IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTING. AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ebenezer Banton Burr, of Walthamstowe, and William
Thomas Scott, of the Crown Chemical Works, Stratford, both in the County
of Essex, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES FOR
ELECTRIC LIGHTING. AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ebenezer Banton Burr and
William Thomas Scott at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
22nd December 1881.
EBENEZER BANTON BURR of Walthamstowe and WILLIAM THOMAS SCOTT of
the Crown Chemical Works, Stratford both in the County of Essex; "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES."
This Invention has for its object improvements in galvanic batteries for electric
lighting and for other purposes.
Our improved galvanic battery consists of zinc and carbon elements arranged in
cells made of wood lined with water proof cement.
The cells are filled around the elements with asbestos fibre, blown slag or like
material and this is saturated with a mixture of bichromate of potash and
phosphoric acid with a little nitric acid added.
With such a battery we produce a portable incandescent electric light. For this
purpose we form a wooden trough with two cells and in each cell we arrange four
elements say nine inches long by four inches wide and coupled together in pairs
zinc and carbon in the usual way. The elements are packed in asbestos which fills
the cells and the asbestos is moistened with the mixed solutions of bichromate of
potash and phosphoric acid.
The battery is provided with a cover and on the top of the cover is a flask of
glass in which a carbon filament is contained. The terminal wires of the battery
are connected with wires to which the extremities of the carbon filament ure
attached and the light is exhibited.

page_text: •
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Ebenezer Banton Burr and William Thomas Scott in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 22nd June 1882.
EBENEZER BANTON BURR of Walthamstow, and WILLIAM THOMAS SCOTT of
the Crown Chemical Works, Stratford, both in the County of Essex. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES FOR ELECTRIC LIGHTING AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES."
This Invention has for its object improvements in galvanic batteries, and is
chiefly designed to provide a convenient and efficient portable apparatus for
electric lighting although the said Invention is applicable for other purposes.
Our improved galvanic battery has zinc and carbon plates or electrodes arranged
in cells made of wood or similar material lined with waterproof cement.
The space within the cells between or surrounding the plates is filled with
asbestos fibre, blown slag, or like material and this is saturated with a mixture
of bichromate of potash phosphoric acid, and sometimes a small quantity of nitric
acid.
In the accompanying Drawing we have shown our Invention embodied in the
construction of an electric lamp or lighting apparatus for domestic or other use.
Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of the said apparatus.
Figure 2 is a horizontal section on the line x, x, Figure 1.
Like letters indicate the same parts in both of these Figures.
We construct a stand or body a of porcelain or other suitable material of any
desired form and dimensions, and provided with a chamber b. Within this
chamber we place the battery c which we construct as follows, that is to say,
it consists of a wooden trough or box divided by a partition c* into two cells or
compartments c¹ c²; in each cell we arrange the zinc and carbon plates de
connected as shown by the wires c secured to the small studs or buttons f which
are fixed on the said plates, and for convenience are arranged to project through
one side of the trough c as shewn. Between and around the plates de we place
the asbestos or other material which, as above stated, is moistened with the solution
of bichromate of potash and phosphoric acid with or without the nitric acid.
We combine with the said battery an incandescent lamp of any suitable
construction as shewn in Figure 1, that is to say, we provide the said apparatus
with a cover al and on the top of this cover we place a flask or globe h of glass
enclosing a carbon or other filament whose extremities are connected by suitable
conductors with the positive and negative terminals i, j, of the battery in the usual
manner.
From the above description it will be obvious that our Invention affords the
means for supplying a portable electric lighting apparatus or lamp which, with
a very moderate expense, will afford a brilliant and uniform light, that is to say
when the battery is charged it will supply and maintain for several hours a
current of sufficient intensity to maintain the incandescence of the carbon
filament, and when the said battery is exhausted it can be readily and cheaply
recharged.
Having thus fully described our said Invention and the manner of performing
the same we wish it understood that we do not claim generally, or irrespectively of
the improved construction hereinabove specified the manufacture of a portable
electric lighting apparatus, but we claim :-
The improvements consisting in the trough or box divided into cells or com-
partments containing zinc and carbon packed with asbestos or other like material

page_text: saturated with the acid solution, the battery being constructed and arranged for
combination and connection with an incandescent lamp or other device in such a
manner that the whole forms a portable apparatus substantially as shewn and
described.
In witness whereof we the said Ebenezer Banton Burr and William Thomas
Scott have hereunto set our hands and seals this Twenty second day of
June in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty two.