Improvements in Frames for Supporting the Plates or Elements of a Secondary or Storage Battery.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Oct., 1889-Accepted, 30th Nov., 1889
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Frames for Supporting the Plates or Elements
of a Secondary or Storage Battery.
1, WALTER FRANCIS SMITII, a citizen of the United States, residing at 1523 Cherry
Street in the City of Philadelphia, in the County of Philadelphia, and State of
Pennsylvania, Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of my invention for IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FRAMES FOR SUPPORTING THE PLATES OR ELEMENTS OF A SECONDARY
OR STORAGE BATTERY, and in what manner the same is to be performed to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statements :-
My invention relates to certain new and novel features of improvement in the con-
struction of the supporting frames around plates composed of a salt or salts of a metal
or metals to form an element of a secondary or storage battery after reduction from a
salt to a metallic state; and each of said supporting frames is provided with a lug and
an auxiliary loop or extensions for ensuring the necessary connections being made
during the reduction of the plate or plates to a metallic state.
Heretofore it has been customary to cast a lug to one of the edges of each crystal-
lized plate and the said plate was then reduced to a metallic state by electrolysis or
chemical action and when the former method was resorted to the wires used to con-
nect the plates with each other and with the poles of a dynamo were attached to the
lugs forming part of the aforesaid frames thereof.
The chlorides of many of the metals which when reduced to the metallic state 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,
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 or such as
was to become active to constitute the plates or elements. In the reduction of such
type or plates to a metallic state by either of the aforesaid methods the plates are
usually lifted by means of the lugs into and out of the electrolyte of the cell, but the
constant tendency has been in so doing for the plates to crack or break as well as
the surrounding frames thereof, due to the transverse strain brought to bear upon
them. Moreover, the binding screws and other devices used in practice to connect
the wires with the lugs during the electrolytic reduction of the plates wear away or
destroy in a greater or less degree the said lugs so that it often becomes extremely
difficult to connect the finished plates together to form the cell or cells of the battery
or batteries. It may be remarked that owing to the size and shape of the plates and
of the lugs which project from the frames of the plates and in order to have the lugs
project above the fluid in which the plates are immersed, it is necessary to mount
them vertically in the cell insulated of course from each other and hence the super-
ficial area of the cell must necessarily be unduly large.
The principal objects of my invention are to overcome the above mentioned defects
and to provide the plates to form the elements of a secondary or a storage battery with
supporting frames and an auxiliary loop or extensions to furnish the nccessary con-
nections during the formation of the plate or plates to become the elements of the
battery and so that the plate or plates may be easily connected or coupled together
and with a dynamo and lifted into or out of the electrolyte of the cell without injury
to the plate or plates.
My invention consists in providing a plate composed of a series of small plates with
a frame having a vertical lug and with an extension or auxiliary loops cast with or
secured to the main portion of the surrounding frame of the series of plates for

page_text: forming a connection by means of a wire or wires with a dynamo as well as with the
lugs of the plates, thereby enabling the requisite number of plates to be readily con-
nected or coupled together and with a dynamo for obtaining a good contact for the
passage of an electric current for reducing said plates to a metallic state to form the
elements of a secondary or storage battery.
The projections or auxiliary loops cast with or secured to the main portion of the
surrounding frame of the plates composed of active matter or material to become
active and to form the element of a secondary or storage battery, may if desired,
be permitted to remain as a part of the frame surrounding the finished metallic
plate, but I prefer, however, to remove the auxiliary loop or extensions after
reduction of the plate or plates.
The nature and characteristic features of my invention will be more fully under-
stood taken in connection with the accompanying drawings forming part hereof; and
in which
Figure 1, is a vertical side elevation of several plates held in a supporting frame
provided with one form of my improved extension or auxiliary loop.
Fig. 2, is a transverse sectional view on the line a, e, of fig. 1.
Fig. 3, is a vertical side elevation of several plates held or supported in a frame
provided with another form of extension or auxiliary loop; and
Fig. 4, is a cross-sectional view on the line 2, 3, of fig. 3.
Referring to the drawings for a further description of the invention A, represents a
series of square or other suitable form of plates composed of active matter or
material to become active and between each of these plates is formed a partition
wall B, as shown in figs. 1 and 3, and which walls preferably form part of the sup-
porting frame D, composed of lead or other suitable material or materials. This
frame supporting the several small plates A, has cast therewith or secured into one
of the corners a lug d. There is also cast with or secured into the supporting
frame D, an auxiliary loop or other form of extension E, made of lead or
other material or materials. This auxiliary loop or extension E, may be con-
nected at both ends with the supporting frame D, as shown in fig. 1, or may
be connected only at one of its ends to said frame as shown in fig. 3.
This auxiliary loop, or extension which, if desired, may be made a permanent
part of the frame D, serves as a handy means for enabling the necessary connec
tions being made with a dynamo for the formation of the plates for use as the
elements of a secondary or storage battery. After the formation however, of the
element or elements, if desired, the said loop E, may be cut off or withdrawn from
the frame D.
By arranging in connection with the supporting frame D, the auxiliary loop E,
substantially in the manner illustrated in either fig. 1 or 3, the connection of a
dynamo with the plates to be reduced to a metallic state is not only greatly
simplified and the labor incident thereto materially reduced, but the reduction is
much more thoroughly and satisfactorily accomplished and without fear of the plates
to form elements becoming cracked or warped or the shape of the frame around them
distorted or interfered with, all of which conduce to the perfection of the metallic
plates for use as the elements of the battery.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. The herein described supporting frame for a battery plate or element provided
with an auxiliary loop, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
2. The herein described supporting frame with a lug and partition walls between
and around plates composed of the salts of a metal or metals to form an element,
of a battery and said frame having a loop secured thereto, substantially as and for
the purposes set forth.

page_text: 3. The herein described frame supporting in position a series of plates to form an
element of a battery and provided with a permanent lug and an auxiliary loop or
extension, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
Dated at Philadelphia, Pa., this 11th day of September A.11. 1880.
יר-
KONCHO
ACETIL
WALTER FRANCIS SM
W. P. Thompson & Boult,
Agents for the Applicant.