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Class 315 - Electric lamp and discharge devices: systems

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505 Subclasses


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Definition

This is a restricted class which includes assembled patents on the special types of electric lamp and electric space discharge device systems set forth in the following sections:

A. Structural Combinations With Circuit Elements;

B. Structural Combinations With Heating And/Or Cooling Means;

C. Cathode-Ray Tubes;

D. Lamps and/or Discharge Devices as Sole Load Devices;

E. Lamps;

F. Electric Space Discharge Devices

G. Gas or Vapor Discharge Devices;

H. High Vacuum-Type Discharge Devices, and Gas or Vapor-type Discharge Devices Claimed Broadly;

I. Plural Load Device Systems;

J. Art Uses and Combinations With Art Devices;

K. Testing Electric Lamps and Discharge Devices; and

L. Operating a Lamp or a Gas or Vapor Discharge Device.

Lines with other classes and within this class

A. STRUCTURAL COMBINATIONS WITH CIRCUIT ELEMENTS:

Electric lamps and electric space discharge devices of any type (including cathode-ray tubes) with or without a discharge control device, combined with other circuit elements all of which (other than a mere source of current and/or potential supply if claimed) are structurally combined therewith to form a unitary device. Such structurally combined circuit elements may be in either or both the input or output circuit of a discharge device, or in neither circuit, and may be used for any purpose. Such means appear in this class (see Subclass References to the Current Class, below). If any circuit element is not structurally combined as stated above, the patent is treated as stated in the following sections. See the sections F-4; and G; and H, especially.

B. STRUCTURAL COMBINATIONS WITH HEATING AND/OR COOLING MEANS:

The subject matter of section A, combined with means for heating and/or cooling the lamp or discharge device structure, which heating and/or cooling means is either structurally combined with the lamp or discharge device, or with an electrical circuit element, or forms an electrical circuit element. All electrical circuit elements (except a mere source of current and/or potential supply, if claimed) which are not structurally combined with the lamp or discharge device must be structurally combined with the heating and/or cooling means; see Subclass References to the Current Class, below. If any circuit element is not structurally combined as stated in this and the preceding section (A), the patent is treated as stated in the following sections (see section H-2-d for other temperature-modifying combinations).

C. CATHODE-RAY TUBES:

Combined with an electric system for the supply and control of current and/or potential thereto as the ultimate load on the system. Sections A and B, above, deal with other special cathode-ray tube systems in this class. Such means appear in this class (315). See Subclass References to the Current Class, below.

D. LAMPS AND/OR DISCHARGE DEVICES AS SOLE LOAD DEVICES:

1. With an electric system for supplying current and/or potential thereto. If there is any other type of electric load device, as either the sole ultimate load device or in addition to the lamp and/or discharge device load, the patent is in some other appropriate class. The load may be constituted by one or more lamps alone, by one or more discharge devices alone, or by any combination therebetween subject to the limitations noted below in this section and in the following sections. Discharge devices having a claimed output circuit are in this class only in the special cases set forth in paragraphs A, B, and F.

2. Where systems are provided with an impedance in the supply circuit of the lamp or discharge device, and the sole function of the impedance is to regulate current flow to the lamp or discharge device, the impedance is not considered a load device.

3. Systems wherein an impedance is substituted in the circuit when a lamp or discharge device is removed therefrom so that the impedance provides a substitute load on the system are included in this class, see Subclass References to the Current Class, below.

E. LAMPS:

With an electric system for supply and control of current and/or potential thereto as the ultimate load on the system.

F. ELECTRIC SPACE DISCHARGE DEVICES:

1. Combined with an electric system for the supply and/or control of current and/or potential supplied thereto, the discharge device being the ultimate load in the system, where the system of supply and/or control is to result as its sole function in either or both: a. causing a discharge to take place or b. mere regulation of the discharge.

2. In this type of system, the output circuit may be claimed if it is claimed so broadly as to be in effect the mere completion of the circuit so that a discharge may take place.

3. This type of system is included even though the type of current flowing in the anode-cathode circuit is specified as being different from the supply current (as, for example, d.c. and a.c., respectively, as in the mercury arc type of discharge device).

4. Due to differences in operating characteristics between: a. gas or vapor discharge devices, and b. high vacuum discharge devices. Systems limited to these two different types have been treated differently, see sections G and H, below.

5. The preceding limitations cause exclusion from this class of: a. The regulation and/or control of the current and/or potential in a circuit by means of a discharge device, even though no load device in the regulated and/or controlled circuit is claimed, and the discharge device is under the terms of the claim the ultimate load device; b. Those systems having one or more discharge devices constituting the ultimate load on the system, where the system includes means which limit the system to use for purposes other than, or in addition to, section F, Electric Space Discharge Devices, 1 (a) or (b) above (e.g., to amplify, modulate, etc.).

G. GAS OR VAPOR DISCHARGE DEVICES:

1. combined with an electric system as defined in section F are included in this class when the claims are restricted to discharge devices of the gas or vapor type, and: a. where they are only principal electrodes, b. where there are one or more discharge control electrodes in addition to the principal electrodes which do not function to retain control of the discharge after it is initiated to regulate the same, c. where there is an electromagnetic discharge control device (other than or in addition to electrodes as in (a) or (b) even though it controls the discharge after it is initiated.

2. Where there is a discharge control electrode of any kind, or a nonelectrode discharge control device other than electromagnetic, and the system is so designed that the discharge control device or electrode retains control of the discharge after it is initiated to regulate the same (continuous control type), the patent is excluded from this class.

3. Where the discharge device in the system is disclosed as being of the gas or vapor type, but the claims are not so limited (the device being claimed broadly as a discharge device), the patent is not classified in this class, but in some other class appropriate to the subject matter claimed, except in the particular instances set forth in section H.

H. HIGH VACUUM-TYPE DISCHARGE DEVICES, AND GAS OR VAPOR-TYPE DISCHARGE DEVICES CLAIMED BROADLY:

Combined with an electric system as defined in section F, Electric Space Discharge Devices, above, are included in this class only in the following particular situations (being in all other instances excluded):

1. Structural combinations as defined in sections A and B, above, with or without discharge control means;

2. Where the only electrodes claimed are the principal electrodes (no discharge control device of any kind being claimed) and the patent is classifiable in one of the following art areas: a. having means to automatically substitute a second source of current and/or potential supply, b. having means to automatically substitute a second discharge device for an operating discharge device when it fails to operate properly, c. having means to supply current to the cathode or cathode heater of the discharge device, d. having means to modify the temperature of the discharge device, either the temperature modifying medium being automatically controlled or the discharge device supply circuit being controlled by the temperature modifying medium (see section B. on other temperature modifying combinations). (See Subclass References to the Current Class, below, for a map of these art areas.)

I. PLURAL LOAD DEVICE SYSTEMS:

Circuits are classified in this class as being plural load device systems where they have any one or any combination of the following, and in any circuit relationship, including where one is in a control circuit of another: a. where the circuit claimed includes two or more lamps; b. where the circuit claimed includes two or more discharge devices, at least two being limited in the claims to the gas or vapor type; c. where the circuit claimed includes at least one lamp and at least one discharge device limited in the claims to the gas or vapor­ type.

J. ART USES AND COMBINATIONS WITH ART DEVICES:

Only to the following limited extent, the lamp and/or discharge device system claimed is subject to all of the limitations of parts A through J of this definition. The must be no classification in any other class on the basis of the art use or combination with the particular article, device or apparatus claimed. There mere designation of a lamp by an art name (as an ultraviolet or other special ray generator) or the mere designation of a discharge device or one or more of the principal electrodes thereof by an art name (as a spark plug, igniter, naming a principal electrode as work to be heated or welded) will not exclude the patent from this class in the absence of further art limitations. For further details of the lines with particular arts, see the notes appended to the main class definition and to the definitions of the subclasses for combinations with particular articles, devices, or apparatus. See Subclass References to the Current Class, below.

K. TESTING ELECTRIC LAMPS AND DISCHARGE DEVICES:

Where the system is designed to operate the lamp or discharge device as a load device and the system includes means to indicate some condition thereof, the system is classified with the systems of operation in this class. This Class provides for such operating systems combined with signal, indicator, or alarm (see Subclass References to the Current Class, below). Electrical circuits, apparatus, and methods which are limited in their use to testing the operativeness or determining the characteristics of electric lamps or electric discharge devices of any type and which are limited in their use to the sole purpose of such testing are classified elsewhere, even though the system includes an electric lamp or discharge device as the means for indicating the operativeness or characteristics of the device under test. (See References to Other Classes, below.)

L. OPERATING A LAMP OR A GAS OR VAPOR DISCHARGE DEVICE:

Patents which claim a method of operating a lamp or a gas or vapor discharge device are classified in this class (315). The patent is classified in the subclass which provides for the system which is required to operate the device. For example, a claim which recites a method of operating a lamp by first passing a current of one magnitude through the lamp and in then increasing the current flow through the lamp would be classified in this class as a system having regulating means in the system (see Subclass References to the Current Class, below).

FURTHER NOTES:

Lamp And Discharge Device Structure:

Patents claiming an electric lamp or discharge device structure and means broadly to supply electric energy or potentials thereto are classified elsewhere as a lamp or discharge device structure. If the relative magnitude or relationship of the electric energy or potential is specified in the claims, the patent is classified as an electrical system and cross-referenced for the lamp or discharge device structure. Where two or more lamps and/or discharge devices are structurally combined to form a unitary device (there being no circuit element in addition to such structure), the structural combination is classified in the classes noted below even though the electrodes thereof are interconnected, except in the following particular instances: the combination of an incandescent filament lamp and a discharge device structurally combined to form a unitary structure, the filament connected to form a circuit impedance or heater for the discharge device load. (For these, see Subclass References to the Current Class, below.)

For other structures and structural combinations, see References to Other Classes, below.

Space Discharge Igniters:

This class provides for systems for supplying electric energy to one or more discharge devices of the "spark plug" or "ignition" type when the claims are limited to a discharge device. Where the claims are not so limited, being drawn to an ignition device broadly (not limited to a discharge device, spark plug, or spark gap), the patent is placed in the appropriate igniter classification and cross-referenced to this class. Also ignition systems, even though limited to a discharge device, when claimed in combination with fuel burning apparatus, are classified with the type of fuel burning apparatus, (see also main class definition, section J).

For such ignition device systems and combinations, see References to Other Classes, below.

Load Devices Other Than or in Addition to Lamps and/or Discharge Devices:

See section D, above. Where the system claimed includes a load device other than a lamp and/or discharge device, even though lamps and/or discharge devices constitute a part of the system, either as additional load devices or as part of the system of regulation and/or control of such other load device, the patent is excluded from this class, and will be found in the class appropriate to the type of load device or combined load devices.

Class 315 provides for electrical systems limited to supplying electric current and/or potential to one or more electronic tubes of of the gas or vapor type. Many of these systems inherently convert A.C. to D.C. or D.C. to A.C. Some are inherently oscillation generators. Where the system is limited by claimed subject matter to supplying a load circuit, it is excluded from Class 315. Merely claiming the circuit necessary to connect the anode to the cathode as a load circuit is not sufficient to exclude the system from Class 315. Claiming a load device, either specifically or broadly in the output circuit will exclude the system from Class 315. Claiming subject matter which would not be provided unless the system were to be used for supplying a load device is sufficient to exclude the system from Class 315. For example, reciting means in the output circuit responsive to overload conditions in output circuit to control the system will exclude the system from Class 315. See References to Other Classes, below.

 
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