Improvements in Electric Regulators.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Oct., 1892
Complete Specification Left, 12th July, 1893-Accepted, 12th Aug., 1893
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Electric Regulators.
1, ALBERT LEWIS DAVIS, of Silverdale St. Margarets, Twickenham, in the
County of Middlesex, Electrical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to apparatus which automatically effect regulation of
electric currents by introducing more or less resistance or a greater or less number
of battery cells into a circuit, or which automatically regulate the distance of the
carbons of an electric arc lamp. For this purpose, 1 employ an electro motor
capable of revolving in either direction according as its brushes are moved to either
of two positions, or as either of two pairs of brushes are brought into action by
suitable switches, the motor remaining stationary when the brushes or their
switches are in intermediate positions. The brushes or their switches are moved
by the spring armature of an electromagnet or by the core of a solenoid, the coil
of which is connected to the circuit conveying the current that is to be regulated.
The motor is connected by suitable gearing to brushes that can move over a series
of contacts thereby introducing greater or less resistance or a greater or less
number of battery cells into the circuit according as the armature or core is more
or less powerfully attracted; or the gearing worked by the motor may give motion
to the carbons of an arc electric lamp causing them to approach to or to recede
from one another according to the excitement of the magnet or solenoid that acts
on the brushes, the coil of this magnet or solenoid being connected to the lamp
circuit.
Dated this 13th day of October 1892.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Electric Regulators.
I, ALBERT LEWIS DAVIS, of Silverdale, St. Margarets, Twickenham, in the
County of Middlesex, Electrical 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 :-
My invention relates to apparatus which automatically effect regulation of
electric currents by introducing more or less resistance or a greater or less number
of battery cells into a circuit, or which automatically regulate the distance of the
carbons of an electric arc lamp. For this purpose, I employ an electric motor
capable of revolving in either direction according as its brushes are moved to
either of two positions, or as either of two pairs of brushes are brought into action
by suitable switches, the motor remaining stationary when the brushes or their
switches are in intermediate positions. The brushes or their switches are moved by
the spring armature of an electro-magnet or by the core of a solenoid, the coil of
which is connected to the circuit conveying the current that is to be regulated.
The motor is connected by suitable gearing to brushes that can move over a series
of contacts thereby introducing greater or less resistance or a greater or less
number of battery cells into the circuit according as the armature or core is more
or less powerfully attracted; or the gearing worked by the motor may give motion
to the carbons of an arc electric lamp causing them to approach. to or recede from
TD 037

page_text: one another according to the excitement of the magnet or solenoid that acts on the
brushes, the coil of this magnet or solenoid being connected to the lamp circuit.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a side elevation and Figure 2 is a plan
of regulating apparatus according to my invention applied to control the feed and
distance apart of the carbons of an arc electric lamp.
The bracket B Figure 2 is omitted from Fig. 1 to avoid complication.
Fig. 3 is an elevation of the brush adjusting mechanism.
Fig. 4 is a part section part elevation of the duplex commutator.
Fig. 10 is a diagram shewing the electrical connections.
NS are the field magnets and A is the armature of the regulating motor
on the axis of which is a worm H gearing with a worm wheel U, a pinion V on
the axis of which gears with a wheel W, and a long pinion connected with W
through a clutch X; gears with two racks P and Q one on each side of it.
To these racks are attached the upper and lower carbons, which, through
the mechanism described, are caused to approach to or recede from one another
according as the armature A is made to revolve in the one or the other
direction. The racks P and Q are tubular, having insulated wires passing down
them to the carbons from flexible conductors above, which are omitted from the
drawing so as to avoid confusion. The armature A has two windings one of coarse
and one of fine wire, but, when the lamp mechanism is heavy, as in the case of
search lights, or light house lamps, I sometimes prefer to have two separate
armatures on one shaft, the one armature A Fig. 10 wound with the coarse and the
other A' with fine wire. In either case I employ a duplex commutator, as shewn in
Fig. 4, each of the connections E from the coarse wire being led to a segment of
commutator C and each of the fine wire connections F being led to a segment of C.
All the segments of C and C' are insulated from each other and the segments of C
from those of C₁ and all from binding rings G G', as indicated by the black
denoting insulating material. On the commutator face C always bears a brush D.
and on the face Calways bears a brush D'. There are two movable brushes D²
and D³. D2 is made to bear on C, and D to bear on C as determined by the
regulater shewn in Fig. 3, consisting of a solenoid K with core adjustable in height
by a screw N and an armature lever R carrying a block of insulating material to
which are fixed arms carrying the brushes D2 D3. When R, which is sustained
by an adjustable spring S', is attracted downward, the brush D2 is brought to bear
against the commutator C¹ thereby bringing the fine wire armature or windings into
action; when R is not attracted downwards the brush D³ is brought to bear
against C, bringing the coarse wire armature or windings into action. The field
maguets N S are wound with coarse wires M M' in direct circuit from terminal T
through the carbons to terminal T and also, to give the same polarity, with fine
wire LL' shunted across the arc. The coarse windings of the magnets have shunt
connections to the brushes D D³ whereby the coarse windings of the armature can
be brought into circuit. Part of the fine windings of the magnets have shunt
connections to the brushes D1 D2 whereby the fine windings of the armature can be
brought into circuit. The coarse and fine windings of the magnets or the portions
of them which connect to the armature coils, are preferably wound double or non
inductive to lessen sparking at the brushes, in which case there should be some
independent coarse and fiue windings of the magnets to maintain the field. The
coil of K is in a circuit which is a by pass to the carbons. When the carbons are
in contact, offering little resistance, the solenoid K is not sufficiently excited to
attract its armature R, consequently the brush D³ being in contact with the
commutator C the coarse wound armature revolves in such a direction that the
carbons are drawn apart, striking the arc and separating them until the resistance
is such that the brush D³ is drawn out of contact, but without drawing D² into
contact, until, owing to the consumption of the carbons the resistance at the arc is
so far increased that D2 is drawn to C¹ bringing the fine wire armature into action,
and this revolving in the opposite direction causes the carbons to approach. When
it happens that the carbons are apart at starting the brush D2 at once brings the

page_text: fine wound armature into action causing the carbons to approach until they meet
and then the brush D³ brings the coarse wound armature into action to separate
the carbons and strike the arc. By means of the clutch X moved by the levers Y
and Z, the racks P, Q are left free to be moved for introduction of fresh carbons.
Usually the clutch is kept engaged by a spring S³.
Although I have described the field magnets and armature as double wound, a
single winding may be used, the commutator being modified as will presently be
described.
In applying my invention to the regulation of dynamo machines I arrange
apparatus of which Fig. 5 is an elevation and Fig. 6 a plan. Fig. 7 is an elevation
partly in section and Fig. 8 is a plan of the regulating solenoid. Fig. 9 is a part
elevation part section of the duplex commutator, and Fig. 11 is a diagram of the
electrical connections, in which N₁ S' indicate the field magnets of the dynamo to
be regulated and N S the field magnets of the regulating motor having armature A.
In this case there is only one set of windings on the field magnets and one set on the
armature of the regulating motor, each connection E from the armature passing, as
shewn in Fig. 9, through a tubular part of the shaft and having a branch connected
to one of a set of segments C and a branch F connected to the opposite one of a set
of segments C'. According as a pair of brushes D D' may be brought to bear
against C or C' the armature of the motor will revolve in the one or the other
direction, causing, by means of a worm H and worm wheel II, a brush holder ○
attached to U to revolve round a drum B having a number of segments insulated
from each other but connected through successive resistances E¹ to the coils of the
dynamo which is to be regulated. As shewn in Figs. 7 and 8, the core R of the
solenoid K is guided at the one end by a rod i and spring blade; and at the other
end by an arm M pivotted at P and jointed to the core at P¹. It is provided with
an adjustable spring S¹ and the arm M carries the pair of insulated brushes D D'
which, when the core is not attracted bear against the segments C', and when R is
attracted bear against the segments C. Assuming the dynamo N' S¹ Fig. 11,
which is compound wound to have varying speed, the potential at its terminals is
kept constant by the regulator in the following manner. When the speed diminishes
lessening the potential, the attractive force of the solenoid K is also lessened and
the brushes D D' make contact with the segments C₁ so as to cause the motor
armature A to revolve in such a direction that the brush O, moving over the drum B
cuts out some of the resistances E' E' thus allowing more current to supply the
field magnets of the dynamo until the potential reaches its normal. Conversely,
when the potential is too high, the brushes D D' are drawn down into contact with
the segments C, and the motor thereupon revolves and causes to move over B so
as to bring more of the resistance E' E' into circuit, and to lessen the potential.
When the potential is normal the brushes D D' remain midway between the two sets
of segments C C' and the regulating motor remains at rest. Although in Fig. 11
the regulating motor is shewn in circuit with the dynamo, it might obviously
receive current from an independent source provided the regulating solenoid K is in
the circuit which is to be regulated. The brush O might obviously be applied to
introduce a greater or less number of battery cells into a circuit.
When it is desired to maintain constant eurrent of a series wound dynamo working
lamps in series the resistance E' should be in shunt across the terminals of the
magnet coils of the dynamo, and the regulating coil K should form part of the
external circuit.
When regulating apparatus according to my invention is applied to an alternating
current dynamo, all the iron forming parts of the magnetic circuit, should be
laminated and all metal bobbins should be split longitudinally to prevent heating.
In many cases it is of advantage to substitute a moveable bobbin for the iron core
used in the regulator. Also the regulating motor should preferably be worked by
a portion of the continuous exciting current, only the regulating coil K being in the
circuit of the alternating current. Instead of having a pair of brushes stationary
and a pair moveable as in the lamp regulator, or a single moveable pair as in the

page_text: dynamo regulator, two pairs of brushes may be arranged to be all normally in
contact, the one or the other of the pairs being removed out of contact by the
regulator K according as the motor has to revolve in the one or the other direction.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, 1 declare that what I
claim is:
"
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1. In combination with an arc electric lamp a duplex electro motor and com-
mutator having its shaft geared to the carbons, pairs of brushes so arranged that
by means of a solenoid or electro magnet one or other of the pairs of brushes is
brought into contact with the commutator so as to cause revolution of the motor in
the one direction or the other, and thereby to cause the carbons to approach to or
to recede from one another, substantially as described.
2. In combination with a dynamo or other circuit an electro motor and com-
mutator having its shaft geared to a revolving brush moving over segments connected
to serial resistances or successive cells and commutator brushes so arranged that, by
means of a regulating solenoid, the commutator brushes are moved so as to cause
revolution of the motor in the one direction or the other and thereby to cut out or
to introduce resistances or cells in the circuit to be regulated substantially as and
for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 12th day of July 1893.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for Applicant.