US1111213A - Electric signal system. - Google Patents

Description

A. H. GAVEN.

ELECTRIC SIGNAL SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.20,1912.- 1 1 1 1,21 3.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

Patented Sept. 22, 1914.

Witnesses N Inventor by I Attorneys A. H. OAVEN.

ELECTRIC SIGNAL SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 20, 1912. 1, 1 1 1,21 3 Patented Sept. 22, 1914.

2 sHBBTS SHEBT 2.

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M/ZfkflK/J, Inventor Attorneys Witnesses UNITED STATES PATENT- OFFICE.

ALVA. HAYS GAVEN, OF YOUNGWOOD, PENNSYLVANIA.

ELECTRIC SIGNAL SYSTEM.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALVA H. CAVEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Youngwood, in the county of \Vestmoreland and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Electric Signal System, of which the following is a specification;

The present invention'relates to improvements in electric signaling systems, the particular structure herein set forth embodying the main features of the system shown in applicants Patent No. 1,066,380, dated July 1, 1913, the primary object of the present invention being the provision of means whereby a number of cars may enter the same block in succession, the first car entering, operating an electromagnet to energize a signaling circuit to control the visual signal at the respective ends of the block and throughout the block where necessary, there being means provided and actuated by the cars as they leave the block to operate a selecting device and continue the energization of the visual signals, the last car leaving the block operating a cutout device to open the circuit and deenergize the signals to indicate that the block is vacated.

With the foregoing and other objects in view which will appear as the description proceeds, the invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention herein disclosed can be made within the scope of what is claimed without departin from the spirit of the invention.

In tie drawingsFigure 1 is a diagram matic view showing an over-head trolley system with one complete block and the ends of the respective adjacent blocks, with the present invention in diagram and in operative relation thereto. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail view of the two solenoids and selecting devices operated thereby. Fig. 3 is a section taken 'on line 33 of Fig. 2 on an enlarged scalej Fig. 4 is a section taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

' Referring to the drawings, the numeral 1' designates the over-head trolley wire having connected thereto and projecting from the sides thereof a short sub-trolley 2, which is adapted to be contacted by a small contact or wheel 3 carried by the trolley pole P, the conductor 4 being bridged between said small-contact wheel and the car 6, a manu- Speciflcation of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 22, 1914.

Application filed August 20, 1912. Serial No. 716,088.

ally controlled switch 5 being interposed in said conductor 4 to permit of the closing of the bridge between the sub-trolley 2 and the rail section 7. The rail section 7 is insulated, as shown, from the main sections of the rails of the railway system and is of suflicient length to permit of both trucks of the car to be upon the same at one time. Connected to and leading from the rail section 7 is a conductor 8, which is connected to the solenoid or electromagnet 9, the, conductor 10 being ledto the solenoid or electromagnet 13 atthe opposite end of the block, a conductor 11 being connected to said solenoid l3 and to the rail section 12, which is grounded. By this construction and arrangement, it is preferable that the car be permitted to coast over the rail section 7 with the usual controller, (not shown) and opening the circuit to the motor (not shown), that a bridged connection between the main trolley and the ground on rail 12 will be made, thus energizing the solenoid 9 at the outlet end of the block and the solenoid 13 at the entrance end thereof.

lVhen the solenoid 9 is energized, its core 14: is moved from the. position as shown at the right in Fig. 1 to the position shown at the left therein so that the metal contact disk 15 connected to and insulated from the rod 21 is placed in contact with the switch point 17. This switch point 17 has a conductor 18 led thereaway from and is connected to one ofthe leads 19 of the signal source or generator 20, the other lead 21 of the same being connected to the conductor 22 and having connected inseries therein the visual signal lamp-s 23 and is led back to the entrance end 'of the block, a short conductor 16 being connected to the conductor 22 and to the metal contact disk 15. By this means, a circuit, including the lamps 23, is energized and indicates that the block is occupied. Upon the passage of the car into the block and oil of the section 7, the

nals 23, and the conductors 16 and 17, but asthe rod 24 connected to the core 14 was moved a sufiicient distance to operate the arm 32 of the selecting device D, a circuit was completed to maintain the visual sigbridge connection including the solenoid 9 1c the metal contact arm 32.

nals 23 energized, and as will presently appear.

The selecting device 1), as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3, consists of a shaft 25 suitably supported and concentric of a fixed disk 26 ofinsulation, said disk beingprovided with a plurality of equi-distantly disposed contact buttons 27 which are disposed in the path to be engaged, one at a time, by

An enlargement 28 is provided upon the shaft 25 while rotatable freely upon said enlargement 28 is a sprocket wheel 28 whose teeth are operably connected to the rack 29 oscillated by .5 the rod 24, and as said sprocket wheel 28 carries the spring actuated pawl 30, said pawl 30 is moved with the sprocket .wheel 28, as the same is oscillated, upon the movement of the core 14 due to the energization of the solenoid 9. The pawl 30 engages the ratchet wheel 31 and moves said ratchet wheel 3]. with the sprocket 28, and as the arm 32 isfast with the shaft 25, it is also moved a distance from one contact button 27 to the next contact button 27. The movement of the rack 29 in the opposite direction, due to the tension of the spring 14 upon the deenergization of the solenoid 9, will rotate the sprocket wheel 28 freely so as to return the spring actuated pawl 30 without rotating the ratchet wheel 31, thus permitting the contact arm 32 to remain stationary, ready for the next energization of the solenoid 9.

35 A conductor 33 is led from each of the respective contact buttons 27 to a spring contact 34, there being one to each button 27 and in the path to engage the periphery of the cut out disk C and disposed in the same 4 casing 100 as the selecting disk D and the two solenoids 9 and 13. In the periphery of the cut-out disk C is a block 36 of insulation providing means for opening the auxiliary signal circuit.

-' The disk C is mounted upon the shaft 37 and is capable of a rotary movement, the ratchet wheel 38 being connected fast therewith so that the sprocket disk 39 through the spring actuated pawl 40 will rotate the disk when the sprocket wheel 39 is moved in the direction of the arrow Fig. 2 but will not affect the disk C when rotated in theopposite direction.

In order to properly oscillate the sprocket disk 39, the core 13 of the solenoid 13 is moved to the left as viewed in Fig. 2, when the solenoid is energized and is moved to the right by means of the spring 13. and carries a rod 4-1 and a rack 42, said rack 42 v being in engagement with the toothed sprocket wheel 39 and operating similarly to the rack Y29 and sprocket 28 of the selecting device. D. Leading from the metal disk C is a conductor 43 which is connected 'to'the main 19 so that under normal conditions when a car has entered the block and the solenoid 9 has become deencrgized, a signal circuit will be closed as follows The signal generator 20, the conductors 19 and 43, the metal cut-out disk 0, the metal contact 34, the conductor 33, the contact button 27, the metal contact arm 32, the conductor 22' connected to the shaft 25, the conductor 22 including the visual signal lamp 23, and the return main 21. By this arrangement it will be seen that the first car to enter the block will move the selecting arm 32 from the position shown in Fig. 2 to that shown at the left in Fig. 1, and that while the circuit including the conductors 16 and 18 is closed and opened and before being closed that the arm 32 will remain upon the contact 27 and thus maintained closed the circuit before mentioned including the signal lamps 23, the encrgization of the lamps indicating to the following car that the block is occupied and not at the end of the block. contact with the section 7, the solenoid 9 at the entrance to the block will be again energized and the arm 32 will be moved to the next succeeding contact button 27 while the switch 15 will be momentarily placed into engagement with the contact plate 17, thus continuing the energization of the circuit including the lamps 23, the deenergization of the electromagnet or solenoid 9 due to the movement of the car onto the section 12, permitting the disk 15 to be disengaged from the contact plate 17 while the arm remains upon the last contact button 27 and thus maintains the circuit closed to the visual signals 23.

Should the first car entering the block leave at the other end of the block and in passing upon the section 7, causing the energization of the solenoid 9 at the right as viewed in Fig. 1, the circuit including the The next car may enter and upon lamps 23 will be energized in the block.

ahead, while the solenoid 13 at the left will be energized and cause the cut-out disk to be moved the distance from one contact plate 34 to the next in the direction of the arrow Fig. 2, but as the circuit for energizing the signal lamps 23 in the block just left and which also contains a single car is maintainedthrough the contact button 27, and the arm 32 is two points removed from initial position of the selecting disk 26, the car leaving the block does not cause the deenergization of-the signal lamps, but the next car within the block upon its engagement with the section 7, at the right as viewed in Fig. 1, will cause the solenoid 9 to be energized as before described, while the solenoid 13..-at the left will be energized and rotate the disk C and bring the block of insulation 36 under the contact plate 34 of the signal conductor 33 just previously energized, thus denergizing the signal circuits ductor connecting both electromagnets, a

third conductor connecting the remaining electromagnet to the short rail section at the end of the block, similar electro-magnets and connections in the adjacent block in the rear,

a normally open signal circuit paralleling the trafiic rails and including signals and a source of electrical energy, a switch controlled by the electroma-gnet in said rear block adjacent the short rail section between said adjacent blocks for closing the signal circuit in the first named block, while the other electromagnet in said rear block opens the circuit therein, means carried by a traveling car constituting a bridging means between the trolley and the short rail section to energize the two electromagnets, a circuit closing means actuated by one electromagnet adjacent said last named short rail section for continuing the energization of the signal circuit as a number of cars in succession enter the block, and a circuit opening means actuated by the other electromagnet adjacent to said last named short rail section to successively open the circuit as the cars leave the block, the last car leaving causing the complete de'nergization of the signal circuit.

2. In an electric signal system for electric railways, an over-head trolley, the trafiic rails being the return for the traflic current,

one of the traflic rails being divided into.

blocks with a short rail section intervening at the end of each block, an electromagnet at each end of a block, a conductor connecting the electromagnet at the beginning of said block to the traffic rail, a second conductor connecting both electromagnets, a

third conductor connecting the remaining electromagnet to the short rail section at the end of the block, similar electro-magnets and connections in the adjacent block in the rear, a normally open signal circuit paralleling the trafiic rails and including signals and a source of electrical energy, a switch controlled by the electromagnet 1n said rear block adjacent the short rail section between said adjacent blocks for closing the signal circuit in the first named block, while the other electromagnet in said rear block opens the circuit therein, means carried by a traveling car constituting a bridging means between the trolley and the short rail section to energize the two electromagnets, a rotary circuit closing means actuated by one electromagnet adjacent said last named short rail section for continuing the energization of the signal as anumber of cars in succession enter the block, and a rotary circuit opening means actuated by the other electrolnagnet adjacent said last named short rail section to successively open the circuit as the cars leave the block, the last car leaving causing the complete denergization of the signal circuit.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto afiixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

ALVA HAYS CAVEN. Witnesses:

C. E. SMITH, J. B. SELL.

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