IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AND DIRECTING ELECTRIC CURRENTS AND FOR APPLYING THEM TO THE STEERING OF VESSELS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Godfrey Gumpel at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th July 1880.
CHARLES GODFREY GUMPEL, of No. 49, Leicester Square, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AND DIRECTING
ELECTRIC CURRENTS AND FOR APPLYING THEM TO THE STEERING OF VESSELS."
My Invention relates to apparatus for producing, directing, and intensifying
electric currents and applying them for communicating power to a distance, and
controlling such power so that it is applied through determinate distances, as in
working the steering gear of vessels. For producing electricity, I construct a
dynamo electric or a magneto electric machine in such a manner as to obtain with
a given velocity of the rotating armature more numerous and powerful currents in
its coils than are usually produced in such machines, and to avoid to a great extent
the heating of the coils. As the currents induced in a moving coil by the presence
of a magnetic field are produced only during its approach to and its recession from
that field, and as the power of such induced currents is greater the greater the
speed of approach and recession, I therefore, instead of diffusing the polarity of
each field over a considerable part of the space through which the coil moves,
concentrate the polarity as much as possible into a narrow field, and I distribute
an even number, preferably not less than four of such intensely polar fields,
uniformly round the circumference of the circle in which the armature coils move,
the polarity of these fields being alternated. Each polar field may be the pole of a
single magnet, or two or more magnets may be arranged to converge, so that their
similar poles meet at the field, increasing its intensity, and these magnets may be
permanent magnets, or they may be electro magnets excited by a portion of the
electricity produced by the machine, or by electricity from an extraneous source.
The coils are wound on a rotating armature, which may be either a ring, as in the
known Gramme machine; or a cylinder, as in the known Siemens machine; and
the wires of these coils may be connected in any desired combination to insulated
rings having brushes or rubbers bearing against them for the conduction of
alternating currents, or they may be connected to insulated plates of a commutator
having brushes for the collection and conduction of continuous currents.
employ a ring to carry the coils I sometimes construct it of several parallel tyres
of wood or other non magnetic material, on which is fixed a sheet iron casing, or
iron wire or hoop is wound, thereon, or on which are fixed, parallel to the axis of
rotation, bars of iron side by side, but not in magnetic contact with each other. In
constructing commutator brushes or collectors, I fit the wires of which they consist
so that they can slide freely within a casing, pressing them by caoutchouc or other
springs obliquely against the periphery of the commutator. When the brush or
collector has to extend over an arc of the periphery of some extent, I use instead of
the sliding wires thin plates fitted side by side in the casing, so that they can slide
When I

page_text: freely, being pressed by springs against the periphery of the commutator which their
edges are hollowed to fit. It is often desirable, particularly for certain kinds of
electric lamps, to convert quantity currents into intermittent currents of high
intensity by means of an inductor. Instead of winding the wires of such
inductors in the usual way, that is to say, with the secondary coil superposed on
the primary coil, I wind these coils together, that is to say, the primary wire of
considerable sectional area along with a number of secondary wires of smaller area,
thus obtaining a juxtaposition throughout the coil of the secondary and primary
wires, and bringing most of the secondary coils nearer to the core.
For working
the steering gear of vessels by electricity, I arrange the machines and their
conductors as follows:-In the engine room or other convenient place I provide a
dynamo electric or a magneto-electric machine, which may be driven by the engines
or by a special engine for the production of a continuous electric current. And I
provide as near as possible to the rudder an electro dynamic machine, which is
moved by electric currents transmitted to its coils. I connect this machine to the
rudder by suitable gearing, so that according as the armature of the machine is
caused to revolve in the one direction or the other, the rudder is moved by it to
port or to starboard, as the case may be. To and froin the electro magnetic
inachine I conduct the electricity by insulated wires through a commutating
apparatus so arranged that the direction of the currents which excite the field
magnets of the electro dynamic machine remains constant, keeping their polarity
constant, but the direction of the currents through the armature coils can be
changed at will, altering the direction of rotation of the armature, and thus causing
the helm to be moved towards port or starboard, as the case may be. The
commutating apparatus is situated on the bridge or other convenient place, where
it can be worked by an officer. It is provided with an index handle and graduated
dial marked on the one side "port," and on the other side "starboard." When the
index is in its middle position, it breaks the connection of the conductors and
consequently the electro dynamic machine, and the steering gear remain at rest,
the helm being amidships. By moving the handle to the one side or the other contact
is made by the cummutator so as to transmit to the armature coils currents of the
one direction or the other, and consequently the electro dynamic machine and the
rudder move in the one or other direction, as the case may be. In order to
determine the extent of movement of the rudder and to maintain it in the position
to which it is moved, I make the contacts of the commutator on the face of a dise
or on the periphery of a cylinder, which can revolve on an axis in line with that of
the index handle, and which is moved step by step, like the type wheel of a printing
telegraph, by a succession of electrical currents, the transmission of which is
determined by the movement of the rudder. Thus the rudder in moving over a
certain angle, say to port, makes a number of contacts, by each of which the
commutating disc or cylinder is moved one step in a corresponding direction, until
it comes to a position corresponding to that of the rudder, in which position its
middle part coincides with the index handle, and contact is thereby broken,
whereupon the rudder ceases to move. Instead of applying these electric currents
to cause the movement of the commutating disc or cylinder, it is preferable to effect
that movement by a weight or spring, the electric currents serving merely to
release suitable detents so as to permit the movement, step by step, in obedience to
the weight or spring. The weight or spring for this purpose is so arranged that it
is wound up or strained by the movement of the index handle so as always to be
ready when the handle has been moved to move the commutating disc or cylinder
in the same direction.