US2143814A - Clock - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 10, 1939, A. N. WOODRUFF CLOCK Filed Feb. 13, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet l Jan. 10, 1939, A. N. WOODRUFF CLOCK Filed Feb. 13, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 amen/tom SILVER .fllbo/rt .77. Wa'adndf BRASS Patented Jan. 10, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE cnocx Albert N. Woodrnfl', WI-l ndlm. n. 0. Application February 1:, 19:1, Serial No. 125,662

6 Claims. (c1. ss-a) The invention relates to improvements in clocks, and its objects are as follow:

First, to provide; the combination of a clock mechanism of any known type and an inherently 5 separate unit which is applied to said clock mechanism as an attachment, the function of the latter being to convert said mechanism into a clock that is operable for determining the time at any desired locality on the globe.

10- Second, to so locate the thumb-wheels for setting the graduated ring and winding the spring when the clock is of the spring motor type, as to make them easily accessible yet proof against being knocked off readily, said thumb-wheels 15 being made fairly thin but with beveled or rounded edges so as to extend the knurling to which the surfaces are treated.

Third, to distinguish the top surface of the graduated ring with brass and silver or other whether the duplicate graduations in the ring half belts are for east or west readings.

Fourth, to provide an attachment having the foregoing characteristics, which is applicable to 25 any known type of clock or watch mechanism merely by mountingit upon the upper plate of the latter.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the foliowingspecification, reference being had 30 to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view principally of the attachment, but also illustrating how it appears in relationship to a known clock mechanism.

35 Figure 2 is a detail plan view of a portion of the clock face. I

Figure 3 is a cross section of the attachment taken substantially on the line of Figure 1,

Figure 4 is a cross section of the known clock 4 mechanism, which figure can also be considered as a supplement to Figure 3, the two views being shown in the relationship in which they will be connected,

Figure 5 is a diagrammatic perspective view, 45 mainly illustrating the parts of the clock attachment, these parts being drawn out of true relationship so that the working can be better understood, and Figure 6 is a detail plan view of the retaining 50 means for the double-faced gear.

The invention is an improvement onthe patcut to Albert N. Woodruflf, No. 1,990,012 of Feb. 5, 1935. The underlying principle of said patent is preserved in the instant invention, but it has 56 been discovered that there is a need for condensing the elements of the patented clock to such an extent as to make of it an inherently separate unit which is capable of being attached to any known type of clock mechanism by merely securing the attachment to the top plate of said mech- 5 anismafterseeingtoitthatthereisaproper' meshing of gears so that the drive of the clock mechanism is carried on through into the attachment.

The instant invention also embodies certain 10 improvements on the patent, all of which are set out below, but before the latter is done it is firstdesired to describe parts of a known clock mechanism, some of which is disclosed in the patent. The clock mechanism is generally designated I (see Fig. 4). This may comprise any known type whether mechanically or electrically driven. The instant showing is that of a mechanical drive in that a spring barrel 2 is involved. The spring motor which this barrel represents is wound through a gear train 3 which terminates at a pinion I.

It is thought immaterial to set out specifically how the driving power of the spring motor is transferred to the clock mechanism, it being suiiicient to point out that said mechanism drives a 12-tooth pinion I! which meshes with a secondhand gear that is fixed on the second-hand shaft l2. 'Ihis shaft I2 is common to both the foundation clock mechanism and the attachment 24.

The gear II has an integral pinion 13 which meshes with and drives an intermediate gear II, This gear I I makes one revolution per minute, and instead-of it being driven by the spring motor 2 it can be driven by an electric motor, such as one commonly sees in electric clocks. The staflf it of the intermediate gear i4 is journaled upon and between the bottom and top plates l8 and ll of the clock mechanism, said plates being held apart 40 by spacers I! in a more or less common manner. Reverting. to the staff l5, this carries a pinion [9 that is in mesh with a driver gear 2|! 'which is frlctionally held upon a sleeve 2| between the friction plates 22. The gear 20 is a slowly rotating gear, making one revolution per hour. The sleeve 2| carries a 12-tooth driver pinion 23, and it is at this pinion that the known clock mechanism ends.

Fran here on the description of the attachment can be identified in part with the structure of the patent, the improvements being brought out as they occur. The attachment is generally designated ll (Figs. 1 and 3). Most of the gearing is mounted betweenabase plate 25 and a dial plate 26. The first gear of the gear train of the attachment is designated 21, and this is a 48- tooth gear in mesh with thedriver 23. This first gear is appropriately journaled at 28 on the top plate 11 of the clock mechanism I (Fig. 4),

. comprising the two rings designated 3i and 32."

Thus far it will be understood that of all the gears which the attachment it comprises, the

gear 21 is the only one that is mounted on the manufacturer's clock, that is to say, on the clock mechanism as it is .bought on the market.

An improvement is to be noted in the 72- tooth gear 35, 32 over its nearest equivalent in the patent. The two rings are separated by spacers 33, although in practice the gear iii, 32 will be made out of a single piece of stock. In making the two gears separate it is readily possible to make the nether one over-size in outside diamlatter is what is known as the diflferential ring eter to provide a flange 351 (Fig. 3) to the rim of which retainers 35 are applied as shown. These are attached to the base plate 25, and the latter thus becomes the journal for the gearii, 32, although actual is confined to lugs 36 which-are directed inwardly of a large central opening 3'! in the base plate 25 (Fig. 6).

. A i2-tooth pinion 38 meshes with the upper component 32 of the so-called double-faced gear. A carrier 39 provides the mount for a shaft 46 on which the pinion 3B revolves in common with an attached 48-tooth gear 6!. This gear meshes with and drives a 12-tooth pinion 42 which is part of a tube 83 which extends upward andfixedly carries the minute-hand M. The doublei'aced gear 3!, 32 rotates once in twenty-four hours and drives the pinion 42, consequently the minute-hand M, through twenty-four rotations per day and night.

The carrier 39 is secured to a 175-tooth ring gear 45 by means of rivets l8 and spacers ll (Fig. 3). The ring gear is utilized as'a hold-down for the assemblage 39, 45 upon the base plate 25 buthaving a plurality of retainers-48 supporting its internal circular margin. This 175-tooth ring gear 45 has a cooperative relationship .to a similar gear 48 which, however, has only 168 teeth. The

gear, and its'purpose is to increase the angular speed of a graduated ring 50 over the speed that'- said ring would have if said ring depended directly upon the ring'gear l for its setting.

Both ring gears 45 and mesh with an 8-tooth pinion 5|. Thispinion is carried. by a gear-'52.

which meshes with a setting pinion 53. The shaft 54 of the pinion 53 is journaled in extensions 55 carries one of The thumb wheels are what can be called bump or snag proof. There has been on the market a type of clock, intended for aviator's use which has a setting wheel protruding upwardly above the clock face. The accidental knocking oi! ot-so'me of these setting knobs has resulted in the condemnationofallcbcksoithetypeinmind.

o'clock midnight (A. M.).

stant thumb-wheels in easily accessible positions, the structural arrangement shown has been adopted to reduce to a minimum the possibility of thumb-wheel 56, making reference to only one, is fairly thin. It will stand well below the glass when in place. The upper edge is either rounded or beveled at 58. This materially expands or widens the surface to which the knurling 59 is applied. Therefore the operator can very readily drag his finger over such surface as may be adjacent to the thumb-wheel 56 and procure an entirely adequate bearing upon the margin of the thumb wheel, the knurled surface of which has been broadenedin the manner indicated, despite the fact that itis very thin as compared with known types of setting knobs.

The purpose of the pinion 53, an equivalent of which does not occur in the patent, is to dispense with the rather large thumb-wheel of the patent, and at the same time make a gain in the leverage by which the companion ring gears 45, 69 are actuated. While on the subject of the thumbwheeis, it will be noted that 5? has its shaft 66 journaled in extensions iii of the plates 25, 2B. This shaft reaches downand carries the pinion 4 which actuates the train 8 for winding the motor 2.

A tube 82 revolves upon the mer carries the hour-hand G3 and it has a 40- tooth gear 5&1 which meshes with a IO-tooth pintheir being knocked ofi. As seen in Fig. 3 the I tube at. The for.-

ring gear 69. A small portion of the upper surface of the ring is visible in a window 10 in the dial plate 26, in respect to which it is turnably supported by headed retainers GSa'CEig. 2) detime after 12 o'clock noon (P. M.) and after 12:00 Fig. 2 illustrates the change in the indication of the ring 69 shortly.

after 12:00 o'clock noon. The shaft IE to which reference was made near the beginning, extends through the central tube 43 and carries the second-hand I8.

.Reverting to the ring 50, it is seen in Fig. 5 that its upper surface is graduated at M in de grees beginning at zero and numbered to 180, reading both ways, thus serving as an index as to how far to move the ring. These graduations are visible through a second window 15 in the dial plate 25. The graduations indicate the degrees of longitude west and east of Greenwich, and in order that the observer may know whether he is looking at the graduations in the western or east ern zone, the top halves of they ring surface are contrasted by brass and silver finishes I6 and II. In practice other contrasting finishes may be adopted, butthe brass and silver combination is regarded as oiespecial advantage because of the ease with which one can, be distinguished from the other.

Little has m te added to the description of the dial plate 28. The American public, including aviators, navigators, and the like, are 12-hour dial conscious, hence thenecessity of using the 12-hour dial 18 shown. The markings on this dial are supplemented by designations l9 and II, respectively, comprising the letters E and W with and inasmuch as it is desirable to have the ineaclrof which points to the window 15. 75

7' According to this plan any given hour is adopted The designations-are located on opposite sides of the window, and they are intended to guide the user in moving the graduated ring whm he manipulates the thumb wheel 56.

The operation is readily understood. First, by

way of a brief review, it is desired to remind the reader, as set out in the patent, that the fundamental invention is to provide a clock which for knowing the exact time, whether of day or night, of the locality in which they are situated or toward which they are traveling. It is commonly known that as far as the United States is concerned the country is separated into divisions having Eastern standard time, Central standard time, Mountain standard time and Pacific standbelts, the current practice is to set the t mepiece either backward or forward, depending on.

whether thedirection of travel is west or east.

as the hour in the entire zone between any two hour meridians. For instance, if the time is 2:00 P. M. in Washington, D. C. it is also 2:00 P. M. anywhere in the zone between the 75 and 90 meridians. While this is satisfactory for general working purposes yet it does not acquaint a per son with the exact time at points intermedially of the meridians, whlch time, obviously, will vary for every fraction of distance one way or the other.

To begin with the clock mechanism I (Fig. 4)

is supposed to be functioning correctly so that 'the hands. 44, 53 are tellin the correct time.

' These hands are capable of being set independently of the clock mechanism, and it is to enable this independent setting that the driver gear a is supplemented with the friction plates 22. In practice a hand-setting wheel (not shown) can be geared to the first gear 21 of the attachment for accomplishing the purpose in mind, thus constituting the first mode of setting the hands.

The second mode of operating the hands is through the normal functioning of the spring or other motor 2 'and the gear train driven thereby.

Colmterclockwise turning of the gear 21 and pinion (Fig. 4) causes counterclockwise turning of the double ear ll, 32 because of the meshing of the pinion ll with the ring gear ii. The unit 38, 4| (Fig. 3) is stationary relatively to the ring gear 4' because said unit is attached to the car rier 39 which is virtually an integral part of said .ring gear. This ring gear as well as the diiferential gear 49 and its graduated ring 5| remains stationary during the normal operation clock. Y

Since the double gear 3i, 3! is being turned counterclockwise because of the counterclockwise turning of the pinion 3', the unit 38, II is also turned counterclockwise by virtue of its pinion of the v .make the graduated ring 50 traverse the window hand $3 of the dial circumference per hour. At the same time the day-night ring gear 69 rotates at the rate of of the dial circumference per'hour, the result being that the white zone stays in view of the window for the twelve A. M. hours and the black zone stays in view for the twelve P. M. hours.

The third mode of operation of the clock occurs when it is desired to determine the exact time at any designated remote locality. The instant calculation is made from Washington, D. C. which is located near the '77 meridian west longitude (west of Greenwich). This or any other meridian reading is ascertained from any map having thereon notations of the degrees E and W of Greenwich. The hands 44, 63 must first indicate the exact local time, and it is herein supposed that the time for Washington, D. C. is 8:00 A. M. Now manipulate the thumb-wheel 56 to turn the ring 50 beneath the window 15. Suppose that it .is desired to know the corresponding time in Honolulu, Hawaii. Honolulu is situated between the 150 and the 165 meridians. Since Honolulu is west of Washington, D. C. the thumbwheel 56 must be turned counterclockwise, this agreeing with the direction of the arrow adjacent the designation W which indicates west. The graduated ring 50 will correspondingly turn counterclockwise, and when the brass finish 16 (Fig. 5) shows at the window the user will be put on guard to watch for the 150 graduation. When this graduation lines up with the .vertical center through the window the clock hands will indicates 3:00 A. M., and that is caused in this way:

As the thumb-wheel 56 is turned counterclockwise the pinion 5| (Fig. 3) causes simultaneous counterclockwise turning of the ring 50, diflerential gear 49 andg'ear 45. Since the unit 38, 4| is carried by the latter, and the double gear 3!, 32 is incapable of turning because of the resistance of the gear train behind it, it follows that said unit 38, 4| will partake of a planetary motion around the double gear, turning clockwise all the-while by virtue of its p nion 38 meshing with the gear 32.

Clockwise turning of the gear 4 I causes counterclockwise turning of the pinion 42 .and of its carried minute-hand 44, also counterclockwise turning of the gear 64 and of its carried hourhand 63. The clock hands are thus set back, the

more, designating 2:32 A. M. which is the exact time reading at Honolulu when it is 8:00 A. M. at Washington, D. C.-

The necessity for the difierential gear 49 is to IS a little faster than it would if it were carried directly by the ring gear 45. Since the gear 49 has fewer teeth than the gear'45 it will turn faster by 15 in one revolution than the gear 45, thereby insuring 360" of angular movement of the ring 50 with the clock hands at the end of a 24-hour cycle. If the clock hands were manually turned through this cycle it would so happen that operation'would have to continue untilthe passage of 25 hours before the graduated ring 50 would traverse the 360 zone.

I claim:

l. A clock comprising hourand minute-hands, clock mechanism for turning the hands, a numbered dial traverseable by the hands, said dial having a window, a ring gear in mesh with and driven by said clock mechanism, the top surface -of said ring gear being divided into half zones designating day and night, and means depending from the nether side of the dial supporting said ring gear in turning relationship to the window so that zones become alternately visible.

2. A clock comprising hourand minute-hands, clock mechanism for turning the hands, a dial plate traversable by the hands and having two windows, a ring gear in mesh with and driven by the clock mechanism, the upper surface of said ring gear being arranged to indicate day or night in accordance with the time designated by the hands, means depending from the dial plate supporting said ring gear in turning relation to one of the windows, graduated means which is normally independent of the clock mechanism and has graduationsrepresenting divisions of longitude on the globe, means for turnably supporting said graduated means from the dial plate so that the graduations appear at the second window, and manually operable means for moving the graduated means and simultaneously moving the hands and said day-night ring gear so that they traverse the dial plate irrespective of said clock mechanism. 7

3. A clock which includes a dial plate, hourand minute-hands, and a clock mechanism by which they are made to traverse said plate, means to adjust the hands independently of the clock mechanism including a shaft ,iourn'aled in the plate, and a thumb-wheel fixed on the shaft close to and above the dial plate, said thumb-wheel being thin as compared to its diameter so as to project only a short distance above the dial plate.

ried by the base plate with which said flange engages to turnably retain the double gear, and a pinion in driving engagement with the upper ring of said gear.

5. A clock comprising a dial plate which has a window, the clock face of said plate having indicia adjacent to the window denoting east and west longitude, clock mechanism terminating in hour and minute-hands which are in position to traverse the clock face, and means by which to set the hands in respect to the clock face and independently of the clock mechanism to determine the time at a locality remote from the one at which the clock is situated, said means including a ring which is movable beneath the window and and has markings graduated from zero to 180 running in opposite directions, the sectors of the ring with the respective markings having contrasting finishes to agree with the respective in-.

dicia on the clock face so that the user can tell whether the adjustments are made in east or west longitude. I

6. A clock comprising a standard clock mechanism including a top plate, driven gearing also included in said mechanism ending in a terminal driver pinion on top 'of said plate, an attachment said gear train including a pinion integral with" ing said hands independently of the clock mechanism, said. instrumentalities including graduated means which has graduations representing divisions of longitude on the globe, a dial plate which is traversable by the hands, and means for moving the graduated means so that its graduations can be inspected with respect to a fixed point in order to tell when to stop the manual operation of the hands. V

ALBERT N. WOODRUFF.

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