Improvements relating to the Current Supply of Electric Railways by an Auxiliary Accumulator Battery.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 27th June, 1895-Accepted, 3rd Aug., 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to the Current Supply of Electric Railways
by an Auxiliary Accumulator Battery.
I, ADOLPH MÜLLER, of 90 Bergstrasse, Hagen, Westfalen in the Empire of
Germany, Director, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to an improved means for supplying current to electric
railways by an auxiliary accumulator battery.
It is known that in the working of electric railways the amount of working
power, with which each carriage must be provided, is not equal to the average
amount of work performed; but equal to the maximum amount of work required.
If thus for instance, as is often the case, in an electric railway system which is in
principle arranged in a horizontal plane, only one single short ascent occurs, each
of the carriages must be provided with a sufficient amount of stored working power
in order to correspond to the respective maximum inclination of the ascent, or in
case the electric railway is supplied with current taken from an electric conductor,
the current supplying station must be of such a capacity as to be enabled to supply
independently not only the required average amount of current but also to enable
several carriages to overcome simultaneously the respective ascent or ascents, if
required.
The present invention relates to an arrangement by which the capacity of the
current generator, or if the railway is worked by means of accumulators, the
capacity of the constituent batteries used, is restricted to the average amount of
work done.
The accompanying drawing illustrates diagrammatically the arrangement of this
invention.
In this illustration as an example a current supplying system of any known
kind is supposed to be used.
Referring to the said drawing, G is the generating station, L L are feed
conductors, by which the delivery conductor proper, S, S, is supplied with current.
The space lying between a a may for instance correspond to an especially difficult
ascent.
In order now to overcome this ascent, an accumulator battery B is arranged in
the proximity, of such a dimension that the intensity of the current discharged
therefrom is equal to the difference between the average amount of work done and
the maximum amount of work required for overcoming the said ascent.
In this given example the battery may remain permanently inserted between the
current supplying conductor and the earth. In this case its pressure would have
to be so fixed, that if fully charged the said battery will not take any current from
the conductor. The delivery conductor and its feed conductors would further have
to be so dimensioned, that the loss of pressure caused by the entering of a carriage
into the respective part, a a of the line will be equal to the difference between the
charging and discharging pressure of the battery. Therefore, as soon as the
carriage enters upon the ascent, the battery will assist the current generator and
increase the amount of power of the carriage to the required maximum.
If on the other hand the conditions, under which the electric railway is worked are
not of the kind that such fixing or adjusting of the pressure of the battery and of
the conductor cross-sections appears applicable or useful, the battery may then be

page_text: provided with the necessary cell-switches or any other known devices for regulating
the pressures, which devices can be either arranged so as to be actuated by hand
by special attendants or which may also be operated by persons from the carriage
by other appropriate arrangements.
In these switch devices the construction of which results from the general
arrangement itself and can be carried into practice by anyone skilled in the art,
I do not recognize the essential feature of my invention which latter subsequently
consists in the arrangement of the auxiliary battery.
If, instead of the current being supplied by conductors, the electric railway is
worked by accumulator batteries, then of course especial arrangements are requisite
for charging the auxiliary battery. These special arrangements may be either of
the kind that separate charging conductors are passed from the generator station
to the place of the auxiliary battery or of the kind that at the place where the
auxiliary battery is located, a separate motor with current generating machine,
serving to effect the charge, is arranged.
In this case the accumulator cars themselves have to be fitted with the necessary
contact devices such as a se called trolley or the like, besides carrying a battery,
so as to be able to receive the auxiliary current supplied by the stationary battery
aforementioned.
The special arrangement of the cars forms the subject matter of a separate
Application No. 12469° filed by me of even date herewith.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
In electric railways in which the conditions of working require, at certain places
of the railway line or system, a particularly large amount of driving power, the
arrangement of a stationary auxiliary battery at the said places, which auxiliary
battery is kept charged either by the current supplying conductors of the installation
or by special separate charging conductors or else by a special separately actuated
current generator, and which battery, when the respective places of the railway
line or system are travelled over by suitable known means of connection delivers
the requisite surplus of current over the amount of current necessary for the
remaining part of the railway line or system.
Dated this 27th day of June 1895.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.