Improvements in Electrical Measuring Instruments.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 25th May, 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by JOHN VAN VLECK, of Pearl Street, New York
City, and EDWARD WESTON, of Newark, State of New Jersey, both in the
United States of America, Electricians.]
Improvements in Electrical Measuring Instruments.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Sonthampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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 electrical measuring instruments and to their arrangement
upon the switchboards or other supports upon which they are usually grouped in
stations. Such instruments are usually made with their scales and pointers upon
their broad faces or sides. We propose to construct them with said scales and
pointers upon their peripheries or edges; hence the instruments will take up less
room on a switchboard and may be grouped so as more conveniently to exhibit
their relative indications.
In the drawings,
Fig. 1 shows part of a switchboard with two series of our instruments in place.
Fig. 2 is a side view corresponding to Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is an instrument of like type pivoted in the switchboard so as to be set at
different angles.
Fig. 4 is a face view of the instrument of Fig. 3.
Fig. 6 shows a number of instruments, such as
board and set at various angles so that the line
properly reach their edges.
Fig. 5 is a top view of same.
Fig. 3, arranged upon a switch-
of sight from an observer may
Fig. 7 is a front view of a frame adapted to hold such an instrument as shown in
Fig. 3. Fig. 8 is a side view of such frame and Fig. 9 is a frame adapted to hold
several instruments.
Similar numbers of reference indicate like parts.
Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, 1 represents part of a switchboard with two series of
instruments, 2 and 3, thereon. Each instrument has sides, 4, and edges, 5. Upon
the curved portion of edge 5 the scale is marked. Through said edge is a slot, 6.
The instrument index or pointer extends through said slot, and its end, 7, is turned
so as to move over the scale. Each instrument has lugs, 8, receiving screw-bolts, 9,
so that the instrument is fastened to the switchboard 1 by nuts, 10.
At 11 are
binding posts, by which the instrument is connected in circuit. The several
instruments are placed together side by side, as shown at 2 and 3, Fig. 1, their
scale-plates, 5, being in the same plane and the pointers 7 moving in parallel paths.
In this way a number of instruments are compactly brought together and occupy
much less space than they would if the scales were on their flat faces, 4.
Suppose the instruments in series 3 to be ammeters, each connected in a separate
brauch of the system-then each ammeter will show the load on that branch. By
noting the relative positions of the pointers 7 the observer can not only see the load
on any branch, but also how that load compares with the load on other branches,
and thus recognize how the whole current is being distributed. Also he can tell,
by the change in the shape of the line formed by the pointers 7, any alteration in
relative distribution of load or current strength. The upper series, 2, of
instruments inay represent voltmeters, each connected with the several branches of
the system. As long as the electrical pressure remains constant in the several

page_text: branches, the line formed by the pointers 7 remains straight. If the pressure
varies in any branch, then the pointer in the instrument connected to that branch
moves up or down and the line is no longer straight, but irregular.
The lower scale indications are at the bottoms of the scales and the higher
indications at the tops; therefore, any increase in current strength or pressure is
shown by the pointers rising on the scale. The internal mechanism of the
instruments may be of any kind adapted electrically to move the pointers 7 over
the scales.
Referring to Figs. 3 to 8, the instrument has its upper side, 12, curved and is
provided at one angle with yokes, 13, received on pivot 14. In edge 12 are
recesses, 15, spaced at regular intervals. On the switchboard, above edge 15, is a
bracket, 16, through which passes screw 17, which enters any one of the recesses in
edge 15 which may be brought beneath it.
The instrument turns on pirot 14 and may be tilted forward or back in the
opening 17 in the switchboard by means of handle 18. It is held in any adjusted
position by screw 17 entering one of the recesses in edge 12. By this means the
instrument may be adjusted at any angle to suit the line of sight of the observer
when stationed at a definite position, as shown in Fig. 6. Here the instruments
are represented at A, B, C, D, the upper instruments being tilted more than the
lower ones so as to adjust their faces suitably to the line of sight of the observer.
Instead of mounting the instruments directly upon the switchboard, we may
arrange each in a frame, 19, as shown in Fig. 7, with which the pivot and screw
brackets are made integral. This frame is then secured in front of the opening in
the switchboard; or, instead of using a separate frame for each instrument, we may
combine several such frames in one, as represented in Fig. 9, and then attach this
multiple frame to the switchboard.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondents, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. An electrical measuring instrument having its scale and index on its periphery,
in contradistinction to its side, and having all its mechanism within the space
included between parallel planes passing through the longitudinal edges of said
periphery, and adapted to be secured to a switchboard or like support with its
scale and index outward.
2. An electrical measuring instrument having its scale and index upon its
periphery, as described, in contradistinction to its side and supported upon a
switchboard or other support so that its scale can be set at various angles to suit
different lines of sight.
3. A series of electrical measuring instruments having their scales and indexes
on their peripheries grouped together side by side so that the indexes shall make
substantially a continuous line, by changes in conformation of which line relative
variations in the current strength or pressure affecting the several instruments may
be recognized.
1100
:
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.