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US 4,071,872 AGranted
Interrupter
OwnerCharles M. Phillips, Jr.inventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A device for protecting electrical appliances from electrical surges having male prong members to connect the device to an electrical wall outlet; a female receptacle to receive a plug of the appliance; a self-restoring, current diverting spark gap means for interrupting current at the female receptacle at a predetermined voltage level.
Claims3
An interrupter device for interrupting electrical current used by a household electrical appliance comprising:
- a housing supporting a plurality of prong means adapted to be inserted into an electrical outlet and a female receptacle adapted to receive the electrical plug connector of an appliance;
- a plurality of conductive elements for electrically interconnecting each of said prong means to a corresponding element of said female receptacle wherein one of said conductive elements is rectangular having an L-shaped grounding prong means extending from one end of said conductive element in a first direction and a contact portion extending from the other end of said conductive element in a direction opposite said first direction;
- and
- spark gap means connected between two conductors of said interconnecting conductor means for interrupting current flow to said female receptacle at a predetermined voltage level by creating a path of low resistance between said two interconnecting conductor means.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.