IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR SECONDARY BATTERIES FOR THE PRODUCTION, CONSERVATION, AND REGULATION OF ELECTRIC CURRENTS."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Henry Walker Biggs and William Worby
Beaumont, both of the Strand, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR SECONDARY BATTERIES FOR THE
PRODUCTION, CONSERVATION, AND REGULATION OF ELECTRIC CURRENTS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Henry Walker Biggs
and William Worby Beaumont at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents
on the 28th November 1881.
CHARLES HENRY WALKER BIGGS and WILLIAM WORBY BEAUMONT, both of
the Strand, in the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR
SECONDARY BATTERIES FOR THE PRODUCTION, CONSERVATION, AND REGULATION
OF ELECTRIC CURRENTS."
In the usual form of secondary electric batteries, the products of electric decom-
position appearing at the poles of the charging battery or dynamo or magneto-
electric machine are collected and retained in the charged battery itself.
Now according to this Invention we prevent loss of these products, and regulate
the recombination of these products in a better manner by collecting and retaining
the same in two connected holders, and we recombine them in the quantities
required in order to produce electric current.
We may thus place the holders close together, or one above or within the other,
or they may be placed a greater or less distance apart and connected by a pipe or
pipes, which also communicate with electrodes in one holder. We collect and
thus prevent the loss of one of the aforesaid products, say, a gas, such as hydrogen,
in one of the holders, and we place electrodes in another holder containing a
suitable solution, such as dilute sulphuric acid; these electrodes retain the other
product, such as peroxide of lead. One of each pair of these electrodes is by
preference made of porous lead arranged in the form of a narrow chamber or
charubers filled with the peroxide of lead, while the other is a porous lead plate;
or one of the electrodes may be of other metal than lead, and may be filled with

page_text: some deoxidizable conducting material and be placed in a suitable solution, such as
copper in a sulphate of copper solution opposed to a porous lead plate.
The
product contained in the form of a gas in one of the aforesaid holders may be
allowed to pass by a pipe or pipes into the second holder or into its chambered
electrodes, its passage thereinto being regulated in accordance with the electric
current required, the said current being given off in the recombination of the
products.
Instead of obtaining the products of electrical decomposition, such, for instance,
as hydrogen and peroxide of lead, directly by electrical decomposition only, we also
obtain them by known chemical methods and charge the holders therewith.
Although lead, copper, sulphate of copper, sulphate of lead, peroxide of lead,
hydrogen, and sulphuric acid, have been mentioned as examples of materials that
may be employed, we may also employ other metals, salts, and solutions, to obtain
the required results in the manner described. The porous lead may be obtained
by mechanical means, or by incorporating sulphate of lead with lead in a molten
state, the cast lead so obtained being rolled into sheets.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Henry Walker Biggs and William Worby Beaumont in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th May 1882.
"
CHARLES HENRY WALKER BIGGS and WILLIAM WORBY BEAUMONT, both of
the Strand, in the County of Middlesex. IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR
SECONDARY BATTERIES FOR THE PRODUCTION, CONSERVATION, AND REGULATION
OF ELECTRIC CURRENTS."
Our said Invention relates to improvements in apparatus or secondary batteries
for the production, conservation, and regulation of electric currents.
In the usual form of secondary batteries the products of electric decomposition
appearing at the poles of the charging battery or dynaino machine are collected
and retained in the charged battery itself.
Now according to our Invention we prevent loss of these products, or one of
them, by collecting them in a separate holder or holders, separate or otherwise
from the holder containing the electrodes of the battery, and we then recombine
them in the quantities required to produce, regulate, or augment the electric
current. If the electrodes are properly made and properly proportioned there is
no loss of the products of decomposition, except when the charging current is kept
on too long, or is too strong; but it is important that such loss should be
prevented.
For example, in charging a secondary battery, and especially those batteries
which are provided with electrodes made wholly or partly of solid or ordinary
homogeneous metallic lead, hydrogen will be formed more rapidly than it can be
occluded in the nascent state by the negative electrode if the electric current has
too great an electromotive force, or if the battery is charged too quickly by too
great a current, and this hydrogen escapes in the gaseous form.
Now we collect and thus minimise or prevent the complete loss of this product
in one of the holders hereinbefore mentioned, and we place electrodes in another
holder, vessel, or cell, containing a suitable solution, such as dilute sulphuric acid.
One of each pair of these electrodes retains the other product virtually, oxygen
which combines with the lead of the electrode forming peroxide of lead, and this
electrode is itself made of porous lead, so that it presents the greatest possible
surface to the action of the electrolyte. The other electrode of each pair is in some
cases made in the form of a narrow chamber or chambers of porous lead. The first
mentioned electrode is a porous lead plate, or all the electrodes may be porous lead
plates.
The product hydrogen gas, under greater or less pressure, contained in the
collecting holder or holders, may be allowed to pass by a pipe or pipes into the
second holder, or into the chambered porous lead electrode or electrodes contained
therein in dilute sulphuric acid, its passage thereinto being regulated by cocks in
those pipes or by other suitable or equivalent means, the gas so collected and re-
employed being most often used when the electro motive force of the battery is
lowered, or the quantity of current given off is lowered by discharge. The collected
gas is then allowed to pass into the hollow porous lead electrode or electrodes,
where it acts as a positive element by which the current given off is somewhat
strengthened.
We
Instead of obtaining the hydrogen in the second holder or holders as a bye
product of the charging of the battery, we may in some cases obtain it by known
chemical methods, and charge the holder there with under a suitable pressure.
may also in some cases obtain one of the other products of decomposition, such as
oxygen in combination with lead, forming peroxide of lead, by other means than

page_text: by electric decomposition in the battery, as for instance peroxide of lead obtained
by known chemical methods, and charge our chambered porous lead electrodes
therewith.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings shows one form of our secondary
battery constructed with electrodes made as hereinafter more particularly
described; Figure 2 is a detail view showing the connection of one of the
electrodes with a binding screw and terminal. We cover the holder or vessel A
containing the electrodes N, N¹, with a gas tight but movable cover B; through
holes in this cover or through the sides of the holder, as here shown in Figures 1
and 2, are passed the connecting or conducting wires C, C', attached to the
electrodes N, N¹, the holes in which are inserted the screw c being made gastight
by suitable commonly known means. The holder A containing the electrodes and
constituting the battery proper we connect to a second holder D by means of
pipes, one of which pipes E fitted with a cock E¹ conveys any excess of hydrogen
which may be evolved during the charging of the battery by a current through
the acidulated water in which the electrodes are immersed into the upper part of
the second holder D aforementioned, which is also fitted with a gas tight but
movable cover F. Into the lower part of this second holder D is inserted another
pipe G which is carried up to the requisite height, so that when it is filled with
water it will give the necessary head so as to maintain a pressure within the
holder D, the top of the pipe G being fitted with a cock G¹, and the holder being
in the first place filled with water by means of a cock H in the upper part of the
holder or its cover. Another cock m serves to allow of the escape of the air from
the holder when first used, or of the gas if required, or to draw off the gas when
required for purposes other than those of the battery.
Another pipe I branching off from the pipe E and fitted with a cock I' conveys
the collected hydrogen by branch pipes 12 (one or more according to the number of
pairs of electrodes) into the chamber or chambers of the hollow or chambered
porous lead electrodes in the holder A constituting the secondary battery proper.
The pipes I should be made of a material not affected by the electrolyte, as for
instance, of glass.
In order to intensify or increase the action of the hydrogen we may heat it in
its passage to the electrodes N, N, of the battery; for this purpose we may form
the pipe I into a coil heated by a gas burner or other source of heat, as indicated
in dotted lines at J; in such case and in order to prevent undue or undesirable
heating of the electrolyte which we prefer to maintain at a uniform temperature
or nearly so, we connect it by means of circulating pipes indicated at K, K¹, with
a tank or vessel, as indicated at L, Figure 1, holding an acid solution.
The piece of lead or other suitable wire C, Figure 2, may be imbedded and
compressed into the upper part of our electrodes during the process of compression,
or it may be rivetted into the lug or ear of the electrode.
Figures 3, 34, 4, 5, 6, and 7 show various forms in which the porous lead
electrodes may conveniently be made; Figure 3 is a plate electrode shown in side
and edge view in Figure 3A; Figure 4 shows an inverted box shaped electrode.
These two forms are also shown in Figure 1. Any of the forms of electrodes here
shown are applicable to any form or construction of secondary battery.
Any required number of pairs of porous lead electrodes may be employed in the
holder, vessel, or cell constituting the secondary battery proper, and they may be
alternately connected in what is known as multiple arc, or the holder may be
divided into a number of cells, each cell containing a pair of porous lead electrodes,
one electrode in each cell being connected to the next electrode in the adjoining
cell, that is, connected up in what is known as in series.
The efficiency of any secondary battery depends greatly on the quantity of
surface which in a given weight of electrode is presented to the action of the
electrolyte in which the electrodes are immersed. This large surface relative
to weight can be best obtained by giving the material of the electrodes a highly
porous structure.

page_text: Our porous lead electrodes we construct by mechanical means in the manner
which we shall now proceed to describe. In making our chambered electrodes we
place in the lower part of a bottomless die or mould of the necessary form resting
on a plate of metal a quantity or layer of lead in a state of fine subdivision. We
then place in the die and upon this layer one, two, or more tapered cores of metal.
The spaces between these cores and the whole of the interior of the die are then
filled up with the lead in a state of fine subdivision, and an upper die is then placed
so as just to enter the lower die. The lower die, the plate it rests on, and its
contents, together with the upper die, are then placed upon or in a press, such as a
hydraulic press or press like a large photographer's press, with sliding table, and the
contents of the die are pressed into a firmly coherent but porous mass or form.
The metal cores are afterwards removed.
In
In making our porous lead plates we simply place a quantity or layer of the
necessary thickness of finely divided lead into the die, then place thereon the upper
die and press it under a pressure sufficient to convert it into a firmly coherent but
porous plate by some suitable mechanical means as already described.
In some
cases we make the layer of finely divided lead thicker along the margins and also
along lines traversing the layer, so that when the layer is pressed into a firmly
coherent cake or plate, it is harder where the layer was thickest, and thus the plate
may be made stronger than when pressed from a layer of uniform thickness.
some cases we imbed at one corner or one edge of the layer of finely divided lead
before pressing the end of a piece of lead wire, the other part of which projects out
of the die, the object being to fasten to the electrode by this means a piece of round
or flattened wire for the purpose of connecting the plates together in a battery.
We find that a pressure of from about 400 lbs. to about 1000 lbs. per square inch
of area of the die is sufficient to make the finely divided lead firmly coherent
and confer upon it sufficient strength, still leaving it in the form of a porous lead
structure.
The lead in a state of fine subdivision, of which by compression into suitable
forms as herein before described we make our electrodes, may be obtained by one
or other of several commonly known methods. That which we have most used
and perhaps that which is most commonly known is that of precipitation from a
solution of acetate or sugar of lead, in which solution is placed a piece or pieces of
zinc. The lead in a state of fine subdivision is deposited on this zinc, and from
it may be shaken off into the bath containing the solution and then placed into a
die, or it may be shaken direct into dies or moulds in which it may be compressed
in the manner and for the purposes already described.
In using this finely divided lead in the manner and for the purpose herein
described care must be taken that it is not allowed to become too much oxidised
by exposure to air, but in order to hinder or to prevent a too complete metallic
union of the particles it is advantageous to expose it to the air before compression
into the form of an electrode, for a period of from an hour or a few hours to a day
or so, or to treat it superficially by chemical means, such as by contact with
dilute sulphuric acid.
By the employment of electrodes made according to our Invention wholly of
porous lead in the manner herein set forth, we obtain very extended surface at
which lead becomes oxidized or otherwise converted and subsequently reduced
by the action of nascent hydrogen, this being one of the products of electric
decomposition, and we thus obviate that loss of hydrogen which sometimes takes
place when electrodes made wholly or partly of ordinary metallic lead are
employed.
We may in some cases construct the negative electrode of our secondary batteries
of metal other than lead, such as copper, the positive electrode being porous
lead. In this case the electrolyte may be a solution of sulphate of copper or dilute
sulphuric acid.
We are aware that it has been proposed though not known to us or to the
public, or published in any way in England prior to the date of our Patent

page_text: save as far as its being contained in the Specification of earlier date granted to
G. E. Deering on the 17th day of September 1881, and numbered 4019, to employ
atmospheric air and oxidisable gases, such as coal gas, and to use various materials
as conductors by storing and combining them in several holders constituting a
primary battery. We are also aware that it has been proposed in the Specification
of the Patent granted to D. G. Fitz Gerald and R. E. B. Crompton on the
25th November 1881, and numbered 5159, to construct porous or spongy lead
electrodes for secondary batteries by making alloys of lead or consolidated
mixtures of finely divided lead and other materials, and subsequently dissolving
or extracting from such alloys or mixtures by electrolysis, or by water, acids, or
heat, the components other than lead so as to leave a spongy lead structure to be
used as an electrode.
We therefore do not claim the use of several separate holders generally for
secondary batteries, nor do we claim the production of electrodes from alloys or by
the consolidation of mixtures of lead with other materials from which the com-
ponents other than lead are afterwards extracted or dissolved out to leave a spongy
lead structure, as we do not need to employ electrolysis or dissolving processes, nor
do we broadly claim the use of finely divided lead or peroxide of lead in secondary
batteries, but what we do claim as our Invention is,-
Firstly. The use in secondary batteries having one, two, or three gas and liquid
tight holders, vessels, or cells of the chambered or flat porous lead electrodes made
by compressing finely divided and preferably partially oxidised lead alone into
cakes, plates, or any other suitable forms, as herein set forth and shown.
Secondly. The construction and use generally in secondary batteries of porous
lead electrodes made by compressing finely divided and preferably partially
oxidised lead alone into cakes, plates, or any other suitable form, as herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Worby Beaumont, for myself and on
behalf of the said Charles Henry Walker Biggs, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred eighty two.
W. WORBY BEAUMONT. (L.S.)