IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING RAILWAY TRAINS BY ELECTRICITY IN COMBINATION WITH GAS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edmund Edwards at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th November 1883. A communi-
cation to him from abroad by Donato Tommasi of Brussels in the Kingdom of
Belgium.
EDMUND EDWARDS, of the firm of Edwards and Co:-Patent Agents and
Engineers, of 35, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of
Middlesex " IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING RAILWAY TRAINS BY
ELECTRICITY IN COMBINATION WITH GAS" [a communication to him from abroad
by Donato Tommasi of Brussels in the Kingdom of Belgium]
This invention has for its object improvements in apparatus by which gas and
electricity (generated by a dynamo-electric machine set in operation by the
movement of the train which is to be lighted) can be used simultaneously or
alternately. The improved apparatus consists of a dynamo or magneto-electric
machine of either continuous or alternate current and of any of the ordinary well
known kinds set in motion by one of the axles of the train which is to be lighted.
Insulated wires conduct the current so generated to incandescent lamps of any of
the ordinary well-known kinds contained in the compartments of the carriages.
An automatic commutator is inserted in the circuit and is arranged so that
whenever the intensity of the electric current is lessened a sufficient quantity of
gas is automatically supplied to ordinary gas burners.
This automatic commutator consists of a slide valve arranged between a reservoir
of compressed gas carried by the train and a pipe communicating with the gas
burners.
The slide valve is provided with an admission opening through which the gas
passes from the reservoir to the pipe, the opening being in the form of an isosceles
triangle so that the smallest quantity of gas passes when the slide valve is at its
lowest point.
The slide valve is provided with a spindle attached to the armature of an
electro-magnet the coils of which are hollow. This electro-magnet is arranged in a
circuit induced by the current from the Dynamo-machine, and the armature
entering the hollow coils with slight friction causes the slide valve to descend.
Connected to the upper part of the slide valve is arranged a spring or balance
weight which keeps the valve in such a position that the gas.can always enter the
nine

page_text: To prevent the total loss of the gas whilst the valve is operating a vessel or
reservoir of metal or india-rubber may be placed in any convenient position upon
the pipe.
Whenever the electric current is passing the armature is attracted and the valve
descends until its opening is closed.
It will readily be understood that so long as the speed of the Dynamo-machine
is sufficiently great to generate the electric current the electro magnet will attract
its armature and close the admission opening for the gas as described, but
whenever the speed of the train diminishes and the current consequently becomes
sufficiently reduced the slide valve being forced in the opposite direction by the
spring or balance weight returns to its original position and again admits the gas
to the pipes and burners. Whilst the Dynamo-machine is at work the burners
must not be completely extinguished but only sufficiently lowered.
The quantity
of gas contained in the reservoir should be sufficient to supply the gas burners
during the whole journey in case of any accident to the electric light apparatus.
By this invention no electrical accumulator is required but the electricity is
automatically supplied by the movement of the train the light of the gas being
automatically substituted during stoppages.
Each gas burner, with an incandescent light, is enclosed in a ground glass globe,
and the intensity of the gas during stoppages being equal to that of the electric
lamp the transition from one to the other is scarcely perceptible.