IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRICAL GENERATORS AND MOTORS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th June 1883. Communicated to him
from abroad by Mary Bollmann of Vienna in the Empire of Austria
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co, Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRICAL GENERATORS
AND MOTORS [A communication to him from abroad by Mary Bollmann of
Vienna in the Empire of Austria]
"
This Invention relates to improvements in dynamo-electric and electro-dynamic
machines.
The dynamo-electric machines now generally used produce, by the inductive
actions of galvanic, or magneto electrical currents, secondary currents, which by
suitable mechanism are collected and commutated as direct currents.
According to the present Invention secondary currents are also produced; but
they are not commutated and carried off for use, but only used for exciting in the
conductor of the inducing main current induction currents of the second order
(tertiary currents) of the same direction as the main current which is thereby
strengthened.
The electrical actions which are used to effect this are well known and established
by physical laws, which, in order to simplify the description of the present Invention,
shall now be quoted as follows;-
I. Whenever a galvanic or magneto-electrical current arises or increases, or
vanishes or decreases an induction current will be excited in a close metallic
conductor in proximity to it.
II Whenever a closed metallic conductor approaches or retreats from a galvanic
or magneto-electric current an induction current is excited in it.
III. Induction currents last only as long as the induction lasts.
IV. Currents in conductors lying parallel and side by side (thus]
attract each other if they are of the same direction and repel each other if of
opposite direction. But when they lie in the same line (thus
then the contrary actions come into effect that is to say they will repel each other
when of the same direction and attract each other when of opposite direction.

page_text: V. All induction currents excited by the commencing or increasing of, or by the
approach to, a current have such a direction that they are repelled by the latter;
but those excited by the vanishing or decreasing of a current or by the retreat
from it are of such a direction that they are attracted. Therefore parallel currents
are of opposite direction in the first of these inductions and of the same direction
in the latter, while those in the same line are alike in the first and opposite in the
second class of inductions.
VI. When induction currents are produced by arising or vanishing currents,
parts of the latter are consumed equally in quantity to the first, but when such
are produced by the approach to, or retreat of, a conductor from a current, then a
quantity of mechanical energy is consumed corresponding to the electro-dynamical
power of the induced current.
VII Whenever one current is moved by force towards or from another one, each
of the currents is thereby increased by an induction current, such increase being in
proportion to the energy of the opposite current.
According to the said Invention I provide closed frames of copper of rectangular
shape (which I hereinafter term rectangular rings), supposed to be insulated and
connected to discs which rotate with a shaft. A copper wire forming part of an
electrical circuit which receives a current from any suitable source is bent to
produce a series of conductors in which the directions of the current alternate and
placed so that the rectangular rings pass closely along them without touching.
Suppose now one of the rectangular rings is moved from left to right towards
the first of the series of conductors, according to the law II a secondary current is
excited in it, which, according to laws IV and V, is the same as the main current
in the first conductor, namely positive, because the said conductor and the said ring
and the motion of the latter are in the same line.
As the secondary current in the rectangular ring commences and grows, there
will be, by its movement, a tertiary current excited in the first conductor according
to law VII, which has the same direction as the main current and can be passed off
for use.
The secondary current in the ring is not carried off but is, by suitable
arrangements hereinafter described, accumulated in it until the central line of the
rectangular ring comes to be parallel to a radial line. Its motion relatively to the
first conductor has now for a moment ceased and according to the law III the
secondary current vanishes. This excites a tertiary current in the first conductor,
which, according to law V is also positive, because, by the movement of the
rectangular ring, the latter and the first conductor will have a parallel situation.
The rectangular ring will then have transferred all its accumulated electricity to
the first conductor and the motive power used to move it has been transferred as
useful currents to the series of wire conductors.
As the rectangular ring passes the radial line away from the first conductor and
towards the second conductor of the series a negative current is excited in it, both
by its retreat from the first conductor and by its approach to the negative current
in the second conductor, the inductors acting from both sides and producing a
secondary stream of double strength. At the same time tertiary currents are
produced in the first and second conductors by the motion of the rectangular ring
which currents both in the said first and second conductors are of the same direction
as the main circuit.
The
When the rectangular ring arrives at a radial line next to that first mentioned
where relative motion ceases and the secondary current vanishes, a tertiary double
current equal to the main current is induced in the main second conductor.
same actions take place during the motions of the rectangular ring between the
second and third conductors and all the following conductors, only that the positive
and negative currents are alternately changing.
Between every two radial lines there are every time two secondary and four
tertiary currents produced; of these the secondary ones disappear having been
transferred and the tertiary ones all pass to the series of conductors to be used.
I have here explained the actions when the conductors are situated and

page_text: relatively moving in the same line, but these directions may be altered to produce
the same effect.
In practical use the series of conductors may consist of long windings of
insulated copper wire which are connected at their ends so that the currents
alternate as described.
The connections may be for quantity or tension.
As magneto-electric molecular currents act in the same manner as galvanic
currents, magnets, or electro-magnets may be used instead of or in combination
with the wire coils to excite the secondary currents, but then arrangements must.
be made to carry off the tertiary currents which can be done by insulating the
magnets and connecting their ends with the main current in such a manner that
the positive and negative currents pass in the same direction. When steel magnets
are used the currents may be led off from them directly for use.
The ring conductors must, as already mentioned, be capable of accumulating the
secondary currents excited in them between the radial lines as explained, otherwise
the currents would grow to an undue intensity and be transformed into heat.
According to another arrangement bars of copper or other suitable metal are
insulated from each other and connected together to form a drum. These bars have
notches cut in them into which bent copper sheets are soldered.
In the open space formed by the bend of the sheet bars of soft iron (or bundles
of iron wires) are placed, and between each pair of such conductors there are also
placed other iron bars. All the said bars are covered with an insulating substance.
The secondary currents excited on the face of the drum circulate through the
copper sheets around the iron bars in the same manner as if they would pass
through a very great number of windings of wire only far more favourable because
they circulate always close to the iron. The latter will consequently be magnetized
to a high degree thereby accumulating the currents as magnetic molecular currents
so long as the induction lasts, but at the radial lines the induction ceases and then
the iron discharges the accumulated currents in opposite directions back to the
copper bars whereby the double current is excited in the main current as has been
explained.
I may here mention that each conductor may be made of simply one bar of iron
well insulated so that the copper sheet and the second iron bar may be dispensed
with, the secondary current circulating direct on the surface of the iron. But
between each pair of such conductors the separate second iron bars should be placed,
otherwise the currents passing between them in opposite directions would in part
prevent the induction of magnetism.
This system will also operate if the drum is made of one continuous surface of
copper or iron instead of separate conductors. In this case the secondary currents
pass continuously sideways along the radial lines and also through the thickness of
the metal to form the circuits.
The actions will then be all simultaneous and perfectly uniform.
A machine working on the system above described may be constructed as follows
that is to say,-
The secondary conductors insulated from each other are fastened at their ends
to discs so as to form a drum. The said discs are fixed to a shaft that revolves in
bearings and is supplied with a pulley to apply motive power. The primary
inducting elements are similar to the first and second hereinbefore described and
are made preferably of square bars of soft iron around which a coil or coils of
insulated wire are wound. They are fastened to two rings secured to the main
frame of the machine and are held against the inner peripheries of the same by
wooden wedges driven between their ends. The coils of the wire are connected
together so as to cause the directions of the main current to change alternately
from positive to negative as above described. The iron bars become magnets by
the current passing around them through the windings of the wire; this increases
the inductive power because those parts of the wire not in a line with the conductors
will excite magnetic molecular currents which will then also act on the said

page_text: conductors to produce secondary currents. One of the bars may be a permanent
steel magnet to produce the currents for starting the machine.
The positions and arrangements of the coils, electro-magnets or steel magnets
may be varied the same as in machines using secondary currents. The con-
ductors may also be situated mutually so as to act on their side faces instead of
on their circumferences. The conductors will then be connected together to form a
ring instead of a drum and a number of such rings may be fastened to the same
shaft and the series of conductors may act on both sides of these rings. The ring
conductors may also be made stationary and the series revolving, which arrange-
ment is advisable in cases when tho devices for accumulating the secondary currents
are made very large in order to obtain economical currents of low intensity. In
this case the wires carrying off the produced currents for use must be connected
with conductors similar to commutators but without interruptions.
The above described system can without any alterations be also used for
producing mechanical power by galvanic currents. To understand this we must
follow the actions in a contrary direction and regard as the driving current that
part of the main current which vanishes in producing the motive power.