Improvements in Electric Battery Plates.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Aug., 1892-Accepted, 1st Oct., 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Electric Battery Plates.
I, EDWARD PRESTON USHER of Grafton, Worcester County, State of
Massachusetts United States of America, Lawyer 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 :-
of
My improvements relate to battery plates, which are peculiar in being destitute
skeleton or internal supporting frame. My invention is embodied in a tablet
or shell of finely perforated lead foil or the like filled with dry powdered oxide of
lead and having a central longitudinal conducting strip protruding from one end,
and in a series of these tablets having their conducting strips united transversely,
and also in such series of united tablets enclosed by a frame and side plates suitably
bound thereto, forming a positive plate without an internal skeleton. My invention
is further embodied in said series of united tablets held substantially parallel by
transverse perforated strips or equivalent external binders which surround the
several tablets and project therefrom to ensure an open space between adjacent
plates and tablets for free circulation of the electrolyte.
The foil wrapper is exceedingly thin, each leaf or fold being about 1000 of an inch
in thickness; and the powdered material inclosed is speedily transformed into a
tablet or stick as the wrapper disintegrates by the action of the acid in " forming "
the plate.
In the drawing
Fig. 1. is a plan of one of the tablets with its protruding conducting strip.
Fig. 2. is an elevation of one of the positive plates, showing the parallel tablets
with their conductors connected and the marginal frame.
Fig. 3. is a transverse section of the same.
Figs. 4, 5 and 6 show three forms of the transverse external binders or
spacing devices for the tablets, Fig. 6. also showing the tablets and conductors in
cross section.
Fig. 7. represents the negative plate with the spacing strips in position on the
tablets.
In the construction of my improved plates, I prepare a quantity of tablets as
follows; I take lead foil and make a case or shell A, which may be one inch wide,
five thirty-seconds of an inch thick, and six inches long.
These dimensions and the others stated, may of course be somewhat varied,
but to secure clearness, I herein describe the preparation of a plate of definite
size.
Into these shells I insert a strip B of metallic lead or other conducting substance,
about one-sixteenth of an inch thick, inch wide, and 7 inches long, seeking to
place this strip as near the centre of the shell as possible with one end protruding.
I then fill the shell with a dry powder C consisting of per-oxide of lead, red lead
or litharge, or other oxides of lead.
This powder I pack as firmly as possible and when it is completed, I have a firm
tablet from one end of which protrudes the strip B of metallic lead, or other con-
ducting substance. This wrapper or shell I prick as full as possible of minute holes
or form it of a sheet previously perforated, in order to allow the acid to act upon
the active material enclosed therein.
To prepare a positive plate, I take a given number of these tablets, say
six, and lay them side by side and close together on a thin wooden plate D,
Fig. 3. which is somewhat larger on the sides and bottom than the space occupied
by the six tablets.

page_text: I then place upon the margins of this wooden plate, and so as to surround
the tablets on three sides, a frame E, which is made of wood, rubber or other
suitable substance. This frame' is inch wide, and inch thick, or thereabouts.
(See Fig. 2.)
Over these tablets and frame, I lay another wooden plate and bind the whole
together with two or more rubber bands F. The pieces B.- protruding from
the six tablets I connect together transversely by a horizontal bar G, as in
Fig. 2 to which they may be soldered or joined by the bar being cast or moulded
to them.
To prepare my negative plate, I take a given number of the tablets, say five,
perhaps four properly recessed strips H. made 3 inch wide, 64 inches long, and
inch thick. These strips may be made of rubber or lead or any rigid or semi-
rigid substance. (See Figs. 4 and 5.)
The recesses in the strips H. are to be of such size as to permit a tablet being
pushed through them. I take the tablets and push each one through a recess in
each of the four strips which thus connect and hold them together, with a slight
space between adjacent tablets, the strips being distributed at equal distances on
the tablets as shown in Fig. 7.
The recessed strips H. may be formed in halves, as indicated in Fig. 5. in which
case they are brought together laterally to embrace the several tablets, instead of
introducing the tablets end wise through the openings.
Rubber cords or other flexible binders may be passed around and sinuously
between the several tablets, as in Fig. 6. in lieu of the recessed strips H, these
binders in either form projecting beyond the face of the several tablets and leaving
space between them, thus promoting a free circulation.
I then connect the pieces B protruding from the tablets with a bar G as in
the case of a positive plate. Between each tablet and the next on a negative
plate, there will be an open space, which materially aids circulation of the
electrolyte.
I disclaim as a wrapper, metallic sheet-lead of even the thinnest known grades,
and I distinguish between it and the light, soft and exceedingly thin tissue known
as lead-foil, which readily disintegrates in the acid. I also disclaim an electrode
having an internal frame for supporting the active material, and a foil wrapper
enclosing it.
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 -
First- -A unit of active material for battery plates consisting of a tablet of lead
oxide, or its equivalent, formed of a wrapper of lead-foil and a filling of dry
powder, with a conducting strip embedded therein and protruding therefrom;
substantially as set forth.
Second A battery plate consisting of a series of connected tablets A, each
composed of a wrapper of lead foil and a filling of oxide of lead as active material,
and each having a protruding conducting strip B, united to a transverse strip or
bar G, substantially as set forth.
Third A battery plate having a series of tablets each composed of a
wrapper of lead foil and a filling of oxide of lead as active material, and each
furnished with a protruding conducting strip B, united to a transverse bar G,
such tablets having the transverse binders or spacing strips H, substantially as set
forth.
Fourth A battery plate composed of a series of parallel tablets of active
material, enclosed in a wrapper of perforated lead foil, with a conducting strip.
protruding from each tablet, and a transverse connecting bar, in combination with
wooden separators at each side of the series of tablets, and a marginal frames
auhotantially as got forth
.

page_text: Fifth-A battery plate composed of a series of parallel tablets, each composed
of a wrapper of lead foil and a filling of oxide of lead as active material, and
each having a protruding conducting strip, said tablets being firmly held with
an open space between each tablet and the next one on said plate, substantially
5 as set forth.
Dated this Sixteenth day of August 1892.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.