IMPROVED ELECTRICAL APPARATUS FOR LIGHTING AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th August 1881. A communication
from abroad by Albert L. Arey, of Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America,
Professor of Physics.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVED ELECTRICAL APPARATUS FOR
LIGHTING AND OTHER PURPOSES." A communication from abroad by Albert L.
Arey, of Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, Professor of Physics.
This Invention relates to improved electrical apparatus for lighting and other
purposes, and consists in various novel features hereinafter described.
The said apparatus is chiefly designed for electric lighting in which the voltaic
are is used, and comprises dynamo-mechanism to generate electricity, in connection
with which and forming a part of this Invention there are devices for regulating
and controlling the carbon terminals between which the voltaic arc is maintained.
The primary object of the said Invention is to produce in the generator the
largest possible field of force with a small coil of wire, thereby reducing the
resistance of the machine to a minimum, and by using all the energy to prevent its
loss by the inductive influence of the coils upon metals in the vicinity of the
machine.
The apparatus constructed according to my improvements also comprises a lanp,
which, while it enables any number of lights to be operated upon in one circuit,
will prevent the flickering caused by the sudden approach of the carbon points
resulting from imperfect mechanism employed for this purpose. I produce this
steady effect by means of a peculiar device for feeding the positive carbon point
toward the negative carbon by means of the armatures of an electro magnet with
the carbon terminal, so arranged in relation to the regulating mechanism that the
ratio between the rate of motion of the positive carbon and the rate of motion of
the armatures placed before the poles of an electro-magnet shall equal the ratio
between the given changes in the length of the voltaic arc and the corresponding
change in the position of the said armatures, thus causing the carbon points to
approach each other at the proper rate in a continuous and uniform degree, while
the mechanism clamps the carbon rod and a length of carbon is consumed equal
to the distance which the carbon point was moved by the mechanism which
separated the points.

page_text: The same results may be produced by means of several magnets, actuated either
by a main or secondary circuit, so arranged that the main circuit passing through
the helices of an electro magnet shall separate the carbon points, while the changes
of intensity of magnets operated by a secondary or shunt circuit shall cause the
carbon points to approach each other or feed without causing the main magnet
mechanism to move back through the distance which it moves in separating the
.said carbon points.
The generator forming a part of my electric lighting system consists of a pair of
helices with their axes in the same horizontal plane, the broad side being down
and so wound that the ends of the cores facing each other shall have the same
polarity; a piece of soft iron completely encases each helix, and connects one with
the other in two places both above and below the shaft, which carries a revolving
coil of wire. This shaft is lined in the same horizontal plane as the helices, with
its length at right angles to the axis of the helices. The result of this arrangement
is to produce four poles from two coils of wire, the two cores being of one polarity,
while the posts of the outside casing which connect the two helices form two poles
of opposite polarity magnetized by the coils of iron around. Upon the shaft is
placed a stationary armature divided into four posts, one post being opposite each
pole. The wire is carried upon a hollow cylinder formed of some non-magnetic
material, and connected to a hollow shaft at either end by means of a wheel of the
same material. The hollow shaft surrounds the shaft supporting a stationary
armature, but is provided with outside bearings in which the shaft is journalled,
the ends of the wires wound upon the cylinder are connected to the various
segments of the commutator to ensure the same direction of the current at all
times.
Bearing upon counter segments of the generator are four copper brushes or sheets
which are placed about 90° apart, two of which feed the field-magnets, while the
other two supply the light circuit.
In the dynamo machine of the system the stationary armatures are placed in the
field of force of a compound magnet, and a coil of wire that is caused to revolve
between the stationary armature and the poles of the compound magnet, the
outside casing of the said helices being magnetized by the current passing through
the helix, so that it forms a magnetic pole of opposite polarity to that of the
core inside, causing great electric force to flow through the circuits to the
carbon electrodes.
The lamp mechanism is provided with vibrating armatures with which is
connected the carbon point holder. These vibrating armatures are in connection
with a shunt or subsidiary circuit which passes through the helices connected with
said armatures, and not passing through the voltaic arc, thereby causing the light
to burn steadily.
In the lamp the primary helices are arranged above the secondary helices
connected with the carbon point holder, a shunt circuit independent of the voltaic
are passes through the secondary helices in connection with the carbon holder,
thereby avoiding the inductive influence of a shunt circuit upon the primary
magnets.