Overload protection in transistorized power regulating circuits

Claim 1

A REGULATING CIRCUIT FOR DELIVERING REGULATED D.C. POWER FROM AN UNREGULATED D.C. SOURCE TO A LOAD COMPRISING IN COMBINATION AN INPUT TERMINAL, AN OUTPUT TERMINAL, A HIGH POWER TRANSISTOR CONNECTED IN SERIES BETWEEN SAID INPUT AND OUTPUT TERMINALS, A COMMON TERMINAL FOR CONNECTION WITH SAID INPUT TERMINAL ACROSS AN UNREGULATED SOURCE OF D.C. VOLTAGE AND FOR CONNECTION WITH SAID OUTPUT TERMINAL ACROSOS A LOAD, A LOWER POWER REGULATING NETWORK CONNECTED BETWEEN SAID INPUT TERMINAL AND SAID COMMON TERMINAL, SAID NETWORK HAVING A CONSTANT CURRENT NODE CONNECTED TO THE BASE OF SAID HIGH POWER TRANSISTOR, SAID CONSTANT CURRENT NODE BEING COUPLED TO SAID COMMON TERMINAL THROUGH THE SERIES COMBINATION OF A FIRST REGULATING TRANSISTOR AND A FIRST VOLTAGE-REFERENCE DIODE, A VOLTAGE DIVIDER NETWORK CONNECTED BETWEEN SAID OUTPUT AND COMMON TERMINALS AND INCLUDING AN INTERMEDIATE REFERENCE VOLTAGE JUNCTION, AND MEANS NORMALLY INOPERATIVE UNDER ORDINARY LOAD CONDITIONS CONNECTED BETWEEN SAID CONSTANT CURRENT NODE AND SAID REFERENCE VOLTAGE JUNCTION OF SAID VOLTAGE DIVIDER NETWORK FOR CONDUCTING CURRENT AWAY FROM SAID CONSTANT CURRENT NODE UPON OCCURRENCE OF A SEVERE OVERLOAD CONDITION BETWEEN SAID OUTPUT AND COMMON TERMINALS, SAID LAST-NAMED MEANS INCLUDING AN OVERLOAD-PROTECTION TRANSISTOR, THE POTENTIAL OF THE BASE ELECTRODE OF SAID OVERLOAD-PROTECTION TRANSISTOR BEING DETERMINED BY A SECOND VOLTAGEREFERNECE DIODE, SAID SECOND VOLTAGE-REFERENCE DIODE BEING COUPLED BETWEEN SAID BASE ELECTRODE AND SAID COMMON TERMINAL.