US425631A - Telephone bell and connection - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1` D. ERICE.

TELEPHONE BELL ANDYGONNEGTIGN.

No. 425,631. Pate'ntedApryl, 1890.

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TELEPHONE BBLLAND GONNHGTION. No. 425,631. L Patented Apr. 1 5, 1890.

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DAVID HALL RICE, OE LOIVELL, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE CURRIER TELEPHONE BELL COMPANY, OE MASSACHUSETTS.

TELEPHONE BELL AN D CONN ECTION.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 425,631, dated April 15, 1890.

Application filed November 16, 1881. Serial No. 45,957. (No model.)

To @ZZ wwm, it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID HALL RICE, of Lowell, in the county of Middlesex an'd State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in 'Systems of Telephone Bells and Connections, of which the following is a specification.

My improvement relates to the connection of the electric calling mechanism patented to Io Jacob B. Currier, August 30,1881, No. 246,374, with a telephone system; and it consists in 4connecting the same at the calling-station with the electro-magnetic annunciators and telephone commonly used there, so as to obviate all interference of said Currier mechanism with such other instruments, and at the same time to enable me to apportion or graduate the electric force to each circuit as it is needed7 thus enabling me to apply more bells zo upon each circuit and prevent an excess of such electric force on any one of a number of circuits from being used.

It is found that when the Currier calling mechanism is used upon several circuits they 2 5 will greatly vary in their natural tension or resistance to the electric current from causes which cannot be ascertained,' and one circuit will thus require a battery power and electric force to properly ring a given number of bells 3o upon it which would be excessive for another circuit of a like number of bells and interfere with their perfect working. It also happens that some circuits have an unequal number of bells ou them, when the same effect ensues 3 5 to a certain extent. Ihave already made application for Letters Patent for one means of obviating this dificulty; but in that instance the vibrating electric current produced by the Currier calling device worked through the 4o electro-magnetic annunciator or call-bell magnet in the callin g-ofice, and was inconvenient in that respect, because it created an alarm in the central office as well as at the subscribers station.

My present improvement overcomes this diiculty by a modified arrangement of the switch and its connection with the several operative mechanisms, as hereinafter described.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of 5o the central-office apparatus for one forml of my improvement. Fig. 2 is a perspective View of the switch-board with the several circuits connected thereto in plan view.

A is the switch. It consistsof a wooden or other non-conducting material in the form of 5 5 a board, through which small holes c c are bored. On the face of board a are secured metal pieces b, h', and b2 on opposite sides of the holes c, which are hollowed out on the edges to conform substantially to the shape 6o of the holes where they abut upon them. Into these holes metal pins are iitted closely, and when inserted into any hole one of these pins forms an electric connection between the plates h b', &c., which it thus touches. 65

C are the outgoing circuits, upon which are the subscribers stations, provided with bells, as shown in said Currier patent, and also provided with telephones and magneto apparatus 0f any common construction for ringing a 7o bell or dropping` a signal-button at the central ofce to call the same. One of these magneto appliances is shown at M, Fig. 2, with its switch m for putting lit into and out of circuit; but I have omitted them from the other stations, as their construction and connection are the same and will be readily understood from the one shown.

Each of the wires C passes to and connects with one of the switch-plates b. From the 8o metal switch-plates b lead a series of wires CZ d to the Currier calling device and battery B. The several wires CZ lead iirst to the caller, and Wire d leads through the battery B to the ground. In this case the electric force is properly graduated to each circuit by means of a rheostat E, mof ordinary construction, placed upon the line CZ d between the switch and the caller D. These rheostats may also be used in a similar position upon the wires 9o (l d when attached directly to the wire d', instead of through the caller, and will be found useful to correct any sudden changes in the tension of the circuits, or either of them, which arise from local or other causes. From the metal switch-plates h2 run lines n n, upon which, at m m, are placed the or-` dinary electrocnagn etic annunciators or bells, and the lines 'n n terminate in a common ground-line 0, upon which the telephone is Ico placed at T. Upon the circuits C C, which terminatein grounds G, are placed the several Currier bells at the different stations C' C2, die. As each of the circuits has a different number of stations and bells, the rheostats E are graduated with resistance to correspond, so that the same electromotive force shall be eXer cised upon any one bell. The magnets of the several bells are of substantially the same resistance. This construction and arrangement of parts differs from those of my former application in having a double series of insulated lines d d and n n run from the switch to separate grounds, the former series connecting the battery and caller and the latter series the electro-magnetic annunciator and telephone. I am thus enabled to graduate the battery-power used in Working the calling-in` strument to each circuit independently of the others, and at the same time avoid passing this electric current through the electro-magnetic an nunciator-magnets and the telephon c.

The switch mechanism is operated as follows: The metal pins are placed in the holes c between the metal switch-plates b and b2, and the circuits are ready for use by the subscriber in signaling the central oiice or telephonng to it. If. it is desired to call a sub scriber at the central oiiice, the pin is taken from the hole c and placed in its corresponding hole c, thus connecting the caller and battery with the circuit by one of the independent wires d, and insuring the use of the proper electric current to work it t0 the best advantage. The electro-magnetic annunciator m is cut out of circuit-by the shifting of the pin, as described.

What I claim as new and of my invention 1s l. The combination of two or more electric circuits, a switch mechanism, the caller D, connected to said switch mechanism by two independent or branch Wires and adapted to send a succession of electric impulses over the circuits, the batter and the electro-magnetic annunciators fm m, connected to the switch mechanism by independent wires n n, all constructed and arranged substantially as described.

2. In combination with the grounded wire d', the. electric battery B, the caller D, adapted to produce a regular intermittent electric current, the Wired, the switch mechanism b b Z22, the circuit-wire C, and the grounded wire' fn', and drop button or annunciator m, substantially as described.

3. In combination with the switch apparatus A and the caller D and battery, the independent wires d d and rheostat E E, substantially as described.

4.-. The combination of the battery B, the grounded Wire d', the caller D, the wired, the switch mechanism D b b2, the circuit-wire C,

Aand the ground-wire n and telephone T, substantially as described.

DAVID HALL RICE.

Witnesses:

GEO, H. WHITE, N. P. OCKINGTON.

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