Need info on Woerd's Balance

[Tom McIntyre]

I would love to see a picture of the balances!

Vander Woerd's patent balance was published and reported in the European literature of the day. I have not personally seen any English or Swiss watches with the balance nor have I heard of one before now.

On the other hand, they are very uncommon on Walthams also.

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Tom McIntyre
NAWCC 2nd VP Candidate
Tommy the JOAT's Web

 

[Spike]

The drawing on p. 105 of Shugart 2002 seems to justify Sean?s usage.

(Looks like the same trick a carpenter uses to warp or unwarp a board, depending on which side of the belly you saw the notches on.)

 

[Tom McIntyre]

For those without access to the book, the laminae of the balance have interdigitating sawtooth shaped edges. Vander Woerd believed this would make the motion of the arms in heat non-linear and would therefore allow the balance to be adjusted to compensate for middle temperature error.

I will try to post a copy of the patent on my web site if anyone is interested.

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Tom McIntyre
NAWCC 2nd VP Candidate
Tommy the JOAT's Web

 

[Jerry Treiman]

A picture of a Waltham with this balance is included in the write-up for the upcoming NAWCC Seminar -- http://www.nawcc2002seminar.org/article.html
-- see Figure 3B

 

[Tom McIntyre]

You can get patents at the Patent Office web site http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/srchnum.htm

The problem is you need to know the number for all the watch patents since the searchable database only goes back to 1974.

I could not find the patent number for Woerd's Patent Balance this evening.

I did find Woerd's escapement and Moseley's convertible movement patents. I will be putting those up on my web site in the next few days.

I have been downloading the tiff images from the patent database and converting them to jpeg for easier handling on the web. My image handling software screws up when I try to convert them to gif or png format. The G4 fax code is not generally viewable unless you get one of the free viewers.

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Tom McIntyre
NAWCC 2nd VP Candidate
Tommy the JOAT's Web

 

[Tom McIntyre]

The European reference to Woerd's balance that I saw was in Springing and Adjusting of Watches by F. J. Britten published by Spon in 1898. Woerd's balance is described on page 47 along with the standard set of middle temperature compensators from Hartnup, Kullberg and Loseby.

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Tom McIntyre
NAWCC 2nd VP Candidate
Tommy the JOAT's Web

[This message has been edited by Tom McIntyre (edited 09-12-2002).]

 

[Tom McIntyre]

It turns out that Wayne Schlitt ran across the Woerd's patent while looking for Elgin patents (prompted by my including the McIntyre patents on my web site). In any case, he has it posted at: http://www.midwestcs.com/elgin/scans/tech_doc/patent_0203976_waltham_woerd_sawtooth_balance/s_index.html

I will be posting copies on my site soon.

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Tom McIntyre
NAWCC 2nd VP Candidate
Tommy the JOAT's Web

 

[John Cote]

WOW,

Thanks to Tom for posting the link to Wayne's great site, and thanks again to Wayne for the zillionth time.

If Charles V. Woerd wrote the letter accompanying this patent, he was not only a great engineer, but a great writer. For anyone who hasn't read the letter, I think it is one of the clearest, most concise pieces of writing on a subject this technical that I have ever read (and in my field I have read a lot). I was brought up to admire inventors, but I have learned to really admire inventors who can make the utility of their inventions obvious to the layman through written communication. These rare few, who not only understand the technical minutia which make up innovation, but how to make you and I understand its significance, are my heroes.

COOL STUFF


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JohnCote
President, Indiana Chapter 18 - NAWCC
Member Chapter 149 (Member #105)
http://www.interstatetime.com