US329076A - phelps - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

. L J. PHELPS.

APPARATUS FOR MAINTAINING ELECTRICAL COMMUNICATION WITH MQVING 'VEHIGLE Y- 7 No. 329,076. Patentd Oct. 27, 1885.

" Unirrnn STATES ATENT j triers,

LUCIUS J. PHELPS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

AWARATUS FOR MAINTAINING ELECTRICAL COMMUNICATION WITH MOVING VEHICLES.

ijlfECItIt-IECATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 329,076, dated watcher 27, 1885.

Application filed February 20, 1885. Serial No. 156,498. (No model.)

I 0 allwhom it'may concern:

Be it known that I, Lucius J. PnnLrs, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for lilaintaining Electrical Communication with Moving Vehicles or Objects,of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to those systems of maintaining electrical communication with vehicles moving or at rest which are described in my prior patents and applications for patcuts, and which consists, essentially, of a conductor parallel to the path of the vehicle and an apparatus upon the vehicle carried in sub siantially continuous inductive relation to said conductor, so that without electric contact the currents produced in the line-conductor may act upon the apparatus in the vehicle, and, vice versa, the devices on the latter may by induction produce currents in the line-conductor.

My present invention relates more especially to arrangements of circuits and apparatus where my invention is applied to a doubletrack railway, and its object is to reduce the resistance to the currents transmit-ted from a fixed stationsuch,for instance, as a traindispatchers office--over the line circuit or cirnits, and at the same time to provide such an arrangement that when a message is being received at such otfice the disturbing effects of eartircurrents, or of induction from other neighboring circuits,1nay be as far as possible avoided.

My invention consists, essentially, in the combinatiomwith the up and down track conductors grounded at a distant point, of a ground at the transmitting station and a switch for connecting both track-conductors simultaneously to said ground, or connecting them to one another through the receiving instrument at such office, so that when said-instrument is in use it may be in a complete metallic circuit, formed of the two track-conductors,and when the transmitting apparatus is in use it may be connectedinto circuit between the two conductors and a ground, the circuit being in this case completed by the ground at the distant point.

an understanding of my present invention, I

shall not describe the same in detail. For a full description of the same reference may be had to my prior patents.

In'the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a diagram of circuits and apparatus, showing one way of carrying out my present invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of a railway-car carrying a coil, one portion of which is arranged to move parallel to a line-conductorsupported between the railway-rails and upon the road bed.

D and E indicate the two tracks of adoubletrack railway, and F F conductors suitably supported or arranged between the rails in the manner described in my prior Patent No. 312,506,0r mounted or supported in any other way, or in any other position, such that the portion G of the conductor or coil upon the vehicle moving over either line or rails shall be in continuous inductive proximity to the conductorF or P.

A indicates a train-dispatchers office or other fixed station, having apparatus for receiving or transmitting signals over the conductors F F and by induction to or from the apparatus on a vehicle at a distant point, either at the end of the railway or of a section thereof, the conductors FF are connected together and grounded. At the office A they are connected to aswitch of any suitable kind,whereby they may be connected both to earth through the transmitting apparatus here typified by a key, K, and a galvanic battery, M B, or may be connected together through the receiving apparatus typified in the present instance by a telephone, T. The construction of switch for making such connections is immaterial,and any form may be used therefor. The form shown is a simple and obvious one, and consists merely of the two levers L L, connected at their pivots to the lines F F, and having contact studs or points, four in number, two of which, a a, are connected to the terminals of the receiver, while the remaining two, I) b, are connected to the key, battery,and ground. As will be obvious in the position shown, there is a complete metallic circuit formed ofv the two conductors F F*, connected at their distant ends, and of the switch and receiver connections at the stations A. Under this condition of the circuits and apparatus signals may be received from a vehicle upon either line of rails; but as the circuit is a metallic circuit the disturbing effects of earth-currents are eliminated,while, moreover, owing to the fact that the conductors F F are parallel,and constitute substantially the leading and return wires of the circuit, induction from neighboring conductors strung on poles beside the track, or otherwise located, is largely neutralized.

When signals are to be sent over the'conductors F F from the station A to a car or station upon either line of rails, or to a station having inductive connection with either wire or conductoras, for instance, by a local circuit, m, in part parallel to said conductor the conductors F F, one or both, are grounded and circuit is then formed through the ground at the distant point. Under those conditionsthat is, with a ground-returny less battery is required than would ordinarily be the case if the circuit were still a metallic one. I have shown the switch-levers L L as connected by a cross-bar,so that they are both moved; but it is obvious that they might be worked independently, so as to permit either conductor F F to be connected to ground in dependently of the ot-l1er,which might be done in case it were necessary only to send a signal over one of the wires F F from the fixed station A. This would of course be entirely within my invention.

If the grounded circuit were through but one circuit,it is obvious that the whole effects of the transmitting battery would be felt thereon,instead of being divided between the two conductors.

What I claim as my invention is l. The combination, with the two conductors, one for each track, and grounded, of a receiving and transmitting apparatus at a station and a switch for connecting said conductors to one another through the receiver or to ground through the transmitting apparatus. I

2. The combination, with the two conductors F F, substantially parallel to one another, and a ground ata distant point, of areceiver, a switch for connecting the said conductors with one another-through the receiver, and a ground at the same station normally, or when the receiver is in use, disconnected'from both conductors F F, said ground,with that at the distant point,serving to make the circuit when signals are to be transmitted over a track-conductor and by inductive transfer to an apparatus in inductive proximity thereto.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, this 19th day of February, A. D. 1885.

LUCIUS J PHELPS.

Witnesses:

THOS. TooMEY, Gno. 0. 00mm.

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