Improvements in Voltaic Cells and Packing for same.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd June, 1899-Accepted, 29th July, 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Voltaic Cells and Packing for same.
I, MANES EPHRAIM FULD, 409, N. Paca Street, Baltimore, Maryland, United
States of America, General Manager of the Chloride of Silver Dry Cell Battery
Company, a Citizen of the United States, 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 ;---
"
My invention relates to improvements in dry cells, and it consists in providing
an improved, cheap, and effective cell, and a cheap packing therefor, which will
allow the cell to be tested without removing the same from the packing, and thus
the purchaser can be sure that the cell is active when he purchases the same.
It has been hitherto the custom to sell dry cells in packages, and the purchaser
frequently buys cells which are defective, and it is impracticable, as cells are now
generally-packed and sold, to open each package and test each cell separately,
therefore the sale of defective cells, whether by fraud or accident, is quite common.
In order to prevent this, I have designed the hereinafter described packing
for cells, which is especially adapted to hold cells of the character invented by. me,
and to guarantee to said purchaser its efficiency at the time of purchase.
My invention will be understood by reference to the accompanying drawings,
in which the same parts are indicated. by the same letters throughout the several
views:
Figure represents my improved packing box;
Figure 2 represents the lid of the box removed from the same;
Figure 3 represents a section along the line 3-3 of Fig. 4, and shews the cell
in the packing box and the cover of the latter on; and
Figure 4 represents a section along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3, and looking down.
A represents a cylindrical zine shell provided with a suitable bottom, and is
knurled near the top, as at a, to form a seat for the fibre cap G. The top edge
of the shell is then bent over the edge of the cap G, as at a' after this the cell
is completed.
B represents a layer of pitch and resin, which are fused and poured into the
bottom of the cell and allowed to cool. On this pitch and resin at the bottom of
the shell rests the end of the carbon electrode C, which electrode is preferably
made rectangular in form, and is provided with a transverse slot c near the upper
end, thereof, and a hole c for the terminal wire I leading to one of the binding
posts H secured in the fibre cap G. The other binding post H is connected by the
strip to the shell A,, see Figs. 1 and 3.
Surrounding the carbon electrode C is a cylindrical granular mass of powdered
graphite mixed with manganese peroxide and other well known depolarizing
agents, compressed so as to adhere together, or held together by any suitable binding
agent. Outside this cylindrical granular mass D is an annular layer of plaster of
Paris impregnated with sal-ammoniac and other well known active agents.
porous partition between the excitant and depolarizer may be inserted if preferred,
thus acting as a substitute for the plaster of Paris, or the same may be used in
connection with the plaster of Paris as above described.
A

page_text: Above this plaster of Paris E and granular mass D) is a seal B₁ made of pitch,
resin and asphaltum, which is poured into the cell while in a fused condition,
and runs into and through the slot cadhering closely to the carbon electrode C.
Before being used in the cell, this carbon rod is first coated with a mixture of gutta
percha and paraffine, to a line just below the oblong slot near the top of the carbon.
This mixture is thin, and thoroughly permeates the pores of the carbon; and then,
when the thicker hard sealing is poured in and about the upper end, it is more
quickly and firmly attached to the carbon, and not only prevents the creeping of
the salts upward above the lower line of the slot, but assists further, by reason
of its firm hold on the carbon in preventing the latter from being released out of
its position.
.
Above this cell is a small space separating the same from the fibre cap G, and
connecting the binding post H as above stated. The shell A is preferably sur-
rounded with a wrapping of paper K, or other cheap insulating material.
When packed up, the cell is preferably put in the pasteboard box M having a
detachable top pierced with two small holes m so arranged that, when the
arrow m² on the top points to the line m' on the box, these two holes m will. be
immediately over the binding posts H. When selling the cells, if the terminal
wires of the galvanometer, or of an electric bell, be introduced through these
holes m and made to touch the binding posts H, the purchaser can note for himself
whether the cell is active or not, and with a suitable instrument he can determine
the power of the cell.
Instead of having the holes in the top of the box, as shewn in Figs. 2 and 3,
these holes may be made in the sides as indicated in dotted lines at m" in Figs. 1
and 2. In either event it is necessary that the holes should be so disposed that
the ends of the terminals from the testing instrument should be brought into
contact with the binding posts.
By this arrangement the power of the cell and its activity can be determined
without breaking the package, and thus each individual cell can be guaranteed
at the time of sale.
Having thus particularly ascertained and described the nature of my said
invention, I declare that what I claim is ;-
1. The improved construction of dry cells for generating voltaic electricity,
substantially as hereindescribed and shewn in the drawings hereunto annexed.
2. The improved arrangement for packing electric cells so that they may be
tested without breaking the packing, substantially as hereindescribed and shown
in the drawings hereunto annexed.
3. In a dry cell, the, combination with a zinc shell forming the cell case and
also one of the electrodes, of a bottom seal composed of pitch and resin, a carbon
electrode resting on this bottom seal and provided with a transverse slot near its
upper end, a granular mass composed of powdered graphite and one or more
depolarizing against surrounding said carbon electrode, plaster of Paris impregnated
with one or more active agents surrounding said granular mass and interposed
between said mass and said zinc shell, and a top seal hermetically sealing the upper
end of said cell and projecting into and through said transverse slot in the carbon
electrode, substantially as hereindescribed and shewn in the drawings hereunto
annexed.
4. In a dry cell, the combination with a zinc shell, a bottom seal placed in the
bottom of said cell, a carbon electrode resting on said bottom seal and provided
with a transverse slot near its upper end, and a hole for the terminal wire, a
granular mass composed of powdered graphite and one or more depolarizing
agents made cylindrical on the exterior and surrounding said carbon electrode,
an annular mass of plaster of l'aris impregnated with active agents and set between
said granular mass and said zinc shell, and a seal composed of pitch, resin, and
asphaltum, placed above said plaster of Paris and said granular mass and projecting
into and through said slot in the carbon electrode, substantially as hereindescribed
and shewn in the drawings hereunto annexed.

page_text: 5. In a dry cell, the combination with a zinc shell forming the cell case and
also one of the electrodes, of a bottom seal composed of pitch and resin, a carbon
electrode resting on this bottom seal and provided with a transverse slot near its
upper end, a granular mass composed of powdered graphite and one or more
depolarizing agents surrounding said carbon electrode, plaster of Paris impreg-
nated with one or more active agents surrounding said granular mass and inter-
posed between said mass and said zinc shell, a top seal hermetically sealing the
upper end of said cell and projecting into and through said transverse slot in the
carbon electrode, a cap of non-conducting material, binding posts in said cap,
and a box enclosing the cell with perforations in the top registering with said
binding posts, substantially as and for the purposes hereindescribed and as shewn
in the drawings hereunto annexed.
6. A packing case for electric cells, consisting of a box made of pasteboard or
other non-conducting material adapted to enclose the whole cell including the bind-
ing posts, and provided with closed ends and having perforations opposite the
terminal wires of the cell, whereby the strength and activity of the cell may be
tested without removing the cell from the case, substantially as hereindescribed
and shewn in the drawings hereunto annexed.
7. A packing for electric cells, comprising a box made of pasteboard or other
non-conducting material adapted to enclose the whole cell including the binding
posts, and provided with an index on the body thereof to be placed in a fixed
position with regard to the terminals of the cell after the latter has been inserted
in the case, and a detachable top having an index registering with the index on
the body of the box, and with perforations therein registering with the positions
of the terminals of the cell when the box is placed in the proper position, said top
heing adapted to be secured to the body of the box, substantially as and for the
purposes hereindescribed and shewn in the drawings hereunto annexed.
Dated this 1st day of June 1899
TONGUE & BIRKBECK,
31, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.