US2257679A

US2257679A - Circuit closer

Info

Publication number: US2257679A
Application number: US305743A
Authority: US
Inventors: Hamby Allan Mcp
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1939-11-22
Filing date: 1939-11-22
Publication date: 1941-09-30
Anticipated expiration: 1958-09-30

Description

Sept. 30, 1941. A. McP. HAMBY 2,257,679

CIRCUIT CLOSER Filed Nov. 22, 1959 Patented Sept. 30, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFECE CIRCUIT CLOSER Allan McP. Hamby, Cottage City, Md.

Application November 22, 1939, Serial No. 305,743

1 Claim.

My invention consists in a new and useful improvement in circuit closers and is designed more particularly to provide a device to close the circuit of the ordinary string of Christmas tree lights, to locate a burned out lamp bulb. Since the lamps in such a string of lights are in series, a burned out lamp causing a break in the circuit puts out all the lights on the string. The usual method of finding the burned out lamp is to unscrew from their sockets each lamp on the string, replacing it with a lamp known to have an unbroken filament. When the good lamp replaces the burned out lamp, all the lamps on the string glow. This method is extremely tedious and often quite difficult owing to the distribution of the several lamps of the string among the boughs and ornaments of the Christmas tree. Since the burning out of the lamps is a very common occurrence, this difficult method of overcoming the failure of the string is quite irksome and annoying, and it is to avoid such annoyance that my improved device is intended. My device has a metallic member having teeth which penetrate the insulated covering of the electric wires and contacting the two wires entering each socket on the string effect an electrical contact between the wires. When the device is applied to the wires leading to the burned out bulb, the break in the circuit caused by the burned out bulb is closed and the remaining lamps in the string glow. The faulty bulb having been located is then replaced by a good bulb. The application of my device to the wires is easily accomplished as I provide a pair of clamping members, one carrying the contact member, having handles so pivoted that when the members are placed about the wires they may be moved by the handles to grip the wires and force the teeth of the contact member into the wires and effect the contact.

While I have illustrated in the drawing filed herewith and have hereinafter fully described one specific embodiment of my device, it is to be distinctly understood that I do not consider my invention limited to said specific embodi ment, but refer for its scope to the claim appended hereto.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of my device.

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of my device shown in connection with an electric light bulb and the wires therefor.

Fig. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal vertical section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 is a transverse vertical section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

As illustrated in the drawing, my device consists of a pair of clamping members A and B of any suitable insulating material, provided with the pivotally connected handles A| and Bl. Suitably mounted in the member A is a contact element I of any suitable conducting material, provided with a serrated edge protruding from the inner face A-2 of the memher A and forming a series of fangs 2 adapted to penetrate the insulation I and contact the electric wires W. The member B is provided on its inner face B2 with the longitudinal groove 3 registering with the element I. From the foregoing description of the details of construction of my improved device, its use and operation is obvious. The device is positioned, as illustrated in Fig. 2, so that the wires W from the socket S of the lamp L pass between the members A and B. By manipulation of thehandles A---! and Bl, the members A and. B are caused to grip the Wires W, thereby forcing the fangs 2 through the insulation I and into the braided wires W, as illustrated in Fig. 3. If the filament of the lamp L has become ruptured, thereby causing the failure of the circuit of the string of lamps, it is obvious that the contact member I will restore the circuit, causing the other lamps in the circuit to glow. Thus it is obvious that when my device is applied, as above described, to the wires leading to the socket of the burned out lamp,-the glowing of the other lamps of the string indicates that the lamp being tested is the burned out lamp which has to be replaced.

Having described my invention, what I claim In a device adapted to effect electrical contact between two insulated electric wires, the combination of a block of insulating material having a rectilinear face; a plate of conducting material having one edge serrated, mounted longitudinally of said block so that its serrations protrude beyond the said face of said block; a second block. of insulating material provided with a rectilinear face in which is a longitudinal shallow concave groove; and a pair of pivoted handles on which said blocks are respectively mounted in such a way that when the blocks are forced together by said handles the plate and the groove register and the pair of Wires to which the device is applied are gripped by the faces of the blocks in such a way that the wires are curved to conform with the concavity of the groove and the serrated edge of the plate is caused to penetrate the insulation of the wires and simultaneously contact both Wires.

ALLAN McP. HAMBY.