IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Highton, M.A., of Putney, in the
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC
BATTERIES."
Sealed the 3rd October 1871, and dated the 7th August 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Highton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th August 1871.
I, HENRY HIGHTON, M.A., of Putney, in the County of Surrey, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
GALVANIC BATTERIES," to be as follows:-
These improvements consist in assisting the action of a negative
of a battery by the action of steam.
I find that the negative electrode of a battery when kept at a
boiling heat so as to evolve steam, or in any way kept at the heat of
boiling water, remains constant and is capable of generating very large

page_text: quantities of electricity in a short time. This is more particularly
applicable to negatives of coke or carbon, but may be applied to other
negatives.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Highton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th February 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
HIGHTON, M.A., of Putney, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Henry Highton, Her special license that
I, the said Henry Highton, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Henry Highton, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC
BATTERIES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry
Highton, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Highton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
These improvements consist in assisting the action of the negative
of a battery by the action of steam.
I find that the negative electrode of a battery when kept at a boiling
heat so as to evolve steam, or in any way kept at the heat of boiling

page_text: water, remains constant, and is capable of generating very large quantities
of electricity in a short time. This is more particularly applicable to
negatives of coke or carbon, but may be applied to other negatives.
In carrying my Invention into practice I prefer to proceed as follows:
-I employ battery cells of earthenware as thin as it can conveniently
be obtained, and these cells I place on a hot plate with a layer of sand
between the plate and the bottoms of the cells to equalize the heat.
The plate is most conveniently heated by gas flames. The negative
element in each cell is a hollow cylinder of moulded carbon, or one
or more plates of carbon. In the centre of the cell I place a porons
jar of pottery containing a zinc positive element.
Into the space
around the negative element I place cinders, and the interstices of the
cinders are filled with dilute sulphuric acid. In the porous jar around
the positive element I place a solution of a neutral salt, chloride of
ammonium is suitable. The battery is coupled up in the usual way
and whilst in use is kept at a boiling heat. Steam is generated, and
as it escapes it carries away with it the hydrogen which in the working
of the battery is liberated at the surface of the negative clement.
As the liquid in the battery is evaporated the loss is from time to time
made good.
In some cases I use copper cells which also serve as the negative
elements of the battery, and in this case a little sulphate of copper
may advantageously be added to the sulphuric acid contained in the
copper cell.
What I claim is, the arrangement of galvanic batteries in such
manner that heat may be applied whilst the battery is in use and
steam generated on the surface of the negative element, substantially
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Highton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventh day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two