US319300A - Lightning-arrester for wire fences - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

W. A. MORTON.

LIGHTNING ARRESTER FOR WIRE FENCES.

' No. 319.300. Patented June 2, 1885.

nll liw WILLIAM ARTHUR MORTON, OF

PATENT ()FFICE.

ABILENE, KANSAS.

LlGHTNlNG-ARRESTER FOR WIRE FENCES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 319,300, dated June 2, 1885.

Application filed August 28, 1884. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM ARTHUR MORTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Abilene, in the county of Dickinson and State of Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lightning-Arresters for Wire Fences, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

The object of this invention is to provide means to be used in connection with wire barbed or other metallic-strand fences for the purpose of protecting live stock from electric shocks given off by said fence during storms.

It is well known that during electric storms live stock is often injured by shocks received from wire fences, the strands acting as conduetors of electric fluid, and the object of this invention is to provide an electrical conductor having such connection with the fence-strands as to divert any electric fluid passing along said strands into the ground; and the invention consists in certain features of construction herein described,and specifically set forth in the claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a fence provided with lightningarrcsters constructed in accordance with my invention. Fig. 2 is a modification, and Fig. 3 a detail in perspective.

Like letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

A. represents the posts, and B B B the strands, of a wire fence. The strands, although here represented as being of wire, may be of strips or other forms of sheet metal, and, in fact, my improvement is designed and readily applicable to any forms of fence in which the panels are of metal.

(3 represents one form of an arrester,which consists of a wire or strip of suitable metal, preferably one that is a better conductor than the material of the strands of the fence-for example, copper-the strands being iron, and, as illustrated in Fig. 1, the arrester serves the mechanical function of a stay to the strands of the fence, by being coiled about them so as to maintain them at uniform distances from each other, thereby preventing their separation by live stock. The arrester or stay is coiled at 0 about the upper strand 1?, at (J about the middi, strand B, and at 0 about the lower strand, l3", and is continued for a sufficient'depth into the ground, and connected to a copper disk or plate, 0.

D represents an insulator, which may be made of rubber, glass, or any other suitable, material, and which is inclose'd in the coils of the arrester and about the strands, so that an electric current passing through said strand is prevented from being led off by the arrester at the point where the insulator occurs. By a proper disposition of the insulators succes sive strands in the fence may be electrically connected to certain stays, so that each stay shall conduct the fluid from but one strand in the fenceas, for example, in the middle panel in Fig. 1 the stay is insulated from the upper and lower strands, thereby adapting it to act as an arrester of the electric fluid in the middle strand only, by reason of its contact therewith at C while in the right panel (shown in Fig. 1) the stay is insulated from the upper and middle strands, and acts as an arrester of electric fluid in the lower strand only.

The insulator D is preferably made in a sub stantially cylindrical form,with a slot, D, (see Fig. 3,) to facilitate the application thereof to the strand. It may be made of glass molded to the shape shownthat is,with or it may beSo without the terminal flanges D the purpose of which is to prevent the removal of the stay longitudinally therefrom.

In the modification shown in Fig. 2 the strands of the fence are all coiled about astay, O, as at my, and an insulator, D, is inserted between the ends of the panels thus formed, and these ends are bound togetherthat is to say, the stays C and the insulator D are bound together by means of a coil or coils of wire or any other suitable clamping device which is, itself separate from contact with the stays C by insulating material D. In this modification one of the stays O is connected with the disk or plate 0*, and, if desired, both of the stays maybe continued into the ground, one of them not being connected with the disk. or plate, so that either or both conjointly (see dotted lines) may serve the purpose of a post, if desired.

The operation of the modified construction of the stays or posts is readily apparent. Electric fluid passing along all of the strands is intercepted by the main insulating substance D, and is diverted down the stays G into the ground, and is diffused by the disk or plate 0'. 5 The plate 0' is preferably embedded in the ground to such a depth as to be in damp earth continually, so as to act to diffuse theelectric current received by the same from the strands. Having described my invention and its IO operation, what I claim is 1. The combination of the strands B B B', the arrester G, the insulators D D, and plate J", substantially as shown and described.

2. The combination of the strands B B 13*, and a series of arresters, 0, each of which has 15 direct contact with one of the strands and is insulated from direct contact with the remaining strands, and each of which is connected directly with an embedded electrical diffusion plate, substantially as shown and described. 20

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

' WILLIAM ABTH UR MORTON.

Witnesses:

M. V. BRILLIIART, H. F. BENEDIeT.

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