Improvements in Primary and Secondary Galvanic Batteries
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Application, 4th May, 1895
Complete Specification Left, 4th Feb, 1896-Accepted, 7th Mar,
1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Improvements in Primary and Secondary Galvanic Batteries
I, CARL LUDWIG RUDOLPH ERNEST MENGES, of 82/84 Balisti int The Hague
in the Kingdom of Holland, Electrical Engineer do hereby declarc the nature of
this invention to be as follow>
The main idea of this invention may be stated as follows
Let it be supposed that an accumulator or storage battery, such as is shown in
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings, his to be dealt with, where there are
aanged series of alternate positive and negative plates E₁ L, E, E, E, con-
sisting of latticed cores or supporting frames or gud, with the exciting or
"active" material filled u And let each plate be divided vertically, midway
between its faces, as shown at ss in the case of the plate E, (selected for
illustration) Now suppose the two halves be diawn apart, then, instead of there
being intermediate spices, such as 22, Figure 1 between plates of different
polarity, spaces will be provided between the halves or sections, of the sume polarity,
forming each plate (Figure 2), and in that case porous partition, such as pp
must be inserted between the half plates of opposite polity to prevent direct
contact between such plates It will of course be understood that the outer
halves E, and E, of the first and last electrode should be omitted, as they
would in any event (as well as in the arrangement shown in Figure 1) iemain
inoperitive
Now an arrangement such as that illustrated in Figure 2, affords the following
advantages
-
A porous partition may be inserted between parts of different polity, so that
either ducct contact between the differently polarized parts, or indirect contact by
means of pieces of the "active' material which may happen to crumble off, may
thereby be effectually prevented, while, owing to the little distance intervening
between the plates the clectrical resistance may be still less than in the arrange-
ment shown in Figure 1 Heretotore where porous partitions have been used the
free access of the liquid to the interior of the plate was considerably interfered
with, but such access is, on the contrary, facilitated by the improved urangement
forming the subject of this invention, because here (Figure 2) the fice or exposed
surface of the plate is, in the first place, exactly similar to the free surface in
Figure 1, and in addition to this, the arrangement represented in
igure 2, has
the advantage, that, until the discharge is completed, the liquid
1s enabled
directly to meet the active portion of the material, and need not fist be diffused
through or permeate a layer of material which has become inactive
In constructing accumulators, the method of operation is necessly not quite
the same as that which has just been described, the plates being, in that case,
directly constructed in the manner shown in Figure 2
The particular form to be given to the guid is immaterial for the purposes of
1 he advan-
this invention, in fact, any suitable form of grid may be employe
tages afforded by battery plates constructed in accordance with the Specification
of prior Letters Patent No 11923 of 1887 may here be also turned to account,
as illustrated in Figure 3 As in this improved arrangement halves of plates
only are employed, such halves may be made by pressure, say in a rolling mill,
instead of by casting
In order to maintain the two plate-halves, such as E, E, and L', L',, shown in

page_text: In fact, if
the plan Figure 4, at the required distance from each other, suitable spacing-
blocks, which need not be made of insulating material, since they are placed
between plates of the same polarity, may be used Or, as will be readily under-
stood, the plates themselves may be formed with spacing-projections
preferred, the two half plates E, E, and E', E', may together with the spacing pieces,
be formed as one undivided or integral body, provided with internal channels 2222,
which should remain uncovered with active material, so as not to interfere with
the circulation of the liquid In order to save inactive material, the plates
themselves may at certain points be bent rearwardly, as shown in the horizontal
cross-section Figure 5 It will readily be seen also that the electrodes, instead of
consisting of plites such as abcde and a bed' e, may be constructed in the shape
of tubes, such as abcb, cded¹ In that case it is, of course, not necessary for the
tubes to come into contact with each other rather is it advisable, indeed, to
provide a narrow space between them, so that the area placed under the control of
such tubes may be fully taken advantage of Figure 6 is an elevation of such a
battery plate or electrode The tubes, which may be of any convenient shape in
section, are welded into a cross-piece a b, at the top, whereby the current is con-
ducted way
The lower crosspiece c d may be inade of celluloid or similar
material, where reduction of weight is an object The tubes, nece suily, are
perforated, so that the liquid may have access to the active mass, in addition to
which they may be provided with longitudinal or transver e ribs with a view to
extending the operative surface or area The axes of the tubes may be inclined at
any suitable angle to the perpendicular, and, in fact, such an oblique arrangement
of them, in the case of battery plates or electrodes situated side by side, and tubes
lying in different directions, will impart rigidity to the structure of the complete
cell or battery
The spacing-blocks between the first or last plate and the wall of the Jir, or
containing vessel (Figure 4) should be made of flexible material, such as india-
rubber or the plates, when fitted together, may be compressed, either in pairs
or all together by means of elastic bands, so as to allow for expansion, if need be,
and at the same time to ensure close contact, normally
In the introductory part of this Specification it has been assumed that the cut,
dividing each plate into halves, i uns midway between the surfaces of the plite
Such a symmetrical division bowever is by no means essential for the purposes of
this invention as the only condition is that the plate should be dividel within, so
that the space left for the circulation of the liquid is not comprised between
surfaces or walls of different polarity, and so that both portions of the plate are
equally effective in the operation It is this last desideratum that has naturally
led me to the idea of making a central cut on lines Figure 1 Both the e
conditions however, may be fulfilled by making the cut along the line abcd
(Figure 7), for example As shown, this cut is entirely comprised within the
plate body, but at the same time it extends alternately from one side to the other of
the grid or core L E for receiving the active material If these two halves be
drawn apart, the resulting arrangement is that shown in Figure 8 In practice,
the several pieces E E E must be connected together by means of tiansverse
Junction pieces or, strictly speaking, the grid or core will then consist of a plate
bent in opposite directions alternately, as shown at E L Figure 9 In that case
the continuous intermediate passage which is shown at in Figure 8, will be
converted into a number of separate channels 22 Figure 9, the walls of which
may consist of perforated celluloid tubes O these tubes may be constructed by
pressing the active material round smooth 10d., and then removing such rods
according to Figure 6, the grid is also formed of tube-, then the resulting ai range-
ment will be very similar to that delineated in Figure 6, except that the tubes
will then be constituted by the guid and by the active mass, iltei nately By closing
the tubes on either side, according to chcum tance, a better circulation of the
liquid through the active material may be ensured or the same object may be
attained by providing the tubes with upw udly slanting ribs
If

page_text: Where the grid or core is made of sheet-metal, as is assumed to be the case in
Figure 9, the preferable course is to form the perforations required for the circula-
tion of the fluid, not by cutting pieces out of the metal, but by making small
cuts horizontally and vertically, in alternate rotation to form small tongues or flaps,
such as m m m Figure 10 bent backwards or forwards By such means, the double
result will be obtained that, while the surface or area will be further increased in
cxtent (owing to the additional surfaces provided by the edges of the cut parts),
facilities for turning the active material to better account will be afforded, since by
the judicious arrangement of the said flaps or tongues, curient can be carried up to
certain points, which otherwise would remain idle
Perforated metal-sheets, such as have ju t been described, may also be employed
in connection with plate halves, such as a b c d e and a b c d e Figure 5
And,
Similarly, both plate-halves may be made util with each other, the sheet-metal
being, in that case, provided with cuts, as illustrated in Figure 11, after which
the strips m m m may be bent backward, and the strips n n n forward, is shown in
Figure 10
It may further be pointed out that the porous partitions p p mentioned in this
Specification need not necessarily be made of such substances as asbestos, felt, or
the like, which it is customary to describe as porous", but that perforated
celluloid or ebonite plates may also be used for the purpose, provided that the
diameter of the perforations is not too large in comprison with the length Again,
a compound wall may be constructed, sav, of asbestos and felt, which, with a view
to imparting increased firmness to the whole structure, should be covered with a
perforated celluloid plate If desired, this invention may be applied to battery
plates or electrodes of one polarity only, instead of to all electrodes indiscrimi-
nately, thus, for example, an arrangement such as that illustrated in Figure 5 or
ir Figure 9, may be interposed between two electrodes freely suspended in the
liquid, the liquid being allowed to circulate about the external sui faces of such
electrodes only,-e, only at those parts where the current enters or issues
Dated this 3rd day of May 1895
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, WC, Agents for the Applicant
Improvements in Primary and Secondary Galvanic Batteries
I, CARL LUDWIG RUDOLPH ERNEST MENGES, of 82/84 Balistraat, The
Hague, in the Kingdom of Holland, Electrical Engineer, 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
This invention relates to primary and secondary galvanic batteries
Referring to the drawings which accompanied my Provisional Specification
Figure is a vertical section of an accumulator or storage battery wherein there are
arranged a series of alternative positive and negative plates E, E, E, E, E, consisting
of cores or supporting frames or grids, containing the exciting or active material.
Now suppose each plate be divided vertically, midway between its faces, and let the
two halves be drawn apart, then, instead of there being intermediate spaces, such
as 2, Figure 1 between plates of different polarity, spaces will be provided
between the halves or sections, of the same polarity, forming each plate as
indicated by Figure 2 which is a vertical section of one form of my improved
accumulator or storage battery, and in that case porous partitions, such as p p
must be inserted between the half plates of opposite polarity to prevent direct
contact between such plates It will of course be understood that the outer halves
о

page_text: of the first and last electrode should be omitted, as they would in any event (as
well as in the arrangement shown in Figure 1) remain inoperative
Now an arrangement such as that illustrated in Figure 2, affords the following
advantages
-
A porous partition may be in erted between parts of different polarity, so that
either direct contact between the differently polarized parts, or indirect contact
thereof caused by pieces of the active material which may happen to crumble off,
may thereby be effectually prevented, and owing to the little distance intervening
between the plates, the electrical resistance is less than in the arrangement shown
in Figure 1 Heretofore where porous partitions have been used the free access
of the liquid to the interior of the plate was considerably nterfered with, but such
access is, on the contrary, facilitated by the improved arrangement forming the
subject of this invention because the free or exposed surface of the plate is, in
the first place, exactly similar to the free surface in Figure 1, and in addition to
this, the arrangement represented in Figure 2, has the advintage, that, until the
discharge is completed, the liquid is enabled directly to meet the active portion of
the material, and need not first be diffused through, or permeate, a layer of material
which has become inactive
In constructing accumulators, the method of operation is necessarily not quite
the same as that which has just been described, the plates being, in that case,
directly constructed in the manner shown in Figure 2
The particular form to be given to the grid is immaterial for the purposes of
this invention in fact, any suitable form of gud may be employed The
advantages afforded by battery plates constructed in accordance with the Specifi-
cation of prior Letters Patent No 11923 of 1887 may here be also utilized, as
illustrated in Figure 3 As in this improved arrangement, only halves of plates
are employed, such halves may be made by pressure, say in a rolling mill,
instead of by casting
cross-section
In order to maintain the two plate-balves, such as E, and E¹, shown in the plan
Figure at the required distance from each other, suitable spacing-blocks (which
need not be made of insulting material, since they are placed between plates of
the same polarity), may be used Or, as will be readily understood, the plates
tnemselves may be formed with spacing-projections In fact, if preferred, the two
half plates E, and E¹, may, together with the spacing pieces, be formed as one
undivided on integial body, provided with internal channels 22 which should
not be filled with active material, thus giving the required space for the circulation
of the liquid In order to save inactive material, the plates themselves may at
certain points be bent real wardly, as shown in the horizont il
Figure 5 It will readily be seen also that the electrodes, instead of consisting of
bent plates, such as a b c d e and a b c d e, may be constructed in the shape of
tubes, denoted by a b c b, c d e d' In that case it is, of course, not necessary for
the tubes to come into contact with each other, rather it is advisable, indeed, to
provide a narrow space between them, so that the area placed under the control of
such tubes may be fully taken advantage of Figure 6 is an elevation of such a
battery plate or electrode The tubes, which may be of any convenient shape in
section, are welded into a cross-piece a b, at the top, whereby the current is
conducted away
The lower cross piece c d may be made of celluloid or similar
material, where reduction of weight is an object The tubes, necessarily, are
perforated, so that the liquid may have access to the active material, in addition to
which they may be provided with longitudinal or transverse ribs with a view to
extending the operative surface or area I he axes of the tubes may be inclined
at any suitable angle to the perpendicular, and, in fact, such an oblique arrange
ment of them, in the case of battery plates or electrodes situated side by side, and
tubes lying in different directions, will impart rigidity to the structure of the
complete cell or battery
The spacing-blocks between the first or last plate and the wall of the jar, or
containing vessel (Figure 4) should be made of flexible material, such as india-

page_text: rubber, or the plates, when fitted together, may be compressed, either in pairs or
all together, by means of elastic bands, so as to allow for expansion, if need be,
and at the same time to ensure close contact under normal conditions
In the introductory part of this Specification it has been assumed that the cut,
dividing each plate into halves, i uns midway between the surfaces of the plate
Such a symmetrical division however is by no means essential for the purpose of
this invertion is the only condition is that the plate should be divided within, so
that the spice left for the circulation of the liquid is not comprised between
surfaces or walls of different polarity and so that both portions of the plate are
equally effective in then operation It is this list desideratum that has naturally
led me to the idea of making a cential cut indicated by the liness in the case of
plate E² of Fure 1 Both these conditions, however, may be fulfilled by making
the cut along the line abcd (Figure 7) for example As shown, this cut is
entirely comprised within the plate body, but at the same time it extends
alternately from one side to the other of the grid or core E L for receiving the
active material If these two halves be drawn put the resulting arrangement
Is that shown in Figure 8 In practice, the several pieces E E E must be
connected together by means of transverse junction-pieces, or strictly speaking,
the grid or core will then consit of plate be it in opposite directions alternately
as shown at EL Figure 9
I
In that case the continuous inter nediate passage
which is shown at in Figure 8, will be converted into a number of separate
channels Figure 9, the walls of which may consist of perforated celluloid
tube The e tubes may be constructed by pressing the active material round
smooth 1ods and then removing such rods If the grid also is formed of tube
the resulting arrangement will be very similar to that delineated in Figme 6,
except that the tubes will then be constituted by the grid and by the active mass
alternately By clo ing the tubes on either side, according to circumstances,
a better cuculition of the liquid through the active material may be ensured,
or the same object may be attained by providing the tubes with upwardly
Sianting ribs
Where the grid or core is made of sheet metal, as 14 assumed to be the case
in Figure 9, the preferable course is to form the perforations required for the
circulation of the fluid, not by cutting pieces out of the metal, but by making
small cuts horizontally and vertically, in alternate rotation to form small tongues
or flaps such as m m m Figure 10 bent back wuds or forwards By such me an-,
the double result will be obtained that, while the surface will be further increased
in extent (owing to the additional surfaces provided by the edges of the cut parts),
facilities for tuining the active material to better account will be afforded, since
by the judicious arr ingement of the said flaps or tongues, current can be carried
up to certain points which otherwise would remain idle
Perforated metal-sheets, such as those which have just been described, may also
be employed in connection with plate halves, such as a b c d e and a b c d e
Figure 5 And, similarly, both plate halves may be made integial with each
other, the sheet-met il being, in that case, provided with cuts, as illustrated in
Figure 11, after which the strips m m m may be bent backward, and the strips n n n
forward
It may further be pointed out that the porous partitions p p need not necessarily
be made of such substances as asbestos, felt, or the like, which it is customary to
describe as 66 porous' but that perforated celluloid or ebonite plates may also be
used for the purposes, provided that the diameter of the perforation. is not too
large in comparison with the length Again, a compound wall may be constructed,
say, of a.bestos and felt, which, with a view to imparting increased firmness to the
If desired,
whole structure should be covered with perforated celluloid plate
this invention may be applied to battery plates or clectrodes of one polarity only,
instead of to all electrodes indiscriminately, thus, for example, an arrangement
such is that illustrated in Figure 5 or in Figure 9, ay be interposed between two
electrodes freely suspended in the liquid, the liquid being allo ved to cnculate about

page_text: the external surfaces of such electrodes only,-e only at those parts where the
current enters or issues
As it is of the utmost importance to avoid contacts or short circuits between
plates of different polarity over the edges of the porous partitions it is best to
make the porous partitions somewhat laiger than the plates A further guarantee
against short circuiting may be obtained by filling the spaces at the edges of the
plates and the porous partitions with plaster of Pais or other suitable material
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 In a primary or secondary galvanic battery the arrangement of the plate so
that the surfaces thereof which face the plates of opposite polarity are in contact
with a porous or finely perforated partition, and so that spaces or channels for the
circluation of the exciting liquid are provided in the interior of the plates e between
surfaces of like polarity, the wall of the vessel being considered of the same
polarity as the terminal plates, substantially as described
2 The improvements in primary or secondary galvanic batteries substantally as
described with reference to any one of Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11
Dated this 4th day of February 1896
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, WC, Agents for the Applicant