Improvements in Electric Railways and Tramways on a Sectional Conductor System.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Oct., 1898-Accepted, 7th Jan., 1899
Communicated from abroad by JEAN JACQUES HEILMANN, of 19, Rue Cambon,
Paris, in the French Republic, Engineer.
Improvements in Electric Railways and Tramways on a Sectional
Conductor System.
I, WILLIAM GEORGE HEYS, of 70, Market Street, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Chartered Patent Agent, 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: —
The present invention relates to those systems of electric railways and tramways
in which the current is supplied to the locomotives or to the carriages to be set
in motion, through a conductor fixed parallel with the permanent way.
This system consists in a particular method of distributing of the current and
of operating the machines in such a manner as to avoid the use of controllers or
apparatus acting by the interruption of the principal current or the introduction.
of resistances into its circuit. These controllers or apparatus are of difficuit
construction and are burdensome to keep in repair because of the rapid destruc-
tion of the contacts by sparking on rupture with very high pressure currents.
The annexed diagram represents the general arrangement, of this improved
system and will be hereinafter referred to.
As hereinafter described, the energy is supposed to be supplied under high
pressure from a central station under the form of a three phase electrical current.
This current is transformed into continuous current at a certain number of
sub-stations, each of which includes a synchronous or an asynchronous alternate
current motor which drives a continuous current dynamo. The continuous
current therefrom is supposed to be transmitted to the motors which are to be
energised, through a third rail, following the method generally adopted on
electric railways.
According to this invention, the third rail r, or its equivalent conductor which
supplies the current, is divided into a certain number of parts or sections insu-
lated one from the other, each of these parts corresponding with one of the sub-
stations, and the principal current is regulated by varying the excitation of the
machine which supplies it. This variation can be effected by means of a
rheostat arranged upon the locomotive.
1
.:
Thus, each sub-station includes an alternate current motor T, energised under
high pressure from the line A. This motor operates:-1. The generator D
which feeds the local portion of the line r. 2. The exciter G, destined to excite
the machine D. For this purpose a second conductor,, t, which may be aerial,
establishes communication between the exciter and the field-magnet of the
dynamo D, by the intermediary of a rheostat C, on the locomotive L. The ordinary
ails 1 of the permanent 'way may be utilised to constitute the common.return.
for the principal current and for the exciting current. In other terms, two. con.
ductors r and t suffice for the system; the conductor feeding, by the inter

page_text: mediary of the rubber F, the principal current to the motors m and the con-
ductor t, the feeble section serving for the exciting current.
These two conductors may either be aerial or subterranean or may be placed at
the level of the permanent way. In substitution for a continuous conductor
there may be employed one of the known systems of communication by separate
contacts such as that of Clautt, of Diatto, or of Westinghouse.
Between the various sections of the principal conductor r, we may intercalate
an insulated strip, or ¹¹ in such a manner as to avoid putting two neighbouring
sections into communication at the moment of passage of the rubber F.
In the exciting conductor t, which is formed in sections like the principal con-
ductor, there may be introduced in advance of one of the ends of one of these
sections a series of resistances M M in such a manner as to avoid the abrupt
breaking of the exciting circuit. On railways or tramways where the trains are
called upon to run in both directions, these resistances will be introduced at N N¹
before the end of one section and at M M³, at the commencement of the following
section.
The electrical sectionising of the line which is the characteristic of this system
may be arranged to coincide with the sectionising resulting from the adoption
of the block system. In this event, the employees in charge of the block section
can also attend to the electrical arrangements and by this means the principal or
the exciting current may be suppressed. Also, the employee may by cutting
off the supply current, stop a train already on the section.
In the event of an accident occurring in a substation, it will be sufficient to
electrically unite that section with one of the neighbouring sections by means
of an interruptor, so that the service may nevertheless be regularly continued.
The conductor which supplies current to the motor is "live or under pressure
only at the moment of the passage of a train; at all other times it is neutral and
may be worked upon without danger.
وو
If, on any section, a train should require help, a relief train can be arranged to
travel to it. For this purpose, the driver on the locomotive L.moves his com-
mutator to a neutral point, this commutator R, being that by means of which
the direction of travel of the train is controlled. It is also possible to arrange the
circuits in such a manner that when the commutator is put to a neutral point,
it introduces into the principal circuit a bell K or other electric alarm apparatus
by means of which the driver's attention is attracted when the relief train enters
the section.
In the foregoing description it has been supposed that the motor T is con-
structed for alternate currents, but it will be evident that the same arrangement
may be employed whatever may be the nature of the electrical energy which
animates the generator D) and the exciter G. These machines also, may be driven
by a continuous current motor, or by a steam engine, a turbine, or the like.
Similarly, the generator 1) and the exciter G can each be driven by a separate
motor. Finally, the generator I), which herein before has been described as pro-
ducing a continuous current, may be of the mono- or poly-phase type, in which
case the construction of the locomotive motors will be correspondingly modified,
and the feeding circuit may comprise several separate conductors it necessary.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. An electric railway system in which the alimentary current for the train
motors is furnished by a generator in a fixed station, the said generator being
excited by a special dynamo the field circuit of which is controlled from the
train by means of an auxiliary wire or conductors, substantially as hereinbefore
described with reference to the accompanying diagram.
2. In an electric railway, sectionising the conductor or conductors which feed

page_text: the train motors, into a convenient number of sections each of which corresponds
with a station or sub-station, substantially as hereinbefore described.
3. In an electric railway divided into sections on the block system, sectionising
the conductors which feed the train motors to correspond and coincide with the
block sections, substantially as hereinbefore described.
4. In an electric railway in which the conductors supplying current for the
trains motors are sectionised, inserting resistance at the end of the auxiliary con-
ductor, substantially as and for the purpose hereinbefore described with reference
to the accompanying diagram.
5. In an electric railway in which the conductors supplying current for the
train motors are sectionised, the insertion of an insulated piece between the ends
of two neighbouring sections, substantially as hereinbefore described with
reference to the accompanying diagram.