US251097A

US251097A - Device for transmitting and receiving electric calls

Info

Publication number: US251097A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1881-12-20
Anticipated expiration: 1898-12-20

Description

4 Sheets-Sheet 1;

J. CURRIER.

DEVICE FOR TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING ELECTRIC CALLS Patented Dec. 20

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DEVICE FOR TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING ELECTRIC CALLS.

No. 251,097. Patented Dec. 20,1881

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4 Sheets-Sheet 4.

J. B. OURRIER.

DEVICE FOR TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING ELBGTRIU CALLS. No. 251,097. Patented Dec. ZQfiPl.

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' alarm device.

I UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JACOB B. CURRIER, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

DEVICE FOR TRANSMITTING AND RECEIVING ELECTRIC CALLS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 251,097, dated December 20, 1881.

' Application filed November 10, 71879.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JACOB B. CURRIER, of Lowell, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Devices for Transmitting and Receiving Electric (Jails, of which the following is a specification.

The object of myin vention is to improve upon mechanisms constructed to give an alarm or call at any desired station on an electric circuit without sounding an alarm or call at any other on the circuit. I attain this object by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a view, partly in section, of my Fig. 2 is a modification of part of the device shown in Fig.1. Fig. 3 is an elevation of a caller. Fig. 4 is a section upon the line 2 z of Fig. 3. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of a modified form of the caller. Fig. 6 is an end view of another modification, of which Fig. 7 is a plan, partly in section, and Fig. 8 an elevation of the bar shown on the left of Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a caller having a modification in its circuit-breaking device. Fig. 10 shows an electric circuit having different stations provided with my improved apparatus for sounding an alarm at the station to be called and for calling such stations from a main or central station.

In Fig. 10, Y Y Y represent stations at which an alarm is to be given, and for the details of the construction of the alarm mechanisms the other figures may be consulted. X X represent calling-stations upon said electric circuit provided with calling mechanisms. (Shown in detail in other figures.) Z is the battery, and G Gthe ground-connection, of the circuit.

In Fig. 1, a is aframe, upon which is secured an electro-magnet, A, in the usual manner. b is an adjustable bar, upon which hangs, atpoint c, the pivot (another being opposite) of the pendulum-striker O, the bar I) being adjusted and held in its position by the spiral spring (I and nut e. f is a portion of the case of the complete instrument. g is a screw passing through the casefinto the frame a, and is used to adjust the distance between the weight M of the pendulum-striker O and the bell B. The pendulum-striker 0 consists of the armature i, pivoted at its upper end at c, the lower end of the same being connected by ashort,

thin, flexible metallic strip, 70, to a rod, Z, and

weight M. The armature may, however, be placed upon the rod and the flexible strip continued to the point of suspension. I consider, however, the first-described construction the best. The object of this construction is to provide a pendulum which can be made to oscillate through any desired are by successive actions of the electro-magnet and its armature if such successive actions are synchronal with the possible action of the pendulum, while if such successive actions are not in such time the armature will be free to move without augmenting the action of the pendulum. It is obvious that this would not be the case if the pendulum were connected with its point of suspension by a rigid rod or bar and the armature attached thereto, because in that case the movement of the pendulum would be as great with the first action of the electro-magnet and its armature as at any subsequent one, and therefore any current which would affect one elec-.

tro-magnet and alarm device upon a line would affect all.

The pendulum-striker may be divided into two parts, as shown in Fig. 2, without departing from the spirit of my invention.

The caller, as shown by Figs. 3 and 4, com sists of one or more automatic, pendulum cir-, cuit-breakers, O B, held in position by screws R and Q. When more than one circuit-break er is used, each of them to be of a different length, the first circuit-breaker being con-v nected through screw R with one end of the line of an electric circuit, the current passes through the circuit-breaker to plate I, and thence, when more than one is used, by a metallic connection to screw R of the second circuit-breaker, and so on through any required number to correspond with the numberot'pendalum-strikers on the line, and finally connecting the plate I of the last circuit-breaker with the other end of the line of the circuit. The circuit-breaker when at rest, or nearly so, hangs against the plate I, but when given sufficient vibratory motion it temporarily leaves plate I, and thus breaks the circuit. The plate I is held in position and adjusted by screws 3 y and spiral spring T. The circuitbreaker is put in motion by pushing against point ff.

Fig. 5 is an adjustable pendulum-caller, operating substantially as the one heretofore described, but difi'ering from it in construction as follows: This caller has but one circuitbreaker, the position of the pendulum-weight of which is changed, so as to give the circuitbreaker the desired pendulum-length. s is a cylinder, by the revolution of which the band P is wound or unwound and its attached weight H is raised or lowered. i a is an index-finger whose movement with the cylinder indicates the position of the weight 11, and consequently the variation in the caller corresponding to the several pendulum-strikers on the line in length. V is a device for starting the movement of the circuit-breaker, and also for holding it in position when at rest. By quickly and fully pushing in the rod 1' d by pressure upon the end it t, and retaining it in that position a short time, the circuit-breaker is caused to vibrate during that time.

In Fig. 6, O yis a cylinder whose revolutions are controlled by clock-work. Around the cylinder,and at right angles with its axis, are rows of pins, as at G GG and J J J, thenumber of pinsin arow differingeach from the other, and the pins in any one row being equidistant from each other. 16 is a lever that vibrates upon shaft 0 e, and when at rest presses, by the superior weight of the end (marked t'j) of the lever, against the metallic bar W. This bar h is insulated from the other parts of the device by being inserted in the wooden bar f 2, which wooden bar swings at one end upon shaft 0 e, and is supported and adjusted by means of the screw and slot 81) at the other end. The bar It is connected with one end of the line of an electric circuit, and the shaft 0 c with the other. The lever lo also slides back and forth upon shaft cc, and can be so adjusted andheld in position that it will come in contact with any desired row of pins in the cylinder 0 y. When the position of the lever to has been so adjusted-as, for instance, row G and the cylinder O y is caused to revolve-the pin G lifts the end ij of the lever to, and separates the lever from the bar 7L2, thus breaking the electric circuit. After the pin G has reached the position of pin G2 the lever falls to its former position, thus completing the circuit again. The cylinder 0 y being rotated at a regular speed, and the pins being arranged as described,each row will act upon the lever Zea different but definite number of times during any given period, and the lever Z6 will, when operated upon by any one row of pins, make and break the circuit in a different interval from that which it does when operated upon by any other. The lever l e is retained in position to be operated upon by any one row of pins desired by the bar at, an elevation of which is seen in Fig. 8, one end of the lever rising and falling in one of the slots marked 1 2 3 4. When it is necessary to change it to be acted upon by another row of pins, the end working in the slots beingdepressed, the lever may he slid upon its shaft and allowed to fall into place with its shorter endin another slot.

. In Fig. 9, U is a pendnlum bar, vibrating upon the shaft 70 y at m of the bar, but which may be changed to m or m Instead of changing the point of vibration, as above,the weight H may be moved upon the bar, so as to give the required pendulum-lengths, or the number of the pendulum-bars on the shaft may be increased at pleasure. r m is an arm pivoted at point 0 r, and resting upon the pin 0 t, said pin being connected with one end of the line of an electric circuit and the pivot-pin c rwith the other end of the line. When more than one pendulum-bar is used a connecting-rod at the end N of the arm 1' m is extended to a similar arm on the opposite side of the device for holding the same, in which case the vibration of either of the pendulum-bars U causes said bar to strike the connecting-rod instead of the end N of the arm 1" m, and thus breaks the circuit.

The operation of my device may be thus described: Supposing a caller to be placed at one place upon a circuit, and alarm devices provided with pendulum strikers of different lengths at other and different places upon the circuit, one of the circuit-breakers of the caller device being adapted to act synchronall y with but one of the pendulum-strikers. and the others each with other of the pendulum-strikers, in all of which the vibrations of the pendulum-striker is produced by the action of an electro-magnet, each one of the circuit-breakers ofthe caller, and the pendulum-strikerwith which it acts, will have, when acting either independently or together, the same, or nearly the same, number of movements or vibrations in the same time the circuit-breaker of the caller successively makes and breaks the electric circuit in the time required by the pendulum-striker to acquire its greatest motion or force. When this motion is obtained the pendulum-striker strikes a hell or a device for making an alarm. As no one attractive effort of the magnets will move the pendulum of the strikers sufiticiently to sound an alarm, and the times of the recurrence of these efforts correspond with the ability and capacity of action of but one of the pendulums upon the circuit, but one of the pendulum-strikers will receive any considerable acceleration to its motion, and as a considerable movement and acceleration of the pendulum of an alarm device is required before the bell will be struck, but one of the bells upon the line will give an alarm, and but one call will be given. If, in place of the circuit being made and broken by the pendulum direct, the cylinder shown in Fig. 6 be interposed between it and the circuit, the operation will be substantially the same, as the regularity and time of the making and breaking of the current will be the same.

1' am aware of the German Patent No. 1,944, dated December 5, 1877, granted to one Maron,

and I do not claim anything shown or described in the said German Letters Patent.

What I claim as new and of my invention 1. The combination, upon an electric circuit, of twoormoreautomaticcircuit-breakers placed at the same stations, each of which makes and breaks the circuit in the time required to vibrate one of a series of pendulums by its electro-magnet, which pendulums are of different lengths and upon the circuit, substantially as described.

2. The combination of the electro-magnet A and pivoted pendulum-striker 0, consisting of the rod 1, made flexible near its upper extremity and provided with the weight M, substantially as described.

3. The combination of the electro-magnet A and pendulum-striker 0, having its point of support made adjustable with reference to the magnet and bell B, substantially as described.

4.. In combination with an electrical circuit, a series of pendulums of different lengths, each provided with an electromagnet, and an armature thereof fixed to the pendulum and moving on the same axis therewith, and each arranged to separately operate an alarm mechanism by a series of electrical impulses passing over the circuit in a given time which does not operate the other pend ulums, substantially as described.

5. The pendulum circuit-breaker, in combination with the circuit contact-point I, substantially as described-that is to say, such that the contact-point forms an axis or center about which the circuit-breaker moves during a portion of its oscillation.

6. In combination with an eleotricalcircuit,a series of pendulum-strikers of different lengths, each provided with an armature fixed thereto and moving on the same axis therewith, and an electro-magnet substantially as describedthat is to say, such that each striker is made to actuate its alarm by electrical impulses without operating any of the others.

Witnesses: JACOB B. OURRIER.

LEPINE 0. RICE, I N. P. OOKING'ION.