IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AND REGULATING ELECTRICITY
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Devonport Finney Andrews of Glasgow in the
County of Lanark North Britain for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AND REGULATING ELECTRICITY
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Devonport Finney
Andrews at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th October
1882.
.
JOSEPH DEVONPORT FINNEY ANDREWS of Glasgow in the County of Lanark
North Britain "IMPROVEMENTS in apparaTUS FOR PRODUCING AND REGULATING
ELECTRICITY
"
My invention relates to apparatus for producing electricity and for regulating
its production and application to lighting and other purposes.
For producing electricity I employ a dynamo electric machine consisting of an
armature rotating in a magnetic field, but I construct and arrange the armature
and commutating apparatus in the following manner. On a cylindrical barrel of
con-conducting material I fix side by side a number of copper bars parallel to the
axis of the barrel, and I connect them in series that is to say one end of each bar
is connected to the bar in front of it and the other end is connected to the bar
behind it. At each end of the barrel I fix a commutator consisting of half as many
insulated plates as there are bars and I connect each of these plates to a junction of
two of the bars.
According to another arrangement 1 keep all the bars insulated from each other
and I connect one end of each bar to a plate of the one commutator and the other
end to a plate of the other commutator each commutator having in this case as
many plates or segments as there are bars on the armature. To each commutator
I apply a brush or when there are several sets of magnetic fields through which
the armature revolves, I apply to each commutator as many brushes as there are
sets of fields, and these brushes may be duplicated one of each pair being employed
to collect the currents generated in the bars as they approach the successive

page_text: magnetic fields and the other to collect the currents generated in the bars as they
recede from the successive fields. When, instead of bars, coils are used on an
armature as in many known machines, the arrangement above described of double
commutator one with its appropriate brushes at each end of the armature may
obviously be employed in a similar manner.
For the purpose of regulating the production or the application of electricity, at
some convenient part of the circuit I divide it into a number of branches each
having introduced into it a resistance, and I bring the conductors from all those
branches to a position where they lie parallel to each other but each a little shorter
than the next in order, so that a conducting bar moved over them will make
contact with 1, 2, 3 or any number of them according to the position in which the
bar is placed either by hand or automatically thus introducing into the circuit a
less or greater number of the branches as the case may be. The automatic
movement of the bar may be effected by an ordinary centrifugal governor driven
from an electro-dynamic machine so as to bring into the circuit more of the
branches the less the speed of the machine and thus to pass more electricity to the
machine. Or the bar may be moved by a dynamometer introduced in the driving
gear of a Dynamo-electric machine, so as to cut out of the circuit. more of its
branches the less the power-required to drive the machine. According to another
arrangement, the ends of the wires from the resisting branches project into a vessel
containing mercury the level of which can be raised or lowered so as to come in
contact with a greater or less number of the wires. This change of level may be
effected by the greater or less immersion into the mercury of a plunger moved by
hand; or the plunger-may-be-the-iron_core_of_a_solenoid having_its_coil in the
circuit, or of a compound solenoid having two coils one coil in the main circuit and
a contrary coil in a by-pass circuit, so that the immersion of the plunger will
depend on the relative strengths of the currents in the two coils. The resisting
branches employed as above described for regulating the electricity may be
filaments that are rendered incandescent by the passage of currents through them,
or they may be separate coils of the field magnets of a machine in which case the
regulator by introducing into the circuit a greater or less number of these coils
would increase or decrease the magnetism and consequently the power of the
machine as required for its work.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Joseph Devonport Finney Andrews in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th April 1883.
-
JOSEPH DEVONPORT FINNEY ANDREWS of Glasgow in the county of Lanark
North Britain "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING AND REGULATING
ELECTRICITY"
My invention relates to apparatus for producing electricity and for regulating its
production and application to lighting and other purposes.
For producing electricity, I employ a dynamo electric machine constructed and
arranged as shewn by fig 1 which is an end view and fig 2 which is a plan of
the rotating armature and commutators. AA are the electro magnets presenting
two opposite polar fields, between which rotates the armatures consisting of a
cylindrical barrel of non-conducting material, having fixed on its circumference,
side by side, a number of copper bars a parallel to the axis of the barrel. These
bara a are connected together in series, that is to say one end of each bar is
connected to the bar in front of it, and the other end is connected to the bar
behind it as indicated at c c'. At each end of the barrel, I fix a commutator b b¹,
consisting of half as many insulated plates or segments as there are bars, and I
connect each of those plates to a junction c c¹ of the armature bars a.
According to another arrangement, I keep the bars a insulated from each other
along their whole length, and I provide each of the commutators b b' with as
many insulated plates or segments as there are bars, connecting one end of each
bar a to a plate of b, and the other end to a plate of 6'. Each commutator has as
usual a collecting brush or rubber d d'. In cases where the armature rotates
through more than one set of magnetic fields, I apply to each of the commutators
as many brushes as there are sets of fields. These brushes may be duplicated or
arranged in pairs, one of each pair serving to collect the currents generated as
the bars approach the successive magnetic fields, and the other to collect the
currents generated as the bars recede from the successive fields. The arrangement
of a commutator at each end of the armature with its appropriate brushes may
obviously be applied in cases where, instead of bars, coils of insulated wire are
wound on the armature, as in many known machines, and in such cases also the
brushes may be duplicated as described to collect the currents generated during both
the approach and the recession of the coils relatively to the magnetic fields.
For the purpose of regulating the production or the application of electricity, at
some convenient part of the circuit I divide the conductor into a number of
branches, each having introduced into it a resistance, and I bring the conductors
from all these branches to a position where they lie parallel to each other, but each
a little shorter than the next in order, so that a conductor moved over them will
make contact with one, two, three or any number of them and so bring into the
circuit a less or greater number of the branches. The conductor may be moved by
hand or automatically, and it may either be a bar of conducting metal or it may
be mercury. When mercury is employed the automatic regulating apparatus is
arranged as shewn in vertical section at fig. 3. A vessel containing mercury M is
coiled with insulated wire S so as to form a solenoid, having an iron core I floating
partly immersed in the mercury and raising or lowering its level m according as it
is attracted more or less down into M. One lead of the circuit is divided as above
described into a number of separate wires w, each shorter than the next in order;

page_text: the other lead W is connected to the mercury. The farther I is attracted down-
wards, the bigher is the level m of the mercury raised so as to make contact with a
greater number of the wires w. The coil S may be in the main circuit or in a by-
pass, or it may be a duplicate coil, one in the main circuit, and the other in a by-
pass, with opposite currents, tending more or less to neutralize each other; or
instead of the coil S, or in addition to it, there may be a coil on T attracting I
upwards, according to the conditions under which the regulator has to act. When
a metallic bar is employed to make contact, it may be, as shewn in fig. 4, the arm
of a lever L pivotted at P in connection with the one lead W of the circuit, so that
it can be moved over and make contact with a greater or less number of the
conductors w into which the other lead of the circuit is subdivided. The lever. L
may be moved by hand or it may be moved by à centrifugal governor when the
supply of electricity has to be controlled by the speed of the machine to which the
regulator is applied, or it may be moved by a dynamometer when the supply of
electricity has to be controlled by the motive power of the machine.
The resisting branches w into which the circuit is divided, as above described,
may consist partly of filaments that are rendered incandescent by the passage of
electrical currents through them. Thus each of the wires win fig 3 being
connected to the filament of an incandescent lamp, a greater or less. number of
these lamps would be brought into action by the greater or less immersion of
the core I in the mercury. Again, the resisting branches of the circuit might be
separate coils of the field magnets of a dynamo-electric or electro-dynamic machine,
and the lever L (Fig 4) being moved either by a centrifugal governor or by a
dynamometer worked by the machine, would introduce into the circuit a greater
or less.number_of_these coils, and_so_increase or diminish the force of the field
magnets, according as the speed or power of the machine fell below or rose above
the normal conditions
The regulation may be effected by mercury, as illustrated in fig 5, in which
arrangement the lever L, moved by a governor or dynamometer, carries a vessel M
of mercury, which makes contact with a greater or less number of the wire, w,
according as it is more or less raised.
Having thus described the nature of my invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, I claim,
First: Constructing the rotating armature of a dynamo electric machine with
parallel copper, bars, connected in series and having their junctions connected
to plates of a commutator at each end of the armature, substantially as
described with reference to figs. 1 and 2
Second: Constructing the rotating armature of a dynamo-electric machine with
parallel copper bars insulated from each other, and each connected at each
end to a plate of a commutator, substantially as herein described.
Third: In a dynamo electric machine, collecting the electricity by a pair of
brushes applied to several separate commutators, one of each pair of brushes
arranged to collect the currents generated in each armature coil or bar as it
approaches a magnetic field and the other of each pair of brushes arranged to
collect the currents generated in each coil or bar as it recedes from a magnetic
field, as herein described.
Fourth For the purpose of regulating the electricity passing through a circuit,
subdividing the circuit into a number of resisting branches baving parallel
terminals each shorter than the next in order, so that a conducting bar or fluid
moved over them makes contact with a less or greater number, substantially
as herein described.
Fifth: The construction and arrangement of automatic regulating apparatus for
electricity in a circuit operating by the change of level of mercury effected by
greater or less immersion of a solenoid core, substantially as described with
reference to fig. 3.
Sixth:
1: Effecting automatic regulation' of electricity in a circuit by means of a lever
]

page_text: or conducting arm moved by a centrifugal governor or by a dynamometer,
so as to make contact with a greater or less number of terminals of
resisting branches into which the circuit is subdivided, substantially as
described with reference to fig. 4.
In Witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Devonport Finney Andrews have hero-
unto set my hand and seal this Twenty Third day of April, in the year of
our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and eighty-three.