Thomas Commerford Martin - Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla

From the above it will be seen that the apparatus or device acts in two ways. First, by retarding the current, and, second, by retarding the magnetization of one set of the cores, from which its effectiveness will readily appear.

Many modifications of the principle of this invention are possible. One useful and efficient application of the invention is shown in Fig. 59. In this figure a motor is shown similar in all respects to that above described, except that the iron wire H, which is wrapped around the coils E, is in this case connected in series with the coils D. The iron-wire coils H, are connected and wound, so as to have little or no self-induction, and being added to the resistance of the circuit F, the action of the current in that circuit will be accelerated, while in the other circuit G it will be retarded. The shield H may be made in many forms, as will be understood, and used in different ways, as appears from the foregoing description.

As a modification of his type of motor with "shielded" fields, Mr. Tesla has constructed a motor with a field-magnet having two sets of poles or inwardly-projecting cores and placed side by side, so as practically to form two fields of force and alternately disposed—that is to say, with the poles of one set or field opposite the spaces between the other. He then connects the free ends of one set of poles by means of laminated iron bands or bridge-pieces of considerably smaller cross-section than the cores themselves, whereby the cores will all form parts of complete magnetic circuits. When the coils on each set of magnets are connected in multiple circuits or branches from a source of alternating currents, electromotive forces are set up in or impressed upon each circuit simultaneously; but the coils on the magnetically bridged or shunted cores will have, by reason of the closed magnetic circuits, a high self-induction, which retards the current, permitting at the beginning of each impulse but little current to pass. On the other hand, no such opposition being encountered in the other set of coils, the current passes freely through them, magnetizing the poles on which they are wound. As soon, however, as the laminated bridges become saturated and incapable of carrying all the lines of force which the rising electromotive force, and consequently increased current, produce, free poles are developed at the ends of the cores, which, acting in conjunction with the others, produce rotation of the armature.

The construction in detail by which this invention is illustrated is shown in the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 60 is a view in side elevation of a motor embodying the principle. Fig. 61 is a vertical cross-section of the motor. A is the frame of the motor, which should be built up of sheets of iron punched out to the desired shape and bolted together with insulation between the sheets. When complete, the frame makes a field-magnet with inwardly projecting pole-pieces B and C. To adapt them to the requirements of this particular case these pole-pieces are out of line with one another, those marked B surrounding one end of the armature and the others, as C, the opposite end, and they are disposed alternately—that is to say, the pole-pieces of one set occur in line with the spaces between those of the other sets.

The armature D is of cylindrical form, and is also laminated in the usual way and is wound longitudinally with coils closed upon themselves. The pole-pieces C are connected or shunted by bridge-pieces E. These may be made independently and attached to the pole-pieces, or they may be parts of the forms or blanks stamped or punched out of sheet-iron. Their size or mass is determined by various conditions, such as the strength of the current to be employed, the mass or size of the cores to which they are applied, and other familiar conditions.

Coils F surround the pole-pieces B, and other coils G are wound on the pole-pieces C. These coils are connected in series in two circuits, which are branches of a circuit from a generator of alternating currents, and they may be so wound, or the respective circuits in which they are included may be so arranged, that the circuit of coils G will have, independently of the particular construction described, a higher self-induction than the other circuit or branch.

The function of the shunts or bridges E is that they shall form with the cores C a closed magnetic circuit for a current up to a predetermined strength, so that when saturated by such current and unable to carry more lines of force than such a current produces they will to no further appreciable extent interfere with the development, by a stronger current, of free magnetic poles at the ends of the cores C.

In such a motor the current is so retarded in the coils G, and the manifestation of the free magnetism in the poles C is so delayed beyond the period of maximum magnetic effect in poles B, that a strong torque is produced and the motor operates with approximately the power developed in a motor of this kind energized by independently generated currents differing by a full quarter phase.

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Up to this point, two principal types of Tesla motors have been described: First, those containing two or more energizing circuits through which are caused to pass alternating currents differing from one another in phase to an extent sufficient to produce a continuous progression or shifting of the poles or points of greatest magnetic effect, in obedience to which the movable element of the motor is maintained in rotation; second, those containing poles, or parts of different magnetic susceptibility, which under the energizing influence of the same current or two currents coinciding in phase will exhibit differences in their magnetic periods or phases. In the first class of motors the torque is due to the magnetism established in different portions of the motor by currents from the same or from independent sources, and exhibiting time differences in phase. In the second class the torque results from the energizing effects of a current upon different parts of the motor which differ in magnetic susceptibility—in other words, parts which respond in the same relative degree to the action of a current, not simultaneously, but after different intervals of time.

In another Tesla motor, however, the torque, instead of being solely the result of a time difference in the magnetic periods or phases of the poles or attractive parts to whatever cause due, is produced by an angular displacement of the parts which, though movable with respect to one another, are magnetized simultaneously, or approximately so, by the same currents. This principle of operation has been embodied practically in a motor in which the necessary angular displacement between the points of greatest magnetic attraction in the two elements of the motor—the armature and field—is obtained by the direction of the lamination of the magnetic cores of the elements.

Fig. 62 is a side view of such a motor with a portion of its armature core exposed. Fig. 63 is an end or edge view of the same. Fig. 64 is a central cross-section of the same, the armature being shown mainly in elevation.

Let A A designate two plates built up of thin sections or laminæ of soft iron insulated more or less from one another and held together by bolts a and secured to a base B. The inner faces of these plates contain recesses or grooves in which a coil or coils D are secured obliquely to the direction of the laminations. Within the coils D is a disc E, preferably composed of a spirally-wound iron wire or ribbon or a series of concentric rings and mounted on a shaft F, having bearings in the plates A A. Such a device when acted upon by an alternating current is capable of rotation and constitutes a motor, the operation of which may be explained in the following manner: A current or current-impulse traversing the coils D tends to magnetize the cores A A and E, all of which are within the influence of the field of the coils. The poles thus established would naturally lie in the same line at right angles to the coils D, but in the plates A they are deflected by reason of the direction of the laminations, and appear at or near the extremities of these plates. In the disc, however, where these conditions are not present, the poles or points of greatest attraction are on a line at right angles to the plane of the coils; hence there will be a torque established by this angular displacement of the poles or magnetic lines, which starts the disc in rotation, the magnetic lines of the armature and field tending toward a position of parallelism. This rotation is continued and maintained by the reversals of the current in coils D D, which change alternately the polarity of the field-cores A A. This rotary tendency or effect will be greatly increased by winding the disc with conductors G, closed upon themselves and having a radial direction, whereby the magnetic intensity of the poles of the disc will be greatly increased by the energizing effect of the currents induced in the coils G by the alternating currents in coils D.