Improvements in Galvanic Batteries.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Apr., 1887
Complete Left, 6th Feb.; 1888-
Complete Accepted, 9th Mar., 1888
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Galvanic Batteries.
I, WILLIAM HENRY QUARTERMAN of 75 Borough Road, Southwark, in the county
of Surrey Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this Invention to be as
follows:-
The main object of my present invention is to effect certain improvements in the
method of fixing the zinc and carbon electrodes and in the formation of the lid in
batteries constructed according to the invention of "Improvements in Galvanic
Batteries" for which Letters Patent were granted to me bearing date 20 July 1885
and numbered 8733.
According to my present invention, instead of attaching the zinc electrodes to the
battery lid, I form them with a small projecting piece on the upper edge which is
bent over and slotted so that it can be slipped under the nut of a binding screw fixed
on the top edge of the outer case of the battery.
By this means the zines are secured independently of the battery lid.
I also form the said lid in two or more parts with grooved and tongued joints, the
lines of the said joints passing through the carbon terminals, so that the lid can
be readily removed when required without disturbing either the zinc or carbon
electrodes.
In place of this arrangement I may form the lid in one piece and provide it with
holes or openings of sufficient size to slip over the carbon terminals and attach an
Indian rubber seating to the said terminals for the lid to rest on, so that the said
holes may be airtight when the lid is put on, and all round the outer edges of the lid
I may fix a strip of Indian rubber to form an airtight joint so that the said lid can be
removed or put in position again very easily and without being fitted so tightly as in
the previously described method.
The connections between the cells are preferably of flat metal strips slotted at each
end after the manner shewn and described in the specification of my aforesaid Letters

page_text: Patent No. 8733 of 1885 and to remove the battery lid it is only necessary to
slacken the various binding screws and turn aside the connecting strips. The zincs
can also be instantly removed or replaced by about a couple of turns of their
respective binding screws.
The improvements herein set forth when in combination with the filling and
emptying arrangements described in my aforesaid Letters Patent render a galvanic
battery capable of manipulation with rapidity and certainty by the most unskilled
persons.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Galvanic Batteries.
I, WILLIAM HENRY QUARTERMAN of 75 Borough Road, Southwark, in the
county of Surrey, Civil Engineer 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 main object of my present invention is to effect certain improvements in the
method of fixing the zinc and carbon electrodes and in the formation of the lid in
batteries constructed according to the invention of " Improvements in Galvanic
Batteries" for which Letters Patent were granted to me bearing date 20 July 1885
and numbered 8733.
According to my present invention, instead of attaching the zinc electrodes to the
battery lid, I form them with a small projecting piece on the upper edge, which is
bent over and slotted so that it can be slipped under the nut of a binding screw fixed
on the top edge of the outer case of the battery. By this means the zincs are
secured independently of the battery lid. I also form the said lid in two or more
parts with grooved and tongued joints, and the carbon terminals are situated on the
lines of one or more of the said joints, so that the lid can be readily removed when
required without disturbing either the zine or carbon electrodes.
In place of this arrangement, I may form the lid in one piece and provide it with
holes or openings of sufficient size to slip over the carbon terminals and attach
Indian rubber seatings to the said terminals for the lid to rest on, so that the said
holes may be airtight when the lid is put on, and all round the outer edges of the
lid I may fix a strip of Indian rubber to form an airtight joint, so that the said lid
can be removed or put in position again very easily and without being fitted so
tightly as in the previously described method.
In the accompanying two sheets of drawings Fig. 1 is a plan, Fig. 2 a.sectional
elevation through the line Z Z in Fig. 1 and Fig. 3 a part sectional elevation through
the line Y Y in Fig. 1 of a battery constructed according to one method of carrying
out my invention, Fig. 4 is a plan and Fig. 5 a sectional elevation through the
line X X in Fig. 4 of a modified arrangement. Fig. 6 is a part sectional elevation of
a battery shewing an alternative mode of constructing the lid, and Fig. 7 is a plan
shewing the method of connecting the zinc and carbon electrodes.
Similar letters of reference denote similar parts throughout the drawings.
In Figs. 1 2 and 3 the general construction of the battery is the same as that shewn
in Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings accompanying my aforesaid Letters Patent No. 8733
of 1885, but instead of the tubular zinc electrodes M being attached to the battery
lid D, they are each formed with a small projecting piece m on the upper edge, which
is bent over and slotted so that it can be slipped under the nut M³ of a binding
screw M' fixed on the top edge of the outer case A of the battery. The said slots
form parts of circles struck from the centre of the tubular zincs, so that the piece m

page_text: can be inserted or removed from the binding screw when the nut M³ is slackened,
by merely a slight rotation of the zine, in its place.
Figures 4 and 5 represent a similar mode of attaching the zines as applied to a
battery constructed with zincs having an external insulating covering 0 as shewn
in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings of my aforesaid Letters Patent No. 8733 of 1885.
The zines when thus attached by means of the slotted piece m are quite independent
of the lid, which in the examples shown in Figs. 1 2 3 4 and 5 is formed in four
parallel slips D, D1, D2, D³. The two joints which pass through the centres of the
carbon terminals K², are preferably grooved and tongued, but the middle joint is
merely rabetted, as shewn in cross-section in Fig. 3. The said lid can therefore be
removed without disturbing the zinc or carbon electrodes.
In the alternative construction of lid shewn in Fig. 6 the said lid is formed in one
piece, and conical holes d are formed.therein of sufficient size to slip over the carbon
terminals.
Those parts of the terminals which fill the holes are coned and surrounded by
rubber ferrules or rings e, to make airtight joints, and a strip of rubber fis fixed on
the edges of the lid to make an airtight joint with the edges of the outer case A.
The connections between the cells as shewn in Fig. 7 are preferably of flat metal
strips N slotted at each end after the manner shewn and described in the speci-
fication of my aforesaid Letters Patent No. 8733 of 1885 and to remove the
battery lid it is only necessary to slacken the various binding screws and turn aside
and remove the connecting strips. The zines can also be instantly removed or
replaced by a turn of their respective binding screws.
The improvements herein set forth when in combination with the filling and
emptying arrangements described in my aforesaid Letters Patent render a galvanic
battery capable of manipulation with rapidity and certainty by the most unskilled
persons, and the use of the said improvements is not necessarily confined to batteries
constructed in accordance with the aforesaid Letters Patent, as the method of
attaching the zines and of forming the lid may be applied to the other forms of
batteries, if their construction admits of such use."
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is ;
(1.) In a galvanic battery, the method of affixing the zinc electrodes to binding
screws on the edge of the outer case, by means of projecting pieces m, having curved
slots, substantially as and for the purposes herein set forth.
(2.) In a galvanic battery, the construction of the lid in two or more parallel
strips fitted together with grooved and tongued or rabetted joints, substantially as
and for the purposes herein set forth with reference to Figures 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the
accompanying drawings.
(3.) In a galvanic battery, the construction of the lid in one piece with holes to
slip over the carbon terminals and rubber seatings e and substantially as and for
the purposes herein set forth, with reference to Fig. 6 of the accompanying
drawings.
Datad this 6th day of Fabrumry 1988
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