IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC LIGHT REGULATORS
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office_for_Patents,.
-66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC LIGHT REGULATORS." A
communication from abroad by François Ernest de Mersanne, of Paris, in the
Republic of France.
Sealed the 3rd June 1879, and dated the 10th December 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 10th December 1878.
ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC
LIGHT REGULATORS." [A communication from abroad by François Ernest do
Mersanne, of Paris, in the Republic of France.]
The object of this Invention is to provide a means for maintaining the electric
light without interruption for any desired length of time. To this end the carbon
sticks (which are made of any desired length by moulding or by dowelling short
pieces together) receive an endway motion from gripping guide rollers actuated by
clock mechanism. Each carbon stick is provided with independent mechanism
which are fitted into boxes or frames, the one box or frame being attached to a rigid
support, and the other to an elastic support capable of vibration. Within the circuit
is an electro maguet provided with a coil of thick wire, and in front of this magnet
is an armature carried by the elastic vibrator by which one of the carbon sticks is
supported. When the carbon sticks are brought into contact and a current of elec-
tricity is passed through them the electro magnet will attract its armature and thus
draw towards it the elastic vibrator. The effect of this motion of the vibrator will
be to part the contact carbons and thereby produce the illuminating arc, which will
be maintained until by the consumption of the carbons the resistance is unduly
increased, at which time it will be necessary to advance the carbons towards each
other. This endway motion of the carbons is obtained, as before stated, by two

page_text: independent arrangements of clock work, and the motion of this mechanism is
arrested by means of stops which are presented to the clockwork so soon as the
regulated amount of feed is obtained. These stops are each connected with an
armature between which is situated an electro magnet surrounded by a coil of fine
wire, the ends of which are electrically connected respectively with the two carbons.
This electro magnetic arrangeinent constitutes a short circuit, and it is brought into
action only when the resistance to the passage of the current through the points of
the carbons is unduly increased or is in excess of the resistance offered by the fine
wire of the coils of the short circuit electro magnet. When this magnet is caused
to act it will draw back the stops carried by the armatures and release the clock
work, which will then move forward the carbons until the electric arc is restored.
So soon as this takes place the current will cease to flow through the short
circuit and the stops will be free to move forward and again arrest the action
of the clock work.
The guide rollers for propelling the carbon sticks may be mounted in frames
that will admit of the carbons being adjusted at any desired angle to a vertical
or horizontal plane.
In place of relying upon an electro magnet for parting the carbon to produce
the are the clock work may be used to serve the same purpose. In such case the
flyer which is arrested by the stop is made loose on the arbor of the regulating
fan, and it is driven by a ratchet wheel and pawle which leave the arbor free
to be driven in the opposite direction. Upon the same arbor is mounted a fly
wheel which is connected to the arbor by means of a helical spring coiled into
a box formed by or attached to the hub of the fly wheel. On the end of this
box is a ratchet wheel, and a pawle attached to some adjacent fixed point takes
into the teeth of the ratchet wheel, leaving however the wheel free to rotate
when the clock mechanism is driven by its main spring. When the flyer is
arrested by the stop the impulse which the fly wheel has received (during the
working of the clock mechanism) will have the effect of winding up the helical
spring which connects it to the arbor, and when the fly wheel has lost its momentum
it will be locked by the pawle before mentioned. The coiled spring will now exert
its elastic force upon the arbor and give it a back motion, thereby causing a with-
drawal of the carbons and ensuring the proper parting of the same. In this
arrangement the vibrating support for one of the carbons will be rendered
unnecessary.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th
June 1879.
ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, 'in
the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRIC
LIGHT REGULATORS." A communication from abroad by François Ernest de
Mersanne, of Paris, in the Republic of France.
The object of this Invention is to provide a means for maintaining the electric
light without interruption for any desired length of time. To this end the carbon
sticks (which are made of any desired length by moulding or by dowelling short
pieces together) receive an endway motion from gripping guide rollers actuated by
clock mechanism.
Each carbon stick is provided with an independent mechanism fitted into boxes
or frames, the one box or frame being attached to a rigid support, and the other to
an elastic support capable of vibration.
Within the circuit is an electro magnet provided with a coil of thick wire, and in
front of this magnet is an armature carried by the elastic vibrator by which one of
the carbon rods is supported.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the improved regulator
partly in section; Fig. 2 is a front view, also partly in section; and Fig. 3 is_a_
sectional plan_view,-the-section-being-taken-in-the line 1, 2, of Fig. 2.
In these Figures A, A, is a rectangular box to which are attached the arms B, B¹,
which carry the carbon rods and feeding mechanism.
The construction of this box will be better understood by reference to the diagram
Fig. 4, which represents the box in perspective. It will be seen that the front of
the box has been cut away at S, leaving however a portion of the front at S¹. To
this remaining portion of the front is attached a flexible blade of metal, as indicated
by the dotted lines. Returning now to Figures 1 and 2, A* is a pendant metal
blade forming the flexible front of the box A. To the upper or fixed part of the box
is attached the arm B for carrying the upper carbon, while to the lower or free and
of tlie flexible front is attached the arm B₁ for carrying the lower carbon. As the
mechanism is the saine for feeding forward both the upper and lower carbon rods, I
have shewn in the Drawing and will describe only that employed for feeding forward
the upper carbon.
C is a box containing a train of clockwork driven by a spring and governed by a
flyer in any well known manner. This train of clock work serves to impart a slow
rotary motion to a short shaft D carrying at its outer extremity a bevil pinion 1
which gears into a bevil pinion 2 mounted on centres in a frame E. Above and
below the pinion 2 is mounted (also on centres in the frame E) a grooved guide
roller F, and these guide rollers receive a slow rotary motion from the clock work
through the bevil wheel 2 and spur gearing; F', F1, are a second pair of V grooved
rollers which are mounted on centres in the rocking bridge piece f. This bridge
piece jointed to the hollow rod f' which slides in the frames E and is provided with
a coiled spring f2. The side of the V groove in the rollers F, F, lave radial indents
or teeth, and the carbon rods being passed between them and the guide rollers F"¹
will be firmly gripped and fed forward by the action of the clock work.
The bottom carbon rod is provided with a similar clock train and feeding
mechanism mounted on the free end of the flexible front of the rectangular box A.
An electro magnet G is mounted in the lower part of the box A, and an armature G¹
is secured to the flexible front A* in front of the same. This magnet is surrounded
by a coil of thick wire, one end of which is connected with the lower carbon, the
other end being connected with one pole of an electric generator. A wire from the
upper carbon rod connects that rod with the other pole of the electric generator.. It

page_text: will now be seen that if the carbon rods are brought into contact and a current of
electricity is passed through them the electro magnet G will attract its armature G¹
and thus draw towards it the blade A*. The effect of this motion will be to slightly
separate the carbons laterally and thereby to produce the illuminating arc, which
will be maintained until by the consumption of the carbons the resistance is unduly
increased, at which time it will be necessary to advance the carbons towards each
other.
This end way motion of the carbons is obtained, as before stated, by two inde-
pendent arrangements of clock work, and the motion of this mechanism is arrested
by means of stops which are presented to the clock work as soon as the regulated
amount of feed is obtained.
Midway between the two trains of clockwork a hollow bobbin H is placed, upon
which is wound a sufficient length of fine wire to offer the required amount of
resistance to the passage of the current, the two ends of the wire connected to the
top and bottom carbon sticks respectively. Within this bobbin, and extending
nearly to its centre, are two soft iron rods or cores I, I. These cores are supported
at their outer extremities by flexible blades i, i, and are furnished with the stop
pieces j,j, for acting on the clock trains in the boxes C, C. This arrangement con-
stitutes a short circuit, and it is brought into action only when the resistance to the
passage of the current through the points of the carbon is broken or is unduly
increased so as to be in excess of the resistance offered by the fine wire of the coils
of the short circuit. When this short circuit is brought into use by the passage of
the current it will draw inwards the cores J, I, and thus release the clockwork, which
will then feed forward the carbons until the electric arc is restored. So soon as this
takes place the current will cease to flow through the short circuit, and the stops
will be free to move forward and again arrest the action of the clockwork.
The guide rollers for propelling the carbon rods may be mounted in frames that
will admit of the carbons being adjusted at any desired angle to a vertical or hori-
zontal plane.
This arrangement is shewn in Figures 5 and 6, Fig. 5 being a side elevation, and
Fig. 6 a sectional plan view of an electric regulator constructed with this adjust-
ment. Pivotted to the face of the box A are two plates K, K, furnished on their
edges with segment racks, into which gear worms k, k, mounted in bearings on the
box A. By turning these worms an axial notion is imparted to the plates K, K.
Projecting from the face of each plate, and at opposite sides of its centre of motion,
are cheeks L, L, which serve to carry between them boxes M, M, in which are
mounted the grooved guide rollers for holding the carbons and giving them the
requisite feed motion. The driven grooved rollers, which are furnished with spur
teeth, receive their motion from the toothed wheels of the clock mechanism, into
which they gear, as in the former example, the arbors of these wheels passing through
the hollow pivots of the swivel plates K, K. A diagonal adjustment is given to the
carbons by turning their boxes M, M, on the pivot pins by means of worms m carried
by the boxes and gearing into segment racks formed on the ends of the cheeks L.
By this mode of mounting the carbons they may be adjusted to any desired angle
with respect to each other and to the axis of the regulator. The motion due to the
turning of the plates K is illustrated in the diagram, Fig. 7, and that due to the
swivelling of the boxes M in the diagram, Fig. 8. It will now be obvious that these
two motions may be used independently, or combined at pleasure. The separation
of the carbons to form the arc will in this arrangement be effected through the
agency of the feed rolls, to which a back motion must be given for that purpose.
In order to obtain carbons of sufficient length to render their frequent renewal
unnecessary it is proposed to connect lengths of carbon together by dowelling. This
is illustrated at Fig. 9, which represents two pieces of carbon drilled at their ends to
receive a short piece of copper wire which will serve as a dowell for holding together
their butt ends.
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improvements in Electric

page_text: Light Regulators," as communicated to me from abroad, and explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in
part recited Letters Patent I claim,―
First. The employment of a shunt circuit, as described, for setting in action
mechanisin whereby the carbons are fed forward as they are consumed.
Second. The arrangement above described for separating the carbon or producing
the illuminating arc.
Third. The means above described with reference to Figures 5 and 6, for adjusting
the carbon holders.
Lastly. The node above described of obtaining extended sticks of carbon.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Tenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy nine.
A V NEWTON
(10)
A V NEWTON
(rs)