US586652A - Appaeatus foe woeking electeio teamways - Google Patents

Description

(N0 Medal.) 2 'Sheets-Sheet 1.

0. ANDERSON. APPARATUS FOR WORKING ELECTRIC TRAMWAYS.

Patented July 20, 1897.

FIG. 1

. Pant!!! (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

G. ANDERSON. APPARATUS FOR WORKING ELECTRIC TRAMWAYS.

No. 586,652. Patented July 20 1897.

- I 4 'l k 3 FA l E UNrTnn STATES PATENT OFFIcE.

CHRIS ANDERSON, OF LEEDS, EIGLAND.

APPARATUS FOR \NORKING ELECTRIC TRAMWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N0. 586,652, dated July 20, 1897. Application filed February 13, 1895. Serial No. 538,285. (No model.) Patented in England July 13, 1894,1T0. 13,550.

To aZZ whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, GHRIs ANDERSON, engineer, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Lane IIouse, Jack Lane, Hunslet, in the city of Leeds, in the county of York, England, have invented certain new and usef ul Improvements in Apparatus for \Vorkin g Electric Tramways, (for which I have obtained provisional protection in Great Britain, No. 13,550, bearing date the 13th day of July, 1894,) of which the following is a specification.

Under the present method of working electric tramways it is necessary to have motors of sufficient capacity to surmount the hardest part of the road, although that part may be but a very small proportion of the whole length of the road. This is a great drawback because of the additional weight which the tram-cars have to carry, which becomes aggravated when the car is required to travel uphill, besides adding greatly to the expense of working. To overcome these difficulties and use only motors which are sufficient for the major part of the length of the road, I propose to supplement the motors carried by the cars by the use of cable haulage-that is to say, by the use of underground traveling cables placed under the roadway in those places where additional power is required. These haulage-cables are laid and connections between them and the cars made in such manner as is common to underground haulage-cables, but they are worked by electricity by means of motors driven by the same current as that by which the car is propelled. Each haulage-cable is set in motion by the car as it comes to the place where the additional power is required, and the motion ceases when the additional power is no longer required. For the purposes aforesaid I mount upon the car a switch, to be operated by the driver, by means whereof a part of the electric current from the conductor or cable driving the car may be diverted so as to pass through suitable connections into a separate conductor or wire used solely for the purpose of driving the motors by which the haulagecable is set in motion.

Such being the nature of my invention, I now proceed to describe more fully, by means two ramps and contact-brush beneath, and

also a section of the roadway supporting the car, showing the rails, the haulage-cable conduit with the slot, and, in dotted lines, the.

box containing a peg mechanism, showing the pegs up. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section of the mechanical and contact pegs on the line c d, Fig. 4, looking toward the car as it approaches, and showing also in cross-section the contact-brush and ramp, and showing also the method of forming connection between the contact-peg and the electric-supply conductor below, and also the method of forming connection between the mechanical peg and the haulage-motor cable below. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a tram-car as seen as cending an incline, with the gripper shown descending from the front of the car down through the slot in the roadway and in con tact with the haulage-cable, showing also the haulage-cable and haulage-motor. Fig. 4t is a plan of the underframe of a tram-car, also of the roadway, with three mechanical boxes, also the slotrail for contact with the haulagecable, showing also the electrical connections from the switchboards to the car-motor, to the contact-brush, and to the ramp.

The same letters and numbers refer to the same parts throughout the drawings.

AA represent the tram-car as shown in vertical cross-section and side elevation in Figs. 1 and 3, respectively, and the under-frame only, as shown in Fig. 4.

A A are the drivers platforms at the ends of the car.

A A are the dashboards.

1 1 are the tram-car wheels.

2 is the car-motor.

3 3 are the ramps, one for each way the car runs.

4 is the contact-brush attached to the car.

5 is the mechanical peg, whose upper end slides through the box-cover l0 and its lower end in the socket 17, Fig. 2. The mechanical peg is mounted on a stud or cross-arm 0, on

the other end of which the contact-peg 7 is mounted.

8 is the roadway, 9 9 the tram-rails, and 10 the box containing the pegs and their accompanying mechanism, and 10 is the box-cover.

11 is the haulage-cable conduit sunk in the roadway, and 11 is the slot in the conduitcover.

12 is the haulage-cable.

The contact-peg 7 is provided with a rod 5 for the purpose of forming contact with the electric-supply conductor 14L by means of the C-spring 5 slidingin the socket 13,connected with the said supply-nd uctor.

The contact-peg 7 (shown in detail in Fig. 2) is so constructed as that its sides on the parts which pass through and in contact with the box-cover are insulated from the top, which comes into contact with the contact brush, and its sides are also insulated from the rod WVhen the peg is down it is out of connection with the electric-supply conductor.

The mechanical peg 5 is made hollow and incloses a central rod 18 for the purpose of forming contact when required with the electric-haulage-motor cable 20 by means of the spring 19, projecting through a slot formed in the side of the mechanical peg. The sides of the mechan ical peg are insulated from the central rod 18 in like manner as the contact-peg.

21, Fig. 3, is the haulage-motor, and 22 is the gripper, preferably one at each end of the car, for gripping onto the haulage-cable.

23 23, Fig. 4, are switchboards mounted one at each end of the car. Each switchboard is connected by a wire 24: to the contact-brush 4 and through it and the contact-peg 7 to the electric-supply conductor. A wire 25 conveys electricity from the switchboard to the car-motor 2, and a third wire 26 is provided capable of being switched into contact with the ramps 3 3, (one at a time only, according to the direction the car is to run,) and thereby supply electricity to the haulageanotor cable 20 through the central rod 18 of the mechanical peg.

The action of my electric-tramway apparatus is as follows: When a car comes to a part of the road where a haulage-cable 12 is laid and it is desired to use it, the driver of the car will drop the gripper 22 so as to engage with the haulage-cable 12 and at the same time switch on the electric current to the haulage-motor cable 20. The electric current will then pass from the electric-supply conductor 14 up through the contact-peg 7, then through the contact-brush 4 to the switchboard 23, then through the wire 26 to the ramp 3 and mechanical peg 5 and down the central rod 18 and the spring 19 to the haulage-motor cable 20, and thence to the motor 21 and so set the haulage-cable 12 in motion.

My invention is equally applicable to electric tramways worked by means of overhead wires as to those worked by means of underground wires or cables.

The switchboard is so arranged that when it is desired to use the haulage-cable the same switch will operate to turn the electricity on or off the car-motor and the haulage-motor at the same time.

Electricity for lighting the car may be taken from thesame switchboard by the method at present in use.

Having now described the nature of my invention and in what manner the same is to be carried into practical effect, I desire to make known that what I claim as my invention is- In an electric-tramway system, the combination with a car carrying an electric motor, a contact-brush, a ramp, a switchboard, electrical connections from said switchboard to the contact-brush, motor and ramp, and a gripper, and with an electric-supply conductor, a peg for making electric connection between said conductor and the contact-brush; and a haulage-cable for use as an auxiliary power actuated by an electric m0tor,-of a haulage-motor cable or conductor for said motor; and a peg for making connection between said conductor and the ramp, substantially as described.

CHRIS ANDERSON.

lVitnesses:

WM. DALTON, 1 HERBERT L. P. LoUDoN.

Images