Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1902-06-13
AUTO PROBLEM SOLVED
Edison Says His New Battery
Is a Success.
LIGHTER METALS USED FOR 1T.

Inventor Expects storage Power Ia
II. Good For a Five Thousand Mile
Trip-says It Is Now Up 10 Automo-
bile Manufacturers 10 Produce n
Cheap Carriage.
ut is now up to the manufacturers
Of automobiles to produce cheap car
rage" said Thomas \. Edison the 9th
er day. Il have. after three years of
hard work, solved the problem of an
electrical storage battery which can be
used for long distance work and which
will wear three or four automobiles
out before it will succumb itself"
This statement was made TO a New
York Times reporter at the inventors
laboratory in West Orange, \. ]. Mr..
Edison was evidently delighted over
! the situation. on May % of last year
it was announced that the inventor had
nearly completed his storage battery,
and work has been going on ever since.
On last Friday MAY 23l Mr.. Edison
equipped an ordinary electric runabout
with batteries of twenty-one cells AID
a total weight of 332 pounds net for
trial spin.
Il sent my two men, Fleiss and Bee,
out for the test" said the inventor in
describing the experiment. 81 told
them to go over some heavy roads and
up some steep hills. They went To
Paterson, covering some sixty-two
miles, the grades averaging from TO
l. per cent When the machine came
back, only II per cent of the original
speed had been lost and but seven out
of the original twenty nine volts had
been sacrificed.
ION Monday MAY 2Gl | sent these
men out again on roads that were
heavy from the rain. | told them to
run the machine until it stopped, but
they had gone eighty-tive miles before
the battery gave out. few days be
fore had gone over the same roads
in a high power gasoline vehicle, but
when we got to the steep hills the gas
oline engine nearly stopped. The hills
made absolutely no impression upon
my electrical machine"
The popularity of most Of the bat
teries now used is that lead is used in
solution of acid. The lead makes
these batteries extremely heavy, so
that about 125 pounds Of weight is
necessary for each horsepower pro
duced. The best of these batteries will
not run more than about forty miles
without recharging, and this process
takes several hours.
IL realized" continued Mr.. Edison.
that the problem would never be
solved with lead battery, so ! set out
to secure some combination of other
metals which would produce the de-
sired effect. At last | hit upon COM
bination of steel and nickel suspended
in an alkaline solution. The principle
E is entirely different from the electrical
batteries now in use.
1T was my idea to construct a bat
terry which would not be cumbersome
ly heavy, which would have fine wear
; ing powers and which would not need
attention. These hopes are realized in
the new battery. 1t is about the same
size as the ones now used, but the
lighter metals make il possible to Sc.
cure one horsepower from every 53.3
pounds weight. | am now making Il
battery for bicycle. 1t will give q
horsepower for forty pounds weight
and machines can be made still lighter
but they are comparatively more ex.
. pensive.
"These batteries will run for 10C
miles or more without charging. They
can be charged in few hours. They
require no attention, for all that is
needed to replenish the liquid is t
pour in little water every now ant
then to take the place of that which
has evaporated. l do not know how
! long it would take to wear out one OF
the batteries, for we have not yet beer
able to exhaust the possibilities of on'
Of them, but l feel sure one will las
;, longer than four or five automobiles
II am going to start an automobile
{ out in few days for an endurance,
!. test Of 5000 miles. ! shall make five
u separate tests of this kind with differ
ent machines, and if do not produc,
battery that will last for more thar
= 5000 miles | won't sell single one Of
y them"
II In Mr.. Edison's new battery tn,
!" plates are contained in a neat stee
case, II inches high by by 4 inches
The interior of this case is lined will
an insulating material which resist
the action of the potassium hydrat,
used in the cells. 1t is the intention o.
the inventor to begin Immediately thu
manufacture of the new machines a
his recently equipped factory in Gsel
Ridge, N. j.