h in steel seems reason
enough to explain why this patent did not become the basis for all their
stem-wound models. Steel is far more difficult to cut than brass,
resulting in a much greater consumption of time and cutters, both of
which represent money to the manufacturer. In the patent model these
ring-gear teeth have been cut by a milling cutter which did not pass
through the ring and across the face of the teeth. This produced a gear
somewhat resembling an internal bevel gear, one which could have only the
merest contact with its mating pinion. To make a durable gear for this
application it would be necessary to pass the cutter through the ring in
line with the gear axis. This would require a special or, at least,
radically modified gear-cutting machine with a cutter arbor shorter than
the inside diameter of the gear. Into this short space the spindle
bearings and means of driving the spindle would have to be crowded, along
with the cutter. Hopkins faced a problem similar to this in cutting the
ring gear for his watch, except that the brass gear needed for the rotary
watch could be cut far more easily and quickly. This may be the link
which brought Wales and the defunct United States Watch Co. into the
Auburndale picture. Another plausible link between Fowle and Wales
involves a patent[25] Wales received for a pulley. This, the now
familiar device of interlocking conical sections so commonly used in
variable speed V-belt drives, was assigned to G. E. Lincoln of Boston,
Massachusetts. George E. Lincoln was treasurer of the Mammoth Vein
Consolidated Coal Co. at Boston in 1865, with an office adjoining that of
Fowle. In addition he boarded for many years at Auburndale,[26] and he
apparently owned the buildings about to be converted into a watch
factory. Thus we see that Lincoln may very well have been the one who
brought Fowle and Wales together.

[Illustration: Figure 13.--THE AUBURNDALE TIMER with top plate, balance,
and control mechanism removed to show the train. The conventional barrel
has 66 teeth that drive a pinion on the so-called 10-minute staff. This
staff carries on the dial end the pointer, which revolves in 10 minutes,
as indicated on the dial. Also on this staff is an unspoked wheel of 80
driving the center, or minute, staff through a pinion of 8. In addition
to the sweep hand (or hands in the case of the split model) indicating
seconds up to a duration of one minute, there is a wheel of 80 driving a
pin