Improvements in Secondary Voltaic Batteries.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Apr., 1894
Complete Specification Left. 10th Jan., 1895-Accepted, 16th Feb., 1895
Improvements in Secondary Voltaic Batteries.
We, ERNEST JOHN CLUBBE and ALFRED WILLIAM SOUTHEY, both of
16, Elm Street, Gray's Inn Road, London, W.C., Electrical Engineers, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to an improvement in secondary voltaic batteries of the
kind described in the Specification of former Letters Patent granted to us, dated
the 1st day of June 1893, No. 10,765.
This battery is of the horizontal tray type, the negative element being made up
in the form of a pasty mass contained in a tray of non-conducting material and
the positive element being supported in the same tray at a short distance above the
negative element from which it is separated by a distance piece formed by an open
frame of insulating material.
The object of the present invention is to avoid the defects and disadvantages
attendant on these grid-like separators or distance pieces, which are troublesome to
adjust and liable to become displaced and permit the elements to become short-
circuited, and the invention consists in placing the positive and negative elements in
separate trays which are perforated to reduce the internal resistance of the battery,
the trays being superposed and held in place on one another within an outer casing,
the elements being provided with tangs or conductors, all somewhat as described in
our previous Specification aforesaid.
c A001
Improvements in Secondary Voltaic Batteries.
We, ERNEST JOHN CLUBBE and ALFRED WILLIAM SOUTHEY, both of
16, Elm Street, Gray's Inn Road, London, W.C. Electrical Engineers, 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 :-
This invention relates to an improvement in secondary voltaic batteries of the
kind described in the Specification of former Letters Patent granted to us, dated
the 1st day of June 1893, No. 10,765.
According to our invention, the positive and negative elements are placed in
separate trays which are perforated to expose the under surface of the element to
the electrolyte and reduce the internal resistance of the battery and the trays are
superposed and held in place on one another within an outer casing, by means of
corner pieces to hold them at the proper distance apart and clamped together, as
hereinafter specified.

page_text: Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this Specifica-
tion, wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view of one cell of a battery with the trays
fixed in position and Figure 2 is a sectional plan of the same, the active material being
shown broken away in the left hand portion of the figure to display the grid-like
bottom of the tray.
The trays a used both for the positive and negative elements are of uniform
dimensions and may be similar except in respect of depth each tray being made of
ebonite or other non-conducting material unaffected by the electrolyte and having
its bottom perforated with numerous apertures preferably not greater than, say,
half an inch diameter, set as close as possible together, so as to expose as much
as possible of the under surface of the active material to the electrolyte and leave
narrow intervening bars c to prevent the active material flaking off and falling on
the element below. The active material is filled into the trays whilst it is in a
plastic condition, and a lead tang d is at same time embedded in the mass of the
material, which is allowed or caused to set hard before it is electrically "formed
in the usual way.
27
In filling the material into the trays, care should be taken to prevent the material
stopping up the apertures in the tray bottom and so preventing access of the
electrolyte to the remainder of the under surface of the element. This may be
done by temporarily closing the apertures, as, for instance, by placing the tray
upon a filling table provided with projections corresponding in shape and position
to the apertures, so as to exactly fill them up. The upstanding sides of the trays
prevent the disintegration of the active material in the lateral direction, by repeated
charging and discharging, and in order to ensure the accurate superposition of the
trays they are provided with solid corner pieces e which project up above the level
of the active material (which only occupies about half the total depth of the tray)
so as to support the tray above at the proper distance from the active material
in the tray below, the whole of the trays thus superposed being tightly clamped
together in an outer casing or frame formed by tie rods of ebonite, between
which the trays are placed held at their lower ends in a base plate 9 of wood and
connected at their upper ends by cross-bars h bearing on the topmost tray and
secured by ebonite nuts so as to effectually prevent any shifting of the trays by
jarring. The trays contain positive and negative elements in alternate order, the
tangs d of the positive elements being all burnt on to another similar conductor i
and those of the negative elements to the same conductor as will be readily
understood, and the whole of the trays so clamped together and coupled up as
described are placed in a cell containing the electrolyte which has access to the
spaces between the elements by the gaps in the sides of the trays.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that
what we claim is :-
The herein described battery whereof the elements are contained in separate
superposed apertured trays provided with corner pieces to hold them at proper
distance apart and clamped together, as described.
Dated this 10th day of Jenuery 1895
A. M. & WM. CLARK,
53, Chancery Lane, London, Chartered Patent Agents.