US388955A - Leo daft - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

L. DAFT.

ELECTRICAL RAILWAY GONDUGTOR.

Patented Sept. 4, 1888.

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Unirnn STATES A'IFNT @rrrcn.

LEO DAFT, OF PLAINFIELD, NEXV JERSEY.

ELECTRlCAL RAILWAY=CONDUGTOR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 388,955, dated September 4,1888.

Application filed Ortobcr 16, 1885.

To 6025 whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LEO DAFT, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, and a resident of llaiufield, in the county of Union and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electrical Railway Conductors, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to that class of electrical railways in which a conducting bar or rail is arranged adjacent to the rails of the railway; and my invention consists in constructing and supporting the conducting-rail and in forming the connection with the bars, as fully set forth hereinafter, so as to prevent any loss of the current, insure the contact of the conductor and devices for taking off the current, and prevent the surface of the conductor from being obstructed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a transverse section of suiiicieut of an electrical railway to illustrate my improvements. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section. Fig. 3is a cross-section illustrating modified forms of supports. Figs. 4 and 5 are views illustrating an improved device for taking off the current from the conductor.

A A represent longitudinal stringers arranged parallel to each other and separated sufficieutly to permit the desired connection to be made between a conductor below the stringers and a car traveling upon the rails a. As represented, the stringers A are on a higher plane than the rails a; but the faces of the stringers may be on the same plane as the faces of the rails, as is sometimes required for instance, in street-railways. The stringers are supported'by blocks 13, which maintain them and the conductors supported by the stringers in an elevated position, thereby preventing the conductor from being obstructed by particles which would collect around it if it rested upon its bearings without any space being beneath.

The conductor is represented by a rail, D, which is suspended in any suitable manner from the stringers A, so as to be insulated therefrom. A different means of insulating the suspending devices or rail will occur to those skilled in the art. I have shown insnlators O, to which the suspending devices are connected.

Serial No. 180,040. (No model.)

The insulators may be made of glass, hard rubber, or any other suitable insulating material, and may be dovetail in form to fit dovetailed sockets in the stringers A, as best shown in Fig. 2; orthe insulators may be screwed into the sockets or otherwise attached. The insulator may also consist of a compound iron and glass, hard rubber, or fiber similar to that shown in Fig. 3 of my application upon which Letters Patent No. 320,633 were granted.

The conductor rail may be supported by means of transverse bars I), suitably connected to the screws (1, extending into the insulatingbloeks, and by this means it is effectively insulated from the supports or stringers A by insulators so arranged that a connection is not liable to be established by the collection or lodgment of particles between the conductor and its non-insulated supports.

The rail or conductor D may be of any suit able form or construction. As shown, it is an inverted T-rail, and in Figs. 1, 2, and 3 it is shown in connection with a contact-wheel, E, which will he carried by the car and run upon the conductor. I prefer, however, in some instances to use a contact device in the form of brushes, or a roller contact device, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, in which I is a frame carrying the journals of four rollers, c 6, arranged to bear and travel upon the opposite sides of a conducting-rail, I). In this case the conduct ing-rail is dart-shaped in crosssection, so as to prevent the withdrawal of the cont-act device, which is drawn along the rail by a. flexible or other connection, i, with the car. Any other suitable contact device locked to but sliding upon the conductor-rail may be employed without departing from this feature of my invention. Y

Dificulty has heretofore beeirexperienced in maintaining a circuit, owing to the interruption of the same by a collection of oxide upon the surface of the conduct-ingrail. By forming the rail of phosphor-bronze or other non-oxidizable material I am enabled to keep a eontinuously-unobstructed surface.

\Vithout limiting myself to the precise construction and arrangement of parts shown, I claim 1. The combination of parallel stringers, insulators suspended below each stringer, and a conducting-rail supported intermediately be- 4. The conductor enlarged at the upper edge, I 5 in combination with a frame, I, carrying contact-rolls embracing the conductor at opposite sides below the enlarged portions, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name 20 to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

LEO D AFT.

\Vitnesses:

JNO. N. BRUNs, F. HOLLY REED.

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