Improvements in Secondary or Storage Batteries.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Dec., 1891-Accepted, 9th Jan., 1892
VI JIMI TUV
[Communicated from abroad by ISAIAH LEWIS ROBERTS, of 206 Broadway, New
York, United States of America, Electrician.]
Improvements in Secondary or Storage Batteries.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine Lake & Co., Patent
Agents, 45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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 secondary or storage batteries.'
According to my said invention I employ any convenient form of cell or jar, in
which I use a plate or mass of metallic iron, as electrodes and a conductor or plate
of a material electro-negative to iron, preferably carbon, similar to the ordinary
negative carbon element of a galvanic battery.
For the excitant or solution I use a solution of chloride of iron.
If both electrodes are immersed in this solution and a current passed through the
battery from the iron to the carbon, iron is deposited on the iron plate and sesqui-
chloride of iron formed in solution. If the cell be divided by the ordinary porous
diaphragm of an electric battery, which is permeable by liquids, the formation of
the sesqui-chloride in the carbon compartment is greatly facilitated, but, in either
event supposed, the local action or chemical recombination of the elements, when
the charging current is interrupted, is undesirable. In order, therefore, to prevent
or impede this local action, I separate the electrodes by a diaphragm of any
suitable form, of a kind which I call "non-porous" for the reason that they are
practically impervious to fluids under ordinary circumstances, and yet are
electrolytic in so far that they permit electrolytic action to take place through
them. Such diaphragms may be made of ordinary porous jars or plates, the pores
of which are filled with gelatinized silicate of soda or starch paste, or the like, or
they may be composed of a material known in commerce as "fibrite or vulcanized
fibre, which, when immersed in the solution, becomes a good conductor. I have
found that this material is admirably adapted for this purpose and prefer to use it
in my battery.
Before charging the battery, I fill each compartment of the cell, as above stated,
with a solution of chloride of iron, which produces no appreciable effect or action,
however, of itself.
To charge this battery, the positive pole of the dynamo or other source of
electrical energy is connected to the iron electrode and the negative to the carbon.
The passage of the charging current decomposes the chloride of iron in solution in
the iron compartment carrying the chlorine over to the carbon electrode and
depositing metallic iron on the iron-plate.
The transferred chlorine is taken up by the chloride of iron in the carbon or
anode compartment, one additional atom of chlorine being absorbed for each two
atoms of iron present in the chloride of iron solution (FeCL) in the carbon
compartment, forming sesqui-chloride of iron (Fe,CL,) and this continues until the
solution in the iron compartment is depleted or that in the carbon compartment has
absorbed its full quota of chlorine.
The device thus becomes a source of electrical energy of great value on account
of its capacity and steady action, but the return to the original conditions existing
before the electrical current is passed through the battery is not affected to any
appreciable extent until the circuit between the electrodes is closed, because owing
to the fact that the fluids on opposite sides of the substantially impervious
diaphragm are not permitted to intermingle, the local action is very slight."
On closing the circuit of the battery the sesqui-chloride returns to the condition

page_text: of chloride of iron and the excess of chlorine goes back to the iron electrode with
which it recombines.
While I have described herein the preferred form of battery embodying my
invention, I do not limit myself to such exact form. For example, I may use as
the electrolyte a solution of sulphate of iron, which like the chloride, has the
property of absorbing and giving up, under similar conditions, the acid radical. I
may also use other materials for the electrodes, as will be well understood, such,
for example, as carbon or those upon which iron may be deposited, or from which
the acid radical may be liberated, and which will not be injuriously affected by
such action.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
First. In a secondary or storage battery, the combination of the electrodes with
an electrolyte of a salt of iron which is capable of absorbing an acid radical, and a
non-porous electrolytic diaphragm interposed between the electrodes, as set forth.
Second. In a secondary or storage battery, an iron electrode and an element or
plate electro-negative thereto in a solution of chloride of iron, in combination
with a non-porous electrolytic diaphragm interposed between the electrodes, as set
forth.
Third. In a secondary or storage battery, the electrodes of iron and carbon
respectively, in a solution of chloride of iron, in combination with a partition or
diaphragm intermediate to the electrodes and composed of fibrite as set forth.
Dated this 8th day of December 1891.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.