IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR GENERATING ELECTRIC CURRENTS AND PRODUCING MOTION BY ELECTRICITY, AND FOR REGULATING ELECTRIC CURRENTS AND MAKING AND BREAKING CIRCUITS
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Ashley Carus-Wilson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st July 1882.
CHARLES ASHLEY CARUS-WILSON of Grenville Place in the County of Middlesex
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR GENERATING ELECTRIC CURRENTS
AND PRODUCING MOTION BY ELECTRICITY, AND FOR REGULATING ELECTRIC CURRENTS
AND MAKING AND BREAKING CIRCUITS "
• One part of this Invention relates to means or apparatus for generating electric
currents or for producing motion by electricity. I make a circular solenoid consisting
of a number of flat metal washers insulated from one another and each having a
slot cut radially so that when placed on suitable supports to form a ring there is a
.continuous slot all the way round inside. Each washer is furnished with a pro-
jecting piece at each end for making connection; the washers are connected by
wires so that a current when introduced into one, travels round it, then along a
wire at the other side of the ring, back to the first side through a second washer a
certain distance off, then along another wire on the near side and over through a
third washer and so on. The result is that I get several poles in the solenoid,
north and south according to the direction of the current. I arrange to have say 2
norths and 2 souths alternately right round the ring. At certain intervals a wire
is taken from one of the projecting pieces to a set of commutators at the centre so
that when two brushes touch them and the current flows into say four sections of the
ring, I get 4 souths and 4 norths, that is to say 2 intense souths and 2 intense
norths. When the brushes are moved round the current enters a different set of
sections and the 4 intense positions are shifted round also. Now inside the ring is
a rotating frame carrying permanent or electro magnets say with two north and two
south poles and having their pole pieces formed into bars passing inside the
washers with the south poles close by the north. Now when a current is passed,
the poles attract one another and cause the inside frame to move thereby shifting
the attracting region round a little so that a continuous pull is maintained, the
brushes moving with the frame carrying the magnets; or it may be arranged that
the frame is fixed and the ring moves. A rolling contact conveys the current to
the magnets.
The apparatus may be employed either for generating electric
urrents or for producing motion by electricity, as will be well understood.

page_text: Another part of the invention consists of means for regulating the electric current
in a circuit or for increasing and diminishing it. At the commencement of the
circuit I place apparatus which makes and breaks the current very rapidly or
reverses it very rapidly, and I make the current pass through a solenoid or electro
magnet; by regulating the position of the core or armature with respect to the coil
I absorb more or less of the energy of the current and thus diminish or increase it.
I can also arrange that if the current increases due to an increase of electro motive
force it drags the core in a little and so reduces itself, regulating itself automatically.
For an electric lamp I arrange a small solenoid with the core to be moved in and
out by a screw or otherwise so that by turning the screw the light can be raised or
lowered. In a divided circuit as in a house the make and break can be where the
current enters the house and serve for all the lamps.
Another part of the Invention relates to apparatus for making and breaking
circuits. I fit two spring plates, which are in direct metallic connection with each
other, in opposite parts or faces respectively of a disc or block of insulating
material; this disc is free to be turned or moved by a finger piece or otherwise
between two other discs or blocks of insulating material in each of which is a
metallic tongue or piece, the arrangement being such that when the central disc is
in one position the two spring plates are in contact with the two metallic tongues
respectively and the electric circuit or metallic contact between the tongues is then
complete; and when the central disc is in another position the spring plates are
out of contact with the corresponding tongues and electric circuit or metallic
contact between the tongues is then broken. The tongues are connected to the
wire or conductor and form part of the circuit. In applying this apparatus for
turning on and off the current to an electric lamp for example I may carry the
conducting wire to a threaded insulated nipple in a hollow metallic boss, and screw
this nipple into one of the tongues so as to bring the boss in contact with a metallic
case in which the discs or make and break apparatus above described are fitted,
and I may fit a threaded nipple to the disc which carries the other tongue and
screw this nipple into the metallic portion of the base of a lamp socket such as is
now commonly used for incandescent lamps, the case of the make and break
apparatus coming in contact with the metallic body of the socket. The current to
the lamp thus passes from the conducting wire through the nipple first described
and through the spring plates and tongues of the make and break apparatus to the
second nipple and thence to the wire within the socket leading to the lamp; while
the return current from the lamp passes through the metallic body of the socket,
the metallic case of the make and break apparatus, and the metallic boss.