IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SECONDARY PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Pitkin of Clerkenwell in the County of Middlesex
for an invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SECONDARY
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Pitkin at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 20th May 1882.
65
JAMES PITKIN of Clerkenwell in the County of Middlesex IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SECONDARY BATTERIES, APPLICABLE ALSO TO PRIMARY
BATTERIES,"
My Invention relates particularly to improvements in the construction of the
secondary batteries described in a former application for Letters Patent dated
December 13th 1881 No. 5451, but is also applicable to other secondary and
primary batteries, and it consists in an improved construction of frame to contain
the lead peroxide and metallic lead without the use of felt now employed for the
purpose of enclosing the same, and which augments the internal resistance of the
battery and is otherwise objectionable.
My improved frame is so constructed as to allow free access of the electrolytic
liquid to the element and yet prevent the lead peroxide or spongy lead falling out
or to the bottom of the cell. The frame may consist of enclosing surfaces formed
of louvre like strips or laths of ebonite, wood, or other suitable material fixed across
a suitable rectangular or other frame, the laths being placed obliquely and slightly
overlapping one another so as to leave interstices through which the liquid has free
access. A set of these louvre-like laths may be fixed to the opposite sides of the
frame, the plates of the two sets being inclined inwardly and downwardly, and
they may be fixed by having their ends inserted in inclined slits in the side bars
of the frame or in any other convenient manner. Between these two oppositely
inclined series of laths the lead turnings or other thin shreds of lead of which the
electrode is made, are packed. Or the enclosing surfaces of the frame may be thin
plates of wood, ebonite, or other material perforated as closely as possible over their
whole surface with holes or apertures of any shape but inclined downwards and
inwards, the holes being preferably of such dimensions and at such an angle having
regard to the thickness of the plate through which they are made, that the lower
side of the hole on the outer surface of the plate shall overlap or shall at last
be as high or nearly so as the upper side of the hole on the inner surface of the
plate.
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page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said James Pitkin in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 15th November
1882.
"
JAMES PITKIN of Clerkenwell in the County of Middlesex IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SECONDARY BATTERIES APPLICABLE ALSO TO PRIMARY
BATTERIES."
My Invention relates particularly to improvements in the construction of the
secondary batteries described in another application for Letters Patent dated
December 13th 1881, No 5451, but is also applicable to other secondary and
primary batteries, and it consists in an improved construction of holder or frame
to contain the turnings or other shreds of lead, of which the electrode is made, as
described in the specification of my other Patent, without the use of any enclosing
fabric which augments the internal resistance of the battery, and is otherwise
objectionable.
My improved holder is so constructed as to allow free access of the electrolytic
liquid to the element and yet prevent the lead peroxide or spongy lead (into which
the lead turnings &c, become converted, as described in my other Patent) falling
out, and it may consist of enclosing surfaces formed of louvre like strips or laths
of ebonite, wood, or other suitable material fixed across the two sides of a suitable
rectangular or other frame, the laths being placed obliquely and slightly overlapping
one another so as to leave interstices through which the liquid has free access and
the laths of the two sets being inclined inwardly and downwardly. They may be
fixed by having their ends inserted in inclined slits in the side bars of the frame
or in any other convenient manner. Between these two oppositely inclined series
of laths the lead turnings or other thin shreds of lead of which the electrode is
made, are packed. Or the enclosing surfaces of the holder may be thin plates of
wood, ebonite or other material perforated as closely as possible over their whole
surface with holes or apertures of any shape but inclined downwards and inwards
at such an angle as, having regard to their size and the thickness of the plate
through which they are made, to afford little or no directly horizontal aperture for
the lead oxide or spongy lead to fall out at.
In the accompanying drawings I have represented examples of my Invention
Figure 1 is a face view; Figure 2 an edge view, and Figure 3 a cross section of
the louvre like holder. Figure 4 shows a part face view and part cross section of
a holder having inclined perforations.
A is a frame of wood or ebonite, and B are laths or strips of the same material
fixed obliquely to the opposite sides of the frame as shown and overlapping
sufficiently whilst leaving interstices between them to prevent the escape of the
lead oxide or spongy lead. In the example shown, these laths are fixed by having
their ends held in inclined slits C in the edges of frame A. An opening A¹ may
be made in the top bar of frame A at which to introduce the lead turnings, &c, of
which the electrode is made. D is a lead wire conductor to which is soldered a
band of lead d which is carried round the four sides of the frame A in contact
with the mass of turnings or shavings, &c, packed therein. This band may also
be divided at intervals into branches or strips which are bent inwards and
embedded in the mass of turnings, &c.
In Figure 4, B are plates enclosing the space within the frame A. They are
made with inwardly and downwardly inclined apertures b of such dimensions and
at such an angle that the lower edge b' of an aperture on the outer surface of the
plate shall be as high or nearly so as the upper edge 62 of the same hole on the
inner surface of said plate. These holes or apertures may be made in any
convenient way.

page_text: The two forms of enclosing surface herein described may be combined in the
same holder, or with other arrangements in which interstices or apertures inclined
as herein described are provided. The holder stands upright on edge as represented
in the drawings when in the battery, and two or more of them are coupled together
in the ordinary way of constructing such batteries.
Having described the nature of my Invention and the manner of performing
the same, I declare that what I claim as my Invention to be protected by the
herein before in part recited Letters Patent is.
1st In a battery, a holder for the metallic mass composing the electrode con-
structed of series of louvre like laths arranged across the opposite sides of a frame
and having interstices between them, substantially as and for the purpose specified.
2nd In a battery, a holder for the metallic mass composing the electrode con-
structed of enclosing plates having downwardly and inwardly inclined apertures.
and fixed to opposite sides of an enclosing frame, substantially as shown and
described.
In Witness whereof I the said James Pitkin have hereunto set my hand
and seal this eighth day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eighty two.