US388242A - barney - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 1.

W. G. BARNEY.

PNEUMATIC INTERMITTENT CIRCUIT CLOSER.

No. 388,242. Patented Aug. 21, 1888..

WWI/beam (June whet 3 Sheets Sheet 2. W. O. BARNEY.

4 RMITTENT CIRCUIT CLOSER.

Patented Aug. 21, 1888.

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(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

W. G. BARNEY.

PNEUMATIC INTERMITTENT GIRGUIT CLOSER. No. 388,242. Patented Aug. 21, 1888.

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IVILLIAM CHASE BARNEY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO JOSIAH O. BEIFF, OF SAME PLACE.

PNEUMATIC INTERMITTENT CIRCUIT-=GLOSER.

SPECIFICATION forming'part of Letters Patent No. 388,242, dated August 21, 1888.

A pplieation filed February 7,1887.

T0 aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM Cruse BAR- NEY, of the city and State of New York, have invented a Pneumatic Intermittent (lircuit- Closer, of which the following is a specification.

In my application for an improvement in telephone transmitters, filed January 18,1886, Serial No. 188,813, for which a patent, No. 357,359, was issued on February 8, 1887, I described several combinations of a tympan with electrodes situated in an air-chamber having an entrance and exit for the air-waves, so that the air-waves act first on one side of the tympan and then on the opposite side of the same tympan. In that arrangement the tympan on which is one electrode acts upon only one other electrode. In my presentinvention the tympan which is connected to one pole of the battery is placed between two electrodes electrically connected to the other pole of the battery and arranged to be vibrated between these two electrodes, and to make contacts alternately on each of these electrodes, in this manner closing and opening the circuit twice as rapidly as when the tympan makes contacts on only one electrode on one side of it.

Figure 1, in accompanying drawings, represents a mid-horizontal section. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the tympan and a section of the case. Fig. 3 shows the connections of the battery, induction-coil, electrodes, telephone, and earth.

In a block of wood, Fig. 1, or other suitable material, A A, there is a passageway, B B B B, having an entrance with a mouth-piece, M, and an exit at E on one side of the block or at any other convenient place. A tympan, T, is placed in the air-chamber B B B B, so that it will lie at an acute angle with the entrance hole M. The frame F, holding the tympan, closes the air-chamber B B B B at the top, bottom, and side near to the entranceM, leaving a passage-way, B B B B, open at the back thereof, so that the air-waves entering the mouth-piece M fall upon the tympan T, and pass around said tympan and find their exit at the hole E.

The tympau T is held in a square frame, F. One side of this frame is in close contact with Serial No. 226,851. (No model.)

the inside of the case near to the opening at M, and this frame rests firmly on the inside of the bottom, and the top of the frame is in close contact with the inside of the top of the case, leaving the passageway B B B B for the air, after entering through the hole M, to pass around the frame, holding the tympan, and then pass out of the case at E.

The bridges D D are at opposite sides ofthe tympan T, and connected at their ends to the frame F, and at the middle of the bridges are adjusting-screws P P, forming at their ends electrodes. These screws are opposite to each other and to the intervening electrodes, 0 O, in the tympan; but these electrodes do not touch each other. The electrodes 0 O on the tympan are connected to one pole of a battery, and the electrodes P P are connected to the other pole of the same battery, or to the primary wire of an inductioncoil, as illustrated in the diagram, Fig. 3.

In Fig. 2, F is the frame; T,the tympan, which is secured to the frame by the ring It by means of screws. 0 is a small disk,of any hard material which will conduct electricity, attached to the center of the tympan, and is connected by a conductor to one pole of a battery,G, the other pole being connected to one end of the primary wire oi'an induction-coil. Abridge, D, spanning the center of the tympan, is attached to the frame at its two ends by two supports, and at the center of the bridge a screw passes througl1,carrying at its end,P,a material which will conduct electricity, and is c011- nected to one end of the primary wire of an induction-coil, as illustrated in the diagram, Fig. 3.

In Fig. 3, on each side of the center of the tympan T,are electrodes 0 C,conncctcd to one pole of a battery, G. Opposite, very close to but not touching either of the electrodes 0 G, are two electrodes, 1 I both dircctl y con nected, or through the primary wire of an induction-coil, I, to the other pole of the same battery. It may sometimes occur that the elec- 5 trode C may get out of its proper adjustment and make a slight contact on the electrode P, or the electrode C may, from the same cause, make a slight contact on the electrode P. In either of these cases the efficiency of the instrument is not impaired, because the impact of the air-waves will instantly sever those contacts, and the tympan must continue its vibration in response to the vibrations of the airwaves, thus closing or opening or opening and closing the circuit.

In my present invention I make use of intermittent pulsations of electricity in contradistinction to undulatory currents of electricity for the reproduction of vocal and other sounds, and I employ a method and apparatus for causing makes and breaks in an electric circuit, whereby are sent into the circuit intermittent pulsations of electricity having all the qualities essential for the reproduction of vocal and other sounds.

For the reproduction of vocal and other sounds by means of electricity, it is not nec essary that there should be a continuity of an electric current passing through a closed circuit connecting a transmitter with a receiver. All thatisnecessary is that theintermittent impulses of electricity which follow each other in the circuit should correspond in number to that of the vibrations of the air which the voice has produced at the transmitting ends, that their varying intensities should correspond to the varying force of the vibration of the air, and that the intervals between them should be equal to the intervals between the vibrations of the air. Under these conditions, which are fulfilled by my method and apparatus,voca1 and other sounds in all their modifications can be reproduced by an electromagnetic telephone-receiver placed in the electric circuit.

It is obvious that the variations of the intensity of a continuous current in a closed circuit are confined within a very narrow range and must bear a very small proportion to the maximum intensity of the initial current, whereas when intermittent pulsations of electricityare sent into a line the variations of the intensity of the current are the maximum variations. Consequently the variations of the magnetic force of the magnet of the telephonereceiver in the circuit are the maximum variations. The air-waves on entering the case through the mouth-piece do not fall at right angles upon the tympan, and therefore there do not occur rebounds of the air, which materially interfere with the following air-waves and prevent the tympan from vibrating in accord with the air-waves. In this apparatus the air-waves pass into the case nearly parallel with the tympan, and as they reach the narrowest part of the air-chamber the density of the air is greatly increased, and consequently the pressure of the air on the tympan is also greatly increased, and the tympan is forced against the opposite electrode, P. This contact is immediately severed by the united forces of kinetic energy of the rebound and of the pressure of the condensed air, and these united forces press the tympan back beyond its normal position of rest and cause it to make a contact on the electrode P. The movement of the tympan begins gradually and increases in force as the density of the air increases, and consequently the varying intensity of the electric current is in proportion to the gradually increasing and decreasing pressure which the tympan makes upon the electrode. There is always a period during which a current upon closing a circuit increases in intensity, as there is a period of decreasing intensity upon opening a circuit. This varying intensity of the electric current produces upon the magnet of the receiving-telephone variations of the magnetic force corresponding faith fully to the varying intensity ofthe electric current.

It is advantageous to use an induced current in the line, and as the intensity of an induced current depends directly upon the rapidity, suddenness, and extent of the variations of the electric condition of the primary wire, it necessarily follows that intermittent impulses of electricity produce greater intensity in the induced currents than do undulatory currents.

In this application I do not claim, per se, the peculiar form of the air-chamber B B B B, because such a chamber was described and claimed in my application filed January 18, 1886, Serial No. 188,813, and for which a patent, No. 357,359, was issued on February 8, 1887; but

What I do claim as my present invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination, in a pneumatic instrument for sending intermittent impulses of electricity into a conductor, of a tympan in a case having an air-passage extending around the tympan, so that the air-waves will act first on one side of the tympan and afterward on the opposite side of it, an electrode in the center of the tympan and at each side thereof connected with one pole of a battery, and two electrodes connected with the other pole of the same battery and placed opposite to each other and to the intervening electrode on the tympan.

2. The apparatus, substantially as herein described, for reproducing vocal and other sounds, consisting of a tympan, a case for containing the same having an air-passage around the tympan, so that the air-waves will act first on one side of the tympan and afterward on the opposite side of it, an electrode in the center of the tympan connected with one pole of a battery, and two electrodes at opposite sides of the intervening electrode on the tympan, circuit-connections to such electrodes, a receiving telephonic instrument, and electric circuit-connections through such receiving-instrument, substantially as specified.

WILLIAM CHASE BARNEY.

Witnesses:

A. H. EVANS, D. S. CLARK.

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