Improvements in or in connection with Floor Cloths or Carpets for the Purpose of Electrical Distribution.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 7th May, 1896
Complete Specification Left, 8th Feb., 1897-Accepted, 10th Apr., 1897
PREVIORAL CRECITICAL
Improvements in or in connection with Floor Cloths or Carpets for
the Purpose of Electrical Distribution.
I, FERDINAND FANTA, of 1 Arundel Street, Strand, in the County of London,
Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to floor cloths, coverings, or carpets, and has for its
object the provision of means for conveying electrical current from a given point
or source of electricity to another point or place, on such covering, floor-cloth, or
carpet, in such a manner that the current may be used in a temporary way as
required, and the circuit completed from leads in the same covering, by the feet
or limbs of those traversing the carpets or by movable objects; and such leads,
conducting the current, may be readily removed, and so arranged that the current
may be taken from these leads at various places, and on a comparatively large
area.
In carrying out the said invention, I provide a carpet made of any suitable
material, such as is used for ordinary carpets, or the same may be made of
rough cloth or waterproof material, or it may be made of sufficiently or wholly
insulating material, and on such carpet, or cloth, or linoleum, or other suitable
material I fix, either by stitching or rivetting on to it, or otherwise, strips of
either thin flexible copper sheeting, or flexible metallic gauze, such strips to be
of suitable widths, and placed either in straight or curved, but in any case
parallel lines, and the distance between the consecutive strips or bands of material,
will, in each case, be that most convenient for the purpose to which the carpet is
intended to be put. In place of the said bands or strips 1 may use a series of
conducting wires, insulated in flat bundles, or from each other, and incorporated
in the fabric by weaving or otherwise.
For the purpose of connecting these bands or conductors with the source of
electricity, and of providing contacts for deriving the current from these conductors,
I may so arrange and fix same on the carpet that the even numbered strips are
all metallically connected at one end by a transverse metallic strip of larger
width or section, so that all the even numbered strips on the carpet will form one
pole, whereas the odd numbered strips are all connected in a like manner, at the
opposite end by a similar transverse strip thus forming the second pole.
In this manner, and by keeping the ends of the longitudinal strips somewhat
shorter than the distance between the two transverse strips, I provide means for
conveying the current by the transverse strips and their longitudinal connections,
and avoid different poles crossing each other at any part of the carpet by reason of
the parallelism of the longitudinal strips.
It will be obvious, from the above description, that, in order to take current from
such carpet for either a moveable object, or for a person or persons, it will suffice to
form contacts by such moveable objects, or person or persons, between two longitudinal
conductors of opposite polarity anywhere upon the carpet, and to so arrange their
movements as to keep them moving along the lines of contact; or by diverse
movements, to cause them to intermittently open and close circuits.
In a similar manner, and where the carpet would be used, say, for stage purposes,
it will be easy to so adjust the distance of these strips, and the contacts on the shoes

page_text: of the dancers, persons or moving objects with a portable working circuit carried by
the said person or object, which it is intended to provide with electric current, that
they will not only be able to be provided with such current when moving longitudinally
or in the direction of the parallel strips, but that they will also be able to be either
continuously or intermittently provided with such current, when moving in a direction
at right angles with that of the parallel strips.
For the latter purpose, it will be readily understood that each shoe could either be
provided with only one contact, wherein the right foot for instance would connect to
one pole, and the left to the other pole, or else it may be convenient to form two
contacts on each shoe, one on the sole and the other conveniently a spring contact at
or on the instep or heel and the contacts on each shoe may close one of two alternative
circuits on the person or movable object, or it may be convenient to combine the two
systems and thus produce very varied lighting glow lamp effects upon dancers or
objects moving over the said carpet.
In the same manner for objects at each end, intended to be moved either on the
stage, or for temporary lighting purpose, two or several contacts may be provided,
conveniently roller contacts, and it will be sufficient to place these objects in such a
manner that the contacts provided thereon correspond with strips of the different poles
on the carpet, allowing the current to be supplied through them, producing constant
or very varied lighting effects.
Dated the 7th 1 CM. 1000
FELL & JAMES,
1 Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., Agents for the Applicant.
Improvements in or in connection with Floor Cloths or Carpets for
the Purpose of Electrical Distribution.
I, FERDINAND FANTA, of 1 Arundel Street Strand in the County of London,
Consulting Engineer, 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 :-
This invention relates to floor cloths, coverings, or carpets, and has for its object
the provision of means for conveying electrical currents from a given point, or
source of electricity to another point or place on such covering, Hoor cloth, or
carpet, in such a manner, that the current may be used in a temporary way, as
required, and the circuit completed from leads in the same covering, by the feet
or limbs of those traversing the carpet, or by movable objects, and such leads
conducting the current being readily removed and so arranged that the current may
be taken from these leads at various places, and on a comparatively large area.
In carrying out the said invention, I provide a carpet made of any suitable material,
such as is used for ordinary carpets, or the same may be made of rough cloth or water-
proof material and it may be made of sufficiently or wholly insulating material; and
on such carpet, or cloth, or linoleum, or other suitable materia!, I fix, either by
stitching or riveting on to it, or otherwise, strips of either thin flexible copper sheeting,
or flexible metallic gauze, such strips to be of suitable widths, and placed either in
straight or curved, but in any case parallel lines, and the distance between the con-
secutive strips or bands of material, will in each case be that most convenient for the
purpose to which the carpet is intended to be put. In place of the said bands or
strips I may use a series of conducting wires, insulated in flat bundles, or from each
other, and incorporated in the fabric by weaving or otherwise.
For the purpose of connecting these bands or conductors with the source of

page_text: electricity, and of providing contacts for deriving the current from the conductors, 1
may so arrange and fix same on the carpet that the even numbered strips are all
metallically connected at one end by a transverse metallic strip of larger width or
section, so that all the even numbered strips on the carpet will form one pole, whereas
the odd numbered strips are all connected in a like manner at the opposite end by a
similar transverse strip, thus forming the second pole.
In this manner and by keeping the ends of the longitudinal strips somewhat
shorter than the distance between the two transverse strips I provide means for
conveying the current by the transverse strips, and their longitudinal connections,
and avoid different poles crossing each other at any part of the carpet by reason of the
parallelism of the longitudinal strips.
It will be obvious, from the above description, that, in order to take current from
such carpet for either a moveable object, or for a person or persons, it will suffice to
form contacts by such moveable objects, or person or persons, and two longitudinal
conductors of opposite polarity anywhere upon the carpet; and to so arrange their
movements as to keep them moving along the lines of contact, or by diverse
movements to cause them intermittently to open & close circuits.
In a similar manner, and where the carpet would be used say for stage purposes, it
will be easy to so adjust the distance of these strips and contacts on the shoes of the
dancers, persons, or on the base of moving objects with a portable working circuit
carried by the said person or object, which it is intended to provide with electric
current, that they will not only be able to be provided with such current, when moving
longitudinally or in the direction of the parallel strips, but that they will also be able
to be either continuously or intermittently provided with such current, when moving
in a direction at right angles with that of the parallel strips.
For the latter purpose it will be readily understood, that each shoe could either be
provided with only one contact, wherein the right foot for instance would connect one
pole, and the left to the other pole; or else it may be convenient to form two contacts
on each shoe, one on the sole, and the other, conveniently a spring contact, at or on
the instep or heel, and the contacts on each shoe may close one of two alternative
circuits on the person or moveable object; or it may be convenient to combine the
two systems and thus produce very varied lighting glow lamp effects upon dancers or
objects moving over the said carpet.
In the same manner, for objects at each end, intended to be moved either on the
stage or for temporary lighting purposes, two or several contacts may be provided,
conveniently roller contacts, and it will be sufficient to place these objects in such a
manner that the contacts provided thereon correspond with strips of the different poles
on the carpet, allowing the current to be supplied through them, producing constant
or very varied lighting effects.
And in order that my invention may be the better understood, I now proceed to
describe the same in reference to the drawings hereto annexed and to the letters
and figures marked thereon.
Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic plan of my carpet with naked metallic strips embodied
therein and electrical connections.
Figs. 2 & 3 are details of convenient modes of building up or manufacturing such
carpets.
Fig. 4 shows a dancer's shoe, provided with heel and toe contacts.
Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail of the sole contact.
Figs. 6 & 7 show a dancer's shoe with toe and heel contact, the latter being made
in Fig. 6 and broken in Fig. 7.
Fig. 8 shows a pair of dancer's shoes, each having one contact only.
In Fig. 1 it will be seen that I arrange a series of naked metallic strips A parallel
to one another, embodied with the fabric of a carpet, alternate strips being connected
respectively to a plus and minus connecting strip B B' at either end of the carpet,
each being a pole of a battery C or other electric generator, convenient modes of
embodying these naked metallic conductors in the fabric of a carpet are as follows;
Upon the main tissue a as a substratum, I lay strips of metallic conductors A, A,

page_text: either gauze or perforated metallic ribbons, and I cover the edges of these metallic
strips by intermediate pieces of felt, carpet, or fabric, b, sewing or rivetting the edges
of the same down over the edges of the metallic strips.
As another mode of manufacture the metallic strips A Fig. 3 may be of naked
metallic wires substituted in the weaving of the carpet for certain of the threads
of such carpet, care being taken that the said wires are sufficiently exposed whilst
still kept in place by the warp of the carpet, to ensure good metallic contact with
the shoes of the dancers or with contacts of moving objects.
In order that the dancers may make the necessary contacts with metallic strips
of opposite polarity, either by means of one foot or by the two feet, the shoes
may be fitted with contacts and the wires led therefrom to illuminate lamps upon
the person, or for other electrical effects, in a variety of ways, of which the following
are examples.
The shoe in Fig. 4 is provided with a metallic contact D D, under the toe sole
and the heel, corresponding in spacing to that of the metallic strips A, and thus
enabling the wearer to close circuit through glow lamps or other devices on her
person by one foot being placed upon two adjacent metallic strips of tny carpet.
A convenient form of the toe sole contact is shown in enlarged detail in Fig. 5 the
contact D being formed of a copper looped ribbon embedded in india rubber gutta
percha or vulcanite which latter forms an extra sole to the shoe ensuring insulation of
the contact from the body or dress of wearer, the metallic ribbon D having a bare
exposed surface on the under face of the sole.
In Figs. 6 & 7 I show an appliance adapted to the instep of a dancer's shoe, which
enables the wearer to make and break contact, by the raising of the heel or the
lowering of the same; a pivotted bracket E is hinged to an insulated hinge F in the
heel, the bracket being normally depressed by a spring G, reacting on the under side
of the instep. The bracket E carries a roller H for making contact with the metallic
strip A of the carpet, and carries also a wire communicating with the axle of the
roller H and brought over a pin K so as to make contact with the metallic plate Lon
the heel, when the heel is raised. When the heel is depressed, as in Fig. 7, the
contact between the wire over K and the plate L is broken, although the roller H may
be still in contact with the carpet metallic strip A.
The same shoe may have or may be without a toe-sole contact D completing circuit
with the instep contact between strips of opposite polarity.
As a further alternative, each of the dancer's shoes may have only one contact such
as a toe-sole contact D, as in Fig. 8, or these contacts may be heel contacts, both feet
being required to make contact between strips upon the carpet of opposite polarity.
It is therefore evident that by obvious arrangements of contacts upon the shoes of
dancers, of which examples are described above, a very great variety of illuminating
or electrical effects can be produced upon the bodies of the dancers by their changes
of position and by the regulated movements of their feet as in ballet dancing.
The arrangements of roller or other contacts upon the lower parts of objects, either
moving, stationary, or held in the hands of performers, in order to make contact with
two of the conducting strips of the carpet of opposite polarity, is too obvious to need
further explanation or illustration.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what 1
claim is
1st. A floor cloth or carpet, adapted, by bare metallic strips embodied therewith,
and connected alternately to the opposite poles of an electric battery or generator, to
enable objects moving or stationary, or dancers having contacts upon their shoes, to
complete electrical circuit in any various positions upon the said carpet, through leads
upon the said objects or persons.
2nd. The combination with a floor cloth or carpet of insulated strips of metallic
gauze or ribbon, protected as to their edges by coverings of floor cloth the whole

page_text: being stitched or otherwise attached to one another substantially and for the purposes
described.
3rd. The combination, during weaving, with a woven floor cloth of a series of
parallel bare metallic conductors, the said bundles being insulated from one another,
and adapted to be connected alternately to opposite poles of an electric battery or
generator, substantially as and for the purposes described.
4th. The combination with a shoe or foot covering of one or more bare metallic
contacts upon the under surface of the sole or heel, adapted to close a circuit through
loads upon the person of the wearer, from bare metal strips of opposite polarity,
presented to the tread of the wearer, substantially as described.
5th. The combination with a shoe or foot covering of a hinged instep bracket
carrying a metallic contact, normally spring pressed to project below the level of the
tread and adapted to make contact against the heel of the said shoe when the heel is
depressed, and to break contact when the heel is raised, or vice versa, substantially as
described.
Dated this 8th day of February 1897
FELL & JAMES,
1 Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C., Agents for the Applicant.