Improvements relating to Electric Railway Vehicles.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 27th June, 1895-Accepted, 10th Aug.. 1895
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Electric Railway Vehicles.
1, 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 electric railway vehicles.
The rapidly increasing road and street traffic has, of late, in many instances
shown the desirability of operating part of the network of railway or other similar
lines by current supply from above or below ground, while it is proposed to operate
the remaining part by means of storage batteries arranged on the vehicles them--
selves.
The attainment of this result is the object of the present invention.
As hitherto, it is intended to provide the vehicles carrying the electro-motors,
with a sliding contact arrangement, which may be constructed on any one of the
systems already known, and may, accordingly, be located either upon the roof of
the carriage, or below the same.
At the same time, however, as this well-known arrangement is adopted, the
carriage is provided with a storage battery, the dimensions of which are so
calculated that its working capacity is sufficient to enable it to travel exactly the
distance which, by reason of the prevailing conditions of the traffic, it is deemed
impracticable to cover by the ordinary current supply. The battery referred to,
moreover, is so arranged, that its operative tension corresponds to the tension which
the motor, owing to its construction, is capable of producing.
Apart from these conditions, it is desirable to interpose the battery between the
brushes of the electro-motor. Suitable switch devices will then enable the charging
of the battery for those distances also which are to be covered by current supply.
But the moment the carriage leaves the space or part of line, which is operated by
current supply, the operator shall break the contact between the electro-motor and
the earth contact pieces, and move the cell-switch of his battery to the "discharged "
position, whereupon he will be able, with the assistance of such battery, to travel
over that part of the line which is unprovided with a current supply. As soon as
the vehicle, in the course of operation, re-enters a space controlled by current.
supply, the switch operations must, of course, be reversed, so that a current may
be again supplied through the conductors, and that the battery resumes the
quantity of energy necessary to enable it, upon the next occasion, to operate in the
same way as has just been described.
The invention is diagrammatically illustrated in the accompanying drawing in
which it will be seen that the motor M is, as usual, through the medium of the
sliding contacts C and C', switched in between the current supply or conductor L,
which is here, by way of example, supposed to be arranged above the ground, and
the rails S. Between the brushes, and consequently parallel to the motor, the
battery B is situated.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my suid inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:
A vehicle carrying an electro-motor and fitted with a sliding contact of any
mant haing that between the

page_text: terminals of the motor there is inserted an accumulating or storage battery which,.
by means of well-known switch devices, is charged, whilst in operation, by ordinary
current supply or conductors, but which, during its discharge, is capable of keeping
the motor in operation.
Dated this 27th day of June 1895
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.