ConMATY INDRANGHENING IN VOLTAIC BATTERING A
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Marc Antoine François Mennons, of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empire
of France, and of 4, South Street, Finsbury, London, E.C., for the
Invention of 66 ConMATY INDRANGHENING IN VOLTAIC BATTERING
A com
Sealed the 27th August 1858, and dated the 14th April 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Marc Antoine François
Mennons at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th April 1858.
I, MARC ANTOINE FRANÇOIS MENNONS, of the British and Foreign Patent
Offices, 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empire of France, and of
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, E.C., do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN VOLTAIC BATTERIES;" to be
follows:-
as
T
The Invention consists in replacing the zinc or corresponding metal element,
in the voltaic combinations already known, by a plate or cylinder. of lead in
contact with water, pure or acidulated, the opposite element being placed in-
a porous diaphragm filled with either concentrated or diluted acid. I also
employ in certain cases the known alloys of lead with other metals. I do not
confine myself to any special form of construction of the apparatus, the base
of my Invention being the substitution of lead for the "zincode" of ordinary
voltaic arrangements. The compounds of lead resulting from the action of
the battery are collected for use after each operation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Marc Antoine François Mennons in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 31st August 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MARC
ANTOINE FRANÇOIS MENNONS, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices,
39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Marc Antoine François Mennons, Her special licence that I, the
said Marc Antoine François Mennons, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Marc Antoine François Mennons, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
VOLTAIC BATTERIES," (a communication,) upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Marc Antoine François Mennons, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Marc Antoine François Mennons, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, that is to say:-
The Invention communicated to me consists in the application of lead to
the construction of voltaic batteries, in substitution of the zinc or other
oxidable metal employed in the arrangements at present known.
In taking for instance the apparatus known as "Bunsen's battery," the zinc
element is replaced by a cylinder of lead surrounding the carbon, which is
placed in a porous vessel charged with pure or diluted acid. The outer vessel
containing the lead is charged with pure or acidulated water, and the con-
nections are made by clefts or binding screws in the ordinary way. The
metallic solution formed in the outer vessel during the action of the battery is

page_text: drawn off when sufficiently saturated, to be afterwards treated by known
processes for the production of carbonates, nitrates, chromates, and other
compounds of lead. In many cases waste alloys of lead may be economically
substituted for the pure metal, but as a general rule the latter is found most
advantageous.
The exciting fluids vary according to the intensity of current required.
For general purposes the most favorable results are obtained from nitric
acid, either pure or diluted, in contact with the carbon (or its equivalent),
and pure or acidulated water in contact with the lead.
The arrangement above described affords a constant voltaic current of high
power, the working cost of which is more than counterbalanced by the com-
mercial value of the products of its action. The absence of mercury and the
facility of manipulation render it specially applicable to telegraphic and
electro-chemical processes, while its economy of production gives it a manifest
superiority over the voltaic combinations at present known in the working of
electro-motors, and other operations in which large quantities of electricity are
required at a low cost.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention and the manner of
carrying it into effect, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to any of the general details of construction above laid down, as these may be
indefinitely varied without departing from the principle of the Invention,
which consists in the simple substitution of lead or its alloys to the zinc or
other oxidable metal employed in voltaic arrangements, and known as the
"zincode" of the battery.
In witness whereof, I, the said Marc Antoine François Mennons, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
M. F. MENNONS. (L.S.)