Improvements in Apparatus for Registering the Supply of Electricity.
Year: 1899

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Registering the Supply of Electricity.
I, LUDWIG ZAHIN, of Charlottenburg, near Berlin, Germany, Polytechnician,
do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:―
In order to prevent a power plant from running idle during the day and the
early morning hours it is advantageous for the profits of the supply company to
induce the consumers of the electrical energy to use the current at those hours
of the day when the demand for light is small for cooking, heating and motive
power. The inducement consists in offering the consumers a cheaper rate during
fixed hours of the day, i.e., cheaper than the rates for the supply of light energy
during the evening hours. According to my invention I provide means, whereby
the meter, registering the supply of electricity is influenced by. mechanical
means in such a way as to register during the heavy load hours at ordinary tariff,
while during the light load hours it registers at a reduced tariff. The changing
over from one tariff to the other is accomplished automatically at predetermined
times. According to one way of carrying my invention into practice I attach
a clockwork to the meter, this clockwork to stand in no connection with the
meter clockwork. By means of this separate clockwork a disc is revolved once
each 24 hours. This disc is provided with for inst. 24 equidistant holes on one
half of its circumference, each second hole denominating an hour and the inter-
mediate holes denominating the half hours. The hours are marked in a way
reversely to the ordinary clock dial. Into any one of these holes may be inserted
a pin, the hind end of which protrudes into the path of the arms of a star disc.
If now the disc is revolved by means of the supplementary clockwork the pin,
inserted in one of the hour or half hour holes, will strike against one of the
arms radiating from the freely revoluble star disc and will consequently by
advancing, turn this star disc a certain distance. A spring actuated lever aids
this revoluble motion of the star disc and advances the star wheel always for
exactly the same distance. The rear face of the said starwheel is provided with a
number of recesses, thus forming a curved path, upon which glides one end of a
rocking lever. The other end of this rocking lever is curved out somewhat and
bears against the rear face of a toothed wheel fast upon the registering wheel
axle of the meter. This registering wheel axle, carries a second toothed wheel and
one half of a coupling clutch. The axle runs loosely in a hollow axle of the
neter clockwork, said axle receiving the rotary motion from the meter clockwork
and transmitting it to the counting or registering wheel: This hollow axle carries
the other half of the coupling clutch. Ordinarily the two halves of the clutch
are coupled and the motion of the hollow axle is transmitted directly by means
of the said coupling to the axle of the registering wheel, but when, as described,
the rocking lever is rocked in such a way that the end bearing against the rear
face of the main registering wheel is forced outward, the axle carrying this
registering wheel is withdrawn from out of the hollow axle and the two halves
of the clutch are separated. Parallel to the hollow axle is arranged an axle
carrying two toothed, wheels. of different diameters, the smaller one of which
...

page_text: meshes with the toothed wheel, fast upon the hollow axle and the other one of
which runs ordinarily idle. If however, the registering wheel axle is brought into
engagement with the larger wheel of the parallel axle. The rotary motion of the
hollow axle is now transmitted to the registering wheel axle over the wheel, fast
upon the hollow axle, over the two wheels fast upon the parallel axle and over
the wheel fast upon the registering wheel axle, the gearing of the various inter-
meshing wheels being such as to reduce or advance the speed ratio according to
the position of the rocking lever.
By the described means I am enabled to vary the speed ratio between register
and meter, so as to effect the desired change in the rate at which the meter is to
register.
Dated 1: 0001
1000
improvements in Apparatus for Registering the Supply of Electricity.
I, LUDWIG ZAHN, of Charlottenburg, Germany, Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of my invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in the following statement:-
In order to prevent an electric power plant as much as possible from running
idle during the day and the early morning hours it is the custom of the supply
company to induce the consumers of the energy to use the current for cooking,
heating and motive power during those hours when the demand for light energy
is small. The inducement consists in offering the consumers a cheaper rate
during fixed hours of the day, i.e., cheaper than the rates for the supply of light
energy during the evening hours. According to my invention I provide means
whereby the meter, registering the supply of electricity, is influenced by
mechanical means in such a way as to register during the heavy load hours at
ordinary rate whilst during the light load hours it registers at a reduced rate.
The changing over from one rate to the other is accomplished automatically
at predetermined times. In order to make my invention more readily understood
I have illustrated it on the accompanying two sheets of drawings.
Fig. 1 of which shows a front view of the arrangement varying the registering
rate of the meter, in connection with the well known Aron meter, the parts
immaterial to the invention, not being shown.
Fig. 2 is a side view of the arrangement partly in section, showing the position
of the parts when registering at ordinary rate,
Fig. 3 is a side view, when registering at reduced rate.
Fig. 4 is an elevation of the rear face of the star wheel and the spring actuated
detent lever.
Similar letters of reference refer to like parts throughout the drawings. To
the meter is attached a supplementary clockwork, which stands in no connection
with the meter clockwork. This supplementary clockwork causes the discwheel a
to revolve once every 24 hours. Upon one half of the circumference of this disc
wheel 24 equidistant holes are provided, each second hole marked with the
denomination of an hour and the intermediate holes denominating the half hours.
These denominations are marked in a way reversely to the ordinary clock-
dial. Into any one of these holes pins c & e respectively may be inserted so that
the pin ends protrude beyond the rear face of the disc wheel. Underneath this
disc wheel a star wheel f is revolubly arranged, having 8 arms g radiating from
its circumference. Suppose a pin e has been inserted into the hole between the
marks IX & X (Fig. 1) on the disc wheel, this latter to be revolving, the pro-

page_text: truding end of the pin e will then strike against one of the radiating arms g,
extending into the path of the revolving pin end, and cause the star wheel f to
turn about its pivot, until the advancing pin c again releases the arm g. In
order to cause the star wheel to always turn for exactly the same distance and
to. do this quickly a spring actuated detent lever i is provided, the head of which
when in.rest, engages always two arms g at the same time. It will be seen, that,
when the star wheel is revolved, the arm g behind the head of the lever i will
raise the latter, until it has reached the outermost part of the head, the spring
will then pull the lever back again, thereby causing the arm g of the starwheel
to slide along the upper oblique surface of the leverhead until the lever head
bears against two arms g again.
The rear of the star wheel, is provided with 4 elevated portions m and 4 inter-
mediate recesses h as is clearly shown by the Figs. 3 & 4.
A rocking lever is pivotally secured at k and rests with its turned forward
lower end against the rear of the star wheel. Upon the star wheel revolving,
the lever end 12 being pressed against the star wheel by means of a spring, as
will be described later will follow the curved path formed by the alternating
elevations m and the recesses h with the result of rocking the lever about its
pivot k. This rocking motion of the lever is made use of to influence the
registering mechanism of the meter in such a way, that one position of the rock-
ing lever causes the meter registering mechanism to register at ordinary rate,
while the other position of the rocking lever causes the meter registering
mechanism to register at reduced speed or rate. To accomplish this, the upper
end of the rocking lever is curved forward, as is clearly shown by the
Fig. 2 & 3 and bears against the rear face of a toothed wheel r, fast upon the
revoluble and laterally movable axle upon which is keyed a second toothed
wheels and one half g of a clutch coupling. The front end of the axle t is
journalled in the clockwork case, whilst the rear part is journalled in the hollow
axle n.
This latter axle is rotated by the meter clockwork and carries the
toothed wheel o and the other half p of the clutch coupling. Parallel to the
axles t, n is arranged the axle w, carrying the two toothed wheels u & v of different
diameters, the latter v meshing with the toothed wheel o. A flat spring
ordinarily presses the axle t into its hindmost position so that the two halves
of the clutch coupling are brought into engagement, as shown in Fig. 2. The
rotary motion of the hollow axle n is thus directly imparted to the axle t and the
toothed wheel meshes with the gear for registering at reduced rate. This gear
however is not shown in the drawing, as bearing no reference to my invention.
The innermost position of the axle t is only possible, as long as the lower arm /
of the rocking lever engages one of the recesses h. If now by the star wheel f
being revolved as above described, the lever end 13 glides upon an elevated
portion m, the upper end of the rocking lever is correspondingly forced outward
(Fig. 3) thereby withdrawing the axle t from out of the hollow axle n and dis-
engaging the two halves of the coupling. The toothed wheel s is brought into
engagement with the toothed wheel u and the toothed wheel r brought into
engagement with a gear for registering at ordinary rate. Also this second gear
is not shown in the drawings.
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The rotary motion of the hollow axle is now transmitted to the axle over the
toothed, intermeshing wheels o, u, u and s with a velocity differing from the
original speed. By changing the different sets of intermeshing wheels any
desired difference between the two registering rates may be obtained.
According to Fig. 1 for example the change from the ordinary speed to the
reduced rate would take place at 30 min. past 9 o'clock p.m. whilst the changing
over to the ordinary rate would take place at 4 o'clock p.m. A swinging lever z
being pivotally secured at y is influenced by the to and fro motions of the rocking
lever in such a way as alter the position of a plate, bearing marks or characters
with reference to ordinary or reduced registering rate, behind a slot in the clock-
work case. In Fig. 1 the characters I and II are chosen and character II is shown

page_text: exposed to view through the slot, indicating that the meter is registering at
rate II, whichever that may be. It is obvious that immaterial changes in the
construction and arrangement of the various parts, according to requirements,
may be made without advancing beyond the scope of my invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of
my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
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1. In apparatus for registering the supply of energy the combination of a meter
and a supplementary clockwork, a rocking lever actuated by said clockwork at
predetermined times and a gear in said meter for registering ordinary and reduced
rate, said gear to be actuated by the said rocking lever, as described.
2. In apparatus for registering the supply of electric energy a disc wheel,
revolved once every 24 hours by means of a clockwork, said disc wheel to have
holes provided in the rim at hourly intervals or fractions thereof, pins to be in-
serted into the said holes and protruding beyond the rear face of the disc wheel,
a star wheel, being revolubly arranged underneath said disc wheel and having
arms radiating from its circumference into the path of the protruding pin ends
and alternating elevated portions and recesses provided upon the rear face of
the said star wheel and a rocking lever, the one end of which bears against the
rear face of the said star wheel and the other end of which actuates the gear for
registering at ordinary and reduced rate respectively, substantially as described.
3. In apparatus for registering the supply of electrical energy the combination
of the star wheelf and the spring actuated detent lever i, as and for the purpose
set forth.
1000