IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF THOSE COMBINATIONS OF AN INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR WITH SOFT IRON KNOWN EITHER AS ELECTRO-MAGNETIC OR MAGNETO-ELECTRIC APPARATUS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Alexander Lyttle at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 9th February 1869..
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in
the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND APPLICATION OF
THOSE COMBINATIONS OF AN INSULATED ELECTRICAL CONDUCTOR WITH SOFT IRON
KNOWN EITHER AS ELECTRO-MAGNETIC OR MAGNETO-ELECTRIC APPARATUS," to be
as follows:-
In order to obtain the intermittent suspension or rather "short
circuiting" of the attractive force of a permanent magnet or continuously
acting electro-magnet I connect the opposite poles of the permanent
magnet by means of a stationary armature of any convenient shape, but
the longer the better, up to the length of the permanent magnet, and
I surround this armature at one or more points, preferably at or near
its two extremities, with a coiled conductor of any suitable kind, so that
at pleasure it can be converted into an electro-magnet. When no
current flows through this conductor the armature closes the circuit of
the permanent magnet's lines of force, but when a current passes

page_text: so as to endow each end of the armature with a polarity like that of
the adjacent magnet pole the full power of the latter becomes evinced.
This arrangement is useful for telegraphic and also for all other electro
motive purposes, and when it is desired to perfectly "short circuit"
the magnetic lines of force it is only necessary to allow a reverse
current to circulate round the armature in the intervals between the
passages of the current intended to develope or liberate the permanent
magnetic force. To prevent the power imparted to the armature
overcoming the force of the permanent magnet it may be necessary to
encircle the poles of the latter with a few turns of the armature
conductor. If a battery or system of magnets braced together are thus
connected, say twenty magnets, it will be found that if the armature
is made as long as one of the magnets or longer and rather broader, but
thin or tubular, it will be able to short circuit the greater part of the
force of the twenty magnets when it is not electro-magnetized, and yet
that if magnetized to a strength equal to that of one of the twenty and
no more it will develope the whole force of the combination. In large
combinations, however, it may be necessary to employ more than one
armature for each set. If the poles of a permanent magnet connected
in this manner are placed in immediate contact with the ends of another
separate soft iron armature uniting the poles of a larger and more
powerful system it will be found that when the force of the smaller
magnet or system is evolved through the flow of the electric current
round its armature the force developed will act inductively on the
second armature, and so cause it to develope the force of the second
system. A very feeble current may thus be made to cause the
evolution of great magnetic power. If the permanent magnet poles
are armed with magneto-electric coils fixed upon them in any con-
venient manner the passage of the current by any desired form of
commutator or contact breaker will develope electric currents in the
magneto-electric coils in the same manner as the rotation of an
armature on any of the present well-known plans. If suitable arrange-
ments by well-known means (such as reotropes) are adopted to ensure
the flow of the induced currents in one direction only, this current may
be made to actuate the armatures of another and more powerful system.
It is obvious that the permanent magnets in either the first or the
second of these systems may be replaced by electro-magnets, and in
that case the current developed in the first system may be made to
sustain or strengthen the electro-magnetism of the second. The current

page_text: developed magneto-electrically by any of the foregoing arrangements
may also be made to actuate any of the well-known forms of induction
coil, and so become still further augmented in power. If the current
developed is required to produce the electric light or other suitable
purpose it may be allowed to flow in its alternating reversals from the
magneto-electric coils attached to the poles of one system of magnets
through the coils of the armature of another system, because it will
thus intensify the reversals of the induction in the second system, and
the second system may be made to send its current into the armature
of a third, and so on, with increasing acceleration and power. The
electro-magnetic conductor of the armature, however coiled, may with
advantage be surrounded by a secondary wire so as to reap the fullest
inductive effect from the primary wire current.
According to the present manner of constructing electro-magnetic or
magneto-electric coils all that is necessary is to take care that the
insulated wire or other conductor is always coiled in one direction round
its axis, but no regard is paid to the direction in which each helix
advances from its commencing point. Thus, if the coil is placed in
front of a person with one of its ends to the right hand and the other to
the left, it will be found that the conducting wire at present is wound
precisely like the thread on a cotton reel, namely, from one end, say,
the left, to the opposite end and then evenly back again, the fact having
apparently been overlooked that the second helix thus wound imparts
opposite polarity, and therefore partially neutralizes the effect of the
first. To avoid this I carry back the wire on completion of one helix
to the end at which I commenced, so as to render each successive set
of convolutions or helix an exact counterpart, both as regards its
direction round the axis and direction of conductivity from one end to
the other of the helix on which it is wound. I pursue the same course
whether the coil is required for magneto-electric or electro-magnetic
use.
I claim the forgoing peculiar plan of producing by means of an
intermittently magnetized soft iron armature an alternately active and
latent state of continuously existing magnetic force as the primary
feature of utility and novelty in my Invention, and inasmuch as the new
system of winding coils (which I believe to be also my own Invention)
is in some degree essential to the fullest realization of either magneto-
electric or electro-magnetic force, I am obliged to include its description

page_text: in this Specification as one of the best means for carrying out the chief
part of the Invention as first herein-before described. Of course this
plan of winding coils is equally applicable to such coils when they are
required for magneto-electric or electro-magnetic purposes not needing
the employment of the peculiar electro-magnetic armature herein-before
described.