Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1896-11-04

ncls are left in their sides and edges. They
are placed In a moulding frame and the
lead and anthony grid is forced all around
them and into their channels while IL is
partly melted, by means Il force pump
Then a pure zinc plate Is wet with sui
phuric acid and laid over the prepared
plate. The zinc plate makes Falyanic
battery In combination with the other ami
the acid eats out all the zinc In the chic
ride lo2ongcs and leaves the lead In them
In metallic form and fun Of holes like the
hnosi OF sponges. This plate is now ready,
II viii be seen that each plate contains
bodies OF lead or oxide, each Of which offers
n vast surface to the action Of the acid
solution, rs compared with plautc's original
plain plates.
CHARGING THE PLATES.
The action Of a charging current upon
lheSe plates is to change both the metallic
lead in the negative and the oxide OF lead
IN the positive plate into sulrhatc OF lead.
rms change does not affect the form OF the
hllings Of the grids, but can be detected
by change in color. when this change
has been duly effected the battery has been
charged. Connect the two plates in a cir
'uli of wire ana the sulphate of lead in
tach plate begins to change back. In the
one to metallic lead and I'm the other to
oxide OF lead. These alternating changes
can go on indefinitely. and 1t Is asserted
mat plates which have been in use in
Europe for ten years are stIll in good con.
I a
Is produced Of about two volts pressure and
OF quantity of ampercage dependent upon
the size of the plates
europe produced practicable storage
battery and found uses for 1t long before
America took IL up. One of the earliest uses
found for Ii then and one of the largest to-
day, is In connection with water powers for
llghtlng towns. This use will explain also
the general manner in which these bat
terles are used everywhere. There are many
places where streams offer power enough
II used during twenty-four hours of each
day to supply all the electric lights that an
adjacent city needs and perhaps a considera-
Bile surplus, and this without putting i'm an
expensive dam. But the demand for lights
takes place only at night and only during an
average of four or five hours of the night
To store up the flow of water until night
would require great sums for dams, and then
10 produce the current needed for the town
would take big water wheels and dynamoS
instead a water wheel is put in which will
just use the ordinary flow of the stream
This runs small dynamo which sends
constant current into a storage battery and
there the current is stored up until night
when ii can be drawn out as rapidly as II
Is required. In Switzerland alone there are
nearly 200 Of these lighting plants, working
from little mountain streams Such a plant
has just been put in at Woonsockot r. l.
UTILIZED IN PRIVATE HOUSES.
battery is in private houses. One of the
first to be supplied with a storage battery
is the country home of Governor Morton at
Ellerslie on the Hudson. During the day
time. when the steam engine which sup
plies the power for other purposes Is not
fully employed, its power is used to run a
dynamo whose current Is stored in the
storage battery. At night while the engineer
sleeps ana the engine Is at rest the gov
ernor can have his whole place lit up and
keep the lights going until daylight If he
wants to, and there is never a question of
current to supply them. At Riltmore, the
palace OF George W. Vanderbilt near Ash
vile, y. c., there is a battery of sixty
Cells capable of supplying 500 inCandcscen'
lamps for ten hours.
There was description In the sun a
while ago of a private house in West
Seventy-siXth street, New York where the
lighting was all done by electricity, and an
automatic elevator was also operated from
the same source. The power came originally
from gas engine and no care or knowledge
was needed in running any part of the
plant except what an ordinary house servant
POSSESSES. Once every day or two a servant
goes to the gas engine, turns on the gas. and
starts the machinery Then she goes away
and locks the door, The storage battery
docs the rest The engine drives a dynamo
and charges the storage battery. When the
battery is charged a current Is switched
on, which by means of a magnet, turns off
the gas and stops the engine. Touch a but
ton and the lights are turned on whenever
you want them, or touch similar button
and the elevator rises to your floor stops
and awaits your pleasure. You get in. close
the door, and touch another button and the |
elevator goes to the hCOr whose button you
have chosen, and no one outside can call |
II until you are out and have again closed |
the door behind you. Nearby Is another
house where, with similar absence of super
Ntc OF hot f,.V
to heat the house, cook and iron, besides
running an elevator and lighting the house. |
DEMAND FOR STORED POWER
Two of the Edison electric lighting sta
lions in New York City have great storage |
battery auXiliaries, and the subj basement of |
the new Bowling Green building is to be !
used in part for another great battery which |
can be charged from the Pearl street sta |
ton to take the peak of the load when all |
the office down town burst into blaze of |
light almost at once in the early night of |
the fall and winter The Hartford Electric |
Lighting company is said to have the larg- |
est storage battery in the world. This con- |
sists of 1870 cells, capable of giving out a |
current of 1000 ampere hours. The West. |
ern Union Telegraph company has also be |
come a great user of these cells. In its !
larger stations outside of New York ii be- |
gan putting in storage cells about two and !
onc-hal! wears ago. and it is said now to |
have 10000 of them i'm use. These have
supplanted 1000 of the old chemical gray
ity cells in which the current was pro-
duCed by using zinc plates and blue vitriol
The cost is said to be Is cents a year for
each of the new cells, against SIZE a year
for each of the old ones. The company has
such plants in Washington and atlanta, and
a new one has just been added at New Or
leans in which SCI of the new cells are
used Many Pullman cars are lighted from
storage cells, and the coaches OF the Inter
colonial railway of Canada are similarly
supplied.
The new Holland submarine torpedo boat
drive it when it is submerged. capable of
running it sixty miles. There was a road
motor at the American Institute fair which
was operated by a storage battery, and
there are many electric launches in use sup
Dl!ed with the storage battery.
A drawback to a more extended use is the
cost of these batteries. a battery which
will give one-horse power for eight hours
weighs about / 600 pounds. and a house
plant capable of supplying an average OF
fifty siXteen-candle power incandescert
lamps at 10 volts pressure would require
sixty cells, each about SX9Xl0 inches and
would cost about $1,000 TWO Of the ordi-
nary monograph cells will run a sewing
machine or a small lathe or jssaw. Some
cells are being used in this way. The
people who use them charge them at night
rom the ordinary electric light current.
and they can use them during the day
when the electric light currents are usually