Improvements in Storage Batteries.
Year: 1889

page_text: COME LEID DIECIFICATION.
Improvements in Storage Batteries.
A communication from abroad by РнŒвUS H. ALEXANDER, of Hyde Park, County
of Norfolk, State of Massachusetts, United States of America, Electrician.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, & 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both in
the County of Lancaster, and 323, High Holborn in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, 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 :-
The object of the invention is to provide a storage battery which shall supply a
high electromotive force while occupying a small space.
The invention consists in placing the plates of the battery, which are all precisely
alike, in more or less close juxtaposition, carefully and thoroughly insulated from
each other and equally insulated from the sides of the case or receptacle which holds
them, by which means the plates become, as it were, the sides of the several cells
thus formed, and also whereby each plate, in the process of forming, becomes positive
on one side and negative on the other. The series of plates may be broken as often
as desired by the interposition of an insulating plate, and the series of cells thus
formed may be themselves joined in series or otherwise, as may be required for use.
The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which :-
Figure 1 shows a prospective of a case containing a battery embodying the
invention.
Figures 2 and 3 are sectional views thereof, and
Figure 4 shows the insulating piece used for separating the plates.
The plates of the battery may be of any of the usual forms that have a body of
solid material; that is, the plates may be recessed, or their surfaces prepared in any
way most desirable to hold the active material, but there must be a solid body without
perforations throughout the plate. The plates may be simply sheets of lead, and the
battery may be formed by the simple process of charging and discharging, by the
method of Plante, or the plates may be artificially formed by any of the methods of
applying active material to the surface.
A convenient method of preparing the battery is illustrated in the drawings. A
case, as A in Figure 1, is prepared, one side of which, as A', is removable. The
battery plates are made of a width somewhat less than the width of the interior of the
case and they are laid within the same, each separated by a piece of rubber or other
insulating material shaped as shown in Figure 4. The case A is filled with the
plates B arranged alternately with the section of rubber C which insulates them
perfectly from each other, and as the plates are made narrower than the inside of
the case, a space is left along each side between the edges of the plates and the sides
of the box. When the box is filled in this manner, the side A¹ is screwed to its place
compressing the plates and the insulating pieces strongly, so that the spaces between
the plates are made perfectly tight. The case being thus filled, the spaces along each
side of the plate between their edges and the side of the box are preferably filled with
an insulating cement D, which assists in making the series of cells perfectly tight,
and prevents short-circuiting through the sides of the case by preventing any moisture
from reaching the outside of the plates. It will thus be seen that the spaces between
the plates as 6 form perfect battery cells, and when these are filled with the usual
electrolyte and the battery suitably "formed," the electromotive force, even of a small
battery, becomes very high, on account of the large number of plates thus collected
into a small space. Each plate becomes positive on one side and negative on the
other, the contents of each cell being kept separate from every other by the solid

page_text: body of the plate itself. It will be observed that the two outside plates are each
half-plates, that is, active on one side only.
The rubber divisions, preferably have thin tongues projecting upward into the
cells, as c, c, which prevent short-circuiting of the cells, by fallen material, as the
latter will fall on one or the other side of the tongue C. Grooves formed in the
rubber divisions would serve the same purpose.
Central insulating pieces may be used, as at e, extending partially or entirely to
the bottom of the cells, for keeping the plates properly separated.
In Figure 3 an insulating plate is shown inserted at f dividing the battery into two
series.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
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 :-
1. A storage battery, consisting of two or more cells formed by similar plates, the
plates forming the sides of the cells, the spaces being filled with a suitable electrolyte,
whereby one side of each plate becomes positive and one side negative in the
process of charging.
2. The combination of a box or case, a series of similar battery plates of width
less than the interior of the case, insulating strips between the sides and lower ends
of said plates, thereby forming cells between the plates, and an insulating and
waterproof cement filling, between the sides of the case and the edges of the
plates.
3. The combination of a series of battery plates, arranged with insulating divisions
between them, said divisions being made moisture tight, whereby the spaces between
the plates form cells for the electrolyte, and insulating plates interspersed, whereby
the battery is divided into two or more separate series.
Dated this 8th day of July 1889
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicants.