Improvements in Plates for Secondary Voltaic Batteries.
Year: 1895

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Plates for Secondary Voltaic Batteries.
I, JOHN GUSTAF ADOLF RHODIN, of Clifton Hall, near Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Chemist, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows:-
My invention relates to the construction of plates for secondary batteries in such
a manner that the active material, while possessing great regularity of structure,
has good conducting contact with the frame which carries it, that it is held securely
in the frame, and that it is sufficiently porous to allow passage for the electrolyte
through it and to admit of expansion without injuring the frame.
For this purpose, I lay together side by side a number of lead wires which
I enclose within a piece of thin sheet lead bent around them as a sheath, so that the
whole forms a composite round rod. I cast a frame plate of lead alloyed with
a little antimony with holes through it about the same diameter as the lead rod above
described. I lay the frame plate on a flat bed, I insert the end of the lead rod into
one of the holes and cut it off level with the face of the plate. I repeat this for every
hole until they are all filled with short lengths of the composite rod presenting on
each side of the frame plate the ends of the wires in the same plane with the
surface of the plate.
The plate thus prepared is immersed in a bath of dilute sulphuric acid between
two lead plates, and is connected to the positive pole of a source of electricity,
while the two lead plates are connected to the negative pole. By the action
continued during a day or more, the active material becomes firmly secured in the
frame plate. According to a modified construction, instead of using wires to make
up the lead rod, I pass a sheet of lead between fluted rollers so as to form ridges
on both sides, the ridges on the one side being exactly opposite to like ridges on
the other side, so that the section of the sheet thus rolled appears as if it were made
up of a number of parallel rods united by thin fins of metal. I roll the sheet thus
prepared into a roll approximately cylindrical, and use short lengths of it to fill the
holes in the frame plate in the manner above described with respect to the
composite rod made up of wires. Instead of making the holes in the frame plate
circular, they may with advantage be made polygonal so that the angles which are
not at first filled by the lead rod give certain room for expansion.
Plates, constructed in either of the ways described, may have the interstices
of the active material pasted with a mixture of lead oxide and dilute sulphuric
acid.
Dated this 2nd day of May 1895.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Plates for Secondary Voltaic Batteries.
I, JOHN GUSTAF ADOLF RHODIN, of Clifton Hall, near Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, Chemist, 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:―
My invention relates to the construction of plates for secondary batteries in such
a manner that the active material, while possessing great regularity of structure,
has good conducting contact with the frame which carries it, that it is held securely
in the frame, and that it is sufficiently porous to allow passage for the electrolyte
through it and to admit of expansion without injuring the frame.
I construct a plate as I shall describe referring to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a front view and Fig. 2 is a vertical section of a plate according to my
invention.
Fig. 3 is a perspective view illustrating the mode of preparing the plugs to form
the active material, and Figs. 4 and 5 shew modified forms thereof.
The plate A has through it a number of holes filled with plugs B (one of
which B is shewn in Fig. 1) which may be circular as shewn, or may be polygonal.
The plugs with which these holes are filled are so made that they resemble and
shortly become equivalent to a bundle of lead wires, but, instead of actually
bundling wires together, I form the bundles in the following manner.
pass sheets or strips of lead between fluted rollers so as to form ridges which
may be embossed on both sides of the sheet or strip and of semicircular form
as shewn in Fig. 3, or of inclined rectangular form as shewn in Fig. 4, each ridge
on the one side being by preference exactly opposite the ridge on the other side;
or the ridges may be on one side only as those of triangular form shewn in
Fig. 5.
I roll mp the sheet or strip thus embossed into a roll approximately cylindrical or
polygonal, and if necessary, I cut this roll into parts, each a little longer than the
thickness of the plate A, thus forming plugs which I force into the holes B,
in which they may be firmly held by slightly burring over their ends on each sile
of the plate. When in position each plug appears as a bun Ile of parallel wires of
round, rectangular, tripugular or other section, ech wire muited to the next by a
thin fin of tel, which, after the phat a little 1, appear, leaving
the plug in the condition of an actual bun lle of
superate wires.
A plate thus prepared is connectel to the positive pole of a source of electricity
and immersed in a bath of dilute sulphuric acid between two leal plates which are
connected to the negative pole.
By the petion continued for a day or two the active material becomes firmly
secured in the holes of the plate.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
A plate for a secondary voltaic battery consisting of a conducting frame plate
having holes through it plugged with rolls of lead sheet or strip formed with ridges
connected by thin fins of the metal, substantially as described.
Dated this 3rd day of February 1896.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant,