US245648A - Telephone-signal apparatus - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

J. A. MoGOY.

TELEPHONE SIGNAL APPARATUS.

Patented Aug. 16, 1881.

Wit E5555.

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NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN A. MCCOY, OF FALL RIVER, ASSIGNOR TO CHAS. W. CLIFFORD, TRUSTEE, OF NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

TELEPHONE-SIGNAL APPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 245,648, dated August 16, 1881.

Application filed March 29, 1880. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN A. MCCOY, of

Fall River, county of Bristol, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Telephone-Signal Apparatus, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification.

My invention relates to telephone-signals, and has for its object to enable an operator to call any desired signal-bell on a circuit into action without ringing the other bells on the same circuit.

The invention is embodied in an apparatus in which an automatic switch at each signalstation shall be operated under certain conditions of the current to close a branch circuit in which its signal-bell magnet is placed, therequired conditions to closethe said branch circuit being different at each switch and signal, so that one only is operated at a time.

It also consistsin a novel key-board, by which the proper current may be sent to operate any of the signals, as desired.

As herein shown, the circuit is adapted for four signals, two only of which are shown, and the currents used are of two different strengths, each capable of being sent in either direction, thus making the four different conditions of current required.

The automatic switches each consist of an electro-magnet provided with a polarized and neutral armature, and suitable contact-stops for each of the said arrnatures, which are so arranged and adjusted that when the weak current is passing the neutral armatures will remain on their back stops, but when the strong current is passing they are drawn against their front stops; also, when the current of either strength is passing in one direction the polarized armature is against one stop, which may be called its positive stop, and when in the other direction against its negative stop. As the switches are or may be all alike, the armatures will assume the same positions in all, and each signal-bell magnet will be in circuit with one stop of the polarized and one stop of the neutral armature of its switch, but each different bell-magnet will be in circuit with a difierent pair of stops from all the others, so that the circuit will be completed by the armatures between the said stops for only one bell-magnet with any one position of all the switches.

The key-board is provided with three keys for operatingthe four bells, suitably connected with a battery and the main-circuit line, so that one which may be called the positive key puts the battery on the line in one, and another or negative key puts it on in the other direction. while the third key, when used with either of the others, serves to remove or open a portion of the battery, and so send a weaker current in the required direction.

Figure 1 is a plan view showing on the left hand the battery and key-board of the signaloflice, and on the right hand two signal-stations provided with the automatic switches and signal-bells, and Fig. 2 is a front view of the key-board.

The key-board or transmitting device is provided with three keys, a b 0, (shown as placed side by side,) each provided with back stops, with which they form electrical contact when not depressed, and with anvils, with which they may form electrical contact when .de-

pressed. One of the keys (preferably the middle one, 0) may be called the dividin g-key, as its function is to divide and remove a portion of the battery, and thus control the strength of the current. One of the contact-pieces of this key (shown as the back stop, 01) is connected by the wire 2 with one extreme pole of the battery B-for example, the positive one-and the other contact-piece-namely, its anvil cis connected by wire 3 with a similar pole at an intermediate point in the battery, and the key itself is connected by wire 4 with the back stop, f, which serves for bothkeys a b, which may be termed the positive and negative keys, as their function is to connect the positive and negative poles of the battery to the line-circuit. The anvil 9, common to both keys to b, is connected by wire 5 with the other or negative pole of the battery. The key a is connected with the ground, and the key I) with the line-wire 6, and in practice may be connected with .any desired one of a number of circuits by any suitable switch apparatus.

It will be seen that by the arrangement described the back stop, f, of the keys at b is connected by wires 2 and 4, and key 0, when not depressed, with the positive pole of the whole battery, and by wires 3 4, and said key c,when depressed, with a positive pole of a portion of the battery, so that the only function of the key 0 is to remove a portion of the battery and weaken the current. It will thus be seen that the back stop of the keys a b is always connected with one and their anvil with the other pole of the battery, and consequently when the key a, in connection with the ground, is alone depressed to the anvil g, the negative pole of the battery is grounded,while the positive pole is connected by back stop,f. and key b (not depressed) with the line,while if the key I) alone is depressed it connects anvil g and negative pole of the battery to line and the positive is grounded through the back stop, f, and key a, (not depressed.) lVhile the key 0 is depressed that portion of the battery between the wires 3 and 5 will be put to line in one direction by the key a, and in the other by the key I).

The line-wire 6 passes on to and through the coils of the different switch electro-magnets h i, and finally to the ground, which completes the circuit to the key a, as before described. The switch electro-rnagnets are each provided with polarized tongues l, pivoted at 7 to vibrate in either direction, the free end being provided with a finger to form contact with one of the stops at n, according to the direction of the current through the coils of the magnet. For example, if the key a is depressed to send the current from the positive pole, the tongues I will be connected with the stops m, which may be called positive stops,and when the key I) is depressed the said tongues I will be held connected with the negative stops n. The magnets h t are also provided with neutral armatures o, with retractors p, adjusted to retain the armatures against their back stops when the portion of the battery between the wire 3 and 5 alone is in circuit, but to allow the armatures to be drawn to their front stops by the whole battery B.

The electro-magnets q r of the signal-bells are each placed in abranch circuit around the switch-magnets h i, one electrode of the said bell-magnets being connected by wire 8 with the main wire 6 on one side of the switchmagnet, and the other electrode by wire 9 with one of the stops of the neutral armature 0-two bells with the front stop and two with the back stop-the circuit being continued by the armature 0 when in contact with the said connected stop and metal of the switch with the tongue 1, and one of the stops at a connected by wire 10 with the main wire 6 beyond the switch-magnet.

In one of the switches of the pair of bells connected with the front stops and one of the pair connected with the back stops the stop on is connected with the wires 10 and 6, and in the other switch of each pair the stop a is so connected. One bell of each pair is shown, and

they may be called Nos. 2 and 3, No. 1 (not shown) being connected, like No. 2, with the front stop of the armature 0, but with the other or positive stop, m, of the tongue I, and No. 4 being like No. 3, but connected with stop it, instead of m. The bells 1 and 2 are, preferably, vibrators, the wire 8 being connected to their insulated armature back stops; but the bells 3 and 4 may be single-tap bells.

The switches are shown in Fig.1 as they will be when the keys 0 and a are depressed, the circuit of bell No. 3 being complete to operate the said bell. The circuits of the other bells are broken, that of N o. 4 at l n, and those of Nos. 1 and 2 between 9 and 0. A tap is given each time the key a is depressed, and care must be taken that the key a does not reach its anvil before the key 0 reaches its anvil e.

In practice it will be well to hold the key 0 depressed, and tap with the key a to operate bell No. 3, or key I) for bell No. 4.

If the switches are in the position shown in Fig. 1, and the key (0 alone is depressed to ring the bell No. 1, there will be danger that bell No. 3 will give a tap before the armature 0 is moved to break its circuit, and for this reason it is preferable that the bells 1 2 should be automatic circuit-breakervibration bells, the keys to I) being depressed but once.

It is obvious that bells rung by a magnetoelectric current may also be employed in the same circuit with the switches.

I am aware that relays or switches having polarized and neutralized armatures adjusted to respond to currents of different polarity and strength have been employed to control different local circuits, and I do not claim such apparatus, broadly.

The arrangement of the signals in branches of the main circuit, instead of in an independent local circuit, is simple and economical, and obviates the necessity of maintaining signaling-batteries at different stations or points of the lines.

I claim- 1. In a telephone-signal apparatus, a series of automatic switches in a main circuit, and branches of the said circuitcontrolled thereby, containing signal-operating elcctro-magnets, each of the said switches being composed, essentially, of aneutral and a polarized armature, each controlling a closing-point in the said branch circuit, the said neutral armatures being adjusted difi'erently, and the polarized armatures being of unlike polarity in different switches, whereby only one of the said switches is properly operated to close both points of the branch circuit by a current of given strength and polarity, as and for the purpose described.

2. Adividing-key having one stop connected with a pole of a battery consisting of more than one cell, and its other stop connected with a similar pole of an intermediate cell of the battery, combined with two other keys having a common back stop connected with In testimony whereof Ihave signed myname 10 the first key, and through it with one pole of to this specification in the presence of two subthe whole or a portion of the battery, and a scribing witnesses.

common front stop or anvil connected with the other pole of the battery, one of said keys JOHN MCCOY being connected with one extremity of the Witnesses:

line an 1 the other with the other extremity JOS. P. LIVERMORE,

thereof, or ground, substantially as and for the N. E. O. WHITNEY.

purpose described.

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