Incandescent-lamp socket.

(Application filed Oct. 81, 1899.1 (No Model.)

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THE NORRIS PETERS CO.. PHOTO-UTHO.. WASHINGTON, O. C.

United States Patent Office.

WILLIAM B. BRAGDON, OF CUMBERLAND MILLS, MAINE, ASSIGNOR TO S. D. WARREN &amp; CO., OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

INCANDESCENT-LAMP socket.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 654,433, dated July 34,1900.

Application filed October 31, 1899. Serial No. 735,398. (No model.) '

To all whom it may concern:

. Be it known that I, William B. Bragdon, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cumberland Mills, county of Cumberland, State 5 of Maine, have invented an Improvement in Incandescent-Lamp Sockets, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like Characters on the drawings representing like 16 parts.

This invention relates to sockets for incandescent lamps; and the object of the invention is to provide an improved device of this character especially adapted for use in breweries, 15 refrigerating plants, and other places where the air is laden with considerable moisture or dampness and which ordinarily condenses Upon the lamp-socket or near the same.

. By my improved construction it is not pos20 sible -for condensed moisture to reach the Conductors or to bridge the same at or near the lamp, as in such cases as these the lamp might be burned out or the current shortcircuited before it reaches said lamp.

I use the term “incandescent-lamp socket” as a generic one, it being understood that the socket is adapted to receive many other types of translating devices than lamps.

The improved socket shown in the draw30 ings in a simple and convenient embodiment thereof includes in its construction certain peculiar and advantageous features, which will be hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan view of 35 the socket and its connection. Fig. 2 is a transverse central section of said socket, the lower portion of the right-hand conductor being shown in section, and Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the same.

The socket illustrated is designated in a general way by S, and it includes in its makeup a socket proper, or what I shall term for convenience a ‘ “case” or ‘ ‘ jacket” 12, the latter being made of some suitable electro non-con45 ducting material, as porcelain, and having in the present case a water-shed 13. The watershed 13 is shown as integral with the case or jacket 12, and said parts may be made from porcelain or analogous moisture-proof mate50 rial. The water-shed or hood 13 is shown as circular in outline and as overhanging the case or jacket 12, and its upper surface is sloped or substantially spherical, so that drops of water that may lodge upon the same from above can readily pass off. 55

The conductors or leading-in wires are designated, respectively, by 14 and 15 and are connected in some suitable manner (not shown) to the main or other kind of electric supplying agency, and said conductors or wires are made 60 up of a multiplicity of twisted strands covered with electro - insulating jacketing, which should always be waterproof or a moistureresistant, rubber tubing constituting a convenient insulation for said conductors. The 65 conductors or wires lead into the interior of the socket 12 at diametrically-opposite points through openings, as 16 and 17, located below and protected by the water-shed or overhanging hood 13., said hood serving to prevent ac- 70 cess of moisture or condensed water which may fall upon the same to the said openings, although other safeguards are provided to secure this same advantageous result, thereby to positively guard against short-cir- 75 cuiting by the collection of moisture. The insulated coverings of the conductors may be conveniently formed from rubber tubing, as previously set forth,and the same are denoted, respectively, by 18 and 19, and they extend 80 from a point above the socket in an unbroken or continuous manner to a point within the case, and they are positively separated from each other, so that no channels or gutters can be formed by the same, as would be the 85 case necessarily were they to come in contact.

The conductors are' bared at the places where they connect with the terminals, said conductors and terminals constituting, as usual, an open circuit controllable by a switch 90 (not shown) mounted upon the socket. The terminals are denoted, respectively, by T and Τ'. The terminal T' is in the nature of an internally-threaded sleeve or thimble rigidly held in the case 12 in suitable manner and 95 adapted to receive the exteriorly-threaded projection upon a lamp of like device. (Not shown.) The lower end of the terminal Τ', is flared outward to bring it into contact with the adjacent cylindrical face of the case 12, 100 and its open upper end is surrounded by the inturned annular flange or shoulder 20,

654,433 against the under side of which the disk 21 is adapted to abut, said disk being made of some suitable electro non-conducting material. The disk 21 has a central opening to' 5 receive the boss 22· of the terminal Τ', which fits against the under side of said disk, and the bared lower end of the wire 14 is received within the opening in the boss or stem 22. The bared portion at the lower end of the io conductor 15 is united in some suitable manner, as by solder 23, to the upper inner side of the thimble-like terminal Τ'. The space between said terminal and the inner wall of. the jacket or case 12 is preferably entirely 15 filled with some electro non-conducting and heat-resisting substance, as 24; sulfur being well adapted to this purpose. This substance surrounds and electrically separates the bared portions of the conductors 14 and 20 15 where they are located in the case, and it also enters the openings 16 and 17 and completely closes the same. In addition to its specified function previously set forth the substance 24 also serves to hold the terminal 25 or contact T' in place.

In practice the substance 24 is poured into the inside of the jacket in its molten state, and it maybe introduced through the fillingopening 25, shown as formed in the top of 30 the socket.

The socket has upon its upper side, at substantially its middle, the vertical projection or offset 30, having the separated openings 31 and 32, through which the conductors 14 35 and 15, respectively, are adapted to pass, the said projection serving to positively separate the two conductors, as in case they are brought into contiguity a trough would be formed in which moisture could collect. The 40 leading-in wires extend oppositely through the openings in the projection, and they are bent downwardly and outwardly, as shown in Fig. 2, to form loop or lobe shaped projections, which are adapted by this construc45 tion to shed moisture below the hood. The two conductors, as previously set forth, extend through the side openings 16 and 17 in the jacket or case 12 and are connected to the two terminals. After the connection of 50 the two conductors, in the manner indicated, to the terminal the molten sulfur 24 will be poured through the filling-opening 25 and will entirely fill the space and also surround the bared portion of the conductors, as well 55 as their insulation, and will flow into the openings 16 and 17, whereby all interstices will be thoroughly closed against moisture.

The invention is not limited to the precise details herein set forth, for these can be va60 riously modified within the scope of the accompanying claims.