US788563A - Means for establishing electric circuits. - Google Patents

Description

.No. 788,563. PATENTED MAY 2, 1905.

G. THOMPSON. I MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING ELECTRIC CIRCUITS.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 1, 1902.

W127 85S 63: lfivep dz- QAZ 5010 71117411 50 119s (filing:

UNITED STATES Patented May 2, 1905.

' PATENT OFFICE.

GUION THOMPSON, OF DULUTH, MINNESOTA, ASSIGNOR TO THE THOMP- SON SAFETY APPLIANCE COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING ELECTRIC CIRCUITS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 788,563, dated May Application filed July 1, 1902. Serial No. 113.9 16.

To all whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, GUIoN THOMPSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Duluth, in the county of St. Louis and State of Minnesota, have invented new and useful Means for Establishing Electric Circuits, of which the followin is a specification.

My invention re ates to means for establishing an electric circuit, and has for its obj ect the provision of means whereby such circuit may be established from a battery or other source of electricity carried by a moving conveyance through stationary conductors of electricity located upon the route of said conveyance.

It comprises the combination of a source of electricity carried by a movable conveyance, electricity-conducting means connected to one of the poles of said source and adapted to contact with stationary electricity-conducting means located upon the route of said conveyance, electricity-conducting means connected to the other pole of said source and adapted to contact with a second stationary conductor of electricity located upon said route, a series of intermediate conductors of electricity located upon said route and eX- tending from one of said stationary conductors to the other and forming a normally operative conductor from said first to said second stationary conductor adapted to be interrupted by the movement of the support of one of the elements of said series.

It also consists of certain other constructions, combinations, and arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter described.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a diagram of the portions of said circuit which are anchored upon the route of said conveyance. Fig. 2 is a diagram of a movable conveyance upon said route and of the portions of said circuit carried thereby, showing in dotted lines a lamp-circuit which my invention may be made to interrupt. Fig. 3 is a detail of a modified construction of a part of said anchored portions.

In the drawings, A and A, respectively, represent the rails of a railway-track, and A is a short rail or contact external to the rails of said track and preferably supported by a support (1. Connected at one end to said external rail A and extending backward a suitable distance along said track is a conductor of electricity A, provided at its opposite end with a contact e. Connected at one end to said rail A and extending therefrom to the vicinity of said contact 6 is a conductor of electricity A provided with a terminal contact e, adapted to electrically communicate with said contact a through the medium of a double intervening or bridging contact e as shown in Fig. 1, or by any other suitable means, which contactual or communicating relation is adapted to be controlled by a positiongoverning means of any suitable construction, as an armature A of an electromagnet A anchored in any suitable manner on the bed of said track, to which armature said double contact e is attached and by which it is adapted to be temporarily withdrawn from contact with said contacts 6 and e when said armature is attracted toward said electromagnet or otherwise moved from its normal position. It is obvious, however, that said contact e may within the scope of my invention be made to normally contact directly with said contact 6, as shown in Fig. 3, under the control of such position-governing means by attaching either of said. contacts c or c to said means A" in a position to contact with the other and relatively detached one of said contacts, or any other suitable construction may be employed which will efiect equivalent relations between said conductors A and A". The coil of said electromagnet A is-included in a normally open circuit comprising a battery A or other source of electricity, the conductor A", the normally closed circuit-breaker A, the con ductor A, the conductor A", the front stop A and the normally open circuit-closer or armature A. B represents a locomotive or other conveyance adapted to move on said rails A and A, which conveyance carries a battery 6 or other source of electricity, to the opposite poles of which are connected conductors of electricity, as at I) and b, of any suitable material or construction and normally so separated or insulated from each other as to be electrically nonintercommuni cative,-the conductor b being adapted to contact, through the medium of the axle and wheel of the conveyance, forming a conductual extension thereof, with the rail A, the

conductor 5 being adapted to contact directly or through a suitable terminal contact, as 5*, with said external rail A Said conveyance also carries a magnet or energized electromagnet H, which is adapted in pass ing said armature A to attract and operate the same, either directly or through the medium of said electromagnet A and is further adapted when passing said circuit-breaker A to operate the same to open the circuit controlled thereby. Said battery I) may also be included in a normally closed circuit including portions of said conductors b and b and a signal-lamp C. (Shown in dotted lines on said conveyance.) It is obvious also that said conductor A may, within the scope of my invention, be attached to either one of said rails A or A, or, if desired, to a second external rail or contact similar to said rail A placed transversely or diagonally opposite to said rail A preferably forward of said armature A, in which latter event the conductor b may be constructed in a manner similar to conductor 6 and arranged to contact with such second external rail at the same time that said conductor 6 contacts with said rail A It is regarded as one of the essential features of my invention that the construction thereof shall be such that said means A may normally be operated by some operating means on the conveyance, directly or through intermediate means, to interrupt the electroconductual relation between said contacts a and e shortly before the conductors o and b have both contacted with their corresponding rail-contacts, which requirement is complied with, preferably, by leading said conductor A backward from said external rail A and by placing said rail A forward of said governing means A", as shown but I do not desire to limit myself to such exact construction, since the same re sults may be attained by modified or extended constructions within the spirit and scope of my said invention.

The operation of my said invention is as follows: When a conveyance so equipped passes from left to right along said route, the road-bed equipment and the conveyance equipment being in working order, the magnet H directly or through the medium of the magnet A will first operate the armature A to close the circuit including said battery A, by which the energy of said magnet A will be maintained. The movement of said armature will suspend the conductive communication between the conductors A and A When, therefore, the conductors b and b are subsequently brought into contemporaneous contact, respectively, with conductors A and A, no current passes from said battery I) through said conductors A and A, and said lamp Cremains lighted. If,how ever, said circuit including said battery A fails of operation, said armature A will be dropped as soon as passed by said magnet H and the conductive communication reestablished from conductor A to conductor A in which event when the conveyance brings said conductors b and 6 simultaneously into contact with said conductors A and A, respectively, the current from battery I) will be short-circuited from said lamp C, and the consequent extinction of the light thereof will give warning that the circuit including said battery A failed, which operation is regarded as of very great importance and may be characterized as a "fail-to-danger construction as distinguished from a construction by which the failure of the assumed circuits will leave a safety-signal displayed in the cab of the en ine.

The ut' ities of my invention are manifold, and one of them may be suggested by the fact that said magnet A when energized and continued in operation by the means described is adapted to operate additional means (not shown) carried by a following conveyance to warn the driver of such following conveyance of the presence of the preceding conveyance between the positions of the magnet A and the circuit-breaker A The failure of the circuit in which said magnet A is included would incapacitate said magnet for such service, and but for the failto-danger construction herein described the driver of said following conveyance, ignorant of the failure of the signal system, might continue to a collision with the preceding conveyance. It is obvious that my said invention may be modified or extended in minor details and that such contacts and conductors may be constructed in any suitable manner or of any suitable materials or supported by any suitable means or in any suitable manner and that any suitable source of electricity of any suitable construction may be substituted for said battery I), all within the scope of my said invention.

Having now described my said invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The combination of a normally open electric circuit including a source of electricity, electromagnetic means and a normally open circuit controlling contact; a partial circuit including a normally closed contact and a normally open contact; means governed by said electromagnetic means and adapted when operated thereby to close or maintain the closure of the first said normally open circuit-controlling contact; means governed by said electromagnetic means and adapted when operated thereby to open said ITC normally closed contact; a travelin bridging contact constituting a normally open electric circuit and including a source of electricity and adapted during passage to close for a brief period the normally open contact of said partial circuit, and an electrically-operated device governed by said normally open traveling circuit.

2. The combination of a normally open electric circuit including a source of electricity the coil of an electromagnet and a normally open circuit-controlling contact; a partial circuit, including a normally closed circuit-controlling contact and a normally open circuit-controlling contact; an armature for said electromagnet adapted When operated thereby to close the first said normally open contact a traveling bridging contact, constituting a normally open electric circuit and including a source of electricity and adapted during assage to close for a brief period the norma y open contact of said partial circuit; a closed electric circuit of relatively high resistance including the last said source of electricity and a part of the said normally open traveling circuit, or traveling contact, and an electrically-operated signal device.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

GUION THOMPSON.

Images