Improvements in Plates for Secondary Batteries or Accumulators.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Mar., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 20th Dec., 1890-Accepted, 7th Feb., 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Plates for Secondary Batteries or Accumulators.
We JAMES PITKIN of 56 Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, in the County of
Middlesex, Scientific Instrument Manufacturer, and HENRY CAPEL LOFFT
HOLDEN of The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, Kent, Captain in the Royal Artillery
and Inspector of Guns and Steel, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
The object of the present invention is to facilitate the application to, and
maintenance on, the plates, of the active or storage material of secondary batteries,
providing at the sanie an extended area of acting surface.
Hitherto the liability of the active material to become disintegrated, and of the
plates themselves to buckle under the influence of the acid and the electric current,
has proved a great difficulty in the construction and maintenance of secondary
batteries.
According to our present invention, we carry the active material in trays or
shelves of metallic lead or similar substance, arranged one over the other, with some
slight space between them, and connected at the ends to upright strips of conducting
material, which, if metallic lead, may be readily cast so as to secure the trays. The
whole thus forms a battery plate which will, considering its bulk, contain an
extensive surface of active material, and which will have great lateral rigidity, and
consequently little liability to buckle. By reason of this mode of construction, the
negative and positive plates may be placed very close to each other without danger
of contact.
The active material, by reason of its position on horizontal trays, will have but
little opportunity of falling away, even should it become slightly disintegrated, and
the tendency of the plate to buckle laterally being prevented, one of the chief causes
of disintegration will be removed.
Dated this 20th day of March 1890.
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicants.

page_text: Improvements in Plates for Secondary Batteries or Accumulators.
We JAMES PITKIN of 56 Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, in the County of
Middlesex, Scientific Instrument Manufacturer, and HENRY CAPEL LOFFT
HOLDEN of The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, Kent, Captain in the Royal Artillery.
and Inspector of Guns and Steel, 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:-
The object of the present invention is to facilitate the application to, and
maintenance on the plates, of the active or storage material of secondary batteries,
providing at the same time an extended area of acting surface.
Hitherto the liability of the active material to become disintegrated, and of the
plates themselves to buckle under the influence of the acid and the electric current,
has proved a great difficulty in the construction and maintenance of secondary
batteries.
According to our present invention, we carry the active material in trays or
shelves of metallic lead or similar substance, arranged one over the other, with some
slight space between them, and connected at the ends to upright strips of conducting
material, which, if metallic lead, may be readily cast so as to secure the trays.
In Sheet I of the accompanying drawings:
:-
Fig. 1 illustrates in front view, partly in section, a battery plate embodying our
invention.
Fig. 2 is a cross section on the line of Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a plan view of one of the trays detached and empty.
In Sheet II, Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are side and edge views and cross section of a mould
which is preferably used for securing the trays together to form a plate.
a are trays or troughs composed of metallic lead, and containing internally pins
or pegs for providing additional surface for contact with the active material, which
is pasted into and held within the trays in the manner indicated in the sectional
illustration of the trays (see Figs. 1 and 2). The pegs are not however necessary
in every case.
The trays a, when filled with the active material, are packed together one above
the other with small spaces between them, and the ends, which are by preference
thick and solid, are secured into bars or supports b b'.
A satisfactory method of building up the trays a, and forming them into a plate
with side supports b 61, may be adopted with the aid of the mould illustrated in
Sheet II of the drawings.
The mould consists of two side plates c c', with means for clamping them together,
and end-stopping backs d d' and screws e e for putting pressure against the block d'.
The trays to be secured together are placed between the plates c c', with spacing
pieces of brass for other suitable material between them; the trays and spacing
pieces are then clamped together by the blocks dd, acted on by the screws e e.
The mould thus filled is turned on its side, and melted lead, at a high temperature,
is poured on the ends of the trays, which are thereby melted, and become one with
the added lead, which cools and sets into a bar, after which the other side of the
mould is turned up and the operation repeated, so that a leaden bar is provided at
either side of the series of trays a. A plate is now complete, composed of trays a,
containing active material and side bars b b', and the spacing pieces of brass being
knocked out, small spaces remain between the trays, whereby the active material is
exposed to the action and influence of the acid and the electric current.
The whole thus forms a battery plate, which will, considering its bulk, contain an
extensive surface of active material, and which will have great lateral rigidity, and
consequently little liability to buckle. By reason of this mode of construction, the

page_text: negative and positive plates may be placed very close to each other, without danger
of contact..
The active material, by reason of its position on horizontal trays, will have but
little opportunity of falling away, even should it become slightly disintegrated, and
the tendency of the plate to buckle laterally being prevented, one of the chief
causes of disintegration will be removed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :-
1. A The plate for secondary and storage batteries, consisting of a number of
horizontally placed trays or troughs containing active material, supported in side
supports and arranged one over the other, with small spaces in between, substantially
as shewn and described.
2. The mode of constructing our improved plates for secondary and storage
batteries described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 20th day of December 1890.
JAMES PITKIN.
H. C. L. HOLDEN.
Newton & Son,
Agents for the Applicants.
JAMES PITKIN.
H. C. L. HOLDEN.
Newton & Son,
Agents for the Applicants.