US1031308A - Automatic starter and lighter for automobiles. - Google Patents

Description

W. G. WORDINGH-AM. AUTOMATIC STARTER AND LIGHTER FOR AUTOMOBILES).

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 8, 1911. I

' Patented July 2, 1912.

2/ 67 f 4%MW W.. G. WORDINGHAMQ AUTOMATIC STARTER AND LIGHTER FOR AUTOMOBILES.

APPLIUATION FILED NOV. 8, 1911.

Patented July 2, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2."

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM G. WORDINIGHAM, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGINOR TO WORDY SELF STARTER 00., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

' AUTOMATIC srnnrnn Ann meznrnn FOR 'nu'romonrnns.

1,031,308, Specification of Letters Patent. P t t d July 2,1912, Application filed. November 8, 19-11. swarm. 659,082.

To all whom it may concerns struction but I have shown them provided .Be itknownthat I, WILLIAM G. WoRmNowith forked burners 9 such as are commonly HArnacitizen of the United States, residing employed in acetylene lamps in use at the at Chicago, in the county ofOook and State present time. I a t I of Illinois, have invented. certain new and Instead of being supplied with acetylene 60. useful Improvements in Automatic Starters enerators to generate acetylene gas forthe and Lighters for Automobiles, of WhlCh the llimps many automobiles areequipped with following is'aspecification. a storage tank inwhich a quantity of acety- My present invention relates in general to lene gas is stored under pressure. Such a improvements in automobilesand more parpressure tank is shown on the drawin s at 65 ticularly to a system by means of which the 11. ()rd-inarily this tank. is connecte diengine may be started without cranking and rectly with the lamps, the flow of gas to the lamps may be lighted by the driver with which is controlled by an ordinary shut off out'leavin his seat; core 12. My 'resent invention aims to utij Qne oft e principal objects of the invenlize the gas in this tank not only for 7 tion is the provision of a system of the gen lighting purposes but for starting the engine eral character indicated which will be en and to this endI have connected the tank by tirely: controlled -by the manipulation of a a pipe 13 tothe central branch 14 of a valve 1 sin 1e lever, the system being so constructed casing 15 having also a pair of outlet an a r n ed that when the lever is moved branches 16. and 17 which are connected re? 7 in one direction gas will be turned on to t e specti-vel with the lamps and the engine lamps and a spar will be produced to ignlte manifold the amp burners and when. turned 1n the op- A plug valve 19 is positioned in the valve posite' direction gas Will be admi t 9 h casing at the juncture of the. assag es leadengine cylinders and the sparking withm in to the branches 14, l6 and 17 and this iheicylinders W111 be RP thus ermltvalve is provided with a passageway 21', as ;ing the cylinders to fill w1th as so t at the shown in Fig. 2, adapted when the operatangine may be started when eslr d by 81111- ing handle 22 connected to the end of the lhturnmg on the spark. plug by a screw fastening '23 is turned in y ve W111 best unflelfstood y one direction or the other to establish come tothe n g e p o when munication between the intake branch 14 :onsidered in connection with the a'ceomand one or the other of the outlet branches ranym'g drawings llustratmg one practical 16. d 17, Th b h 17 i onne t d orm or the mventlonb' through the pi )e 2st with the lamps 8 and Referring to the drawingsFigure 1 is a when the handle 22 is turned to the right, iagrammatic view of a system embodying viewing Fig. 1, it will be obvious that com- 1y invention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal Secmunication will be established between the tonal view of the controlling device; and pipes 13 and 24 through the valve casing so ig. 3 is a transvere sectional view taken that gas will be supplied to the lamps from rough the center of the device shown in the supply tank .11. The controlling device, ig. 2. consisting of the valve casing 15 and its On the drawings,'5 represents the cylinaccessories, is pret'erably mounted upon the are of an explosive engine of any preferred dashboard 25 of theautomobile where it will 1 me or construction, the engine in the presbe readily accessible to the driver. In order it instance being of a 4.-cylinder type, but that the driver may not be obliged to leave will be apparent as" the invention is more hisseat in lighting the lamps and, furtherllly understood. that any number of cylihmore, to insure .against explosions which :rs may be employed and that the particusometimes occur when the "as is turned on r type or character oft e explosive engine to the lamps for some time before the flame immaterial so far as the present invention or spark is applied I have provided a-lightconcerned. The cylinders receivet eir. ex; ing circuitwhich produces a continuous )sive mixture through the manifol 6 from spark or a series pf sparks adjacent the lamp supply pi e 7: connected with a carhureter burners rior to the admission and during 'theusual and well known manner. The the initi admission of t-he gas thereto.' The 'nps 8' may be of any preferred type orconsparking; system. comprisesa (.Oll 26- 916 usual on but insulated from the disk 33.

construction, the secondary circuit 27 of which runs through .the lamps and is provided with sparking terminals 28 located adjacent the forked burners 9 and the primary circuit energized from the battery 29. One wire 31 of the primary circuitis connected with the terminal 32 carried by the disk 33 preferably formed integral with the valve casing 15. The terminal 32 is insulated trom the disk by suitable insulationstrips 34 and 35 and the terminalstud is normally heldin the elevated position shown in l? 3 by the coil expansion spring 36. The upper end of the stud is rounded as shown and normally extends up sufiicient-ly into the path of the operating lever 22 so that when said lever is moved across the top of the stud contact is-made which closes the primary circuit and causes a prolonged and continuous sparking at the spark points of the secondary circuit. An abutment or pin 37 limits the movement of the operating lever to a position where the passageway 21 in the valve is in full communication with the branch 14 and the branch 17.

' When it is desired to turn on the lights the operating lever 22 is moved slowly to ward the right, viewing Fig.1. The handle will contact with the rounded upper end of the stud 32'before communication is established between the pipes 13 and 24 and a continuous spark will be produced in the lamps beginning prior to the admission of gas thereto and continuing until the gas is nearly fully turned on. The lamps will thus be lighted as soon as the gas begins to flow thereto and any possibility of an accumulation of gas in the lamps which might result in an explosion is precluded. When the lever is thrown to full position against the stud 37 it will have passed beyond the terminal stud 32 and while the lamps are burning no sparking will take place at the terminals 28 since the primary circuit is opened as soon as the handle passes beyond the terminal stud The branch 16 of the valve casing is connected with the manifold of the engine cylinders by a pipe 30 so that whenthe operating handle 22 is moved to the left, viewing Fig. 1, communication: will be established between the supply pipe 13 leading from the gas tank and the pipe 30, thereby permitting the gas to flow directly to the manifold 6 and into the engine cylinders. The sparking magneto 38 is connected with the spark plugs of the cylinders in the usual way, but from one of the armature brushes I haverun a connecting wire '39 to the terminal 41 mounted It will be evident that when the operating handle 22 is thrown into contact with the terminal 41 the magneto will be grounded'through the machine body and the sparking in the cylinders will be stopped. V-hen it is desired to shut down the engine the gasolene is shut ofi in the usual manner and the lever When depending upon the position of thepiston's therein. One at least will contain the gas under compression and when the spark is turned on in the usual manner an explosion will occur in this cylinder which Willstart the engine whereupon explosions will follow consecutively in the other cylinders to speed up the engine sufiiciently, to draw the mixture from the carbureter.

In order that a sufficient quantity of gas may be supplied to promulgate series of explosions in the cylinders I have provided an auxiliary storage chamber or tank 42 which is interposed in the pipe 30. This chamber will be filled when gas is admitted from the main tank 11 to the cylinders and, when the engine begins to move u on startin the accumulated gas in the ,c iambe'r willie:

drawn into the c li'ndars to speed up the engine. It will e understood that comnmaication is established between the supply pipe 13 and the pipe 30 leading to the cylinders only when t e engine is dying down and that after the engine is stopped the lever is thrown back to the normal position shown in Figs. 1 and 2, shutting offthc gas supply or, if desired, it may be thrown to lighting position so that the lamps can, For the purpose of regu-v be. left burning. lating the amount of gas which will be permitted to How from the tank 11 to the lamps and'to the cylinders I have provided adjusting valves 4:3 and 44 in each end of the valve casing which may be threaded into or out of the casing to reduce or enlarge, as desired, the passageways leading to the branches 16 and. 17.

It is believed that my invention will be understood from the foregoing without further description and it will be manifest that I have prmided a system in which the engine can be started by simply turning on the spark in the usual manner and by means of which the lamps can be lighted or eXtinguished at will, all of these operations being emit-rolled from a single operating lever positioned within easy reach of the driver.

While I have shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention it will be obvious that various changes in the structural details of the form illustrated may be resorted to without departing from 1,031,308 I i a I the spirit of the inventlon' or sacrificing any use when such point of use 1s 1n communiof the material advantages thereof. cation with the gas supply, and for de- I claim: energizing the sparking device at the other 1. Means for controlling the suppl of point of use when sai point of use is in gas to points of use and for contro ling communicationwith the gas supply, sub- 35 sparking at such points of use, including a stantially as described.- a valve casing havmg an inlet adapted for 3. The combination with a gas supply,

connection with a gas supply, two outlets points of use in communication with the gas adapted for connection -with different supply, each point of use having a sparkpoints of use, a turningplug controlling the ingdevice, and an electric circuit for each 40 inlet and outlets, a crank arm carried by the sparking device, of a single controller for turning plug and constituting a switch establishin communication between the gas member, and two insulated terminals carsupply and one point of use and cutting off ried by the casing and in thepath of the communication between 'the gas supply and switch member, one terminal being disposed the other point of use, said controller hav- -4 for contact by the switch member when one mg a switch member, and insulated terof the outlets is 0pen,and the other terminals, one of the terminals and the switchminal being disposedv for engagement bybeing Included in one of the electric circuits, the switch arm before and during the miwhereby such circuit may be closed when tial opening only ofthe other outlet, subthe switch is'in engagement with said ter- 50 stantially as and for. the purpose described. minal, and'a shunt connection between the 2. The combmatlon with a gas supply, other terminal and the other electric circuit,

I points of utsejh communication with the gas whereby said other electric circuit may be supply, each{ point of use having a sparkshunted from its sparking device when the in" device, ofa s1ngle controller for estabswitch is in engagement with said terminal. 55

lis hing communication between the as n supply and one point of use and c iit- WORDINGHAM' ting ofl" communication between the gas sup- Witnesses:

ply and the other point of use, and for ener- A; G. FROST, gizing the sparking device at one point of V J. H. JACOBS.

Copies of this uatent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patents,

, Washington, D. G.

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