AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING POWER BY ELECTRIC CURRENTS
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Curtis Spalding, of Bloomfield, in the County of
Essex, State of New Jersey, one of the United States of America, but at
present of the Royal Hotel, Blackfriars, City of London, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING POWER BY
ELECTRIC CURRENTS."
Sealed the 7th May 1878, and dated the 6th March 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Curtis Spalding at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th March 1878.
HENRY CURTIS SPALDING, of Bloomfield, in the County of Essex, State of New
Jersey, one of the United States of America, but at present of the Royal Hotel,
Blackfriars, City of London. "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR
TRANSMITTING POWER BY ELECTRIC CURRENTS.”
This Invention consists in employing improved apparatus as a method whereby
motive power, produced for the purpose of actuating machinery, may be transmitted
and used at long distances from the originating source of the same, without the
usual loss attendant on such transmission.
The Invention is carried into effect in the following manner:-A water wheel
when working causes a suitable upright shaft to revolve; this motion is transınitted
by a pair of mitre wheels connected with it to a second or horizontal shaft, which
in its turn imparts this motion through a running belt to a suitable machine for
producing electric currents, from which machine the electric currents so generated
are carried through electric conductors of copper tubes, rods, or other suitable
material, to an electric driving engine, to the rotating axle of which is attached a
toothed gear wheel of any required size, which can in its turn be made to impart
the motion so obtained to any machinery it is desired to operate.

page_text: Although I have described the above-mentioned water wheel as the prime mover,
any other motive power may be used as the prime mover, and any equivalents for
the means mentioned of transmitting the motive power to or from the electric
driving engine may be used.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Henry Curtis Spalding in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 6th
September 1878.
HENRY CURTIS SPALDING, of Bloomfield, in the County of Essex, State of New
Jersey, one of the United States of America, but at present of the Royal Hotel,
Blackfriars, City of London. "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR
TRANSMITTING POWER BY ELECTRIC CURRENTS."
This Invention consists in a method of and an improved combination and
arrangement of apparatus for transmitting power by electricity.
By the use of this Invention motive power for machinery may be used at long
distances from the place where it is originated, and a large supply of power con-
centrated at one point may be distributed to many places distant from the
originating source, or from each other. For example, a cheap supply of fuel may be
found at a coal mine or peat bog, or a forest situated where fuel is not in demand,
but which can be utilized for making steam to supply an engine placed in proximity
thereto. A water power may also exist at a locality where it is not needed to
supply the wants of the neighborhood; either of these by the following plan may
be brought into use for driving machinery wherever power is in demand.
The nature of this Invention, and the manner in which it is to be carried into
effect, will be readily understood from the following description thereof, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings which represent one arrangement of
apparatus by which my said Invention may be put in operation. In these Drawings
the same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts throughout all the Figures
thereof.
Figure 1 is an elevation; Figure 2 is a plan illustrative of the apparatus.
"A" represents a turbine water wheel.
"B," an engine for the production of electric currents, for which purpose I find
the Weston dynamo-electric machine a very useful implement.
$1
"
C," an electric conductor held by the usual unions.
D," a motor electric engine for driving machinery.
The water wheel A, by means of proper gearing, transmits its power through
the belt "f" and pulley "g" to the shaft h, which is the revolving shaft of the
electrical engine B, the interior armatures of which are thereby caused to revolve
in such a manner that they together with the stationary magnets attached to the
outer shell, generate powerful magneto-electrical currents, which are at the same
time picked up and transmitted by the contact of the copper cylinders “K” with..
the frictional springs l, l.
The currents of electricity resulting from this application of power are transmitted

page_text: through the pillar "i" along the connecting conductor "C" to the motor engine
D, which is constructed as follows:-The outer circle "m" is of soft iron of
suitable diameter, having its inner edge cut into a series of steps similar in form to
a ratchet. This ring "m" is suspended between two metallic rods which pass through
its edges, the ends of these rods being secured to suitable supporting pillars with
their connecting beams "n," "n." Passing centrally through these beams and the
open space in the centre of the ring is a rotating shaft, upon and at right angles to
which are secured soft iron cores surrounded by spools, on which are wound the
insulated coils of wire "o," "o," to conduct the electric currents during the passage
of which the cores become magnetic.
"
When the shaft revolves, the ends of the cores which project slightly beyond the
spools are made in their circuit to pass sufficiently near to the steps of the ring
'm" to be alternately attracted by them. At one end of this shaft is a pinion or
pulley "J," by which the motion of the shaft is transmitted to the machinery which
it is desired to actuate, while near the other end is an insulated corrugated wheel or
disc which is an electric conductor so arranged that its points come alternately in
contact with a metallic spring connected with the conductor "C," and by these
means the electrical currents are carried from the coils "o," "0."
For the water wheel "A" an engine driven by steain or hot air, or any other
prime mover, may be substituted, according to the requirements of convenience or
economy.
It is manifest that the engine B for producing electric currents must be con-
veniently near the prime mover "A," and the motor or electric driving engine D
must be conveniently near to the machinery to be driven, while the conductor "C"
must be of sufficient length to extend from the one to the other.
The great expenditure of capital and labor requisite to convey fuel to places far
distant, where machinery and consequently power is required, can in this manner
be avoided, and what is now considered waste or unmerchantable fuel, that is, fuel
that cannot profitably be transported to distant points may thus be utilized.
As there are many kinds of water wheels, steam and caloric engines, and engines
for the production of electrical currents, as well as motor electric engines, I do not
intend to confine myself solely to those represented in the Drawings and herein-
before described, nor to any specific form of conductor, although I prefer to use tubular
or sheet metal conductors, such as those for which I am applying for Letters
Patent.
By the means above described, great quantities of power may be conveniently
brought into active use with exceedingly beneficial results to the industry of the
country wherein this Invention is employed.
Having thus described my Invention and the manner in which it may be carried
into effect, what I claim and desire to secure by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is,―
1st. The arrangement and combination of apparatus herein-before described,
consisting of a prime mover with an engine for producing electric currents, a con-
ductor, and an electric motor engine used as and for the purposes herein described.
2nd. The method above described of transmitting power from the place where it
is developed, to the place where it is to be used for actuating machinery by means
of electrical currents.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Curtis Spalding, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight
HENRY CURTIS SPALDING. (LS.)