IMPROVEMENTS IN THERMO-ELECTRIC BATTERIES AND ELECTRO- MOTORS
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Camille Alphonse Faure at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st August 1875.
.I, CAMILLE ALPHONSE FAURE, of Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross,
in the City of Westminster, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THERMO-ELECTRIC BATTERIES AND ELECTRO-
MOTORS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to new arrangements in the construction of
thermo-electric batteries for use in all purposes where electric currents
are or may be used, and also in the construction of electro-motors for
obtaining motive power by aid of electricity generated from such
thermo-electric batteries.
Heretoforc such batteries have been constructed by joining together a
series of positive and negative elements in immediate contact, each
element having a relatively great length in the direction of the current
in comparison with the cross section of such element, the length being
required for heating or cooling surface, and some elements have been
made with their ends projecting beyond the points of contact or
appendage of other metals, and have been fixed to such elements for the
same purpose, viz., obtaining cooling or heating surface.

page_text: My improvements consist in introducing the cooling or heating picco
or appendage between the metals or materials possessing thermo-electric
power, and I give the term "caloriators," to these pieces, and the
battery is then formed as follows:-A series of copper bars is disposed
or arranged in paralled lines, and so that their ends alternately protrude
right and left beyond a common centre or axis perpendicular to the
length of the bars, and in such a manner that the bars overlap each
other. Then all the bars protruding to the right may be used as cooling
"caloriators," and all the bars protruding to the left may be used as
heating "caloriators," and are supplied with copper plates of sufficient
surface to be efficiently kept cold or hot by currents of air or water.
respectively. Between the "caloriators" I fix the materials possessing
thermo-electric power, such as bismuth and antimony, or .I may dis-
pense with one of these metals or materials, in which case each set or
serics of caloriators" would touch one another, and the metal of the
"caloriator" may be such as to possess some thermo-electric power of
importance. The negative and positive clements are arranged according
to known laws, and the means of taking the current from the battery
will then be easy.
.
The situation of the thermo-electric materials between the "calori-
ators" has the great advantage of decreased length and consequently
less resistance, for without low degree of resistance a large section would
become necessary, and the cost would be too great.
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j
66
:
The next improvements relate to a modification of the above, and
consist in lodging or depositing the thermo-electric elements in cups or.
receptacles cut out of the materials of the "caloriators," in which
cases the face of the "caloriator" just opposite the cup of the next
caloriator" carries a pin long enough to reach the element at the
bottom of the cup, and the space surrounding the pin is then filled with
a non-conducting material, such as Portland cement. The object of this
arrangement is to protect the element against oxidation while hot, and
also to provide against the effects of over heating in case of neglect, but
should the battery become so heated as to cause the elements to melt,
they would not lose their shape or run out.
The line or direction of the "caloriators" may be curved, or even
in a helico-spiral form, so as to surround a pipe in which hot gases are
circulating, then all the inner "caloriators" would gather the heat to
transmit it to the elements on one side, while the outer "caloriators"
·

page_text: "
would tend to keep the other side of the elements cool. But the inner
" caloriators could as well be the cooling parts and the outer the
heating parts by making the chimney pipe a fresh air shaft, and
warming the air outside by suitable arrangements, or the air may
be
replaced by hot or cold water. I make the "caloriators" of copper (by
preference) because it is a good conductor of heat and electricity, but
the materials of the elements are required to offer some properties of
great importance, viz.:-1st, they must possess great thermo-electric
power, either negative or positive; 2nd, they must be very good
conductors of electricity and very bad conductors of heat relatively;
3rd, they must not melt at too low a temperature, and if accidentally
melted, must resume on cooling again all their properties. The metals
which present these characteristic features in the highest degree are the
alloys given by Becquerel, viz. 1st, a compound of one equivalent,
cach of antimony and cadmium with or without some bismuth; 2nd, a
compound of 10 parts bismuth and 1 part antimony.
:-
Another modification is as follows:-I construct copper rings or
shallow cylinders, having a circular groove on one edge and a circular;
tongue on the other. A series or pile of such cylinders is adjusted.
tongue to groove; the materials of the clements are run into the grooves..
Then the rings or cylinders are the " caloriators and are plates of,
copper to extend their cooling or heating surfaces, so that one cylinder
has its heating surface inside, the next cylinder has its cooling surface
outside, and so on alternately. A hot fluid is allowed to circulate in the
"
"
pile or pipe thus formed while a cool fluid circulates outside. The,
tongue of such cylinder or caloriator" is in metallic contact with the
element at the bottom of the groove, but does not touch directly the
metal or any part of the groove itself, and the space thus left is filled
with some non-conducting material.
*In respect to electro-motors, I construct the battery above described
around the core of the electro-magnets; for example, suppose a horse-
shoe core wound round with copper bar, say one or more inches
square, and each spiral or some of it to be cut with a segment taken
off, and each of the spirals when the segment is taken off to be counter-
sunk or cupped so as to receive the material of the elements, and then
a segment with a tongue capable of reaching the elements at the bottom
of the cups is next introduced in place of the part so cut off; then this
new segment forms one of the "caloriators," and is supplied with a

page_text: branch armed with surface plate reaching into a hot chamber, so as to
gather the heat and bring it to the elements; the other part of the
spiral is the other "caloriator," and is kept cool by means of an external
application of water or by means of surface plate to be cooled by the
external atmosphere.
The spiral on each branch of the magnet will thus be continuous, and
if the four ends of these two spirals be connected properly the electro-
magnet thus formed will strongly attract any iron armature capable of
revolving in front of its two free poles, and by automatically discon-
necting one of the ends of the spirals the electro-magnet will fall-back
to its natural state and let the armature free again to continue its course
under the momentum acquired, until at the proper time the spirals are
again connected and the rotary motion is kept up. Or an alternate
motion may be effected if required.
I also construct a magnet capable of revolving upon a shaft, having
its axis in coincidence with that of the magnet. I form the magnet
with a quantity of steel wires or flat strips of steel, and arrange them
around one or more drums mounted upon a shaft so as to form a hollow
cylinder magnet; and round each end or pole of this magnet I fix two
caps of copper or other good conductor of electricity, and I cause the
electric current from my battery to circulate radially in these caps,
when the hollow magnet and shaft will be caused to rotate according to
the intensity of the current. The hollow magnet may be of soft iron
and kept in a magnetised state by means of a coil of wire conveying an
electric current.
I also construct the machine so as to be a part of the battery by
making the caps serve as "caloriators." The caps being then built up
of a series of cylinders grooved and tongued, and with interposition of
elements having electro-motive force, as above described, in the battery
built up of series of cylinders.