Page:Canadian patent 33317.djvu/5

 nating currents by means of devices purely electrical in character. A designates a generator of alternating currents and B, B, the main or line circuit therefrom.

At any given point in this circuit at or near which it is desired to obtain direct currents, the circuit B is divided into two paths or branches C, D. In each of these branches is placed an electrical generator which for the present may be assumed to produce direct or continuous currents.

The direction of the current thus produced is opposite in one branch to that of the current in the other branch, or considering the two branches, as forming a closed circuit, the generators E, F, are connected up in series therein, one generator in each part or half of the circuit.

The electromotive force of the current sources E and F may be equal to, or higher or lower then the electo-motive forces in the branches C, D, or between the points X and Y of the circuit B, B. If equal, it is evident that current waves of one sign will be opposed in one branch and assisted in the other to such an extent that all of the waves of one sign will pass over one branch and those of opposite sign over the other. If, on the other hand, the electromotive force of the sources E, F, be lower then that between X and Y, the currents in both branches will be alternating, but the waves of one sign will preponderate.