Watch and Clock Escapements - Anonymous

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the horological student the facility with which the club-tooth lever escapement can be manipulated. We wish also to impress on his mind the facts that the employment of thick pallet arms and thin pallet arms depends on the teeth of the escape wheel for its efficiency, and that he must have knowledge enough of the principles of action to tell at a glance on what lines the escapement was constructed.

      Suppose, for illustration, we get hold of a watch which has thin pallet arms, or stones, if they are exposed pallets, and the escape was designed for pallets with thick arms. There is no sort of tinkering we can do to give such a watch a good motion, except to change either the escape wheel or the pallets. If we know enough of the lever escapement to set about it with skill and judgment, the matter is soon put to rights; but otherwise we can look and squint, open and close the bankings, and tinker about till doomsday, and the watch be none the better.

      CLUB-TOOTH LEVER WITH EQUIDISTANT LOCKING FACES.

      In drawing a club-tooth lever escapement with equidistant locking, we commence, as on former occasions, by producing the vertical line A k, Fig. 22, and establishing the center of the escape wheel at A, and with the dividers set at 5" sweep the pitch circle a. On each side of the intersection of the vertical line A k with the arc a we set off thirty degrees on said arc, and through the points so established draw the radial lines A b and A c.

      From the intersection of the radial line A b with the arc a lay off three and a half degrees to the left of said intersection on the arc a, and through the point so established draw the radial line A e. From the intersection of the radial line A b with the arc a erect the perpendicular line f, and at the crossing or intersection of said line with the vertical line A k establish the center of the pallet staff, as indicated by the small circle B. From B as a center sweep the short arc l with a 5" radius; and from the intersection of the radial line A b with the arc a continue the line f until it crosses the short arc l, as shown at f'. Lay off one and a half degrees on the arc l below its intersection with the line f', and from B as a center draw the line B i through said intersection. From B as a center, through the intersection of the radial line A b and the arc a, sweep the arc g.

      The space between the lines B f' and B i on the arc g defines the extent of the locking face of the entrance pallet C. The intersection of the line B f' with the arc g we denominate the point o, and from this point as a center sweep the short arc p with a 5" radius; and on this arc, from its intersection with the radial line A b, lay off twelve degrees, and through the point so established, from o as a center, draw the radial line o m, said line defining the locking face of the entrance pallet C.

Fig. 22

      It will be seen that this gives a positive "draw" of twelve degrees to the entrance pallet; that is, counting to the line B f'. In this escapement as delineated there is perfect tangential locking. If the locking face of the entrance-pallet stone at C was made to conform to the radial line A b, the lock of the tooth D at o would be "dead"; that is, absolutely neutral. The tooth D would press the pallet C in the direction of the arrow x, toward the center of the pallet staff B, with no tendency on the part of the pallet to turn on its axis B. Theoretically, the pallet with the locking face cut to coincide with the line A b would resist movement on the center B in either direction indicated by the double-headed arrow y.

      A pallet at C with a circular locking face made to conform to the arc g, would permit movement in the direction of the double-headed arrow y with only mechanical effort enough to overcome friction. But it is evident on inspection that a locking face on the line A b would cause a retrograde motion of the escape wheel, and consequent resistance, if said pallet was moved in either direction indicated by the double-headed arrow y. Precisely the same conditions obtain at the point u, which holds the same relations to the exit pallet as the point o does to the entrance pallet C.

      ANGULAR MOTION OF ESCAPE WHEEL DETERMINED.

      The arc (three and a half degrees) of the circle a embraced between the radial lines A b and A e determines the angular motion of the escape wheel utilized by the escape-wheel tooth. To establish and define the extent of angular motion of the escape wheel utilized by the pallet, we lay off seven degrees on the arc a from the point o and establish the point n, and through the point n, from B as a center, we sweep the short arc n'. Now somewhere on this arc n' will be located the inner angle of the entrance pallet. With a carefully-made drawing, having the escape wheel 10" in diameter, it will be seen that the arc a separates considerably from the line, B f' where it crosses the arc n'.

      It will be remembered that when drawing the ratchet-tooth lever escapement a measurement of eight and a half degrees was made on the arc n' down from its intersection with the pitch circle, and thus the inner angle of the pallet was located. In the present instance the addendum line w becomes the controlling arc, and it will be further noticed on the large drawing that the line B h at its intersection with the arc n' approaches nearer to the arc w than does the line B f' to the pitch circle a; consequently, the inner angle of the pallet should not in this instance be carried down on the arc n' so far to correct the error as in the ratchet tooth.

      Reason tells us that if we measure ten degrees down on the arc n' from its intersection with the addendum circle w we must define the position of the inner angle of the entrance pallet. We name the point so established the point r. The outer angle of this pallet is located at the intersection of the radial line A b with the line B i; said intersection we name the point v. Draw a line from the point v to the point r, and we define the impulse face of the entrance pallet; and the angular motion obtained from it as relates to the pallet staff embraces six degrees.

      Measured on the arc l, the entire ten degrees of angular motion is as follows: Two and a half degrees from the impulse face of the tooth, and indicated between the lines B h and B f; one and a half degrees lock between the lines B f' and B i; six degrees impulse from pallet face, entrance between the lines B i and B j.

      A DEPARTURE FROM FORMER PRACTICES.

      Grossmann and Britten, in all their delineations of the club-tooth escapement, show the exit pallet as disengaged. To vary from this beaten track we will draw our exit pallet as locked. There are other reasons which prompt us to do this, one of which is, pupils are apt to fall into a rut and only learn to do things a certain way, and that way just as they are instructed.

      To illustrate, the writer has met several students of the lever escapement who could make drawings of either club or ratchet-tooth escapement with the lock on the entrance pallet; but when required to draw a pallet as illustrated at Fig. 23, could not do it correctly. Occasionally one could do it, but the instances were rare. A still greater poser was to request them to delineate a pallet and tooth when the action of escaping was one-half or one-third performed; and it is easy to understand that only by such studies the master workman can thoroughly comprehend the complications involved in the club-tooth lever escapement.

      AN APT ILLUSTRATION.

      As an illustration: Two draughtsmen, employed by two competing watch factories, each designs a club-tooth escapement. We will further suppose the trains and mainspring power used by each concern to be precisely alike. But in practice the escapement of the watches made by one factory would "set," that is, if you stopped the balance dead still, with the pin in the fork, the watch would not start of itself; while the escapement designed by the other draughtsman would not "set"—stop the balance dead as often as you choose, the watch would start of itself. Yet even to experienced workmen the escape wheels

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