IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES, AND IN THEIR APPLICATION TO ELECTRIC LAMPS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Owen Charles Dalhousie Ross, of Camberwell, in the
County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
GALVANIC BATTERIES, AND IN THEIR APPLICATION TO ELECTRIC LAMPS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Owen Charles Dalhousie
Ross at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th December
1881.
OWEN CHARLES DALHOUSIE Ross of Camberwell in the County of Surrey
Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES AND IN THEIR
APPLICATION TO ELECTRIC LAMPS."
This Invention relates to improvements in galvanic batteries and to the
application of such batteries to those electric lamps in which the light is produced
in a vacuum glass by the incandescence of a continuous carbon conductor or bridge,
and the principal object of my Invention is to facilitate the use of the recently
invented incandescent lamps by a reduced expenditure on plant and in places and
circumstances such as arise in country mansions &c. and other places where the lamps
cannot advantageously be supplied with electricity by the employinent of dynamo
electric machines or from secondary storage batteries (Faure's accumulators) which
have hitherto been generally considered as the only ways of utilising them.
The first part of my Invention consists in the construction of a battery occupying
but little space, which is very economical and at the same time of great power and
permanency.
The negative and positive elements which I employ are platinised broken
carbon and amalgamated zinc which latter I prepare in a comminuted form by
pouring it when in a motten condition into water and afterwards amalgamating it
in a solution of mercury.
Sometimes I use one or the other of these elements in
the ordinary form, that is to say I use the comminuted zinc connected with a plate
or rod of carbon, or the platinised broken carbon connected with a rod of zinc; and
instead of the ordniary separate cells, I usually combine a number of cells in a
larger vessel which may be round or square in which the cells are formed by means

page_text: of partition slabs which should be of porous and of impermeable material
alternately or of either of these materials alone.
The second part of my Invention consists in the combination of galvanic
batteries with the above described incandescent lamps when fitted upon such
stems or supporters as will allow of their being shifted about as reading lamps, or
of being used as ornamental drawing, or dining room, or hall lamps, or as shop
lamps. Any kind of galvanic battery may be employed, but especially such
batteries as above named and batterics in which chromate or bichromate of
potash forms the main basis of the solution used to excite either of the zinc and
carbon elements.
The third part of my Invention consists in an arrangement of the vacuum
incandescent lamps on their stands which will allow of their being occasionally
taken from the stand and moved from place to place and to a short distance
without extinguishing the light. This I effect by attaching a sufficient length of
flexible insulated wire between the vacuum glass and the battery to allow of such
removal taking place without interfering with the continuous current of electricity
and I sometimes pass this flexible wire over a spring roller, or over one or more
pully blocks with a weight so attached as to permit of the incandescent lamp
being moved about the room; and when returned to its place the flexible wire will
be automatically re-rolled on the roller, or its length shortened and, so to say
absorbed by the widening apart of the pulley blocks.
The fourth part of my Invention consists in the interposition of a secondary
battery between the galvanic battery and the lamp with the view of increasing the
steadiness of the light when a battery is used which is subject to polarisation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Owen Charles Dalhousie Ross in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th June 1882.
OWEN CHARLES DALHOUSIE Ross, of Camberwell in the County of Surrey,
Civil Engineer,
"IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES, AND IN THEIR
APPLICATION TO ELECTRIC LAMPS,"
This Invention relates to improvements in galvanic batteries and to their
application to, or combination with, those electric lamps in which the light is
produced in a vacuum glass by the incandescence of a continuous carbon conductor
or bridge, and the principal object of iny Invention is to facilitate the use of the
recently invented incandescent lamps by a reduced expenditure on plant and in
places and circumstances such as arise in town and country houses, in libraries,
picture galleries, exhibitions of works of art, bazaars, temporary illuminations,
churches and public buildings, shops, and workshops as well as in sundry other
places where from one cause or another galvanic batteries may be found more
advantageous for supplying the requisite currents of electricity to incandescent
lamps than dynamo-machines or secondary storage batteries, which have hitherto
been generally considered as the only way of supplying such lamps with the
electric current at a sufficiently sinall cost to be commercially successful.
The first part of my Invention consists in the construction of a battery occupying
but little space, which is very economical, and at the same time of great power
and permanency. It is a carbon-zinc battery, and I employ broken.coke, graphite,
charcoal or other varieties of carbon either platinised or not, in the carbon cell,
and small lumps of amalgamated zinc in the zinc cell, by which means I am able
to expose a larger amount of surface of the elements to the chemical action of the
fluids in which they are immersed, and give a larger amount of conducting power
to the negative element.
The zine I prepare in a comminuted form by pouring it when in a molten,
condition into water, and afterwards amalgamating it in a solution of mercury, or
in any other of the usual ways.
Sometimes I use the carbon and the zinc in the ordinary form of plates or rods
putting in the zinc cell some comminuted zinc with or without a zinc rod or plate
to facilitate the connection with a plate or rod of carbon used alone in the other
cell, or I employ in the carbon cell some broken coke, graphite, charcoal or other
varieties of carbon with or without a plate or rod of carbon with which to connect
this cell with the zinc of the other cell.
As regards the liquids in which the zinc and carbon elements are immersed
I have found that it is advisable to modify the ordinary practice and have proved
by numerous experiments that some of the best known galvanic batteries, such as
the Bunsen, Grove, Daniell and others would neither be economical nor convenient
for the purpose of domestic lighting, because they occasion a large consumption of
zinc and also because there are objections to the use in the carbon cell of nitric acid
which is the special feature of the Bunsen and Grove batteries because besides being
expensive it gives off offensive vapours. With the view of obviating these
objections I use and have obtained very advantageous results by using in the
carbon cell hydro-chloric acid, either pure or diluted with about one fifth of its
volume of water, but its action must be strengthened by the addition of a small
quantity, usually not more than from five to ten per cent, of some powerful
oxidising agent such as nitric or nitrous acid, aqua regia, chlorate or permanganate
of potash or others containing two or more atoms of oxygen.

page_text: In the zinc cell I use sulphuric or hydrochloric acid diluted in the ordinary way,
according to their strength, with from eight to twenty parts, or thereabouts, of
water to one of acid, but when using hydrochloric acid in the carbon cell I find it
advantageous to dissolve in the acidulated water of the zinc cell chlorides or
sulphates of iron, soda, potash or magnesia, using by preference, but not necessarily,
saturated solutions of these salts.
The battery when sufficiently small may be placed in the same room in which
the lamp or lamps are to be used, in a cupboard or other piece of furniture, under
a table or concealed in the stand or pedestal which supports the lamp, or it may be
placed in any adjoining room passage or hall, or in a cellar or outhouse or in some
other convenient place.
Instead of using the ordinary stoneware jars for cells, I usually combine a
number of cells in one larger vessel, in which the cells are formed by means of
partition slabs, which should be of porous and of impermeable materials alternately,
or of either of these altogether.
The second part of my Invention consists in the combination of galvanic
batteries with the above described incandescent lamps. 1st when fitted upon such
stems, stands or supporters as will allow of their being shifted about as reading
lamps, or, 2ndly-with such fittings as to allow of their being used as ornamental
drawing room or hall lamps, or as shop lamps, by which description I do not mean-
that I would limit their use to drawing rooms, dining rooms, halls and shops, for it
is evident that such fittings equally apply to other places such as libraries, art
galleries, churches, and many other places. Thus the vacuum or incandescent lamps
may be arranged for example with such stems, stands or supporters as are in
ordinary use as candlesticks, or those which are used with gas, viz. :-As bracket
lamps and chandeliers, or attached to supporting figures, and other ornamental
devices; they may be suspended separately or in groups from ceilings, walls or
other supports, with or without shades or globes.
Although in my Provisional Specification I have stated that any kind of
galvanic battery may be employed, I have found as herein before stated that there
are many which cannot be usefully applied for the purposes of my Invention.
The third part of my Invention consists in an arrangement of the various incan-
descent lamps on their stands, which will allow of their being occasionally taken from
the stand and moved from place to place, and to a short distance without extinguishing
the light. This I effect by attaching a sufficient length of flexible insulated wires
between the vacuum lamp and the galvanic battery to allow of such removal taking
place without interfering with the continuous current of electricity, and I sometimes
pass this flexible wire over a spring roller or over one or more pulley blocks with
a weight so attached as to permit of the incandescent lamp being moved about
the room; and, when returned to its place, the flexible wire will be automatically
re-rolled on the roller, or its length shortened and, so to say, absorbed by the widening
apart of the pulley blocks.
The fourth part of my Invention consists in the interposition of a secondary
battery between the galvanic battery and the lamp, by which means I find that
when a battery is used which is subject to polarisation, or which from other causes
is after some time weaker than at first, I am able to store up a certain amount of
electricity which can be used as subsidiary to the primary battery, and, at times,
when the latter is not in use for supplying the current to the lamps, it can be kept
in action for charging the secondary or storage battery.
Having thus described the nature and object of my said Invention, I declare
what I claim is :-
1. The arrangement use and application of galvanic batteries in combination
with electric lamps in which the light is produced in a vacuum glass by the
incandescence of a continuous carbon, substantially as and for the purposes herein
before described.
2. The employment in batteries when used for the purpose of electric lighting
of pure or slightly diluted hydrochloric acid in the negative cell mixed with a

page_text: small quantity of nitric or nitrous acid, or aqua regia, or chlorate or permanganate
of potash or others containing two or more atoms of oxygen substantially as herein
before described.
3. The novel arrangements and combination of batteries such as are herein before
described with incandescent lamps in the manner and for the purposes substantially
as herein before described.
4. The arrangement of a secondary battery between the galvanic battery and
the lamp, for the purposes substantially as herein before described.
In witness whereof I the said Owen Charles Dalhousie Ross have hereunto
set my hand and seal this Thirteenth day of June in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty two.
O. C. D. ROSS. (L.S.)