IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY SHUNTING ELECTRIC CURRENTS AND IN APPARATUS FOR BREAKING CIRCUITS
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Samuel Beeman of Earls Court Road in the
County of Middlesex for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
AUTOMATICALLY SHUNTING ELECTRIC CURRENTS AND IN APPARATUS FOR
BREAKING CIRCUITS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Samuel Beeman at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th July 1882.
JOSEPH SAMUEL Beeman, of Earls Court Road in the County of Middlesex,
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY SHUNTING ELECTRIC CURRENTS
AND IN APPARATUS FOR BREAKING CIRCUITS,"
The object of the invention is to produce an apparatus for shunting electric
currents, from one circuit to another, or from one part of a circuit to another part,
and the improvements consist in attaching to the circuit or circuits a hollow coil of
insulated wire in the hollow of which is a soft iron bar which has a contact part
and which when the current is on, is drawn up into the hollow and when this
current ceases to act through part of the circuit being broken, falls and completes
another circuit.
The apparatus for breaking circuits consists of two springs held in tension by
the usual lead or fusible metal connection so that when the current is too strong
the lead or other fusible material melts and the springs fly apart and break the
circuit. Also in making a circuit breaker between two metal plates by means of a
bar of fusible metal held in position and in contact with said two plates by a
spring or springs.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Joseph Samuel Beeman in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
13th January 1883.
JOSEPH SAMUEL BEEMAN, of Earls Court Road, in the County of Middlesex,
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY SHUNTING ELECTRIC CURRENTS
AND IN APPARATUS FOR BREAKING CIRCUITS
The object of the invention is to produce an apparatus for shunting electric
currents, from one circuit to another, or from one part of a circuit to another part,
and the improvements consist in inserting or attaching to the circuit. or circuits a
hollow coil of insulated wire in the hollow of which is a soft iron bar which has a
contact part and which when, the current is on, is drawn up into the hollow and
when this current ceases to act through part of the circuit being broken, falls and
completes another circuit.
The apparatus for breaking circuits consists of two springs held in tension by
the usual lead or fusible metal connection so that when the current is too strong
the lead or other fusible material melts and the springs fly apart and break the
circuit. Also the invention .consists in making a circuit breaker between two
metal plates by means of a bar of fusible metal held in position, and in contact
with said two plates by a spring or springs.
The drawings hereunto annexed will serve to illustrate convenient modes of
performing the invention. Figs. 1, 2 and 3 show various devices in which the
automatic shunting apparatus can be used-in all the figures like letters represent
like parts. A incandescent lamps. B automatic shunting apparatus. C and D
portion of main circuit.
In Fig 1 the current enters and passes along the branch wire a to b and in its
passage actuates the soft iron bar c inside the coil of wire B and passing through
the lamp A to d returns to the main circuit C at the point e. If for any reason
the lamp A becomes deranged the current instead of passing from a to b passes
from a through i by the contact piece lg on the soft iron bar c (which has
previously fallen owing to the derangement of the lamp and thus made electrical
communication between 9 and 1) to through the lamp and thence to d and e to
main circuit C.
Fig 2 shows another arrangement of doing the same thing, the contact piece and
soft iron bar being held against x and y by a spring instead of by gravity.
Fig 3 shows a similar arrangement whereby if either of two lamps become
deranged a third lamp.is shunted in to take its place; this may be effected by
gravity or by a spring attached to the contact piece on the end of the soft iron bar
forming part of the shunting apparatus.
Fig 4 is a similar apparatus; when a portion of the circuit is cut out a portion
of the current passes from the circuit through artificial resistances and at the
same time lighting or illuminating a lamp A and causing an alarm A² to sound.
E is a dynamo or other generator. The current passing along the main wire C
is divided through the two groups of lamps A, if either of the groups are cut
out of the circuit by opening the switch F then the soft iron core, with its contact
piece c drops, and a proper portion of the current is deflected through the
circuit glamp A' and resistance coil G, thus restoring the electro motive force
or current in the circuit.
Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 are plans and elevations of apparatus for
breaking circuits whenever too much current is passing; in Fig. 5 and 6 m and n
are two binding posts on plates and o an adjustable spring between said plates
keeping in position a fusible bar pq; when the current fuses this bar circuit is

page_text: broken. Figures 7 and 8 represent another method of breaking circuit r and a
being posts on their respective plates; t an adjustable spiral spring holding the
fusible bar 'p q in tension.
Figures 9 and 10 show a flat spring for effecting the same object. Figures 11
and 12 show two flat springs with a movable adjusting bar v for holding the fusible
bar in tension.
Having now described the nature of my invention and the mode of performing
it I claim:
1st. The solenoid or sucking magnet in combination with contact breaking and
switching apparatus, either or both-substantially as illustrated and described and
for the purposes set forth.
2nd. A fusible connection held in tension for breaking contact, substantially as
illustrated and described and for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof I the said Joseph Samuel Beeman have hereunto set my
hand and seal this 10th day of January A.D. 1883.
JS REEMAN