US323983A - Incandescent lamp - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

' G. .J. VAN DEPOELE.

INOANDBSGENT LAMP. No. 323,983. Patented Aug. 11, 1885,

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CHARLES J. VAN DEPOELE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

INCAN DESC ENT LAMP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 323,983, dated August 11, 188i,

Application filed November 3, 1884 (No model.)

To all whom it ma 0011/06/70.

Be it known that I, CHARLES J. VAN DE- POELE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Incandescent Lamps, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings.

The present invention relates to improvements in filaments or conductors for electric lamps of the incandescent type; and it consists in the production of a filament of large surface and high resistance, whereby I am en-. ahled to construct and operate incandescent lamps of much greater candle-power than have heretofore been constructed, and also to use currents of higher tension than has previously been found practicable.

It has been usual hitherto to form the inoandescing filament ot' a continuous conductor through which current of a certain intensity and electro-motive force was caused to pass. As usually constructed the filament is neces sarily of very small cross'section, and therefore extremely delicate and easily broken, limiting its heat-enduring capacity to a comparatively low temperature, occasionin g a smaller efficiency than if it were practicable to operate the lamp with a current of electromotive force. sufficient to heat a filament of the same size to a higher degree. The aim of the present invention is to provide a conducting medium which is not homogeneously continuous, and which, by virtue of its construction, will safely carry a current of an intensity and electrc-motive force much greater than is at present used.

The method of manufacture is as follows, viz. Loose cotton, silk, hemp, manila, or other fibers are assembled or arranged in proximity to each other in the form of an open untwisted band or tress having its fibers so interlaced with each other as an ordinary process of combing would leave them, these bands, tresses, or skeins being of greater or less thickness, width, and length, but in all cases the individual fibers are to be only in loose contact with each other.

I do not. limit myself to the size or length of fiber in the material used, as that will be selected according to the effect desired.

In practice, bands are formed of, say, three inches in length, having a cross-section or" onesixteenth to one-halfinch or any other proportions found desirable. The bands thus formed are properly carbonized, after which they are cut up into length suitable to he placed between the prongs or clamps attached to the conductors leading into the lamp.

The connection between the incandcscing filament and the supportingconductors may be rendered more perfect by the application of any cai bonizable cement. The conductors and filament haviugbeen assembled, they are, with the exception of the ends of the wires, inolosed in a bulb or flask from which the air is exhausted in any suitable or wellknown manner.

It will be understood from the foregoing that it is designed to assemble a comparatively large quantity of fiber in sufficiently close proximity that portions of said fibers will touch adjoining fibers, and thereby afford continuous passage to the current without necessitating the absolute continuity of each member of the strand. The individual fibers will not generally extend through the entire length of the conductor, nor is it requisite that all the fibers should be parallel to each other, since they may be crosswise, oblique, parallel, or spiral, or be brought together in any way that will, by making a large number of contacts, afford numerous paths for the current, each of very small cross-section, and therefore of high resistance, and thereby produce a filament of large surface having a high resistance and great heat-enduring, and, consequently, light-giving, capacity. The reason this filament will stand more heat than the ordinary so-called homogeneous continuous filament is that the former, being composed of a large number of small conductingpaths, is better able to accommodate the expansion and contraction than the ordinary filament formed of one continuous and homogeneousconductor. Another advantage gained is that the light-giving capacity-of the improved fila ment is greater with the same current, which is due to the iufinitesimally small surface of each individual conductor, which is more readily heated, and the aggregate number of individual fibers forms a much larger exposed surface than it is possible to use in the form of a single homogeneously continuousconductor.

I do not limit myself to any special disposition or mode of mounting the conducting media, since aln'iost any of the well-known ways will produce good results; but, for the sake of illustration, 1 have shown in the accompanying drawings an incandescent lamp of ordinary i'orm between the terminals A A of which, in suitable clamps, B, I secure my improved filament U.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. An incandescing filament consisting of a non-homogeneous aggregation of carbonized fibers, substantially as described.

2. An incandescing filament composed of an indefinite number of small individual fibers not necessarily continuous throughout the entire length of the filament, but intermingling with each other and atiording numerous conducting-passages through the conducting medium, substantially as set forth.

3. An incandescing filament composed of an aggregation of short fibers interlaced so as to form numerous continuous passages throughout the entire filament, said fibers being united at their extremities, whereby the filament is adapted to be connected by suit able clamps with the line-wires entering the lamp, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I ai'fix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES J. VAN DEPOELE.

Witnesses:

E. S. BALLOU, THEO. P. BAILEY.

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