IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PLATES FOR SECONDARY BATTERIES
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Norman Charles Cookson of Queen Street in the City.
of Newcastle upon Tyne, Lead Manufacturer for an Invention of IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PLATES FOR SECONDARY BATTERIES
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Norman Charles Cookson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th September 1882.
NORMAN CHARLES COOKSON of Queen Street, in the City of Newcastle upon
Tyne, Lead Manufacturer.-IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PLATES FOR.
SECONDARY BATTERIES.
My Invention consists in a method of preparation of lead plates for secondary
batteries whereby a very large surface of active lead is exposed to the action of
the current of electricity Many processes have been employed to effect the object
attained by my invention which I believe to be however more costly and less
efficient. My invention is applicable either to that form called the Planté battery
or to those more recent forms following the invention of Faure.
I prefer to employ in the manufacture of my plates a considerable quantity of
lead in a melted state the considerable quantity being intended to afford facilities
for the maintenance of an even temperature in the same and I use means so as to
regulate a supply of heat during the operation.-I have this melted lead in a vessel
of such depth as to afford considerable pressure at the bottom. near the bottom of
the vessel I make a number of very small perforations, or attach a pipe having a
closed end or two or more such pipes and make the perforations in their closed end
or ends and I provide means from the inside or otherwise whereby the flow of lead
through the orifice or orifices described can be stopped at will.-I find that by due
regulation of the temperature of the molten lead and the pressure exerted by it
the issuing streams of lead become consolidated into extremely fine filaments even
in moderately cool air. I prefer to gather these filaments on a revolving drum the
speed of revolution of which is regulated according to the speed of formation of
the filaments and I may also arrange the apparatus so as to have the direction of
the jet of lead from different orifices interlacing with each other and I then produce
a species of felted fabric of highly subdivided lead at a very small cost.-
I consolidate this fabric to some extent either by pressure between rolls or
otherwise and then apply and attach it either to a single sheet of ordinary sheet
lead perforated or between two such sheets or to a series of strips of lead or by
any other convenient means I attach it to the conducting wires.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Norman Charles Cookson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th March 1883.
NORMAN CHARLES COOKSON of Queen Street in the City of Newcastle-upon-
Tyne, Lead Manufacturer IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PREPARATION OF PLATES FOR
SECONDARY BATTERIES.
My Invention consists in a method of preparation of lead plates for secondary
batteries whereby a very large surface of active lead is exposed to the action of
the current of electricity-Many processes have been employed to effect the object
attained by my invention which I believe to be however more costly and less
efficient. My Invention is applicable either to that form called the Planté battery
or to those more recent forms following the invention of Faure. I prefer to
employ in the manufacture of my plates a considerable quantity of lead in a melted
state the considerable quantity being intended to afford facilities for the
maintenance of an even temperature in the same and I use means so as to
regulate a supply of heat during the operation.-I have this melted lead in a
vessel of such depth as to afford considerable pressure at the bottom.-Near the
bottom of the vessel I make a number of very small perforations or attach a pipe
having a closed end or two or more such pipes and make the perforations in their
closed end or ends and I provide means from the inside or otherwise whereby the
flow of lead through the orifice or orifices described can be stopped at will.-I find
that by due regulation of the temperature of the molten lead and the pressure
exerted by it the issuing streams of lead become consolidated into extremely fine
filaments even in moderately cool air.-I prefer to gather these filaments on a
revolving drum the speed of revolution of which is regulated according to the
speed of formation of the filaments and I may also arrange the apparatus so as to
have the direction of the jet of lead from different orifices interlacing with each
other and I then produce a species of felted fabric of highly sub-divided lead at a
very small cost. I consolidate this fabric to some extent either by pressure
between rolls or otherwise and then apply and attach it either to a single sheet of
ordinary sheet lead perforated or between two such sheets or to a series of strips
of lead or by any other convenient means I attach it to the conducting wires.
Having thus described the nature of my invention I will proceed more
particularly to describe the manner of carrying the same into effect reference
being had to the drawings hereto attached that is to say.-A. is a vertical section
of a vessel containing melted lead, with a pipe B, terminating in a faced flange to
which is attached a loose flange C. containing a number of very minute perforations.
D. is a Bunsen gas burner intended to facilitate regulation of temperature of the
lead in the pipe B. The pressure due to the head of melted lead above the orifices
in the flange C. tends to force the melted lead through these orifices in continuous
streams, the direction of the perforations may be made to produce a more or less
interlacing or felting effect, or this effect may be produced by deposit of filaments
from different pipes or by movements of the pipes or receiver. E 1; E. 2; are
2 rollers having an endless band of cloth or any suitable fabric revolving upon
them in the direction of the arrows, and this band of cloth is moved in the direction
of the arrows at a speed very slightly less than the speed of the issuing stream of
lead, so as to prevent rupture of the unhardened filament; and F. is a roll or drum
intended to gather the filaments from the band as they arrive at the end E. 2.-I
may modify in any convenient way this method of receiving and collecting the
filaments and I merely describe it in exact terms for the sake of clearness and

page_text: because I think it a convenient and efficient method of receiving and collecting.-I
may also vary the shape and method of constructing the containing vessel for the
lead and the pipe, and the mode of regulating the temperature of the contents, and
I may also combine with the other details I have given, or similar details any fan
or blower arrangements, or other means to produce quick cooling of the filaments
either in ordinary air or in a non-oxidizing atmosphere as for instance of nitrogen.
Some of these details I have shewn in the drawings and others I have omitted for
clearness.-G. is a valve or plug stopper operated by the screw H. for shutting off
the supply of lead to the producing pipe when required.-When a sufficient
thickness of lead filaments is rolled upon the drum I cut it from the drum by a cut
or cuts parallel to the axis, and I then prefer slightly to consolidate it by a very
light pressure between rolls or otherwise. I then introduce between two layers
of this slightly compressed fabric a strip or strips of clean lead of adequate
thickness to give sufficient electrical conductivety or nearly so and I may lay these
strips parallel or at right angles, or diagonally to one another, and I then compress by
passing between rolls the whole sheet so as to produce absolute union between
such parts as are adequately pressed and mechanical contact or more or less
approximate contact in parts less pressed; or I may with the internal strips of lead
have described, or without using them at all apply a series of thicker lead wires
outside a single or double sheet of my filament fabric, and unite them either to the
fabric alone or to the fabric and to one another by compression. Such wires or
strips are used either seperately or together both to consolidate and to hold
together the plate thus formed and also to ensure that electrical contact shall be
established to a very large extent by means of these wires or strips or both of them
throughout the plate formed.-The absolute union at short intervals of the
filaments forming the plate protects it from the evils to which a mere mechanical
contact is liable such as formation of non conducting material in its interstices.
The wires or strips or both of them I prolong and unite by burning or otherwise
to bending screws by which the plates of the cell are coupled to the conducting
wires.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner in which the
same is to be worked, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
specific form of apparatus described or implied, and that the two parts of my
invention may be used together or seperately that is to say the lead filament may
be formed in the way I have described and used in a plate constructed in a manner
different from my invention or the lead filament may be formed differently and
combined in accordance with my invention.-I therefore claim together or
separately 1st The manufacture of fine lead filaments substantially in the manner
described for the construction of plates for secondary batteries. 2nd the partial
consolidation of fine lead filaments so, or otherwise formed with strips of clean lead
or lead wire, or both for the plates of secondary batteries, substantially as described,
so as to give more perfect electrical conduction throughout the plate.
In Witness whereof I the said Norman Charles Cookson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal this thirteenth day of March, one thousand eight hundred
Witness
JOHN BOWMER
Clerk
Forest Hall
NORMAN C COOKSON (LS.)