US1335023A - Sylvania - Google Patents

Description

A. PAPINI.

C URHENT REGULATING PLUG ANDSOCKET.

APPLICATION FILED NOV- I9| 1919.

A T ORNE YS.

' A. PAPINI. Y CURRENT REGULATING PLUG AND SOCKET.

f APPLICATION FILED NOV. I9. 1919.

Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

HHIIIIIIIII-H .l-...lllllll I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANTONIO PAPINI, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO A. MECKY COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF" PENN- SYLVANIA.

CURRENT-REGULATING PLUG AND SOCKET.

Application led November 19, 1919.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, ANTONIO PAPIXI, a subject of the King of Italy, having resided in the United States one year last past and having declared my intention of becoming a citizen thereof, residing in the city and county of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, have invented anew and useful Current- Reg'ulating Plug and Socket, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates in general to electric regulators or rheostats for use in connection with electric circuits designed both for lighting purposes and in connection with medical batteries or other devices, including dynamos and motors, to which electrical current is supplied and caused to pass through a resistance material, which is preferably an impalpable graphite mixed with pulverized mica, but may, of course, be of other composition, so as to form a more or less elastic material which in certain types of regulators is adapted to be compressed to increase its conductivity or loosened to increase its resistance, in order to increase or diminish the force or strength of the current passed through it, so as to regulate the brilliancy of the light or the potency of the motor or other device to which the current is applied.

My present invention, relating generally to devices of the foregoing class, comprehends specifically a regulator in which there is no varying compression or control of the resistance material which is contained as a mass within the casing of the regulator, and is divided by current-conveying disks in such manner that only a. predetermined are-a of the mass lengthwise consideredis subjected to the passage of the current to control the conductivity or resistance.

My invention has further relation to and comprises a novel means for making and breaking' the current through the shifting of an electric contact from contact disk to Contact disk within the mass of the resistance material, the disks being spaced apart at predetermined and preferably equal distances and each being formed with a contact lug projecting through a slot in the casing.

My invention further comprehends special circuit s opening and circuit closing means and special devices connected with said means for effecting their desired operation, together with other features of inventi@ which illustrated .in the accom.-

Specifcaton of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

Serial No. 339,142.

panying drawings and hereinafter described, the particular subject-matter which I claim as novel being definitely set forth in the claims.

For the purpose of illustrating my invention, I have shown in the accompanying drawings forms thereof which are at pref? ent preferred by me, since they will give in practice satisfactory and reliable results. It is to be understood that the various instrumentalities of which my invention consists can be variously arranged and organized and that my invention is not limited to the precise arrangement and organization of these instrumentalities as herein shown and described.

Figure l represents an essentially central, vertical section through a regulator embodying a preferred form of my invention, the section being taken on the angular line 22 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 represents a horizontal, sectional plan through the regulator of Fig. l, section being taken on the line 1-1 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 represents an elevational view of my regulator with the cap cover removed so as to expose the contact finger of the contact arm and its operating arm, and the connection of the pull chain with the operating arm, the sight of the view being taken in the direction of the arrow marked A upon Fig. 2.

Fig. 4L represents a horizontal section through the regulator illustrated in the other gures, section being taken upon the dotted line 3 3 of Fig. 3.

- Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic illustration of a wiring of the electric circuits of the machine, and Fig. 6 a modification.

Similar numerals of reference indicate corresponding part-s in the figures.

Referring to the drawings The body of the casing, preferably composed of porcelain or other refractory material, is composed of a solid body portion of cylindric form which I have designated l, and of a lower depending, open-bottomed extension designated 2, which latter is in the form of a hollow cylinder both the internal and external diameters of which are greater than the diameter of the body portion proper and are connected therewith by a horizontal flanged connection designated' 3, so as to form within the casing a chamber for the resistance material The body 1 of the casing is axially apertured at 4, and the lower portion of said aperture' increases in diameter to form an enlargement 5, within which is introduced the upper portion of a porcelain bushing 6, upon which is superimposed a tubular packing 7 preferably of wool asbestos.

Latera-lly of the axial aperture 4 and within the body of the casing are formed side apertures 8, within which are respectively entered fastening bolts 9, which serve both to secure to the body of the casing an external shell plug 10 of the character usual in these devices7 and also to secure a metallic disk 11, which serves to separate the upper surface of the hollow interior or chamber of the extension 2 of the body of the casing from the body of the casing itself and from the upper surface of the mass of resistance material 12.

13 designatesv a central metallic bolt which passes completely through the body 1 of the casing, thro-ugh the asbestos packing 7, through the porcelain bushing 6, through the mass of resistance material 12 and also through central apertures in aI plurality of brass or other metallic Contact disks 14, which are diametrically formed to fit within the internal chamber of the lower extension 2 of the body 1 of the casing, and which are also formed, each, with a radially outwardly extending lug 15,.which, in the assemblage of the disks, all enter within a longitudinal vertical slot 16 channeled out of a wall of the lower extension 2 of the casing.

These contact disks, as explained, are so entered within the mass of the resistance material 12 as to divide it into layers, and, of course, are centrally insulated from the bolt 13 by contact with the porcelain bushing 6.

The central bolt 13, as illustrated in the drawings, is squared at its head vportion to prevent its turning, and extends downwardly and completely through a base plate 17, which fits withinl the ybasal opening of the lower extension 2 of the body of the casing, and is `formed of porcelain or kindred insulatingmaterial. This base plate serves to effect the desired retention and initial compression of the resistance material with relation to the casing` and contact disks 14, `through the clamping actions of a nut 18 on the central bolt 13, which is electrically connected with the lamp filament 44.

A socket shell 19 of the usual type is preferably secured to the regulator casing by having its internal central opening 20 formed as a circumferential upwardly and outwardly extending flanged collar or rim 21', which is adaptedtoY fit within a circular socket 22 channeled within the under surface of the base plate .17

'ing of the regulator and also the socket shell,

and which may be of any desired form but is preferably made up of a spun body to which the numeral 25 is applied, and of a cap piece 26 which rests upon the flanged connection 3 between the body 1 and the lower extension 2 of the casing as a whole. 27 designates apertures through the walls and cap piece of the cap cover 25, topermit i of the' escape of heat generated in the opera- ',tion of the device.

28 designates a pull chain of the usual character, which extends in part circumferentially of the casing by lying as to a portion of its length within a horizontal chain `channel 29, conveniently formed upon the upper surface of the flanged connection 3 of the regulator body, as best shown in Fig. 4, and which extends down through oppositely disposed vertical chain channels 30 formed between the external walls ofthe lower extension 2 of the casing and the internal walls of the cap cover 25-, as shown yin Figs. '1, 3 and 4.

l At their lower extremities these vertical chain channels 30 conveniently enter within what I call channel cups 31, which pass through the shoulder 24 of the cap cover 25', and are external of a basal tubular cover shell 32 which is an extension of the walls of the cap cover 25 and which incloses a ,depending tubular diaphragm 33.

rlhe mechanism for effecting electric control, which is operated by th'epull chain 28, is the following Y 34 designates a Contact arm preferably of curved or Vbent forni to cause it to conform with more or less accuracy to the external lcurvature of the lower extension 2 of the casing, and which at its outer or freeend `or terminal is formed or provided with a otherwise operatively in connection with,

the pull chain 28, Vso that in the movement of said pull chain through its vertical channels 30, the operating arm 40- is caused to have a swinging movement about the pin connection 37 and to impart a segmental movement to the contact arm and finger.

As a result of the foregoing connections of parts and according as the movement of' the pull chain is upward or downward, there will be occasioned an upward or a downward movement of the contact finger 35 with respect to and against the radial lugs 15 which extend from the contact disks 14 within the resistance material, so as to cause electrical contact between any one of the plurality of disks and the finger and therefore close a circuit which may extend through the'lower o'r through the upper portion of the substance of the mass of resietance material or through any intermediate portion of said material, according to which of the contact disks the contact finger is in touch with.

Intermediate of its length, the operating arm 40 is divided by a connecting block 42 of insulating material, so that no current can pass through it to the pull chain ;-in other words, the operating arm is made of two parts of metal divided and connected by an insulating part of length of nonconductive material. y

An arm 45 extending downward from the pivotal connection at 37 and 38 of the contact arm 34 and operating arm 40, and then bent radially inward as 46 to the central bolt 13, terminates in a hollow circular or looped collar 47 which surrounds and retains an insulating mica washer 48, which washer encompasses the bottom of the central bolt 13.

Below the mica washer 48 is another hollow fiber washer 49, beneath which is a mctallic, disk 50, against which the nut 18 on the central bolt 13 bears.

In the modification shown in Fig. 6 the extension 46 passes through an aperture 51 in the wall of the socket shell 19, and the mica washer 48 is placed below it and above the nut 18 on the central bolt 13.

In the typically illustrated wiring diagram of F ig. 5, the circuit is indicated as closed with relation to a central contact disk and as also shown in the illustrations of Figs. 1 and 3, the lower layers of resistance material, the Contact disks and the layers below, through which the current is passing, being out of service, so to speak, and performing no function in the operation of the device as an entirety.

Vhen, therefore, the movable contact arm is moved either upwardly or downwardly according to the throw of the operating arm, a lesser number or a larger number of contact disks and lugs and intermediate layers of the mass of resistance material, will be included in the closed circuit.

It will now be apparent that I have devised a novel and useful construction of a current regulating plug and socket, which embodies the features of advantage enumerated as desirable in the statement of the invention, and while I have, in the present instance, shown and described a preferred embodiment thereof which will be found in practice to give satisfactory and reliable results, it is to be understood that such embodiment is susceptible of modification in if'arious particulars without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention or sacrificing any of its advantages.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a. regulator, (combination of an internally chambered casing,-a plurality of contact disks within the casing, having contact lugs radially extending through a slot in the casing, a mass of resistance material interposed between the contact disks,-an electrical conductor extending through the casing, the contact disks and the resistance materiah-a socket shell below the casing and the electrical conductor,-a device within the electrical circuit adapted to be energized when the circuit is closed,-a movable contact arm adapted to make contact with a lug of any one of the contact disks,- an operating arm connected with the Contact arm,-and means exterior of the casing for controlling the movement of the operating arm to move the contact arm into contact with any given contact disk.

2. In an electric regulating plug and socket, the combination of a casing of nonconducting material having a chamber therein,-a mass of resistance material contained within said chamber,-a plurality of contact disks which divide the resistance material into layers and which are `formed with radial lugs extending outwardly through a longitudinal slot in a wall of the casing,-a pivoted contact arm exterior of the casing, the free end of which is adapted to make contact with a lug of any one of the contact disks,-an operating arm connected with the contact arm at its pivoted end,- and an operating chain which partly en- Compasses the casing and the depending ends of which make it possible to deflect the operating arm and the contact arm in either direction with relation to their pivot, which chain at its free end is connected with the operating arm.

3. In an electric regulating plug and socket, the combination of a casing of nonconducting material having a chamber therein,-a plurality of contact disks which divide the resistance material into layers and which are formed with radial lugs extending outwardly through a longitudinal slot in a wall of the casing,-a pivoted contact arm exterior of the casing, the free end of which is adapted to make contact with a lugV of any 'of the contact disks,-an operating arni connected with the contact arm at itsV pivoted end vand at its 'ree end connected with an operating chain which partly encompasses the casing and the depending ends of which niake it possible to deflect the operating arm and the contact arin in either direction with relation to their pivot,-and an external cover inclosing the cas-ing, the resistance inaterial and the contact disks within the chamber of the casing, and also Y the contact arin7 the operating arni and the OperatingY chainrconnection of said arins.

4L. In an electric regulating plug and socket, the combination of a casing or non 'conducting material having a chanibei` therein,a inass of resistance material contained within saidchanibeiy-a plurality of contact disks which divide the resistance inaterial into layers and which are formed with radial lugs extending outwardly through a longitudinal slot in a wall of the casingfa pivoted Contact arin exterior of the casing, the free end of which is adapted to inake contact with a lug of any onel of the contact disks,-an operating arin connected with the Contact arni at its pivoted end,-and an operating chain which lies in a chain groove formed in the exterior of the casing above its chamber, and the depending ends of which pass downwardly so as to be operative from the exterior of the casing to deiiect the operating arm and the contact arni in either direction with relation to their pivotf-and an external cover inclosing the chamber of the casing and its contents, lthe contact arm and the operating arm, and which is apertured for the depending ends of the chain to pass out of it.

Y ANToNio Parini.

Witnesses JOHN A. WiEDnRsHEIM, N. BUfssiNenR.

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