US1152843A - Circuit-controller. - Google Patents

Description

W. C. REED.

CIRCUIT CONTROLLER.

APPLlCATlOH FILED SEPT- 11. 1914.

1,152,843. PatentedSept. 7', 1915.

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COLUMBIA FLANOGIIAPH c0.. WASHINGTON. D. c.

warm ng cgnnnnorp amou, MASSACHUSETTS, assronoarornn TE ELECrBIC COM- -PAN'Y, OFIITTSFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, A COBIGRATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

CIRCUIT-'CONTBQLLER.

.Original application filedAugust-ZS, 19LO,-Seria1 No. 578,587.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 7,1915.

-l3ivitled and this application-filed September 311,.1914. Serial No. 861,319.

T 0 all whom it may. concern Be it known that I, lVAL'rnaC. .Rnnn, a citizen of the United States, residing at Dalton, in the county of Berkshire and State of lJIassachusetts, have invented new and use- :ful improvements in Circu-it- Controllers, of

which the following is a specification.

In a co-pending application filed 9n the 28rd day of August, 1910,Serial No. 518,584, I have shown and described an electrically operated piano player in which provision 1s made for opening and closing simultaneously a number of branch circuits by means of which the resistance of corresponding playing-magnet circuits is appropriately varied to produce expression effects 1n the compositions played. For controlling these branch circuits it is important to employ a device which is adapted not only to open or close simultaneously a considerable number of circuits but also to be operated electrically and very quickly, and the sub ect matter of the present application is a circult controller having the characteristics ust referred to, this application being a division of my aforesaid application Serial No. 578.587.

My circuit controller may have various forms and may be utilized in connection with circuits which are normally either open or closed, and by way of example I have illustrated in the accompanying drawing the preferred construction of my circuit controller when used in connection with circuits which are normally open.

Figure 1 of the drawing shows the controller in vertical section; Fig. 2 is a top plan View of the controller; and Fig. 3 is an elevation of the same as viewed from the right in Fig. 2.

The circuit controller illustrated in the drawing comprises an insulating block 2 mounted on a suitable base 3 and carrying any desired number of spring contact devices, which preferably consist of horizontal spring wires 4 located side by side in proximity to but out of contact with one another. The free end portions of these wires extend over and rest simultaneously upon an insulating support 5 which is movable upward and downward and is pressed upward by a spring 6. The upward pressure .exertediby this springv 6 is opposed to the springaction of the \WIFQS l, so that when these partsv are. not otherwiseacted upon the collective effect of said wiresjust balances the effect of the spring 6 and the parts remain at wrest;

Each of the wires i is adapted to more into and out of engagement with a corre sponding metallic pin or other contact piece 7 carried by an insulating support 8, and in the particular construction illustrated, in which the controller is normally in opencircuit position, said pins 7 are located be low and just out of contact with metallic contact pieces 9 carried by the respective wires 4. Each spring wire 4 and the corresponding pin 7 are connected respectively to circuit wires 10 and 11, which may be included in any circuit which it is desired to open and close by the operation of the controller.

Whenever the support 5 is in the elevated position illustrated all the circuits will evidently be open, but if said support is moved downward against the pressure of the spring 6 all the circuits will be closed at the pins 7 by the spring action of the wires 4. Such movement of the support 5 may be effected in any suitable manner, but preferably, as in the construction illustrated, said support is attached on its under side to the upper ends of soft-iron rods 12 which are arranged to move vertically within the coils 13 of an electro-magnet and form a plunger ar1na ture therefor. These rods are normally lifted partially out of the magnet coils by the spring 6, and hence whenever the mag net is ener ized said rods are drawn into the coils and carry the support 5 with them, thereby causing the various circuits through the wires 4; to be closed as above explained.

It will be observed that the form of circuit controller above described is wholly free from pivotally mounted or sliding parts opposing frictional resistance to its operation, and this fact, as well as the balancing of the spring action on the support for the contact wires, renders the controller sensitive in the sense that a relatively weak current sent through the magnet coils will. sufflee to operate it very quickly. It is also structurally simple and inexpensive, all of which characteristics are important in a circuit controller intended to be used in a piano player of the type above referred to.

I claim 1. A circuit controller comprising a series of circuit connections each including an insulated spring wire and a cooperating contact terminal, a support on which the spring wires rest collectively, and a spring acting on said support in opposition to the spring wires and normally balancing the collective effect of the same.

2. A circuit controller comprising a series of insulated spring wires each of which is adapted to be connected to one branch of an electric circuit, a corresponding series of insulated metallic terminals adapted to be Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

tember, 1914.

WALTER C. REED. Witnesses:

E. D. CHADWICK, EVERETT E. KENT.

Washington, D. G.

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