New-York tribune., 1903-11-23
THE yONE COAL BATTERY.

Hugo Jone, OF Chicago. who has for several
years been trying to perfect battery which
would generate electricity more cheaply than a
steam engine and dynamo can. discusses the
matter afresh in the last issue of THE Western
Electrician Several minor improvements have
been made in his system since he last came
before the public but these do not give him his
present pretext for speaking. Having received
his patents upon certain features of the process,
he is now at liberty TO publish details concern
ing which he has hitherto been reticent For
the first time, therefore, outsiders are enabled
to get an idea OF his procedure.
The cell in any primary battery consists of
four principal things: Two plates, each of a
different material; a solution whose disintegra-
ton develops the current, and an additional
substance designed TO prevent the clogging of
interior work, and technically known as a de
polarizer" In the Jone cell the walls of the re-
ceptacle which are nickel plated inside, con-
stitute one plate. The other is furnished by a
porous cylinder of carbon immersed in the CEN
ire. This carbon, by the way, is practically in
destructible. The fluid is a combination of an
alkali, caustic potash, and tin. The depolariZer
is oxide of mercury. In order TO develop one
horsepower Mr.. Jone uses up three pounds of
tin. Afterward, when this has been removed
in an altered state (as an oxide in the form of
sedimen0, it is subjected TO treatment whereby
the original tin is rescued. The depolarizing
agent also undergOes change inside the cell. but
it is not altogether wasted. That, too, is recov-
cred for subsequent service by a suitable proc
ess. Theoretically, then. there is no perma-
nent loss of the materials in the battery proper.
Several incidental features of the system are
yet to be mentioned but the most important is
of axfd anf+ lsn
condition for later use. The transformation is
effected by burning il with coal The same
principle is utilized in reducing oxide Of iron
in an ordinary blast furnace. The consumption
of fuel is a distinct process from that which
goes on in the generation OF electricity and
duibblers might question the propriety OF call
ing Mr.. Jones invention ''coal battery" How
ever the public is less interested in terminology
than in the pretence that only half pound Of
COAL employed in this fashion, is needed TO re-
generate the tin that gives horsepower of cur
rent OF course if this were true and if there
were no other losses or expenditures, the fuel
would give two or three times the efficiency OBJ
tained from a steam boiler If not more. On
the other hand, if that estimate were not veri-
fed, and If any material addition to the coal
consumption were involved in the steady appli-
cation OF external heat 10 the cell itself and in
the regeneration OF the polarizer. the account
would not show the same balance.
The problem which Mr. Jone has attacked is
one with which a score of electrochemists have
wrestled at various times, but which they have
abandoned Either because they could not
satisfy other people that their processes were
altogether successful or for some other reason.
they have turned their attention TO other mat
ters Now that the latest venture in this direc-
ton has been fully described other experts are
in position 10 test the validity Of the inventors
faith. No one viii question his honesty but
there may be faIlacies in his reasoning which
only the independent investigator will detect
Without corroboration, of course. the Chicago
mans own belief will not carry conviction with
the public The Western Electrician" In
whose pages Mr.. Jones account appears, re-
marks editorialIy that engineers will ask
whether the new method OF getting power from