March ist, 18S7.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



23 



" On the Triple Expansion Marine Engine." Papers read and dis- 

 cussed, (i) "Description of a Portable Hydraulic Drilling 

 Machine," by M. Marc Berrier-Fontaine, of Toulon; (2) "On 

 Copper Mining in the Lake Superior District," by Mr Edgar 

 P. Rathbone : (3) "Notes on the Pumping Engines at the 

 Lincoln Water Works," by Mr. Henry Teague. The Council have 

 appointed a Research Comniillee to inquire into the question of 

 Steam Jacketing of Engines, Mr. Henry Davey, of Leeds, to con- 

 duct the experiments. The summer meeting will be held at 

 Edinburgh in August. 



SOCIETY OF TELEGRAPH ENGINEERS AND 



ELECTRICIANS. 



Jan. 13th. — Winter Session opened. "Inaugural Address" of the 



President, Sir Charles Bright. 

 Jan. 27th. — Paper read, " On Telephonic Investigations," by Prof. 

 Sylvanus P. Thompson. 



PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 



Jan. 22nd.— ^Papers read, (l) "The Permanent and Temporary 

 Effects on Some of the Physical Properties of Iron Produced by 

 Raising the Temperature to 100 deg. Cent.," by Mr. Herbert 

 Tomlinson, B.A. ; (2) "On Some New Measuring Instrumm^s 

 used in Testing Materials," by Prof. W. C. Unwin, F.R.S. 



Feb. 1 2th. — Annu.il General Meeting. Paper read and discussed, 

 " Note on the Tenacity of Spun Glass,'' by Mes.srs. E. Gibson and 

 R. E. Gregory. 



SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS. 

 Feb. 7lh.- " Inaugural Address," by the President, Prof Henry 

 Robinson. 



THE IN.STITUTION OF ENGINEERS AND SHIPBUILDERS 



OF SCOTLAND. 

 Jan. 27th. — Ordinary Meeting. I'.aper read, "On the Shafting of 

 Screw Steamers," by Mr. Hector McCoU, of Liverpool. 



ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Jin. iqth.— Monthly Meeting. P.apers read, (l) "On the Identity of 

 Cloud Forms all over the World," by the Hon. R. Abercromby, 

 F.R Met. Soc. ; (2) "On the Cloud to which the Name ' RoU- 

 CumulusJ' has been applied," by the same Author. 



J.in. 19th — Annual General Meeting. The President, Mr. W. Ellis, 

 delivered his address. 



KING'S COLLEGE ENGINEERING SOCIETY. 

 Jan. 18th.- General Meeting. The President, Mr. C. J. Vesey Brown, 

 delivered his " Inaugural Address." 



JUNIOR ENGINEERING SOCIETY. 

 Jan. 21. — Introductory Address, "On the Relation of Chemistry to 



Engineering," by Prof. H. E. Armstrong, \'ice- President. 

 Feb. 19th. — Excursion. Visit the University College Engineering 



Laboratory, by invitation of the President, Prof. A' B. W. 



Kennedy. 



RECENT PATENTS PUBLISHED. 



The folh-iuing list of abritlgiiients has leen compiled especially Jor 

 the Scientific News by Mesirs. W. P. Tiiomi'SOn and Boui.T, Patent 

 Ai;ents, of 323, High Holborn, London, IV.C. ; Newcastle Chambers, 

 Angel A'ow, Nottingham ; Ducie Buildings, Bank Street, Manchester ; 

 and 6, Lord Street, Liverpool. 



No. 12,372. Louis John Crossley, of Halifax, in the County of York, En- 

 gineer, and Walter Thomas Goolden and Alexander Pelham 

 Trotter, both of Victoria Chambers, Westmin.ster, electrical engin- 

 eers. " Improved means for regulating the action of dynamo- 

 electric machines." l6th October, 1SS5. 



This invention relates to improvements in the means and apparatus 

 employed for driving dynamos from sources of power whose motions are 



irregular, and are occasionally reversed, and is especially applicable to 

 the illumination of trains, etc , where the dynamo is driven from the 

 axle of the carriage or the shaft of the engine. 



The dynamo-electric machine is so arranged as to secure its efficiency 

 at a certain minimum speed, and it is provided with a governor which, 

 as the rotation of the machine increases, will throw gradually increased 

 resistance into the .shunt circuit, thereby preventing the undue increase 

 of electro-motive force of the machine. 



The secondary batteries being connected with the main circuit, will 

 receive any .surplus current which is not required by the lamps in the 

 circuit, and will give out that current to the lamps when the speed of 

 the dynamo machine falls below a given point. 



The figure shown is a side elevation of a dynimo-elec'rical machine 

 of the "gramme" type, arranged according to this invention. 



A is the armature mounted on the axle B ; L C are field magnets 

 secured to the standards D ; and E is the resistance box of any ap- 

 proved construction for putting a regulated resistance into the shunt 

 circuit. 



The armature axle B is prolonged to form the spindle for a centri- 

 fugal governor F, which serves to operate a sleeve /■', working over a 

 feather on this spindle, and carrying an arm />'-. To the extremity of 

 this arm are secured two insulated elastic fingers y/', which are designed 

 to travel respectively over a series of contact plates GC, coupled to the 

 coils of the resistance box- 



// is the commutator ; //* are two pairs of insulated metal blocks 

 fixed on one of the end standards O, and so situated with regard to 

 each other, and to the axle of the armature, that a bar A' mounted 

 loosely on the axle may be free to oscillate between them, so as to bring 

 within the same circuit the block / at the right side, with the block /* 

 on the left hand side. 



The blocks // are connected together by means of a wire, and also to 

 one of the collecting brushes of the commutator, and the blocks /*/* 

 are similarly connected together and to the other collecting brush. 



The coupling A', although free to rock upon its axle, is held tightly 

 thereto by spring pre-.sure, which rtadily yields to allow of the axle 

 turning freely while the bar is quiescent in one or other of its two 

 positions. 



Attached to the opposite ends of this bar .are the terminals of the 

 main line wire, which terminals, when in contact with one or other pair 

 of blocks //*, complete the circuit. 



The insulated fingers //* are each connected with the shunt wires 

 through the switch N : and the coils of the resistance box, which are 

 each connected with their respective plates C (?*, are also conneced 

 with the shunt wire. 



When the fingers ff* are at their starling points the resistance box 

 will be practically outside the shunt circuit, but as, through the in- 

 crease of speed of rotation of the machine, the sleeve /"' is traversed 

 by the centrifugal governor F, those fingers will be advanced in suc- 

 cession over the plates of the series G C, bringing at each advance an 

 additional resistance coil within the shunt circuit. 



When the switch has cut out the lamps from the main circuit, leaving 

 the electric current from the machine to .accumulate in the battery, the 

 high resistance coils are cut out from the shunt circuit, and the low 

 resistance coils thrown in. At this time the finger / coaipletes the 

 shunt circuit, the low resistance being thereby brought into the shunt 

 circuit. This provides for the increase of the energy of the field 

 magnets. 



When, however, the switch is moved, the lamps are thrown into the 

 main circuit, the finger /* in this case completing the shunt circuit 

 through the high resistance coils, and thereby modifying the current to 

 the lamps. 



No. 450. A communication from Andre Million, of Lyons. " Im- 

 provements in electric lamps." iilh January, 18S6. 

 This lamp is based upon the employment of carbons of small dia- 

 meter enclosed in reservoirs, whence they emerge successively and 

 automatically to give the light. 



m^KSH 



mr 



It is composed of two p.arts— (i) the carbon reservoirs; (2) the 

 regulating apparatus. 



