US2115012A - Connecting means - Google Patents

Description

April 26, 1938. H. A. DOUGLAS 2,115,012

CONNECTING MEANS Original Filed Jan. 18, 1933 INVZ FOK 37 25 7 6 AT TORNLYS limits A Dcushs Patented Apr. 26, 1938 CONNECTING MZEAN S Harry A. Douglas, Bronson, Mich, assignor to Kingston Products Corporation, a corporation of Indiana.

Original application January 18, 1933, Serial No. 652,290. Divided and this application October 28, 1936, Serial No. 107,978

1 Claim.

This invention relates to connecting means, more particularly for electrical conductors, and the principal object of my invention is to provide new and improved connecting means of this type. Other objects will appear hereinafter as the description of the invention proceeds.

The present application is a division of my co-pending application, Serial Number 652,290, filed January 18, 1933.

In the drawing accompanying this specification, and forming part of this application, I have shown, for purposes of illustration, several forms which my invention may assume. In this draw- Figure l is an axial section of connecting means embodying my invention, certain parts being shown in elevation,

' Figure 2 is an elevational View on a smaller scale showing the connecting means of Figure 1 in use in transverse position,

Figure 3 is a section taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1,

Figure 4 is an axial sectional view of another embodiment of my invention,

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the embodiment of Figure 4, and

Figure 6 is a section taken on the line 6 6 of Figure 4.

i In the illustrative construction of Figure 1, I have shown a conventional spark-plug i such as is commonly used in internal combustion engines and having the usual central electrode terminating at the top of the plug in a threaded stud 2 to which, in accordance with customary,

' practice, is connected the high tension lead of the electric ignition system, by means of a nut (not shown) screwed upon the stud 2. In certain motor block constructions, for example, where the spark-plug is received in rather a deep pocket in the motor block, it is frequently difiicult to attach the lead to the stud 2 by ordinary connecting means in which the lead approaches the stud in a transverse direction. In accordance with my invention, I have provided improved connecting means by which the lead may be connected to the spark-plug by the simple rectilinear movement of a snap terminal either axially, as shown in Figure 1, or transversely as shown in Figure 2, and, in one aspect of the invention without the addition of any parts to the spark-plug.

In the embodiment of Figures 1 through 3, I have shown a hollow metallic jack or socket H portion 3 to which the lead wire t (see Figure 2) is axially connected in any suitable manner.

The jack 3 is here shown as having a plurality of transversely related bores or recesses therein, one of said bores, such as the bore or recess 5, being coaxial with the jack and the other, the bore 6, being transverse thereto. In this instance these bores desirably intersect perpendicularly and are served by a biasing means,

here shown as including a single spring pressed ball detent l, desirably of steel.

In this instance, the ball detent i has a conical seat 8, terminating in an opening 9, which permits a portion of the ball I to be projected through the opening 9 into the bores 5 and t, and the ball is urged toward its seat by a helical spring l carried by the jack 3 through the intermediation of a short spring barrel H, the axis of which is shown as coinciding with the axis of the opening 9 and thus at right angles to axes of the bores and 6 at their intersection that is, at right angles to both of the general directions .7 of movement of the stud 2 into the respective bores or recesses 5, 6. The spring barrel ll is here shown as having an annular flange l2 seated on a shoulder 13 formed by a'counter-bore to the conical seat 8. In order to hold the spring 7 barrel assembled with the iack 'proper, metal 14, from the walls of the counter-bore may be turned inwardly against the flange 12. The free end of the spring barrel l I has its margin turned inwardly to form a flange l5 serving as an abutment for an end of the spring I0.

In the embodiment of Figures 1, 2, and 3, the spark-plug stud 2 is shown'as having screwed therein a plug terminal it having an annular groove ll into which the ball 1 is adapted to snap. The plug terminal 16 is here shown as having a frustro-conical free end l8, and also a frustro-conical surface 19 leading to the annular groove ll.

In Figure 2 the plug terminal 16 is shown as disposed in the bore 6, instead of in the bore 5, as in Figures 1 and 3. Consequently, in Figure 2 the jack 3 extends transversely of the terminal it instead of longitudinally thereof as in Fig-' ure 1. V

In Figures 4 and 5, I have shown a jack 2a which may have the perpendicularly intersecting bores 2i and 22 therein which boreshavelthe internal transverse screw-threads 23 and it cut therein. The jack 2!] is adapted to receive the threaded stud 2 directly therein, without a special plug terminal such as It, the bores 2| and 22 being of the same diameter and of a diameter relatively larger than theover-all diameter of the threaded stud 2, so that the stud is spaced from one side of a bore and so that the jack may be placed over the stud by a rectilinear movement. A tight engagement between the stud 2 and the jack 22 is secured by means of a biasing means including the steel ball detent 25, which is pressed into the bores 2 l 22 by a helical spring 26 housed by a spring "barrel 2'! carried by the jack in a manner similar to that explained in connection with the spring barrel H. The ball 25 is partially pressed'through a detent aperture 28, the axis 29 of which is perpendicular to the axis 39 of the .bore 2! and is also perpendicular to the axis of the bore 22 which intersects the axis of the bore 2| at the point 3|, through which point the line 29 also passes. Regardless therefore of which borethe stud2 is received in, the detent 25 presses the stud against the inner face 32 of the wall 33 which is unapertured and which is common to both the bores 2i and 22, and the threads of the stud 2 are thus caused to securely but yieldingly interengage with either the threads 23 or the threads 24, as the case may be. The ball 25 and spring 26 are desirably self-centering with respect to the aperture 28 and the axis 29 which is not always possible with detents pressed by a leaf spring.

As best shown in Figure 6, the threads 23 and I 24 are right-hand threads to mate with the customary right-hand threads of the stud 2 and the threads 23 and 24 being transversely related but not overlapping, as here shown, tend to converge at a point 34 which is substantially the center of the inner surface 32 of the wall 33 and is also substantially directly in line with the line 29 in the direction in which the detent 25 is pressed. Thus whether the stud 2 isreceived in the bore 2| or the bore 22, it is pressed squarely against the surface 32, so that its threads are.

pressed squarely into intercalation with the threads 23 or 24, as the case may be, and in either event, it will find sufiicient threads upon this wall extending in the proper direction to effect the secure but yielding engagement between the stud and jack heretofore described.

The screw threads 23 and 24 are desirably of the same pitch as the conventional pitch for the screw threads of the stud 2, but are of less height, so that the threads of the stud 2 may slide over the threads 23 or 24 as the case may be, but be pressed into intimate intercalation therewith by the spring detent 25.

In the instance shown in Figure 4 electrical connection is made to the jack 20 by a wire, the end 35 of which is bared of its insulation 36 and is passed through an exteriorly threaded sleeve 31 and foldedback as at 38 upon the exterior'of this sleeve. The sleeve 31 is then threadedly. received in the interiorly threaded socket 39 in the neck 40 of the jack 20, the wire 35 thus being securely clamped between the threads of the parts 31 and 40 affording a good mechanical and electrical connection between the wire and the jack. To provide room for the bent over portion 38 of the wire, the sleeve 31 in the region of this por- 'jack when screwed upon the sleeve portion 31 desirably abuts a shoulder 43 on the sleeve.

It will be apparent that one of the ways in which the wire 4 shown in Figure 2 may be con-' tionary, and, on the other hand, the stud,'or

plug, the relatively movable part. It will be apparent that in either of the illustrated embodiments the socket means and the plug or stud are relatively so constructed and arranged as to give a snap or holding action.

From the foregoing it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that each of the illustrated embodiments of my invention provides .a new and improved connecting means readily and conveniently constructed and assembled, and accordingly, each accomplishes the principal object of my invention. On the other hand, it also will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the illustrated embodiment of my invention may be variously changed and modified, so that in a given combination the jack or socket means, and the plug or stud, and the biasing means may assume individually different forms, some of which are further illustrated in my co-pending application Serial Number 652,290, and in my co-pending application Serial Number 107,977, filed Oct. 28, 1936. From which it will be further apparent that said-elements of the combinations, singly or collectively, may be embodied in other combinations than those illustrated, without departing from the spirit of my invention, or sacrificing all of the advantages thereof, and that accordingly, departures may be made without departmeans adapted to constrict said plug receiving recesses at their intersection, said movable means being constructed and arranged for movement in a direction at an angle to the axes of said plug receiving recesses in response to insertion of a plug conductor terminal into either of said plugreceiving recesses; biasing means, including resilient element extending in the general direction of movement of said movable means, constructed and arranged to resiliently bias said movable means in a direction to constrict said plug receiving recesses to press the plug conductor terminal laterally against a wall of that recess in which the plug conductor terminal is disposed, to resiliently hold the plug conductor terminal in said recess; said biasing means comprising abutment means, including a tubular member and means fastening said tubular member by and at one end to said socket means so that said tubular member is disposed in substantial alignment with said direction of movement of said movable means, said tubular member being so constructed and arranged that it serves as an abutment .for the end of said resilient element remote from said movable means.

HARRY, A; DOUGLAS. 7 I

' ing from the spirit and scope of the invention and 7

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