US2247356A - Safety lamp assembly - Google Patents

Description

y L 1941- s. R. BROWNE, JR 2 ,2 73

SAFETY LAMP ASSEMBLY Filed Aug. 20, 1938 INVENTOR 569104 155 ,R. Emu/1245f]: @M,m QM r /ATTORNE Patented July 1, 1941 UNITED STATES, FATE FFICE SAFETY LAMP ASSEMBLY Application August 20, 1938, Serial No. 225,870

Inc.,'NeW York, N. Y.,

4 Claims.

This invention relates to portable electric safety lamps and more particularly to an improved safety guard or cage and its attachment to the lamp.

Commonly known types of portable electric lamps comprise in general a socket receptacle mounted in a handle, a flexible cable connector, and a lamp bulb guard which may be manipulated to permit the insertion and removal of the lamp bulb.

Portable electric lamps are frequently used in damp places or around metal apparatuswhich is electrically grounded, so that there is a constant danger of the user receiving an electric shock if he touches an exposed metal portion of the portable lamp. For this reason, the handles, socket receptacles, and other exposed exterior parts are preferably made of non-conducting materials instead of metal. In the past some were constructed of soft rubber, for example, which is not durable and deteriorates too readily on contact with oil and other such substances frequently encountered in use. Other lamps have employed in their constructionrigid nonconducting plastics or fibres; but in these the means provided for attaching the lamp guard to the handle are either complicated by reason of a multiplicity of separate parts or require the use of extra parts or tools to attach and detach the guard. Lamps of this type are relatively fragile and readily injured by rough usage.

It is an object of this invention to provide in a portable safety lamp simple and effective means including permanently connected parts, whereby the guard portion may be easily at-' tached to and detached from the handle portion without the aid of tools.

It is a further objectof this invention to provide lamp guard attaching means which may be made out of standard non-conducting material, and which are durable and rugged and not readily injured by rough usage.

These and other beneficial objects of this invention are attained by the novel structure described in the following specification and which may be more readily understood by reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 shows a side view of a portable electric lamp and guard structure embodying this invention;

Figure 2 is a cross-section taken on line 2- of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a cross-section taken on line 33 of Figure 2; and 1 Figure 4 is an explodedview in perspective of parts embodying this invention and used in the assembly shown in Figure 1 for releasably securing the lamp safety guard to the lamp handle.

Referring to Figure 1, the illustrated embodiment of my invention there shown includes a combined socket carrier and handle, generally indicated at 4, and a safety guard or cage, generally indicated at 6 and which is removably mounted on the socket carrier 4.

As shown more clearly in Figure 3, said carrier comprises a hollow shell 8 effectively made of a tough and durable molded plastic insulating material, such, for example, as a phenolic-resin product commercially known as fTuifite which is made of chopped canvas or other fibrous material, phenol, and formaldehyde.

A socket assembly including a base 9 and a shell-type incandescent lamp socket It] for receiving the lamp bulb 2 is mounted inside of shell 8, preferably in a manner to protect the terminals and metal parts therein exposed. Accordingly a shoulder 12 of base 9 bears against a shoulder l4 provided on the inside of shell 8, one end of which is open for access to socket l0 and the other end of which is closed around connector cable 24. The socket assembly isheld in position and the end of shell 8 closed by means including a cap it threaded into said closed end of shell 8, said cap having an opening to receive and hold the mid portion of a soft rubber annulus or sleeve it. The inner end thereof has a double flanged portion 20 which bears against a sponge rubber washer 22 and, when cap [6 is screwed in place, urges it against the base 9 of the socket assembly to hold the latter in position with shoulder l2 resting against shoulder I l. Cap I6 also holds sleeve I8 against outward movement, as will be clear from Figure 3.

The rubber covered or other connecting cable as 24, passes longitudinally through sleeve l8, and through rubber washer 22 to the connecting posts 26 on the socket base 9 and is firmly secured in position to prevent it from being torn loose or displaced endwise from or in the handle by rough usage. This is conveniently accomplished by means of a clamp 28 including screws 30 embracing sleeve l8 between the two inner end flanges 20 thereof, thus clamping the flanged end portion of sleeve l8 firmly upon the connecting cable 24.

The construction above described makes a tight connection which prevents cable 24 from being pulled through sleeve l8 and prevents sleeve I8 from being pulled out of the closed end of shell 8. A resilient gasket 32' is provided be tween the end of shell 8 and the flange of cap 13 so as to more firmly and tightly secure these parts in operative position.

At its open end, shell 8 is provided with means for releasably attaching and detaching the guard or cage 5. For this purpose an annular outer flange 3d concentric with the main portion of shell 8, as shown more clearly in Figures 2, 3, and 4, forms an annular space 35 around the end of shell 8 to receive and retain portions of said cage 6, as will hereinafter be described.

The safety lamp guard or cage 5, as shown, is

formed of resilient fiber strips 36 radially extending from a fiber disc 38 and with end portions attached thereto in some suitable manner, as, for example, by rivets 45. These fiber strips together with an annular strip 42 are arranged to form a suitably shaped guard or cage for the lamp bulb 2, as shown in Figure 1. The opposite or free ends of fiber strips 36 are secured to segments, as 45, 41, and 48 of a split ring of insulating material, generally indicated at 55 and more clearly illustrated in the exploded perspective view shown in Figure 4. The segments 45, 41, and 48, when fitted together form ring 45 which is threaded on the inside to coact with threads 58 on that part of the periphery of shell 8 which lies opposite the inner face of flange 34. This ring 45 is made of such size that it substantially fills the annular space 35 between said flange 34 and said threaded portion of shell 8 when the parts are assembled, as shown in Figure 3.

The guard 6 may be provided with a hook I so that it may be conveniently suspended from various supports if desired. This hook I, preferable made of a rugged insulating material, such as the above-mentioned Tufiite, is pivotally attached to the center of the disc 48 by a U-shaped swivel 44.

With a safety lamp embodying the above de scribed novel features, the removal of the guard or cage and the replacement of a lamp is a very simple operation wherein the lamp guard 6 with ring 45 is rotated until said ring 45 is disengaged from the threads 50., It is then pulled away from the annular space. 35 betweenthe shell 8 and the flange 34 thereof. The inherent resilience of the fiber strips 36 permits their free ends and therefore the segments 46, 41, and 58 of the ring 45 to separate as shown in Figure 4, and said ends readily pass lamp 2 as the lamp, guard 6 is withdrawn from bulb protecting position. The lamp 2 may then be replaced and the guard ,6 reattached to the socket 4 by a reverse operation without the use of any tools whatsoever and without losing any small separable or separate parts of the safety lamp assembly, which disadvantages have been experienced in connection with safety lamp structures previously in com-.

mon use.

It is to be noted that the threads 58 on the socket shell 8 are started a short distance below the upper edge 31 of the flange 34 so thatwhen the segments 46, 41, and 48 are pressed together to form ring 45, the ring 45 may be inserted: a short distance into the annular space 35 with the flange 34 operating to hold the segments 46, 41, and 48 together as a unitary ring which will thus bereadily engaged with the threads 58.

I The construction described permits the use of a socket carrier 4 of relatively small size so that all of the safety guard attaching portions of the device are positioned inside of the line of contact of the safety lamp assembly with a flat surface when the lamp is laid or dropped on such surface, as is shown by the dashed line XX in Figure 1. Thus, if the lamp is dropped on a level surface, the shoulder of the cap l6 and the fiber strips 35 where they join the hoop 42, take the shock of the fall and thus protect the flange 34 of the socket shell 8 from injury.

It may also be noted that by making the ring 45 of a size which substantially fills the annular space '35 inside of the flange 34, the inner or socket receiving portion of the shell is in effect reenforced by said ring when the lamp guard 6 is attached to socket 4, so that the flange 34, the ring 45, and the socket shell 8 form a substantially continuous mass of material which is not easily damaged by rough usage. Likewise, with this construction, the flange 34 protects the threads 58 when the lamp guard 6 is removed, thus preventing damage to these threads by careless handling of the device during lamp replacement. Furthermore, the location of the threads on the inside of ring 45 protects them in a similar manner.

I claim:

1. A safety lamp, comprising, in combination, a hollow handle having a lamp socket mounted within one end thereof, a portion of the outside of said end being threaded, a lamp guard member comprising a split ring made up of a plurality of segments and a plurality of resilient strips secured together at one end and secured at the other end to said segments, the inside of said ring segments being threaded to coact with said threads on the handle, an annular guide member concentrically mounted on said handle to hold said segments together to form said ring so that the ring may be screwed onto the handle to attach the lamp guard thereto.

21A safety lamp, comprising, in combination, a hollow molded handle having a lamp socket mounted within one end thereof, a portion of the outside of said end being threaded, a lamp guard member comprising a split ring made up of a plurality of segments and a plurality of resilient strips secured together at one end and secured at the other end to said segments, the inside of said ring segments being threaded to coact with said threads on the handle, a circular guide portion concentrically mounted on said handle surrounding said threads and forming an annular space between said threadsand the inner surface of said guide portion, said guide portion being adapted to hold said segments together to form said ring so that the ring may be screwed ontoethe handle to attach the lamp guard to the handle, and said ring having such dimensions that it substantially fills said annular space when the lamp guard is attached to-the handle.

3. Asafety lamp, comprising, in combination, a hollow handle having a lamp socket mounted within one end thereof, a portion of the'outside of said end being threaded, a lamp guard member comprising a split ring'made up of a plurality of segments and a plurality of resilient strips secured together at one end and secured at the other end to said segments, the inside of said ring segments being threaded to coact with said threads onthe handle, an annular guide member concentrically mounted on said handle surrounding the threaded end thereof to hold said segments together to form said ring, said guide member extending slightly beyond the outermost threads of said threaded portions so that when the lamp guard is attached to the handle the segments are held together by the guide member to form said ring before the threads on said ring engage the threads on the handle.

4. A safety lamp, comprising, in combination, a cylindrical handle having a lamp socket mounted within one end thereof, a cylindrical guide member formed on said handle at the lamp socket end thereof and concentric therewith to form an annular space between said guide member and said handle, threads formed in said annular space on one of said cylindrical members defining said annular space, a lamp

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