IMPROVEMENTS. IN AND CONNECTED WITH ELECTRIC LIGHTING APPARATUS FOR RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION_left by Alexander Melville Clark at the
· Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th February 1883. Com-
municated to him from abroad by Nicolas de Kabath, of Paris, France.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK of the firm of A. M and W. Clark of 53 Chancery
Lane in the County of Middlesex Fellow of the Institute of Patent Agents
IMPROVEMENTS. IN AND CONNECTED WITH ELECTRIC LIGHTING APPARATUS FOR
RAILWAY AND OTHER CARRIAGES [Communicated to him from abroad by Nicolas
de Kabath, of Paris, France]
The
This Invention relates to improvements in apparatus for and connected with the
electric lighting of railway and other carriages and the Invention comprises a self
contained electric lamp combining in itself an independent store of electric energy
and station charging apparatus for recharging the lamps when exhausted.
object in view is to utilise as far as possible the fittings now used in the existing
rolling stock which is essential to an economical installation of the light, and to
this end I utilise the existing oil lamps of each compartment of the carriages, by
substituting for the oil reservoir accumulators independent of those of the lamps
in the other compartments or carriages, so that a carriage may be detached from a
train and still remain lighted as by the oil lamps now in use, whilst by merely
turning a key or commutator any one of the lamps may be extinguished even
more easily than an oil lamp and without affecting the remainder of the lamps in
the other compartments.
The recharging of the lamps can be effected with the same ease as the refilling
of oil lamps by carrying them to a special shed or lamp room where I provide
accumulators of great size and weight which are constantly being kept charged by
a dynamo electric machine driven in any suitable way, but preferably by wind or
water power applied to mills, turbines, or water wheels erected in the vicinity.
In order that the Invention may be more readily understood, I have illustrated
an example thereof in the accompanying drawings. Figures 1 to 5 represent the
improved electric lamp which I will describe first.
Around the opening in the roof of the carriage I provide an insulating seating
for the electric lamp, the illuminating portion of which descends into the ordinary
glass bowl a. The lamp is provided with two conducting strips of copper attached

page_text: to a cellular box c containing a group of accumulators connected in tension, their
number depending on the distance between the charging stations and the intended
duration of the lighting. Beneath this vessel is an ordinary incandesence lamp d
connected to the two poles of the accumulator placed immediately above by copper
wires. The current may be easily established or interrupted by means of a com-
mutator e formed like a key handle placed directly above the box so as to serve
also as a handle for carrying the lamp about.
Such is a general outline of the essential features of the lamp as represented in
Figures 1 and 2, but in practice I prefer the details of arrangement as represented
in Figures 3. 4. 5. I retain the glass bowl a and the means of attaching it to the
ceiling of the carriage, and at two opposite sides of the aperture I fix upon the
roof two strips g of copper respectively connected with the conductors, connected
with the carbon filament, and each having an angular rib h at the middle of their
width to guide the conductors b which have a corresponding notch so proportioned
to the rib has to avoid excessive friction in the sliding of the one on the other and
so as to ensure contact only at the summit of the angle. These conducting strips b
are fixed as before to the cellular receptacle c which may be in the form of a
parallelopiped and which contains the accumulators, these conductors extending up
the sides of the box and being connected respectively to the poles of the accumu-
lators as shown. The cellular receptacle is enclosed in a wood case provided with
folding handles r at opposite sides for carrying the accumulator box c which is slid
on the rails h bencath a casing k fixed to the carriage roof. A sliding spring
commutator is provided on one of the conductors b shown in figures 3 and 5 for
readily opening and closing the circuit.
Figures 6 and 7 illustrate the lamp charging station. At certain stations along
the line; lamp charging apparatus would be provided in a suitable shed or room
wherein are placed the dynamo electric machines m and the charging accumu-
lators n.
The lamps or rather the accumulator portions thereof are removed from the
carriages and placed on a lamp truck such as now used for oil lamps except that
the upper surface on which the copper conductors rest will be covered with an
insulating material.
The lamps brought to the charging station will be placed with their copper
conductors upon two plates of copper (figure 7) or other conductors connected to
the poles of the stationary charging accumulators (figure 6) The latter are of
great weight and are constantly being charged by the dynamo-electric machine m
driven by any suitable motor.
In the drawing I have represented a windmill p but any other form of motor
may be used, preference being generally given to one actuated by natural forces.
To prevent reversal of the poles which might be caused by the irregularities of
the natural power employed I interpose between the dynamo and the electric
accumulators an automatic cut out q. The lamps having been charged by a more
or less prolonged contact with the strips they are replaced on the lamp truck to
be conveyed back to the carriages and replaced in position
The lamps can then be lighted when required by closing the circuit through the
commutator l.