A NEW PROCESS OF PRODUCING AND DIVIDING ELECTRIC LIGHT, AND APPARatus therefor
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Paul Jablochkoff, of Paris, Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23,
Engineer, for the Invention of "A NEW PROCESS OF PRODUCING AND DIVIDING
ELECTRIC LIGHT, AND APPARatus therefor.”
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Paul Jablochkoff at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 22nd May 1877.
PAUL JABLOCHкOFF, of Paris, Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23, Engineer. "A NEW
PROCESS OF PRODUCING AND DIVIDING ELECTRIC LIGHT, AND APPARATUS THEREFOR.'
"
In the Specification to Patent No. 3552, of 1876, I described an improved con-
struction of electric lamps, wherein the two carbon points, instead of being placed
opposite each other as heretofore, are placed side by side, being separated by an
insulating substance which was melted and consumed by the electric spark passing
from the one carbon point to the other, such insulating substance in becoming fused
acting to a certain extent as a conductor for the electric current passing from the
one carbon point to the other.
Experiments have shewn that in employing a current of a certain tension, the
distance which the current is enabled to pass through this description of liquid con-
ductor is sufficiently great to allow of a number of such electric lamps being worked
by one single current.
According to my present improvements, instead of the electric light being produced
by the action of the clectric spark upon the conducting points themselves, it is the
result of the action of such spark upon refractory bodies placed between the conductors,
such bodies being either raised to a sufficient temperature to become luminous while
subject to a slow combustion, or being subject to a rapid combustion. Thus if a
thin slab of a refractory body, such as kaolin, be interposed between the two con-
ductors, whether of charcoal or of metal, the current operates in two different ways,
according as the current is one of quantity or one of intensity, but the result
will always be a suitable light produced by the action of the current upon the
kaolin.
F
In the case of a quantity current the kaolin melts and disappears, producing a
flame as in the electric lamp previously described by me, while in the case of a
tension current the passage of the spark through the slab of koalin has the following
effect:-The substance becomes of greater conducting power at all points where it is

page_text: 1
touched by the spark, and at the end of a few seconds the current passes readily
where it could not pass before, the spark appearing to form as it were a path for
the current by rendering conductors the points of the insulating body which, it
touches, while at the same time the said body becomes incandescent along the entire
path of the current, emitting a fine uniform light. As to the actual conductors
themselves they are consumed with extreme slowness, and only in proportion as
they become exposed to the air by the slow consumption of the kaolin. This
action of the tensional spark upon the insulating body is the same whatever
may be the source of the electric current, whether this be dry or wet batteries, or
magneto or dynamo-electric or induction coils, or statical machines, or natural
sources of electricity; all that requires to be done in each case is to so proportion
the form and nature of the interposed refractory body that the quantity and
tension of the current is enabled to effect either the fusion and burning of the
substance or its incandescence.
In carrying my Invention into effect, I establish in the electric circuit employed
a number of induction coils corresponding to the number of lamps to be employed,
the terminals of each inner coil being connected to the said circuit, while the
terminals of the outer coil are situated on each side of the slab of kaolin of the lamp,
such slab being held by the same description of vice or holder as described in the
before-mentioned Patent. In putting the lamp in action the current of the induction
coil is caused in the first instance to pass through a kind of conducting match placed
on the surface of the refractory slab. A spark being established along the line of
this match, the heating and incandescence of the particles of kaolin along the same
line is established, and the kaolin begins to consume away slowly while producing a
brilliant light.
In cases where continuous electric currents are employed, the induction coils are
provided with interruptors and condensers, either one to each or one to a number of
coils. In the case of alternating currents the interruptors and condensers are
dispensed with, the coils employed being constructed similar to the form of
electro-magnets for which prior Letters Patent, No. 836, of 1876, have been
granted to me.
As any number of induction coils may be placed in one and the same circuit, and
as the circuit of each coil may be interrupted at several points for the establishment
of as many separate lamps, it will be seen that a great number of lamps can be
introduced into one and the same primary circuit, each of which can be extinguished
or ignited without affecting the action of the others.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
: the said Paul Jablochkoff in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th November
1877.
! PAUL JABLOCHKOFF, of Paris, Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23, Engineer. "A NEW
PROCESS OF PRODUCING AND DIVIDING ELECTRIC LIGHT, AND APPARATUS THEREFOR."
In the Specification to Patent No. 3552, of 1876, I described an improved con-
struction of electric lamps, wherein the two carbon points, instead of being placed
"opposite each other as heretofore, are placed side by side, being separated by an
insulating substance which was melted and consumed by the electric spark passing
'from the one carbon point to the other, such insulating substance in becoming fused
acting to a certain extent as, a conductor for the electric current passing from the
'one carbon point to the other.
Experiments have shewn that in employing a current of a certain tension, the
"distance which the current is enabled to pass through, this description of liquid con-
ductor. is sufficiently great to allow of a number of such electric lamps being
worked by one single current.
t
According to my present improvements, instead of the electric light being produced

page_text: "by the action of the electric spark upon the conducting points themselves, it is the
result of the action of such spark upon refractory bodies placed between the con-
ductors, such bodies being either raised to a sufficient temperature to become luminous
while subject to a slow combustion, or being subject to a rapid combustion. Thus
if a thin slab of refractory body, such as kaolin, be interposed between the two con-
ductors, whether of charcoal or of metal, the current operates in two different ways,
according as the current is one of quantity or one of intensity, but the result
will always be a suitable light produced by the action of the current upon the
kaolin.
In the case of a quantity current the kaolin melts and disappears, producing a
flame as in the electric lamp previously described by me, while in the case of a
tension current the passage of the spark through the slab of kaolin has the following
effect:-The substance becomes of greater conducting power at all points where it
is touched by the spark, and at the end of a few seconds the current passes
readily where it could not pass before, the spark appearing to form as it were
a path for the current by rendering conductors the points of the insulating body
which it touches, while at the same time the said body becomes incandescent along
the entire path of the current, emitting a fine uniform light. As to the actual
conductors themselves, they are consumed with extreme slowness, and only in pro-
portion as they become exposed to the air by the slow consumption of the kaolin.
This action of the tensional spark upon the insulating body is the same whatever
may be the source of the electric current, whether this be dry or wet batteries, or
'magneto or dynamo electric, or induction coils, or statical machines, or natural
sources of electricity; all that requires to be done in each case is to so proportion
the form and nature of the interposed refractory body that the quantity and tension
of the current is enabled to effect either the fusion and burning of the substance or
'its incandescence.
In carrying my Invention into effect I establish in the electric circuit employed a
number of induction coils corresponding to the number of lamps to be employed, the
terminals of each inner coil being connected to the said circuit, while the terminals
of the outer coil are situated on each side of the slab of kaolin of the lamp, such slab
being held by the same description of vice or holder, as described in the before-
mentioned Patent. In putting the lamp in action, the current of the induction coil
is caused in the first instance to pass through a kind of conducting match placed on
the surface of the refractory slab. A spark being established along the line of
this match, the heating and incandescence of the particles of kaolin along the same
line is established, and the kaolin begins to consume away slowly while producing a
brilliant light.
In cases where continuous electric currents are employed, the induction coils are
provided with interruptors and condensers, either one to each or one to a number of
'coils. In the case of alternating currents the interruptors and condensers are
dispensed with, the coils employed being constructed similar to the form of
electro-magnets, for which prior Letters Patent, No. 836, of 1876, have been granted
to me.
As any number of induction coils may be placed in one and the same circuit, and
as the circuit of each coil may be interrupted at several points for the establishment
of as many separate lamps, it will be seen that a great number of lamps can be
introduced into one and the same primary circuit, each of which can be extinguished
or ignited without affecting the action of the others.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
-
Fig. 1 shews the construction of my improved form of electric lamp. It consists
of a vice C, similar to that described in my previous Patent, for holding my electric
candle, the jaws of the vice holding between them the blade or slab of kaolin or
porcelain D, which, with a width of about 3/8 of an inch, will burn all night. The
vice is arranged above an induction coil B, and may be enclosed by a lamp glass or
globe, the whole being madeto resemble an ordinary lamp in appearance. The

page_text: current from an induction coil, in passing through the slab D, has not sufficient
intensity to melt and burn the kaolin, but heats the same to the point of incandescence.
The current is in the first instance made to act upon a kind of conducting match placed
on the edge of the kaolin slab; the part of the slab which is thus heated forms a con-
ducting line of great resistance, and which on the passage of a current of high tension is
raised to a white heat, giving out a fine light. A certain consumption of the kaolin
'is effected along this line of incandescence, but the comsumption is very small. The
result thus obtained between the terminals of the circuit is a fine luminous band,
which can attain a much greater length than the non-luminous spark ordinarily
produced by the coil employed. The strength of the light only depends on the
number of convolutions and size of the wire employed for the induction coil.
Fig. 2 shews the arrangement of my electric lamps for currents of the same
direction, either continuous or reversed, such as are produced by Gramme's machine
and ordinary batteries. In this case the induction coils are arranged with
interruptor and condensers, either one to each, or as the Drawing shews, one to several
coils. The induction coils B1, B2, B3, are placed near the points where the light is to
be produced, the lamps, which consist as before, of a vice or clamp holding the kaolin
slab, can be of different intensities, according to the dimensions of the slab,, or pre-
ferably according to the number of slabs employed, the induction coils being made of
correspondingly different dimensions.
Fig. 3 shews the arrangement in which alternating currents are employed, such as
those produced by most magneto-electric machines. This arrangement only differs
from the preceding one by the omission of the interruptor and condenser. The
coils here shewn are similar in construction to those for which the before-mentioned
previous Letters Patent have been granted to me. In this case the total system of
distribution may consist of a central circuit represented by the series of internal
wires of the coils, from which branch out as many distinct conductors as there are
bobbins in the circuit. Each lamp is therefore perfectly independent, and may be
lit or extinguished separately. The distribution of electricity in a building to be
illuminated is in this case similar to the distribution of gas. As a great number
of induction coils can be placed in the circuit, and as a number of lamps may
be placed in the circuit of each coil, it will be seen that the electric light is thus
capable of very great subdivision.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I claim :-
First. Producing electric light by the passage of a current of-high tension through
a slab or piece of refractory material interposed in the circuit of the said current,
substantially as herein described.
Second. The use in apparatus for the production of electric light of induction coils
interposed in a primary electric circuit for generating separate and independent
currents to be used for producing electric light in one or more lamps interposed in
such secondary circuits, substantially as herein described.
Third. Constructing electric lamps, consisting of a vice or clamp holding a slab or
piece of refractory material, and electrically connected to an induction coil, substan-
tially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Paul Jablochkoff, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirtieth day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand
icht hundred and corrents Con
JUELS ARMENGAUD, Jeune,
of Paris,
Boulevard de Strasbourg, No. 23,
Civil Engineer.
PAUL JABLOCHKOFF. (L.S.)
Witness.