Improvements in Secondary or Storage Batteries, and in the Manu- facture of Plates therefor.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Jan., 1890-Accepted, 8th Feb., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by PHŒBUS HARRY ALEXANDER, of 510, West 23rd
Street, New York, United States of America, General Manager of a Company.]
Improvements in Secondary or Storage Batteries, and in the Manu-
facture of Plates therefor.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
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 :-
Storage batteries have heretofore been constructed with a number of plates insulated
from one another, and forming practically independent cells for which the plates them-
selves make the walls or divisions, so that each plate becomes, by the process of
forming positive on one side and negative on the other.
In the construction of such batteries the isolation of each of the small cells has been
effected by the use of independent insulating strips placed along the edges of the
several plates and between the same, and by the use of a plastic insulating compound
between the plates and the strips and the walls or sides of the main containing box
or cell.
The present invention is an improvement in the construction of battery cells of this
character, whereby the same may be made more economically and easily and the cells
as a whole rendered more durable and effective.
The invention is carried out by first forming in any suitable manner, as by moulding
or rolling a sheet of insulating material, such as rubber, or other material of a similar
nature, with parallel grooves or corrugations.
These sheets are cut to the width of the battery case or cell and are laid along the
bottom and two sides of the interior of the cell. The plates are then passed down
into the cell with their edges entering the grooves or corrugations in the insulating
sheet, then by any suitable means the plates are clamped together so that the projections
or corrugations of the insulating sheet will be firmly pressed against the edges of the
plates, insulating them and forming water-tight compartments.
The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which ;
Figure 1 is a transverse section of the insulating sheet.
Figure 2 is a perspective view of a cell lined with the corrugated sheet ready to
receive the plates.
Figure 3 is a section of a cell with the plates inserted in place.
A sheet A is formed with ribs or corrugations a and grooves b.
be formed by rolls or in a mould, and while preferably of
and pliable India-rubber, may be made of any other insulating
serve the same purpose.
These sheets may
comparatively soft
material that will
B is a box or cell of wood or other proper material, one side of which as Cis
adapted to be secured by screws so that it may serve as a clamp for binding together
the plates and the insulating sheet.
In the box or cell B there is applied, to two opposite sides and the bottom,
a length of the sheet A which may be attached to the box by cement if so
desired.
The other sides of said box are also lined with thinner sheets D, D; of rubber or
ike material which is preferably cemented to the edges of the sheet A. By this means
the insulation of the cell is completed. After the sheet A is in position in the cell B,
he battery plates are forced down into the grooves as shown in Figure 3.
The side of the cell is then secured to the box by screws F and when thus

page_text: secured tightly to the box the plates E are firmly clamped by the corrugations or
the sheet A.
The special character of the battery plates is largely a matter of choice. It
is essential, however, that they have a body of solid material that is to say,
without perforations of any kind which will permit the passage through them of
the battery excitant or solution.
Their surfaces, however, may contain recesses or corrugations or be prepared in
any other desired manner to receive and hold the active material.
By this construction the spaces between the plates constitute each a complete cell,
the walls of which are formed by the plates themselves. Into these cells the electrolyte
is poured and when the battery is suitably formed or charged, the electro-motive force
which the battery is capable of developing will be very high.
Each plate becomes positive on one side and negative on the other the contents of
each of the cells being kept separate from that of the others by the solid body of the
plate itself. This is true of all the plates except those at the end which are effected or
rendered active on one side only.
The electrical connections are made in any of the usual ways with the two end plates
of the series.
Another object of the invention is to provide a simple and economical method of
utilizing as the active material for the plates of the battery minium or red lead or
litharge in the condition of a dry powder in which condition it is well known, it is
most readily obtained, but which from the tendency to dissolve or disintegrate which it
exhibits when first applied to the plates and immersed in a solution has rendered its
use heretofore a matter of considerable difficulty.
In carrying out this part of the invention plates or frames of lead or of a suitable
alloy containing proper receptacles or recesses for receiving and retaining the active
material, are first formed in a mould or by the use of dies or in any other desired
manner.
These receptacles or recesses in the plates are then filled with the active material
which as above stated, is a low oxide such as minium or litharge and in the form of a
dry powder. This material is packed into the receptacles provided therefor, with
sufficient force to prevent it falling out or becoming detached from the plates during
the manipulation necessary to their subsequent treatment.
A pile of the plates prepared in this manner is then formed, a fibrous material, such
as a sheet of felt saturated with acidulated water to form a good conductor being
placed between each pair of plates.
A current is then passed through the pile of plates until the same are formed that is
to say, until the active material on one side of each plate has been converted into
spongy lead and that on the other side into peroxide of lead.
When the plates have been thus treated they may be placed in the battery jars or
cells and used in the ordinary way. The dry powder by the action thereon of the
current is so altered in its mechanical condition as to lose its tendency to 'dissolve or
become detached from the plates.
During the charging or forming process by which the powdered oxide on the plates
is exposed to the action of the current, the pile of plates with the interposed sheets of
felt or fibrous material may be mechanically bound together and immersed in an
acidulated solution or they may be simply laid one upon the other and the interposed
sheets of felt moistened sufficiently to form a good conductor. The felt or fibrous
material serves to mechanically retain the powder in place in the lead plates while
being formed.
The lead plates for receiving the active material may be of any desired character or
form suited for the purpose. After being treated in the manner described 'they will
be found capable of withstanding considerable jar and rough usage without becoming
deteriorated by the disintegration and detachment of the active material, from 'them.
This process renders available for use as the active material of secondary batteries, the
lead oxides in the form of dry powder.

page_text: 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 :-
First. In a secondary or storage battery the combination with the plates of a sheet
of flexible insulating material formed with grooves or corrugations into which the
edges of the plates extend forming separate compartments or cells between each pair
of plates, and means for clamping the said sheet and plates together to form water-
tight joints as set forth.
Second. The combination with an outer box or cell of a lining or inner cell com-
posed of the corrugated or grooved rubber sheet A on the bottom and two opposite
sides and the insulating sheets on the other sides, battery plates with their lower and
side edges entering the grooves in the sheet A, and means for clamping or binding
together the grooved sheets and the plates to form water-tight joints as set forth.
Third. The combination with the box or cell B, of the corrugated or grooved sheet
of rubber applied to the bottom and to opposite sides of the interior of the cell, the
plates E with their lower and side edges entering the grooves in the said sheet, and
means for clamping and binding together the sheet and the plates to form water-tight
joints, as set forth.
Fourth. The improvement in the art of forming secondary battery plates, which
consists in applying to the lead plates an active material in the form of a dry powder,
then confining or retaining the material in place by a conducting support, then forming
the material by an electric current while so confined and then removing the support,
as set forth.
Fifth. The improvement in the art of forming plates for secondary batteries which
consists in preparing lead plates with recesses or receptacles, filling the recesses with
minium or its equivalent in the form of a dry powder, then placing said plates
together, with interposed sheets of felt or fibrous material moistened with a conducting
solution, and then passing the current through the same to form the material, as
set forth.
1000
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.
ST