1851 Great Exhibition: Official Catalogue: Class X.: Richard Roberts
130. ROBERTS, RICHARD, Globe Works, Manchester — Proprietor.
Patent alpha (church or turret) clock, the wheels and pinions made of cast-iron, with the teeth retaining the scale; it has only one weight to actuate both the going and striking trains, and the chain or cord, requiring no lateral traverse, can be taken off in any direction. The pendulum (compensation) and the escapement, (remontoire) are adapted to keep the clock at an almost uniform rate, whilst the hands being advanced at intervals of, thirty (or, if preferred, sixty) seconds, afford opportunity for ascertaining the time to a second.
[The striking of the hour is effected through means by which the blows are given at equal intervals of time, thus avoiding both the irregularity of the fan and the expenditure of power to drive it. The upper part of the case in which the clock stands shows a simple mode of constructing a turret, to consist of four pillars connected together by as many dials, which turret it is proposed should be placed diagonally with reference to the building on which it is to stand, in which position the dial ' will be better seen in all directions.]
Watch which beats dead (centre) seconds with only one train of wheels, etc.
Patent recorder watch with double hands.
Patent normal drill, for drilling all the pivot, screw, and steady pin-holes in the frame-plates of watches, chronometers, and small clocks. A boy may drill with this machine any number of watch frame-plates, so precisely alike, that the parts that fit one of the frames will fit all or any of the others.
[It will be seen that by varying the distance of the drill from the fulcrum of the graduated. beam, any size of watch-plate may be drilled from the same model- plate; and that by changing the model-plate, the arrangement of the holes may be varied at pleasure.]
Patent synchronometer model, to show that by the application of pneumatics, a clock may be made to indicate simultaneously the time of day on dials in various places at a distance from each other.
Patent wheel sector. By this instrument the external and pitch line diameters of wheels and pinions of any pitch and number of teeth are accurately ascertained.
Electro-magnet, 21 inches square, the iron of which weighs only one pound four ounces and a half; capable of sustaining upwards of 500 lbs.
Electro-magnet, three inches square, the iron of which weighs only two pounds six ounces; capable of sustaining 678 lbs.