Improvements in Communicating Electrical Energy to Vehicles, and Apparatus for that purpose.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 17th No. 1890
Complete Specification Left, 10th Aug., 1897-Accepted, 11th Sept., 1897
Date of Application, 17th NOV., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 10th Aug., 1897-Accepted, 11th Sept., 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Communicating Electrical Energy to Vehicles, and
Apparatus for that purpose.
We, SIEMENS BROTHERS & Co. LIMITED, of 12 Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster,
in the County of London, and ALFRED MILLS TAYLOR, of 5 Marlborough Road, Lee,
in the County of Kent, Electrical Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to means of communicating electrical energy to a railway or
tramway vehicle from an underground conductor.
For this purpose we sink into the ground beside the railway or tramway line a
number of contact boxes at such distances apart that, before the rear end of a
conducting bar carried by the vehicle leaves one of them, its front end is over the
next. In each of these boxes there is arranged a vertically guided conducting rod
which usually is held down by a catch, its head occupying a coned hole in the cover
of the box level with the ground, but when the catch is released it is caused by a
spring to rise, presenting its head some height above the ground in contact with the
conducting bar carried by the vehicle, a boss on the lower part of the rod being at
the same time raised to make contact with a conducting spring connected to the
main underground conductor. The catch which usually holds down the vertical rod
is in the form of a bell crank pivotted in the box, its upright arm bearing on the top
of the boss of the vertical rod, its horizontal arm, which is urged down by a spring,
working in a slot of another vertical rod having an iron or steel head which presents
itself slightly above the level of the ground through a hole in the cover of the box.
The vehicle carries a long conducting bar at a little distance above the ground, the
part of the bar at each end being jointed to the body of the bar so that the part
which, according to the direction in which the vebicle is running, is the rear part,
can be inclined downwards, its end nearly touching the ground. The vehicle also
carries a pair of iron or steel wheels, one at each end which are grooved in the middle
of the periphery and the two rims thus formed are rendered magnetic by a coil in the
grooved traversed by electrical currents. The operation of the apparatus is as
follows: As one of the magnet wheels of the vehicle passes over one of the boxes, it
raises the head of the catch rod, and, the catch being thus released, the conducting
rod springs up and meets the conducting bar on the vehicle which runs along the
head of the rod, at the same time making contact with the conducting spring
connected to the main underground conductor, electrical energy being thus
transinitted from the underground conductor to the conducting bar of the vehicle.
After the magnetic wheel bas left the head of the catch rod, this rod is left free
to descend, and when the downwardly inclined part of the conducting bar of the
vehicle, in passing over the head of the conducting rod, has pressed it down, the
catch urged by its spring engages over the boss of the conducting rod and holds it
down, until another vehicle approaches and passes, when the conducting operation is
repeated. In order to ensure that the conducting rod is driven down sufficiently to
be securely locked by a catch, a heavy wheel, which may be the magnet wheel at the

page_text: rear end of the car, is arranged to roll over the head of the conducting rod after the
downwardly inclined end of the contact bar on the vehicle has passed over the head
of the conducting rod.
1000
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.
Improvements in Communicating Electrical Energy to Vehicles, and
Apparatus for that purpose.
We, SIEMENS BROTHERS & Co., LIMITED, of 12 Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster,
in the County of London, and ALFRED MILLS TAYLOR, of 5 Marlborough Road, Lee,
in the County of Kent, Electrical Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to means of communicating electrical energy to a railway
or tramway vehicle from an underground conductor, as we shall describe referring to
the accompanying drawings.
Figure 1 is a part longitudinal section and part side elevation.
Figure 2 is a part transverse section and part end view.
We sink into the ground beside or between the railway or tramway rails a
number of contact boxes A at such distances apart that, before the rear end of a
conducting bar B carried by the vehicle leaves one of them, its front end is over
In each of these boxes there is arranged a vertically guided conducting
rod carrying a boss C, which is usually held down by a catch D, the head of the rod H
occupying a coned hole E in the cover of the box level with the ground but when
the catch D is released the boss C with its rod and head is caused by a spring F to
rise, presenting its head H some height above the ground in contact with the
conducting bar B carried by the vehicle the boss C being at the same time raised to
make contact with a conducting spring G connected to the main underground
conductor. The catch D which usually holds down the vertical rod is in the form
of a bell crank pivotted in the box at d, its vertical arm bearing on the top of the
boss C its horizontal arm, which is urged down by a spring k, working in a slot of
another vertical rod I having an iron or steel head K which presents itself slightly
above the level of the ground through a hole in the cover of the box. The vehicle
carries a long conducting bar or skate B at a little distance above the ground, the
part of the bar at each end being jointed to the body of the bar so that the part
which, according to the direction in which the vehicle is running is the rear part,
can be inclined downwards, its end nearly touching the ground. The vehicle also
carries a pair of iron or steel wheels L, one at each end, which are grooved in the
middle of the periphery and the two rims thus formed are rendered magnetic by a
coil in the groove traversed by electrical currents. The operation of the apparatus
is as follows: As one of the magnet wheels L of the vehicle passes over one of the
boxes, it raises by attraction the head K of the catch rod, and, the catch being thus
withdrawn from the boss C the conducting rod springs up and the head H meets the
conducting bar B which runs along the head of the rod, at the same time the boss C
makes contact with the conducting spring G connected to the main underground
conductor, electrical energy being thus transmitted from the underground conductor
to the conducting bar of the vehicle.
After the magnetic wheel L has left the head K of the catch rod, this rod is left

page_text: free to descend, and when the downwardly inclined part. b of the conducting bar B,
in passing over the head H of the conducting rod, has pressed it down, the catch D
urged by its spring engages over the boss C and holds it down, until another vehicle
approaches and passes, when the conducting operation is repeated. In order to
ensure that the conducting rod is driven down sufficiently to be securely locked by
the catch, a heavy wheel, which may be the magnet wheel L at the rear end of the
car, is arranged to roll over the head H of the conducting rod after the downwardly
inclined end 6 has passed over the head of the conducting rod.
The wheels L are therefore arranged to be moved longitudinally along their axles,
the front wheel occupying the position shewn in Figure 2 by full lines, so that the
head H is free to rise between its flanges, and the rear wheel occupying the
position indicated in dotted lines L' so that one of its flanges will pass over the
head H.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The herein described method of communicating electrical energy to vehicles
by attracting by means of a inagnetic wheel on the vehicle a catch and thereby
releasing a rod which being urged upward by a spring makes a contact with an
underground conductor and with a skate or conducting bar carried on the vehicle.
2. Apparatus for operating as above set forth constructed and arranged substantially
as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 10th day of August 1897.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.