title="Fig. 3" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}img"/>

To make such a pair of small dividers, take a piece of hard sheet brass about 1/20" thick, 1/4" wide, 1-1/2" long, and shape it as shown at Fig. 3. It should be explained, the part cut from the sheet brass is shown below the dotted line k, the portion above (C) being a round handle turned from hard wood or ivory. The slot l is sawn in, and two holes drilled in the end to insert the needle points i i. In making the slot l we arrange to have the needle points come a little too close together to agree with the degree spaces on the arcs a a and b b. We then put the small screw j through one of the legs D'', and by turning j, set the needle points i i to exactly agree with the degree spaces. As soon as the points i i are set correctly, j should be soft soldered fast.

The degree spaces on A are set off with these dividers and the spaces on A very carefully marked. The upper and outer arc a a should have the spaces cut with a graver line, while the lower one, b b is best permanently marked with a carefully-made prick punch. After the arc a a is divided, the brass plate A is cut back to this arc so the divisions we have just made are on the edge. The object of having two arcs on the plate A is, if we desire to get at the number of degrees contained in any arc of a 5" radius we lay the scale A so the edge agrees with the arc a a, and read off the number of degrees from the scale. In setting dividers we employ the dotted spaces on the arc b b.

DELINEATING AN ESCAPE WHEEL.

We will now proceed to delineate an escape wheel for a detached lever. We place a piece of good drawing-paper on our drawing-board and provide ourselves with a very hard (HHH) drawing-pencil and a bottle of liquid India ink. After placing our paper on the board, we draw, with the aid of our T-square, a line through the center of the paper, as shown at m m, Fig. 4. At 5-1/2" from the lower margin of the paper we establish the point p and sweep the circle n n with a radius of 5". We have said nothing about stretching our paper on the drawing-board; still, carefully-stretched paper is an important part of nice and correct drawing. We shall subsequently give directions for properly stretching paper, but for the present we will suppose the paper we are using is nicely tacked to the face of the drawing-board with the smallest tacks we can procure. The paper should not come quite to the edge of the drawing-board, so as to interfere with the head of the T-square. We are now ready to commence delineating our escape wheel and a set of pallets to match.

The simplest form of the detached lever escapement in use is the one known as the "ratchet-tooth lever escapement," and generally found in English lever watches. This form of escapement gives excellent results when well made; and we can only account for it not being in more general use from the fact that the escape-wheel teeth are not so strong and capable of resisting careless usage as the club-tooth escape wheel.

It will be our aim to convey broad ideas and inculcate general principles, rather than to give specific instructions for doing "one thing one way." The ratchet-tooth lever escapements of later dates have almost invariably been constructed on the ten-degree lever-and-pallet-action plan; that is, the fork and pallets were intended to act through this arc. Some of the other specimens of this escapement have larger arcs—some as high as twelve degrees.

PALLET-AND-FORK ACTION.

We illustrate at Fig. 5 what we mean by ten degrees of pallet-and-fork action. If we draw a line through the center of the pallet staff, and also through the center of the fork slot, as shown at a b, Fig. 5, and allow the fork to vibrate five degrees each side of said lines a b, to the lines a c and a c', the fork has what we term ten-degree pallet action. If the fork and pallets vibrate six degrees on each side of the line a b—that is, to the lines a d and a d'—we have twelve degrees pallet action. If we cut the arc down so the oscillation is only four and one-quarter degrees on each side of a b, as indicated by the lines a s and a s', we have a pallet-and-fork action of eight and one-half degrees; which, by the way, is a very desirable arc for a carefully-constructed escapement.

The controlling idea which would seem to rule in constructing a detached lever escapement, would be to make it so the balance is free of the fork; that is, detached, during as much of the arc of the vibration of the balance as possible, and yet have the action thoroughly sound and secure. Where a ratchet-tooth escapement is thoroughly well-made of eight and one-half degrees of pallet-and-fork action, ten and one-half degrees of escape-wheel action can be utilized, as will be explained later on.

We will now resume the drawing of our escape wheel, as illustrated at Fig. 4. In the drawing at Fig. 6 we show the circle n n, which represents the periphery of our escape wheel; and in the drawing we are supposed to be drawing it ten inches in diameter.

We produce the vertical line m passing through the center p of the circle n. From the intersection of the circle n with the line m at i we lay off thirty degrees on each side, and establish the points e f; and from the center p, through these points, draw the radial lines p e' and p f'. The points f e, Fig. 6, are, of course, just sixty degrees apart and represent the extent of two and one-half teeth of the escape wheel. There are two systems on which pallets for lever escapements are made, viz., equidistant lockings and circular pallets. The advantages claimed for each system will be discussed subsequently. For the first and present illustration we will assume we are to employ circular pallets and one of the teeth of the escape wheel resting on the pallet at the point f; and the escape wheel turning in the direction of the arrow j. If we imagine a tooth as indicated at the dotted outline at D, Fig. 6, pressing against a surface which coincides with the radial line p f, the action would be in the direction of the line f h and at right angles to p f. If we reason on the action of the tooth D, as it presses against a pallet placed at f, we see the action is neutral.

ESTABLISHING THE CENTER OF PALLET STAFF.

With a fifteen-tooth escape wheel each tooth occupies twenty-four degrees, and from the point f to e would be two and one-half tooth-spaces. We show the dotted points of four teeth at D D' D'' D'''. To establish the center of the pallet staff we draw a line at right angles to the line p e' from the point e so it intersects the line f h at k. For drawing a line at right angles to another line, as we have just done, a hard-rubber triangle, shaped as shown at C, Fig. 7, can be employed. To use such a triangle, we place it so the right, or