The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-05-31
BANDED PLATES OF STORAGE BATTERY

BANDED PLATES OF STORAGE BATTERY.
and all, if their reports are to be trust
ed, show commercial success, though
not to the extent of the best trolley
roads.
To passengers, pedestrians, equestri-
ans and the occupants of horse vehicles
alike they are grateful change from
the overhead trolley, which mars the
only part of the face of nature-the sky
which the city buildings have not
generally hidden, and at the same time
it threatens man and beast with as fear
full danger as the sword of Damocles.
Merely first class horse car track is
nll the storage battery car requires for
a road The batteries occupy the space
beneath the seats, and the wires which
take the current from their positive
poles gather at the one or two motors
with which one of these cars, like those
of other systems, is usually equipped
Having done it's work in the motors, the
current passes by other wires to the
negative plates in the battery cells. Be
ing from first to last wholly beneath the
car, the electricity, because of the law
of its nature, escapes, if at all, not up
ward, but downward, from amy part of
the apparatus, so that in this system
there is absolute safety to the passengers
from electric shock. Furthermore, all
are more uniform in movement and
more readily controlled than the trolley
cars and are therefore less dangerous to
persons and vehicles on the street.
The number of cells in car varies,
of course, according to the Dimensions
of both. They are usually about to
inches on a side in horizontal area and
from 10 to IL inches in height. On two
of the roads operated on this system in
Paris each car has battery of 10s cells,
ga on each side, weighing about two
tons. These are sufficient to run the car
more than 40 miles with the full load
of 50 passengers.
Whatever the size of the car, most of
the space under the seats is required for
the necessary cells. The total weight of
the Partisan car with full load is IL
tons, while those of the Milford and
Hopeda1e road, in Massachusetts,, weigh
but seven tons empty. This is about
ton lighter than the usual trolley car Of
the same capacity.
Construction of the Battery.
The storage battery has much the
same appearance as the common primary
battery, except that the cells of the lat
ter are generally of glass and cylindric-
al in form. The containing vessel of
the storage cell is commonly either black
rubber board, vulcanite or ebonite The
elements used in the battery of the SEQ
ond avenue line in New York city are
cOmminuted copper in network of cop
per wire within an insulating covering
of cotton formed as a plate and i'm
mersed in liquid alkaH in which zinc
has been dissolved. The containing yes
sci in this form of battery is of iron,
and its walls constitute the negative
plate, the copper being the positive.
In all other storage batteries in use
for traction purposes both plates consist
mainly of lead and are separated by
plates of some insulating material The
positive plate is either grooved, reticu-
lated or honeycombed as far as possible,
and into its cavities is pressed one of the
oxides of lead, usually the peroxide In
some batteries the negative plate is
nearly plain, while in others this also is
made, with cavities to contain litharge,
a lower oxide of lead. These oxides con-
stitute the active material. - The cell |
is filed with diluted sulphuric acid,
and through the action of this, while !
the battery is at work, the active ma
terial is decomposed and its lead most |
" deposited on the negative plate The |
chemical action gives rise to an electric
current which continues until the bat |
terry is discharged "
OF course care IS taken to bring the |
car back to the charging station before |
this condition is reached The recharg- |
ing Is done by an external current /
formerly obtained from extensive mi |
mary batteries, but in modern practice /
from dynamos The operation consists
simply IN sending the current through /
the cells In a direction opposite to that /
in which 1t flowed out, thus reversing /
the chemical action and restoring the /