US330487A - Watch case - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

B. I. HOPE.

WATCH CASE. No. 330,487. Patented Nov. 17, 1885.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN F. HOPE, OF SAG HARBOR, NE YORK.

WATCH-CASE.

SPECIPIQATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 330,487, dated November 17, 1885.

Application filed October 7, 1884.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJ. FRANKLIN HOPE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Sag Harbor, Suffolk county, State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Dust-Proof \VatchDases; and I do hereby declare that the following specification is a full, clear, and exact description of my invention, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object the improve ment of the form of watch-cases for the better excluding of dust and dampness, and increasing the strength for a given weight by the more judicious distribution of the metal. In a hunting-case stem-winding watch of almost any description (including the patented dustproof) there are four openings from the outside to the inside of a watchviz., where the locking-spring passes through the case to keep the front cover shut, wherethe fly-sprin g passes through the case to throw the front cover up, where the windingkey passes through the stem, and at the junction of the winding-key (used as a push-pin) and the lockingspring. In some of such cases these openings are partly closed, some are all open, and none of them havethem all closed. In open-face stem-wind ers the openings are less numerous and more easily closed, while an open-face key-winding watch is more nearly dust-proof than any other kind, even in its ordinary form, as it has been made for generations.

My invention closes and shuts off effectually all of the before-enumerated openings for the admission of dust, and can be applied to and is intended to be used with any form and style of watch-case in use, whether hunting or open face, key or stem wind. It is easily made by unskilled labor,has no complicated fastenings, alike distasteful and troublesome to the wearer, but is readily accessible in all its parts for winding, setting, and regulating in either key or stem wind.

The drawings annexed represent, in Figure 1, a diametric section of a hunting stem-wind watclrcase containing my improvements on the line of the stem and on an enlarged scale. Fig. 2 is a sectional View of a key-wind openface watch-case with my improvements applied to it on the same sectional line as Fig. 1, and on the same scale. Fig. 3 is a perspective view,

Serial No. 144,955. (No model.)

on an enlarged scale, of a hinge used to connect the watch with the case. Fig. 4 is aperspective view, on an enlarged scale, of another form of binge to be used in place of Fig. 3 when the works are to be opened in an opposite direction. Fig. 5 is a perspective View, on an enlarged scale, ofa rubber bushing to be inserted in the stem of the watch-case, showing slot 8, through which auxiliary pin F works.

The same letters and figures refer to the same parts in all the drawings.

As illustrated, B shows a cup-shaped box, made of any suitable metal, turned to a gage inside to contain the works and detachably inserted in the case A, to which it gives additional strength and more fully protects the watch-movement contained in it from injury by pressure from the outside. The box B may be made of gold or silver, to correspond with the outer case, A, or of some baser metal-such as brass or German silver. It is open on the top to receive the works, and with a joint on the inside at 1, Fig. 1, to which the movement is attached. This box has no opening in the rim or bottom, except the key-hole, which, in a stem-winder is in the rim and in a keywvinder in the bottom at 11, Fig. 2. The works of a watch,(represented in part by the dotted lines in Fig. 1,) are detachably and interchangeably affixed to box B by hinge D. This hinge is made of brass, preferably, or other suitable metal, in size a little smaller than the outside diameter of the watch-platethe joint of the hinge projecting beyond the diameter of movement and about level with the dial in height in thickness snfficient to fit tight between the plates of any full-plate American watch of various makers, which are all uniform in caliber and height between the plates. Slots 4 5 6 are cut in hinges D and D for the purpose of either clearing or forminga bearing on the pillars of the movement. Hinge D is inserted between the plates of the movement, (an Elgin movement inthis instance,) the joint coming up to the figure IX on the dial. The slots 4 and 5 embrace two of the pillars of the movement, and the hinge is fastened there by the screw 3, finding a bearing on the inside of the pillar. In other watches-forinstance, those known as Waltham and Springfield, respectively-the same hinge D is secured to the works by the movement-screw (shown in outline at Fig. 1) through holes shown approximately at 7. Hinges D and D may be applied to any other make of movement by similar means or its equivalent. The hinge D is fitted into a corresponding slot, 1, Figs. 1 and 2, in the rim of box B, and held there on a pivot in the usual manner of working hinges. Upon this pivot the hinge D turns, carrying with it the movement to which it is attached in and out of the box B. The joint 1 is preferably in a hunting-watch cutdirectly opposite the stem of the watch-case at a point corresponding with the figure IX on the watchdial, thus allowing the works to be opened back into the front lid of the case entirely out of the way, and not at right angles with the lid, as has heretofore been the practice. This plan allows the works to be securely locked against rattling by the winding-key holding one side and the hinge theother, which is novel and a great advantage.

The hinge D, Fig. l, is to be used instead of D, Fig. 3, when the movement has a male winding-pinion and the case a hollow key. Under these circumstances the box must be so arranged in the case that the hinge and key-hole come together at the base of the stem. It is evident that the hinge D may be pivoted at any other part of the rim of box 13, so as to open in other directions; but I prefer to place them as shown and described. The hinges D and D may also he attached to the rim of the case direct without theint-ervention of box 13.

A hinge applied in the manner described can be fitted closer to the ease or movement box than when a hinged movement'ring is used, and it will hold the movement more securely, as it is not dependent on one-half a turn of a movement-screw to hold it in the ease or movementring.

By the use of the hinges D and D the interior of the works can be examined by the watch-maker or owner without detaching the works from the case, a thing that cannot be done in any other American ease whatsoever.

It will be evident that box 13, having no opening in rim or back except akey-hole, effectually excludes dust and dampness in all other directions.

A bezel with glass in it is snapped on the rim of box B, or it may be attached to the case direct. No bezel is shown, it is not different in any way from those in ordinary use.

My invention protects the key-hole in the rim of the box 13 in the following manner,

viz: G is the pendant or stem of an ordinary watchcase, either hunting or open face. The stem 0 is chambered in its upper part in the usual manner. The stem 0 projects on itsinner end through the case A, and comes up to and forms a close connection with box 13, l

sees-s7 forming a continuous hole through stem 0 and box 13, excluding dust and wet that may be in case A outside of box 13, having entered at the openings where the locking-spring 2 and lifting-spring on opposite side -(not shown) are always placed. This necessitates another than the usual way for working the spring 2, which looks the upper lid.

.By my construction of the inner end of stem 0, bringing it closeup to box 13, it is not possible for winding-key G to work loekingspring 2 in the usual manner.

I employ an auxiliary push-pin, F, Fig. 1, running through the pendant parallel with the winding-key, but in a separate hole, one end of push-pin F reaching spring 2, the other end coming up to the inner end of winding-crown G, so that when the crown is pushed in in the usual manner it works spring 2 and liberates the upper lid, which is thrown up by the lifting-spring, also in the usual manner. A slot is cut in the rubber disk E, as shown at S, Fig. 5, to allow push-pin F free passage in the stem and still be close enough to exclude dust and wet from the key-hole. In an open-face watch-case disk E has no slot.

\Vhat I claim,and desire to have patented as my invention, is

l. in a watch-case, a separate and detachable hinge pivoted to the inside rim of the movement box or case and iitting detachably and interchangeably between the plates of the movement and fastened there, all substantially as herein shown and described.

2. In a watch-ease, the combination of a case-center, a locking-spring iorseeuring the lid, a hollow stem, or winding-key, a cap for the stem, and an auxiliary pin having its inner end controlling thelid-loeking spring and passing entirely through the pendant,so as to be operated on directly by the stem-cap, substantially as described.

3. The combination of awateh-case, a cupshaped box open upon one side forthe reception of the movement secured therein, a hinge orjoint formed in said box,a watch-movement, and a hinge detachably and interchangeably fastened between the parts thereof and securing the movement to the hinge or pivot on the box, substantially as described.

at. In a watch-case, the combination of a chambered or hollow stem, at key passing therethrough, an auxiliary pin for operation upon thelocking-spring, and arubber disk or washersccured in the outer hollow ol'the stem, provided with a central aperture for the passage of the key and a recess on its periphery for the passage of the auxiliary pin, substantially as described.

BENJ. F. HOPE.

Vitnesses:

BnnNiinno Lyons,

Gris. B. BECK.

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