An Analysis of the Lever Escapement Part 1

An a.n.a.lysis of the Lever Escapement.

by H. R. Playtner.

PREFACE.

Before entering upon our subject proper, we think it advisable to explain a few points, simple though they are, which might cause confusion to some readers. Our experience has shown us that as soon as we use the words "millimeter" and "degree," perplexity is the result.

"What is a millimeter?" is propounded to us very often in the course of a year; nearly every new acquaintance is interested in having the metric system of measurement, together with the fine gauges used, explained to him.

The metric system of measurement originated at the time of the French Revolution, in the latter part of the 18th century; its divisions are decimal, just the same as the system of currency we use in this country.

A meter is the ten millionth part of an arc of the meridian of Paris, drawn from the equator to the north pole; as compared with the English inch there are 39+3708/10000 inches in a meter, and there are 25.4 millimeters in an inch.

The meter is sub-divided into decimeters, centimeters and millimeters; 1,000 millimeters equal one meter; the millimeter is again divided into 10ths and the 10ths into 100ths of a millimeter, which could be continued indefinitely. The 1/100 millimeter is equal to the 1/2540 of an inch. These are measurements with which the watchmaker is concerned.

1/100 millimeter, written .01 mm., is the side shake for a balance pivot; multiply it by 2 and we obtain the thickness for the spring detent of a pocket chronometer, which is about ? the thickness of a human hair.

The metric system of measurement is used in all the watch factories of Switzerland, France, Germany, and the United States, and nearly all the lathe makers number their chucks by it, and some of them cut the leading screws on their slide rests to it.

In any modern work on horology of value, the metric system is used.

Skilled horologists use it on account of its _convenience_. The millimeter is a unit which can be handled on the small parts of a watch, whereas the inch must always be divided on anything smaller than the plates.

Equally as fine gauges can be and are made for the inch as for the metric system, and the inch is decimally divided, but we require another decimal point to express our measurement.

Metric gauges can now be procured from the material shops; they consist of tenth measures, verniers and micrometers; the finer ones of these come from Glashutte, and are the ones mentioned by Grossmann in his essay on the lever escapement. Any workman who has once used these instruments could not be persuaded to do without them.

No one can comprehend the geometrical principles employed in escapements without a knowledge of angles and their measurements, therefore we deem it of sufficient importance to at least explain what a degree is, as we know for a fact, that young workmen especially, often fail to see how to apply it.

Every circle, no matter how large or small it may be, contains 360; a degree is therefore the 360th part of a circle; it is divided into minutes, seconds, thirds, etc.

To measure the _value_ of a degree of any circle, we must multiply the diameter of it by 3.1416, which gives us the circ.u.mference, and then divide it by 360. It will be seen that it depends on the size of that circle or its radius, as to the value of a degree in any _actual_ measurement. To ill.u.s.trate; a degree on the earth's circ.u.mference measures 60 geographical miles, while measured on the circ.u.mference of an escape wheel 7.5 mm. in diameter, or as they would designate it in a material shop, No. 7, it would be 7.5 3.1416 360 = .0655 mm., which is equal to the breadth of an ordinary human hair; it is a degree in both cases, but the difference is very great, therefore a degree cannot be a.s.sociated with any actual measurement until the radius of the circle is known. Degrees are generated from the center of the circle, and should be thought of as to ascension or direction and relative value. Circles contain four right angles of 90 each. Degrees are commonly measured by means of the protractor, although the ordinary instruments of this kind leave very much to be desired. The lines can be verified by means of the compa.s.s, which is a good practical method.

It may also be well to give an explanation of some of the terms used.

_Drop_ equals the amount of freedom which is allowed for the action of pallets and wheel. See Z, Fig. 1.

_Primitive or Geometrical Diameter._--In the ratchet tooth or English wheel, the primitive and real diameter are equal; in the club tooth wheel it means across the locking corners of the teeth; in such a wheel, therefore, the primitive is _less_ than the real diameter by the height of two impulse planes.

_Lock_ equals the depth of locking, measured from the locking corner of the pallet at the moment the drop has occurred.

_Run_ equals the amount of angular motion of pallets and fork to the bankings _after_ the drop has taken place.

_Total Lock_ equals lock plus run.

A _Tangent_ is a line which _touches_ a curve, but does not intersect it. AC and AD, Figs. 2 and 3, are tangents to the primitive circle GH at the points of intersection of EB, AC, and GH and FB, AD and GH.

_Impulse Angle_ equals the angular connection of the impulse or ruby pin with the lever fork; or in other words, of the balance with the escapement.

_Impulse Radius._--From the face of the impulse jewel to the center of motion, which is in the balance staff, most writers a.s.sume the impulse angle and radius to be equal, and it is true that they must conform with one another. We have made a radical change in the radius and one which does not affect the angle. We shall prove this in due time, and also that the wider the impulse pin the greater must the impulse radius be, although the angle will remain unchanged.

Right here we wish to put in a word of advice to all young men, and that is to learn to draw. No one can be a thorough watchmaker unless he can draw, because he cannot comprehend his trade unless he can do so.

We know what it has done for us, and we have noticed the same results with others, therefore we speak from personal experience. Attend night schools and mechanic's inst.i.tutes and improve yourselves.

The young workmen of Toronto have a great advantage in the Toronto Technical School, but we are sorry to see that out of some 600 students, only five watchmakers attended last year. We can account for the majority of them, so it would seem as if the young men of the trade were not much interested, or thought they could not apply the knowledge to be gained there. This is a great mistake; we might almost say that knowledge of any kind can be applied to horology. The young men who take up these studies, will see the great advantage of them later on; one workman will labor intelligently and the other do blind "guess" work.

We are now about to enter upon our subject and deem it well to say, we have endeavored to make it as plain as possible. It is a deep subject and is difficult to treat lightly; we will treat it in our own way, paying special attention to all these points which bothered us during the many years of painstaking study which we gave to the subject. We especially endeavor to point out how theory can be applied to practice; while we cannot expect that everyone will understand the subject without study, we think we have made it comparatively easy of comprehension.

We will give our method of drafting the escapement, which happens in some respects to differ from others. We believe in making a drawing which we can reproduce in a watch.

AN a.n.a.lYSIS OF THE LEVER ESCAPEMENT.

The lever escapement is derived from Graham's dead-beat escapement for clocks. Thomas Mudge was the first horologist who successfully applied it to watches in the detached form, about 1750. The locking faces of the pallets were arcs of circles struck from the pallet centers. Many improvements were made upon it until to-day it is the best form of escapement for a general purpose watch, and when made on mechanical principles is capable of producing first rate results.

Our object will be to explain the whys and wherefores of this escapement, and we will at once begin with the number of teeth in the escape wheel. It is not obligatory in the lever, as in the verge, to have an uneven number of teeth in the wheel. While nearly all have 15 teeth, we might make them of 14 or 16; occasionally we find some in complicated watches of 12 teeth, and in old English watches, of 30, which is a clumsy arrangement, and if the pallets embrace only three teeth in the latter, the pallet center cannot be pitched on a tangent.

Although advisable from a timing standpoint that the teeth in the escape wheel should divide evenly into the number of beats made per minute in a watch with seconds hand, it is not, strictly speaking, necessary that it should do so, as an example will show. We will take an ordinary watch, beating 300 times per minute; we will fit an escape wheel of 16 teeth; multiply this by 2, as there is a forward and then a return motion of the balance and consequently two beats for each tooth, making 16 2 = 32 beats for each revolution of the escape wheel. 300 beats are made per minute; divide this by the beats made on each revolution, and we have the number of times in which the escape wheel revolves per minute, namely, 300 32 = 9.375. This number then is the proportion existing for the teeth and pitch diameters of the 4th wheel and escape pinion. We must now find a suitable number of teeth for this wheel and pinion. Of available pinions for a watch, the only one which would answer would be one of 8 leaves, as any other number would give a fractional number of teeth for the 4th wheel, therefore 9.375 8 = 75 teeth in 4th wheel. Now as to the proof: as is well known, if we multiply the number of teeth contained in 4th and escape wheels also by 2, for the reason previously given, and divide by the leaves in the escape pinion, we get the number of beats made per minute; therefore (75 16 2)/8 = 300 beats per minute.

Pallets can be made to embrace more than three teeth, but would be much heavier and therefore the mechanical action would suffer. They can also be made to embrace fewer teeth, but the necessary side shake in the pivot holes would prove very detrimental to a total lifting angle of 10, which represents the angle of movement in modern watches. Some of the finest ones only make 8 or 9 of a movement; the smaller the angle the greater will the effects of defective workmanship be; 10 is a common-sense angle and gives a safe escapement capable of fine results.

Theoretically, if a timepiece could be produced in which the balance would vibrate without being connected with an escapement, we would have reached a step nearer the goal. Practice has shown this to be the proper theory to work on. Hence, the smaller the pallet and impulse angles the less will the balance and escapement be connected. The chronometer is still more highly detached than the lever.

The pallet embracing three teeth is sound and practical, and when applied to a 15 tooth wheel, this arrangement offers certain geometrical and mechanical advantages in its construction, which we will notice in due time. 15 teeth divide evenly into 360 leaving an interval of 24 from tooth to tooth, which is also the angle at which the locking faces of the teeth are inclined from the center, which fact will be found convenient when we come to cut our wheel.

From locking to locking on the pallet scaping over three teeth, the angle is 60, which is equal to 2 s.p.a.ces of the wheel. Fig. 1 ill.u.s.trates the lockings, spanning this arc. If the pallets embraced 4 teeth, the angle would be 84; or in case of a 16 tooth wheel scaping over three teeth, the angle would be 360 2.5/16 = 56.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1.]

Pallets may be divided into two kinds, namely: equidistant and circular.

The equidistant pallet is so-called because the lockings are an equal distance from the center; sometimes it is also called the tangential escapement, on account of the unlocking taking place on the intersection of tangent AC with EB, and FB with AD, the tangents, which is the valuable feature of this form of escapement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2.]

AC and AD, Fig. 2, are tangents to the primitive circle GH. ABE and ABF are angles of 30 each, together therefore forming the angle FBE of 60. The locking circle MN is struck from the pallet center A; the interangles being equal, consequently the pallets must be equidistant.

The weak point of this pallet is that the lifting is not performed so favorably; by examining the lifting planes MO and NP, we see that the discharging edge, O, is closer to the center, A, than the discharging edge, P; consequently the lifting on the engaging pallet is performed on a shorter lever arm than on the disengaging pallet, also any inequality in workmanship would prove more detrimental on the engaging than on the disengaging pallet. The equidistant pallet requires fine workmanship throughout. We have purposely shown it of a width of 10, which is the widest we can employ in a 15 tooth wheel, and shows the defects of this escapement more readily than if we had used a narrow pallet. A narrower pallet is advisable, as the difference in the discharging edges will be less, and the lifting arms would, therefore, not show so much difference in leverage.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 3.]

The circular pallet is sometimes appropriately called "the pallet with equal lifts," as the lever arms AMO and ANP, Fig. 3, are equal lengths.

It will be noticed by examining the diagram, that the pallets are bisected by the 30 lines EB and FB, one-half their width being placed on each side of these lines. In this pallet we have two locking circles, MP for the engaging pallet, and NO for the disengaging pallet. The weak points in this escapement are that the unlocking resistance is greater on the engaging than on the disengaging pallet, and that neither of them lock on the tangents AC and AD, at the points of intersection with EB and FB. The narrower the circular pallet is made, the nearer to the tangent will the unlocking be performed. In neither the equidistant or circular pallets can the unlocking resistance be _exactly_ the same on each pallet, as in the engaging pallet the friction takes place before AB, the line of centers, which is more severe than when this line has been pa.s.sed, as is the case with the disengaging pallet; this fact proportionately increases the existing defects of the circular over the equidistant pallet, and _vice versa_, but for the same reason, the lifting in the equidistant is proportionately accompanied by more friction than in the circular.

Both equidistant and circular pallets have their adherents; the finest Swiss, French and German watches are made with equidistant escapements, while the majority of English and American watches contain the circular.

In our opinion the English are wise in adhering to the circular form. We think a ratchet wheel should not be employed with equidistant pallets.

By examining Fig. 2, we see an English pallet of this form. We have shown its defects in such a wide pallet as the English (as we have before stated), because they are more readily perceived; also, on account of the shape of the teeth, there is danger of the discharging edge, P, dipping so deep into the wheel, as to make considerable drop necessary, or the pallets would touch on the backs of the teeth. In the case of the club tooth, the latter is hollowed out, therefore, less drop is required. We have noticed that theoretically, it is advantageous to make the pallets narrower than the English, both for the equidistant and circular escapements. There is an escapement, Fig. 4, which is just the opposite to the English. The entire lift is performed by the wheel, while in the case of the ratchet wheel, the entire lifting angle is on the pallets; also, the pallets being as narrow as they can be made, consistent with strength, it has the good points of both the equidistant and circular pallets, as the unlocking can be performed on the tangent and the lifting arms are of equal length. The wheel, however, is so much heavier as to considerably increase the inertia; also, we have a metal surface of quite an extent sliding over a thin jewel. For practical reasons, therefore, it has been slightly altered in form and is only used in cheap work, being easily made.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 4.]