Historical German Patents and Torsion Pendulum Clocks

Transcription

1 Introduction Even those of us who are fond of torsion pendulum clocks would admit that they do look somewhat strange. It s that back-and-forth motion of the pendulum, mainly. That twist in one direction, then the lurch back round to the other. Indeed, if clocks could get drunk, torsion pendulum clocks would be staggering home every night of the year. Yet as the 2003 Symposium indicated, 400-Day clocks might appear a bit different, but they are fascinatingly so. They possess an appeal that s led us to collect and study them and that brought us together from around the world. My theme is historical German horological patents and how these patents are of interest to the study of torsion pendulum clocks. Yet, I ve learned that when you mention historical German horological patents, people look at you as if, well, you are a bit strange to be interested in such. It is a complex, almost baroque area, one that resists simplification. German history of the period was messy, as were the German patent systems. Moreover, what at first glance might seem unimportant for instance, there were four different dates marking the patent process can actually be significant. As a result, you ve got to go first in one direction for one point, then in another for another point weaving back and forth, just to keep on course. But however strange the topic might first appear to be, I believe it is intriguingly so. And if messy, well, it is delightful as well. And my goal is to have the reader agree. There are four steps included here: First, there are need-to-know fundamentals about the older German patent system. It was different in some notable ways from the American and British systems. Second, I ll specify the connection between torsion pendulum research and the de.pat project the project to assemble, for the first time, a listing of German historical horological patents. Third, we ll roll out an example of what is involved. Fourth, I ll provide a survey of some current findings related to patent research. I. From Many, One. Then from Two, Three. I became interested in older German horological patents because I knew almost nothing about them. A fact that I could have lived with, except that abbreviations like DRP and DRGM kept showing up on clocks I was restoring. And terms like Deutsches Reichs-Patent and Deutsches Reichs-Gebrauchsmuster were often mentioned in the old clockmakers journals I was reading. These abbreviations and those terms kept coming up on Internet clock lists, as well. People would want to Historical German Patents and Torsion Pendulum Clocks What Goes Round: Douglas K. Stevenson (Germany) A lecture from the 2003 Ward Francillon Time Symposium, October 23-25, know what they meant. They would have DRP and DRGM numbers and want dates. Or they would want information about the patents themselves. Not a few of these people on the Internet assumed that since I lived in Germany at that time I would know, and should know these things. I was a virtual disappointment to them. Then when I looked for information in the Englishlanguage horological literature, it became clear that my ignorance of German patent systems was not exclusive. In some cases, information was presented that was patently false. Even the Trademark Index, for example, had 1872 as the year the German patent system was established on a Reichs-wide basis. Then I had an exchange on the Internet with a fellow from Texas about two DRGM numbers found on some 400-Day clocks. This exchange was important because it led to the torsion-pendulum connection we are concerned with today. It revealed the critical importance of information about German patents to 400-Day research. The two DRGMs, and , are shown on two back plate illustrations in the 400-Day Clock Repair Guide. One of these, Plate 1041, is shown in Figure 1. The Guide identified the clocks as from the Badische Uhrenfabrik, and from about It noted that The number[s] D.R.G.M and have not been identified (1991:70). February 2006 NAWCC BULLETIN 33

2 Figure 1. Reprinted from the 10th (1991) edition of Charles Terwilliger s Horolovar 400-Day Clock Repair Guide, edited by H. W. Ellison (St. Clair Shores, Michigan: The Horolovar Company). A photograph of the same two DRGMs on the back plate of a 400-Day clock appeared in the German Patent Letter Clues article in the October 2000 NAWCC BULLETIN, on page 595. I didn t happen to know anything about these patents, either. But I knew that this type of German patent a utility model patent in the international jargon wasn t around before Or more precisely, before October 1, 1891, at the earliest, when the law introducing Gebrauchsmuster went into effect. What is significant is that this wasn t about estimating the age of a clock, that is a matter of horological expertise. It was about a dating gate, a gate set in concrete. Because anything marked with a DRGM be it a whatchamacallit, a doohickey, or an anniversary clock wasn t around before Similarly, DRP and DRGM numbers were assigned in serial order. Therefore, with a table of patent numbers-by-years, one could see that these two DRGMs were actually from about 20 years later. Again, this was a patent matter, not a question of horological couth. And there was no problem in identifying the two DRGMs once they were approached as DRGMs, not DRPs. The entries from the Patentblatt, the official publication of record, are shown in Figure 2. The first turned out to be from 1911 and was issued to Andreas Huber, of Munich. The second, also issued to Huber, had an effective date in The point here needs to be stressed. It is not about being a 400-Day clock expert. And it is not (please note) that there was mistaken or incomplete information in the Guide. Rather, it is that this basic information who made the clocks and when was readily available when basic information about the German patent system was applied. That said, there didn t appear to be a description of this system available, in English, that was linked to horological examples. So it was easy to say that someone should be able to estimate dates using tables of DRP or DRGM serial numbers. But where were these tables? I couldn t find any in English or in German. The obvious conclusion, that such useful information should be available, resulted in a three-part article, German Patent Letter Clues, which appeared in the April, May, and June 1998 issues of Clocks magazine. It was then reprinted in the October 2000 issue of the BULLETIN. Those of you who have read that long article (or have tried to) know that the material in it is already compacted (not to say impacted). But for those not familiar with it, three general facts about German historical patents must be extracted, however briefly. First, although the Reichs-wide patent system dates from only 1877, there were earlier systems in what would become the Germany of And there was great variation among these Landespatente. We do not, however, have a central registry today that would allow one to check all the patents, which all these states granted over all the years, before And it is not as if there was just a handful. There were over two dozen, and all raised questions. How many of them issued patents? How many patents, and over how many years? How many still exist as political entities or at least have their patent files maintained somewhere? And might not there be patents concerning torsion pendulum clocks in there, out there, somewhere? As to the first question, there is a list, Figure 3, adapted from an 1898 source. Taking only the years 1843 until 1877 (and Prussia, for instance, had patents going back to 1822), there were 26 different German systems. 34 NAWCC BULLETIN February 2006

3 Number of Landespatente Issued from 1843 until June 1877 (only) Preußen Bayern Sachsen Württemberg Baden Hessen (Großherzogtum) Oldenburg Braunschweig Anhalt-Bernburg Anhalt Dessau-Köthen Sachsen-Weimar Sachsen-Meiningen Sachsen-Altenburg - 48 Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha Schwarzburg-Rudolfstadt Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen Reuß ältere Linie Reuß jüngere Linnie Waldeck-Pyrmont - 47 Schaumburg-Lippe - 76 Fürstentum Lippe Hessen (Kur-) [until 1866] Hannover [until 1866] Nassau [until 1866] Hessen (Landgr.) [until 1866] - 24 Frankfurt a.m Figure 2. Both DRGM and DRGM were found listed in concurrent issues of the Patentblatt, the official gazette of the Kaiserliches Patentamt. A sidebenefit of consulting the Patentblatt and especially with the Gebrauchsmuster type of patents is that related patents are sometimes spotted. Here, for example, there happened to be three other DRGMs related to torsion pendulums or torsion pendulum clocks nearby: , , and As to the second question about records, I don t know of anyone who has tried to trace all of them. I ve just had time for a peep in what might be available in three. I ve learned that the Baden listings and those from Württemberg are still available and allow website access. By contrast, Prussian files remain in the Geheimer Staatsarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin. They are not yet searchable, or accessible, by Figure 3. German patent historians delight in itemizing the differences in the whats and for whoms and by whoms, the how longs and wheres and whereases, the procedures and policies, and the mercantile philosophies among the various German states of various sizes and forms of government that awarded some type of patent protection before The phrase that was repeatedly used in the literature to describe the result was eine heillose Zersplitterung, an irreparable fragmentation. It was an understatement. Here, however, it is enough to stress how many of these states (kingdom s, duchies, principalities, etc.) did offer these socalled Landespatente. The above list was derived from Alfred Müller s (1898) volume Die Entwicklung des Erfindungsschutzes und seiner Gesetzgebung in Deutschland, and adapted from Wolfgang Pfaller s presentation at de/patentgeschichte/landespa.htm. electronic means. Yet Württemberg, Baden, and Prussia, remember, are but three of the 26. It is without question that there are horological patents among the some 20,000 Landespatente. A kind researcher at the Berlin Archiv looked on my behalf through lists of sub-rubrics for files relevant to clocks. Terms such as Kompensationspendel and even Waagpendeluhr did show up. Terms we re more inter- February 2006 NAWCC BULLETIN 35

4 ested in, such as Torsionspendel, Jahresuhren, and Rotationspendel, did not. Because there weren t sub-category terms for torsion pendulums doesn t mean there weren t any Prussian patents for them. It means that someone needs to travel to Berlin (having made arrangements at least two weeks in advance, so that the archival matter may be gathered) and personally search through all the old files. We will return to the Landespatente involving torsion patent clocks later. Our second need-to-know fact is that when the Reichs-wide system began in 1877, there were two types of patents. There was the Deutsches Reichspatent, the DRP, for so-called true inventions, and the Geschmacksmuster, today s registered design or industrial design type, which related to appearance, not technological function. Then in 1891, the Gebrauchsmuster, a third relevant type, was introduced a type not paralleled in the American or British systems. These DRGMs rapidly became the most common type of patents. They were the most commonly sought-after torsion pendulum clocks. The law defined DRGMs as suitable for new machines and appliances, or parts thereof, insofar as they fulfilled their purpose through a new design, arrangement, or device. It gave protection not on the basis of appearance, but on that of function or utility. DRGMs did not require a costly, expert review process, as did DRPs. After a notional review, they were placed on the official rolls. Application fees for DRGMs were smaller. And if they were cheaper, faster and easier than the DRPs, the period of protection was only three years, with a possible extension of three more, as opposed to a possible 15 for DRPs. The third and last need-to-know item is concerned with our present access to both types. It has three points, and they are a trio that sings the blues: (1) There has been no separate listing of all German historical horological patents, let alone both the DRP and DRGM types. (2) There wasn t just one patent class that contained all horologically-relevant patents, or just one sub-class for all the torsion pendulum ones. (3) The complete files for the DRGMs from 1891 to the late-1920s roughly speaking, almost all those with five- or six-digit numbers were destroyed in the war, or tossed. These problems of availability bring us to the second, shorter step about the de.pat project. II. The De-pat Project If you have a DRP number, the present German patent office will mail a copy of the specification sheets for a small fee. Or you can now download them, for free, through their website. There s no online base for DRGMs, however. If you have a DRGM number, the patent office can send the bibliographical information. But the full records for DRGMs from 1891 until about 1927 are, as I ve mentioned, long gone. Importantly, there s no searchable base that would allow a compilation of all horological patents. Or a subset such as torsion pendulum clocks. For the DRPs only, you could go to a German patent office that maintains copies of the actual original paper specifications and pull out all those filed for a specific sub-classification. This is what I did to check the DRPs for torsion pendulum clocks. It yielded an additional 14 German historic patents over the 14 identified in the Guide. Still, without a complete listing in the first place, we wouldn t know if any were missing from these files. Also, there were several classifications into which things involving time and timekeepers might fit, and were fitted. Patents were also reclassified over the years. So it is not just a matter of looking at only one class the major horological Klasse 83. It isn t known how many patents of interest there are in other classes, perhaps as many as one-eighth of all. This all boils down to the fact that, in theory, the best way to make a list of all German horological patents (or a subset like torsion pedulum clocks) is for someone to go through all the old Patentblatt volumes, check all the DRP and DRGM entries, note those that relate to clocks and clockmaking, and record the information. Yet, in practice, no one has been willing to do this. There s an awful lot of entries. From 1877 to 1945, there were some 750,000 DRPs and 1,500,000 DRGMs of all classes. How many of these two-and-a-quarter million were horological? My own estimate but based only on patents in the major horological class 83, and only for 1877 to 1945 is about 4,000 DRPs and over 8,000 DRGMs. Or about 12,000 patents altogether. There did, however, appear to be another way to put together a list of historical patents. Some of the clockmakers journals reported on horological patents. The Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung (I ll call the DUZ ), which started in 1877 and lasted into 1943, had listed patents applied for and patents granted both DRPs and DRGMs issue after issue, into the early 1930s. If someone could get copies of all the DUZ issues, with all those listings, and put them all together, we d have a very good list of German historical horological patents of both types. Subsets, such as torsion pendulum clocks, could then be culled. Unfortunately, complete runs of the DUZ with public access are very rare, even in Germany. My university library, for instance, searched a database of some 2,600 libraries in Germany for me. Only one of these 2,600 libraries was cited as having a full set of the DUZ. But it was not on microfilm and it was too frail to 36 NAWCC BULLETIN February 2006

5 copy. The Library of Congress is supposed to have all the years between on microfilm. But when actually checked, some years were missing. Our library in Columbia, PA, also had a substantial set, but with major gaps. Therefore, a group of volunteers formed a project: Bernie Pollack, Gordon Uber, John Hubby, Fortunat Mueller-Maerki, and myself. Donations were sought, and along with several generous individuals, chapters such as Western Electrics Ch. 136, Industrial Time Recorders Ch. 175, and our International 400-Day Clock Ch. 168 helped out. The first part of this de.pat project was to secure a complete set of the DUZ from a variety of sources, in Germany and in the U.S. and donate it to the Library and Research Center. This has been done. Now our library has one of the few full sets in the world, and at no cost to itself, or to the membership. The second part was to extract all the hundreds of patent-news listings. Someone had to be employed in Columbia to copy all the pages, and funds were donated for this as well. Then these hundreds of photocopied pages were shipped to me in Germany. Recently, I was able to finish a first compilation of all the DRP and DRGM patent listings from all the DUZ issues from 1877 through These listings (not the patents themselves, just the listings) came to 759 pages. Before going on to the third step, a short show-andtell of what this involved, I d like to note that the way this group came together showed me the best part, the heart really, of the NAWCC. They all volunteered, and gladly offered support, and just did it. This impressed me. And it put a good-natured glow around the entire effort. III. On a Patent Roll Okay, the foregoing is an overview of where we are coming from. The rest of the paper is where we are, and where we are headed. And at this pivotal point (as we clockies say), I ll suggest that a central fact of 400-Day research is that we underestimate how much historical material is still out there. People do seem surprised to hear that there were so many German horological patents. And those 12,000 or so were only from 1877 to Yet by the end of the nineteenth century, the German industry was among the largest in the world. By 1913, Germany had 60 percent of the world export market in clocks. Latecomer Junghans, alone, was turning out over four million clocks a year by And by 1913, would proudly claim to be the largest clock manufacturer in the world. Still, it is one thing to say that there were a lot of German historical horological patents and another to actually work your way through them. I thought it would make sense, therefore, to take just a year of listings from the DUZ, and do a show-and-tell of what is involved. Since we are talking about anniversary clocks, it seemed appropriate to take a symbolic year. I chose 1903, a century ago. In the 1903 DUZ there were 274 patents listed as having been issued. (By comparison, the British issued only about 66 horological patents that year.) Of the 274 German patents in the 1903 listings, 218 were DRGMs 80 percent of the total. Five of the DRPs and 20 of the DRGMs came from other classes than Klasse 83 (about a tenth). Figures 4 and 5 show two examples. Figure 4 concerns the Patent-Anmeldungen, the patent applications. These were listed in the DUZ and are important because of two interrelated conditions of the German system. First, because the application material could be looked at (the dates indicate until when), temporary protection was given from the date of application. Secondly, and because of this, when a DRP was granted, the effective date was from this official date of application (plus a day). In these examples, the Huber application was later granted as DRP , and dated from April 5, The Wille one, later DRP , was dated from April 2, Not attending to this practice has led to torsion pendulum patents being misdated, in some cases, by years. I hope that Figure 5 is self-explanatory. It is one of our torsion DRGM patent entries. And what you see is all we ll get. It happened to be the only 400-Day DRGM among all the listings in the 1903 DUZ. Other years yielded a better harvest. Speaking of which, it is time to roll up this example, and move on to the last step. Figure 4. Two patents applied for, relevant to torsion pendulum clocks, found listed in the patent news section of the April 22, 1903, issue of the Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung. The dates indicate until when the applications may be looked at (at the Patent Office in Berlin). February 2006 NAWCC BULLETIN 37

6 Figure 5. Notice (re-reported from the Patentblatt) in the October 15, 1903, issue of the DUZ that a Gebrauchsmuster patent concerned with a torsion pendulum has been entered on the official rolls. The period of protection dated from August 26, Note, however, that another DRGM that was assigned a higher number, , had an earlier protection date, July 19, The following four new DRPs were located through the Patent-Nachrichten sections, the patentnews listings, in the Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung. They are new in the sense that they were neither among the 14 in the Guide, nor among the additional 14 found by Stevenson and included in his Historical German Patents & Torsion Pendulum Clocks Part I: DRPs Most of these additional 14 DRPs were discovered among the original patent specifications that are kept on file (in nifty special cardboard cartons!) at a German Patent Office Research Center. Filed by class and sub-class, they were with the Klasse 83a, Gruppe 21 or Klasse 83a, Gruppe 31 specifications. The former concerned Drehpendel für Uhren, that is, torsion pendulum escapements for clocks. They were, in other words, where one could expect them to be. But two of these were classified under Klasse 83b, electrics. And then only Gruppe 1, a general category for electrics with pendulums. And the other two were assigned to Klasse 83a, Gruppe 24, which was entitled Kompensations an Uhren. Therefore, we should still expect to find more DRPs related to torsion pendulums and torsion pendulum clocks. And furthermore, expect to find more patents where we would not expect them to be (Kl. 83b/Gr. 1) James van Inwagen, in Chicago. Torsionspendelantrieb für elektrische Uhren mit einem den Pendelstoß und gleichzeitig das Fortschalten der Zeiger bewirkenden Anker. Patented as of 22.I (Kl. 83a/Gr. 24) Firma Claude Grivolas Fils, in St. Cloud. Quecksilberkompensation für Drehpendel. Patented as of 17.III (Kl. 83a/Gr. 24) Firma Claude Grivolas Fils, in St. Cloud. Quecksilberkompensation für Drephendel. Zusatz zum Petente vom 17. März Patented as of 31.XII (Kl. 83b/Gr. 1) Albert F. Meyerhofer, in Mannheim und Leo Nagel, in Mannheim-Waldhof. Elektrische Einzeluhr mit an einem Torsionsband aufgehängtem Drehpendel. Patented as of 28.VIII Figure 6. IV. What Goes Round Goes Round As I d admitted at the outset, I first became interested in older German patents. And the 400-Day clock connection was a spin-off from this. But then, when preparing for the Symposium and thinking about which results I would present, I realized that one thing had not only led to another, but to many others. Therefore, I would not be able to discuss even the main items the patents at any length, let alone the many and often interesting by-the-ways. It seemed best to provide a taste, if you will, of this patent-peppered torsion pendulum smorgasbord. The patents, of course, comprise the main results. They are represented in Figures 6 and 7. It didn t surprise me that four more DRPs turned up. That is, four more than the 14 historical patents that were already in the Guide, and the additional 14 I had found in the actual patent specification files. I have offered some reasons for this; that is, we keep finding new old patents. And we can expect other DRPs to turn up. Remember, too, that these are only the German patents and just the historical German patents. When it comes to the DRGMs, I had expected that a search through the DUZ listings would turn up quite a few related to torsion pendulum clocks. I was surprised nonetheless that there were so many, and I have probably overlooked a few. There are certainly more issued between 1932 and But where we previously only had a couple of DRGMs (and I believe only two or so are mentioned in the Guide), now we have 72 or so. 38 NAWCC BULLETIN February 2006

7 Figure 7 DRGMs Related to Torsion Pendulum Clocks, The 72 Gebrauchsmuster patents listed below were identified through the Patent-Nachrichten sections that regularly appeared in the Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung. They cover the years from 1891, when the law establishing DRGMs went into effect, until 1932, when the DUZ stopped this Patent News feature. As this is an initial listing, only basic information is provided below. All appear to have had some connection with torsion pendulum clocks, torsion pendulums, Jahresuhren, Drehpendeluhren, and the like. In fact, many are known to have been relevant. It should be kept in mind, however, that the full records for DRGMs with five- and sixdigit numbers were destroyed during the Second World War or discarded. In short, in some cases, the basic descriptive information is all the information we have Anstossvorrichtung für ein längere Zeit frei schwingendes Pendel... Badische Uhrenfabrik. 22. Mai Anstossvorrichtung für Drehpendel (Torsionspendel)... Badische Uhrenfabrik. 22. Mai nach je einer bestimmten Schwingungszahl... Badische Uhrenfabrik. 22. Mai Frei Drephendelhemmung nach D.R.P Wilhelm Köhler. 11. Mai Drehpendelhemmung mit Duplex-Steigrad... J.C. Bauer. 19. Dezember Pendelkörper mit Ausgleich-Vorrichtung für Drehpendel... J. Hollenstein. 23. Dezember Drehpendel-Hemmung mit um eine vertikale Achse... J.C. Bauer. 26. Mai Drehpendul für Uhren mit auf der Pendelplatte... Louis Wille. 26. August Torsionspendel für Jahresuhren mit Reguliergewichten... Jahresuhr Schwenningen W. Würuth & Co. 16. Dezember Reguliervorrichtung für einstellbare Torsionspendel mit radial... Badische Uhrenfabrik. 27. Januar Vorrichtung für einstellbare Torsionspendel- Aufhängung... Badische Uhrenfabrik. 28. Januar Drehpendelregulator für Uhren mit langer Gangzeit... Franz Ant. Pohlhammer. 24. Mai Uhr mit Schutzgehäuse für die Feder des Drehpendels... Firma Andreas Huber. 25. Juni Jahresuhr für Hotels u. dgl.... [Kl. 54g.] Firma Andreas Huber. 6. Mai Jahresuhr mit eingeschlossenem Torsionspendel... Vereinigte Freiburger Uhrenfabrik. 22. Juni Jahreshur mit offenem Torsionspendel... Vereinigte Freiburger Uhrenfabrik. 22. Juni Regulier-Einrichtung an Torsionspendeln... Jahresuhr Schwennignen, W. Würth & Co. 13. Juli Drehpendel, bei welchem in dem Gewicht... Robert Tüurck. 21. August Präzions-Reguliereinrichtung für Drehpendel... Jahresuhr Schwenningen, W. Würth & Co. 26. Januar Uhr-Drephendel-Ausgleichvorrichtung... Philipp Hauck. 12. März Torsionsfeder-Anordnung bei dem Anker... American Electrical Novelty & Mfg. Co. 31. März Schlag-Einrichtung an Jahresuhren... Firma Andreas Huber. 7. September Reguliervorrichtung für Torsionspendel... Jahresuhr Schwenningen, W. Würth & Cie. 31. Mai Zeigerwerkantrieb an Torsionspendeluhren... Türck & Cie. 19. Mai Torsionspendeluhr, bei welcher der Antrieb... Türck & Cie. 19. Mai Doppelter Drephendel-Antrieb... Heinrich Gottfried Walther. 6. August Beweglich und herausnehmbar aufgehängte Drehpendel-Uhrfeder. Philipp Hauck. 26. Oktober Drehpendel-Aufhängung, bei der die Befestigungsteile... Jahresuhr Schwenningen. W. Würth & Co. 23. Februar Drehpendel-Aufhängung, bei der die Befestigungsklötzchen... Jahresuhr Schwenningen, E. Würth & Co. 18. Juli Schutzvorrichtung für Drehpendelfedern... Vereinigte Freiburger Uhrenfabriken. 5. August Jahresuhr mit durch das Werk geführter Pendelfeder... Firma Andreas Huber. 2. September Schlagwerk an Jahresuhren, bei dem das Schloßrad... Jahresuhren-Fabrik, G.m.b.H. 9. November Drehpendel-Aufhängung mit Körnerlagerung. Firma Andreas Huber. 16 Dezember Uhr Drehpendel mit Ausgleich- und Regel- Vorrichtungen. Philipp Hauck. 13. April Vorrichtung zum Regeln von Drehpendel- Uhren... Dr. Wilhelm Siepermann. 17. Juni Pendel für Jahresuhren mit Regulierung... Vereinigte Uhrenfabriken von Gebrüder Junghans Juli Pendel für Jahresuhren. Karl Schatz. 12. November Pendelführung für Jahresuhren und dergt. Firma Andreas Huber. 6. Juni Drehpendel-Führung. Philipp Hauck. 20. Juli Aufhängevorrichtung für Pendel von Jahresuhren. Firma Elise Huber. 22. Juli Drehpendel für Uhren mit Quecksilber- Kompensation. Firma Andreas Huber. 23. Januar Neuerung an Jahresuhren-Pendeln. continued on next page February 2006 NAWCC BULLETIN 39

8 Figure 7 DRGMs Related to Torsion Pendulum Clocks, Carl Schatz. 14. Februar Werkgestell für Rotationspendel-Uhren. Vereinigte Freiburger Uhrenfabriken. 4. März Gewichts-Drehpendel fü Jahresuhren... Philipp Hauck. 19. Juni Jahresuhr zur Verwendung für verschiedene Zwecke.: Julius Wosnitza. 29. Juni Torsionspendel mit Zwei an den Enden der Schenkel... Robert Türch. 8. April Jahresuhr mit Kalenderwerk, Firma Andreas Huber. 10. Oktober Drehpendel-Uhrwerk mit Stiftenankergang... Firma Andreas Huber. 10. Oktober Abfederung von Jahresuhren-Drephendeln... Louis Wille. 26. Februar Jahresuhrwerk mit Hohltrieben und Stiftenhemmung. Firma Andreas Huber. 11. March Einstellvorrichtung für Torsionspendelfedern. Rotachron A.-G. 14. März Drehpendel für Uhren. Josef Schmidt. 9. September Drehpendelantrieb für Jahresuhren oder dergl. Vereinigte Freibrger Uhrenfabriken. 29. März Aufsatz für Jahresuhren. Jahresuhrenfabrik. 17. Januar Drehpendel für Jahresuhren. Jahresuhrenfabrik. 18. März Drehpendel für Jahresuhren. Firma Andreas Huber. 18. März Pendelfeder-Gabel für Drehpendel. Schlenker & Kienzle. 14. April Drehpendel mit Schwungkugel-Einstellung... Badische Uhrenfabrik. 25. Mai Aufhängevorrichtung für Drehpendel von Jahresuhren. Franz Huber. 9. Juni Kompensations-Drehpendel... Josef Schmidt. 23. Juni Kompensations-Drehpendel... Josef Schmidt. 23. Juni Kompensations-Drehpendel... Josef Schmidt. 23. Juni Kompensations-Drehpendel... Josef Schmidt. 23. Juni Drehpendel für Uhren. Jahresuhrenfabrik. 29. Januar Drehpendel mit Kompensation. Vereinigte Freiburger Uhrenfabriken. 23. September Jahresuhr. Fa. Math. Bäuerle. 18. März Jharesuhr oder Vereinfachter Uhrkalender. Hermann Brinkmann. 19. Februar Reguliervorrichtung für Jahresuhrenpendel. Jahresuhren-Fabrik. 27. März Jahresuhren-Aufsatz. Jahresuhren-Fabrik. 27. März Vorrichtung zur Reguliering des Pendels von Jahresuhren. Jahresuhren-Fabrik. 27. März Drehpendel, insbesondere für Jahresuhren. Kienzle Uhrenfabriken. 7. Dezember 1927 Figure 8. Contemporary trade advertisements offer a taste of the times, as well as the spiced reminder that torsion pendulum clocks were, after all, being made to be sold. Trade advertisements also punctuate the fact that having a patent was evidently a selling point in some cases even years after it had been granted! As it was in this example, at left. The advertisement appeared in several issues of the 1886 Deutsche Uhrmacher- Zeitung. P. Michaelis offered Jahresuhren with and without striking with a Rotationspendel. This was the one-word description used in Jehlin s DRP 2437 from September 16, The clocks needed to be wound only once a year. They were available in regulators (style cases), Standuhren (here, table-clock style), and interestingly, also as uncased movements. And for ten percent off previous prices! 40 NAWCC BULLETIN February 2006

9 We don t need to detail what seems pretty obvious here. For instance, that this mass of patent material will require years of evaluation. Or that it implies a more complex developmental history than has been assumed. Or that both of these aspects might be more significant than using patent references for dating and identification purposes however useful they will be for that. While exploring 56 years of the DUZ, I came across all sorts of interesting torsion pendulum matter besides the patents. Most of it was new to me, and not a little of it was interesting. There were advertisements. There were articles of different types. There were even letters. I ve offered a sampling of each in Figures 8, 9A-9C, 10, and 11. I included extracts to stress not only that there is still a great deal out there from German sources, but also that surprise not! it is in German. The extracts are for those who are interested in 400-Day research but don t read German, a problem that I m sensitive to. The extracts also imply that almost everything that turns up about these clocks seems to lead to another question. It is hard to look at the advertisement in Figure 8, for example, without asking What was this clock factory? What did they have to do with torsion pendulum clocks? Did they actually make them? Looking for answers in standard references, like Abeler s Meister der Uhrmacherkunst, will not help much. The entry only notes that this firm in Berlin made regulators (so-called), tallcase clocks, and travel alarms. This information, from an unnamed 1885 source, doesn t tell us more than the ad does (and indeed it probably came from an ad). What it does indicate, however, is that when it comes to the history of torsion pendulum clocks, there is no lack of research questions. There were also various articles. Some dealt with patents directly; some with basic concepts; and some we find amusing today, like the commentator who denied that these so-called Jahresuhren had a future. What would he say if he knew that 115 years later we would all be here to talk about those same unprincipled clocks? Other types of articles were more informative. Some had a didactic bent. I trust you will sympathize with me for poking fun at Gerber, see Figure 10. But after deriving the formula for the period of oscillation of a torsion pendulum, he rather pretentiously asks if it is worth the reader s efforts to master it. His answer was that one can almost say, that the entire theory of the Jahresuhr is contained in [this formula]. So in reprinting it for you, I Figure 9A, above. The Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung often had articles on recent patents. Sometimes these articles simply restated, in an uncritical way, material taken from patent specifications. For instance, in the August 17, 1885, issue, an article about Max Busses patent (31890) Ankerhemmung für Tosionspendel closely followed the specification text, while reprinting the drawing. Figure 9B, below. Articles in the same clockmakers journal sometimes took a far different approach. What seems like unusually acrid commentary today, for instance, is found in a lengthy review of the clock exhibitors at an exhibition in Freiburg in July In the one paragraph allowed in the Jahresuhren-Fabrik- Aktiengesellschaft in Triberg, in the December 1, 1887, issue, it was stated that they had picked a faulty principle as the basis of their production. And the Jahresuhren they had exhibited the snide so-called implied by the quotation marks had soon stopped! February 2006 NAWCC BULLETIN 41

10 Figure 9C. Another type of article described recent innovations, recent improvements, or called upon manufacturers of torsion pendulum clocks to institute them. And then sometimes, as in the article Praktische Neurungen an Jahresuhren in the April 1, 1903, Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung, an author joyfully reports that the suggestions he had made to the Herren Fabrikanten von Jahresuhren in an earlier article had actually been adopted. Figure 10A, right. As might be expected, there were also technical articles. In an article in the 1912 DUZ, for example, a Konstruktions-Ingenieur with Siemens & Halske, Gustav Gerber happily chattered on about the formulas that clockmakers must understand if they are to grasp the problems of compensation and torsion pendulums. This central, if turgid, point is so approached. 42 NAWCC BULLETIN February 2006

11 Figure 10B. Another type of article placed this by-the-patent-way material in the Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung in the middle of the practical path at that time, and would no doubt still be of interest today. It was written by a professional with a torsion pendulum clock company for practicing clockmakers who needed to care for both the clocks and the customers. An excellent example is A. Held s four-page article, Behandlung und Reparatur der Jahresuhren mit Torsionspendel, which appeared in the 1909 Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung (starting on page 244). Here there is space for only one set of the fine illustrations. Figure 11, right. Letters from horologists and clockmakers, on matters high and low, form another by-the-way category. If often not directly concerned with patents, they do sometimes offer important insights into central concerns that still twist round torsion pendulum clocks. A letter in the December 15, 1878, Deutsche Uhrmacher-Zeitung from C. H. Schneider of Furtwangen, for example, raises important questions today about our own received views of the torsion pendulum clock s origins. And as Schneider was director of the clockmaking school in Furtwangen (Germany s oldest), his views should bear weight. At the more common level was the delightedly sour, and still familiar, Question & Answer letter exchange about those things that predictable, century-old moan that even when they do go, they don t go well. How good it must feel to keep saying that. One such exchange the question-letter was in the December 15, 1886, DUZ, the answer-letter in the January 1, 1887, issue is reproduced at right. Herr Leiter s answer specifically mentioned DRP 2437 (that Jehlin patent again), and brings us back round, not surprisingly, to where we started. February 2006 NAWCC BULLETIN 43

12 Figure 12. An internal memorandum, from the Interior Ministry of the Kingdom of Württemberg, dated June 27, See facing page for additional explanation. 44 NAWCC BULLETIN February 2006

13 have presented you with the ultimate secret of these clocks! I trust that you are grateful. An article by Held who wrote several articles on torsion pendulum clocks was of interest because it was one specifically applied. It was intended for those who repaired 400-Day clocks at the time. Held also refers to recent improvements, some of which were patented by Hauck. Interestingly as well, and more our meat than the practical potatoes, was Held s introduction to the article, which appeared in Two years ago, he says, no one would have guessed that Jahresuhren would be so well-received by the public and clockmakers. A little later he notes that many clockmakers, who at the start of the year didn t want to even hear about this type of clock, were now calling for information. Gerber had also started his 1912 article by stating that Jahresuhren had recently begun to be sold in large numbers. There was then evidentially an upsurge in interest in 400-Day clocks in this period before the war. Held and Gerber both noted that recent improvements (again our patent matters), were partly responsible. By what else? And why then? And to what extent? More questions. There were also letters some serious, some predictable, and a few unexpected. The Schneider letter, for example, which I quoted in the volume on DRPs is quite important, I believe. It challenges our received views of these clocks origins. Then there are the more common types of letters we still see today, about how these 400-Day clocks are not very good timekeepers. And they are, you know, sort of twitchy? One fellow asks how the torsion pendulum has worked out with a timekeeper. The fellow who responded, Leiter, has had a regulator (as he termed it) of the DRP 2437 type for two years. And he has made precise observations. And even when everything is as it should be, it doesn t work well. And when it is wound up, it goes too fast. And when it winds down, it s too slow. And then, well, you all know how that one goes. Sometimes you find something by unintentionally looking in a different direction and it marks a new way, one that is unexpected. What I m referring to is a formal notification, an internal memorandum, from the Interior Ministry of the Kingdom of Württemberg, dated June 27, 1876, that granted Lorenz Jehlin, Uhrmacher in Säckingen, an Erfindungs-Patent for his Rotationspendel. In other words, Jehlin had an earlier patent than his famous DRP 2437 a Landespatent. See facing page. This sheet was just one of the 19 from an old file all handwritten in different scripts, many of which most Germans today simply cannot decipher. The file includes a handwritten five-page description and an illustration of the invention. Both seem to differ somewhat from Jehlin s later DRP. The other 18 pages still need to be deciphered. Their significance, however, is already clear. We now know as a fact that there were earlier German patents concerning torsion pendulums. Only further research over time will tell how many, and going back to when. Yet, we now have patent-based research going from the past to the present. And going in the other direction, in time, as well. You know, it is sort of like one of those torsion pendulum clocks. First, it goes in this direction. Then it lurches back in the other, which is rather fascinating, I ve concluded. And I hope the reader agrees! About the Author Douglas K. Stevenson is a member of the Antiquarian Horological Society, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie, and the NAWCC. His e- mail address is duck@catzen.in-berlin.de. NAWCC NATIONAL CONVENTION June 21-25, 2006 at the Cleveland Convention Center, Cleveland, OH If you have never been to a National Convention, then you are in for quite an experience. Imagine a floor with 1000 plus mart tables and with aisles wide enough to drive a car through! Convention activities will include: A silent auction held several times each day; at least 10 educational programs, six of which will be workshops; a large exhibit entitled Time in Travel ; and the annual Crafts Contest (see the February MART for details). There will be a live auction on Friday evening and a banquet at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Saturday evening. What if you get tired of looking at timepieces and want a change of scenery? The Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs are playing the week of the Convention. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Science Center, and Omni-Max Theatre are within walking distance of the Convention Center. Playhouse Square is a short cab ride away and the zoo is within a shuttle ride. The Botanical Gardens and Willard Park are also nearby. The Western Reserve Historical Society Museum, the Crawford Auto & Aviation Museum, and the Natural History Museum are located in the University Circle area. Tours of Cleveland, a tour to Amish Country, and a Lake Erie dinner cruise on the Nautica will be offered. Plan on a great time at the Convention and in Cleveland truly a Destination City. If you have any questions, call Tom Borkowski or Ginny Sims See you June 21-25, 2006, in Cleveland, OH! Check the February MART for registration forms. February 2006 NAWCC BULLETIN 45