US426395A - Apparatus foe eleotkic railway signaling - Google Patents

Description

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. O. E. RUDAD. APPARATUS PoR BLBGTRIG- RAILWAY SIGNALING.

No. 426,395, Patented Apr. 22. 1890.

WITN ESS ES INVENTOR:

BYQAAMAMLMAW /Swm fy (No Model.) 3 sheets-.sheen 2. C. H. RUDID. APPARATUS FOR ELECTRIC RAILWAY SIGNALING. No. 426,395. Patented'Apr. 22, 1890.

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0.5mm). y APPARATUSFUR BLBGTRIG RAILWAY SIGNALING.

No, 426,395. 1 n PatentedApr-22, 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES II. RUDD, OE E VANSTON, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO JAMES W. WHITE, JAMES CLARENCE WHITE, AND HENRY M. LEWIS, TRUSTEES, ALL OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

APPARATUS FOR ELECTRIC-RAILWAY SIGNALING.

SPECFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 426,395, dated April 22, 1890.

Application filed October 28, 1889. Serial No. 328,442. (No model.)

To all whom it may con/cern,.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. RUDD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Evanston, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Electric- Railway Signaling, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of elec- 4 1o tric railways in which the rails serve as conductors for electric currents operating a motor on the car, the current passing through which is regulated from the main or generating station.

The objects of my invention are not only to control the locomotive from the station, but automatically to indicate its speed and location at any given moment to the engineer at the generating or controlling station. These zo ends I attain by using a track composed of three rails, insulated from each other in wellknown ways, one of which rails acts as aconductor for the actuating or propelling current, which passes through the motor and 2 5 then returns to the generator through the other two rails, being alternately and automatically shifted from one to the other while passing through the motor, and actuating suitable well-known recording mechanism to 3o indicate at the controllingstation the speed and location of the locomotive.

The subjectmatter of this invention is hereinafter designated in the claims at the close of this specification.

\ The accompanying drawings represent so much of an improved apparatus embodying all my improvements as is necessary to illustrate the subject-matter herein claimed.

Unless otherwise designated the devices 4o mentioned are of usual well-known construction, my invention not consisting so much in details of construction as in novel organizations and combinations of instrumentalities.

Figure l represents a plan view of the railway and motor, the generator, indicator, and circuitconnections being diagrammatically indicated. Fig. 2 represents a sectional elevation of the rails and motor, and Fig. 3 a perspective detail of the insulated collar and bearing-spring forming the connection be- 5o tween the motor and supporting-wheel axle. Figs. 4. and v5 are views respectively similar to Figs. l and 2, showing another organization of the motor-circuit-shifting gearing and its connecting mechanism. Fig. 6 ,shows a 55 diagram illustrating the circuit-connections, and showing the details of the indicator-actuating apparatus. Fig. 7 is a plan showing another organization of the motor-circuitshifting apparatus, and Fig. S a side view of 6o the motor-wheel with one of its side plates removed to show the details of the motor inclosed therein.

The drawings show my invention as applied to what is known as a three-rail system,7 all 65 three rails being properlyinsulated from the earth and from each other in well-known ways, the central rail being shown therein as constituting the direct actuating, propelling, or motor circuit and the outer rails the re- 7o turn-circuit. The circuit passes from a suitable generator A at the central controlling main station through a conductor b to the central rail B, along which it passes to a inotor-wheel C of usual well-known construction-such, for instance, as that shown and i described in Letters Patent No. 259,589, grantedA to me June 13, 1882, in which a divided tire or commutator is employed.. The darts in Fig. l show the course of the current. 8o The motor-wheel is shown as consisting of two circular metallic side plates or disks y clasping between them a rim or felly oit wood or other suitable insulating material projecting -circumferentially beyond their peripheries, so as electrically to insulate them and the fixed metallic axle D, around which they freely turn, from the rail. The rim is encompassed by a tire composed of separate sections insulated from each other, as shown 9o at l 2 3 4., Fig. 8. Electro-magnets C', corresponding in number with the tire-sections, are secured between the side plates radially to the axle, on which an armature d is Xed on one side, so that the inner poles of the magnet pass close thereto. A wire c connects each section of the tire with one terminal of its appropriate magnet-coil, the op- A, thus completing the circuit.

posite terminal being connected by a wire c2 with onev of the side plates. This motorwheel revolves loosely on an axis D, of brass or other suitable non-magnetic metal, with which it is in electrical contact and through which the current passes to the frame E of the motor, the axle being firmly fixed in the frame. A supporting-axle F turns freely in suitable bearings in the other end of the motor-frame, which bearings 'are suitably insulated from the frame, as shown at f, Fig. 2.

The supporting-axle F is likewise transversely divided into two sections F F mounted in proper bearings and insulated from each other, as shown at S Fig. l. Supporting-wheels G G', being plain metallic wheels of ordinary construction mounted on the respective ends of this axle and turning therewith, run, respectively, upon the rails H II Metallic springs P P, in electrical connection with the motor-frame, bear at their free ends upon commutator collars or rings I I on the respective sections of the supportingaxle F. These collars I I are provided with insulating-segments M', encircling rather less than one-half their circumference and set opposite each other, so that the current from the motor frame is alternately sent first through one of the rails I-I H and then through the other. These rails at the controllingstation are respectively connected by wires h h with an electro-magnet J, consisting of two spools or poles j j', the armature J2 of which magnet is caused to rock on its pivot in a well-known Way by the return-current, as hereinbefore explained, so as to operate an alarm, indicator, or signal device by means of a well-known clock-escapement movement or in other well-known ways, so as to indicate to the engineer at the controlling-station the location and speed (each or all) of the locomotive. The current passes from the magnet bya wire 7c to the generator Fig. 6 shows the coils of the magnet J connected to this return-wire la, and are so Wound that the breaks in the current cause the magnets to be alternately energized, consequently rocking the armature J of the magnet on its pivot j. This armature carries at its opposite end aforked arm provided with pawls or pallets actuating a ratchet or escapement wheel J 2, mounted on a shaft carrying an actuating, registering, or indicating mechanism of well -known construction. The rapidity of the vibrations of the armature indicates the speed of the locomotive, while their number on the register indicates its position.

The apparatus shown in Figs. 4C and 5 differs from that hereinbefore described only in the arrangement of the gearing upon the motor for shifting the circuit. A worm L on one section F of the supporting-axle is so organized as to drive a worm-wheel m on a longitudinal shaft M, mounted in suitable bearings in the frame, the section of this shaft supporting the Worm-wheel m being insulated in well-known ways, as indicated at m', to prevent any current from passing through the worm-wheel. Wipers or tappets n n on opposite sides of shaft M alternately strike corresponding tappets o o on opposite sides of a rock-shaft O, arranged crosswise of the frame and carrying contact-springs P P', which alternately come in contact with the opposite sections of the supporting-axle as the shaft is rocked in its bearings by the tappets, as described. The current passes through the frame E, through the rock-shaft and springs alternately to the opposite sections of the supporting-axle, and through the wheel to the rail upon which the wheel is running, the rail for the time being acting as part of the workingcircuit. A coil-spring p, secured at one end to the motor-frame and at the other to the rock-shaft O, serves to keep one of the springs always in contact, unless separated therefrom by the tappets, thus assuring a passage of the current at all times.

The circuit-shifting mechanism shown in Figs. 4t and 5 breaks the circuit more slowly than that shown in Figs. 1 and 2, besides be ingvmore complicated.

Another and still simpler organization is shown in Fig. 7 in which the supporting-axle F is shown as divided and insulated, as in Fig. 1. The supporting-wheels G G are diametrically divided, so that the half of one wheel in front of the axle is insulated so as to be non-conducting, while the corresponding portion of the opposite wheel constitutes a conductor, and the part behind the axle is insulated or non-conducting. The opposite sides of the motor are also insulated from each other, as shown, except at their front ends. The contact-springs are mounted on opposite sides of the motor-frame and bear directly on the corresponding insulated sections of the axle. Under this organization the current is shifted alternately from side to side, accordingly as the insulated or conducting section of the supporting-wheels rests upon the rail.

The operation of the apparatus will readily be understood from the foregoing description.

That I claim herein as of my own invention isl. The combination, substantially as hereinbefore set forth, of a stationary generator of electric currents, a propelling rail-circuit, a return signal rail-circuit, a signaling-instrument therein, a vehicle supported on wheels f inbefore set forth, of a generator, a rail constituting one branch of a propelling-circuit, rails constituting a return signaling-circuit,

a signaling-instrument therein, a vehicle electrically connected'with all three of the rails, an electromotor on the Vehicle, and cirouit-controlling mechanism on the motorvehicle which automatically shifts the current from one return-circuit to the other through the motor.

3. The combination, substantially as hereinbefore Set forth, of the central propellingrail, the lateral return-circuit rails, the Vehicle, the motor-Wheel running directly on the propelling-rail, the partly-insulated Supportingwheels runningl on the return conductingrails, the automatic circuit-shifting mechanism on the motor, the stationary generator,

the indicating mechanism at the central station, and the circuit-connections whereby the current passes through the central rail and motor-Wheel to the shifting mechanism on the motor-frame, which alternately shifts'the current through the opposite supporting- Wheels and return-circuit rails, as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed m f name.

5 CHARLES H. RUDD. Witnesses:

CHAS. A. JOSLYN, Jr., ALOYSIUS H. HUEMMER.

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