US1388167A - Synchronizing-clock system - Google Patents

Description

I. w. BRYCE.

SYNCHRONIZING CLOCK SYSTEM.

Patented Aug. 23, 1921.

APPLICATION- FILED DEC. 30,1920.

2 SHEElS-SHEET 1.

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SYNCHRONIZING CLOCK SYSTEM.

APPLICATION FILED DEC,30, 1920.

Patented Aug. 23,1921.

2 SHEElS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFF-ICE.

JAMES W. BRYCE, OF BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE INTERNATIONAL TIME RECORDING- COMPANY OF NEW YORK, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

SYNCHRONIZING-CLOCK SYSTEM.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 23, 1921:

Application filed December 30, 1920. Serial No. 433,976.

To aZ Z w ham it may concern Beit known that I. JAMES W. BRYCE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Binghamton, in the county of- Broome and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Synchronizing-Clock Systems, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

In an ap lication filed by me on August 24. 1920, erial Number 405,607 I have shown and described a synchronizing clock system of novel character, in which a master clock is used to control the operation of a plurality of secondary clocks, and to bring such clocks at stated and definite instants into perfect synchronism with itself in case for any cause they are not in such exact accord, but are either too fast or too slow.

This system requires for its successful operation a special arrangement of electric circuits and connections particularly so if the system be one in which both direct and alternating currents must be utilized in its operation. For example, in a factory plant, the power for operating the system may be obtained from a direct current source supplied by the local power plant during the day or working hours. At other times, however when the plant is not running it may be necessary to draw on the municipal circuits for power, and these may be from an alternating source.

The circuits which I contemplate using in my system are specially designed and adapted to operate the now well known Bryce synchronizing apparatus, and while they have no broadly distinctive features of novelty, they are new. in their character and arrangement to the extent which may best be indicated by the specific description contained in the following specification in which reference ismade to the accompanying drawings, r v

Figure 1 in view inTfront'elevation of the master clock employed in the system.

Fig. 2 is a view in elevationof a special form of circuit controller used therein.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the same.

Fig. 4 is a detail of a supplemental circuit controller.

Fig. 5 is a diagram of the circuits used in the system when supplied by direct cur,- rent and i Fig. 6 is a similar diagram showing the arrangement of circuits and devices rethe said two cams or cam disks.

quired when both directv and alternating .CUI'IQII'ES121I6. used in the operation of the system.

It is essential to an understanding of the invention to know that the master clock is an accurate time piece which may be kept running indefinitely, for which purpose I prefer to use the clock which I have described in detail in the copending applica' tion above referred to. This clock is equipped with two circuit controllers. One of these shown in Figs. 2 and 3, comprises two cams 1 and 2 on the hour shaft and two levers 3 and 4, which are spring actuated and which bear upon the peripheries of the The lever 3 carries an insulating plate 5, to which is attached a metal plate 63, carrying contact points 7 and 8. The other lever 4, carries an insulating plate 9, to which is secured a metal plate 10, also having two contact points 11, 12, between which the plate 6 oscillates.

Normally the plate 5, lies midway between the two contacts 7 and 8, but at fifteen minutes of the hour the lever 3 is shifted by its cam on thehour shaft, throwing its right hand contact 7 into engagement with the corresponding contact 12. In like manner, at the even hour the lever 4 is shifted by its cam, which throws the left hand contact 11 into engagement with the contact 8 and breaks the contact between 7- and 12. The purpose and function of this operation will be understood from the description of thesystem hereinafter given.

The relative slowness of the hour shaft may not be depended upon for closing the circuit to line at exactly the correct instant required, and I therefore use in conjunction with the circuitv controller above described, a supplemental circuit controller operated by a cam 13, on the minute shaft.

nected to line so that an accelerating device therein will operate to speed the clock up until it catches up with the master clock, or if it be too fast the other circuit is connected to line and operates to retard the clock until the master clock has caught up to it. This operation is performed by a circuit controller 20 operated by a cam 21 and driven by the secondary train.

Referring now to Fig. 5, 22, 23 are the terminals of the power circuit. At fifteen minutes of each hour the lever 3 is shifted to bring contacts 7 and 12 together and this operates to connect the wire at from terminal 22 and connected to contact 12 to the wire 25, which by the closure at the exact minute of the controller contacts 14 and 15 is continued to a relay magnet 26, thence through resistance unit 27 and thence to the opposite terminal 23. The relay being thus energized attracts its armature 28 which connects wire 29 fromterminal 22 to the line wire 30 and also closes the source through the resistance unit 27 and the relay magnet 26. The path through wire 25 will soon be broken by the cam 13 or might be interrupted in the master clock for some other reason, but this has no effect on the operation of the relay 26 which remains closed until the main circuit controller again operates.

The source of current therefore remains connected with the line until the even hour or for fifteen minutes. At the latter instant the lever t breaks the contact between '7 and 12 andcloses that between contacts 8 and 11, and this operates to close a short circuit around the relay 26 through wires 3i and 25, hence the relay magnet is de'energizing and its armature falls away disconnecting the source from the line.

If both direct and alternating currents are supplied to the line for operating the synchronizing mechanism special provision must be made therefor, because it is practically impossible to wind magnets which are capable of operating properly on both direct and alternating currents. To approximate to the necessary conditions the magnets are wound for low resistance and low inductance, and a relatively high non-inductive resistance used in series with them, which is tapped so that when an. alternating current is used, there is less resistance in series with the magnet or magnets than when a direct current is supplied. This is illustrated in Fig. 6.

In this figure, using difierentreference numerals wherever necessary to avoid confusion, a selector relay 32 is connected directly across the terminals 22 and 23, and a resistance unit 33 included in series with it. The magnet of this relay is of very high inductive resistance so that it responds only to a direct and not an alternating current.

The relay has two armatures 34 and 35, one connected with wire 36, from the contact 11, the other with wire. 37, from the contacts 7 and 8. The terminal 22 is connected, as before, with the contact 12.

When a direct current comes from the source, the two armatures 34: and 35 are raised; henc when the circuit through wire 37 is closed a relay magnet 38 is energized by th current which finds its way back to terminal 23 through a resistance 39. This relay, like relay 26 of Fig. 5, connects the source to line through a resistance 45 and also closes the source through itself by connecting wire 29 to wire &0 containin the magnet and resistance 39. The operation is thereafter the same as in the case of Fig. 5. If the source be alternating, selector relay 32 is not energized, and hence by the master clock circuit controller the source is connected to relay ll and through resistance 42 to the terminal 23. This relay in addition to closing its own circuit independently of the master clock circuit connects the alternating source to the secondary clocks through a circuit wire, which is connected to an adjustable contact 44 that includes less than the whole of the resistance 45.

By this means it becomes possible and practicable to use such magnets, 18 and 19 in the secondary clocks as will be properly operated either by a direct or by an alternating current, and the system is made applicable to both kinds of current. The distinction between Figs. 5 and 6, it will be observed, resides in the use of two relays, similar to the one used in Fig. 5, with appropriate means for operating through one or the other, as the case may be, to secure the desired results.

lVhat I claim as my invention is z 1. In a synchronizing clock system, the combination with a source of operating current, of a master clock, a. circuit from the source to the same, a relay, a resistance and a circuit controller operated by the master clock in such circuit, said circuit controller being adapted to close such circuit for definite intervals of time, means operated by the relay for closing the circuit from the source through said resistance and its own magnet and for connecting said source to the line, and means operated by the master clock for throwing said relay out of action at the end of the periods of closure by the circuit controller therein.

.2. In a synchronizing clock system, the combination with a source of operating current, of a master clock, a circuit controller operated thereby during given intervals to close a circuit from the source, two paths or circuits adapted to be connected to the said circuit, a selector relay in a closed circuit from the source adapted to be energized by a direct current only for connecting one or the other of such circuits with the source,

relays in said paths or circuits and means operated thereby for connecting the source to the line through paths adapted for direct or for alternating currents, respectively, and for closing the circuit from the source through their own magnets, and means operated by the master clock for throwing said relays out of operation at tlieends of the intervals of closure by its circuit controller.

3. In a synchronizing clock system, the combinationwitha source of operating current and a circuit from the same, of a master clock, a circuit controller operated thereby to close said circuit for definite intervals,

and a supplemental circuit controller operated thereby for making and breaking the said circuit at frequent intervals, a relay in the circuit so controlled adapted by its operation to close the vsource through its'own magnet and also to connect the source to line, and means operated by the master clock at theend of the definite periods of closure by its circuit controller to throw the relay out of action.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

JAMES W. BRYCE.

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