(No Model.) 2 Sheets—Sheet 1 N. TESLA. ELECTRIC ARG LAMP. No. 335,786. Patented Feb. 9, 1886. Sy 7 Hedreases S Saat. Mikal: Ses la ho Aten po Lene te Bede SIO ey(No Model.) 2 Sheots—Sheet 2, N. TESLA, ELECTRIC ARC LAMP. No, 336,786, Patented Feb. 9, 1886. herster oS Kat~ Mikel Sela Che NA nth,UNITED STATES NIKOLA TESLA, OF SMIL. AN LIRA, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, ASSIGN PATENT OFFICE. ‘OR TO THE ‘TESLA ELECTRIC LIGHT AND MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF RAHWAY, NEW JERSEY. ELECTRIC-. ARC LAMP. SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No, 385,786, dated February 9, 1896, Application Sled March, 188, Sri No. 1,274. To ail whom it may concerns ‘Be it known that I, Nrxora Testa, of Smil- jan Lika, border country of Austria-Hungary, have invented certain new and usefal Im: 5 provements in Dlectrie-Ave Lamps, of which the following is a specification. ‘My invention relates more particularly to those are lamps in which the separation and feed of the carbon electrodes or their eqniva- so lents is accomplished by means of electro- magnets or solenoids in ¢onnection with suit- able ¢lutch-mechanism; and it is designed to yemedy certain faults common to the greater part of the lamps heretofore made. ‘The objects of my invention are to prevent the frequent vibrations of the movable elec- trode and flickering of the light arising there- from, to prevent the falling ito contact of the electrodes, to dispense with the dash-pot, 20 elock-work, or gearing and similar devices heretofore ‘used, and to render the lamp ex- tremely sensitive, and to feed the carhon al- most finpereeptibly,and thereby obtain avery steady and uniforin light, ‘In that lass of lamps where the regalation of the are is effected by forces acting in oppo- sition on a free movable rod. or lever directly connected with the electrode, all or some of the forees being dependent on the strength 30 of theeurrent,any change in theelectrieal con- dition of the eireuit eatses a vibration and a corresponding flicker in the light. ‘This dif. fieulty is most apparent when there are only a few lamps in cirenit, To lessen this difii- 35 culty, lamps have been constructed in which the lever or armature, after the establishing of the are, is kept in a fixed position and can- not vibrate during the feed operation, the feed mechanism actingindependently; butin these 4c lamps, whena clamp is employed, it frequently ‘oceurs that the carbons come into contact and the light is momentarily extinguished, and, frequently, parts of the cizeait are injured. Ia ‘oth these classes of lamps it has been eustom- 48 ary to use dash-pot, clock-work, or eqniva- lent retarding devices; but these are gener. ally unreliable and objectionable, and increase ‘the cost of construction. ‘My invention is intended to effect the de- 45 (So modehs sired objects and to remedy the before-men- tioned defects. T combine tyro clectro-mag- nets—one of low resistanee in the main or lamp cireuit, and the other of comparatively high resistanee in a shunt around the are—a movable armature-lever, and a novel feed 55 | mechanism, the parts being arranged so that in the normal working position of the arma- ture-lover the same is kept almost rigidly in ‘one position, and is not effected even by con- siderable changes in the electric circuits but 60 if the earbons fall into contact the armature will be actuated by the magnets so as to move | the lever and start the are, and hold the ear: dons until the are Jeagthens and the arma- turelever returns to the normal position. | After this the earbon-rod holder is released by | the action of the feed mechanism,so as to feed the earbon and resiore the are fo its normal length, ‘My invention, consists, mainly, in the par- | ticular manner in which the armature is com. | bined with the magnets and acted upon by | them and in the feed-controlling mechanism. | In the drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation of | the mechanism made use of in the electric lamp. Fig. 2 isa plan view of the same be }low the line xr. Fig. 3 isan elevation of the balancing lever and spring, and Fig. 4isade | tached plan view of the pole-pieces and arma. tures upon the friction-clamp, and Fig. 5 is a section of the clamping-tube. Mis a helix of eoarse wire in acirenit from the lower-earbon holder to the negative bind. ing-serew ~. isa helixof fine wire in a shunt between the positive binding serew + and the negative binding-serew ~. ‘The uppor-earbon holder Sis a parallel rod sliding through the plates S'S" of the frame of the lamp, and hence the electric current passes from the positive bind. ge ing-post -} through the plate S%, earbon- holder §, and upper carbon to the lower ear bon, and thenee by the holder ania metallic connection to the helix Mi. ‘The carbon holders are of any desired char- 95 acter, and to instre electri connections the springs J are made use of to grasp the upper- carbon holding rod 8, but to allow the rod toslide freely throngh the same, ‘These springs 1 may be adjusted in their pressure by the serew m, and the spring 2 may be sustained upon any suitable support. I have shown 5 them as connected with the upper end of the core of the magnet N. Around the carbou-holding rod 8, between the plates 8'8*, there isatube, R, which forms aclamp. This tube is counterbored, as seen in the section Fig. 5, so that it bears upon the rod § atitsupper end and near the middle, and at the lower end of this tubular clamp R there arearmature-seginentsrof soft iron. A frame or arm, , extending, preferably, from the core 15 N, supports the lever A by a fuleram-pin, 0. | 10 ‘This lover A has a hole, through which the ‘upper end ofthe tubular clamp R passes freely, and from the lever A isa link, q, to the lever t, which lever is pivoted at y'to’a ring upon one of the columns S'. ‘This lever ¢ has an ‘opening or bow surrounding the tubular clamp R, and there are pins or pivotal connections ‘w between the lever ¢ and this clamp R, and a spring, 9, serves to support or suspend the weight of the parts and nearly s0. able, At oneend of the lever A isasoft-iron arma- ture block, a, over the core M’ of the helix M, and there is preferably a limiting-serew, ¢, ‘passing through thisarmature-bloek a, and at the other end of the lever A isa soft-iron arma- ‘ture-block, 2, with the end tapering or wedge- shaped, atd the same comes close to and in ine with the lateral projection e on the core Nt. The lower ends of the cores M’ N’ are made with lateral projecting pole-pieces MC | NY, respectively, and these pole-pieces are con- | Wve at their outer ends, aod ate at opposite sides of the armature-segments r at the lower | end of the tubular clamp R. ‘The operation of these devices is as follows: In the eondition of inaetion the upper earbon | rests.upon the lower one, and when the cur- 5 rent is turned on the electricity passes freely, | by the frame and spring J, through the rod 8 | and carbons to the coarse’ wire and helix M, and to the negative binding-post V, and the | core M’ thereby isenergized. The pole-piece ‘M attracts the armature r, and by the lateral | pressure causes the clamp’R to grasp the rod | Si, and the lever A is simultaneously moved from the position shown by dotted lines, Fig, 1, to the normal position shown in full lines, | and inso doing the link gand lever t areraised, | Jifting the clamp F and rod 8, separating the carbons and forming theare, “The magnetism | of the pole-piece ¢ tends to hold the lever A | level,or nearly so, the core N? being energized by the current in the shunt which contains the helix N. In this position the lever A is not moved by ordinary variation in the elec trie current because the armature} isstrongly | attracted by the magnetism of e,and these parts 65 are close to each other, and the magnetism of * @ acts at right angles to the magnetism of 20 alaniee the same, or 25 ‘This spring is preferably adjust: 30 35 40 50 35 60 the core M’. 385,706 If, now, the are becomes too Jong, the current throngh the helix M is less sened, and the magnetism of the core N' is in- creased by the greater current passing through the shunt, and this core N* attracting the seg- mental atmature r lessens the hold of the clamp R upon the rod§, allowing the latter to slide and lessen the length of the are, which instantly restores the magnetic equilibria and causes the clamp R to hold the rod 8. If it happens that the carbons fall into contact, then the magnetism of N* is lessened so mach that the attraction of the magnet M. will be sufficient to move the armature aand lever A. so that the armature b passes above the nor- mal position, 80 as to separate the carbons in- stantly; but ‘when the earbous burn away a greater amount of eurrent will pass through the shunt until the attraction of the core N will overcome the attraction of thecore M’ and bring the armatire lever A again into the nor- mal horizontal position,and this occurs before the foed can take place. ‘The segmental arma ture pieces r are shown as nearly semicireular. They may be square or of any other desired shape, the ends of the pole-pieees M? N° being made to correspond in shape. Telaim as my invention— 1, The combination, inan electrie-are lamp, of the electro-magnets in the main and shunt cirenits, respectively, an armature-lever and connection to the movable earbon-holder, the core of the shunt-magnet passing across the end of the armature-lever, substantially asset forth, so that the two magnets act in conjune- tion on the armatare-lever in moving the car- ‘on to form the are and in opposition to each other beyond the normal position of the arma. ture-lever, substantially as specified. 2, The combination, with the earbon-hold. ers, of two magnets, one in the main eirenit and the other ina shunt-eireuit, and an arma: turelever to draw the are, and a feeding mechanism and pole-pieces npon the electro- magnets to act upon the feeding mechanism, substantially as specified. 3. The combination, with the earbon-hold- ers, of two magnets, one in the main cireuit and the other in ashunt-cireuit, and an arma- tnre-lever between two poles of such electro- magnets to draw the are, and a feeding mech- anism and pole-pieces ‘upon the other two poles of the electro-magnets to act upon the feeding mechanism, substantially as specified, 4. The combination, with the carbon-hold- ing vod in an electrie-are lamp, of the clamp R, lever f, spring 1°, armature-lever A, and electro-inagnets MN in the main and shunt circuits, respectively, the pole-pieces M° N', and armature-segments r, substantially as set forth. 5, ‘Tie combination, with the earbon-holder, ofa tubular clamp surrounding the same, an armature -lever connected to said tubular clamp, and electro-magnets in the main and shunt eirenits,respectively, and armature-seg- 70 78 20 85 90 95 100 120 125 130335,786 imenls upon the tubular clamp adjacent to the | into action or releasing it, substantially a Tateral poles of the eleetro-magnets, snbstan- | forth, tially as set forth. seb 10 Signed by mo this 25th day of March, A. 6, In an eleotric-are lamp,the combination, | D. i885, 5 with the earbon-holding rod, of a clamp, two STRAT armatures upon the clamp, and clectro-mag- | Re EEE nets in the main and shunt cireuits, re-| Witnesses spectively, the poles of which act upon the Gro. T, Prvcr armatures of the clamp for bringing the same | Oras. H. Sari, ¥,