclose some few lines on a subject not particularly practical or theoretical, but very near the truth, and may perhaps give you a view of our wants.