CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henri Adolphe Archereau at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
March 1854.
I, HENRI ADOLPHE ARCHEREAU, of Paris, in the Empire of France, and
of 16, Castle Street, Holborn, City, London, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN GALVANIC BATTERIES" to
be as follows, viz. :-
The object of my improvements is to simplify the working and construction
of galvanic batteries. The first part of my improvements consists in rendering.
impervious the lower part & bottom of the porous vessels or diaphragms used
in piles or batteries with two liquids, such as Daniel's, Grove's, Bunsen's, or
any improvements upon these. The operation of rendering the vessels imper-
vious is effected by molten bees or vegetable wax, or a solution of sugar, into.
which the porous vessel is immersed and then calcined; the waterproofing
method, however, which I prefer, is by means of the glazing which is used
already by the telegraph companies, for the upper part of the porous cells.
The second part of of my improvements consists in the application of a
syphon, whose extremities are bent up to the operation of filling and emptying
the successive vessels of a battery.
The necessary number of syphons, having been filled, they will remain so
once for all. They are then placed in the vessels connecting them every one

page_text: to the next of the same kind, and the vessel containing the liquid to be filled
in, being connected with the first cell by a pipe, it will flow through the succes-
sive syphons from vessel to vessel till all of them are filled to the level required.
When the acids of the battery are to be renewed, or the battery has to be
thrown out of activity, the vessels are emptied by putting a syphon into one
of them, and decanting off into a vessel placed below the level of the bottom of
the battery vessels. At the bottom of each vessel there will be left a depth of
liquid, equal to the length of the extreme branches of the syphons. This depth
of liquid is rendered inactive by the waterproofing of the porous vessels, as
above described. For this purpose of preventing them from becoming cor-
roded by the acids thus remaining, the zinc cylinders of the elements are made
to rest on a bottom plate cut out to admit the syphon tube, and placed just
above the level of the acid left.
The third part of my improvements consists in another system of filling and
emptying the exterior or impervious vessels or cells by means of a hole at or
near the bottom of each. The vessels are put in a box or trough, which can
be filled with the exciting liquid to a certain depth by any suitable means.
The holes at the bottoms of the vessels are stopped up and opened when
required by means of cylindrical vulcanised india-rubber pieces, which may be
either hollow or solid, and which fit tight into the holes. These pieces have
heads of gutta percha or any other suitable substance, which heads prevent
them from being drawn into the vessels. When the holes require being
opened for filling or emptying the cells, the stoppers are drawn by strings or
bands made of gutta percha, or any other suitable material. By the tension
the stopper is thinned and the liquid is allowed to escape or enter all round
the stopper. The bands are all attached to a common cross rod running
along the vessels, and by which the stoppers are acted upon all at once.
The fourth part of my improvements consists in a method of filling and
emptying all the vessels of a battery at once by the action of a pump, and
without filling the room in which the battery is placed with the obnoxious
fumes of the acids. For this purpose, the vessels of the battery, which we
suppose to be constructed, for instance, on Grove's principle, are arranged in
rows, and contained in a box closed air-tight, or nearly so. The fumes evolved
during the action of the acids are led off by a pipe on the top of the vessel
into a chimney or chamber, where they may be condensed for further use.
Over each row of vessels run two main pipes of gutta percha or other suitable
material; one of these pipes being for the exterior, the other for the interior
er norous vessels. From these main pipes branch off small vertical pipes,

page_text: which dip into the vessels and rest on the bottom, being slightly bevelled off at
the end, so as to let the fluid enter the pipes.
The main pipes for the outer vessels are all fed from a common pump in the
following manner, and those of the inner or porous vessels are fed in the
same manner by another pump:-Each set of the above-mentioned main
pipes passes through the side of the box into a feed pipe, which is fed from
the cylinder barrel of the pump, the latter being filled by another pipe from
the acid trough or reservoir. The pump is worked in the following way :-
The pipe connecting the reservoir with the pump barrel, and that connecting
the latter with the main pipes described above, are made of vulcanized
india-rubber, or any other suitable material not attacked by the acids used.
The first of these pipes acts as a suction pipe, the other as a forcing pipe.
Whilst the pump barrel is filled by suction, the forcing pump is shut, by
throttling it by means of a lever or other contrivance acting on it near its joint
with the pump barrel. The suction pipe is then throttled or shut in the same
way, and the exciting liquid contained in the barrel is then forced through the
forcing pipe, which has been opened for that purpose, into the main pipes
above described. The acid thus enters into the main pipe, whose section is
made greater than the sum of the sections of all the small vertical branch
pipes, so that all the vessels are filled to the same level nearly at the same
time. The irregular action of the pump tending to fill the nearest vessels first,
is, however, principally counteracted and regulated by the syphon-like action
of each of the vertical branch pipes towards one or more of the other branch
pipes, which may happen to dip into a vessel which is not quite so full as the
others. As the successive branch pipes with the main pipe form a succession
of syphons, in which the acid dwells even after filling, it is necessary to let
them run empty by lifting the branch pipe at one end out of the acid left in the
vessel. The galvanic communication between the vessels is thus destroyed.
For emptying, the pump is worked in a similar manner, only the action of the
throttling lever is reversed; also, after the first stroke or so, the vertical
branch pipes and the main pipes having been filled, will act as syphons, so that
then the action of the pump may be dispensed with, and the emptying may be
terminated by the syphon only. It will be found necessary, however, to check
the flow of the acid by means of a cock, or by throttling the india-rubber pipes
by any suitable means. This prevents the vessels nearest the exit to empty
first, and thus to destroy the action of the syphon.
.
The fifth part of my improvements consists in introducing the positive and
negative elements of a galvanic battery, in a sheath or case made of india-

page_text: rubber or any other suitable material, and of various shapes, but principally
cylindrical. If the. battery has only one liquid, as for instance, the pile of
Volta, this liquid is sent into the interstices between the elements by means of
an opening in the centre of the elements. Through this opening passes a
flexible or rigid rod, such as whalebone or solid india-rubber, or any other
suitable substance. The elements are separated in any suitable way, such as
round wooden beads strung on the above-mentioned rod. If the battery has
two liquids, they are introduced each by a pipe passing through the elements
or along the sheath, and opening in the proper compartment or cell; the
principle of this battery being the faculty of injecting the exciting liquid,
either periodically or continuously, at certain times through apertures or pipes
passing through or along the elements. Two other flexible tubes may be
made to pass through the elements, for the purpose of letting the fumes of the
acids escape, or for withdrawing the acids when necessary, and whilst the
battery is working.
The sixth part of my improvements consists in obtaining dense pieces of
black lead or graphite, by compressing black lead powder under the hydraulic
or any other powerful press, these pieces being used in galvanic batteries in
lieu of carbon.