US449474A - Electric-lighting system - Google Patents

Description

{No Model.)

G. GIBBS. ELECTRIC LIGHTING SYSTEM. NO. 449,474. Patented Mar 31,1891.-

Manes.-

gggw %m UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

SrEORGE GIBBS, Oh MILVAUKEE, WISCONSlN.

ELECTRIC-LIGHTING SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 449,474, dated March 31, 1891.

Application filed August 14, 1890. Serial No. 362,000x (N0 model.)

To (1 whom it" may concern;

Be it known that I, GEORGE GIBBS, of Milwaukee, in the county of Milwaukee and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain Improvements in Electric-Lighting Systems, of which the following is a specification.

My invention has reference more particularly tothe lighting of railway-trains and to that system in which the current is supplied directly to the lighting-circuit by a dynamo.

In practice it is found that in the use of the ordinary system the cars are frequently left in darkness by an interruption of the circuit due to the breaking of the train accidentally or during the addition or removal of cars or to the failure of the steam-supply, or to other causes.

Myinvention is intended to provide an auxiliary lighting system which will come into action automatically during any temporary interruption of the main circuit; and to this end it consists, essentially, in the combination, with the main lighting-circuit and its means of electric supply, of a storage-battery charged therefrom, a secondary lighting circuit operated from the battery, and means for automatically severing the connection between the main circuit and battery and establishing connection between the battery and secondary circuit during any interruption of the main circuit.

The details of the circuits and controlling devices and the arrangement of the lamps may be variously modified, as will appear to the skilled mechanic after reading this specification without departing from the spirit of my invention or changing essentially the mode of operation.

Mysystem may be extended through allthe cars in a train; but I have considered it suf= ficient for illustrative purposes to prevent in the drawings a diagram representing the sys tem complete for a single car.

In the accompanying drawings, A represents the dynamo orgenerator, B B the main conductors or circuit=wires leading therefrom and extended continuously through the suc cessive cars of the train, and C the intermediate incandescent lamps arranged in par allel.

D represents a storage-battery or aecumn later of any approved form, having its terminals connected by conductors (Z (Z to the main circuit. This battery, beingintended for telnporary' use only, is usually of smallsize, and the resistance in the cireuitis so adjusted that the battery will be charged during the action of the main lamps by the current of the main circuit. Between the battery and the main circuit I insert one or more lamps H, which serve not only as a part of the main lighting system, but also as a resistance to limit the rate at which the battery is charged and prevent injury thereto.

E represents an auxiliary or secondary lighting-circuit containing one or more lamps F and connected with the storage-battery.

G represents avibrating switch or relay op erated by its eleetro-magnet gQlocated in the main circuit. \Vhen the circuit is complete, the magnet holds the switch in its elevated position, (shown in full lines in the drawings) so that the circuit from the main line through the battery is complete, while the circuit from the battery through the secondary line is interrupted. Under this the normal condition of the parts the current derived from the generator is transmitted in part through the main lamps and in part through the storagebattery, which is thus automatically charged. If in any manner the main circuit is interrupted, so that the main lamps fail in action, the switch-magnet 9 being discharged will release the switch, allowing the same to drop to the position shown in dotted lines, the effect of which will be to establish connection from the storagebattcry to the secondary lamps F, which will afford a temporary illumination, the connection between the storage-battery and the main circuit being at the same time interrupted, so that the discharge of the battery may be confined to the secondary circuit.

In applying the above-described system to railway-cars the dynamo or generator will be ordinarily located at the forward end of the train and operated by an engine receiving steam from the locomotive, and the main circuit extended thence rearward through all the cars on the train, as in the present system. Each car will be provided with a storage battery, secondary lightingcircuit, and switch, as herein described. By this arrangement each car will be given a system for tomporarily lighting it entirely independent of the main system and of the system on the adj acent cars, so that the cars may be separated from each other and from the source of steamsupply for short periods of time without danger of their being in darkness.

It is to be noted that under my organization the storage-battery is charged from the usual main light-leads C O, and that the neoessity for a special charging-lead from the dynamo is avoided. It is also to be observed that as my main lights are arranged in the main circuit in parallel I am enabled to make use of ainain current of comparatively low voltage and to charge my battery therefrom without danger of its destruction and without the-employment of a high and wastef ul resistance as would be necessary were the battery charged from a high-tension current used in lamps in multiple series.

In my system the batteries in the different cars will be connected into the main circuit in parallel, each in series or multiple series with one or more of the main lamps H, and

it thereforefollows, in accordance with the law 0 E R, that the current flowing through the battery can never exceed the normal current usedto light the'lamps, and that it will grow less in proportion as the battery offers increased resistance and counter electro-motive force in the circuit. Thus it is that my battery is made self-regulating as to the charging action, and the necessity of a useless orwasteful resistance in either circuit avoided.

What I claim is- 1 1. In an electric-lighting system, two main loads from the generator and the main lights connected to and between said leads, in combination with a storage-battery, conductors connecting said battery with the two leads,

a resistance in' one of said conductors between the battery and the main lead, an auxiliary circuit containing lamps and-connected with the storage-battery, and an automatic switch mechanism, whereby the battery is held normally in circuit with the leads and the auxiliary circuit held open, but on the cessation of the current through the main circuit the auxiliary current is completed through the battery.

2. In an electric-lighting system, a generator, main-circuitleads-therefrom, and lamps lighted from said leads, in combination with a storage-battery, conductors connecting the same with the aforesaid lighting-leads, one or more lamps between the battery and the main lead to serve as a resistance, an auxiliary circuit connected with the battery and containing lamps, and a switch mechanism adapted to complete the charging -circuit through the battery, and at the same time interrupt the auxiliary circuit or interrupt the charging circuit and complete the auxiliary circuit, as occasion m ay'd'emand, whereby the auxiliary lamps may be kept out of action and the battery charged from the main circuit during the action of themain lamps, but the battery discharged through the auxiliary lamps in the event of the failure of the main lamps.

In'an electric-lighting system, the generator, the main leads therefrom, and the main lamps connected with said leads, in combination with the storage-battery and the lamps H, through which the battery is con- ,nected with the main leads, the auxiliary circuit and its lam'ps,-and the magnetic'switch controlled by the main circuit and-acting to close the two circuits alternately through the battery.

In testimony whereof I hereunto set my hand, this 4th day of August, 1890, in the presence of two attesting Witnesses.

GEORGE GIBBS.

Witnesses:

C. DARBY,- HERBERT 0. BIRLER.

Images