Improvements in and relating to Electric Secondary Batteries or Accumulators.
Year: 1890

page_text: [Communicated from abroad by THOMAS EWING, of the City and State of
New York, United States of America, Counsellor at Law.]
Improvements in and relating to Electric Secondary Batteries or
Accumulators.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE of 45 Southampton Buildings, London, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
The invention relates first to a new construction of storage cell, and consists in
the combination, as hereinafter set forth, of the electrodes with the supporting
bridge pieces of non-conducting material, with the interposed supporting and spacing
bars of like material, and with the bolts or other means of clamping the various
parts into a united body and second, in a new method of preparing active material
for use in storage cells, and preferably in cells of the form herein set forth.
In the accompanying drawings, Fig. 1 is a transverse section of my improved
battery on the line X X of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same, on the
line YY of Fig. 1. Similar letters of reference indicate like parts.
A is the containing vessel or cell, B, B₁, B¹¹, B¹¹, are the electrodes. These
electrodes are made of strips of lead bent in convolutions, which convolutions are
united to form a plate. The ends of the strips forming each plate are brought
together and constitute the terminal of the plate. To the terminals CC of the
plates BB is secured by a bolt or other suitable means, a fork D, and to the
terminals CC of the plates B¹ B is secured a similar fork D¹. To said forks
are to be attached the conducting wires from the battery.
The plates B, B1, B1, B¹, are placed parallel to one another in the cell A. Each
plate rests upon a bridge piece as E. Said bridge piece is made of hard rubber, or
other non-conducting material, and is provided with legs F, so that when it is laid
in the bottom of the vessel A, there is a free space for the liquid in said vessel to
circulate beneath it. The plates B, B₁, B", B¹¹ do not extend across the bridge
pieces, but stand with their lower edge faces upon and parallel to the upper surfaces
of said bridge pieces. This affords a support along the entire lower edge of the
plate and prevents any sagging of the plate between the points on which it rests.
Between the plates are placed bars or rods, as G, H, I, made of insulating material,
and having flat faces which bear against the flat surfaces of the plate. The number
of rods may be altered. Similar rods, as J, K, are disposed against the exterior of
the outer plates of the series. The sets of rods are placed in line transversely to the
plates, as shown in Fig. 1. Passing through the middle points of each transverse
series of rods, and also through the bodies of the plates, is a bolt M of hard rubber
or other insulating material, provided at one end with a head N, and at the other,
with nut O. By setting up the nuts O, the plates and rods are drawn together, so
that all the parts are bound into a closely united body.
The rods G, H, I, J, K do not extend to the bottom of the cell. Their ends
terminate just below the upper longitudinal portions of the bridge pieces E, so that
said bridge pieces, while not secured to the plates directly, are nevertheless held in
place by compression between said rod ends. The entire combination of plates, rods
and bridge pieces, being thus bound together, may be lifted bodily into and out of
the cell by means of the terminal forks D D'.
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The rods serve the double object of keeping the plates a certain distance apart,
and of supporting said plates against buckling or deformation. It is well known
that in the storage battery the chemical energy exerted within the mass of active
material, is exceedingly liable to give the plates a warped shape, and this when the

page_text: plates are in close proximity, as is necessarily the case, often results in their contact
and a consequent short circuiting of the cell. The plate here as illustrated is to a
certain extent flexible and free to yield to force acting within its mass.
Each part
is separate, and is of very simple shape, and hence is easily and cheaply made. The
rods being placed vertically, afford no space for lodgment of material escaping from
the plate or impurities. The tops of the bridge pieces being surmounted by the
plates, also offer no ledge for similar material.
The active material is prepared as follows:-
Any active material, such as a lead oxide, is treated with another substance, such
as sulphuric acid, which is capable of determining in said active material the
maximum amount of expansion which said material will undergo while in the
electrolyte in the cell. The material so treated is then heated until all moisture is
expelled, and it is thoroughly dry, when it is crushed or pulverized, in which condition
it may be packed in any suitable support or plate to form an electrode for a
storage cell.
The active material having thus already been expanded in advance, undergoes
very little, if any, further expansion in the cell, and hence does not enlarge the recesses
or openings in which it is held in the supports, disintegration or tearing of the
electrodes is thus obviated, and their effective lifetime greatly increased.
While the use of a fluid, such as sulphuric acid, for causing the expansion of the
active material, such as a lead oxide, is here particularly set forth, the invention is
not limited to this particular means of effecting the expansion of an active material,
but I refer herein to an active material expanded in any known way, as and for the
purpose set forth.
Neither is the invention limited to the application of the said expanded active
material in a dry state to the plates or supports.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a galvanic cell, a containing vessel, a bridge piece upon the bottom of said
vessel, and an electrode in plate form having its lower edge resting longitudinally
upon the upper surface of said bridge piece, substantially as described.
2. In a galvanic cell, a containing vessel, a loose bridge piece upon the bottom
of said vessel, and having a transverse opening, and an electrode in plate form
having its lower edge resting longitudinally upon the surface of said bridge piece,
substantially as described.
3. In a storage cell, an electrode containing active material in openings in said
electrode, two or more separate supporting bars of non-conducting material applied
against a face of said electrode, and bolts of non-conducting material extending
through said electrode and said bars, and securing said electrode and bars together,.
substantially as described.
4. In a storage cell, an electrode containing active material in openings in said
electrode, two or more separate supporting bars of non-conducting material applied
against opposite faces of said electrode, and bolts of non-conducting material
extending through said electrode and each pair of bars disposed relatively opposite.
each other and on opposite sides, and securing said bars to said electrode, substan-
tially as described.
5. In a storage cell, an electrode, a loose supporting bridge piece of non-con-
ducting material applied against one edge of said electrode, bars of non-conducting
material applied to opposite sides of said electrode, and said bridge piece, and a
means of clamping said bars against said electrode and said bridge piece, sub-
stantially as described.
6. Preparing active material for use in a secondary battery electrode by subjecting
an active material to the action of a fluid capable of expanding said material and
then drying said material, substantially as described.
7. Preparing active material for use in a secondary battery electrode by subjecting

page_text: an active material to the action of a fluid capable of expanding said material, then
drying and then comminuting said material, substantially as described.
8. Preparing lead oxide for use in a secondary battery electrode by treating the
same with sulphuric acid to produce expansion and then driving off the contained
moisture by heat, before applying said oxide to said electrode, substantially as
described.
Dated this 90th dow of Wahun 1800
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.