US697132A - Electric controller. - Google Patents

Description

Patented Apr. 8, |902.

F. E. CASE.

ELECTRIC CONTROLLER.

(Application filed July 16, 1900.)

2 Sheeis-Sheet l.

(No Model.)

Jnventor FrankBCase PUJA WHC/messes.

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F. E. CASE.

ELECTRIC CONTROLLER.

(Application led July 16, 1900.)

Patented Apr. 8, |902.

(No Model.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

FRANK E. CASE, OF SCIIENECTADY, NEV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEV YORK.

ELECTRIC CONTROLLER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 697,132, dated April 8, 190.2.

Application filed .Tuly 16,1900.

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK E. CASE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Schenectady, county of Schenectady, State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Controllers, (Case No. 1,l63,) of which the following is a specication.

My invention relates to a magnetic blowout device for electric controllers, and has for its object 'to provide an improved arrangement of the chute structure, in which the arcs are disrupted.

In my prior application, Serial No. 671,094, I have described and claimed a new form of blow-out device in which the magnetic iield has a direction substantially at right angles to the direction of motion of the moving contacts and perpendicular to the face along which Contact is made and in which the chutes are so arranged that the arc is restrained in its movement in the direction in which it tends to move in the magnetic iield and is compelled to expand sidewise in iiattened loops until it is disrupted.

My present invention comprises a inodilied form of the above invention as applied to a controller of the type in which the movable contacts are mounted on a common support.

It also comprises certain details of construction applicable to switches in general.

My invention will be more clearly understood by reference to the following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, while its scope will be clearly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawingsJ Figure l illustrates a controller provided with an arc chute structure arranged according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a cross-section along the line 2 2 of Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a perspective View showing more in detail the construction of the chutes in which the arcs are disrupted; and Fig. l is a detail sectional view of one of the blow-out chambers, showing the position of the stationary and movable contacts of the controller with respect thereto.

Referring to Fig. l, which shows my invention as applied to a controller having two main cylinders, A illustrates the controller- Serial No. 23,711. (No model.)

casing; C' and C2, the main controller-cylinders; C3, the reversing-switch cylinder, and M the blow-out magnet. The Xed contacts for the controller-cylinders are mounted on the insulating-supportsd and d2, extending along the length of the controller-casing.

The arrangement thus far described constitutes no part of my invention.

lWIy invention relates to the structure B, containing the chambers in which the arcs are formed and disrupted at the time that the circuit is broken at the controller-contacts. In the particular controller chosen for illustration this structure comprises two sets of chutes of similar construction, one for each of the main cylinders, and is supported on hinges c and f at one side of the controller, so that it may be readily swung aside to expose the controller-contacts to view. It is held in the closed position bya bolt screwing into the core of the blow-out magnet. On the outside of the two sets of chutes and positioned directly over the fixed contacts of the controller lie the bars of the magnetic material g and g2, constituting one pole of the blow-out magnet. These strips are united to each other at g3 and g4 and are connected to the core on which the coil M is wound by means of the portions g5 and g.

The construction of the chutes is shown more clearly in Fig. 3, which represents in perspective a portion of the chute structure for the contacts of the cylinder C. In the upper portion of this figure, which is shown partially in outline, with the front broken away in order that the interior construction may be rendered clear, Z and Z represent the fingers supporting` two of the lined contacts of the controller. The cooperating movable contacts are mounted on the surface of the cylinder, two of such contacts being shown at m and 'm'.

Each of the fixed contacts is mountedin an arcing-chamber, which has its upper and lower walls provided with openings adjacent to the fixed contact and its side walls cutaway to leave room for the contact-iingers and to permit the rotation of the cylinder-contacts. Adjacent to each of the arcing chambers above and below is arranged a second chamber, which I have termed a v blow-out chamber, this chamber having an opening into the arcing-chamber at the point adjacent to the controller-contacts and being otherwise closed, except for two openings in the front wall at points removed from the opening into the arcing-chamber.

As shown in the drawings, all the chutes are comprised in a common structure built of any suitable refractory insulating material. The angularly-arranged strips b and b2 constitute the sides of the chutes. Between these side pieces are mounted the wedge-shaped strips h and h2, constituting the upper and lower walls of the arcing and blow-out chambers. Each of the strips h' is provided with an openingadjacent to the fixed contacts, and each of the strips h2 is solid. A strip c', in-

, terposed between the strips h' and h2, completely incloses the back side of the blow-out chamber formed between the plates h and h2.

On the front the edges of all the strips lie in the same plane, and the sheet lc, fastened to these edges, closes the front side of both the arcing and the blow-out chambers. The part lc is provided with apertures 7o at each side of each of the blow-out chambers, but it closes completely the front side of the arcing-chamber.

As shown in the drawings, a blow-outchamber is provided on each vside of each of the arcing-chambers. This construction is rendered necessary in the particular controller chosen for illustration by reason of the fact that in dierent positions of the controller the current flows in diierent directions through vthe controller-contacts, so thaty at certain times the arc is propelled upward and at other times downward. As is well known, an arc when in a magnetic ield tends to travel in a direction at right angles to the direction of the linesof force. In the construction shown in the drawings the arc will travel either up or down, according to the direction of currentiow, for the magnetic eld has a direction downward until it reaches the edge of the contacts. Thereafter the arc is stretched, as shown in the dotted lines, until it extends through the opening inthe wall h and impinges against the lower wall h2 of the blowout chamber.

` spreading of the arc along the length of fingers-and contacts. The progress of the arc in the direction in which it tends to travel is limited by its contact with the wall h2; but the arc being still within the influence of the magnetic field it is expanded in flattened loops extending lengthwise of the chamber until linally it is disrupted. By this arrangement it will be seen that the arc is first The wall h prevents the blown for a certain distance in a direction at right angles to the direction of the'lines of force away from the upper or lower edge of the contacts until it impinges against the end wall ot' the 'blow-out chamber, and then, by reason of the restrictions afforded by the said end wall, it is blown in two directions from the central point in a plane substantially parallel to the direction of movement of the moving contacts of the controller.

Vhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is 1. In combination, in an electric controller provided with a series of movable contacts mounted on a common support and a series of fixed contacts adapted to engage therewith,

means for producing a magnetic eld in a di` rection substantially at right angles to the direction of motion of the moving contacts and substantially perpendicular to the face along which contact is made, ablow-out chamber adjacent to each of said fixed contacts, said chamber having an opening adjacent-to the contacts for the reception of the arc, and a closed wall opposite to said opening in the direction of travel of the arc.

2. In combination, in an electric controller `provided with a series of movable contacts mounted on a common support and a series ,of fixed contacts adapted to engage therewith, means for producing a magnetic field in a direction substantially at right angles to the direction of motion of the moving contacts and substantially perpendicular to the face along which contact is made, an arcing-chamber inclosing each set of contacts,` and a blowout chamber adjacent to each arcing-chamiber, said blow-out chamber communicating with the arcing-chamber through an opening adjacent to the contacts and having a closed wall opposite to said opening. s 3. In combination, in an electric controller, a rotatable cylinder provided with contacts, a plurality of iixed contacts adjacent thereto, ,means for producing a magnetic ield in a di- IOO IIO

rection substantially at righ-t angles to the direction of motion of the moving contacts and substantially perpendicular to the face along which contacty is made, anda chute structure comprisingarcing-chambers inclosA `ing the contacts, and blow-out chambers ad- `jacent thereto, each of said arcing-chambers having portions of the walls cut away-to perlpmit the rotation of the contacts and each of the v comprising blow-out cham-bers adjacent`-to each set of contacts, each of said blow-out chambers having an opening adjacent to the controller-contacts and a closed wall opposite thereto in the direction in Which the arc tends to travel.

5. In combination in an electric switch, means for producing a magnetic field in a direction substantially at right angles to the direction of motion of the moving1 contacts, an arcing-chamber inclosing the switch-contacts, and blow-out chambers on each side of said arcing-chamber, said blow-out chambers communicating With the arcing chamber through openings adjacent to the contacts and having closed Walls opposite to said openings in the direction of travel of the arc.

G. In combination in an electric switch,

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