US535511A

US535511A - Electrical controller

Info

Publication number: US535511A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1895-03-12
Anticipated expiration: 1912-03-12

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet I.

E. A. SPERRY.

ELECTRICAL CONTROLLER.

No. 535,511. Patented Mar. 12, 1895.

IN VEN TOR.

THE NORRIS PETERS co. PHOTO-L'ITHO,, wxsmnnfcu. n. o.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELMER A. SPERRY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE SPERRY ELECTRIC RAILVAY. COMPANY, OF OHIO.

ELECTRICAL CONTROLLER.

' SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 535,511, dated March 12, 189 5.

Application filed November 11, 1893- Serial No. 30,698. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ELMER A. SPERRY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, county of Cuyahoga, and State of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Electrical Controllers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to electrical controllers especially as employed in connection with electric motors, and it consists in anovel arrangement of the moving parts which are so combined with the electrical circuit, as to produce new and useful results and to increase the scope and use of such controllers.

It further consists in devices connected with the manually operated part of such controller for the automatic actuation of parts, being in part dependent upon the current circulating. v

It further consists in various details of construction all of which are more fully specified hereinafter, pointed out in the claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1, illustrates a. front elevation of one form of controller. Fig. II, is a plan partially in diagram of an automatic device. Fig. III, is a vertical section thereof. Figs. 1V and V are details.

Similar letters and numerals of reference indicate like parts throughout.

As a specific application of the controller it is shown in Fig.1, as electrically connected to an electric motor in which A represents the armature, A and A" the commutator brushes and F indicates the field coil of such machine.

A source of electrical energy such for instance as the trolley wire B is shown and a ground B is also shown as indicating the path of the return circuit.

The resistance controlled by the manually operated portion of the device is indicated at C, and a resistance controlled by the automatically actuated portion is indicated at D. The stationary contacts connected with these resistances respectively are indicated at c c d and d; the last being employed to indicate the moving contact.

A specially short circuiting contact is indicated at d". (See also Figs. III and IV.)

The general features of the controller have been heretofore described in my application for Letters Patent, Serial No. 432,611, filed August 18, 1893, and Serial No. 483,820, filed August 23, 1893. Mechanical details of the controller are also shown an described in connection with my application, Serial No. 490,697, filed November 11, 1893.

The principal mechanical feature of my controller not shown or described therein may be pointed out as follows: The side-wall of the controller is illustrated by a Fig. I. This contains an aperture in which operates the sliding pin I) attached to a transfer switch lever Z), pivoted at its center, the pin beingjust long enough so that when the transfer leaves one of its extreme positions,its end protrudes visibly from the side of the box, or controller case constituting an indicator for determining the position of attached parts. The motion of the said lever 12 is derived from the block E, which in turn receives its motion from the shifter E and link E" as fully explained in applications referred to. Upon the switch arm I) are pins 1) and b, the former being shown as engaging with the double faced link G pivoted at G and held in position as engaging either of the said pins 1) or Z)", by the spring G" link 9 and handle g by means of which its relation may be varied at will. It will readily be understood that the phase of movement of the switch arm I) especially when considered as to its upper portion will move directly with or contrary to the movements of the two switch arms 6 and e actuated by the moving block E. Stationary contacts for the controllers are indicated also at c and 0'. An auxiliary contact is also indicated at 6. Upon the moving arm H provided with handle H and pivoted at H" are mounted three contacts, f co-operating with stationary contacts 0 0'1 co-operating with c" andf co-operating with c. The contacts cooperating With the levers e e are g 9' connected with the contact 0", and the contact 9" which is connected with the contact 0. The trolley terminal is indicated by the contact 72. which together with the contact 7t co-opcrates with the switch arm I). The electro magnetic coil I, is provided for the actuation of the moving contact d. The details of construction of this latter contact are preferably arranged as shown in Figs. II and III, I, being the electro-magnetic coil supplied with a core I and an incasing shell I, also consisting of magnetic material. \Vhile it may be preferable to have the coil I, in series circuit relation with the contacts (1 and (1 yet it will readily be understood that these circuit connections are not necessary in carrying out the invention. Pivoted upon the magnetic shell I are moving armatures it" i i, 850., each provided with a movable contact (1, except the armature i which is provided with a special contact 6 which cooperates with the contact d, by means of which all of the contacts are short circuited as will be readily understood from the following.

Retractile springs J J, &c., are provided for holding the contact d d in the proper circuit relation as against the pull of the magnetic forces. The lower electrodes are held in the clamp shown at J at the base of which is formed a support for the pivoted levers J providing for the lower extremity of spring J which is rendered adjustable by thumbscrewj. The contacts 5 b are preferably metallic, being surfaced for instance, with such metal as platinum. The circuit con nections of the large coil I, are indicated respectively at 11 and 12. (See drawings.)

The circuit connections of the controller may as a whole be traced as follows, (see Fig. 1,) when the circuit is closed by the moving arm H: the current entering at trolley B, to contact h by wire 1, thence upon switch 0 by wire 2, to the terminal stationary contact, thence through the resistance 0, in direction of the arrow heads, to contact f, which is now supposed to be in contact with some of the contacts 0 c; thence by wire 3, magnet coil, wire 4, magnet coil, and wire 5 to commutator brush A; thence traversing the armature A, to commutator brush A, thence upon wire 6 to contactf, which rests upon contact e,wire 7, contaetg", arm e,to the field coil F of the motor, through same in the direction of the arrow, switch arme', contact 9', contact 0", to contact f, wire 8, magnet coils, wire 9, to ground B. It will readilybe seen that as the switch arm is thrown farther to the left it finally reaches the position when contact f will in part rest upon the contact c, whereupon some of the current will pass by wire 10, resistance It, to the ground by wire. 9, thereby short circuiting in a measure the said field F. It will readily be seen that the circuit as it passes upon wire 9 will not leave it and follow wire 10, 850., inasmuch as the contact to which these wires lead, namely, h, is open circuited. However when the position of the switch arm I) is reversed as has been fully described in the applications referred to, the circuit of such contact will be closed and simultaneously the position of the two switch arms 9 and cwill be thrown in position as shown in dotted line, and under certain conditions transforming the motor into a generator, the current developed in which will traverse a local circuit being entirely disconnected from the former source of electrical energy by the fact that the switch arm 1) is nowentirely disconnected from the contact h.

The current generated first by the residual magnetism of the field will traverse the armature in an opposite direction and field in the same direction as heretoforeand maybe traced as follows: Emanating at brush A the current follows wire 5, wire i, and wire 3 in direction of the dotted arrow shown adjacent to wire 5, from contactf, passes through the resistance 0, wire 2, in direction of the dotted arrow to switch arm I), thence to contact 71/ by wire 13, to the short circuiting terminal (1, movable contact d, wire 12, coil I, wire 11, to wire 9, coils, wire 8 to contact f", thence to contact 0, to contact g, down the arm 6 in direction shown by dotted arrow, through field F up the switch arm 6 to contact g, wire 7, to contact 0, thence by way of contactf, wire 6, and commutator brush A to the armature where the present circuit started. As the currentincreases in coil I, the pull upon its cores or armatures I and I, 850., will increase until a point is reached in which the core I, will overcome the force of the retractile spring J, when the current will traverse the other contacts and the resistance D as said contacts are opened in succession or the equivalent arm at is moved upward along the contacts d, thus includinginacircuit extra resistancenamely, D, by means of which the current is cut down to a point where further increase of magnetization is prevented, from the fact that no further increase of current takes place. As the motor gradually diminishes its current-production from any cause whatever, for instance, reduction in speed, less and less of thesaid re sistance D will be included in circuit whereby the current generated is maintained about uniform as will be readily understood. At the same time the current so generated is under manual control of the operator as will be readily understood.

It will be seen from Figs. II to IV that the springs J are utilized as part of the circuit connection in the regulator shown.

\Vhile it is designed to use all the above features in connection with each other, yet, it is obvious that some may be used without the others, and the invention extends to such use.

I claim- 1. In an electric motor controller, a series motor, a plurality of exterior circuits for the motor, means connected therewith for changing the connections of the motor from one to another of said exterior circuits, a resistance controlled by said means, in combination with anindependent resistance permanentlyin one of said outside circuits controlling the current in the field magnet. coils and said circuit.

2. In a controller for an electric motor, a moving element having different positions of movement, a case for the controller, an aperture within such case, and an indicator connected with such moving element operating within such aperture, and means whereby said indicator is rendered visible only when the movable element stands in certain of its said positions.

3. In an electric motor controller, a series motor, a plurality of exterior circuits for the motor, means connected therewith for changing the connections of the motor from one to another of said exterior circuits, a resistance controlled by said means with an independent resistance in one of said outside circuits in combination with an independent means of control for the said resistance controlling the current in the field magnet coils and said circuit.

4. In a controller for an electric motor means connected with the controller for alternately connecting the circuit thereof and placing the said motor on a local circuit, a resistance for such local circuit in combination with an electro magnet for automatically varying such resistance.

5. In an electric controller, a two-way switch, a supply circuit connection for such switch, a local circuit connection for such switch, a main moving element of the controller, an electric motor connected with such controller having fields and armature, a reversing switch for either field or armature located within such controller in combination with mechanism, whereby the two-way switch and reversing switch are simultaneously operated from the movement of the said main moving element.

6. In an electric controller, a two-way switch, a supply circuit connection for such switch, a local circuit connection for such switch, a main moving element of the controller, an electric motor connected with such controller having fields and armature, a reversing switch for either field or armature located within such controller in combination with mechanism, wherebythe twoway switch and reversing switch are simultaneously operated from the movement of the said moving element, and means for reversing the relative movement of the said two-way and reversing switches.

7. In a controller for an electric machine, a local circuit, aswitch for operating said local circuit, a resistance contained therein, multiple contacts connected with such resistance armatures for such local contacts and a common electro magnet for all the armatures.

8. In a controller for an electric machine, a local circuit, a switch for operating said local circuit, a resistance contained therein, multiple contacts connected with such resistance armatures for such local contacts, and a common electro magnet for all the armatures, and a contact connected to one of the armatures in combination with circuit connections whereby all of the other contacts are short circuited thereby.

9. In a controller for an electric machine, a local circuit, a switch for operating said local circuit, a resistance contained therein, multiple contacts connected with such resistance armatu res for such local contacts and a common electro magnet for all the armatures, in combination with retractile devices differing as to intensity for each of said armatures.

10. In a controller a moving element, an auxiliary moving element which is operated thereby, being capable of change as to phase of movement relatively to the said moving element a connection between the two, a shifter for the connection, and an elastic medium between shifter and the connection.

11. An electrical machine to be used as a generator or a motor, a rheostat of variable resistance, a line circuit, a local circuit, means for opening the line circuit and suitable means for maintaining the direction through the field magnets constant when the motor is used as a generator and for directing the current so generated through the said rheostat and the said local circuit in combination with an electrically actuated device in said local circuit for varying the current in said local circuit.

12. An electrical machine to be used as a generator or a motor, a rheostat of variable resistance, a line circuit, a local circuit, means for opening the line circuit and suitable means for maintaining the direction through the field magnets constant when the motor is used as a generator and for directing the current so generated through the said rheostat and the said local circuit in combination with a separate resistance in the said local circuit, and an electrically actuated device for said resistance.

13. The combination, with a series-wound electric motor, of a rheostat of variable resistance, a reversing switch, a brake switch, a local circuit, and an electrically actuated device in the local circuit for varying the current in said local circuit.

lei. In an electric motor a plurality of exterior circuits for the motor, means connected therewith for changing the connections of the motor from one to another of said outside circuits, an independent resistance in one of said outside circuits in combination with means responsive to an electric current for controlling the said resistance.

15. An electrical machine to be used as a generator or a motor, a rheostat of variable resistance, a line circuit, a local circuit, means for opening the line circuit and suitable means for maintaining the direction through the field magnets constant when the motoris used as a generator and for directing the current so generated through the said rheostat and the said local circuit in combination with an electrically actuated device, for varying the current an electric controlling device, and means for actuating said electric controlling device the said devices being included in said local circuit.

16. The combination, with an electric motor, of a variable resistance, a local circuit, an electrically actuated device, a brake switch arranged so that when the braking action is taking place the line circuit is open, the blade of said switch being electricallyconnected to the variable resistance, and suitable electrical connection between the said variable resistance and the electrically actuated device, switch and motor, substantially as described.

17. The combination, with an electric motor, of a variable resistance, a brake switch so arranged that When the braking action is taking place the line circuit is open, means for controlling the polarity of the residual magnetlSHl of the field magnets, a local circuit, and an electrically actuated device in said local circuit controlling the current in the field 1 magnet coils and said circuit.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto signed my name.

ELMER A. SPERRY. Witnesses:

C. A. LoNGFELLoW, J. 13. MoGIRR.