US243333A - Signaling-key or circuit-controller - Google Patents

Description

. T A. WATSON Signaling Key or Circuit Controller. NO. 243,333.

(No Model.)

Patented June 21, 1881..

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS A. W'ATSON, OF EVERETT, MASSACHUSETTS.

SIGNALING-KEY OR CIRCUIT-CONTROLLER.

SPECIFICATION forming part Of Letters Patent NC 243,333, dated June 21, 1881.

Application filed April 1, 1881. (No model.)

cuit-Controllers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of signal- 7 ing-keys or circuit-controllers which are employed to close and break electric circuits, such as those used for signaling and communication between the different offices of a corporation or rooms of a building, and especially when such circuits are used in connection with telephones.

While my invention is especially designed for use in connection with such signaling systems as thosereferrcd to, it is readily adapted for use as a key or circuit-changer in any 'form of electric annunciator or signaling apparatus.

In an application for a patent for signaling and circuit-connecting apparatus filed July 6, 1880, No. 13,056, I have described a system of signaling and communication in which, at any given station, one set of wires or conductors munication. Each of the telephone-wires is also furnished with a separate key, wherebyit is connected with the telephone. 7

The objects of 'mypresentinvention are, first,

to furnish a more simple, economical, and efficient device for electric signaling and circuitchanging than those heretofore in use, wherebythe operations of signaling and receiving signals, connecting and disconnecting the telephones, and other similar manipulations may be more quickly and easily performed; second, to materially reduce the number of wires essential in a system of local telephonic communication, such as described in the application I have already referred to; third, to provide a means whereby, when the apparatus is in aposition for telephonic conversation, the local battery of the telephone-transmitter shall be automatically set in action.

My invention consists in an improved electric signalin g-key or circuit-controller possessing the following :characteristics: First, the

facilities for circuit-changing are improved by improved arrangement of an intermediate contact and springs, whereby a local-battery circuit may be closed when the telephone is removed from its support; also, in the combination of a number of signaling-keys, each furnished with a separate back contact or point of rest, with a front contact or anvil and an intermediate contact, serving also as a telephone-support common to the series.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a perspective view of a key embodying my improvements. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a series of keys arranged on a base together and exemplifying their collective employment. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of such a key in its ordinary position. Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation of Fig. 2, and shows the key attached to its intermediate contact; and Fig. 5is an outline drawing of such a key, indicating the objective points of the three branch circuits to which it is capable of being connected.

In the drawings, A represents a base-board of any non-conducting material, on which is firmly fixed by screws at one end a spring plate or key, B, of any suitable metal or alloy, such as brass or German silver. This key .is fitted with a button or knob, 70, of hard rubber or similar material, while connected to the end which is fastened to the base is awire, 1, by

which connection with the main-line is permanently maintained. Near the upper part of the base-board is fixed a metallic back stop or -cated in Fig. 5, leads to the annunciator and ground or returnwire.

Attached also to the base-board, and immediately under the knob K, is a plate of metal,

j, connected to the wire 3, which leads to one pole of the signaling-battery (Not shown.) The other poleof the battery, it will be readily understood, is connected to the ground or to.

the base-board, and in front of the key, is the metallic rocking bar h, secured at the ends to the arms g 9. These arms are pivoted, to admit of free action, on the screw-arbors t" 11. The arm 9 is elongated and ends in the hook (1 ,011 which, when in a state of inaction, the telephone T or other weight is hung, thus maintaining the rocking bar at its lowest point and preventing it from making contact with the curved end 0 of the key B.

Situated on the base-board, immediately un-- der the rocking bar h, is a spiral spring, 8, so adjusted as to press continually upward with its free end against the rocking bar it with sufficient force to bring it sharply in the direction of the curved end 0 of the key wheneverthe weight T is taken from the support. It, then, while no weight is on the support, the key be depressed, the curved end 0 will slip over the rocking bar h, and, on being permit-' ted to return, will be engaged on its upper surface by the rocking bar, and be thereby; prevented from returning to its normal point of rest, d, and by the sustained upward pressure of the curved end of the key B on the 1111- der side of the rocking bar It the new contact thus made will be preserved firm and electrically perfect, as shown in Fig. 4, where the key is represented as engaged with the rocking bar It and maintained in an intermediate position between its front contact or anvil, jf and its back contact or normal point of rest,f d. The wire 4 is soldered to the metallic plate 9, on which the arm 9 is pivoted, and serves a double purpose-via, as the wire leading to the telephone, and thence to the ground or return wire, and also as one of the wires of the' local-battery circuit. The spring f, secured to? the base-board at the other side of the key B, is the other terminal of the local-battery circuit, the wire 5 being an integral part of that circuit. When the telephone or weight is on: the support it will be observed that the{ ,spring f is not in metallic connection with? any other part of the apparatus. local circuit remains open and the battery is Hence the preserved from exhaustion; but when no weightv is on the hook and the key is in the position shown in Fig. 4, making contact with the rocking bar h, the spring f is also brought into close correspondence of the arm g of the rocking bar h, as represented by the .dotted lines in Fig. 3. An auxiliary electrical contact is thus formed and constitutes the completion of the local circuit, putting the local battery into operation.

In Fig. 2 I-have shown a series of signalingkeys, B B B, each having separate back con-, tact-pieces, but provided with a front contact or battery plate, j, a rocking bar, h, a telephonesupport, 9", and a local-battery spring, f, common to all. It will be understood that each key B represents the main stem of a separate signaling and communicating wire, 1, which may, by the different motions it is capable of, be alternately put into connection with any of the terminal branches. hen at rest each key presses against and is in connection with its respective bridge 0 with contact spring 0?, each of the bridges leading by a separate wire, 2, through its own annunciator to ground. The platej, by means of the wire 3, is the terminal of one battery, which furnishes electricity for any or all of the keys. Similarly the rocking bar h, by its wire 4,'is connected through the telephones to ground, and is the common medium whereby all of the keys, and consequently all of the lines, may be connected to the telephone for speaking communication. The spring f likewise serves as the'local-battery circuit-closer for any number of lines.

The dotted lines in-Fig. 4 show the position of the key when depressed onto the battery contact or anvilj.

The operation of this key is as follows: Normally resting on its back contact, d, the path of any current arriving through themain wire 1 is, via the key B, spring (1, bridge 0, and wire 2, to the annunciator and earth or return wire. The effect of such an arriving current is to drop the annunciator and give the signal. To respond to such a signal the key B is depressed .on the front contact, j. This puts the main battery in circuit, and the path of the current is from the battery, m'st wire 3, anvil j, key B,

and wire 1, to the distant annunciator and to ground, giving the return-signal. The manipulators at both ends now being prepared to transmit and receive conversation, each one takes his telephone from the support, which allows the rocking bar h to rise by the influence of the spiral springs. The key B connectin g with the proper party is now again depressed, and when permitted to rise engages with the under side of the rocking bar It, and is by it prevented from reaching its normal contact (1. Hence the key is put into communication with the telephone-branch, and the circuit as now constituted is from the ground, through the telephones, to wire 4, arm g,rocking bar h, key B, and wire 1, to the distant key and telephones, where the same features are used. The battery Contact spring f, with wire 5, is also brought into contact with the arm 9 and its circuit automatically closed.

Upon the conclusion of the operation the telephone is hung on the support g The key B flies back to its original back contact, (I, restoring the circuit to its annunciator branch terminal and opening the local circuit. If any key is already engaged with the rocking shaft,

two or more keys should be depressed at the 'same time and by the same motion, they, striking the rocking bar on their simultaneous return, will all bedetained by it, so that any number of main lines can be thus conversed over at the same time when necessary.

Although I have in this present embodiment of my invention vdescribed it in the form of a signaling-key, yetI may, if I so desire, incorporate it as a working part in any other apparatus designed for signaling or telegraphic correspondence.

Having thus described my invention and Q the method of its construction and operation,

I claim- 1. A key normally resting in electrical contact with its back limiting stop, and furnished with an anvil or front contact and an intermediate contact or point of rest, in combination with means, as indicated, for retaining said key at the intermediate contact, each of the several contacts being in electrical connection with a separate branch circuit.

2. In an electrical signaling apparatus,a series of keys permanentlyconnected to the main lines, each key resting on its respective back contact, and provided with an anvil or battery contact, an intermediate contact, and a local circuit-closer common to all of the keys in the series, substantially as hereinbefore set forth.

3. The combination, in one instrument, of the signaling-key B, the normal contact piece 0 e, and spring d, the anvil j, the rocking shaft or intermediate contact h, the battery contact spring f, the telephone-support g and the spiral spring 8.

4. The signaling-key B, provided with the 35 back contact-piece, e, and the anvil j, combined with the rocking shaft or intermediate contact h and the telephone-support, substantially as described.

5. The combination of the rocking shaft, sig- 4o naling-key adapted to make contact therewith, and telephone support, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two sub- 5 scribing witnesses, this 30th day of March, A.

THOMAS A. WATSON.

Witnesses:

CHARLES T. LORING, THos. D. LOOKWOOD.

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