Improvements relating to Electrical Pendants and other Portable or Movable Electrical Devices.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 17th Nov., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 17th Sept., 1891-Accepted, 7th Nov., 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Electrical Pendants and other Portable
or Movable Electrical Devices.
I, HENRY JAMES PIERCE, of South Acton Works, Beaumont Road, South
Acton, in the County of Middlesex, Electrical Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to electrical pendant lamps, portable lamps, telephone
receivers and in general to electrical devices or machines which while supplied with
current by wires from some stationary rose, wall plate or the like are designed to
be movable and to be used at some indefinite place or distance from such rose, wall
plate or the like, and the object of the invention is principally to provide for the
automatic taking up of the wire when returning the device to or towards the rose or
wall plate or the like.
A further object in the case of pendant lamps or devices is to enable them to be
retained automatically at a greater or less height.
A further object is to combine with such lamp, telephone receiver, or other device
an automatic switch which shall operate to close or unclose the circuit thereof, or
shall simultaneously unclose or close some other circuit also when the wire shall
have been automatically taken up for a certain length, that is to say when the
lamp, telephone receiver or other device shall have been returned to its place of
rest which it to occupy when not in use.
For a pendant lamp, I arrange a spring barrel on which the combined or double
wire is coiled, the one end of this wire leading to the lamp, the other end being
attached to metal contact plates on the sides of the spring barrel the latter being of
insulating material. Contact with these plates is made through gudgeons on the
bearing frame of said barrel or their equivalents or through contact springs.
The spring tends to revolve the barrel so that the wire is wound thereon.
A. band or other brake is provided for said barrel and the lever of the brake is
so arranged that the wire passing from the barrel to the lamp passes across the end
of the brake lever so that the weight of the lamp tends to bring the brake into
action, so that the weight of the lamp causes it to be held at any height at which
it may be placed.
With such device an automatic switch may be arranged to place the lamp out of
circuit when it is placed at or above some given height for which the device is
regulated.
To this end the barrel may either carry for one of its pivots a screw, or it may
be carried by such screw, so that the winding of the barrel shall cause a nut to
move on the screw or shall cause the said screw to move,-This nut or screw
controls a switch so that when the screw is moved sufficiently contact is broken, the
switch is preferably a quick break switch, which may be composed of a vibrating
lever carrying a contact spring and a fixed contact having a projection adapted to
retain said spring from passing off it until the tension of the spring is sufficient to
press it suddenly over said projection.
In addition to having a brake as aforesaid the pendant may have a telescopic
sliding tube to cover the wire, or if the sections of such tube have means for fixing
them securely in different positions of length the brake may then be dispensed with.
This device being suitable when reversed for a standard lamp-Such tubes may
be made shit with a gripping nut acting on a conical surface at the end of the outer
tube to embrace the inner by friction as known in standard lamps for other
illuminants, or they may be made to stay in any position by providing the outer
tube with an inner lining with a longitudinal slot therein having one of its edges

page_text: serrated, and placing on the inner tube a pin adapted to move in said slot and
engage in said serrated recesses. A spring may be arranged to press the inner
tube so that the pin tends to rest in the recesses of the serrated edge.
In arranging this invention for a telephone receiver the brake may be omitted and
the switch be contrived for switching in the signal bell into the circuit by the
coiling up of the wire of the receiver to its full length, in place of necessitating
the hanging of the receiver on a special hook.
By use of this invention unsightly loops of wires are avoided since in any position
of the device provided with this automatic take up mechanism only a direct length
of wire from the rose, wall plate, or the like to the device is visible.
Dated this 17th day of November 1890.
HERBERT & Co.,
Agents to Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to Electrical Pendants and other Portable
or Movable Electrical Devices.
I, HENRY JAMES PIERCE, of South Acton Works, Beaumont Road, South
Acton, in the County of Middlesex, 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 electrical pendant lamps, portable lamps, telephone
receivers and in general to electrical devices or machines which while supplied with
current by wires from some stationary rose, wall-plate or the like are designed to
be movable and to be used at some indefinite place or distance from such rose, wall-
plate or the like, and the object of the invention is principally to provide for the
automatic taking up of the wire when returning the device to or towards the rose
or wall-plate or the like.
A further object in the case of pendant lamps or devices is to enable them to be
retained automatically at a greater or less height.
A further object is to combine with such lamp, telephone receiver, or other device
an automatic switch which shall operate to close or unclose the circuit thereof or
shall simultaneously unclose or close some other circuit also when the wire shall
have been automatically taken up for a certain length, that is to say when the lamp,
telephone receiver or other device shall have been returned to its place of rest
which it is to occupy when not in use.
For a pendant lamp, I arrange a spring barrel B on which the combined or
double wire is coiled, the one end of this wire leading to the lamp, the other end
being attached to metal contact plates B' and G on the sides of the spring barrel,
the latter being of insulating material. Contact with these plate is made through
the gudgeons I and C on the bearing-frame A of said barrel or their equivalents or
through contact springs as will be readily understood.
The spring P tends to revolve the barrel so that the wire is wound thereon.
A band N or other brake is provided for said barrel and the lever F of the
brake is so arranged that the wire passing from the barrel to the lamp passes across
the end of the brake lever which may be provided with a roller J so that the
weight of the lamp tends to bring the brake into action, so that the weight of
the lamp causes it to be held at any height at which it may be placed.
With such device an automatic switch may be arranged to place the lamp out
of circuit when it is placed at or above some given height for which the device is
regulated.
To this end the barrel may either carry for one of its pivots a screw C as shown
or it may be carried by such screw, so that the winding of the barrel B shall cause
the said screw to move a nut or a worm-wheel C₁ as shown. This nut or screw
controls a switch E so that when the screw is moved sufficiently contact is broken,

page_text: the switch may be a quick break switch or it may be a simple lever Ę taking on the
spring E¹.
In addition to having a brake as aforesaid the pendant may have a telescopic
sliding tube to cover the wire, or if the sections of such tube have means for fixing
them securely in different positions of length the brake may then be dispensed with.
This device being suitable when reversed for a standard lamp. Such tubes may
be made slit with a gripping nut acting on a conical surface at the end of the outer
tube to embrace the inner by friction as known in standard lamps for other
illuminants, or they may be made to stay in any position by providing the outer
tube with an inner lining with a longitudinal slot therein having one of its edges
serrated, and placing on the inner tube a pin adapted to move in said slot and
engage in said serrated recesses.
A spring may be arranged to press the inner
tube so that the pin tends to rest in the recesses of the serrated edge.
In arranging this invention for a telephone receiver the brake may be omitted
and the switch be contrived for switching in the signal bell into the circuit by the
coiling up of the wire of the receiver to its full length, in place of necessitating the
hanging of the receiver on a special hook.
By use of this invention unsightly loops of wires are avoided since in any position
of the device provided with this automatic take up mechanism only a direct length
of wire from the rose, wall-plate, or the like to the device is visible.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. An electrical pendant or equivalent in which the circuit wires are automatically
wound up and maintained at any desired length as herein set forth.
2. The combination with the winding apparatus herein described of the brake
operated as and for the purpose set forth.
3. The combination with the winding apparatus of the automatic switch to be
operated as and for the purpose or purposes described.
Dated this 17th day of September 1891.
HERBERT & Co.,
18, Buckingham Street, Strand, London, W.C., Agents to Applicant.