IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC ARC LIGHTS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Max Sombart at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th December 1883. A communi-
cation from Buss Sombart & Company an Engineering firm carrying on
business at Magdeburg in the Empire of Germany
CHARLES MAX SOMBART of the firm of Buss Sombart and Company [Engineers]
of Magdeburg in the German Empire "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC ARC
LIGHTS' A communication from Buss Sombart and Company an Engineering
firm carrying on business at Magdeburg in the Empire of Germany
This Invention has reference to the construction of electric arc lamps founded
on the principle that a straight steel magnet or electromagnet placed parallel
to a conductor and in which an electric current flows is urged by the action of
the current to assume a position perpendicular to that of the conductor.
In the circuit of a lamp constructed according to this principle the current
entering the circuit at the positive terminal flows through both the bobbins and
the upper and lower carbon carrier to the negative terminal and in doing so causes
the magnet to turn on its axis and imparts an ascending motion to the upper carbon
carrier to which it is connected by means of a cramp clutch or other suitable
device. As the points of the carbons are thus drawn apart from each other the
voltaic arc is produced.
The action of the current upon the magnet diminishes as the arc becomes longer
by the subsequent combustion of the carbons and the carbon carrier tends by its
gravity to turn the maguet back into its original position causing a clutch or
connecting device to strike against an adjustable screw so as to cause the jaw of
the clutch or connecting device to release the carbon carrier and permit of its
falling down freely by its own gravity.
Lamps constructed in the manner described could be used only for a single
light in circuit or several lights joined parallel and supplied with continuous
currents.
In order to employ them in series the lamps must be provided with two magnets
the bobbins of one of which are placed in the main circuit and the coils of the
other in a shunt circuit then the magnet acted upon by the main current will
oscillate on its fulcrum and by means of suitable clutch or other connection raise
the carbon carrier and thus form the voltaic arc. When the latter becomes too

page_text: long by the combustion of the carbon the action of the main current upon the
magnet diminishes and that of the shunt current increases. The magnet connected
with the shunt circuit is thereby turned in the opposite direction which will
cause the carbon carrier to descend until the clutch is released and thus allow the
carbon carrier to fall down freely.
Both of the magnets may be fixed on the same axis forming the extremities of
a frame within which is arranged the clutch for operating the carbon holder. The
said axis and the frame oscillate between points, or are supported on pivots or
edges fixed in the lamp frame which guides the lower part of the carbon carrier
and to which are fixed the four bobbins of the magnets.
.
In place of four bobbins two only may be employed one for each magnet, in
which case the frame-work only would require to be altered in form.
The steel magnets may be replaced by electro-magnets. The current entering
the circuit at the positive terminal flows through both the bobbins and the upper
and lower carbons to the negative terminal acting thereby on the electro magnet
which oscillates and raises the clutch and with it the carbon carrier to form the
voltaic arc-At the same time a shunt circuit branching off at the positive terminal
passes round the core of the electro magnet thereby magnetising and joins the
main circuit at the place where the latter flows over from the bobbins to the upper
carbon.
The magnets may be fixed and the conductors through which the current flows
in combination with clutch and carbon carrier may be moveable.