Improvements in Secondary or Storage Batteries.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 26th Nov., 1889-Accepted, 28th Dec., 1889
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Secondary or Storage Batteries.
I, WALTER FRANCIS SMITH, a citizen of the United States, residing at the City of
Philadelphia, and State of Pennsylvania, United States of America, Electrician, do
hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN SECONDARY OR
STORAGE BATTERIES, and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statements :-
My invention relates to the frames which surround the edges of and support the
plates or elements of a secondary or storage battery.
A plate to form an element of a secondary or storage battery having as its principal
constituent a salt of a metal, as chloride of lead, is difficult to cast solid owing to the
fact that such material contracts considerably, thereby leaving hollow spaces within
the body of the plate and air bubbles are apt to form in the casting thereof, both of
which greatly impair the utility of the plate for subsequent use as the element of an
electric battery.
Heretofore it has been customary to cast with or secure to the supporting frames
of the plates to form the elements of a battery lugs to which wires were attached for
the passage of the current from a suitable source of electric energy to the 'elements of
the battery.
The salts of many of the metals when reduced to a metallic state which are highly
desirable for use as the elements of a secondary or storage battery are poor conductors
of electricity as well as more or less fragile when cast into structures and hence it has
been found not only extremely difficult, but almost impossible to obtain a good
electrical contact through the wires and lugs with the active material of the plate or
the material to become active to form an element of a battery; and furtherinore, it
has been found difficult to guard against undue expansion and contraction of the
plates in forming and to avoid breaking and bulging and distortion of the supporting
frames thereof.
The principal objects of my invention are first to provide a supporting frame for
a battery plate or element to compensate for expansion or contraction and to obviate
bending, buckling, bulging and warping of the plate both during forming and use as
the element of a battery; second to provide a supporting frame for a battery plate to
serve as an efficient and inexpensive means by which the plates or elements may be
readily mounted or supported in a cell or removed therefrom without danger of
breaking or cracking the plates or elements; and third to provide a supporting frame
for a battery plate or element in which the usual expansion or contraction which
always occurs in the forming of the plate and in its use as an element of a battery is
fully compensated for and the danger of the plates, warping or bulging guarded against
most satisfactorily.
The nature and characteristic features of my invention will be more particularly
understood taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part hereof;
and in which
Figure 1 is a vertical transverse section through a cell with an internal lateral
bead or rim and a plate with a surrounding frame, of the type embodying the features
of my invention, immersed in a fluid in the cell and supported by the rim or bead
thereof; and
Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through a cell having a series of plates
mounted and supported therein and said plates provided with supporting frames
embodying the features of my invention with lugs or terminal connections.
In the drawings the cell A, provided with an internal projecting lateral rim or
bead a,
is made of glass, wood or other preferred material and adapted to contain an
exciting liquid or electrolyte. A frame B with or without transverse strips 6 is cast

page_text: to, between and around the edges of each plate c, constituting the element of the
battery. The peripheral portion of the frame B, is divided into two or more parts b'.
Loops or compensating pieces 62 are attached to or cast with said frame for uniting
the two or more peripheral sections or segments thereof. D is a lug provided with
a binding screw or other terminal device d, secured to or formed integral with said
frame. E are inverted U-shaped devices made of any preferred material for insulating
the respective plates or elements c, from each other. 1 and 2 are the wires or other
suitable conductors coupling the plates with each other and with a generator or other
source of electric energy. One or more plates or elements c, provided with frames B,
are immersed in a liquid or fluid in the cell A, and supported by means of the loops
or compensating pieces 2 in contact with the lateral rim or bead a, of the cell A.
The plates surrounded and supported by the frame B, may be reduced to a metal
state for use as the elements of a battery by electrolysis in any preferred manner.
When electrolysis is resorted to for the formation of the plates provided with a
frame B, expansion and contraction which always occurs is freely permitted with
the loops compensating therefor. At the same time the loops 2, serve to maintain
the frame B, sufficiently rigid to properly retain the series of small plates com-
posing the battery element in their relative positions to each other for use. Then
these loops serve as supports to hold the plates or elements in position in the cell A.
It will also be obvious that the frame B arranged as described,. will also permit
the series of plates or elements to expand freely while mounted in battery in the
cell A, immersed in a suitable electrolyte for giving off electric energy.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :
1. A battery plate or element provided with a divided supporting frame having
loops which connect the sections or segments of said frame with each other, substantially
as and for the purposes set forth.
2. A battery element composed of a series of plates provided with vertical and
transverse strips and a peripheral divided rim the sections of which are joined together
by loops, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
3. The combination with a cell provided with an internal bead or rim, an electrolyte
and two systems of plates or elements with supporting frames having divided
peripheral rims connected together by loops, substantially as and for the purposes
set forth.
4. In combination, a battery element composed of a series of small plates supported
by a frame with a sectional or segmental rim and loops uniting the sections or
segments of said rim, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
5. In combination, two systems of battery elements provided with sectional rims,
loops uniting the sections of said rims with each other, a cell with a bead or rim and
a fluid, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my signature in the presence of two
subscribing witnesses.
Witnesses,
THOMAS MILLER SMITH.
HERMANN BONNANN.
WALTER FRANCIS SMITH.
W. P. Thompson & Boult,
Agents for the Applicant.