US1928287A - Clock - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 26; 1933- c. H. GRANGER CLOCK Fil gd Dec. 15, 1932 Patented Sept. 26, 1933 PATENT OFFICE CLOCK Charles H. Granger, Waterbury, Conn., assignor to Waterbury Clock Company,

Conn., a corporation Waterbury,

Application December 15, 1932 Serial No. 647,375

2 Claims.

Myinvention relates to an improvement in clocks, the object being to produce, at a low cost for manufacture, acomplete clock-unit of supe'rior convenience in being started and set, or

wound and set, according as it is an electric or a spring-wound mechanism, and in which the dial, being inaccessible to the user, is prevented from being soiled or disfigured and the hands bent or deranged.

With these ends in view, my invention consists in a clock-unit comprising a time-movement, a dial and hands, a bezel and glass normally fixed in a planeparallel with the plane of the dial, a hinge carried by the bezel for the attachment of i the'clock-unit at a single point to the front face of a. panel containing a clearance-opening adapted in size and form to receive the movement and to be overlapped by the dial, bezel and glass, such opening being shaped for the clearance of the movement when the unit is swung outward upon its hinge, and manual operating-means connected with the time-movement, whereby, when the unit is swung outwardly on its hinge, through the clearance-opening in the panel, the manual operating-means is exposed for operation at a point in front of thefront face of the panel,

without disturbing the glass and bezel in their relation to thedial and hands.

My invention further consists in a clock-unit having certain details of construction and combinations of parts as will be hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation of one embodiment which my improved clock-unit may assume, being shown as applied to a panel represented in vertical section; Fig. 2 is a view thereof in rear elevation;

Fig. 3 is a view in vertical section on the line 1 3 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a sectional view on the line 44 of Pig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a detached perspective view of the hinge by means of which the clock-unit is mounted on the front face of the panel; and

Fig. 6 is a view in side elevation showing the clock-unit as swung. away from the front panel of a cabinet, so as to render its manual operatingmeans accessible from a point in front of the panel for the purpose of starting and setting, or winding and setting, the clock, as the case may be.

In the embodiment of my invention as herein shown, the time-movement, whatever its character, i. e., electrically-motivated or springwound, is represented by a circular case 10, provided at its forward end with an annular flange 11 standing at a right angle to it and formed, as shown, with three spaced perforations 12 receiving correspondingly-spaced fingers 13 struck up from a circular dial-back 14 to which the dial 15 is secured. The said fingers 13, after being passed through the perforations 12, are bent outwardly, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, whereby the dial-back, and hence the dial, are connected with the movement-case 10.

The case 10, dial-back 14 and dial 15, as thus assembled, are mounted in and carried by a bezel 16 having a rearwardly-extending flange 17 receiving the dial and dial-back, which are permanently secured within it by a retaining-ring 18 soldered in place, whereby the bezel is made a fixed part of the clock-unit, instead of being hinged, to be swung away from the dial for direct access thereto, as in ordinary practice.

Preparatory to soldering the retaining-ring 18 in place within the flange 1'7 of the bezel, the case 10, and hence its flange 11, is pressed forward within the said flange 17, so that the glass or crystal 19 is pressed into close contact with the inwardly-extending retaining fiange 20 of the bezel.

Under this construction, the bezel and glass become a stationary part of the clock-unit and are normally fixed in a plane parallel with the plane of the dial, thus virtually imprisoning the dial and thehands, whereby the dial is protected against being soiled or disfigured and the hands from being bent or displaced, as so often occurs when the bezel and glass are swung away so as to expose the dial and hands, as is the usual practice in clocks in which the bezel is pivoted with respect to the dial. In other words, the only method of direct access to the dial and to the hands is by first removing the ring 18, or whatever other means is employed, for securing the bezel to the movement-case 10.

My improved clock-unit is further provided with a single relatively-heavy hinge carried by the bezel itself and adapting it, and hence the entire clock-unit, to be secured so as to be pivotal- 1y connected at a single point to the front face of the clock-case, radio cabinet, or equivalent panel, whatever its specific character.

As shown, the said hinge has leaves 21 and 22 joined by a pintle 23. The knuckle 24 of the leaf 21 is formed with stop-shoulders 25, which coact with stop-shoulders 2626 upon the respective knuckles 27 of the leaf 22, to limit the swinging of the movement in relation to the panel 28, no

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