US498879A - Method of electric illumination - Google Patents

Description

[No Model.)

E. A. COLBY. METHOD OF ELECTRIC ILLUMINATION.

No. 49 ,879. I

Patented June 6, 1893 XTIEYI;

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TATES Nrrnn PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD A. COLBY, OF NEWARK, NE'W JERSEY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 498,879, dated June 6 1893. Application filed February 15, 1893. Serial No. 462,405. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD A. COLBY, of Newark, Essex county, New Jersey, have invented ,a new and useful Improvement in Methods of Electrical Illumination, of which the following is a specification.

My invention consists, first, in a method of causing incandescence or glow in a suitable filament, in ring or closed form, inclosed in a substantially exhausted receiver and disposed in the varying field of force due to a varying (alternating, pulsating or intermittent) current of electricity and, second, in the method of modifying the intensity of the light emit ted by said glowing filament by moving the latter into regions of the field where the in ductive effect is weaker or stronger.

I may carry my invention into effect in many ways and by many different forms of apparatus. I describe herein one form of apparatus which is practical and operative and by means of which said method may be caused to give beneficial results; but I do not claim herein the construction of said apparatus for the reason that the same is fully described and claimed by me in another application for Letters Patent, Serial No. 462,404,, simultaneously filed herewith by me.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows the lamp of Fig. 2 in vertical section mounted upon the primary of an induction coil and provided with means for moving it longitudinally upon said coil. Fig. 2 shows the lamp in vertical section separately. Fig. 3 shows theinner glass tube of the lamp which carries the filament; the said filament here being a series of rings surrounding the tube. Figs. 4, 5and 6 illustrate modifications of the device for moving the lamp longitudinally upon the induction coil.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.

The lamp proper consists of an annular or hollow cylindrical glass Vessel, A, Fig. 2. The said vessel may be regarded as consisting of an inner tube, B, Fig. 3, and an outer tube, 0, which are united at their extremities. This construction is adopted for convenience, as in rately, and then unite the tube B to the remainder of the vessel A, so as to produce a closed glass chamber. Before the tube B is connected to the rest of the vessel A, I seal into it a wire, D, which may be of platinum. Thewire' D is sealed into the tube H at its ends. Upon the tube B I place one or more rings,.E, of carbon suitable for the filament of aglow lamp, and I connect these rings to the wire D, so that the wire serves as a support for the rings upon the tube B. I only show one supporting wire, D, here, but I may use" other similar supporting wires to D, if

they be found desirable. After the tube B carrying the wire D and rings E is connected to the tube 0 and the lamp A thus completed, I exhaust the air from the interior of said lamp through an opening which may be located anywhere convenient; as, for example, at F, Fig. 2, for. which purpose I use any of the known means now employed for the exhaustion of the bulbs of electric lamps. When this exhaustion is completed, I hermetically seal the opening F in the usual way. It will be observed that the rings E and wire D are completely inclosed within the exhausted vessel A and that there are no leading-in wires of any sort passing into the vessel A and communicating with the wire D or rings E.

The filaments or rings E constitute each a circuit closed on itself, and each and every one of these rings becomes the secondary coil of an induction coil or transformer when placed in suitable inductive proximity .to the primary coil thereof, or, in other words, in the field of the transformer. When the chamber A containing the rings E is so placed in inductive proximity to a primary coil through which a varying (alternating, or intermittent, or pulsating) current of electricity is passing, then, if the induced currents in the rings E be of sufficientstrength and pressure, the said rings E will glow or become incandescent and emit light in the ordinary way.

I will now describe one mode of arranging the rings E in the field of a primary coil. This is illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawings,

in which G is a primary coil inclosing the usual core, H, made up preferably of a bundle of straight iron wire and secured to a base, I. The wires J Kconnect the coil G with any suitable source of alternating current. The

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lamp A is placed upon the platform I and receives in its inner tubular opening the coil G. In this way the rings E are brought in close inductive proximity to the coil G. It is to be understood that I do not limit myself to this precise construction, because there are other ways of arranging the rings E so that they will operate practically as secondary coils to a primary coil carrying the current; but the foregoing is sufficient to exhibit to any person skilled in the art one way in which this result can be operatively and usefully accomplished; and this being shown, it is within the knowledge of the electrical workman at the present time to arrange other ways of producing the same result without the exercise of anything more than mechanical and ordinary electrical skill.

I have stated that the intensity of the light of the rings E can be varied by moving them into stronger or weaker parts of the field of force. Thus, I may move the rings into a region where they are traversed by a greater or less number of lines of force, or into a region Where, generally speaking, the inductive effect is greater or less than in some other. One mode of accomplishing this is exhibited in Fig. 1 of the drawings, and other equivalent means are represented in Figs. 4, 5, 6. In Fig. 1 the primary coil G has an envelope, L, the exterior periphery of which is threaded to receive the nut M. The lamp A, which surrounds coil G, rests on the nut M and thus may be supported in any desired position longitudinally the coil, as indicated by the dotted lines. The position of the rings E is thus changed with relation to the field of force produced bythe coil G. When the lamp A is in the position shown by full lines, Fig. 1, so that it embraces the whole of the coil G, then its rings will receive the strongest inductive effect and will glow most brightly; but when the lamp A is lifted or moved along the pri mary coil G, as indicated in dotted lines Fig. 1, then, as is obvious, the rings E will include less of the field, and hence will be subjected to a reduced inductive influence, so that the brilliancy of their glow will be diminished. With a given varying current, the light-giving capacity of the rings may thus be regulated by moving the lamp A upon the primary coil G.

The particular device for moving the lamp A is not at all essential to my invention, because the lamp A may be moved by hand, and held in adjusted position by any suitable means; as, for example, by the interposition of washers, or supports between the bottom of said lamp and platform I, as indicated in Fig 5 at N, or I may arrange adjusting screws passing through the platform I and bearing against the lower side of the vessel A, as shown at 0, Fig. 6. Or, extending across the upper partof the lamp A there may be a bar, P, through which passes a screw, Q, the lower end of which bears upon the end of core H and the upper end of which is provided with a milled head, R; so that by turning the screw Q I can vary the position of the lamp A on the coil G.

It is to be distinctly understood that I do not herein limit myself to Varying the intensity of the glow of the lamp by moving the lamp only with reference to the field, because I may move (first) the lamp, leaving the support and inducing coil stationary, or (second) the coil, leaving the lamp and support stationary, or (third) the support, leaving the lamp and coil stationary. To illustrate (first), the lamp in Fig. 1 may, as already described, be moved on the supports, as indicated by dotted lines, or (second), the

lamp may be held fixed in any suitable clampv or bracket and the core H and base I may also be so held, then the coil G within the lamp may be moved to slide longitudinally upon the core, or (third), the lamp being held fixed in any suitable clamp or bracket and the coil G also being so held, the core I-I may be slid longitudinally within the coil G. The candle power of the lamp can obviously be altered in either of these three ways.

I claim 1. The method of causing incandescencein an electric glow lamp, which consists in subjecting a ring or closed coil filament inclosed in a substantially exhausted receiver to the inductive influence of the field produced by varying currents in an external electric conductor, substantially as described.

2. The method of varying the intensity of the glow of an electric glow lamp containing a ring or closed coil filament inclosed in a substantially exhausted receiver and subjected to the inductive influence of the field produced by varying currents in an external electric conductor, which consists in varying the position of said lamp in said field to bring itinto a portion thereof where said inductive influence is greater or less, substantially as described.

3. The method of causing incandescence in an electric glow lamp, which consists in disposing the filament of said lamp as the secondary of an induction coil or'transformer and causing a varying current to traverse the primary of said transformer, substantially as described.

4. The method of varying the intensity of the glow of an electric glow lamp the filament ofwhich is disposed as the secondary of an induction coil or transformer, through the primary of which a varying current is caused to pass, which consists in moving said filament upon said primary coil so as to embrace more or less of the field produced by said primary coil, substantially as described.

5. The method of varying the intensity of the glow of an electric glow lamp the filament of which is disposed as the secondary of an induction coil or transformer and is supported upon the core inclosed by the pri-. mary coil of said transformer through which primary coil a varying current is caused to pass, which consists in moving said primary coil in the direction of the longitudinal axis of said coil to vary the inductive eifect of said coil upon the lamp filament.

6. The method of varying the intensity of the glow of an electric glow lamp the fila: ment of which is disposed as the secondary of an induction coil or transformer and is supported upon the core inclosed by the primary coil of said transformer through which primary coil a varying current is caused to pass, which consists in moving said core within said primary coil and lamp in the direction of the longitudinal axis of said coil and thereby varying the strength of the field influencing said lamp filament.

EDWARD A. COLBY.

Witnesses:

' H. R. MOLLER,

M. Boson.

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