Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 31st May, 1899
Complete Specification Left, 10th Feb., 1900-Accepted, 24th Mar., 1900
I, ADRIEN BOCHET, of 14, Rue de Passy, Paris, France, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to electric traction, more particularly for use on tram-
ways, and is designed to obviate the use of an overhead conductor and trolley
incidental thereto.
According to my invention a flexible conductor is stretched along the top of the
car, or cars, on one or both sides thereof, and is adapted to pick up the current
from a series of overhead contact rollers carried by standards, or otherwise.
The conductor is supported at each end by suitable shaped springs insulated
from the car, and secured in clamping devices on the roof. These springs permit
the conductor to yield freely when in engagement with the contact rollers. The
said conductor is arranged say about 10 centimetres above the contacts, so that
its springs will always be able to press it up against the said rollers in spite of
the oscillations of the car.
The rollers are flanged, and are of relatively great width so as to give ample
space for the lateral play of the flexible conductor. They are carried, say by
brackets on the standards which are arranged along the line at distances of
rather less than a car length, or a train length, apart.
Where single cars are employed, a single roller will suffice on each bracket,
but if two or more he joined together, then the brackets should carry a pair of
rollers sufficiently far apart to bridge over the gap between the cars, so that
at least one of them is always in communication with a conductor on the cars.
Or instead, all the conductors on each side of the cars may be coupled together,
being united to cross pieces arranged between the cars, so as radiate in going
round curves. The front and rear ends of the conductors on the first and last
cars, are connected to swinging bars and form, as it were parallelograms whilst
the supporting springs are mounted on the cross pieces and on the swinging bars.
In this latter arrangement, a single contact roller only is required at each standard
as the continuity of the flexible conductor is preserved throughout the whole
length of the train.
The current may be brought to the overhead contacts by means of wires, leading
up inside the standards, from underground conductors.
1
1900
ERNEST DE PASS.
Chartered Patent Agent.
78, Fleet Street, London, & 5A, Market Street, Nottingham,
Agent for the Applicant.

page_text: 1, ADRIEN BOCHET, of 14, Rue de Passy, Paris, France, 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, reference being had to the accompanying drawings and to the letters
and figures marked thereon, that is to say:
This invention relates to the electric traction of cars running on rails, and has
reference to the system in which the current is conveyed underground, from a
central station, for the production of energy, into overhead contacts arranged at
suitable intervals along the line, in such a manner as to keep each car, or each
train of cars, in permanent communication with the source of electricity.
This system, which avoids the overhead cable and therefore the trolley, is not
at present in use on account of the difficulties which have been experienced in
keeping up communication between the conductor on the car and the overhead
contact. For instance, by reason of their indispensible suspension of the car on
springs, and likewise from the bad state in which all working tracks get into, the
conductor picking up the current is liable to an oscillation of as much as
10 centimetres up and down.
Moreover, another difficulty arises from the turning movement of the conductor
when the vehicle is running on a curve.
My invention has specially for its object to obviate these difficulties, and to
render this mode of traction practicable.
And in order that my invention may be readily understood, I will describe it
fully with reference to the annexed drawings, in which: --
Figs. 1 and 2 represent diagrammatically a car provided with one of my
improved arrangements for picking up the current, and with an overhead contact.
Fig. 3. represents, to a larger scale, a detail of Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 represents in plan, and,
Fig. 5, in elevation, a modification which is suitable for use with coupled cars.
Fig. 6, represents, diagrammatically, a train of coupled cars passing such a
contact arrangement.
The remaining figures relates to an alternative arrangement for coupled cars:
Fig. 7 representing diagrammatically, in plan, a train of cars with their con-
ductors united as hereinafter described, whilst
Figs. 8 to 13 represent, to a larger scale, details of Fig.
Reterring more particularly to Figs. 1 to 3, the invention consists in arranging
on the upper part of the cars, a fleible conductor a for picking up the current,
and in fixing each extremity of this conductor upon a suitable spring b, c, whereby
said conductor is capable of deflection under the action of the overhead contact.
It is thus possible to arrange this conductor normally at a greater height by
about 10 centimetres than that of the overhead contacts, so that the oscillations,
to which the conductor is subject, will never prevent connection being established
between the overhead contact and the conductor, even when this latter is in its
lowest position.
The overhead contact consists of a roller d, formed for the greater part of a
cylindrical portion and terminating at each end in a strong flange or collar.
This roller is mounted loose on the end of a metallic rod carried by two
insulated supports f fixed on the arm g of a standard h. A wire i, which serves
to establish communication between the overhead contact and the track, is
arranged inside this standard and is connected on the one hand with the general

page_text: conduit coming from the generating station, and, on the other hand, with the
metallic rod e.
Fig. 3 shows, to a larger scale, the mode of attaching the flexible conductor a
to one of the springs b, and the mode of fixing this latter on the car. The said
spring is provided with an eye k on its outer side, and the end of the flexible
conductor a simply engages in this eye and is then bent over.
The springs bare fixed on the car by means of an iron box m and bolts and
are insulated therefrom.
The standards for the contacts are naturally distributed along the line at
intervals of a little less than the length of the flexible conductors a, so that one of
the conductors of the car is always in touch with one of said contacts.
These standards can advantageously be utilized as lamp-posts.
This system of traction can be applied practically and economically to the
traction of a train of coupled cars. The conductors for collecting the current are
then arranged in such a manner that, at any instant, it will suffice that a single
overhead contact shall be in communication with the train. This therefore allows
of the standards being spaced apart at a distance somewhat less than the length
of the train, thus diminishing their number to a considerable extent.
Such a result can be obtained in two different ways:-either each standard can
be furnished with two contacts, whose distance apart is a little more that the
maximum distance between two consecutive cars, as in Figs. 4 to 6, or each
standard may have only a single contact, in which case all the conductors a
of the same train (Figs. 7 to 133) are connected together.
Referring now to Figs. 4 to 6, which illustrate the first of these two ways,
each standard has fixed on it a doubly curved bracket o. A contact roller d, for
the same purpose and mounted in the same manner as described with reference
to Fig. 2, is secured on each of the arms of the bracket. The distance between
the arms in the direction of the track slightly exceeds the greatest separation that
will occur between two consecutive conductors #t. When therefore, the train
comes up to a standard, the conductor on the first car will come into communiça-
tion successively first with one and then with the other of the contact rollers 7,
and as the train moves along, the said conductor will leave the rearmost contact
but will remain in electrical connection with the foremost one, until the succeed-
ing conductor has reached the said rearmost contact.
When a train comes to a curve, the distance between the cars will be greater
on the outer side that on the inner side. It will therefore be necessary, at the
curves, to separate, or to bring closer, the two rollers of the same standard, accord-
ing as the latter is on the concave, or on the convex, side of the curve.
Referring now to the alternative arrangement shown in Figs. 7 to 13, this is
designed more particularly for use in cases where standards with two branches
are not desirable. In this case all the conductors a of a train of cars are connected
together, and the standards are furnished each with a single roller only.
The connection of these conductors a can advantageously be effected in the
manner about to be described, which has been specially devised to permit the
passage of a train around curves, and to cause a conductor which may have moved
ioo much towards the inside of the curve, to be moved outward again.
To this end, I arrange between two consecutive cars, a cross piece p, shown to a
larger scale in Fig. 8. One of the short arms of this cross piece is provided with
an eye and the other with a slot r. Each car is furnished, in the middle of its
upper part, with a vertical axis s and t. The cross piece is so arranged that
the eye pivots about the axis s of one car, and the axis of the next car engages
in the slot of the cross piece. This arrangement allows the cross piece p to turn
about the axis without impeding the variation of the distance of two consecutive
cars.
The longer arm of the cross piece p, carries, at each of its ends, a spring
similar to those described with reference to Fig. 8.
The conductors a of two consecutive cars are fixed on the springs b by means

page_text: of pins (Figs. 9 and 10) and are free to turn about these pins according to the
relative position of the two cars.
The front car and the rear car of the train carry a swing bar we pivotted on a
vertical axis r.
Figs. 11, 12, and 13, shew, to a larger scale, the details of this swing bar and its
mode of attachment to the car. Insulating washers are interposed between the
metallic parts of the swing har and the fixed parts of the car. The ends of these
swing bars are also provided with springs band to carry the conductors a. The
length of the swing bars w is equal to that of the longer arm of the cross piece p.
The conductors a of each car are of equal length, and are fixed on the one hand to
the swing bar w and on the other hand to the cross piece p. Hence the figure
formed by these two conductors, the swing bar and the cross piece, is a parallelo-
gram, and therefore in the passage of the train around curves, the cross piece will
occupy, relatively to two consecutive cars, the position shewn in Fig. 7, wherein
it will be seen that by reason of the rotation of the swing bars, or of the cross
pieces about their pivots, the conductors a will be connected from one car to the
other, without being subject either to tension or compression.
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:
-
1. For use in connection with electrically propelled cars running on rails, the
arrangement for picking up the current, comprising flexible conductors a fixed
at their ends on springs b, c, and standards arranged along the track carrying
contacts, substantially as described with reference to the drawings.
2. The arrangement for picking up the current for trains of cars, consisting in
providing each car with flexible conductors a mounted on springs, and in arranging
along the track standards provided each with two contacts d, the distance between
which is such that one at least of them is always in communication with one of
tl conductors of the train, substantially as described with reference to the
drawings.
3. The arrangement for picking up the current for a train of cars in which only
a single contact d, is required on each standard, said arrangement consisting in
connecting up between the cars all the flexible conductors by means of swing
bars (pivotted on axes ) and cross pieces p, substantially as described with
reference to the drawings.
4. My improvements in electric traction, substantially as hereinbefore described
with reference to either of the arrangements illustrated in the annexed
drawings.
ERNEST DE PASS
Chartered Patent Agent,
78, Fleet Street, London, & 5A, Market Street, Nottingham,
Agent for the Applicant.