US431597A - Electric signaling apparatus - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

G'. B. LEHY.

BLBGTRIG SIGNALING APPARATUS. No. 431,597. Patented July 8, 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEOFFREY B. LEI-IY, OF MEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS. A

ELECTRIC sl'eNAl- IYNG APPARATUS. n'

SPECIFICATION forming part. of Letters Patent No. 431,597, dated July 8, 1890.

Application filed May 21, 1889.

To @ZZ whom. it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, GE'OEFREY B. LEHY, of Medford, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Electric Signaling Apparatus, of `which the following description, in connection With the accompanying drawings, is a specilication, like letters and figures on the drawings representinglike parts.

This invention'has for its object to construct a signaling apparatus for various uses, as burglar-alarms and the like.

In accordance With this invention twoprimary circuits are employed leading from a single set of batteries. One of the said primary circuits includes or contains one or more circuit-changing devices and a receiving-instrument, as an electro-magnet, and the other primary circuit includes or contains a receiving-instrument, as an electro-magnet, the armature or armatures thereof being arranged to control an alarm-circuit containing a bell o r other suitable alarm or indicating-signal, and may be itself an indicating-signal- One of the primary circuits contains a suitable resistance-coil, and When removed, shorte'cir- Y cuited, or shunted out by any cause other than a' break in the line the circuit containing it is strengthened and its receiving electro-magnet attracts the armature; but When said primary circuit is broken the entire battery force passes over the other primary circuitand by the increase in strength its receiving electromagnet attracts its armature, so that Whenever the condition of the primary circuit containing the circuit-changing device is in any Way changed the fact is made known by the receiving electro-magnets and by the alarm and other mechanism controlled by it. Suitable devices are preferably employed to cut out or render inoperative the receiving electro-magnets at will and also for determining by the indicating-signal Whether or not the battery is in proper condition.

Figure l shows in diagram a signaling ap paratus embodying this invention; Fig. 2, a modification to be referred to.

The signaling apparatus, as herein shown', is especially designed for protecting a safe, or it may be a room or compartment at a distant point. The main battery a has leading Serial No. 311,594. (No model.)

from it two primary circuits a. a2, one of which, as a2, for instance, includes the compartmentto be protected, and contains one, or it may be several, circuit-changing devices, as a3, controlled by the door of the sat'e or otherwise. The'compartment herein represented in dotted lines is a safe, and the primary circuit a2 contains in the safe a resistance-coil l). The primary circuit a? also contains a receiving electro-magnet a4. The primary circuit a contains a receiving electro-magnet a5, shown in Fig. l as placed face to face with relation to the receiving electro-magnet a4, and an armature a, attached to an armature-carrying lever al, pivoted at a8, is located between the polesY of the receiving electro-magnets and held -free from Contact with either pole, or substantially at a'point intermediate between the poles, by springs 2 3, which are preferably adjustable so that more or less tension may be brought on the armature at either side, as desired. l

The armature-carrying lever al is herein shown as having attached to it two contacts 4 5, which engage the contacts 6 7 When moved in one or the other direction. The contacts 6 '7 are included in an alarm-circuit c, herein shown as including the local battery c and the bell c2, or it may be another indicatinginstrument.

It is the intention that the two primary circuits ct a2 shall be of substantially equal resistance; but the springs 2 3, being adjustable as described, this feature is not absolutely essential.

The armature-carrying lever may and preferably will bear a disk el, which moves back of suitable openings formed in a iiXed plate d or an equivalent thereof.

In operation, should any accident happen to the primary circuit c2, so that in any Way its strength should be increased-such, for instance, as shunting out the resistance-coil or by contact With another Wire-the arma ture a. Will be attracted toward the receiving electro-magnet a4, and hence closes at 5 6 the alarm-circuit; and if the primary circuit ai should be broken the armature Will be attracted toward the receiving electro-magnet a5, and by the contacts 4 7 will also close the alarm-circuit. It Will thus be seen that any IOO change in the condition of the primary circuit a2 will be made known. W

I have herein placed one of the contacts, as 7, a little farther from the armature-carrying lever or from the contact 4 than the opposite contact, so that when a wire is broken and the armature held by the receiving electromagnet a5 it is completely out of the iield of the receiving electro-magnet a4, or substantially so, and hence will not automatically return, as it will do under all other conditions. A hand-lever e is pivoted at c', being held by friction,which lever co-operates with two contacts e2' to maintain the continuity of the alarm-circuit c; but arranged directly above the said lever e are two contacts e3, which, when the said lever is brought into contact therewith, short-circuits the battery by the wires 8 9. I have also herein 'shown au electro-magnet f as included in the primary circuit a, the armature of which also controls the alarm-circuit c and makes known when the strength of the battery is impaired by its 'armature falling.

The signaling apparatus herein shown is applicable for many purposes in addition to burglar-alarms, such, for instance, as railway signaling and the like.

In Fig. 2 I have shown two receiving electro-magnets a4 a5, located side by side, and two armatures, as 20 20, attached to a lever or bar 22, pivoted at 23, and, it desired, the armature may be attached to independent levers or bars.

l. In an electric signaling apparatus, the combination, substantially as described, of a main battery and two normally-closed primary circuits leading from it, a receiving electro-magnet in each of said circuits located adjacent to each other, the armatures of which are held away from their poles by a force greater than the normal attractive force ot' the magnets, and stops located at opposite sides of the armature-carrying level', but at dierent distances therefrom, when the latter is in its normal position to enable the armature to bc retracted farther away from the poles of one magnet than the other.

2. -In an electric signaling apparatus, the combination, substantially as described, of a main battery and two prim ary circuits leading from it, a receiving electro-magnet in each of said circuits arranged face to face, an armature arranged between the said receiving electromagnets and a local or alarm circuit controlled by the movement thereof in either direction, a suitable resistance in one ot the said primary circuits, and a circuit-changing device also in said primary circuit, and a manually-operable device for short-circuiting the main battery. f Y

3. In an electric signaling apparatus, the combination, substantially as described, of a main battery and two primary circuits leading from it, a receiving electro-magnet in each of said circuits arranged face to face, an armature arranged between the said receiving electro-magnets and a local or alarm circuit controlled by the movement thereof in either direction, a suitable resistance in one of the said primary circuits, and a circuit-changing device also in said primary circuit, and a manually-operable device for short-circuiting.

the main batteryV and the local or alarm circuit.

4. In' an electric signaling apparatus, the combination, substantially as described, of a main battery and two normally-closed primary circuits leading from it, a receiving electro-magnet in each circuit, the armatures of which are held away from their poles bya force greater than the normal attractive force of the magnets and which, when brought near to or against the pole of one magnet, is substantially out of the attractive iield of the other, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

' GEOFFREY B. LEHY.

Witnesses:

BERNICE J.- Novus, F. L. EMERY.

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