USRE11872E - van depoele - Google Patents

Description

' No. I|,872. Reissued Nov. I3, |900.

v C. J. VAN DEPELE, Decd. A. WAHL & c. A. comu, Administrators, Assignurs tu THOMSON-HOUSTON ELECTRIC COMPANY.. TRAVELING CONTACT FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAYS.

' 3 Sheets-Sheet l.

C. VAN Denim, C

INVENTOR.

` "'ATTORNEYS.

UNITED STATES PATENTA OFFICE.

THOMSON-HOUSTON ELECTRIC COMPANY, or nosroN, MASSACHUSETTS', AssIcNEE oF ALBERT WAHL AND c. A. coFFIN, ADMINIsrRAToRs F CHARLS J. VAN DEPOELE, DECEASED.

TnAvsLlNe coNTAcrr-'on ELECTRIC .nAlLwAvs,

SPECIFIGATION forming part of Beissued Letters Patent No. 11,872, dated November 13, 190i). Original No. 495,443, duted'hprll 11, 189.8. Application for rsllne led September 28,1800. serial lin. 31,461.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that CHARLES J .VANDEPOELA deceased, late a citizen of the United States,

residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, was the original, first, and sole inventor of certain newand useful Improvements in Traveling Contacts for Electric Railways, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanyng drawings,

` The said invention relates to electric rail..A ways of the class in'which a suspended con-J ductor is used to convey the Working current, a travelingcontact carried by the car for taking olf the current for use in operating the motor by which the car is propelled, and the return circuit completed through the rails.

The invention consists more particularly of i an improved traveling contact. This is shown,

however, in connection with an improved ar'- rangement and construction of the switches by which the said traveling contact isdirected onto the proper conductor; but thesedevices for switching the traveling contact from one conductor to another have been already claimed in Letters Patent of the United States No. {124,695, which was issued as a division of Vthis application on April l, 1890, and 'saiddevices are not claimed herein; but the description and illustration of them are here retained to show how the travelingcontact is adapted to meet one of the essential requirements of railway service withou t special arrangements a side elevation of ,a car provided with the box, and the rails.

improved contact arm and device, with the special tension device claimed in the aforesaid p rior patent, No. 424,695. Fig. 2 isan enlarged detail showing the contact-wheel iny position in a switch-box. Fig. 3 is a sectional detail showing the construction of the contact-wheel. Fig. 4 is a top plan -view'of a prtion of track, .showing theconductor, a switch- Fig. 5 is also a plan viewV and is similar to the preceding,I with the addition of a ear, shown in dotted lines. Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic representation of an'electric-railway system. Fg.`7 shows a modified form of contact-wheel and an arm provided with a tension-spring only. Fig'.` 8 is a diagrammatic representation thereof. Fig. 9 is au elevation on an enlarged'seale, partly in section, showingthe vertical and transverse axes upon which the contact-carrying arm is sustained.

Similar letters denote like parts throughout.

The car A is supported upon the track B and provided with a motor C, which is connected with the wheels thereof in any of the methods' already described by me.

D is the suspended working conductor, E

is the traveling contact-wheel, andF-isa hinged arm supported -upon a post f, secured to or extending upward from the roof of the car. To the lower end of the .arm F is attached a suitable tension device; but as the yIn order that the contact-wheel E shall be.

compelled to pass. from one conductor te-a branch or oneattached thereto leading in a different direction, the inverted open-bottnm metallic boxes IA areprovided. vThese are formed with branching compartments and f constructed in theform f switphes, conforming `to the grooves and angles of the trackswitches by which the direction of the car is controlled. These boxes are in the form of open smooth curved passages and are free from obstructions within, so that the contact` wheel E, which is slightly depressed on meet ing the end of the switch-box, may roll freely therethrough in the desired direction without hindrance. I v

The conductors` D follow the line of the track or tracks and are preferably located centrally above 'them and at points where the tracks diverge or join the main-line. Switch- Vboxes I are placed, the conductors D coming to the said boxes and being firmly attached to the tops or sides thereof, so that were there no other support provided for them the said l conductors would sustain the box in its proper position, which 'is directly over the ground or track switch.

'lhe switch-box lmay 'take almost any shape .and may be made of thinsheet metal or of -axis of ,t he wheel, so that one filling will serve to lubricatc the wheel for many hours.

'- of wheels of the ear, and the position of the- The arm F is of a length that will place the contact-wheel E about over the rear pair post f and the lengthiof the arm F itself will therefore vary with the length of the body of the car, thel particular proportions shown being only by way of illustration. The arm F is hinged and -should in most instances be also pivoted .to the top of its post f, although an amount of looseuess in the hinged joint which Vwill answer the purpose of the pivot, hereinafter described, maybe utilized. As

shown on an enlarged scale in Fig. 9, the post f is formed with a hollow portion ol' socket at its upper end, although it` might be hollow throughout. The forked pvolif'y is adapted to fit into the upper part of said postfand be rotatably sustained therein. 'lhe arm F is carried tothe forked upper end of the pivot f' nponlfthe transverse boltor pinf, which passes through said arm and constitutes a transverse ax-is therefor.Y Hence the said arm is both hinged and pivoted upon its support- 'lhe"postf is secured to a` suitable base A', which is fastened upon the top of the-car'.

.In-.the diagram Fig.V 6 M is the generatingstation furnishing 'the electric current for operatin g the motors on, the cars, which current passes tothe suspended conductors D by way of conductor d, returning 4tothe station by way of the track Band conductor l1. l.The possi-- vbililies of operation with the im proved switch are shown ih this diagram, which represents.y

an actual installation in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, lthc principal curves and sev- SSV - as the front portion ol' the car swings in the' eral additional switches being necessitated by -i-cason of a large public fountain O. The electric switches l are to be placeddirectly over their counterparts, the track-switches, and

thev contact-wheel, as before stated, is to be located above the rear wheel, or, at any rate,-y

baicli of t-he vertical center of the oar,'so that desired direction as the front wheels passthe track-.switch the contact-arm will be deflected and the direction of the wheel E correspondingly changed while still on the straight wire,

'lhe hub of this so that on reaching the switch-box the wheel l ist in one switch-box', the wheel will intersect the grooves and pass along'in the desiredv direction without any diliiculty whatever, its

, 4direction being previously indicated by the movement ol' the front portion of the car. Thus it will be seen that'by locating the traveling contact-wheel in the position shown or one equivalent thereto all the diiiiculties of switching from conductor lo conductor are obviated and with the smallest possible amount of special construction.

In Figs. 7and 8 is shown a modilication of the foregoing in which a star-wheel E' takes the place of the contactwheel E, and. the suspended conductors are permanently connected together above the track-switches, as at e', the result being that as the front part ol' the car swings onto thediverging trackthe teeth of the wheel will catch across the joint of the wires and by preventing the contactwheel slipping sidewise, as it would at that moment' be otherwise liable to do, its passage onto the conductor labove the track upon which the car -is is assured, This special form .of wheel forms the subject of a division of this application, Patent No. 424,910, and hence is vnot speciticallyclaimed herein .as suoli.

'The contact-carrying armdescribed and claimed i'n the present application possesses substantial practical'advantages over any Serial No. 169,410,..(see Patent No. 403,S01,)

said Charles'J. Van Depoele, deceased, has shown and described a contact device consisting ofa grooved roller mounted upon a springend sustained thereby a short distance above'lthe .roof of -the caryb'ut: this was in practice found deficient in capacity to follow the sinuosities and deflections of the overhead conductor as ordinarily put up, and,

moreover, necessitated the conductor being supported 'in inconvenient proximity to the ground, and it also'required for its operation a conductor suspein'led4 withsnbstantiall y impracticable accuracy above an ideal track. By the use of such an arm as herein described, which may be u( any suitable length, the con'- ductor is supported at a height entirely out of the way of passing teams and the like, and, g moreover, the outer end of the arm being the longest may also swing laterally through a distance of several feet to follow deflections or bends in the conductor without undue orinjurious strain upon its pivotal connections. Another great advantage is found in the `fact that the outer end of an arm such as described will maintain its contact under great variations of height of conductor, as well as lateral displacement thereof, and may even be depressedto ahorizontal position where it is desired to pass under bridges, into build ings, or other places where it may be desirable to place the conductor in a lower plane than in the other portions of the track.

Many modicat-ions and minor changes in the invention just described will'readily suggest-themselves to persons skilled in the art, and the improvement is not limited to the precise details of construction or 1arrangement shown, as they may be modified without departing from the scope of the invention.

The combination with the contact-carryingarm oi' a weighted spring, or of a weight and spring, as the special means for holdingv the eontact-arm pressed upward and of enabling the motorman to lower the contact-wheel are not claimed herein, because this special improvement has 'been'already claimed in the Patent'No'. 424,695,dated April 1, 1890, which was issued as a division of this application.

Nor is there claimed herein the so arranging oi.' i

a weight or spring (as by causing it'to work through suitable grooves or rollers arranged in'the carroof) as to tend to cause the arm to assume a normal central position, or one parallel with the longitudinal center of the car, as that has also been already claimed in said divisional patent, No. 424,695, being an arrangementwhich is of especial value only in connection with the switches to which said` `divisional patent more particularly relates.

In the present application no special form or arrangement of tension device is essential to or a part of the invention claimed.

What is claimed as the invention of said CHARLES J. VAN DEPOELE is- 1. In an electric railway, the combination of a car, an overhead conductor above the car,

an upwardly-extending and laterally-swinging arm mounted on the roof of the car, and carrying a contactdevice at its free end and making underneath contact with the conductor, substantially as described.

f 2. In an electric railway, the combination of a car, an electric overhead conductor above the car and parallel with the line of travel,

an upwardly-extending` trailing arm carrying a contact' device at its free end, adapted to make underneath contact with the conductor, said arm being supported on the car on vertical and transverse axes, so as to permit said contact deviceto follow the position of theconductor, notwithstanding great -variations of height and of lateral displacement'thereof, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof the THOMSON-Holm '.roN ELECTRIC COHPANY, assignee of the entire interest of the said CHARLES 'J. VAN DEPoELlt, deceased, has caused its corporate seal to. beailixed and attested by the signatures of C. A. COFFIN, its president, and M. F. WESTOVER, its secretary, this 31st day of July, 1900.

President.

i lt. r. wssrovsn, Secretary.

J J. 'Coseaovm Wu. H. Business, J r.-

Images