US1079343A - Electric lighting. - Google Patents

Description

- P. U. HEWITT.

ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.18, 1908'.

1,079,343, Patented Nov. 25, 1913.

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STATES PA ENT OFFICE.

PETER COOPER HEWITT, OF RINGWOOD MANOR, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO COOPER HEWITT ELECTRIC COMPANY,'OF HOBOKEN, NEW JER- SEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

Specification of Letters Patent. Original application filed April 5, 1900, Serial No. 11,608.

Patented Nov. 25, 1913. Divided and this application filed January 18,

1908. Serial No. {111,384.

To all whom, it may concern Be it known that I, PETER COOPER HEW- ITT, a citizen of dent of Ringwood Manor, county of Passaic, State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Lighting, specification.

My invention relates to improvements in electric lighting apparatus in which electric energy is employed for producing light through the agency of vapors and gases.

In another application filed by me April 5, 1900, Serial Number 11,605, Ihave described a form of vapor or gas electric lamp in which a good conducting path is formed for currents of moderate potential and which is capable of regulating within itself the current flowing, so that it is suitedfor general use upon-commercial circuits. One of the materials sometimes employed for the light-emitting medium in the lamp referred to is mercury vapor. The spectrum of mercury is deficient in red rays, and for some classes of lighting an abundance of red rays is desirable.

My present invention aims to combine with a lamp having a vapor or gas yielding a spectrum lacking certain rays, another lamp which will produce the rays not produced by the first. For convenience of description, it will be assumed that a lamp 1s employed in which the main portion of the light is produced by mercury vapors and that it is desired to supplement it with a spectrum having a sutficient abundance of red rays. I accomplish this result by combining or associating with the mercury vapor, a vapor or gas such, for instance, as nitrogen, helium or argon which also is to be acted upon by the electric current so as to produce red rays in addition to such other rays as are contained in its spectrum, thereby' supplying the deficiency of the mercury spectrum. This may be accomplished In various ways. For instance, the mtrogen may be included in a lamp' structure similar to that employing the' mercury and located in such proximity thereto as to produce the desired resultant efl'ect. Another way of accomplishin the deslred result is to combine with sucl x a lamp as the mercur'y vapor lamp an ordinary form of mthe United States, and resiof which the following is a candescent lamp connected inseries or parallel therewith but so located as to have its rays mingle with those of the mercury lamp. I desire to have it understood, however, that the invention is not restricted to combining the lamp giving the supplemental rays with a vapor lamp having mercury as the lightemlttmg substance but generally combining with any form of vapor lamp, such as referred to in my application Serial Number 11,605, of 1900, a supplemental light-emitting body yielding the desired additional rays. In this application specific claims are not made to the combination of a vapor lamp with the ordinary form of incandescent lamp as that forms the subject of another application'.

The accompanying drawing illustrates a system of illumination wherein the two c0- operating lamps are joined in parallel to the opposite sides of the work circuit.

Referring to the drawing a tube, 1, is

shown as containing two electrodes, 2 and 5. The electrode, of a solid body which is conducting under proper conditions, consists, in this instance, of a body of mercury. Leadingin wires, 7 and 8, respectively connect with the two electrodes through the walls of the glass. to, or in suitable relation with, the tube 1, is a second tube 11, likewise provided with electrodes 12 and I stance I have shown the tube 11 as a straight vertical tube with a bulb or enlargement 14 at its upper end and surrounded spirally by the lamp 1. Manifestly the straight tube, 11, might be the tube containing the electrodes 2 and 5, one solid and the other of mercury or the like, while the spiral tube surrounding it might be the one containing nitrogen or other gas or vapor for adding certain rays to the spectrum.

To render the lamps suitable for general use upon commercial circuits, it is desirable that they should receive currents under the influence of moderate electroinotive forces and possess within themselves the capacity of self-regulation with respect to the amount of current received. I have found that lamps may be made which will conduct current at low potentials and within req- 2, is here shown as consisting.

Adjacent 15. In the present in-.

while the electrode. 5

uisite limits proportional to the electromotive force applied in such manner as to be self-regulating and highly eflicient. The general plan of manufacture is to thorougly cleanse the tubes or receptacles by alkalis and proper acids, then exhaust them, by passing electric currents through them during the process of exhaustion. The

lamp is further treated by properly heating the electrodes and creating such chemical reactions therein as would be liable to take place in use and drawing off the impurities anddeleterious materials and subjecting the lamps while in the process of manufacture to the class of currents with which they are to be operated and introducing within the tubes the proper'amount of vapor or lightyields red rays; other substances also yield red rays, for instance potassium, lithium,

hydrogen, etc. The two lamps may be placed upon the same circuit and either in series or parallel, as may be desired under given conditions, and by being properly located with reference to each other, the re sultant effect is a brilliant light containing all of the desired rays.

Instead of placing the lamps as shown in the drawing, the tubes may be curved, one being placed within the are of the other. The chamber 4, shown in the drawing, is not always required but is frequently desirable, particularly in connection with lamps using mercury as a cooling and impurity containing chamber. It is usually desirable that it should be out of the vapor path.

For the purpose of starting lamps of this character it is usually desirable to employ an initial higher potential for producing within the lamp such a condition on the part of the vapor as will cause it to receive currents of the potential with which it is designed to be operated. To accomplish this any convenient arrangement of circuits maybe employed and in the drawing, I have illustrated one organization of such circuits in connection with a difi'erent arrangement of lamps. In this instance the lamp 11, is in the form of a spiral surround ing the lamp 1. These lamps are connected across the main circuit conductors 24, 25, by conductors 20, 21. In the conductor 20, there is included the coil 22, of a suitable spark-coil or reactive device, the core of which is represented at 23. A conductor 20, including a switch 27, leads from one ternnnal of the coil 22, to the main conductor 25, the arrangement being such that the coil 22, may be placed in closed shunt across the circuit 24-, 25. A suitable condenser 28, of any desired form is connected in shunt around the switch 27. hen the switch is closed an electric current is passed through the coil 22, and upon breaking the conductor 26, a high difference of potential is established at the terminals of the lamp, and the result of this is to create such a condition on the part of the vapor column as to cause the current from the conductors 24 and 25, to flow easily through the lamp and operate it. A separate starting device may be provided for each lamp if desired. The two lamps may be connected in series if desired. It is frequently desirable to relieve the lamps from static charge during the ap-v plication of the starting current by means of a conducting band surrounding the lamp near one electrode and connected by a conductor with the leading-in wire at the other terminal of the lamp. I have found that by placing a conductor such, for instance, as a band of foil or other suitable material, near the electrode 5, and connecting it by a conductor 13, with the leading-in wire 7, the starting currents are more effective. Where two separate lamp structures are employed, a similar device will be used with each lamp. As the starting device is liable to operate upon only one lamp at a time it may be desirable to use some such arrangement of circuits as indicated in the drawing, in which a switch 30, is introduced into the conductor 20. This switch may be connected with either of two contact points 31 and 32. connected respectively with the two lamps 1 and 11. When in contact with the point 31, the starting device is applied to the lamp 1, and when that lamp has been started a switch 33, my close its connections through a conductor 35, including a resistance 34: to the main line 24. By moving the switch 30, into contact with a point 32, the line 20, is connected with the lamp 11, which may then be started. A switch 36, may be used to place the lamp 11, in connection with the conductor 35.

This application is a division of my application Serial Number 11,608, filed April 5, 1900. Of the said parent application there is also another divisional application Serial Number 105,723, filed May 3, 1902.

I claim as my invention 1. In a system of electrical distribution, the combination with a source of direct current, a plurality of vapor electric devices,

each comprising an exhausted container and suitable electrodes therein, and means for connecting said devices in parallel across said mains, of means for operating said lamps in parallel, said means including a re istance in series with one of said devices,

- suit-able electrodes therein, and means for s1stance in series with one of said and an inductance in series with another, together with means for utilizingsaid inductance for starting each of the devices.

2. In a system of electrical distribution, the combination with a source of direct current, a plurality of vapor electric devices, each comprising anexhausted container and connecting said devices in parallel across said mains, of means for operating said lamps in parallel, said means including a redevices,

and an inductance in series with another, 7

together with means ,for utilizing saidinductance for starting eachof the devices,

and means for interchanging said resistance and said inductance between said devices.

Signed at New. York, in the county of New York, and State of New York, this 17th day of January, A. D. 1908.

PETER COOPER HEWITT.

Witnesses:

WM. H. OAPEL, GEORGE H. S'rooknmnon.

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