IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS OR APPLIANCES CONNECTED WITH THE PRODUCTION, THE STORAGE, AND UTILI- ZATION OF ELECTRICITY FOR LIGHTING OR POWER PURPOSES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Banting Rogers at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th November 1881.
JOHN BANTING ROGERS, of the Electric Light Works, No. 49ª, Farringdon
Street, in the City of London, Engineer.
"IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS
OR APPLIANCES CONNECTED WITH THE PRODUCTION, THE STORAGE, AND UTILI-
ZATION OF ELECTRICITY FOR LIGHTING OR POWER PURPOSES."
The object of this Invention is improved means and apparatus or appliances
connected with the production, the storage, and utilization of electricity for lighting
or power purposes.
For the purposes of my Invention I mount upon or in connection with an axle
or the running wheels of a railway truck, carriage, engine, or other vehicle, or by
a small engine thereon, one or more dynamo electric machines, and lead conducting
wires therefrom for conveying the electric fluid to receivers or vessels of special
construction, within which the fluid can be retained in given quantities and at such
densities to be used therefrom for lighting the carriages as it is produced while the
train is travelling, and also to continue the lighting for a given time while the train
is standing still, such as when stopping at a station. The receiver, of which
there can be more than one if desired, can be carried in the guard's break, or
in some other portion of the train readily available to the conductor or guard,
in order that he may connect and disconnect the necessary wires, or change the
direction of the current, or to put one or other of the receivers in or out of action
as desired.
The receivers or storage vessels are composed of a rectangular shaped box open
at top. Into this box I insert another box, whose open end or side is lowermost,
and resting or nearly so on the bottom of the outer box. The inner box is provided
with racks or notched bars kept at the desired distance apart by stays or tie rods,
and they have sheet lead (or other necessary absorber of electricity) arranged in
undulating or zigzag order between the racks or notched bars, as to leave a clearance
between every two folds or plys of lead.
The outer box is kept charged with a salt or acid liquid, in which the inner box,
the racks, and the folds or plys of lead are submerged.

page_text: The racks and lead folds are in connection by conducting wires and adjustable
appliances, and have also circuit wires leading to lamps arranged in the roofs or
other portions of the carriages, the lamps being provided with carbons for the
"arc," or arranged for the "incandescent "light.
The Invention as above set forth is applicable to steam boats, and also to fixed
structures for lighting highways, factories, public and private dwelling houses, the
boxes prepared as above described being capable of removal from place to place
when so charged with the electric fluid.
The boxes are provided with test appliances or apparatus, by which the strength
and density of the fluid can be gauged, and also the quantity the boxes may
contain at any time. The lead or other suitable metal in the interior of the inner
box may be arranged as distinct plates, and in some cases plates of positive and
negative metal may be substituted in the same or in different boxes for storage
purposes.
An absorbent body or bodies may, if desired, be arranged between the lead plys
or between the plates.