AN IMPROVEMENT IN SECONDARY BATTERIES
Year: 1884

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
1, SALOMON KALISCHER, of Berlin, in the Kingdom of Prussia, and German
Empire, do hereby declare the nature of said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN SECONDARY BATTERIES and in what manner the same is to be performed, to
be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My Invention relates to an improved electric accumulator, secondary battery,
or storage battery, and the object of my Invention, is to produce, at a comparatively
low cost, a secondary battery or electric accumulator whose elements are relatively
light as compared with the elements hitherto used in storage-batteries, and thus
facilitate the transportation of such batteries, while, at the same time I obtain by
my improved battery a current of great power and constancy. My Invention
consists in the employment, for the anode, of carbon of any convenient form or
nature in combination with a solution of suitable salts of lead the latter being
subjected to the process of electrolysis to produce a dense and solid coating of
peroxide of lead upon the carbon which coating, on being metallically connected
with a kathode of lead in the liquid remaining after the process of electrolysis,
will constitute a secondary battery of high electro-motivo force from which a
constant current of long duration can be obtained.
My present Invention is based upon the principles described in the Specification
filed with my application for Letters Patent dated March 12th 1884, No. 4,782,
inasmuch as according to the principles of this Invention the peroxide of lead is
precipitated upon the anode by means of electrolysis and by means of secondary
action, respectively, while the carbon which as above stated is employed for the
anode remains unchanged.
In preparing the secondary elements forming my improved secondary or storage
battery I proceed in substantially the same manner as described in my said former
Specification, that is to say:-Carbon of any desired nature, such as charcoal, gas-
coal, plumbago or any other carbon generally used for galvanic purposes, and of any
desirable and convenient shape, for example in the form of plates or cylinders, is
placed in a bath consisting of a solution of nitrate of lead, or acetate of lead, or other
suitable salt of lead, and subjected to the action of the galvanic current, lead being
preferably employed for the kathode. Under the action of the said current, peroxide
of lead either in a pure or bydrated state, is formed upon the anode in the shape of
a black dense and solid layer or coating of a jet black, a shining silky black or a
velvety-black color, adhering firmly to the carbon and completely enclosing the
same on, all sides, while, at the kathode, metallic lead is separated from the
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page_text: solution and precipitated upon the said kathode. It will be readily understood
that I can coat the said carbon with a solid layer of peroxide of lead of any
desired and convenient thickness depending on the quantity and concentration of
the solution of the salt of lead used for the bath, and on the length of time during
which the said solution is subjected to the action of the galvanic current.
After the charge is completed, the two electrodes are metallically connected and
will then produce a current which is constant and whose duration will be
dependent only on the thickness of the coating of the peroxide of lead produced
upon the carbon anode during the charging operation. In discharging the clements,
the peroxide of lead on the anode is reduced to protoxide of lead, while the
metallic lead on the other electrode is oxidized and dissolved in the acid solution.
The discharge being finished, the elements may at once be charged again by means
of a galvanic current, and thus the operation of charging and discharging the
battery may be repeated over and over again in continuous succession.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is:-
First. In an electric accumulator or secondary or storage-battery, an anode
of carbon having a conting of peroxide of lead produced thereon either in a
puro or hydrated state by electrolysis, substantially as, and for the purpose,
specified.
Second. In the manufacture of electric accumulators or secondary or storage
batteries the employment of carbon for the anode, and of a solution of some
suitable salt of lead for the electrolyte, substantially as, and for the purpose,
specified.
Daded th: oond J... ng March 1884
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
For the Applicant.