Year: 1898

page_text: We, CHARLES ANTOINE VIGREUX and LUCIEN VICTOR BRILLIÉ, both of 75, Boule-
vard Pereire, Paris, France, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion to be as follows:-
This invention relates to arc lamps in which the excess of weight of the upper
carbon holder over the lower one tends to turn a fly wheel which is arrested by
a brake block that is controlled by one or more regulating solenoids or electro-
magnets.
The essential feature of the present invention consists in that the brake block
is rotatable round the axis of the fly wheel and is so arranged that the regula-
tion is entirely independent of the coefficient of friction of the contact, and of
vibrations &c., there being always an equilibrium between the solenoids and the
weight of the carbon holders and all springs being dispensed with in the regulating
mechanism.
For these purposes, according to one arrangement, there are provided two sole-
noids, one of which is in a shunt of the lamp circuit, while the other is in series
with such circuit. The cores of these solenoids are each suspended from a cord
chain or band coiled in contrary directions round a ring surrounding a fly wheel
which tends to revolve under the action of the excess of weight of the upper carbon
holder, the ring having on its inner periphery a brake block which can be made
to act upon the periphery of the fly wheel so as to arrest or retard its rotation.
The fly wheel revolves loose upon its spindle, and the surrounding ring is
pivoted at one point to one end of a radial arm the other end of which is fixed to
the said spindle, and the brake block is situated to one side of the ring's connec-
tion with the said arm.
The fly wheel is connected by suitable gearing with a spindle carrying two
pullies on which are coiled in contrary direction the cords, chains or bands from
which the upper and lower carbon holders are respectively suspended, so that
when no current is passing through the lamp, the excess of weight of the upper
carbon holder, in bringing the carbons together causes the Hy wheel to be
rotated in a certain direction. The cores of the solenoids are so adjusted that
the core of the shunt solenoid is heavier than the other one, and consequently,
when no current is passing, the former, in descending, raises the core of the
series solenoid so as to be in a relatively higher position. By this motion the
shunt solenoid effects the turning of the beforementioned ring upon its pivot so
that its brake block (which is on the same side of the centre line as the shunt
solenoid) is brought into a position in which it exerts no pressure upon the fly
wheel, so that this is free to revolve for bringing the carbons together. If now
a current be passed through the lamp, the series solenoid, in attracting its core,
and consequently drawing it downward, will effect the turning of the brake ring
on its pivot so as to bring the brake block into close contact with the fly wheel,
whereupon, on the continued attraction and downward motion of the said core,

page_text: the ring will carry the fly wheel round with it, at the same time raising the shunt
solenoid core.
By this. rotation in the contrary direction of the fly-wheel, this will, through
its beforementioned gearing, turn the pulleys supporting the carbon holders so as
to separate the carbons, until a state of equilibrium between the weight of the
carbon holders, that of the cores and the attractive force of the two solenoids is
brought about.
The sensitiveness of the above apparatus may be increased by supporting the
spindle of the brake ring upon knife edges at its centre line, as this spindle only
has an oscillating motion.
As the carbons burn away and the attraction of the series solenoid decreases
while that of the shunt one increases, the core of the former will again be drawn
upward by the preponderance of the core of the latter, and the ring will be
moved over so as to cause the brake block to more or less release its hold on the
fly wheel, whereupon this will be free to turn in allowing the carbons to approach
each other, until this approach is again stopped by the increasing attraction of
the series solenoid.
The practical effect of this action will be that there will be continual slight
fluctuations in the pressure exerted by the brake block on the fly wheel, which
will result in a practically continuous rotation of the fly wheel in the direction
for feeding the carbons together.
Either the one or the other solenoid can be replaced by a weight, if the lamp
is to work either entirely in series or entirely in shunt. If such a weight is used
for a shunt circuit lamp, it must of course be heavier than the core of the solenoid,
and the brake will always be applied when the lamp is not working. In that
case the weight must be capable of being lifted by means of an external lever for
enabling the carbons to be changed.
For preventing the taking off of the brake pressure in the position in which
the ring is in unstable equilibrium, a slight spring is advantageously applied to
the arm carrying the ring in such manner as to counteract such tendency; this
spring however does not have any influence upon the above described mode of
regulation.
In some cases, in particular when the lamps are employed with currents of great in-
tensity the sensitiveness of the above described regulating apparatus can be increased
by increasing the displacement of the solenoid cores relatively to that of the carbons;
in this case as the carbons would not be moved sufficiently far apart on starting
the lamp to produce the luminous arc a special solenoid connected in series is
The core of this solenoid is connected to one
employed for producing the arc.
arm of a two armed lever to which is or are connected the end or ends of a cord
or chain passing over a guide pulley and having loops with pulleys from which
the carbon holders are hung so that on the core being drawn downward on the
passage of a current, the resulting motion of the lever and cord causes the separa-
tion of the carbons. If the starting solenoid is arranged to operate only with a
current of greater strength than that with which the lamp works normally, it will
not operate the above device after once starting the arc.
In order to render the action of the solenoids upon their cores practically con-
stant for all positions, the variations can be compensated for by means of a suit-
able balance weight or spring, acting for example upon the before described radial
arm that carries the brake ring.
In order to obviate the irregular action of the arc in starting the lamp, such
as occurs in all equilibriated arc lamps, I provide below the above described regu-
lating shunt solenoid a closed cylinder in which works loosely a piston or disc
connected by a rod to the lower end of the core, which piston has passages
through it closed at top by valves, so that when the core is attracted by the shunt
solenoid, it can move downward comparatively freely for liberating the fly wheel
and causing the approach of the carbons, as the air below the piston can pass
through the valve openings thereof, but when the core is drawn upward by the

page_text: descent of the series solenoid core, for separating the carbons, the piston will
operate as an air brake in controlling the speed of such motion.
The cylinder and piston will also effect a certain braking action in both direc
tions for small variations during normal working; the arrangement may also be
applied to the series solenoid core, or to a lever arm on the spindle carrying the
brake ring instead of to the shunt core.
The construction of the carbon holders and their guiding appliances, are as
follows. From the top of the lamp casing extend downward two guide rods con-
nected by a transverse bar at the lower end on which rods are mounted sliding
blocks, to which the suspension cords chains or bands of the regulating apparatus
are attached, and which are fixed on the upper ends of another pair of rods that
carry at their lower ends the carbon holders, of which the upper one has a hole
by which it slides up and down the lower part of the guide rod, while the rod
carrying the lower carbon holder has fixed to it a second block that slides upon its
guide rod. In addition to these parts, fixed forked guides are also provided for
the carbon holder rods on the lower end of the casing enclosing the regulating
mechanism.
The carbon holders are formed as a pair of jaws pivoted together at the middle,
their one end being adapted to receive the carbon between them, while the other
end of the one jaw is attached to the above mentioned rod, and the tail of the
second jaw is connected to the first one by a spring tending to draw them together
and thus to open the end of the jaws, that hold the carbon, these being drawn
together by a thumb screw in opposition to the spring for nipping the carbon.
Dated this 8th day of February 1898.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.
We, CHARLES ANTOINE VIGREUX and LUCIEN VICTOR BRILLIÉ, both of 75, Boule.
vard Péreire, Paris, France, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion 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 arc lamps in which the excess of weight of the upper
carbon holder over the lower one tends to turn a fly wheel which is arrested by
a brake block that is, controlled by one or more regulating solenoids or electro-
magnets.
The essential feature of the present invention consists in that the brake block
is rotatable round the axis of the fly wheel and is so arranged that the regula
tion is entirely independent of the coefficient of friction of the contact, and of
vibrations &c., there being always an equilibrium between the solenoids and the
weight of the carbon holders and all springs being dispensed with in the regulating
mechanism.
We will describe our invention with reference to the accompanying drawings
in which Figure 1 shews a horizontal section through the casing of the
mechanism shewing a plan of the latter. Figures 2, 3 and 4 are vertical sections
taken respectively on the lines 2-2, 3-3 and 44 of Figure 1; Figures 5, 6
and 7 are sections of details taken respectively on lines 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7 of
Figure 4. Figures 8 and 9 shew details of the brake device. Figure 10 is a

page_text: diagram of a modification with special solenoid for starting the lamp; Figures 11
to 14 shew details of the dash-pot device.
In the construction shewn by way of example, the regulation is effected by
means of two solenoids J K, one of which is in a shunt of the lamp circuit while
the other is in series with such circuit. These solenoids act upon a brake block E,
the arrangement and action of which constitute the essential feature of the inven-
tion, and which in its turn acts upon and regulates the motion of a fly wheel Z
which controls the carbon holders.
For this purpose the two carbon holders are suspended from two cords S and T
which are coiled in contrary directions round two pulleys P and N mounted on a
spindle which actuates the fly wheel Z through the toothed wheel M and
pinion L.
The fly wheel Z is mounted loose on the spindle A to which is fixed a piece B
that supports the axis C on which oscillates a ring D; the brake block E is fixed
within the ring D in such manner that when the brake is in contact with the fly
wheel Z, the ring is concentric with the spindle A.
On the ring D are coiled two small chains cords or bands F G that support the
cores H I of the solenoids. The weight suspended from the chain F is greater
than that on chain G in order that when at rest the core I of the series solenoid
may be in a raised position.
Ünder these conditions, as the action of the core H upon the left hand side of
the ring D is greater than that of the core I on the right hand side thereof, it
will be evident that the latter will assume an equilibrium position such
that the brake will be entirely out of action and that the axis C will
be either exactly over or slightly to the right of spindle A. The brake
being off, the carbons will be in contact. At the moment when the circuit is
closed, the core I is attracted and effects the turning of the ring D to the right;
the axis C is thereby moved more and more to the left and the brake is applied
with increasing force, the pressure being proportional to the total weight of the
cores multiplied by the distance of the axis C from the vertical line passing
through the axis of the fly wheel as shewn at Figure 8.
This frictional contact soon becomes sufficient for carrying the fly wheel Z
round with the ring and thereby separating the carbons, until an equilibrium is
established between the weight of the cores, the carbons and the attraction of the
solenoids.
For increasing the sensitiveness of the apparatus, the axis A which only has
an oscillating motion, can be mounted on knife edges as shewn.
As the carbons are consumed, the core I of the series solenoid will rise in main-
taining the equilibrium, the brake is then gradually taken off, and as soon as a
sliding motion of Z commences there will occur a succession of sliding movements
and of oscillating movements of the ring D which enable the fly wheel Z to turn
practically in a continuous manner, so that the working of the apparatus will
only depend upon the equilibrium of the parts as above described.
This lamp therefore is not subject to the disadvantages inherent to lamps with
brake action heretofore proposed, and possesses in a high degree the perfection
of the equilibrium lamps.
It will be evident that by replacing by a sufficient counterweight either the
shunt or the series solenoid, a lamp acting in series or in shunt will be obtained.
In the particular case of a shunt lamp the counterweight must of course be
heavier than the core of the solenoid and the brake is always applied when the
lamp is not in action; it is in that case necessary to be able to raise this counter-
weight by an external lever so as to take off the brake when the carbons have
to be renewed.
We have assumed, for facility of description, that the brake is placed at E for
acting normally on the fly wheel Z but it is of advantage to place it at E¹ Figure 2,
in order that the direction of motion of the fly wheel Z may tend to take off the
brake, so that in this case the brake need never be out of contact.

page_text: For preventing the taking off of the brake from occurring in the position in
which the ring is in unstable equilibrium it is of advantage to employ a spring
such as W Figure 9, which tends to release the brake E; under these conditions
the brake is taken off when the axis C is to the left to such an extent that the
weights at F and G which act with a leverage equal to the distance between C
and the vertical centre line, will produce an effort of rotation equal and contrary
to that of the spring: it results from what has been stated above that the strength
of the said spring will not in any way affect the regulation.
In certain special cases, in particular when the above described mechanism is
to be applied to lamps of great intensity, it is of advantage to increase the propor-
tion of the relative motions of the solenoid cores and the carbons, in order to pro-
vide a sufficient sensitiveness without requiring to increase the power of the regu-
lating solenoids too much; in this case the separation of the carbons produced by
the mechanism would not be sufficient for starting the arc. In that case a special
auxiliary electromagnet arranged in series may be employed for starting the arc.
An arrangement for this purpose is shewn diagrammatically at Figure 10. It
consists in hanging the carbon holders in loops of the cords T S that are controlled
by the pulleys P N, as above, and connecting the second ends of the cords to a
lever controlled by the core of the auxiliary solenoid j. The latter can be
arranged to attract its armature with a current either less or greater than the
normal current. In the first named case the separation of the carbons effected by
the auxiliary solenoid ; on starting the arc is preserved during the whole time the
carbons are burning, only a limited separation being effected by the regulating
apparatus during the working.
In the second above case, the core is only attracted during the starting of the
arc and during the normal working there may, if necessary, be produced a very
considerable separation.
Either arrangement may be employed according to circumstances.
For the efficient working of the above described construction of lamp it is of
advantage that the regulating solenoids shall exercise a constant attraction during
the whole movement or that for a given condition, the difference of attraction
according to the position of the cores shall follow a law such that this difference
can be compensated for by the action of a suitable spring or counterweight. It
is easy to determine an arrangement of the solenoids in which this difference shall
be substantially proportional to the angle formed by the brake ring D; for instance
a counterweight placed at the end of the piece B which carries the ring, and the
action of which would be proportional to the said angle, would fulfil the required
conditions.
Arc lamps provided with our above described regulating apparatus, would still
be liable to the fluctuations common to all existing equilibriated arc lamps, particu-
larly on starting, whereby a succession of ignitions and extinctions of the arc are
produced, and which are caused by certain conditions of the carbons, for example
when these are cold, thus preventing normal action; that is to say, the arc is
extinguished when the current pressure drops to its normal value.
According to our invention we avoid this defect by providing a new construction
of deadening device or dash-pot, as shewn at Figure 2, which consists of a cylin-
der or dash-pot m so arranged that the deadening only takes place during the
separation of the carbons, these being free to come instantly in contact again.
Under these conditions the said repeated extinctions and ignitions are replaced
by a few scintillations that are hardly perceptible, the duration of the extinctions
being exceedingly short.
For this purpose the piston p or the bottom of the dash-pot, as the case may be,
is provided with a loose annular plate q constituting a valve, and covering an
annular groove
u formed in the piston or cylinder bottom and communi-
cating by means of holes with the space below. With this arrange-
ment the deadening will take place in both directions during the
normal regulation that is to say, so long as the speed of the piston p is small

page_text: because the valve q will then always rest on its seat. But when the speed of the
vibratory motions of the carbons becomes sufficient to produce the alternate extinc-
tion and ignition of the arc, the valve will be lifted during the descent of the
piston that is, during the approach of the carbons, so that the dash-pot will not
prevent such approach from taking place rapidly, and consequently the periods
of extinction will become so small as to be hardly perceptible.
.
The valve 7, instead of resting on its seat under normal action, can be kept in
a slightly raised position as shewn at Figure 11.
Under these conditions a considerable space being left for the passage of the
air, there will be very little resistance offered when the motions are slow, such
as occur with normal regulation, but as soon as there is a tendency to a sudden
upward movement the inertia of the valve together with the resistance of the air
in the dash-pot will cause the valve to close on its seat, as shewn at Figure 12,
and the maximum deadening will be obtained..
The sensitiveness of this regulation will be determined by the strength of the
springs that tend to press the valve upward, and also by the amount of play left
between the valve and the cylinder m and the piston rod T. The latter is formed
with a circular groove by means of which a large space is formed for the passage
of air when the valve is raised considerably on a sudden downward movement,
as shewn at Figure 13. Figure 14 shews a sectional plan of the parts with the
.valve removed.
q
The above described dash-pot device with valve and springs will firstly enable
.the rod T with the solenoid core to move freely downwards, whether the motion
be fast or slow; secondly it will allow the solenoid core to move freely in either
direction, when the motion is slow, and thirdly it will exercise an energetic
.deadening action upon any upward motion when a certain speed is exceeded.
If the dash-pot be arranged with the valve and springs at the bottom of the
cylinder instead of on the piston, the groove t can be formed in the sides of the
latter; the springs can then be placed in such groove, or arranged in any other
suitable manner. Instead of arranging the dash-pot in connection with the shunt
solenoid, it may be combined with the series solenoid, or it might be connected to
a lever arm fixed on the oscillating axis A.
The form of valve may of course be varied; thus ball valves might be used.
The dash-pot may also be used in combination with a liquid instead of with
air.
The construction of carbon holders and parts in connection therewith which
we prefer to employ is shewn at Figures 4 to 7. In this arrangement two insu-
lated rods a a³ acting as guides are fixed to the lower plate all of the lamp frame
and are secured at their lower ends to an insulated plate 6; they have upward
insulated extensions c c within the lamp casing.
The rods d and e of the carbon holders carry pieces f f f" which slide respec-
tively upon one of the guide bars; they are maintained in the proper position
by means of forked guides g g¹.
The carbon holders h h¹ consist of a metal block having holes and formed with
slits as shewn at Figures 1 and 7.
A pin i, ¹, serves as pivot to the loose piece
internal spring m³ tending to open the jaw at the left
so as to grip the carbon by a screw n. The pin
tubular for the passage of the rod a.
which is acted upon by an
hand end, which is closed up
of the upper holder is formed
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:-
1. An arc lamp with brake regulator wherein the brake block is fixed in a
ring arranged concentrically to the fly wheel of the brake and pivoted to an axis
und the avia of the fly wheel
the cores.
of the maculating

page_text: solenoids or the core of a single solenoid and a counterweight being suspended
from such ring, and the said parts being arranged and operating substantially
as and for the purpose described.
2. In an arc lamp such as is referred to in the First Claim, the arrangement
wherein the carbon holders are suspended in the loops of two cords or chains,
that are acted upon by an auxiliary solenoid for starting the arc substantially
as described with reference to Figure 10 of the drawings.
3. In an arc lamp such as is referred to in the First Claim, the use of a counter-
weight or spring for compensating for the want of regularity in the action of the
solenoids, substantially as described.
4. In combination with the brake ring referred to in the First Claim, the use
of a spring tending to release the brake, substantially as described with reference
to Figure 9.
5. In an arc lamp, supporting and guiding the carbon holders by means of fixed
guide rods a ac c¹, and supporting rods e d guided in forks g g¹, substantially as
described with reference to Figures 4 to 7 of the drawings.
6. The construction of carbon holders with pivoted jaws 11 acted upon by a
spring m and arranged substantially as described with reference to Figures 4
and 7.
7. In an equilibriated are lamp the use of a dash-pot device with piston and
valve action for deadening the fluctuations of the arc arranged and operating
substantially as described.
8. In an equilibriated arc lamp, the use of a dash-pot device with piston and
valve having spring action, arranged and operating substantially as described
with reference to Figures 11 to 14.
9. An arc lamp combined and operating as herein described with reference to
the drawings.
011 1
of Octaban 1808
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.