US1185211A - Circuit-closer for gas-alarms. - Google Patents

Description

A. DI LEGGE.

cmcun CLOSER FOR 01s ALARMS APPLICATION FILED MAY I4. 1914.

Patented May 30, 1916.

ABM ANDO DI LEGGE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

CIRCUIT-CLOSER FOR GAS-ALARMS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 30, 1916.

Application filed May 14, 1914. Serial No, 838,423.

To all whom 21 may concern:

Be it known that L'AR'MANDQ DI Laser, 9. subject of the King of Italy, residing in the borough of Manhattan, city, county, and State -.of Newv York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Circuit- Closers for Gas-Alarms, of which the following is a specificatiom'reference being bad tothe accompanying drawings.

I This invention relates to improvements in circuit closers for devices for giving an alarm when there is present a dangerous mixtureof poisonous gas (such as illuminating gas) and air; and an object of this invention is to provide a circuit closer -for gas alarms which will be simple in construction, comparatively cheap in manufacture and eliicient, reliable and sensitive in operation and use.

"2 In the drawings illustrating the principle of this invention and the best mode now known to me of applying that principle, Figure 1 is an eievat-ion,of no new circuit closer for gas alarms; is a detail showing the support for'the circuit-making lever; and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of a simplified construction.

Upon the baseboard a are mounted the coils b of an electro-magnet c thecores d ,goof which are opposed to the armature e.

This armature e is fastened to a flexible strip gor leaf-spring fby which the armature is -Qsuspende from the bracket g. The lower end of the armature c carries the striker h 35 which is arranged to strike against the bell or gong i when the electro-magnet c is energized. One pole of an electric battery (or othersour ce of current) is connected to the binding-pdst while the other pole of the same battery (not shown) is connected to the binding-post 70. One end of the coils or spools Z1 is connected to the binding-post 7' by the ,wire m while the other end of these coils b (which are in series) is connected by (5 the wire 11. tothe post 0. Through a threaded hole in the latter there is screwed a contact-pin p which normally contacts with a leaf-spring g that is fastened to the armature c. From the binding-post 70 there leads to a branch or divide circuit as follows: The .wire 1' joins elect cally the binding-post k to the contact-plate 8. Uponthe bracketplate It there is pivoted a circuit-making leven or automatic switch it to which is attfi tached one end of a spring or the other end of which is fastened to thebracket-plate t.

The toe u of the lever u normally rests upon a pin w which projects from the armature e and is supported by the pin w, so that the circuit is normally kept open. When, however, the armature e is attracted by the electro-magnet c, the toe u is de-- prived of the support of the pin w, whereupon the spring w pulls up thearm u" of the lever u and brings it into contact with the plate 8, and at the same time the toe u is thrown into electrical contact with the post 0. The other branch of the divided circuit fronnthe binding post It comprises the connectiiig wire in which joins electrically the binding post is and the plate y in which there is mounted the. screw 2 susceptible of being given a fine adjustment. In the bracket 2 there is fastened one branch or leg 3 of an L-shaped bi-metalliostrip 3. This bi-metallic strip is preferably made of strips of zinc and steel soldered together.

he zinc strip 4 is on the outside (that is, on the left of the leg 3 as shown in Fig. 1) while in the horizontal part or arm 6 of the L-shaped strip, the steel strip 5 lies on the outside (that is, on the upper side, as the arm 6 is shown in Fig. '1). The arm 6 pro-- jects beneath the lower end of the screw 2 and is separated therefrom by a short distance. To the arm 6 there is, bound by palladium wire 7 sma 1 bits 8 of oxid of palladium and small bits 9 of porous charcoal,

- which may be made by extinguishing a piece of burning wood by plunging the same in mercury. As shown in Fig. l, the exid of palladium 8 and the charcoal 9 is bound to the lower or zincstrip side of the iii-metallic arm 6. The bracket 2 is connected by the wire 10 with the bracket-plate g.

The operation of the gas-alarm hereinbefore described is as follows: When the proportions of gas and air have become substantially one part of gasin one hundred parts of air, the charcoal and the oxid of palladium absorb the gas with evolution of heat. This heat is transmitted to the bi: metallic arm 6. The coeiiicientof expansion due to heat is greater in the case of zinc than of steel; and since the zinc strip 4 is soldered to the steel strip 5, the extension of the zinc strip results in the free end of the arm 6 curving toward the point of the screw 2; and when the proportion of gas has thus become sufiiciently great, this curvature of the free end of the arm 6 becomes so great that contact is made between the screw 2 In the leg 3" of its support. The spring '0 and the arm 6, tric circuit through the coils of the electromagnet c. The armature e is now attracted, whereby the toe u of the lever u is deprived pulls up the arm a into contact with the plate a and throws the toe u into contact with the post 0. This makes through the other branch of the divided circuit and the bell will continue to ring. Of

course, the bell may be placed at any desired} point where it is desired a poisonrepresentation of the electrical connections of a simplified form of the apparatus. The

binding-post j is connected by the Wire m with the bracket 2 in which is fastened the leg 3 of the L-shaped bi-metallic switch to the arm 6 of which there are fastened, as before, bits of carbon and oxid of palladium diagrammatically shown at 8. The bracketplate 2' is connected by a wire 2 with a condenser 11 which is connected by a wire y with a plate 3/ in which is mounted the screw 2. The contact-plate 3 is connected by a wire 5: with the electric bell 2', which is,

by the wire is", connected to the post is.

thereby completing the elecor completes the circuit "room temperature.

The arm 6 ispreferably made about twice the len strip. .he leg 3 of the latter taites no ac tive part in the closing of the circuit, when an escape of gas occurs. The function of this leg 3' is to compensate or neutralize the variation in length of the arm 6 due to temperature changes that daily, even houriy, take place in the atmosphere surrounding the instrument as whole, or in short, due to variations in what is commonly known as When gas escapes, the arm 6, which carries the gas-absorbing mass 8, 9, is the active element in the eiosing of the circuit through the alarm bell, in which function the leg 3' does not participate at all except as a mere conductor.

I claim:

In a gas-alarm, a pair of ciTomi-terminals; a bent bimetallic switch (l"i0fi having two branches in which the position of the state is reversed, the end of one of said branches being normallyout of contact with one of said circuit-terminals; and a gas-abmrbing -mass which in the presence of gas imparts heat to the last-named branch and causes the same to expand and close the circuit between said terminals.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set I my hand at the borough of Manhattan, city. county and State of New York this ninth day of May, A. D., 1914, in the presenceof the two. undersigned witnesses.

' ARMANDO D1 LEGGE. Witnesses: ARMANDO Bacon,

Keno MICHELE.

h of. the leg 3 of the iii-metallic

Images