Improvements in Converting Electrical Energy and in Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Sept., 1890-Accepted, 8th Nov., 1890
CUDIT LEID DI DUIFICATION.
Improvements in Converting Electrical Energy and in Apparatus
therefor.
RANKIN KENNEDY Electrician 10 India Street Kilmarnock N.B. 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:―
These improvements have for their object the conversion or transformation of the
electrical energy carried by two unidirection pulsating electric currents derived from
two alternating currents at quarter difference of phase, through two rectifying com-
mutators, the one unidirection pulsating current pulsating at its maximum at the
instant the other is pulsating at its minimum
The converter according to my invention is double wound in its primary coils, one
pulsating current traversing one of the windings and the other pulsating current
traversing the other winding in such a direction respectively that they act magnetically
oppositely to each other, their combined effect being equivalent to one alternating
current effect.
According to this invention two unidirection pulsating electric currents pulsating
at a difference of phase so that the pulsation of the one is at a maximum at the
instant the pulsation of the other is at a minimum are converted into alternating
currents having either a reduced or increased pressure. The alternating currents
produced by the two pulsating currents are secondary currents and the electrical
pressure of these currents depends on the pressure of the primary pulsating currents,
and also upon the ratio of the primary and secondary windings in the circuits traversed
by the primary and secondary currents.
An apparatus according to this invention has a closed or open laminated magnetic
circuit of any of the well known forms used in the ordinary alternating current
converters, and two primary coils or windings are wound into or upon the magnetic
circuit, together with the secondary winding or coil.
Any alternating current converter can at once be reconstructed and altered into a
converter according to this invention and made suitable for converting two pulsating
currents at the said phases by simply dividing the primary winding into two separate
coils or windings. The one pulsating current traverses one of the primary
windings in any given direction and the other pulsating current traverses the other
primary winding in the opposite direction, so that the one current magnetises the
magnetic circuit in one direction and the other current magnetises it in the opposite
direction, the two currents although unidirection currents they act effectively as an
alternating current; the one being at zero value at the instant the other is at a
maximum and the one magnetising oppositely to the other.
In order that others skilled in the art to which my invention relates may clearly
understand the nature of my said invention I have hereunto appended a sheet of
drawings.
Fig. 1 is a typical diagram of one form of closed magnetic circuit converter wound
according to this invention, with two primary windings, F and G, and one secondary
winding CD with translating devices therein. The conductor M supplies one
pulsating current to one primary winding F, conductor M' supplies the other pulsating
current to the other primary winding G, both currents return by a common con-
ductor R. In practice the primary windings would be arranged symmetrically one
being wound over or alongside of the other.
Fig. 2 is an end view and Fig. 3 a section axially through an open magnetic
circuit converter of cylindrical form, the core is a bundle of soft iron wires, first one

page_text: primary coil is laid on then another and then the secondary thick wire coil. A. B. is
one winding of the primary A' B¹ is the other, C D is the secondary winding wherein
is produced the secondary alternating currents.
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
1st. In an electrical converter as herein before described the combination of two
primary circuits or windings with two pulsating currents, the one current flowing in
an unidirection pulsating flow through one of the primary windings, the other
pulsating unidirection current flowing through the other primary winding, and the
one pulsating current magnetising oppositely to the other together with a secondary
circuit and a laminated magnetic circuit as and for the purpose substantially as herein
described.
2nd. The method of energising a magnetic circuit alternatingly by means of two
windings and two unidirection currents pulsating as herein described, the one current
magnetising the magetic circuit in one direction and the other current magnetising it
in the opposite direction alternately, the resultant magnetic effect of the two currents
being equivalent to that of one alternating current, as and for the purpose substan-
tially as herein described.
Dated this 16th day of September 1890