IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES AND IN THEIR CON- STRUCTION
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Owen Charles Dalhousie Ross at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 24th February 1883.
OWEN CHARLES DALHOUSIE Ross of Camberwell in the County of Surrey
Civil Engineer "IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES AND IN THEIR CON-
STRUCTION."
The objects of my invention are Improvements in Galvanic Batteries and chiefly
in regard to arrangements of the cells composing such batteries
1. With the view of obviating the inconvenience arising from the great number of
connections between the cells of batteries in which two fluids are used, I so
compose these as to make clamps, terininals and connecting wires or straps,
unnecessary and this I effect by placing plates of the positive and of the negative
elements back to back and in contact, eg a plate of carbon and one of zinc, or one
of copper and one of zinc, and I employ such double plates as solid diaphragms to
separute the cells of a battery. When making up a battery of more than two
cells I place a succession of such double plates in a box or trough or other vessel
or chamber as solid diaphragms at a convenient distance apart and so cement or
otherwise fix them or slide them on or into the sides and bottom of the box or
chamber as to form therewith watertight partitions or spaces which I again divide
into two compartments by means of a porous diaphragm, also cemented or other-
wise fixed to the sides and bottom of the chamber so as to form a watertight but
porous partition. By this means I have in one of the said compartments the
negative, and facing it in the other compartment the positive electrode.
The requisite connection between the negative in each of these cells with the
positive electrode in the succeeding cell of the series is thus effected by the two
electrodes being simply back to back and consequently in contact, no clamps,
terminals or connecting wires are required excepting at the poles and the resistance
of the cell is diminished.
2. The second of my improvements relates to the more rapid discharge of the
liquids used in the Battery.
This I effect by attaching a syphon to a long tube which I place above the
series of cells and from which a succession of smaller tubes which may be fitted
with small taps or cocks dip into the several cells. On the Syphon being set to
•

page_text: work by means of a ball exhaust or otherwise, the liquid is drawn off from the
cells simultaneously. Or I effect the discharge in another way, viz, through holes
in the sides or bottom of the trough containing the cells, which holes lead into the
several cells and can be opened or closed separately or simultaneously.
3. My third Improvement relates to the more rapid filling of the cells with
liquid which I effect by having an airtight reservoir above the level of the battery
cells, and a long tube leading from it over the series of cells with arms (which
when required may be fitted with small taps or cocks) descending from it into
each of the cells but reaching only to where the surface of the fluid contained
therein should be.
When the cells are empty they can be separately or simultaneously fitted from
the airtight reservoir, but as soon as the liquid reaches to the height of the arm
from the reservoir the closing of the mouth of this tube causes the liquid to cease
running. It may be made to commence again to run automatically whenever the
surface of the liquid if any of the cells sinks below the mouth of the tube, whether
that be caused by its being drawn off through the holes at the bottom of the cells
or by its being consumed in the battery
4. My fourth improvement consists in the use in the carbon cell of a zinc
carbon battery of a mixture of red fuming nitric acid with sulphuric or hydro-
chloric acid and water in the approximate proportion of 1 vol: of the first named
with 3 vols of sulphuric or hydrochloric acid and 3 vols of water.