IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO- MAGNETIC ENGINES
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. left by Arthur Potter at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th Sep-
tember 1862.
I, ARTHUR POTTER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELECTRO-
MAGNETIC ENGINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the means of obtaining electro-magnetic-motive
power by direct rotary motion, and the engine consists of a fixed circle-or band of
soft iron bars -screwed straight across the inside edges of two or more stout
wheels, the widths of these bars are to correspond with the thickness of the.
coils of the electro-magnets to be used, the distance between each bar is-to be
double that of the width of the bars themselves, the number of bars to be used
in the circumference of the wheels may vary according to the measurement of
the circumference, which measurement must be equally divided by the thickness.
of the cores of the electro-magnets. The axle or shaft of the engine is to be set:
in bearings supported by standards. from the foundation plate, and its centre.
will be also the centre of the circle of bars which.. form armatures for the
electro-magnets attached.in radial. lines to the central shaft.. The length of
the armatures may be varied so as to allow of several electro-magnets being.
attached to the shaft, side by side, in the same radial line, and form an engine

page_text: of greater breadth. There should be three, six, or any multiple of three electro-
magnets fixed on the axle, that is to say, such number of radial magnets
although each radius or series may consist, as before stated, of one or more
than one magnet on the axle each in the same plane, and they are to be of such
length as to rotate as close as possible to the armatures but without actual
contact.
The Invention relates also to a break for connecting and disconnecting the
electric current which consists of metallic plates studded with platinum points
and insulated from the axle and from each other; the platinum points are to be
fixed in each of the metal plates at equal distances apart, and at the same
relative distances as the armatures on the wheels, the thickness of the points
to measure the same in degrees as the width of armatures; the metallic plates
are adjusted so that none of the pins in all the plates shall be in the same
point of the circle. Connecting screws establish contact with the platinum
points and one end of the wire coiled on the electro-magnets. Platinized
rollers with spring bearings are to be connected to the two poles of a battery
but only one roller acting at a time and one point of the break must always
be in contact with one of these rollers. Two platinized spring breaks are to
be connected with the two opposite poles of a battery, and alternately to make
connection with the shaft and an insulating material half surrounding the same.
Terminal screws with collars receive one end of the wires on the electro-
magnets.
By these arrangements when the break has revolved half way round the
contact is between the platinum points and one of the platinized rollers, and
in the remaining balf revolution the contact is with the opposite platinized
roller, these changes taking place every revolution the poles of the
electro-magnets are reversed, and permanent polarity prevented, thus
ensuring a rapid discharge of the induced magnetism while the direction of
the engine is continued in an unvarying course. In order to reverse the
engine à second break is to be attached to the shaft, or the platinized rollers
may be shifted by a revolving gear, so as to reverse the direction of the electro-
magnets. The method of demagnetizing the iron cores of the electro-magnets
may be adapted to any of the forms of electro-magnetic engines, and the
result may be obtained by modified forms of the mechanical arrangements
described either for demagnetizing the iron as often as it is magnetized or for
doing so at intervals, in all cases it is done by reversing the polarity of the
imagnets which may be more fully described as under; for example, if three
magnets be used, the first is to be connected so as to travel to an armature, or
vice versa, the space through which it travels making a connection with the

page_text: second magnet and causing that to travel in the same, or an opposite direction,
at the same time passing an instantaneous current through the first in a reverse
direction to that employed for obtaining power, thus demagnetizing or annulling
the magnetism retained in the first magnet and which would otherwise retard
the power of the second, the third being brought into action in the same way
and in its turn demagnetizing the second, and so on ad infinitum.