Improvements in Storage Batteries.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Nov., 1893-Accepted, 30th Dec., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Storage Batteries.
I, EDWARD PRESTON USHER, of South Street, Grafton, Worcester County,
Massachusetts, United States of America, Lawyer, 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 secondary batteries, and is the result of an effort to
reduce their cost to the very lowest proportions consistent with the highest.
I take a plain
efficiency and with adaptation for manufacture on a large scale.
sheet of lead of the desired shape and certain separator sheets consisting of wood,
earthenware or any equivalent porous substances, together with spacers or end.
pieces to hold the other parts in proper position, and a filling of active material..
These spacers or end pieces are provided with a slot their whole length, to receive
the edge of the lead sheet, and preferably have two of their sides fluted or
corrugated, such fluted sides being those that come against the surface of the
separator sheet when the cell is set up. The flutes or corrugations serve to
admit the acid between the separator and end pieces, so that it may saturate the
filling of active material in which the lead is embedded. I also employ a side
piece to place against the last one of the series of plates to give it lateral support.
The lead plates rest in the spacer slots with the separators extending between the
successive spacers. The cell is built up of several of these sets, and when put
together the entire cell is placed in a shallow pan or mold filled with hot liquid
gum, which hardens and becomes very firm when it cools. The gum may rise say
from to of an inch. The lead plates may or may not be held by this gum
bottom, but there is a certain advantage in having them removable, while the.
separators and spacers are held in the gum. The chambers in which the several.
lead plates are held between separators are filled with powdered lead oxide.
When the lugs are connected up the cell is ready to be electrically formed.
This form of construction is admirably adapted where the width of the plate is
not more than one to two inches, and owing to its extreme cheapness will tend to
very much broaden the field of usefulness of the secondary cell. One advantage of
the end spacers as used is that they absolutely prevent a short circuit of the cell by
any contact between the two plates on their vertical edges. This has been a very
As this cell'
common source of trouble, particularly at the lower part of the cell.
is now improved by me it is impossible that a short circuit should be in any way
established so long as the cell is in its correct condition from a mechanical point
of view.
When the plates have considerable breadth I use intermediate spacers placed on
opposite sides of the plate, to keep it in about a central position between two
separators. These spacers groove vertically to give open wells for the gases to
rise and the acid to circulate in. In some cases the end spacers will be in
two parts, on opposite sides of the plate, instead of being single and slotted.
By preference I slit the plate vertically from bottom nearly to the top, and give
some or all of the prongs between the ends a spiral twist, the active material
filling into the convolutions of the twisted prongs. The plain ends of the plate
enter the slots of the spacers.
In the drawing,
Figure 1 is a horizontal section through a battery constructed according to my
invention.
Figure 2 is a vertical section on line 2-2 of Figure 1, showing the lower
portion of the battery and the shallow dish of gum in which the plates and separators

page_text: Figure 3 is an elevation of the leaden plate or frame, shewing the preferred
form.
Figure 4 is a perspective view of one of the end spacers, and
Figure 5 is a sectional detail illustrating the intermediate spacers on opposite
sides of the metal plate.
Figure 6 is a detail.
A is the leaden or other conducting plate, either a plain sheet or in other suitable
form. I prefer the novel form represented in Figure 3, in which the intermediate
portion of the plate a is slitted from the bottom upwardly into narrow prongs, part
or all of them being twisted spirally. The ends of the plate may be however,
plain and vertical, and fit loosely into the vertical groove 6 of the end spacers B.
These spacers are strips of wood, hard rubber or the like, preferably corrugated,
on their sides to permit entrance of the acid.
CC are the separators, interposed between the successive plates and projecting
at their ends between the spacers B, thus leaving each plate in the centre of a
vertical chamber into which I pack a filling of material D to become active. This
filling I apply in the form of a dry powder, which fills the spaces each side of the
plate and along the convolutions of its twisted prongs.
At each end of the battery cell I employ the outside piece or lateral support E
which lies flat against the last negative plate A and spacer B, so that such plate
shall not be injured in handling. The whole series of parts, plates, separators,
spacers and lateral supports, may then be bound together by the elastic or other
band F and set at foot into the shallow pan H and embedded in a layer of cement
or gum G, by which they are fixed in their relative positions. The lead oxide or
other material B is then filled into the spaces reserved for it.
When the plates A are of considerable width I furnish intermediate spacers J,
Figure 5, on opposite sides of the plate, between it and the adjacent separator.
These side spacers have broad grooves which form open vertical wells for the acid
to circulate and the gases to rise in.
The entire cell, made up of the parts stated, is placed in a suitable jar or box,
and the acid gradually enters through the pores of the separators and the small
openings between the separator ends and the corrugated sides of the spacers B,
and speedily permeates the entire body of the oxide. Minute perforations may
be made through these spacers to serve as inlets in addition to the corrugations.
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 :-
:-
1. In a storage battery, the combination of metallic conducting pieces, with
vertical end spacers which receive the edges of the conducting pieces, porous
separators alternating with said pieces and extending at their ends between
successive spacers, and a filling of material to become active interposed between
said conducting pieces and the separators, substantially as set forth.
2. In a storage battery, the combination of metallic conductors and vertically
slotted end spacers adapted to receive the edges of said conductors, with porous
separators alternating with them and held at their ends by said spacers, and with a
filling of material to become active packed into the chambers between said
separators, and in contact with said conductors, substantially as set forth.
3. In a storage battery, lead plates, porous separators, end-spacers to hold
said parts in place, packed active material in the enclosed spaces, and outside
pieces applied laterally to the outermost plates, substantially as set forth.
4. In a secondary battery, the combination with conducting plates and non-
conducting separators, of the described spacers, having broad grooves which
form vertical wells on each side of the conducting plate, substantially as set
forth.
5. In a storage battery, conducting plates and porous separators, in combination
with vertical space-pieces between said parts at points intermediate between their
0

page_text: ends, and with a filling of material to become active, in the enclosed spaces,
substantially as set forth.
6. The described end-spacers for the plates and separators of secondary batteries,
consisting of bars or blocks grooved or slotted to receive the plates, and having
fluted sides, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
7. In a storage battery, the combination with porous, non-conducting separators,
end-spacers, and a filling of material to become active, of the described conductor
consisting of a metallic sheet slitted vertically from bottom nearly to top, and
having part of the prongs so formed twisted spirally, substantially as
forth.
set
8. In a storage battery, the combination with the conducting plates, of porous
separators interposed between successive plates, end-spacers to hold the plates and
separators in position, and a shallow bed of cement or gum in which the bottoms of
such separators and spacers are embedded, substantially as set forth.
9. In a storage battery, a series of porous separators and end-spacers adapted to
hold the plates and separators in position, in combination with a body of cement
or gun in which the bottoms of the separators and spacers are embedded, and with
interposed conducting plates, not held by the gum, substantially as set forth.
Deted this 21st day of November 1893.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.