US966026A - Combined box and socket for electric lamps. - Google Patents

Description

H. W. LAWRENCE. COMBINED BOX AND SOCKET FOR ELECTRIC LAMPS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 17, 1910.

Patented Aug. 2, 1910.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HARRY WALLACE LAWRENCE, OF DENVER, COLORADO.

COMBINED BOX AND SOCKET FOR ELECTRIC LAMPS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY W. Lawnnxon, a citizen of the United States of America, residing in the city and county of Denver and State of Colorado, have invented a new and useful Combined Box and Socket for Electric Lamps, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the cooperative electric lamp socket holding boxes that are adapted to support the lamp sockets and the ends of the electric circuit wires and their incasing tubes on the ceilings, walls and other parts of buildings, and the objects of my invention are: Firstto provide a simple and practical combined box and socket fixture for lamp circuits. Secondto provide a combined wall and ceiling box and socket that comprises a simple, shallow, disk shaped fixture that is quickly and easily connected to a pipe inclosing circuit wire system and that presents a neat and attractive appearance to the eye; and thirdto provide a combined wall and ceiling lamp holding fixture that comprises a box adapted to connect to wire incasing tubes or pipes and to receive the circuit wires from said pipes, and that is adapted to receive an operative lamp socket and in which the socket is arranged to be removably secured to the box and is arranged therein against rotat-ive movement. I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated and described in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a view illustrating the application of the improved device. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the box and socket, the lamp being removed. Fig. 8 is a similar view, the cap which is screwed upon the socket being removed. Fig. t is a plan view of the box, the socket being removed. Fig. 5 is a bottom view of the socket. Fig. 6 is a side View of the socket. Fig. 7 is a sectional view-full sizeon the line 7-7 of Fig. 2; and Fig. 8 is a sectional view-full sizeon the line 88 of Fig 2.

Similar characters of reference refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In the present state of the art of wiring buildings for electric lights the best practice calls for the incasement of the circuit wires in tubes and of the electric lamp holding sockets in receptacles called boxes. The tubes used may consist of any suitable material or metal, iron piping being used extensively, and

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed. January 17, 1910.

Patented A11 2, 1910.

Serial No. 538,568.

an electric lamp wiring and socket system is installed on the ceilings and walls of buildings substantially as illustrated in Fig. 1, in which the numeral 1 designates the circuit wire incasing piping, 2 and 2 designate the circuit wires incased thereby, 8 desighates the lamp holding sockets and 4t the boxes that incase the socket and support the terminal end of of the circuit wires.

My improved cooperating lamp socket and circuit wire terminals incasing box is adapted to provide a compact and easily connecting and disconnecting electric wiring and lamp supporting socket and fitting that is small in diameter and narrow in thickness and consequently presents a neat appearance on the wall or ceiling of a room.

In my cooperating socket and box, the socket is preferably made of porcelain, and the box is made of metal or other suitable material, but preferably cast iron. The box consists of a cylindrical shell portion 5, provided with a bottom or base portion 6. One or two projecting hub portions 7 and 8 project from the side of the box, depending on whether the box is to be used for a lamp at the terminal end of a circuit or is to be inserted in a circuit or line intermediate of its ends, and the box is illustrated in Fig. l with one and also with two connecting hub portions. These hub port-ions are adapted to be threadedly connected to the ends of the circuit wire incasing tubes 1.

When the boxes are provided with two hubs, they are preferably positioned on diametrically opposite sides of the box, but if a lamp is desired at the apex of an angular turn in a circiut wire one hub can be placed at right angles or at any other desired angle to the axial direction of the opposite hub, as shown in Fig. 4:.

On the inside surface of the bottom of the box and on the inside of the side of the shell of the box two lugs 9 are formed, which are positioned on opposite sides of the inside of the box and preferably in alinement with the longitudinal axis of the tube connecting hub portion or portions of the box. These lugs are short pointed lugs that are cast integral with the side and bottom portion of the box, and they project into recesses 10 that are formed in the bottom edge of the base portion 11 of the lamp socket. This base portion of the socket also forms its main body portion and it is preferably made enough smaller in diameter than the aperture in the box to leave a clear space all around it when it is placed centrally in it and the lugs 9 extending into the recesses 10 of the base at its opposite sides hold it centrally in the box and at the same time prevent the socket from turning rotatively in the box. It is necessary, however, to cure the socket to the box, and while this feature of my invention may be carried out in several diitlerent ways and my invention contemplates any suitable method of securing the socket to the box against displacenent, 1 preferably carry out this feature of my invention in the following manner: The base 11 of the socket is in the form of a flange, which projects from the main or body portion 12, and this flange, adjacent to the recesses 10, is of the same thickness as the lugs 9, but the flange increases in thickness or slopes from the recesses 10 to diametrically opposite points on the body 12. as shown in Fig. 6. The ends of the body 12, adjacent to the recesses 10, are recessed as shown at- 12*, Fig. 3, and swinging buttons 13 are secured to the tops of the lugs 9 by screws 11-, and these buttons are arranged to swing over onto the flange 11 and project into the recesses 1:2 and be clamped down upon the flange and the lugs 9 by the screws l l thus securing the base portion of the socket firmly but removably to the bottom of the inside of the box.

The thickest portions 15 of the flange form diametrically opposite flat bearings 16 and 17 for a pair of contact terminal strips 18 and 19, the inner ends of which extend into reccs. s 18 and 19 respectively, which extend from the top of the body of the socket to the level of the bearing surfaces 10 and 17. These terminal contact strips are provided with binding screws 20 and 21. These raised bearing portions and the contact terminal strips and their binding screws are preferably placed at right angles to the recesses 10 in the base and on the outside of the base and diametrically opposite to each other, in which position they are accessible from the front of the socket and box, and this arrangement enables the binding screws to be easily manipulated to secure the circuitwires to or release them from the contact terminal strips, as will be hereinafter fully described.

The central portion of the socketis provided with an axial aperture 22 which extends into it from its upper or top side, in which an interior and also an exterior threaded conductive receiving shell 21 is placed, which is commonly called the receiver, into which the lamp is screwed. This receiver is provided with three outwardly extending feet 95, 26 and 97. The foot 25 forms a contact terminal conductor for the receiver shell and extends into the recess 18 and is clamped beneath the contact terminal 18 that conducts the electric current from the terminal end of the circuit wire 2. to and through the receiver to the lamp. The conductor 18 is clamped upon the foot by a screw 25*, which extends up through a hole in the socket and enters a threaded hole in the said foot. The head of the screw is housed in a recess 25 in the base of the socket. The other two feet 20 and 27 of the receiver are housed in recesses 28 formed in the top of the socket and are secured therein by screws 29, which extend down through holes formed in the socket and receive nuts 30, which are housed in recesses 31 in the base of the socket.

The contact terminal strip 19 extends from its raised bearing 17 down through the recess 19 in the body of the socket to the bottom of the axial recess 22 in the socket, and then extends inwardly beyond the center of the aperture and forms a contact ter minal for the center of the end of the threaded plug of an electric lamp. A recess is formed in the receiver shell above the contact terminal strip 19 to prevent a short circuit between the receiver shell and the said strip 19. A cap is threaded to the outside threaded portion of the receiver shell to screw down against the top of the body of the socket, The combined of the base portion of the socket and of the outer edge of the cap are equal to the depth of the box, which being but about an inch in depth by about three inches in diameter presents a neat appearance when on a wall or ceiling.

The axial aperture in the socket permits the plug end of the lamp to screw down through the receiver shell and engage the contact terminal strip 19 with its end, and the receiver shell is made long enough to entirely cover the threaded portion of the plug end of the electric lamp, which insures the largest area of current conductive surface possible bctween the lamp and the re ceiver shell. This feature of my invention. as well as the receiver itself, as shown and described, and the contact terminals, in substantially the form and arrangement herein illustrated and described, are disclosed in application for patent granted to me August 27, 1907, Serial Xumber 556L427: also applications, Serial Xumber l-l-5,1-'l;9, filed July 2st. 1908, and Serial Number 502,145.), filed July 16, 1909, and now pending.

The operation is as follmvs: The box secured to the end of a circuit wire covering tube or pipe and the circuit wires are ex tended through the hub of the box into its interior. The socket with its cap removed is then placed in the box with its recesses 10 fitting around the lugs 9, and the clamping buttons 13 are turned on the clamping screws 14: to rest on the lugs and also on top of the flange portion of the socket. The

thicknesses clamping screws are then turned to clamp the buttons down against the lugs and the flange, thus removably securing the socket to the inside of the box against accidental dis placement. The ends of the circuit wires are then secured to both of the contact terminal strips by the binding screws 20 and 21, which are so positioned that a screw driver can be applied to them from the front side of the box. The cap is then screwed onto the receiver shell and acts as a cover for the wire connections and gives a finished appearance to the box. A lamp is then screwed into the receiver of the socket, until its end contacts with the conductor 19.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

I. In a combined wall and ceiling box and socket for electric lamps, the combination of an operative electric lamp holding socket provided with recesses at its opposite ends and with binding posts and terminal strips on its sides with a box arranged to surround said socket provided with circuit wire entrance apertures leading to said sockets bindings posts, lug portions in said box fitting into the recesses of said socket, a bind ing screw tln'eaded to each of said lugs and a button. loosely mounted on said screw and arranged to be clamped to said lugs and onto said socket, and means for connecting said box to circuit wire housing tubes or pipes.

2. In a combined wall and ceiling box and socket for lamps, the combination of the circuit wires, the circuit wire incasing pipes, and an operative electric lamp socket provided with binding posts and contact terminal strips arranged therein to conductively' connect with a lamp and arranged on the opposite sides of said socket in a position to be manipulated from the lamp receiving end of said socket, a, threaded receiver shell in said socket adapted to receive a lamp, and a cap threaded to said receiver shell, with a disk shaped box of any suitable material arranged to surround said socket, means including a clamping device attached to said box for ren'iovably securing said socket in said box, said box being provided with a. hollow hub or with hollow hubs arranged and adapted to permit said circuit wires to be inserted into said box to the binding posts contact terminals of said socket, said hollow hub portions of said box being provided with threads adapted to connect said box to said circuit wire incasing tubes or pipes.

A combined wall and ceiling box and socket for electric lamps comprising an open top disk shaped box adapted to be connected to wire holding tubes or pipes and arranged to receive circuit wires and provided with a pair of oppositely a ranged lug portions, provided with a clamping screw, and a swinging locking button loosely mounted on said screw, with an operative lamp holding socket comprising a base portion provided with oppositely arranged flanged portions provided. with recesses fitting loosely over the lug portions of said box, said flange portions being adapted to receive said button, said button being adapted to be clamped against the said flanged portions of said base and the lug portions of said box by said screw, and suitable circuit wire operative binding posts and contact terminal strips on said base portion of socket arranged to secure the ends of circuit wires to said socket, a threaded electric lamp receiving shell secured to said base and arranged to receive the threaded end of an electric lamp in circuit relation to said con tact terminal strips, and a cap threaded to said shell and fitting in the top portion of said box.

4:. In a device as specified, the combination with a lamp socket, having oppositely arranged recesses in its base, of a box for said socket having lugs which extend into said recesses and clamping devices on said lugs for holding said socket in said box; a pipe extending into said box; a metal lamp receiver in said socket; conductors upon the socket, one of which connects with the lamp receiver, while the other is adapted to be engaged by the contact end of a lamp; binding screws in said conductors and a cap for closing the box, said cap having a central aperture through which the lamp receiver passes.

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

HARRY WALLACE LAWRENGE.

Witnesses G. SARGENT ELLIOTT, ADELLA M. FowLn.

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