Brown's design uses a coil not unlike an automobile. Open the circuit and the coil discharges. Brilliant!
Makes me wonder if his eureka! moment stemmed from getting a shock off an early internal combustion engine.
One of my homes had an auto garage designed to house early electric cars. It had a rotating turn table, and banks for battery storage and recharging. Just drive in, and spin around to leave.
They were popular and in competition with steam until a decent carburetor was invented.
I presume that Brown had some means of making the circuit just prior to breaking it. If one started out on a day's hunt with a coil constantly engaged the battery would be dead for the hunt was well underway. Even a battery the size of an automobile battery didn't last long if the ignition was accidently left on & the points happened to be engaged.This does sound like a better system though than the vibrator coil Greener mentioned. If properly designed it should fire with a single "Spark", shouldn't take a chain of them.
