MPROVEMENTS IN ARC ELECTRIC LAMPS
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Login Lineff of Wilmington Square in the
County of Middlesex, Electrical Engineer for an Invention of LMPROVEMENTS
IN ARC ELECTRIC LAMPS
"
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Login Lineff at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th July 1882.
ALEXANDER LOGIN LINEFF of Wilmington Square in the County of Middlesex,
Electrical Engineer " IMPROVEMENTS IN ARC ELECTRIC LAMPS
"3
My Invention consists of Improvements in arc electric lamps and its objects
are:-
1. To effect an automatic feed so as to cause the points of the carbon electrodes
to approach each other exactly in proportion to their consumption and thus maintain
a constant length of voltaic arc.
2. To dispense with clockwork or similar mechanism in the lamp and thus reduce
the working parts to a few pieces.
3. To construct lamps which by using bobbins of suitable resistance can be
worked with continuous or alternating currents, one or many in a circuit, and so
adapted that they can be put in series or in multiple arc or partly in series and
partly in multiple arc, like the separate cells of a battery,-thus providing means of
adjusting the resistance of the working or external circuit to the internal resistance
of the generator of the electric current.
4. To construct a lamp with 2 or more pairs of carbons to be burnt in succession,
the voltaic are being transferred automatically from the pair of carbons just
consumed to the next pair and so on.
For the purposes of my Invention I wind an insulated wire upon the outside
and upper part of a cylindrical vessel of non-magnetic material thus forming a
hollow bobbin through which the current passes before reaching the upper carbon
holder. The bottom of this vessel has a hole through which the upper carbon
holder is free to slide. A tube of slightly larger section than the carbon holder is
fixed air tight to the bottom of the vessel and concentrically therewith but its
Γ

page_text: height is only about say 3rds that of the vessel. In the annular space between the
tube and the vessel is a hollow core which is free to slide therein. This core
consists of an iron cylinder with iron top and bottom having central holes to admit
the above mentioned tube. The core of the bobbin fills the said annular space and
forms an air or hydraulic brake or buffer which regulates and softens any sudden
action of the core. Above the core is a peculiar kind of armature which constitutes
an important feature of this Invention; it is made of a piece of soft iron, or partly
of iron and partly of some non-magnetic material and has a hole through which
the upper carbon holder can slide freely. At one end this armature is held at a
certain distance (by means of a boss, loose hinge or otherwise so as to give it a
certain range of movement in both horizontal and vertical planes) and magnetically
insulated from the top of the iron core but is free to swing through a small are;
and at the other end is a spring which tends to support it in a horizontal position.
The core with its armature is counterpoised by a spring or weight acting on a
lever so that when the lamp is not in action the core occupies the lowest position
in the interior of the vessel. The action of the armature is as follows:-When
the current passes through the bobbin the core becomes a magnet and attracts the
armature which tilts to one side (the side supported by the spring) and jams the
carbon holder. The bobbin at the same time acts as a solenoid on the core and
lifts the latter together with the armature. A set screw regulates to great nicety
the extent to which the core is lifted and consequently the length of the voltaic
arc. As the carbons consume the length of the arc increases, the magnetic field
between the core and the armature becomes less intense and the latter under the
action of the spring tends to resume its horizontal position, thus releasing the
upper carbon holder; the holder then slides down until the arc is again of its
normal length.
The arrangement above described of the bobbin answers well for lamps working
in multiple are. In order to work lamps in series I wind the bobbin first with
thin wire which forms part of a shunt circuit and then with thick wire forming
part of the main circuit. Or I divide the bobbin into two separate coils one of thin
wire and the other of stout wire connected as above.
For lamps with more than one pair of carbons I add to each additional pair a
small or relay bobbin wound with thin wire in shunt and a thick wire in circuit
with the main current. The core of the bobbin is attached to a kind of trigger
the nose of which enters a small groove in the carbon holder and keeps it
suspended until the current in the shunt, through the abnormal increase of the arc
in the previous pair of carbons, (the carbon holder being stopped when the carbons
have burnt down) draws in the core and with it the trigger and releases the holder
of the next carbon. At this moment the armature of the bobbin is drawn in, the
main circuit of the previous carbon holder is cut off, and the current now flows
through the stout wire of the relay bobbin, thus increasing the attraction of the
core and at the same time letting the current pass to the main bobbin of the next
carbon holder. Finally, the falling trigger short circuits the shunt current of the
first relay bobbin and directs it to the next relay bobbin (of the third pair of
carbons) the latter being thus ready to release the third pair of carbons as soon as
the second pair are burnt out.

page_text: 25th January 1883.
ALEXANDER LOGIN LINEFF of Wilmington Square in the County of Middlesex
Electrical Engineer "IMPROVEMENTS IN ARC ELECTRIC LAMPS
"
My invention consists of improvements in arc electric lamps and its objects
are:-
1. To effect an automatic feed so as to cause the points of the carbon electrodes
to approach each other exactly in proportion to their consumption and thus
maintain a constant length of voltaic arc.
2. To dispense with clockwork or similar mechanism in the lamp and thus reduce
the working parts to a few pieces.
3. To construct lamps which, by using bobbins of suitable resistance, can be
worked with continuous or alternating currents, one or many in a circuit, and so
adapted that they can be put in series or in multiple arc or partly in series and
partly in multiple arc, like the separate cells of a battery, thus providing means of
adjusting the resistance of the working or external circuit to the internal
resistance of the generator of the electric current.
4. To construct a lamp with two or more pairs of carbons to be burnt in
succession, the voltaic arc being transferred automatically from the pair of carbons
just consumed to the next pair and so on.
For the purposes of my invention I wind an insulated wire upon the outside and
upper part of a cylindrical vessel of non-magnetic material thus forming a hollow
bobbin through which the current passes before reaching the upper carbon holder.
The bottom of this vessel is made of larger diameter to form an air chamber and
has a hole through which the upper carbon holder is free to slide. In the annular
space between the carbon holder and the vessel is a hollow core which is free to slide
therein. This core consists of an iron cylinder with iron top and bottom and to the
bottom is fixed a brass disc acting as a piston in the air chamber above mentioned
and forming an air brake or buffer which regulates and softens any sudden action
of the core.
Above the core is a peculiar kind of armature which constitutes an
important feature of this invention; it is made of a piece of soft iron, or partly of
iron and partly of some non-magnetic material and has a hole through which the
upper carbon holder can slide freely. At one side or end this armature is held at a
certain distance (by means of a boss, loose hinge or otherwise so as to give it a
certain range of movement in both horizontal and vertical planes) and magnetically
insulated from the top of the iron core but is free to swing through a small are;
and the other side or end is supported by a spring which tends to keep it in a
.horizontal position. The core with its armature is counterpoised by a spring or by
a weight acting on a lever so that when the lamp is not in action the core occupies
the lowest position in the interior of the vessel.
The arrangement_above described is represented in Figures 1 and 2 of the
annexed drawings, Figure 1 being a vertical section and Figure 2 a section on the
line A B of Figure 1. a is the cylindrical vessel of non-magnetic material wound
with insulated wire b b¹ thus forming a hollow bobbin through which the current
passes before reaching the upper carbon holder; the vessel or bobbin a is shewn as
wound first with thin wire b and then with thick wire b¹ for the purpose hereinafter
explained, but for lamps working in multiple arc the thin wire b is not required
and must be disconnected if it exists. c is the air chamber at the bottom of the
vessel a. d is the upper carbon holder free to slide through a hole in the bottom of

page_text: The
the chamber c. e is a hollow iron core free to slide in the annular space between
the carbon holder d and the vessel a. f is a brass disc attached to the bottom of
the core c and acting as a piston in the chamber c and thereby forming an air brake
or buffer. is the armature; it is shewn as ring shaped and the carbon holder d
can pass freely through it. At one side it is held at a certain distance and
magnetically insulated from the top of the core e by a boss h; at its other side it
is supported by a spring i which tends to keep it in a horizontal position. k is a
spiral spring acting as a counterpoise to the core e and armature g so that when the
lamp is not in action the core occupies the lowest position in the vessel a.
action is as follows-When the current passes through the bobbin the core e.
becomes a magnet and attracts the armature g which tilts to one side (the side
supported by the spring ) and jams the carbon holder d. The bobbin at the saine
time acts as a solenoid on the core and lifts the lever together with the armature.
A set screw regulates to great nicety the extent to which the core is lifted and
consequently the length of the voltaic arc. As the carbons consume the length of
the are increases, the magnetic field between the core and the armature becomes
less intense and the latter under the action of the spring i tends to resume its
horizontal position thus releasing the upper carbon holder; the holder then slides
down until the arc is again of its normal length.
The arrangement above described of the bobbin answers well for lamps working
in multiple arc. In order to work lamps in series I wind the bobbin (as seen in
Figure 1) first with thin wire which forms part of a shunt circuit and then with
thick wire forming part of the main circuit. Or I divide the. bobbin into two
separate coils one of thin wire and the other of stout wire, connected as above.
Figure 3 is a vertical section illustrating a modified form of the armature g.
The top of the core e is in this case conical and to it is fixed a bracket of non-
inagnetic material; from the top of this bracket hang two jaws m m which carry
two iron pieces gg; these pieces form the armature of the core.
Figures 4 and 5 represent respectively a vertical section and a horizontal section
on the line C D of an arrangement I use for a double carbon lamp; it is constructed
on precisely the same principle as the arrangement shewn in Figures 1 and 2, that
is to say, there is a movable core e concentric with each upper carbon holder d
and an armature g attached to the core but free to swing through a certain are so
as to jam the carbon holder as in Figure 1, I connect however the two cores e e
by a piece of iron e' and thus form a single core of horse shoe pattern. The
bobbins must of course be so wound that when say the right side of the core
is N the left is S and vice versa. When working a number of lamps in multiple
arc the shunt wire b must be disconnected as already stated; when working in
series care must be taken to have the current in the shunt wire flowing in the
opposite direction to that in the thick wire of the same bobbin. n is a pin on
the piece e and working through a bracket o so as to guide the cores in their
movement.
Figure 6 represents another modification of my lamp. Here when the armature g
is caused to swing it does not jam the carbon holder d itself but jams a rod p
which is connected with the carbon holder. The bobbin a (or two bobbins as in
Figure 4) when the current is on draws in the core e which is acted upon in the
opposite direction by the spring k. The armature g is an iron ring as before
hinged to the core e by a screw q and magnetically insulated and separated by a
boss h. r is another screw (also of non magnetic material) to keep the armature
in a horizontal position. The armature when the current is on is attracted to the
core and thereby jams the rod p; as the rod p descends with the core it acts
through a lever 8 upon any suitable mechanism for gripping the carbon holder.
The bobbin may be wound with thin and thick wire as in Figure 4.
For lamps with more than one pair of carbons I add to each additional pair a
relay represented in Figure 7; it is a kind of trigger x the nose x¹ of which entors
a small groove y in the carbon holder d and keeps it suspended; as the first pair
of carbons burns away the top washer z of the carbon holder approaches gradually

page_text: nearer the trigger and finally presses it down and releases the holder of the
next carbon; this holder therefore falls and strikes the arc between the carbons of
the second pair.
Having now described the nature of my said invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed I declare that I claim as my improvements in arc electric
lamps-
:-
First: The combination with a hollow bobbin and hollow magnetic core (which
may also act as an air brake) of an armature through which the carbon holder is
free to slide when the armature is not under the influence of the magnetic core but
which is moved when under such influence so as to grip the carbon holder more or
less tightly substantially as and for the purpose herein before described.
Second-The modified arrangement hereinbefore described and represented in
Figure 6 in which the armature when moved grips a rod connected with the
carbon holder and thereby acts indirectly upon the carbon holder for the purpose
explained.
Third: The relay arranged substantially as hereinbefore described and
represented in Figure 7 by which the upper carbon holder of each additional pair
of carbons when more than one pair are employed, is held up by a kind of trigger
and released at the proper time in the manner explained.
In witness whereof I the said Alexander Login Lineff have hereunto set my
hand and seal this twenty fifth day of January One thousand eight hundred
and eighty three.
ALEXANDER L. LINEFF (LS.)