Charles-Auguste Paillard worked with Houriet. In Geneva in 1876, he began experimenting with gold alloys, using them as material for hairsprings. He finally turned to palladium, with which he had become familiar in Brazil, where he had been sent by his uncle to service marine chronometers. One of the main problems he was faced there were rusty springs. Palladium, which is rust-proof, was a subproduct of gold mining and was plentiful there. It is not mag-netic and is rust-proof. Balances fitted with palladium reduce acceleration. In 1886 Paillard was granted British patent (No. 6367) for making his palladium (actually palladium/copper) balance spring. His springs became quite popular as soon as they appeared and were, as reported by The Swiss Horological Journal, imitated from the very beginning. They remained popular until the invention of Guillaume?s Elinvar balance springs and the use of anibal as an alloy for precision balances.