US539369A - Means for effecting synchronism - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

J. H. ROGERS. MEANS FOR EPPEGTING SYNGHRONISM.

N0. 539,369. Patented May 14, 1895.

x IIVVEIVTOR $37M 67%;; py er s ATTORNEJ UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES HARRIS ROGERS, OF IVASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE VISUAL SYNOHRONISM COMPANY, OF WEST VIRGINIA.

MEANS FOR EFFECTING SYNCHRONISM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 539,369, dated May 14, 1895.

Application filed December 29, 1888. Serial No. 294,979 (No model.)

I ments in effecting synchronism in the movements of rotating wheels or disks such as are frequently used in printing telegraph systems, electric time systems, and multiple telegraph systems, and in Letters Patent No. 358,753, issued to me March 1, 1887, I have shown and described means by which a visual indication is given when a rotary device is not in synehronism with another or primary rotary device and have described means for restoring the synchronism manually. In the said Letters Patent I have shown various modifications of the fundamental conception by which the visual indication may be so produced that the operator can instantly determine whether the rotary device used by him is in sychronism with the distant rotary device or motor which is at the time acting as transmitter.

My present invention has for its object more especially the provision of means whereby the want of synehronism in the secondary or receiving device or motor will be automatically detected and synchronism restored Without any attention on the part of the operator.

The features of novelty will be more particularly hereinafter described and will be definitely indicated in the claim appended to this specification.

In the drawings which form part of this specification, Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating the primary and secondary sun-wheels of a system such as described in my said former patent, one of the wheels constituting the primary or transmitting wheel and the other constituting the secondary or receiving wheel. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the secondary or receivin g wheel in connection with its fly-wheel and moving brush. Fig. 3 is a sectional view of the same, taken on the line a; of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a modification showing another way of arriving atthe result.

Referring now to Fig. 1, the general principle upon which my former invention was based may be briefly set forth as follows: A represents the sun-wheel of the primary or transmitting instrument which is made stationary and on its periphery is fitted with a number of segments 1, 2, 3, the. The wheel A is stationary and I fit to a shaft B, which passes freely through the axis of the wheel, an arm O which carries a brush D adapted to bear upon the periphery of the disk A. Fixed also to shaft B, but not indicated in Fig. 1, is

a heavy fly-wheel for the purpose of making the motion as uniform as possible, and the shaft B is driven by any suitable source of power, such, for instance, as a small electric motor, the intention being to drive the shaft at ahigh rate of speed for which purposeI prefer a speed of about seven hundred per minute. As the shaft rotates it carries with it arm 0 and causes the brush D to pass in rotation over each of the segments on the periphery of the wheel A. At the distant station I place a similar stationary, but adjustable, disk A having the same number of segments on its periphery and arranged in like relation to a fiy-wheel upon a shaft B which carries with it an arm 0 having a brush D bearing upon the periphery of the wheel A The shaft B of the receiving apparatus is also driven in a positive manner by any suitable motor and at a speed approximately the same as shaft B of the transmitting instrument. Having thus secured an approximate uniformity the object is to effect absolute synchronism in the relation between the fly-wheels and their sunwheels. On the sun-wheel A, I connect one of the segments, say No. 11, through atransmitting battery to earth, the circuit passing by way of brush D,arm O, shaft B to the line, which then passes directly to shaft B of the receiving apparatus whence it passes by the arm (3 and brush D into one of the segments of the wheel A and thence to earth through ICO together and from their junction have taken a circuit through the relay-R to earth.- The relay R operates the make and breakcontactof an induction coil I, whose secondary was used for the purpose of producing a spark, and this spark was utilized as a means of visually indicating the relationof therreceiving apparatus with thatof the transmitting apparatus and brush D was shown to be in advance of or behind the position of brush D on the sun-wheel A at the transmitting station. Then the sun-wheel A conld'be readily moyed by hand either backwardly or forwardly a short distance in order to bring the twolbrushes into synchronal position. Under these conditions then I have been able .to connect the remaining segments in turn to the line and with the certainty that at the instant the brush D was in contact with any givensegment the brush D would be in contact with thecorresponding segment of the sunwheel A and thus the pnrposeof the invention could be fulfilled. The object of connecting two of the segments, for instance 11- and 12 on the sun-wheel A wasto give ama-rg-in for the transmission of the sparkon eithersideof the exact position of synchronism and I have preserved that-feature in'thepresent instance;

To antomatica lly bring about theadjus-tment which inthe previous case mustbeeffectedby hand, I proceed as follows: The receiving wheel A isconstructedsubstantially the-same as in the former instance and hasfiy-wheel F rotating on the same axis, the flywheel F being fixed to the shaft 13?, but the sunwheel A being held relatively stationary insuitable-bearingsin'which, when necessary, it can move the required distance for effecting its-adjustment. As before the arm G 'is fixed to the rotating shaft and carries the brush 1) which bearsin rotation upont'he segments l, 2, 3, &c., of'the sun-wheel A The latter has fixed to itthe arm G'which extendsout approximately as far as the rim of thewheel F and at its end carries an armature H fitted so as to be in close proximity'totheexposed poles n s of an electro-magnet Mwhich is sunk into the rim of thewheel F as shown in Fig. 3 more clearly. The-transmitting circuit will be the sameas shown in Fig. 1, but

the local circuit instead of being applied to 1 an induction coil asin Fig. 1 willbeapplied' to the electromagnet M by suitable circuit connections,preferablyin theform of brushes bearing on insulated ringsonthehub-of the wheel-F as shown in Fig; 3.-

In-all't'he fig-uresthe rotary parts; and the direct-ion of rotation are indicated by arrows and for the-sake of clearness I have 'all'the various rotations ina com mon' direction.

Ass-umingnow that t'he'transmitting wheel is'in' motionand the receiving wheel'F in mooff segment 11 a break occurs inthe main-Iin'e and the relay R releases its armature-and consequently closes the local-circuit through the magnet M foran instant. Hence the magnet M will be made active once during every revolution of the wheel F so long as the brush D passes over the segments 11 and 12 during anyportion of the time when the brush D of the-transmitting wheel is passing over segment 11; It now, through any change of speed in the wheel F, the relative positions between the brush D and the sun-wheel A should become somewhat different from the relative positions occupied by the corresponding parts of the transmitting wheel the magnet M' will'automatically serve to restore the relations totheproperposition. Forinstance,

suppose the wheel F has slightly increased its,

.rate and at the instant when the relay R operates the. magnet M has jfust'passed'the arlma-tu-re H ofthe stationary-arm G it will become-energ-izedfor'an instant and exertan atft'ractive poweron the armature II as it passes aw=ay from it, and the eifect is to produce a Zbrief movement'of-the armature H toward the irig-ht and this, by'meansof "the armG, shifts ;the sun-wheel A correspondingly, sothat after one or more revolutions of thewheel F ithe-sun-wheel A has been broughttoth'e exgflOlTPOSlf/IOH it should occupy with'reference-to gt'h'e' brush-D in order to=effectperfect correfispondence of relations-between the'receivin g 2andtransmittingwheels. On the other hand, if the wheel F should tend to run-too slowly jitwould have-a tendency to fall back some ;as to relative positions, and in that event, at

ithe instant the magnet M becomes energized it will not yet have reached the point opposite the armature H and the tendency will be -I to slightly drag the armature H backward isoas to bring the sun-wheel A slightly back Lto correspond to the-retardation in the speed ofthewheel F. The relative positions-are-exaggerated in Fig. 2'in order to make clearthe relation ofthe parts, but it is obvious that- Esince the magnet M would receive current for an instant during every revolution=of wheel F, the sun-wheel'A and with it the armature could not possibly become displaced toany snch-extent asshown-on Fig. 2, sinc'e'the maggnet M would be constantly correcting any tendency tochangeof speed.-

To-provide for thecontingency of a con- ,tinued advance-in speed of the wheel F, ora continued' retardation, which would havethe {eifect of carrying the sun-w-heelA step by step around through oneor'more complete revolutions, or the reverse effect taking-place ,gowing to *acontinued retardationof the wheel F,I propose to connect the various segments jof" the sun-wheelrespectively eachtoits own icontact ring, which I locateat a suitable point @011 an insulated sleeve extending from the wheel A 'andcoincident with the axis thereof.

time the wheel A and its controlling arm G are free to move forward or backward in rotation to any extent required by the conditions of speed of the wheel F.

The principle of automatic adjustment of the secondary wheel into synchronism with the primary may be carried out in other ways without departing from the essential idea of automatic operation, and I therefore do not confine the scope of this invention to any particular arrangement of devices for this purpose as such means are susceptible of a variety of modifications. One of such modifications is shown at Fig. 4 where the arm G is fixed to the sun-wheel A as before, but instead of the armature H upon its extremity it is fitted with a long spring blade P shown in the figure partly in dotted lines as it is behind the arm G. The magnet M is arranged in the rim of the wheel F as before, and its armature is pivotally mounted on the wheel and has an extending projection which is arranged to impinge upon the outer extremity of the spring P at certain times and be drawn out of the way of the spring at other times, according to whether the magnet M is energized at the properinstant or not. The circuit of the magnet M is arranged the same as shown in Fig. 3. If now, the wheel F is tending to run too fast, the magnet M will not be energized until after it is past a point opposite the arm G. Therefore the armature on the wheel will not be attracted at the instant when its projection is about to strike the end of the spring P and the latter is caughtfor an instant and the arm G given a slight pull in the same direction, as the wheel F is moving, and is quickly released by the attraction of the armature to the magnet M, so that the wheel F moves on now without further alteration of the position of the arm G until want of syn-.

the arm G and its sun-wheel A but has no effect in driving it backwardly in a direction opposed to that of the wheel F. Other modifications will readily suggest themselves to one skilled in the art to which this invention relates.

The sun-wheel A being held in bearingsindependent of the shaft 13 there is of course no tendency for the movement of the wheel F to communicate movement to the sun-wheel A to rther than the slight friction of the brush D which is not sufficient to overcome the inertia of the sun-wheel, but in the positive movement given the sun-wheel by the automatic adjusting arrangements it is desirable to place sufficient friction upon the sun-wheel to control its inertia and prevent it from acquiring momentum by the attraction of the magnet M when the latter is energized.

It will be seen that I provide at each station a motor operatinga revolving contact maker, the stationary member of one contact maker being circumferentially adjustable, and when synchronism fails a circuit is closed at one station and operates electromagnetically to shift the adjustable member of the contact maker at the other station until the instants of contact are simultaneous or synchronous.

I claim as my invention Means for producing synchronous contact at two stations comprising two mechanically disconnected motors, contact makers operated thereby, one member of each contact maker being stationary and the other revolved by its motor, an electric circuit periodically closed by one contact maker, and electromagnetic means controlled by said circuit for circumferentially shifting the stationary member of the other contact maker when synchro nism fails, for the purpose set forth;

In testimony whereof I alfix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JAMES HARRIS ROGERS.

Witnesses:

T. J. MOTIGHE, W. V. ROGERS.

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