US1614730A - Circuit connecter for compartmental lamps - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 18,1927. 1.614.130

C. E. GODLEY CIRCUIT CONNECTER FOR COIPARTIENTAL LAIPS Filed Feb. 24, 1926 I Invent-0k. i

Patented Jan. 18, 1927.

UNITED STATES 1,614,730 PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES E. GODLEY, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO C. M. HALL LAMP COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF MICHIGAN.

CIRCUIT CONNECTER FOR COMPARTMENTAL LAMPS.

Application filed February 24, 1926. Serial No. 90,318.

My invention relates to means for affording circuit connections from detachable wire terminals to lamp bulbs in compartmental lamps.

In automobile practice, it is now customary to employ compartmental tail lamps in which separately controlled lamp bulbs are lighted for respectively affording the tail light indication and a stop indication,

the two lamp bulbs having their filaments disposed at opposite sides of a partition in the lamp casing. For such lamps, both compactness and low cost demand the use of a two-wire terminal plug for carrying the current to the lamp and hence make itnecessary to afford circuit connections from the two closely spaced terminals of such a lug to the more widely spaced base termina s of the lamp bulbs.

My present invention aims to accomplish this by means of a simple, inexpensive and easily manufactured circuit-connecting device which can readily be built as a unit and fastened assuch to the lamp casing, thereby requiring only simple holders with looking formations for supporting the lamp bulbs and the wire-terminal plug in positions in which the terminals of the lamp bulbs will be electrically connected to those of the plug.

Furthermore, my invention provides a circuit-connecter for this purpose which will have each of its contacting parts disposed for yielding in an eliective direction, and which will compensate for variations in the sizes or shapes of the lamp terminals and plug terminals engaged by these parts. It also provides an arrangement for this purpose constructed of very few parts and substantially sealing the connection of the plug holder to the casing when the wire-terminal plug is detached, so as to prevent the en'- tra-nce of dust into the casing through this connection.

Still further and also more detailedobjects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a central, vertical and longitudinal section through an automobile tail lamp equip ed with a circuit-connecting device embod ying my invention.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged and fragmentary rear elevation of the same lamp, showing the tubular lug holder, the closing of the inner end 0 this holderby the insulator of the circuit-connecting device, and the plug-terminal-engag'ing contact arm tips of this device. 1

Fig. 3 is an enlarged horizontal section through the same circuit-connectingdevice and the plug holder, also showing a portion of the wire-terminal plu supported by the holder.

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are similarly enlarged front, side and plan views respectively of the same circuit-closing device detached from the lamp casing.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of one of the conducting members, taken from the lefthand side of Fig. 4.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a vertical section through a compartmental automobile tail lamp in which the casing 1 is divided into upper and lower compartments by a Y- sectioned partitioning member-includ1ng a forwardly extending shank-2 and a pair of rearwardly diverging arms 3 and 4. Each of these arms has a holder formation for interlocking with a'lamp bulb, so as to support .two ordinary lamp bulbs with their filaments 5 and 6 respectively above and below the partition shank 2 and with their axial base terminals 7 and 8 both disposed in the space between the arms 3 and 4 and the back 9 of the lamp casing.

The casing back 9 has a perforationopening into the said space and a tubular holder 10 is clinched at its forward end to the bore of this perforation. This holder has rearwardly opening bayonet slots 11 for interlocking with the usual laterally projecting pins 12 on a wire terminal plug 13 which has the contact ends of its wire terminals 14 and 15 exposed on the forward end of the plug.

To connect these wire terminals electrically to the respective base terminals of the two lamp bulbs, I provide a circuit-connecter including as its base a substantially flat insulator 16 which extends across the inner end of the tubular holder 10 and which is secured to the back 9 of the casing by. rivets or screws extending through perforations 17 in the said insulator. Mounted on this insulator and each secured to the latter by a sin le screw 18 are two conducting members, each desirably formed from flat bronze or other resilient metal. Each of these conducting members has an end portion 19 secured to the insulator by one of the screws 18 and also has two arms. One of the arms of each conducting member has its initial portion 20 normally extending substantially flatwise along the front of the insulator and continued by an extension portion 21 which extends rearwardly through a perforation 22 in the insulator into the tubular holder 10, and the free contact end 23 of this exten-- sion portion is bent to extend transversely of the holder.

The other two arms'24 and 25 of the two conducting member's extend toward each other and each has an extension clearing the other and bent to dispose it for engaging one of the lamp base terminals. Thus, the upper arm 24; has its extension 26 bent forwardly to adapt. it for engaging the lamp base terminal 7, while the lower arm 25 is recurved to provide an extension 27 disposed for engaging the lamp base terminal 8. Both of these extensions 26 and 27 are formed so that each will be pressed toward the insulator by the lamp base when thecorresponding lamp bulb is inserted in its holder formation, thereby utilizing the resiliency of the conducting members for insuring good contacts with the lamp base terminals and forlatching the lamp bulbs in their respective holders.

The rearwardly' directed arm portions 21 preferably extend parallel to the axis of the plug holder 10, so that they will not be flexed when the'contact ends 23 are moved forwardly by the plug terminals 14 and 15 during th attaching of the plug, but will cause the two arms 20 to be flexed forwardly, after which the resiliency of the arms 20 insures good electrical connections to the plug terminals and also latches the plug in the holder 10.

In employing an automobile tail lam arrangedas in Fig. 1, the common circuit wire of the two lamp circuits is grounded to the metal casing of the lamp and hence is connected through the partition wings 3 and 4 to the metal shells on both lamp bulbs. Each of these shells is connected to one end of the lamp filament in the usual lamp-bulb construction, while the other end of the filament is connected to the axial bulb terminal. The two separately controlled circuit wires are connected in the usual manner to the two terminals 14 and 15 of an attached plug. When this plug is inter locked with the tubular holder 10 at the rear of the casing, after the manner shown in Fig. 3, the plug terminal 14 engages the contact end 23 of the rearwardly directed arm on the upper conductin member, so that current is carried throug the, arm 26 of that member to the axial terminal 7 of the upper lamp bulb. Likewise, the lower plug terminal 15 en ges the contact end 23 of the rearwardl dlrected arm on the lower conducting mem r, and the arm 27 of the member engages the axial terminal 8 of the lower lamp bulb.

With the above recited construction, the circuit connecting device can readily be built as a unit and secured to the lamp casin before the partitioning member is insert in the latter, thus expediting the manufacture of the lamp. And, since each bulb base terminal is engaged by a contact arm integral with an arm which engages one lug terminal, I avoid joints and possible oose connections.

However, While I have illustrated and described my invention as employed in a certain type of lamp, I do not wish-to be limited to its use in connection with any pIarticular casing or partition arrangement.

either do I wish to be limited to the above recited details of the construction and arrangement, as many changes might obviously be made without departing either from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. Means for electrically connecting two pairs ofterminals, comprising aflat and perforate insulator and two contact members formed of flat metal and mounted on the insulator; each contact member having a resilient arm secured at one end to the insulator and extending toward the corresponding resilient arm of the other contact member, the said arm havin a continnation portion extending throug the insulator and a free end part bent at an angle to the continuation portion and presenting a flat face; each contact member also having a second resilient arm bent away from the insulator.

2. A connecter member for int'erposition between a pair of laterally-ad'acent wire terminals and a pair of lamp bul terminals,

comprising a air of contact members and a flat insulator ispose'd transverse of the wire terminals and having a pair of perforations substantially in alinement respectively with the wire terminals; each contact member being formed of resilient metal and secured ill) at one end to one face of the insulator and comprising two arms initially extendin adjacent to each other from the secured en of the contact member toward the other contact member; one arm of? each contact member being bent away from the said face of the insulator and engaging one of the lamp base terminals; the other arm of each contact member comprisin a resilient portion extending along the sai face, a continuation portion extending through one of the perforations beyond the other face of the in sulator, and an end portion bent at an angle to the continuation portion and engaging one of the wire terminals.

3. A circuit connecter for interposition between two pairs of terminals, comprising an insulator and two conducting members mounted on the insulator, each conducting member comprising an initially flat piece of resilient metal secured at one end to the insulator and slit to afford two laterally adjacent arms initially extending toward the secured end of the other conducting member, and each arm havin an extension bent therefrom; the extensions on one arm of each member being bent so that their main portions are at right angles to the secured ends of the contact members and these extensions having their free ends bent at anangle to their said main portions to dispoa these free endsnormall in a common lane; the extension on the ot er arm of eac conducting member being bent away from that arm in the opposite direction from that in which the said extensions extend.

Signed at Detroit, Michigan, February

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