US416289A - Augustus e - Google Patents

Description

" A. E. ELLINWOOD.

APPLIANCE FOR INSULATING ELECTRIC WIRES.

No. 416,289. Patented Dec. 3, 1889.

WiCneJJe-a: Inv entor:

fb mmolil'zzmwmz UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUSTUS E. ELLINWVOOD, OF AKRON, OHIO.

APPLIANCE FOR INSULATING ELECTRIC WIRES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 416,289, dated December 3, 1889.

Application filed December 13, 1888. Serial No. 293,419. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS E. ELLIN- WOOD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Akron, in the county of Summit and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Appliance for Insulating Intersecting Electric Wires, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to the insulation of overhead wires, especially such as are employed in connection with electric tractionmotors at their points of crossing and intersection; and the objects of my invention are to produce means whereby the wires shall be perfectly insulated for any determined distance from the trolley, and, if desired, from each other, and by means of which a smooth continuous surface shall be provided for the trolley to travel upon at the points of insulating, crossing, or intersection of the Wires.

A further object of my invention is to prevent wear and injury of the wires, due to sparking, as the trolley makes and breaks circuit in traveling over the points of crossing or intersection of the wires.

To the above purposes my invention consists in the peculiar and novel features of construction and arrangement hereinafter described, and specifically pointed out in the claims.

In order that my invention may be fully understood, I will proceed to describe it with reference to the accompanying drawings, forming apart of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a plan view of a system of overhead motor-wires, embracing a crossing and a connecting curve with my improvements applied thereto. Fig. 2 is aperspective view, on an enlarged scale, of a crossing with my improved insulator applied thereto. Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the upper portion of a trolley employed in connection with the insulator, and Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the trolley and the adjacent crossing of the overhead wires.

In the said drawings, N N and P P designate, respectively, the negative and positive overhead wires of an electric traction-motor system,,said wires being disposed in the form of a crossing and a connecting curve in order to better illustrate my invention.

At the points I I I 1 where the wires N P cross and intersect, myimproved insulators are applied. These insulators are each composed of two sticks or strips A B, of wood or other suitable non-conducting material, which are framed to fit together so as to extend either at right angles or obliquely from each other, according as the insulator is applied to a curve, as at I I, or to a crossing, as at I I I11 framing the insulator one of the sticks is notched at its upper side, and the other stick is correspondingly notched upon its lower side, so that when the sticks or strips are placed together their upper and lower faces shall be flush with each other, as is best shown in Fig. 2. The extremities of each stick or strip A B are each provided with a deep short vertical groove or channel a, which extends longitudinally of the strip, and also with an eye or hole I), which extends transversely of the strip and groove near the outer extremities of the same.

In applying the insulator, one stick, as B, is placed beneath the lower wire, as N, said wire being bent down into the grooves a, and held therein by pins b, which are inserted into the holes I) and overlay the wire. The other stick A is then matched from below into the first stick. The upper wire, as P, is now bent into the grooves a of stick A, and is retained therein by pins 1), similarly as described with reference to stick B, a block or bridge 0, of insulating material-such as wood-being secured at the intersection of the two strips to separate the wires N P. By virtue of this arrangement it will be seen that the wires N P are completely insulated from each other and from contact with the trolley T, and at the same time a smooth under surface is provided for the trolley to travel upon.

In order to prevent sparking due to the making and breaking of the circuit as the trolley moves past the crossings or intersections of the Wires, and to avoid the consequent wear upon the latter, I place on the under side of each stick or strip A B two pieces of conducting material 0 0, each of which is connected at one end to the upwardly-extending portion of the wire N or P, and which extends any desired distance toward the center of the insulator, as is shown in Fig. 4. These conductors 0 may be either 'of wire, similar to the wiresN P, and embed ded in the sticks with their lower faces flush with the under face of the sticks, or they maybe in the form of thin metallic plates, suitably secured to the under surface of the sticks. The said conductors c c serve to limit the length of the break in the circuit, and also to take the wear .due to sparking.

The trolley T may be of the usual or any preferred form suitable to the purposes of electric traction motors, and for the purpose of illustration it consists of a vertical supporting-tube with horizontal arms on opposite sides, having bearings on their outer ends. Two cylindrical metallic rollers t t are journaled in and between the arms of the trolley, and said rollers are insulated from each other but have separate insulated electrical connections (not shown) which pass through the hollow arms and vertical tube of the trolley to the car. The rollers i hear, respectively, against the wires N P, and connect said wires with the poles of the motor on the car.

From the above description it will be obvious that at any of the points I I I I it is necessary to insulate the intersecting wires in order both to prevent a direct short circuit from one Wire to another and also a similar connection through one roller of the trolley. It will also be seen that the appliance as a whole is simple, compact; and durable, and that its application to wires now in use may be readily effected without necessitating the employment of skilled workmen.

Having thus described my invention, whatI claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. An improved insulator for intersecting electric wires, consisting of a non-conducting frame adapted to receive and cross the wires unbroken, and having the bearing-surface for.

the trolleys in same plane with the wires, substantially as described.

2. An improved insulator for intersecting Wires, consisting of a non-conducting frame adapted to receive and cross the wires unbroken, said frame provided with auxiliary conductors situated in the under surface of the frame and limiting the break between the wires and taking up the wear incident to sparking, substantially as described.

I In a line-wire-crossin g insulator, the combination, with the strips A B, crossing each other and having the slots (1, in their ends, of the pins b, passing through said slots, and the interposed block or bridge 0, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony that I claim the above I hereunto set my hand.

AUGUSTUS E. ELLIN\VOOD.

In presence ot'- JNo. L. Coupon, 0. P. HUMPHREY.

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