ill sjcttinsi into the inanutacturc of a low-jiricccl watch. 

 Merritt ma\- have been the senior member of the 

 Locke-Merritt team or may simply have had more 

 faith than his associates in I lopkins and his watch. 

 At any rate, he advanced expense money while further 

 efforts at improvement were made.'- Hopkins' 

 absence from the Washington city directory of 1877 

 is perhaps explained by this work he was doing on his 

 [latent. While this was completed to Hopkins' satis- 

 faction, it still fell short of Merritt's idea of practicality, 

 and the latter abandoned the idea of manufacturing 

 the watch ;'^ what had started out as a very simple 

 watch of few parts grew, with every effort to make it 



tion was made for the patent (165830) to prevent 

 o\crbanking. The cash book of William B. Fowie of 

 Auburndale. Massachusetts," tells us that he bought 

 half of William D. Colt's half-interest in the Hopkins 

 rotary in March 1876, partly for cash but including a 

 royalty on each watch made. Half this ro\alt\' was 

 to go to Hopkins, a quarter to William D. C;olt, and 

 a quarter to William B. Fowie. Does patent 179019, 

 issued June 20, 1876, to Hopkins, who as.signed it on 

 June 10, 1876, to Fowie," represent the last improve- 

 ment offered to Merritt? It covers a device actuated 

 by a spur on a balance staff to lock the detent against 

 tripping when in one position and to permit normal 



Figure 7.- -Part ok rnii Drawings fro.m L'. S. 

 Patent 186838, showing the winding and 

 .setting mechanism very nearly as it was applied 

 in the Auburndale rotarv. 



workable, more and more complicated by in\ olved and 

 expensive detail. It appears that Hopkins did not 

 possess the rare gift of improvement by simplification. 

 This is a rare gift, and one seldoin possessed b\- an 

 individual very closely and intensely involved in the 

 minute details of a given problem. 



How long this period of development and experi- 

 mentation required is unreported. It could hardly 

 have started before early June of 187.S. when applica- 



'- Grossman, op. ctt. (footnote 8), January 1888, p. 32. 

 " Ih,d., p. 33. 



operation of the chronometer escapement when in 

 the other position (see fig. 6). Another patent applied 



" William B. Fowlc's "Cash book," commcncfd January 1, 

 1873. and closed February 21, 1882, plus "Cash Book #5 

 Leaves 1 to 20 inclusive. .\\\ that were used up to my failure 

 on August 4, 1883," are in the author's possession. They 

 contain many entries on the "Watch .\dventurc'" and later 

 ".\ub Watch Co." mixed in with other entries referring to 

 everything from killing pigs to extensive stock, bond, and real 

 estate transactions. 



"^ U. S. Patent Office digest of assignments, vol. H9\', p. 13, 

 stored at Fianconia, \"irginia. Accession no. 57.A393, 



PAPER 4: Al'BURNDALE WATCH COMPANY 



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