IMPROVEMENTS IN VOLTAIC BATTERIES
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Alexander Lyttle at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th June 1871.
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of The Grove, Hammersmith, in
the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN VOLTAIC BATTERIES," to be as
follows:-
I arrange a series of zinc or other positive elements along one side of
a well insulated trough and a similar series of copper or other negative
elements along the other side of the same trough.
In another similar adjoining insulated trough I make a precisely
similar arrangement, and I then connect the plates or elements of one
trough with those of the other in the following manner by means of
wires or other suitable conductors :-
71 73 77,8 7, 775 7,6

page_text: The disengaged elements C and Z are respectively the positive and
negative poles of the arrangement.
In order to work this battery I charge it with any suitable solution
or solutions, and when C and Z' are connected in circuit the current
flows in the course pursued by the above-mentioned wire connexions,
the passage through the intervening liquid being from each zinc or
other positive element to the negative element standing opposite it in
the same trough.
This arrangement of battery affects only the solid elements employed,
and it is applicable in other respects to every form of battery com-
bination now known. It may be viewed as two long battery cells, each
containing more than one pair of elements, the mode of cross-connecting
the several positive and negative elements making the only essential
difference.
I prefer to make the two troughs as separate compartments of one
box.
Where the positive and negative sides of each trough are separated by
a porous diaphragm I sometimes, provide two reservoirs for supplying
liquid at the end of each trough, with an opening from one reservoir
into the positive and from the other into the negative division of the
trough. Where a supply of a salt is needed a vertical hopper can be
added in such a way that the salt in the hopper shall gravitate into
the liquor of the compartment to which it belongs, and so maintain its
strength.
The following combination answers well with this arrangement :-
Employ graphite for the negative and zinc for the positive elements;
separate these two sets by means of a porous or membraneous diaphragm;
surround each negative element with chips of binoxide of manganese
with or without chips of charcoal, as in the arrangement of battery
known as the Leclanché. The manganese may be retained in position
round each graphite element by means of a separate porous pot, bag, or
perforated wooden box, or simply by dividing the graphite side of each
trough into sub-compartments, so that each graphite can be surrounded
by its manganese preparation without the manganese of one sub-com-
partment touching the manganese or charcoal of an adjacent sub-com-
partment. Free access should be provided along the back of each
graphite compartment or scries for the flow of the liquid with which this
compartment of the trough is to be charged. Charge this compartment.

page_text: with solution of sal ammoniac, and charge the zinc compartment with
water containing no sal ammoniac. This is exactly the reverse of the
arrangement of solutions in the Leclanché battery.
It is obvious that this modification of the Leclanché battery can be
used also in a battery constructed on the old or separate voltaic pair
system. All that is necessary is to provide that the sal ammoniac
solution shall have free access to the manganese covered graphite, and
not, as in the Leclanché battery, to the zinc element.
When marine gluc or other bituminous or waterproof coating is
applied to the interior of any kind of battery box I prefer to apply also
to the surfaces so coated a covering of any closely woven fabric saturated
in such marine glue or other bituminous coating. Such woven fabric
adheres to the interior of the battery wherever applied in a warm state
as a sort of sticking plaster, and can be used either on the top of or
underneath an additional coating of the marine glue or other waterproof
preparation. It prevents leakage through cracks, and can be used (as a
repairing agent) to stop leakage whenever such may occur.
When the woven fabric employed is sufficiently absorbent of the
melted marine glue or other waterproof coating the whole of such
coating needed by the battery can be applied at once in and by means
of the before-mentioned waterproof fabric or plaster. It must be applied
hot, and should be well pressed against the surface which it is intended
to protect.