AN IMPROVED ELECTRIC BATTERY, AND METHODS OF PREPARING THE SAME.
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT. to Alexander Melville Clark, of 53, Chancery Lane,
"
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
"AN IMPROVED ELECTRIC BATTERY, AND METHODS OF PREPARING THE SAME.'
-A.communication from abroad by Joseph Charles Clamond and
Ladislas Adolphe Gaiffe, both of Paris, France.
Sealed the 25th March 1875, and dated the 6th October 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Melville
Clark at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 6th October 1874.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED ELECTRIC BATTERY, AND METHODS OF
PREPARING THE SAME," to be as follows: →
This Invention relates to the employment of sesquioxide of iron, and
more particularly of hydrated sesquioxide of iron, prepared as a

page_text: depolarising body (that is to say, capable of absorbing nascent hydrogen)
in liquid batteries in combination with zinc, and a solution of an
ammoniacal salt. This constitutes a new kind of battery termed a
sesquioxide of iron battery.
The advantages of this improved battery are that it may be simply
and inexpensively made, the current produced is more constant, while
the sesquioxide of iron is insoluble in ammoniacal salts.
The following, are different modes of preparing this improved
battery :-
1st. Take any kind of sesquioxide of iron, a substance which exists
in nature under various forms, but preferably the sesquioxide of iron
obtained by precipitating with the aid of ammonia the sesquioxide from
perchloride of iron or other solution of a salt of sesquioxide of iron.
This precipitate, after being moistened and made into a paste is to be
well mixed with small coke, and then filled into a porous vessel around
a carbon prism. This porous vessel is placed in another vessel in which
is a zinc plate and a solution of ammoniacal salt (preferably hydro-
chlorate of ammonia) is then poured around the porous vessel. The
battery is then complete.
Another and preferable mode of preparing the battery, inasmuch as
the porous vessel is dispensed with, consists in producing chemically the
depolarizing agent in the pores of the carbon itself. This may be
effected by either of the two following processes:
1st. I take gas carbon or graphite, or carbon artificially prepared (by
calcining a mixture of, for example, powdered charcoal, sugar, or tar),
which carbon is first immersed in a solution of perchloride of iron, or of
another salt of sesquioxide of iron, and then in ammonia, whereupon
the sesquioxide of iron is precipitated and remains incorporated in the
pores of the carbon.
The 2nd method consists in mixing finely divided iron (for example,
the mixture resulting from the calcination of an oxide of iron with char-
coal, the whole being in fine powder) with the substances of which the
artificial carbon is to be made, and then making the artificial carbon
in the ordinary manner, whereupon it will be found to contain iron in a
finely divided state. The iron contained in the said carbon is then

page_text: •
oxidized by exposing it to the air, after moistening the same with a
solution of ammoniacal salt, such as hydrochlorate of ammonia for
example.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Melville Clark in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 5th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alexander Melville Clark, Her special
licence that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Melville
Clark, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"AN IMPROVED ELECTRIC BATTERY, AND METHODS OF PREPARING THE SAME," a
communication to me from abroad by Joseph Charles Clamond and
Ladislas Adolphe Gaiffe, both of Paris, France, upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
1
NOW KNOW YE that I the said Alexander Melville Clark do hereby

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (that is to say):-
This Invention relates to the employment of sesquioxide of iron and
more particularly of hydrated sesquioxide of iron, prepared as a
depolarising agent, that is to say, capable of absorbing the nascent
hydrogen in liquid batteries, the same being employed in combination
with zinc and a solution of an ammoniacal salt and constituting a new
kind of battery termed a sesquioxide of iron battery.
The advantages of this improved battery are that it is of simple con-
struction and inexpensive, the current produced is exceedingly constant
and the sesquioxide of iron is insoluble in ammoniacal salts.
The following are different modes of preparing this improved
battery :-
1st. I take any kind of sesquioxide of iron, a substance which exists
in nature under various names, but I prefer to employ the sesquioxide
of iron obtained by precipitating with ammonia the sesquioxide from
the perchloride of iron or other solution of a salt of sesquioxide of iron.
This precipitate after being moistened and made into a paste is to be
well mixed with small coke, and then filled into a porous vessel around
a carbon prism, serving as collector of positive electricity. I place this
porous vessel in another vessel in which a zinc plate dips, and I then
pour around the porous vessel a solution of an ammoniacal salt,
preferably of the hydrochlorate of ammonia, and the battery is then
complete.
Another mode of preparing the battery which is more advantageous,
inasmuch as the porous vessel is dispensed with, consists in producing
chemically the depolarising agent in the pores of the carbon prism itself.
This may be effected by either of the two following processes :-
1st. I take gas carbon or graphite, or carbon artificially prepared by
calcining a suitable mixture, such for example as powdered charcoal and
sugar or tar, which carbon is first immersed in a solution of perchloride
of iron or of other salt of sesquioxide of iron, and then in ammonia,
whereupon the sesquioxide of iron is precipitated and remains incor-
porated in the pores of the carbon.

page_text: The 2nd method consists in mixing finely divided iron (for example,
the mixture resulting from the calcination of an oxide of iron with
charcoal, the whole being in fine powder) with the substances of which
the artificial carbon is to be made, and then making the artificial carbon
in the ordinary manner, whereupon the said, carbon will contain iron in
a finely divided state. The iron contained in the carbon is then oxidized
by exposure to the air after having moistened the prepared carbon with
a solution of an ammoniacal salt, such as the hydrochlorate of ammonia
for example.
Having described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be
protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
1st. The employment of hydrated sesqui-oxide of iron as depolarizing
agent in the presence of zinc and of an ammoniacal solution, as and
for the purpose herein specified.
2nd. The different methods of preparing this battery herein specified,
viz. :-(a.) Mixing sesquioxide of iron with small coke, and packing it
around a carbon prism in a porous vessel placed in another vessel con-
taining a solution of an ammoniacal salt, and wherein dips a plate of zinc.
(b.) Dispensing with the porous vessel and fixing the sesquioxide of iron
chemically in the pores of the carbon, either by immersing the latter, first
in a salt of sesquioxide of iron and then in a solution capable of precipi-
tating the sesquioxide of iron in the pores of the carbon, or by introducing
finely divided iron (in the form of oxide or other form) in the composition
of which the carbon is made, and (after the calcination of the latter) then
effecting the oxidation of the iron contained in the carbon by exposing
the latter to the air after having moistened it with an ammoniacal salt,
all as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Melville Clark, have
- hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of April, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-