Improvements in Primary Voltaic Batteries.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 11th Jan., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 3rd Oct., 1894-Accepted, 3rd Nov., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Primary Voltaic Batteries.
We WILLIAM WALKER, the younger, of No. 36 Gillott Road, Edgbaston
Birmingham in the County of Warwick, Electrician, and FRANK RIOHARD
WILKINS, of Selborne Road, Handsworth in the County of Stafford, Chemical
Merchant, and JABEZ LONES, of Lansdowne, South Road, Smethwick in the
County of Stafford, Manufacturer do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
Our invention has reference to single liquid primary voltaic batteries and has
for its object to prevent wholly or in great part the condition in the said batteries
called by electricians polarization a condition by which the electro-motive-
force of the said batteries is much reduced. The said polarization is produced by
the evolution of hydrogen at the negative element of the battery and in double
liquid batteries the function of the liquid in contact with the carbon on the negative
element of the battery is to suppress or remove chemically the said hydrogen and
thereby prevent polarization.
In an invention for which Letters Patent bearing date December 14th 1892
No. 23007 were granted to two of us, namely William Walker and Frank Richard
Wilkins there is described and claimed a single liquid primary voltaic battery in
which the carbon element is made into a vessel containing the electrolyte or
exciting liquid of the battery, the exterior of which carbon vessel is left
unvarnished or uncoated with any material which will destroy the porosity of the
said carbon vessel so that the hydrogen liberated at the inner surface of the said
carbon vessel may combine with the oxygen of the air in the pores of the carbon
There is also
and polarization be thereby prevented or largely diminished.
described and claimed in the Specification of the said Patent making the carbon
element, of the said batteries hollow or tubular so that atmospheric air may have
free access to the interior of the said tubular or hollow carbon and by its oxygen
prevent or reduce the polarization of the battery.
In the Provisional Specification of an application for Letters Patent filed on the
5th June 1893 No. 10942 by two of us namely William Walker and Frank
Richard Wilkins there is described improvements in voltaic batteries of the kind
we have referred to, the said improvements consisting of the employment of a
casing of wire gauze of about double the diameter of the porous cell, the annular
space between the wire gauze casing and porous cell being filled with carbon that
portion of the carbon in contact with the porous cell being in fine powder while
that portion of the carbon in contact with the wire gauze casing is in the form of
coarse powder or grains larger than the meshes of the wire gauze. The oxygen
of the atmospheric air contained in the pores of the carbon combines with the
nascent hydrogen and prevents polarization.
According to our present invention we dispense with the wire gauze casing
described and substitute therefor a glazed earthenware vessel or other non-metallic
vessel perforated with a large number of small holes the said holes being preferably
inclined from the outside downwards to the inside of the said vessel. The fine
and coarse carbon are situated respectively in contact with the porous cell and the
perforated earthenware vessel described. We employ one or more vertical solid
carbon plates extending from the top to the bottom of the interior of the perforated
earthenware vessel and immersed in the powdered carbon the said plates where
more than one is used being connected by metallic conductors at their summits

page_text: which protrude above the powdered carbon. The said plate or plates together
with the powdered carbon in which they are immersed constitute virtually one
continuous mass of porous carbon the interstices of the outer portion of which are
charged with atmospheric air and the interstices of the inner portion of the said
carbon with the exciting liquid of the battery.
The glazed earthenware vessel is supported on an internal shoulder formed near
the top of a shallow tray in which the exciting liquid of the battery escaping
through the carbon is collected. The porous cell may have at its bottom an
opening in which is fixed a tube passing to the exterior of the battery through
which tube the spent or exhausted exciting liquid of the battery may be drawn or
allowed slowly to run off, fresh exciting liquid being supplied to the upper portion
of the porous cell. We prefer to employ as the exciting liquid of the battery a
solution of caustic soda or caustic potash.
Dated this 11th day of January 1894,
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Primary Voltalo Batteries.
We WILLIAM WALKER, the younger of No. 36 Gillott Road Edgbaston,
Birmingham in the County of Warwick, Electrician, and FRANK RICHARD
WILKINS, of Selborne Road, Handsworth, in the County of Stafford, Chemical
Merchant, and JABEZ LONES, of Lansdowne, South Road, Smethwick, in the
County of Stafford, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of our invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Our invention has reference to single liquid primary voltaic batteries and has for
its object to prevent wholly or in great part the condition in the said batteries called
by electricians polarization, a condition by which the electro-motive-force of the
said batteries is much reduced. The said polarization is produced by the evolution
of hydrogen at the negative element of the battery and in double liquid batteries
the function of the liquid in contact with the carbon on the negative element of
the battery is to suppress or remove chemically the said hydrogen and thereby
prevent polarization.
In the Complete Specification of Letters Patent dated December 14th 1892,
No: 23007 granted to two of us namely, William Walker and Frank Richard
Wilkins, there is described and claimed a single liquid primary voltaic battery in
which the carbon element is made into a vessel containing the electrolyte or exciting
liquid of the battery, the exterior of which carbon vessel is left unvarnished or
uncoated with any material which will destroy the porosity of the said carbon
vessel so that the hydrogen liberated at the inner surface of the said carbon vessel
may combine with the oxygen of the air in the pores of the carbon and polarization
be thereby prevented or largely diminished. There is also described and claimed
in the Specification of the said Patent, making the carbon element of the said
batteries hollow or tubular so that atmospheric air may have free access to the
interior of the said tubular or hollow carbon and by its oxygen prevent or reduce
the polarization of the battery.
In the Complete Specification of Letters Patent dated the 5th June 1893,
No. 10942 granted to two of us, namely William Walker and Frank Richard
Wilkins, there is described improvements in voltaic batteries of the kind we have
referred to, the said improvements consisting of the employment of a casing of
wire gauze of about double the diameter of the porous cell, the annular space
between the wire gauze casing and porous cell being filled with carbon, that portion
of the carbon in contact with the porous cell being in fine powder while that

page_text: portion of the carbon in contact with the wire ganze casing is in the form of coarse
powder or grains larger than the meshes of the wire gauze. The oxygen of the
atmospheric air contained in the pores of the carbon combines with the nascent
hydrogen and prevents polarization.
According to our present invention we dispense with the wire gauze casing
described and substitute therefor a glazed earthenware vessel or other non-metallic
vessel perforated with a large number of small holes, the said holes being prefer-
ably inclined from the outside downwards to the inside of the said vessel. The
fine and coarse carbon are situated respectively in contact with the porous cell and
the perforated earthenware vessel described. We employ one two or more vertical
solid carbon plates extending from the top to the bottom of the interior of the
perforated earthenware vessel and immersed in the powdered carbon the said plates,
where more than one is used, being connected by metallic conductors at their
summits which protrude above the powdered carbon. The said plate or plates
together with the powdered carbon in which they are immersed constitute virtually
one continuous mass of porous carbon the interstices of the outer portion of which
are charged with atmospheric air and the interstices of the inner portion of the said
carbon with the exciting liquid of the battery.
The glazed earthenware vessel is supported on an internal shoulder formed near
the top of a shallow tray in which the exciting liquid of the battery escaping
through the carbon is collected. The porous cell may have at its bottom an
opening in which is fixed a tube passing to the exterior of the battery through
which tube the spent or exhausted exciting liquid of the battery may be drawn or
allowed slowly to run off, fresh exciting liquid being supplied to the upper portion
of the porous cell.
We prefer to employ as the exciting liquid of the battery a solution of caustic
soda or caustic potash.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in elevation; Figure 2 in
vertical section; Figure 3 in plan and Figure 4 in horizontal section, a primary
voltaic battery constructed according to our invention.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several figures of the
drawings.
a is the porous cell containing the electrolyte preferably a strong solution of
caustic soda or caustic potash. The said porous cell a is situated concentrically in
and supported on the raised bottom of the perforated glazed earthenware jar or
vessel b. The said perforated earthenware jar 6 stands on the internal flange or
shoulder of the earthenware tray d. The porous cell a and the raised bottom of
the jar have holes coinciding with one another. Situated in the said holes is the
screwed end of the elbow shaped metal pipe e the said pipe being fixed in position
by the india-rubber washers h, 2, metal washers g, g² and screw nuts f, f. The
fixing of the pipe e in position also secures the porous cell a to the raised bottom of
the perforated jar b.
The space between the perforated jar band porous cell a is filled or nearly filled
with powdered carbon c which forms the negative element of the battery. We
prefer to make the powdered carbon in contact with the porous cell a finer than
that in contact with the perforated jar b. One, two or more, we have represented
three, solid carbon plates or rods are inserted in the carbon for the purpose of
carrying off the current from the carbon element of the battery the said plates or
rods extending from the top to the bottom of the jar b. The tops of the said
plates or rods are preferably capped with lead and are provided with screws e³
and screw nuts c¹ by means of which and the metal ring w the said carbon plates or
rods are put into electrical communication with each other. The open mouth of
the jur b is closed or sealed with asphaltum or other cement r.
The amalgamated zinc cylinder constituting the positive element of the battery
is suspended in the electrolyte by means of zinc strips i made in one piece with the
cylinder the turned out ends of which strips rest on the top of the porous
cell a.

page_text: The conducting wire or metal bands constituting one of the terminals of the
battery is connected to the zinc cylinder and the other metal band or conductor t
constituting the other terminal of the battery is connected to the metal ring was
represented.
The bottom of the porous cell a and that portion of the top of the said cell a
standing above the perforated jar bare glazed. The glazing of the top of the
porous cell a prevents wholly or in great part the creeping of the electrolyte in the
said cell over the glazed upper part.
When the porous cell a is filled with the electrolyte the said liquid oozes very
slowly through the unglazed portion of the side of the porous cell a and
percolates through the carbon c collecting in the annular trough formed by
the raising of the middle portion of the bottom of the jar b. The bottom of
the trough is provided with a series of vertical holes through which the
liquid as it slowly collects in the trough passes into the tray d. The tray dis
provided with a pipe d through which the liquid received by the tray may run
off to a vessel placed for its reception.
When the exciting power of the electrolyte is nearly exhausted the porous
cell a may be emptied by the pipe connected to the elbow e the said pipe.
being provided with a stop cock not shown in the drawing. By almost closing
the stop cock referred to the partially exhausted electrolyte may be allowed to
slowly pass from the porous cell, fresh electrolyte being supplied at a similar
rate to the said porous cell at its open top.
By the action of the battery nascent hydrogen occurs on the surface of the
carbon constituting the negative element of the battery and meeting with the
condensed atmospheric air in the pores of the carbon combines with the oxygen
of the same, the supply of air to the powdered carhon passing through the holes
in the perforations in the jar b. The hydrogen thus never assumes a gaseous
form and polarization is wholly or in great part prevented.
Although we have described and represented carbon rods inserted in the
powdered carbon for carrying off the current from the carbon element we find
by experiment that a perforated metallic cylinder is inore efficient for that
purpose.
In Figure
we have represented a battery with a perforated metallic cylinder m
in place of the carbon rods c³, c³, c³ represented in the arrangement Figures 1, 2, 3,
and 4.
Figure 6 is an elevation of the perforated metallic cylinder m apart from the
battery.
In making the cylinder m we employ a metal or alloy which is not acted upon or
is but little acted upon by the exciting liquid. When using caustic soda or caustic
potash or a mixture of these as the exciting liquid we have found that a cylinder of
nickel or an alloy rich in nickel, such for example as best best German silver
or best best best German silver auswers well.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that we claim
as our invention of "Improvements in primary voltaic batteries" ;-.
First. A single liquid primary voltaic battery consisting essentially of a perforated
glazed earthenware jar or vessel and a porous cell, of much smaller diameter than
and situated concentrically in the perforated earthenware jar the said porous cell
containing the electrolyte in which the zinc or positive element is suspended, the
space between the perforated jar and porous cell being filled with powdered carbon
in which one, two or more plates or rods of solid carbon in electrical communication
with each other are inserted, the said primary voltaic battery being constructed and
the parts arranged substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.
Secondly. In a single liquid primary voltaic battery of the kind claimed in the
first claim the use,
in lac of the carbon rods for carrying off the electrical current

page_text: from the carbon element, of a perforated hollow metallic cylinder preferably o
nickel or an alloy rich in nickel substantially as herein before described and
illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
Dated the Twenty-eighth day of September 1894.
WILLIAM WALKER, JUNR.
FRANK RICHARD WILKINS.
JABEZ LONES.