Improvements in Means or Apparatus for the Generation and Conversion of Electric Energy.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Aug., 1889
Complete Specification Left, 9th June, 1890-Accepted, 12th July, 1890
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means or Apparatus for the Generation and
Conversion of Electric Energy.
I, ANGEL DE CASTRO, Electrical Engineer of No. 230 East 86th Street in the
City of New York, in the State of New York, United States of America, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to improved means or apparatus for converting electric
currents or pulsations generated by any suitable source of energy into currents or
pulsations of different character suitable for any required use.
It also relates to
apparatus for generating electric currents or pulsations.
The invention is characterized by the employment of finely subdivided or
comminuted magnetizable metal, usually iron filings, arranged in such way as to be
loose or free to move, so that the particles may vibrate and subjected to the action
of magnetic lines of force derived either from permanent or electro-magnets, or
from an exciting coil or coils. The field of force in which the iron filings are thus
placed is a varying field, being either made intermittent, or of rapidly alternating
polarity, or being made pulsatory, that is, of rapidly increasing and decreasing
intensity, or being otherwise changed, varied or influenced in order to set the mass
of iron filings into rapid motion or vibration. Any suitable coil or other arrange-
ment of electric conductors may be arranged within inductive proximity to the
vibrating mass of filings and will be influenced thereby for the induction of vibratory
or alternating currents or electric pulsations.
Conversely the particles of iron filings may be vibrated mechanically in any
known way, and their vibrations may be made to influence inductively an electric
coil or a magnet or piece of soft iron inductively connected to an electric circuit
for the generation of electric waves or pulsations therein.
In place of soft iron filings, filings or particles of hard or magnetic iron or steel
may be used, or the iron or steel may be in the form of minute globules or shot.
By the use of the term iron filings in this specification, I am to be understood
as meaning iron or steel or any analogous magnetic or magnetizable metal in any
of these forms.
I will now proceed to describe a construction of converter designed to be fed
by an alternating current dynamo or other generator of alternating currents or
pulsations. Two exciting coils are enclosed in a circuit from this generator, being
connected serially or in multiple, and arranged on opposite sides of the armature
or inductor. These exciting coils are fitted with soft iron cores, preferably laminated,
by being built up of plates of soft iron. The two cores are arranged with their
opposite polar ends NS fastened to one another and spaced just sufficiently to
make room between them for the armature or inductor, so that the latter shall be
traversed by the lines of force induced by the exciting coils. The outer ends or
poles of the exciting or field inagnets are preferably connected together to form a
closed magnetic circuit. The inductor is constructed by preference of two or more
coils enclosed one within another so as to form intervening spaces or chambers
which are closed at top and bottom by plates of vulcanite or other magnetic
substances. These spaces are partly filled with masses of iron filings which should
about two-thirds fill them.
In a state of rest the iron filings are held by gravity in the lower parts of the
chambers the upper portions being empty. If a current of electricity be now sent
hrough the upper coil the iron filings are attracted upward and fly to the top of
he chambers. In so doing each of the separate particles, being magnetized by
nduction, has the effect of a separate minute magnet movement through the

page_text: armature coils and hence these coils in addition to being excited by the mere pro-
jection of the lines of force from the field magnet through them are further
inductively affected by the bodily movement of the magnetic particles of iron, to
the same effect as though so many separate small magnets were quickly moved into
the coils. This inductive effect is of course of only instantaneons duration. Suppose,
then, the circuit to be instantaneously broken, thereby demagnetizing the upper
magnet, the effect is that the particles of iron lose their magnetism and fall back to
the bottom of the chambers, thereby exerting a further inductive influence on the
armature coils. This latter effect will be more powerful if the current is passed
through the lower field magnet at the instant that it is interrupted through the
upper magnet, whereby the filings will be strongly attracted downward. The current
may thus be rapidly alternated between the upper and lower magnets, thereby setting
the iron filings into a rapid, piston-like or vibratory movement between the upper and
lower ends of the spaces.
When the two field coils are connected serially in circuit with the alternating
current generator, the alternating impulses in the circuit cause alternations of polarity
of the field-magnet and force lines of force through the armature in alternately
opposite directions. It results that the iron filings which are subjected to this rapidly
alternating field are set into active vibration. Their bodily movement may be back
and forth in one mass, or the mass may divide and its two portions may fly toward
the opposite poles during one phase of the pulsation, and during the succeeding phase
they may fall back toward the centre of the space, their vibration thus taking place
toward and from the centre in two masses. The armature coils will be so wound as
to utilize the peculiar vibratory movement of the iron filings. By connecting all the
armature coils into one secondary circuit either in series or derivation, this circuit
may be made to feed incandescent lamps, or arc lamps, or alternating current motors,
or any other so-called translating devices.
The two field magnets may be entirely distinct and be connected in two separate
circuits or in separate branches of one circuit. In the latter case the circuit may be
fed from a dynamo generating continuous currents, or from other suitable source of
electric energy by which continuous, or practically continuous currents are produced.
An alternator of any suitable construction, such as a vibrating tongue working
between two contact stops, acts to alternate the current between the two branches, of
the circuit. Thus at one instant the upper magnet is excited, and at the next instant
this magnet is demagnetized and the lower magnet is excited. By transposing the
poles of these two magnets so that like poles approach each other, the iron filings in
the armature or inductor may be caused to vibrate bodily first toward one magnet
and then toward the other. The armature coils may be connected to separate
secondary circuits, or all to one secondary circuit, as may be desired.
Only a single field-magnet may be used if desired this magnet being entirely
excited by a current from the continuous-current dynamo, and the latter being short-
circuited from a magnet at suitably rapid intervals by an interrupter consisting of a
rheotome arranged in a shunt short-circuiting the coil of the field-magnet.
My invention is not confined in its application to convertors for changing the
character of electric currents, but is applicable also to apparatus for the generation of
electric currents in the nature of magneto or dynamo electric machines.
In such an application of my invention there may be a revolving field magnet and
a stationary armature. The latter may consist of six coils, (more or less) arranged in
a circle, the coils being preferably cylindrical bobbins, and each containing within
it a chamber in which is a mass of iron filings. The several coils are firmly held in
sockets in a ring or plate which is fixed to the base of the apparatus. On an axia
shaft are mounted two spiders carrying rings of magnetic or magnetizable material
The upper ring has six, more or less, pole pieces corresponding in position to the axe
of the six armature-coils and projecting downwardly and the lower ring has an equa
number of pole-pieces arranged in like manner, and projecting upwardly, so that th
upper and lower pole-pieces face each other and form fields of force between them
On these pole-pieces the coils of the field-magnet, which are energized by bein

page_text: connected in circuit with a separate field-exciting dynamo, or by the current from
the machine itself, or in any other way known to the electrical art, the particular
method not being material. The successive coils of the lower field magnet are
wound so that the successive cores thereof present alternately north and south poles
at their upper ends, and the coils of the upper magnet are wound in like manner,
so that the lower ends of the successive pole-pieces are alternately north and south
poles. The upper and lower field-magnets are so arrranged that a south pole of
one approaches a north pole of the other, so that the lines of force stream across
between them, extending upwardly between one pair of poles, and downwardly
between the next pair, and so on in alternation around the circle.
On revolving the shaft while the field-magnets are excited in the manner just
described, each of the armature coils will receive at one instant upwardly projected
lines of force from one pair of fields, and at the next instant downwardly pro-
jected lines of force from the next pair of fields, whereby the iron filings will be
attracted in alternately opposite directions, and currents or electric waves of alternately
opposite potential will be generated in the armature coil. The several armature coils
are undergoing simultaneously the same phases of induction, and all may be connected
together either in series or multiple in order that the currents generated in them may
be discharged into a single circuit, or each coil may feed a separate circuit. The
current issuing from the coils will of course be alternating currents, but may be
rectified by the employment of a suitable commutator, as will well be understood by
electricians, and which is so common that no illustration is required.
Obviously instead of revolving the field-magnet and leaving the armature stationary,
the field-magnet might be stationary and the armature be revolved.
My invention may be applied for the purpose of generating currents in many other
ways, being generally applicable to dynamo-electric machines wherein an armature core
is employed, this core according to my invention being made of iron filings or other
comminuted magnetizable material in lieu of being made of solid metal as heretofore.
Apparatus embodying my invention, in which ever way they may be constructed,
need not necessarily be arranged vertically, but may be placed horizontally or at any
angle.
The experiments which I have made lead me to believe that by my employment of
cores of subdivided iron or iron filings in lien of solid cores, I can secure inductive
effects of much greater intensity than heretofore, and effect a considerable economy
and insure the conversion of a greater number of lines of force or energy than has
heretofore been possible.
Dated this 12.1
Ր
1000
J. C. MEWBURN,
55 & 56, Chancery Lane, London, Patent Agent.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Means or Apparatus for the Generation and
Conversion of Electric Energy.
I, ANGEL DE CASTRO, of No. 230 East 86th Street in the City of New York, in the
State of New York, United States of America, 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:
This invention relates to improved means or apparatus for converting electric
currents or pulsations generated by any suitable source of energy into currents or
pulsations of different character suitable for any required use. It also relates to
apparatus for generating electric currents or pulsations.
The invention is characterized by the employment of finely subdivided or comminuted
magnetizable metal, usually iron filings, arranged in such way as to be loose or free
to move, so that the particles may vibrate, and subjected to the action of magnetic
lines of force derived either from permanent or electro-magnets, or from an exciting
coil or coils. The field of force in which the iron filings are thus placed is a varying

page_text: 1
field, being either made intermittent, or of rapidly alternating polarity, or being made
pulsatory, that is, or rapidly increasing and decreasing intensity, or being otherwise
changed, varied or influenced in order to set the mass of iron filings into rapid motion
or vibration. Any suitable coil or other arrangement of electric conductors may be
arranged within inductive proximity to the vibrating mass of filings and will be
influenced thereby for the induction of vibratory or alternating currents or electric
pulsations.
Conversely the particles of iron filings may be vibrated mechanically in any known
way, and their vibrations may be made to influence inductively an electric coil or a
magnet or piece of soft iron inductively connected to an electric circuit for the
generation of electric waves or pulsations therein.
In place of soft iron filings, filings or particles of hard or magnetic iron or steel
may be used, or the iron or steel may be in the form of minute globules or shot. By
the use of the term iron filings in this specification, I am to be understood as meaning
iron or steel or any analogous magnetic or magnetizable metal in any of these forms.
In the accompanying drawings,
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one form of generating or converting instrument
proposed by my invention, with the circuit connections thereof shown in diagram.
Fig. 2 is a front view thereof, in vertical mid-section on the lines 2-2 in Figs. 1 and 3,
and on a larger scale.
Fig. 3 is a horizontal section in the planes indicated by the line 3-3 in Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is a transverse section of the armature, cut in the plane of the line 4-4
in Fig. 3, the view being on a still larger scale.
Fig. 5 is a front elevation of a modified construction of converting instrument.
Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 1, showing a further modification of the converting
instrument, and showing in diagram a modified series of circuit connections.
Figs. 7 and 8 show a generating machine or dynamo, Fig. 7 being a vertical section
in the plane of the line 7-7 in Fig. 8, and Fig. 8 being a horizontal section in the
planes denoted by the lines S-8 in Fig. 7.
I will first describe the construction shown in Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive. The coils A A'
here shown are field or exciting coils, being included in a circuit a a, and fed by an
alternating current dynamo or other generator of alternating currents or electric
pulsations G. The coils A A¹ are shown as connected serially in the circuit a a, but
other known means of connection may be substituted. The coils are fitted with soft
iron cores CC, preferably laminated, as shown best in Fig. 3, by being built up of
plates of soft iron arranged together to form a block or mass, and preferably clamped
The cores CC may,
in, or otherwise secured to, iron top and bottom plates c c.
however, be of solid iron, or be laminated or subdivided in any other manner known
to the art. Whatever be their particular construction they are to be arranged with
their opposite polar ends N S facing one another, and spaced sufficiently apart to make
room between them for an armature or inductor B, which consists of a coil or coils
arranged to be traversed by the lines of force induced by the coils A A', or, in other
words, arranged to be inductively affected by the magnetic field or field of force
between the poles N S. The outer ends or poles of the field-magnets are preferably
connected together to form a closed magnetic circuit through the medium of posts or
pillars dd, which also form a mechanical connection between the top and bottom
Four of these pillars are
plates cc by which the whole siructure is solidly united.
shown, but any number may be used, or the magnetic circuit of the field-magnet may
be closed in any other manner known to the art.
The inductor B, as best shown in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, is built up by preference of two
or more coils e e, and intervening spaces or chambers ff, the latter being closed at
the top and bottom by plates ii of vulcanite, mica or other non-inagnetic substance
These spaces are partly filled with masses of iron filings g g, which should be sufficien
to about two-thirds fill the spaces or chambers.
In a state of rest the iron filings are held by gravity in the lower portions of the
chainbers, as shown in Fig. 4, the upper portions being empty. If, now, a current o
electricity be sent through the upper coil A, thereby magnetizing its core, the iron

page_text: filings are attracted upward and fly to the top of the spaces ff. In so doing each of
the separate particles, being magnetized by induction, has the effect of a separate
minute magnet moving through the armature coils e e, and hence these coils in addition
to being excited by the mere projection of the lines of force from the field-magnet A
5 through them, are further inductively affected by the bodily movement of the magnetic
particles of iron, to the same effect as though so many separate small magnets were
quickly moved into the coils. This inductive effect is of course of only instantaneous
duration. Suppose, then, the circuit to be instantaneously broken, thereby demag-
netizing the upper magnet A, the effect is that the particles of iron lose their magnetisin
and fall back to the bottom of the chambers; thereby exerting a further inductive
influence on the armature coils e e. This latter effect will be more powerful if the current
is passed through the lower field-inagnet A' at the instant that it is interrupted through
the upper magnet, whereby the filings will be attracted downward. This is the
operation of the construction shown in Fig. 5. The current may thus be rapidly
alternated between the upper and lower magnets, thereby setting the iron filings into
a rapid, piston-like or vibratory movement between the upper and lower ends of the
spaces ff. The effect will be still further intensified by so connecting the magnets
that at each change they will reverse the polarity of the iron filings, which may be done
by making the lower end of the upper magnet and the upper end of the lower magnet
or both the same polarity, say for example, north poles. By connecting all the
armature coils e e into one secondary circuit either in series or derivation, this circuit
may be made to feed incandescent lamps, or are lamps, or alternating current motors,
or any other so-called translating devices.
The diagram, Fig. 1, shows the preferred connection of the coils A A' when the
field is energized by an alternating current dynamo. The circuit aa from this
dynamo includes the two coils A A' serially. The alternating impulses in the circuit
cause alternations of polarity of the field-magnet and force lines of force through the
armature in alternately opposite directions. It results that the iron filings which are
subjected to this rapidly alternating field are set into active vibration. Their bodily
movement may be back and forth in one mass, or the mass may divide and its two
portions may fly toward the opposite poles during one phase of the pulsation, and
during the succeeding phase they may fall back toward the centre of the space, their
vibration thus taking place toward and from the centre in two masses. The armature
coils e e will be so wound as to utilize the peculiar vibratory movement of the iron
filings. In this figure the coils of the armature or inductor B are all connected
together and arranged to feed a secondary circuit in which incandescent lamps ll
are installed. For this purpose the coils e e are best connected in multiple arc.
In Fig. 3 these coils are shown connected serially, in which case they may be used to
feed a secondary circuit in which is installed an arc lamp L.
Fig. 5 shows two entirely distinct field-magnets, A and A' connected together
mechanically through a frame consisting of wooden top and botton plates and
intermediate tie-rods. The armature B here consists of three (more or less) separately
wound coils e e instead of coils wound concentrically around one another as in the
construction first described. The exciting circuit is divided into two branches a a',
n the former of which the magnet-coil A is connected, and in the latter is joined the
oil A. Both are fed from a dynamo G generating continuous currents, or from
other suitable source of electric energy by which continuous, or practically con-
inuous currents are produced. An alternator H of any suitable construction, such
s a vibrating tongue working between two contact stops j and j', acts to alternate
he current between the two branches a a¹ of the circuit. Thus at one instant the
pper magnet A is excited, and at the next instant this magnet is demagnetized and
he lower inagnet A' is excited. By transposing the poles of these two magnets so
hat like poles approach each other, the iron filings in the armature or inductor B
ay be caused to vibrate bodily first toward one magnet and then toward the other.
he armature coils e e may be connected to separate secondary circuits, or all to one
econdary circuit, as may be desired.

page_text: Fig. 6 shows only a single field-magnet A in connection with the armature B,
this magnet being energized by a circuit a fed by a continuous-current dynamo G¹,
and the current being short-circuited from the magnet A at suitably rapid intervals
by an interrupter H' consisting of a rheotome arranged in a shunt a short-circuiting
the coil of the magnet A. The secondary circuit h¹ is shown as feeding an arc 5
lamp L.
My invention is not confined in its application to convertors for changing the
character of electric currents, but is applicable also to apparatus for the generation
of electric currents in the nature of magneto or dynamo electric machines. Such
an application of my invention is shown in Figs. 7 and 8, wherein A and A¹ designate
field-magnets, and B the armature. The latter consists of six coils e e (more or less)
arranged in a circle, the coils being preferably cylindrical bobbins, and each containing
within it a chamber fin which is a mass of iron filings g, as shown in section at
the right in Fig. 7 The several armature coils e e are firmly held in sockets in a
ring or plate M which is fixed to the base P of the apparatus through legs m.
On an axial shaft Q are mounted two spiders Q'Q' carrying rings R R of magnetic
or magnetizable material. The upper ring has six, more or less, pole pieces corre-
sponding in position to the axes of the six armature-coils e e, and projecting downwardly,
and the lower ring R₁ has an equal number of pole pieces arranged in like manner,
and projecting upwardly, so that the upper and lower pole pieces face each other and
form fields of force between them. On these pole pieces are fixed respectively
the coils A A and A' A' of the field-magnet, which are energized by being connected
in circuit with a separate field-exciting dynamo, or by the current from the machine
itself, or in any other way known to the electrical art, the particular method not
being material. The successive coils A' A' of the ring R¹ are wound so that the
successive cores thereof present alternately north and south poles at their upper
ends, and the coils A A of the ring R are wound in like manner, so that the lower
ends of the successive pole pieces are alternately north and south poles. The upper
and lower field magnets are so arranged that a south pole of one approaches a
north pole of the other, so that the lines of force stream across between them,
extending upwardly between one pair of poles, and downwardly between the next
pair, and so on in alternation around the circle.
On revolving the shaft Q while the field-magnets are excited in the manner just
described, each of the armature coils e will receive at one instant upwardly projected
lines of force from one pair of fields, and at the next instant downwardly projected
lines of force from the next pair of fields, whereby the iron filings will be attracted in
alternately opposite directions, and currents or olectric waves of alternately opposite
The several armature-coils é e are
potential will be generated in the armature-coil e.
undergoing simultaneously the same phases of induction, and all may be connected
together either in series or multiple in order that the currents generated in them may
be discharged into a single circuit, or each coil may feed a separate circuit. The
current issuing from the coils will of course be alternating currents, but may be
rectified by the employment of a suitable commutator, as will be well understood by
electricians, and which is so common that no illustration is required.
Obviously instead of revolving the field-magnet and leaving the armature stationary,
the field-magnet might be stationary and the armature be revolved.
My invention may be applied for the purpose of generating currents in many other
ways than that shown in Figs. 7 and 8, being generally applicable to dynamo
electric machines wherein an arinature core is employed, this core according to my
invention being made of iron filings or other comminuted magnetizable material in
lieu of being made of solid metal as heretofore.
Apparatus embodying my invention, in which ever way they may be constructed
need not necessarily be arranged vertically, but may be placed horizontally or at any
angle.
The experiments which I have made lead me to believe that by my employment o
cores of subdivided iron filings instead of solid cores, 1 can secure inductive effects o

page_text: much greater intensity than heretofore, and effect a considerable economy in electric
energy and insure the conversion of a greater number of lines of force or energy than
has heretofore been possible.
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 I
claim is :-
1. The combination, with a magnetic field, of a loosely enclosed mass of iron filings
placed within the influence of such field, and a coil or coils within inductive influence
of said mass and means for changing or varying the magnetic field substantially in
the manner described, whereby the iron filings are set into vibration.
2. The combination with an inclosing coil, of a mass of iron filings loosely confined
within it, and adapted by its vibration to inductively influence the coil, or to be set in
vibration by lines of force generated by the coil, substantially as described.
3. An electric generator or convertor consisting of a coil or coils, a loosely confined
mass of iron filings enclosed therein, and means for sending lines of magnetic force
through said mass, and for changing or varying said lines of force, either by alter-
nation, or intermission thereof, or otherwise, substantially as described.
4. The improved dynamo electric machine shown in Figs. 7 and 8, characterized
by a series of armature coils with a loosely confined mass of iron filings enclosed in
cach, and a field-magnet or magnets constructed to send lines of magnetic force
through said coils successively, and to change or vary the successive lines of force in
each coil.
Dated this 5th da.. 2
1000
J. C. MEWBURN,
55 & 56, Chancery Lane, London, Patent Agent.