US581298A - mcfall - Google Patents

Description

' (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 1;

W. H. McFALL.

REGISTERING MEGHANISM.

No. 581,298. Patented Apr. 27, 1897.

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sued November 10, 1896.

- UNITED STATES I-ATENT rrrcn'.

WILLIAM H. MCFALL, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNCR TO THE AMERICAN ELECTRIC METER COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

REGISTERING MECHANISM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 581 ,298, dated April 27, 1897. Application filed February 6, 1897. Serial No. 622,240. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. MoFALL,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Philadelphia, in the county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Registering Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to registering electric meters, and particularly to the class of meters described in Letters Patent No. 571,032, is-

In the form of meter described in that patent the register or counter is operated by an oscillating electric motor, the oscillations of the motor being transmitted to the register by means of a cam operating on a pawl which drives the primary wheel of the counter.

The objectof my invention is to improve the mechanism for transmitting the oscillations of the motor to the counter, and in carrying out my invention I employ the novel devices and combinations of devices hereinafter referred to, and pointed out in the claims.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 illustrates the essential working parts, the framework and other details being omitted for the sake of clearness. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a portion of the mechanism for transmitting the movements of the motor to the counter. Fig. 3 is a partial elevation and vertical section taken on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1, and Fig. 4 is a View illustrating three of the working positions of part of the actuating mechanism.

The meter comprises an ampere-indicator and the registering apparatus, the rate of registration being determined by the position of a cam or inverted arch whose position is controlled by the ampere-indicator.

Referring now to Fig. 1, A indicates the solenoid of the ampere-indicator, and B the core actuated thereby. This core is carried by an arbor b, which also carries a cam or inverted arch C and a pointer D. The motor comprises a pendulum E, having cores 6, and

an actuating solenoid F. In practice the motor is provided with a circuit-controller for periodically opening and closing the motorcircuit, but this feature is now well understood and requires no further description or illustration.

In the meter shown in the patent above referred to the primary wheel of the register or counter is driven by a pawl which is actuated by a cam driven by the oscillating motor, and in practice it was found that in order to obtain the best practical results the actuating-pawl had to be actuated about forty times per minute, the actuating-pawl picking up a certain number of teeth on each forward movement, the number of teeth picked up being proportional to the current passing through the ampere-meter, or, in other words, to the position of the cam C. This arrangement placed somewhat narrow limitations upon the ,registering mechanism and necessitated the making of very fine teeth on the primary wheel of the counter in order to enable the 'registration of small quantities of current. I

The main object of my invention is to avoid the necessity for providing the primary wheel with fine teeth and at the same time obtain a finer registration than has hitherto been abtained. To accomplish this, I employ, instead of the actuating-cam of the patent referred to, a rotating actuating devic'e G, which may be termed a snail-wheel, and which wheel is preferably provided with ratchetteeth. The teeth of the snail-wheel are designed to pick up onetenth of an ampere eachthat is to say, if there were but onetenth of an ampere flowing through the indicator only one tooth would engage' the wheel H. For a ten-ampere meter the snail-wheel will have one hundred ratchet-teeth, and forlarger meters the proportions of the snailwheels will be proportionately varied. This wheel engages with a gear-wheel H, having ratchet-teeth, and which wheel is the first wheel of a train of pinions and gear-Wheels h, h, 71 and h the last of which, pinion k meshes with the first or primary wheel H of 95 the counter. This train of gear-wheels is carried by a frame I, which is pivoted uponthe arbor 't' of the wheel H. This arbor is pivoted in the plates J, forming the frame of the countel. (Not shown.) By this arrangement'the ICO frame I is capable of movement about the arbor a, the object of which will be hereinafter explained.

The snail-wheel G is driven by the oscillatin g motor through a clutch mechanism, which for simplicity may be a ratchetwheel and pawl. The ratchet-wheel is secured to the snail-wheel concentric to its bearing and is provided with ten ratchet-teeth g, with which a pawl L, actuated by the pendulum E, is adapted to engage. The snail-wheel is carried by a shaft 6, which is the shaft of the pendulum, and is free to rotate thereon. The pawl L is pivoted upon an arm Z, projecting from a hub Z, rigidly mounted on the shaft 6. Thus it will be seen that with each forward oscillation of the pendulum E the pawl L is carried with it and caused to engage successively on the backward swing the ratchetteeth g of the snail-wheel, which is rotated in the direction of the arrow and in turn rotates the wheel II. In practice a detent, such as a light blade-spring, will be provided to engage with the ratchet g to prevent backlash of the snail-wheel. It is desirable in the oscillation of the pendulum to so arrange the pawl L that for each complete oscillation of the pendulum the snail-wheel G will be moved forward a distance of one tooth 9, no matter what the degree of oscillation of the pendulum may be. For this purpose I provide a bracket M, which is secured to the plate IT, Fig. 3, of the framework, and which bracket M is provided with two pins m m, with which the finger l of the pawl L engages."

Referring to Fig. 1, it will be noted that when the pendulum E swings to the right a certain distance the finger Z will strike the pin m, which causes the pawl L to swing on its pivot and become disengaged from the ratchet-teeth g. IV hen the pendulum swings to the left, which is the attracted swing, the pawl L is carried backward to engage a new tooth g, but the pawl is held out of engagement with the ratchet-teeth g by the engagement of arm Z and 'pin m, as shown by the dotted position 1, Fig. 4, which is the position of the pawl at about the extreme forward swing of the pendulum. Pin m will prevent the engagement of pawl L with a ratchettooth 9 until it reaches the dotted-line position 2, and as the pawl is carried to the right by the pendulum arm Z engages pin m and pawl L is caused to gradually move upward, and when it reaches the dotted-line position 3 it will clear the ratchet-tooth g with which it was in engagement and cease to move the snail-wheel forward. In practice the pendulum often swings through an arc of more than seventy-two degreesnvhich, if the pawl L were free to' engage the ratchet-teeth at the limit of its forward swing, would be liable to move the snail-wheel forward a distance of two ratchet-teeth g. To prevent this, the pawl and pins are set so that the pawl will engage the ratchet-teeth g through a'swing of eighteen degrees each side of the center line of the arbor of the pendulum, and in this way the snail-wheel will be moved forward a distance of but one tooth g for each complete swing of the pendulum.

It will be understood that any suitable form of clutch mechanism which will accomplish the same results as the ratchet g, pawl L, and pins on and m may be substituted therefor without departing from the spirit of my invention.

The frame I, which is pivoted upon the arbor '2', is provided with a pin 1, which rests upon the inner edge of the cam C, and since the frame I is free to swing on the arbor L it will be seen that as the cam 0 moves to the right the wheel II will drop proportionately to the amount of current passin through the ampere-indicator, thus permitting a greater number of teeth on the snail-wheel to engage the teeth of the wheel H for each revolution of the snail-wheel. In the position indicated in Fig. 1 the meter is at rest, and since in practice it is customary to connect the motorsolenoid F across the line the pendulum IE will have a constant oscillation, but the teeth of the snail-wheel G will not engage the teeth of the wheel II. \Vhen, however, current passes through the solenoid of the ampereindicator, the cam C is swung to the right, permitting the wheel II to descend and engage with the teeth of the snail-wheel. As the snail-wheel revolves it lifts the wheel II and the frame I, due to its cam shape, and the wheel II will reach the limit of its upward movement when the highest point of the snailwheel engages with the wheel II. IVhen the snail-wheel has made a complete revolution and when thehighest point of the snail-wheel leaves the wheel II, there would be a considerable drop of the frame I if the cam C be at an extreme position to the right, which would result in an undue jarring of the parts. To avoid this, I provide a device for effecting a gradual descent of the wheel II toward the lowest point on the snail-wheel. The device for accomplishing this is a guard O and roller 0. This device is also designed to periodically jar the bearings of the arbor b to enable the ampereindicator to periodically correct the position of the cam O in case its position due to friction does not accu rately correspond to the amount of current flowing through the indicator-coils. The relative positions of the guard and roller are such that when the last or highest tooth on the snail-wheel is about to become disengaged from the teeth of the wheel II the roller 0' will strike the guard O and cause the pin I to tap the concentric arch O and thus jar the bearings of the arbor Z). As shown in the drawings, the guard O is carried by the frame I and the roller is pivoted upon the snail-wheel, but it will be understood that the positions maybe reversed that is, the roller 0 may, for instance, be

sleeved upon the arbor of the wheel II and the guard secured upon the snail-wheel.

In a ten-ampere meter the wheel H has thirty teeth, the pinion It has six teeth, the idler-wheel h thirty-six teeth, the wheel h forty-eight teeth, the pinion 77/ six teeth, and the wheel H siXty teeth. Hence the ratio between the wheels H and H is eighty revolutions to one. In the operation of the meter, if one ampere is flowing through the ampereindicator, the cam C will assume a position which will allow the wheel H to descend a distance sufficient to cause ten teeth of the snail-wheel to engage the teeth of the wheel H for each revolution of the snail-wheel. Since the pendulum makes forty beats per minute the snail-wheel through the pawl L will make four revolutions per minute or two hundred and forty per hour, and since under the conditions assumed ten teeth of the snailwheel engage the teeth of the wheel H on each revolution the wheel H will be moved a distance of two thousand four hundred teeth per hour or eighty revolutions, which will resultin one revolution of the wheel H. Therefore, since ten teeth on the snail-wheel represent one ampere, the one revolution of the wheel H will represent one ampere-hour. If two amperes are flowing through the indicator, the position of the cam 0 will be such that the descent of the wheel H will permit twenty teeth of the snail-wheel to engage the teeth of the wheel H during each revolution,

and the result will be two revolutions of the wheel H for two hundred and forty revolutions of the snail-wheel, which will be equal to two ampere-hours.

only one of its teeth to engage a tooth of the wheel H, and consequently it is possible to pick up one-tenth of an ampere on 'each revolution of the snail-wheel and registerthe same in ampere-hours at the counter.

While I have described the snail-wheel G and wheel H as provided with ratchet-teeth,

. it will be understood that I do not limit myself to that construction, since the snail-wheel may be arranged to rotate the wheel H through friction or the peripheries of G and H may be roughened or milled without departing from the spirit of my invention.

WVhat I claim is- 1. The combination with a register or counter, of a rotating cam engaging with the gearing of the counter to actuate the same, and a motor for rotating said cam, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination with a register or counter, of a rotating cam engaging with the gearing of the counter to actuate the same, a motor for rotating said cam, and means for varying the engagement between the cam and gearing, substantially as set forth.

3. The combination with a register or counter, of a rotating camen gaging with the gearing of the counter to actuate the same, and an oscillating motor for rotating said cam, substantially as set forth.

4. The combination with a register or counter, of arotatin g cam engaging with the gear- The curve of the snailwheel G is such that it will be possible for ing of the counter to actuate the same, an oscillating motor for rotating said cam, and means for varying the engagement between the cam and gearing,substantially as set forth.

5. The combination with a register or counter, of an actuator in the form of a cam engaging the gearing of the counter, an oscillating motor, and a clutch mechanism for converting the oscillations of the motor into an intermittent rotary movement of the cam, substantially as set forth.

6. The combination wit-h a register or counter, of an actuator in the form of a cam engaging the gearing of the counter, an oscillating motor, a ratchet-wheel carried by said cam, and a pawl moved by the movable part of the motor to engage the teeth of said wheel, whereby the oscillations of the motor are converted into an intermittent rotary movement of the cam, substantially as set forth.

'7. The combination with a registeror counter, of an actuator in the form of a cam-shaped ratchetwheel engaging the gearing of the counter, and a motor for rotating said cam, substantially as set forth.

8. The combination with a register or counter, of an actuator in the form of a cam-shaped ratchetwheel engaging the gearing of the counter, a motor for rotating said cam, and means for varying the engagement between the cam ratchet-wheel and the gearing of the counter, substantially as set forth.

9. The combination with a register or counter, of an actuator in the form of a cam-shaped ratchet-Wheel engaging the gearing of the counter, an oscillating motor, and a clutch mechanism for converting the oscillations of the motor into an intermittent rotary movement of the cam, substantially as set forth.

10. The combination with a register or counter, of an actuator in the form of a camshaped ratchet-wheel engaging the gearing of the counter, an oscillating motor, a clutch mechanism for converting the oscillations of the motor into an intermittent rotary movement of the cam, and means for varying the engagement between the cam ratchet-wheel and the gearing of the counter, substantially as set forth.

11. In a registering electric meter, the combination with an ampere-indicator, of a re ister or counter, an actuator in the form of a cam engaging the gearing of the counter, a motor for rotatingsaid cam, and means controlled by the ampere-indicator for varying the engagement between the cam and gearing, substantially as set forth.

12. In a registering electric meter, the combination with an ampere-indicator, of a r'egister or counter, an actuator in the form of a cam-shaped ratchet-wheel engaging the gearing of the counter, a motor for rotating said cam, and means controlled by the ampereindicator for varying the engagement between the cam ratchet-wheel and the gearing of the counter, substantially as set forth.

13. In a registering electric meter, the combination with an ampere-indicator, of a register or counter, a cam-shaped ratchet-Wheel for driving said counter, a train of gearing between said driver and the first Wheel of the counter, and carried by a pivoted frame, and whose pivotal point is coincident with the arbor of the first wheel of the counter, a motor for rotating said cam ratchet wheel, and means controlled by the ampere-indicator for varying the engagement between the cam ratchet-wheel and the first Wheel of the train of gearing, substantially as set forth.

14. In a registering electric meter, the combination With an ampere-indicator, of a register or counter, a cam-shaped ratchet-wheel for driving said counter, a train of gearing between said driver and the first wheel of the counter and carried by a pivoted frame and whose pivotal point is coincident with the arbor of the first wheel of the counter, a motor 20 for rotating said cam ratchet-Wheel, means controlled by the ampere-indicator for varyin g the engagement between the cam ratchetwheel and the first Wheel of the train of gearin and a 'uard O and roller 0 substantiall T 2

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