Accumulators.
Year: 1889

page_text: Accumulators.
I, ORAZIO LUGO, M.D. Electrician and Chemist, of West 14th Street in the City
and State of New York, United States of America, 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 that branch of the electrical art known as secondary or
polarization batteries which are first changed from some extraneous electrical source
and then connected to the translating devices it is desired to operate by electricity.
To this end the said invention consists.
1st. In a novel substance designed for use around or in contact with the electrodes
of the battery or itself constituting the electrodes; said substance being of such a
nature that when the poles or electrodes of the battery are connected to a charging
source of the required electro motive force the gases evolved electrolytically at the
said poles or electrodes or through said substance will be occluded or absorbed as such,
that is to say, oxygen will be developed and absorbed or occluded at the same moment
at the anode or positive pole, and hydrogen will be developed and absorbed or occluded
at the cathode or negative pole without detrimental resulting chemical action upon the
substance itself or the electrode.
It consists secondly in novel processes of preparing the said substance.
It consists thirdly in a novel battery constructed with gas occluding or absorbing
electrodes immersed in an electrolyte.
It consists fourthly in a novel process of storing or occluding electrolytically
developed gases adapted to be recombined or reconverted into their original form and
by such reconvertion to produce or generate electricity.
Prior to my invention it was old in the art to decompose an electrolytic fluid into
its constituent gases oxygen and hydrogen and to store the gases so decomposed in
independent vessels and then recombine these gases thereby reconverting them into
their original or combined state, and at the same time produce an electrical current.
This type of battery is known in the art as a gas battery and I make no claim to
the broad idea of such a construction or to the processes involved in its construction
TD 417

page_text: and use. My invention lies in the several features above indicated and hereinafter
described.
In order that my invention may be fully understood, 1 will now proceed to describe
the best processes and means known and employed by me at present for putting it
into practical use.
I first prepare as one of the occluding substances an allotropic material, preferably
allotropic or finely divided or spongy lead.
This allotropic material is produced by a novel process hereinafter described.
I then immerso this material in a bath or solution of such a metallic salt as will
precipitate the metal of the salt upon the whole spongy surface of the allotropic or
finely divided material.
This material when so prepared with two occluding elements superposed upon each
other constitutes the gas occluding or absorbing substance and is indestructible under
the electric action of charging or discharging. It is not only indestructible but has
also the property of occluding or absorbing much greater quantity of the gases than
if constituted of the same weight of a single occluding element of metal; this
property being somewhat analogous to that of alloys and their separate elementary
metals in metallurgy.
While this substance which is also amorphous has the property of occluding or
absorbing such gases as oxygen and hydrogen when evolved through itself it will not
be oxydized by the nascent oxygen or reduced to a different form by the nascent
hydrogen or acted upon by any of the combinations which hydrogen and oxygen in
their nascent state may form; such for instance as peroxide of hydrogen.
I will now describe in detail the entire procedure involved in the preparation of my
improved gas occluding material and its application and use in a secondary or
polarization battery taking as a type those elementary substances which appear to me
to give the best results and at the same time he produced at a minimum cost.
I first prepare one of the allotropic materials preferably spongy or porous lead as
follows:-
I take two or three chemical equivalents of chloride of sodium (Na Cl) and mix
them in a dry pulverized state with one chemical equivalent of acetate of lead
(Pho À).
I then dampen the mixture and mix it still further after which 1 dissolve it in water.
This mixing process is carried on preferably in a vessel having a lead lining. Metallic
zinc (Zn) is now suspended or immersed in this solution and the following reaction
takes place. The act of mixing the acotate of lead (Pbo A) and chloride of sodium
(Na CI) formed acetate of soda (Na OA) and chloride of lead (Pb Cl). The excess
of the chloride of sodium (Na Cl) in the nature after the formation of acetate of soda
and chloride of lead (Pb CI) acts as a solvent of the chloride of lead (Pb cl) and
when the zinc is immersed in the solution, the chlorine (CI) of the chloride of lead
(Pb cl) acts upon the zinc (Zn) thereby forming chloride of zinc (Zn Cl) and at the
same time depositing metallic lead (Pb) on the surface of the zinc (Zn) said metallic
lead being in an extremely divided or spongy or alletropic condition.
When this reaction is completed the mother liquid is withdrawn and a diluted
solution of sulphate of copper (Un O So, H2 O) is introduced into the vessel containing
the allotropic or spongy lead.
The introduction of this sulphate of copper causes metallic copper to be deposited
upon the surface of the divided or spongy lead. This substance produced by the
precipitation of the copper upon the exceedingly finely divided lead, which division
approaches very closely to atomic division is now bimetallic in its nature and is in
such a state of chemical equilibrium as to resist either oxydation or change of form
due to contact only, in contra-distinction to a combined state such as exists in an
alloy of two metals, or, in other words, thoir chemical affinities are entirely satisfied
by contact so that no difference in electrical potential exists between these metals,
and therefore in this case no oxidation or change of form can take place. This
substance is now pressed sufficiently to remove the excess of liquid or the solution
remaining in it and is ready for use in the battery.

page_text: In practice I pack it tightly around the electrodes consisting of metallic or metalloid
plates located in porous jars said plates having the usual binding posts and
connections. Both electrodes so constructed are then immersed in an electrolytic
solution preferably dilute (So, HO) sulphuric acid. I do not, however, limit myself
to any special construction of electrode or to any special combination of this improved
gas absorbing or occluding substance with any special kind of electrode or electrolyte
as it may be used with any such form or construction as may suggest itself or may
be used as an electrode per se when connected directly to the poles of the battery
and with usual electrolytes. Nor do I limit myself to the special metallic salts
herein-named from which this substance or material is composed, as it is obvious
other metallic salts may be used, as for example, acetate of silver (Ago A) may
supplant the lead salt from which reaction, allotropic or spongy or finely divided
metallic silver will result. Other metallic salts having the properties of the two
metallic salts named may of course be used instead. Instead of the solution of
sulphate of copper from which metallic copper is deposited on the allotropic lead, I
may substitute a salt of nickel or any other metallic salt which when used would
deposit the metal of the salt upon the allotropic lead or silver or other material used.
The operation of my improved battery is at once obvious as in charging oxygen is
generated at the anode and absorbed by the occluding or absorbing substance,
hydrogen being generated and occluded or absorbed at the cathode. After the
battery is fully charged which will be determined when it begins to give off the free
oxygen and hydrogen gases in natural state the absorbing material refusing to take
more than its occluding capacity, it may be disconnected from the charging source
and used in the well known manner.
I have found that such a battery may stand for months and lose none of its charge
the gases being held securely in their occluded or absorbed state and no chemical
action heing noticeable in the cell, the action being purely physical in its nature.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
First The described gas absorbent for use in storage or polarization batteries
consisting of superposed allotropic materials, substantially as described.
Second An absorbent or occluding substance for use in secondary or polarization
batteries, consisting of finoly divided or allotropic metals superposed upon each other,
substantially as described.
Third-The described absorbent or occluding substance for polarization or secondary
batteries, consisting of finoly divided material of atom like nature, each atom or
divided portion being entirely covered by a coating of an independent material,
substantially as described.
Fourth The described absorbent or occluding substance for the gases generated
in secondary or polarization batteries, consisting of finely divided or allotropic or
spongy lead, each particle of which is coated or covered with allotropic or finely
divided or spongy copper, substantially as described.
Fifth The described process of preparing spongy or divided material for use in
secondary or polarization batteries which consists in mixing two metallic salts then
putting them in solution and finally subjecting zinc to the action of this solution,
substantially as described.
Sixth-The described process of preparing spongy or divided lead for use in
secondary or polarization batteries which consists in mixing chloride of sodium with
acetate of lead then putting them in solution and finally subjecting zinc to the
action of this solution, substantially as described.
Seventh-The described process of preparing a substance for occluding or absorbing
the gases evolved in charging a secondary or polarization battery, which consists in
superposing two finely divided elements upon each other, substantially as described.
Eighth The described process of preparing a substance for occluding or absorbing

page_text: the gases evolved in charging a secondary or polarization battery which consists in
superposing two finely divided metals, substantially as described.
Ninth The described process of preparing a substance for occluding or absorbing
the gases evolved in charging a secondary or polarization battery, consisting in
creating a finely divided or spongy mass of material, then superposing a second
material upon or throughout the mass of the first named material, substantially as
described.
Tenth A secondary or polarization battery having electrodes composed of atom
like material adapted to occlude or absorb the gases evolved in charging, substantially
as describo.l.
Eleventh-An electrode for a secondary or polarization battery, consisting of atom
like material adapted to absorb or occlude the gases evolved in charging, substantially
as described.
Twelfth A secondary or polarization battery having electrodes of atom like
material immersed in an electrolytic fluid, substantially as described.
Thirteenth A secondary or polarization battery having electrodes of disintegrated
atom like material adapted to absorb or occlude the gases evolved during the process
of charging, substantially as described.
Fourteenth A secondary or polarization battery having electrodes of atom like
material packed around conducting plates or surfaces, and immorsed in an electrolytic
fluid, substantially as described.
Fifteenth A secondary or polarization battery having electrodes of atom like
material, packed in porous jars or cups located in an electrolytic fluid, substantially
as described.
Sixteenth-A secondary or polarization battery having electrodes composed of atom
like material packed around conducting plates or surfaces contained in porous jars,
said jars being immersed in an electrolytic fluid, substantially as described.
Dated this 15th day of January 1889.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London,
Agents for the Applicant.