I recently purchased an American Watch S/N 516605 with the idea that I could take it apart and see "WHAT MAKES IT TICK"
Nothing I have found from broken jewels, broken guide pins, gunk on the barrel arbor, dial that came apart in mt hand, as well as other things I will not mention here.
My request is for any help I can get.
So I am going to pose a series of questions as I come across then.
The first is about the picture attached.
What are the three screws around the mainspring arbor for?
Keep in mind I am a virtual novice.

Melvin look at my picture you will know what the
screws are for.

Oh A collar to guide the winding key.
Missing on mine.
First Problem, but I am sure not the last.
Do u know what a "Fogg's Patent" is?
Thanks for your input.
Mel

fogg's patent is the vibrating hairspring stud
but not 100% sure lets hear it from the elders

The Foggs patent refers to the patent pinion, this design was to help protect incase of mainspring breakage. I remember reading somewhere that the patent was overlapping between a patent at Elgin & the Foggs at Waltham which apparently was settled out of court.

Regards to All

I think Fogg may also have patented some or all of the vibrating hairspring, but my Appleton Tracy vibrator only references Stratton's patent, which I think was for the barrel. (The vibrator is the straight length of hairspring wire to one side of the balance wheel cock.)

Just found some data Ethan on the vibrating hairspring, and yes you and Peter are correct, it was a Fogg's patent design as well.

Regards,
Bila

Hi All and thanks so far.
I noticed that the one i have has a solid balance wheel, the one Peter posted (as well as many others) have a split balance. Is mine correct?
Also the dial has no marking on the sub seconds area, but does have seconds markings on the dial around the seconds area. Is this correct.
Below the bridge plate, on the main plate inscribed is "Feb. 14th 1865" this date is earlier than the list for this movement. Is this correct?
Mel

I'm inclined to say, yes, yes and yes.

Pictures please.

The date on the pillar plate is likely a patent date... that patent would have been used for many years. I have Hamilton 990's 974's and a 992, all with the same date stamped in to the pillar plate.

I use that to know which watches share common parts. I bought a 974 to gain gold screws and a regulator whip for another 974, used the set lever in my 992 and the 4th wheel in my 990.

The solid balance wheel most likely pre-dates the split balance. Making this a very early example of US watch making.

Can't really speak to the dial without a photo.

The pocketwatchdatabase shows a picture of this model 1857 made in 1871 with a solid balance wheel.

If you drift over the photo's of the movement in the database... they will scroll over to photos of your dial. Your dial is very likely original in every respect. The dials on the site examples match your description perfectly.

Here is the dial.
It fell apart when I went to clean it.
PS , how do I put it back together?
Mel

The early dials were put together with something Dave Abbe refers to as "buffalo glue"

I don't soak my dials. I hand rub them in a dilute solution of dishwashing detergent and nothing more aggressive than my thumb print for the main surface and a make up brush for the corners, usually less than one minute. If it takes more than that, I use a "make up applicator" and work on a spot or a hairline with what ever is indicated for the particular type of stain. Teeth whitening gel for nicotine or tar stains, goof off for glue, CLR for water damage or rust...

These dials pre-date solder... so, you can glue it back in from the back side with what ever works. Enough to make it stick, but careful to minimize the amount of clean up that needs to be done on the stuff that squeezes out the front. If the glue "stands proud" on the back side after it has dried, I find I have to trim it down or shave it down so it does not interfere with the dial laying flat on the pillar plate.

Gorilla glue works for me... but others may have recommendations.

Many of the early glues were renderings from Horse's foot-bones and toenails, etc. That type adhesive cannot survive a "modern" cleaning. With a long past experience of applying tiny amounts of low viscosity CYA (Superglue), I actually use that very sparingly to reassemble these. You first pre-position the seconds chapter with a bit of Rodico, then put the dial with insert FLAT and face-down on a thin poly (sandwich bag) film or waxed paper and then using a round pointed end toothpick, apply microdrops of CYA to the backside seam between the seconds chapter and the main dial. The thin CYA should "wick" into the dial/insert seam without messing up the dial face. Let it set five minutes before touching it.

A trick i was shown several years ago works good ,use just a small bit of super glue too fix the postion of the seconds bit,,then use flake shellac broke in small pieces and placed all around where the 2 pieces join ,,Then with a solder iron held close too the shellac it will melt right in and hold the 2 pieces together just fine.
A lot of the very early Howard watch dials where put together with Shellac.

Hi Dave and Samie,
I decided to try the shellac first.
I put 3 dots of shellac around the subseconds ares.
The shellac melted but did not **** into the crack.
Should I try to clean the area better, or try another approach.
Mel

This brings up a question from the audience. After successfully getting the dial into place how do you get the crack in the face of the dial not to show up badly and keep it from collecting dirt and forming a black ring around the seconds dial ????