US1747444A - Switch - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 18, 1930. J. 5. KINNEY 1,747,444

SWITCH Filed July 5. 1922 WITNESSES: INVENTOR J. Si'anIey Kinney.

w am X' W Patented Feb. 18, 1930 UNITED STATES PVATENT orrlcE J'. STANLEY KINNEY, OF WILKINSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOE, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO ECLIPSE MACHINE COMPANY, OF ELMIRA. HEIGHTS, NEW YORK,

A. CORPORATION OF NEW YORK SWITCH Application filed July 5, 1922. Serial No. 572,788.

My invention relates to switches and particularly to such switches as are employed in connection with the ignition and lighting circuits of motor vehicles.

My invention has for its object to provide contact members that are so arranged and constructed as to operate easily and without undue wear.

The contact drums of the usual ignition and lighting switches are provided with peripheral notches with which the stationary contact members coact to accentuate the several positions of the contact drums. When the surfaces are composed of the ordinary molded material, there is considerable fric tion between such surfaces and the contact fingers. Such switches are accordingly more or less diflicult to operate and there is considerable wear of the surfaces of the contact drums.

According to the present invention, the body portion of the contact drums of ignition and lighting switches are compose of molded insulating material and graphite. The graphite is not in such quantity as to render the body portion of the drum conducting at the low voltage usually employed in such systems but is present in such quantit as to render the surface of the drum sel lubricating. Switches embodyingdrums of the character above described operate with the application of little force and without the wear that is incident to the operation of switches as heretofore constructed.

In the single sheet of the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 is a front plan view of. a switch embodying my invention;

' Fig. 2 is a view in transverse section along the line IIII of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a front plan view of theswitch of Fig. 1 with the casing removed;

Fig. 4 is a plan'view of one of the contact d ums; v I I Fig. 5 is a side View of the drum ofFig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a view in transverse section taken. on the line VI-VI ofFig. 4.

A unitary ignition and lighting switch 1 comprises a base member 2, a cylindrical cas ing member 3 and a front cover plate 4. The ignition switch comprises a rotatable condrum 14 having an operating handle 15.

Contact fingers 16, 17, 18 and 19 coact with notches 20 in the periphery of the drum 14 to accentuate the positions of the drum and to control the lighting circuits of the vehicle.

Reference may now be had to Figs. 4, 5 and 6 in which the details of the contact drum 5 are illustrated. The body portion 22 of the drum is composed of a mixture of molded insulating material and graphite. The contact drum 5 comprises also a metal conducting portion 23 which constitutes art of the peripheral surface of the contact rum.

The conducting member 23 comprises two main portions 24 and 25 that coact with the contact fingers to control the several ignition circuits and which are connected by thin strips 26 extending across one face of the drum. The corresponding member of the drum 14 differs therefrom in the extent and angular spacing of the conducting surfaces by reason of the differences in the circuits to be controlled. The conducting portions are not connected since they control separate circuits.

I The contact drums are constructed by first placing in a suitable mold the metallic conducting portion and then filling the mold with a mixture of insulating material and graphite. The mass is then hardened by heat and fingers pass over the surface portions of the drums with substantially no resistance by reason of the presence of graphite in the insulating material. The drums may accordingly .be adjusted without the application of undue force and they are unusually durable because of the absence of wear.

I claim as my invention:

1. A switch comprisin a contact member having a body portion 0 molded insulating material and graphite.

2. A- switch comprising a contact member having a body portion of molded insulating material having a lubricant distributed therethrough.-

3; A switch comprising a contact drum having a body portion of molded insulating material impregnated with graphite.

4. A switch comprising a contact drum having surface portions respectively of conductin material and of a molded mixture of inslilating material and a lubricant.

5. A switch comprising a contact drum having surface portions respectively of conducting materialand of a molded mixture of insulating material and a lubricant, said surface portions having recesses therein and contact members coacting therewith.

6. A switch comprising a contact drum having a body portion of a molded mixture of insulating material and graphite and a contact portion of conducting material in the periphery of said drum.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name this 23rd day of June, 1922.

" J. STANLEY KINNEY.

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