A New or Improved Quicksilver Electric Current Interrupter.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Apr., 1899-Accepted, 27th May, 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Quicksilver Electric Current Interrupter.
I, GEORG HIRSCHMANN, Engineer, and Manager of the Firm of W. A. Hirsch-
mann, Manufacturers of Electro-Medical Apparatus, of Johannisstrasse, 14 and
15, Berlin, N., in the Empire of Germany, 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:―
The invention relates to a quicksilver current interrupter which allows of
regulating the number of interruptions and the rapidity of their succession.
A form of construction of this interrupter is represented in the annexed
drawing wherein Fig. 1 is a vertical section, Fig. 2 a plan and Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6
detail views.
The construction and its manner of working are as follows.
The
The interrupter is surrounded by two vessels A and B manufactured of insul-
ating material, and contains in the lower part of vessel A a layer of quicksilver
into which dips the point E of the centrifugal device D rotating round the axle C.
The axle C is coupled to the motor M arranged on two columns F above the
interrupter. By the rotation of the motor the centrifugal device sucks up
quicksilver from the vessel A through the lower openings G and throws it
through the upper openings H against the wall of the vessel B wherefrom it flows
By this proceeding the
to the bottom J of this vessel to be collected there.
quicksilver has been transported from vessel A into the higher placed receiver B
wherefrom it can flow down through the opening K of the contact L.
contact L is formed by a perforated round copper button wherefrom a copper
wire passing to the positive pole is guided to the cover of vessel A. Under-
neath the contact L there is a second contact N which is also centrally perforated,
so that both the openings K and S of the contacts L and N stand one underneath
the other. From contact N a wire goes through the cover of vessel A to the
negative pole. The quicksilver collected on the bottom J of receiver B by the
rotation of the centrifugal device D flows out through the opening K as a continual
quicksilver vein of a diameter according to the size of opening K and connects the
two copper contacts L and N together. The intermediate space between these
two contacts being only small, the quicksilver vein is also proportionally short.
As soon
as the quicksilver passes the contact N it flows back into the lower
vessel A in order to be transferred from here again by the centrifugal device D
into the upper vessel B. The centrifugal device D carries underneath the
vessel B a disc O rotating with it being shown in Figs. 4 to 6 in different forms.
The disc O has one or more recesses P whose number and size depend on the
The effect of the disc O is such that
purpose for which the interrupter is used.
at the moments in which, during the rotation, the recesses P lie between the
contacts L and N the quicksilver vein can freely flow through the same and main-
tain the connection between both the contacts, whilst at the moments when the
closed parts R of disc O come between the two contacts, the quicksilver vein is
interrupted and the circuit connected with contacts opened. By varying the