IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MACHINES OR APPARATUS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexis Moreau and Adolphe Ernest Ragon, both
of Bernard Street, Russell Square, in the County of Middlesex, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MACHINES OR
APPARATUS."
Scaled the 25th November 1862, and dated the 31st May 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexis Moreau and
Adolphe Ernest Ragon at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 31st May 1862.
We, ALEXIS MOREAU and ADOLPHE ERNEST RAGON, both of Bernard Street,
Russell Square, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MACHINES OR
APPARATUS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in so combining and arranging the several parts of
electro-galvanic machines as to be enabled to regulate with facility the
intensity of the current, and further to keep up a continuous current, instead
of giving it off by shocks, as at present practised. The means by which these
improvements may be effected are as follows:-Within a box, of any desired
shape, we fix an induction coil, at the centre of which we leave a long cylin-

page_text: drical horizontal opening, in which are laid a bundle of loose iron wires, by
increasing or diminishing the number of which the power of the machine is
determined. In connection with the above is a glass vessel containing a
mixture of dilute sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash or other salts. A
stopper is fitted to said glass vessel, and through a hole in said stopper a rod is
passed, and to said rod a piece of zinc is fixed, which is capable of being raised
and lowered between two plates of charcoal fixed to the stopper of said vessel.
contact of said plates and piece of zinc being prevented by passing india-
rubber bands around the zinc plate. Two flat pieces of metal or conductors
rest on the stopper of the glass vessel aforesaid and communicate with the
induction coil of the machine. There is also a trembler or vibrator, which
indicates when the machine is charged. Through one side of the box or case
of the machine three holes are made, fitted each with a small piece of brass
with a hole therein; the two outermost pieces are connected with the positive
poles of the induction coil and the centre piece with the negative pole thereof.
In using this machine two small flexible conductors fitted each with a handle
at one end and a small brass pin at the other are connected to the machine by
the pins aforesaid, being placed in two of the holes aforesaid in the box. The
person to be operated upon on taking the aforesaid handles one in each hand will
receive the electric fluid from the machine, the operator raising or lowering
the zinc plate more or less in the liquid, according to the intensity required,
and it is this mode of regulating and governing the intensity of the electric
fluid in electro-galvanic machines that constitutes the principal feature in this
Invention.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexis Moreau and Adolphe Ernest Ragon in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 29th November 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALEXIS
MOREAU and ADOLPHE ERNEST RAGON, both of Bernard Street, Russell Square,
in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Alexis Moreau and Adolphe Ernest Ragon, Her special licence, that we,

page_text: the said Alexis Moreau and Adolphe Ernest Ragon, our executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Alexis Moreau and
Adolphe Ernest Ragon, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MACHINES OR APPARATUS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Alexis Moreau and Adolphe Ernest
Ragon, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Alexis Moreau and Adolphe Ernest
Ragon, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say :-
This Invention consists in so combining and arranging the several parts of
electro-galvanic machines as to be enabled to regulate with facility the
intensity of the current, and further to keep up a continuous current, instead
of giving it off by shocks, as at present practised. The means by which these
improvements may be effected are as follows:-Within a box, of any desired
shape, I fix an induction coil, at the centre of which I leave a long cylin-
drical horizontal opening, in which are laid a bundle of loose iron wires, by
increasing or diminishing the number of which the power of the machine is
determined. In connection with the above is a glass vessel containing a
mixture of dilute sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash or other salt. A
stopper is fitted to said glass vessel, and through a hole in said stopper a rod is
passed, and to said rod a piece of zinc is fixed, which is capable of being raised
and lowered between two plates of charcoal fixed to the stopper of said vessel,
contact of said plates and piece of zinc being prevented by passing india-
rubber bands around the zinc plate. Two flat pieces of metal or conductors
rest on the stopper of the glass vessel aforesaid and communicate with the
induction coil of the machine. There is also a trembler or vibrator, which

page_text: indicates when the machine is charged. Through one side of the box or case
of the machine three holes are made, fitted each with a small piece of brass
with a hole therein; the two outermost pieces are connected with the positive
poles of the induction coil, and the centre piece with the negative pole thereof.
In using this machine two small flexible conductors, fitted each with a handle
at one end and a small brass pin at the other, are connected to the machine by
the pins aforesaid being placed in two of the holes aforesaid in the box. The
person to be operated upon, on taking the aforesaid handles one in each hand,
will receive the electric fluid from the machine, the operator raising or lowering
the zinc plate more or less in the liquid, according to the intensity required,
and it is this mode of regulating and governing the intensity of the electric
fluid in electro-galvanic machines that constitutes the principal feature in this
Invention.
In order to explain our said Invention as completely as possible we now
proceed to describe the best means we are acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, reference being had to the illustrative Sheet of
Drawings accompanying these Presents, and to the numeral figures and letters
of reference marked thereon respectively, as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE SHEET OF DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents a top plan view of our improved electro-galvanic
machine or apparatus, the lid of the case or box thereof being open; Figure 2
is a front elevation of our said machine, the front of the box or case thereof
being turned down on its hinges; Figure 3 is a side elevation at A, Figure 1,
of the box or case of our said, machine; Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, exhibit detached
parts, herein-after particularly described and referred to. At each of the
foregoing Figures we employ similar letters of reference to denote corre-
sponding parts, in so far as such parts appear or can be seen at each of such
said Figures respectively.
At Figures 1, 2, 3, A is a box or case; B, a hinged lid; C, the front, also
hinged at a, a, to afford access to the compartments C, D, E; G is a vessel to
contain bichromate of potash or other salt; H, a vessel to contain a mixture
of dilute sulphuric acid; I, a screwdriver; K, an ordinary induction coil;
L, an opening formed lengthwise through same to receive a bundle of loose
wires M; N, a wire for connecting the induction coil K with a trembling or
vibrating armature O, connected by a screw 6 to the wooden top P of the
compartment D; c, a screw for adjusting the end 1 of the armature O to the
proper distance from the end of the wire N; Q is a glass vessel in which is

page_text: placed the mixture of dilute sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash or other
salt; R, a lid or stopper fitting into the top of the vessel Q; d, d, are pieces
of charcoal fixed to the lid or stopper R; S, a piece of zinc, to which is fixed
a rode which passes through and fits tightly in a hole formed in the piece of
metal f, fixed to the top of the stopper R; T, a cap screwed on to the top of
the rod e, for raising and lowering the zinc plate S at will; g, g, are bands of
india-rubber passed around the piece of zinc S, as at Figure 4, for preventing
contact thereof with the pieces of charcoal d, d; h is a piece of metal forming
part of the piece f, the part h is pressed upon by a spring i fixed by a screw k
to a cranked piece of metal 1, which carries the screw c. The spring i serves
to connect the induction coii K with the electro-galvanic battery Q, d, d, S, e;
W is another spring piece connected to the carbon element for completing the
circuit of the electro-galvanic current between the coil K and the battery;
m, n, o, are pieces of brass fixed in the side of the box or case A, and con-
nected by wires with the coil K.; each of the pieces m, n, o, has a hole formed
through same to receive the small brass pins p, q, said pins being each
connected by an insulated wire to a handle U by a pin r; X, are hollow pieces
of brass fitted by screws s on to the handles U. The inciting instruments
exhibited at Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, fit on to the screws s by the parts 2.
The mode of operating with the above-described electro-galvanic machine or
apparatus is as follows:-The pins p, q, being inserted in the pieces m and n,
place the handles U respectively in connection with the positive and negativo
poles of the machine, so that upon a person taking one of such handles in each
band such person will receive the electric fluid from the machine, not by
shocks or intermittent currents, as heretofore practised, but a continuous steady
current, the intensity of which may be regulated, as desired, either by raising
or lowering the zinc plate in the vessel Q, or by increasing or diminishing the
bundle of wires placed in the induction coil; therefore, by lowering the zinc
plate and increasing the bundle of wires, the intensity of the current will be
increased, and vice versa. The piece o is only intended to be used when a
greater intensity of current is required. The compartment E serves as a
depository for the handles when not in use.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of our sail
Invention for "An Improved Electro-galvanic Machine or Apparatus,"
together with the best means we are acquainted with for carrying the same
into practical effect, we would remark, in conclusion, that we hereby declare
our Invention to consist in, and we claim,-
First, the sliding zinc plate S and hollow induction coil K in combination

page_text: with the bundle of wires M for regulating and governing the intensity of the
current in electro-galvanic machines or apparatus.
Secondly, the peculiar construction and arrangement of the several parts of
electro-galvanic machines or apparatus as above described with reference to
the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Adolphe Ernest Ragon, one of the parties
hereto, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of
November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
cixty two
A. RAGON. (L.S.)