IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND REGULATION OF SECONDARY VOLTAIC BATTERIES
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Francis Joel at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st October 1883.
HENRY FRANCIS JOEL of Dalston in the County of Middlesex
"
IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND REGULATION OF SECONDARY VOLTAIC BATTERIES
"
My invention relates to methods of constructing and combining the electrode
plates for secondary voltaic batteries, and to arrangements for regulating the action
of those batteries when they are employed in connection with a producer of
electricity such as a dynamo electric machine and with objects such as electric
lamps in which the electricity is applied.
In constructing the electrode plates, I use generally lead and oxide of lead, and I
will describe the constructions as being applied to these substances, but it is to be
understood that the same constructions can be applied to other suitable materials
capable of being compressed and of being made to coliere by pressure in a manner
similar to lead.
I lay together a number of lead wires side by side and on this I put a layer of
peroxide of lead or of finely subdivided lead or of a mixture of these. The finely
subdivided lead may be that deposited by electrolysis, or it may be lead wool such
as is described in the Specification to Woodley and Joel's Patent dated the
31st October 1882 N° 5183. On this layer I place another layer of lead wires
preferably in a direction crossing those of the first layer. I then squeeze this
compound plate between two surfaces which have projecting ribs or studs, so that
all the parts of the plate facing the ribs or studs are pressed hard together and
caused inore or less to coliere. In some cases I place, outside the layers of wire,
frames of lead made with numerous openings through them so as to constitute cross
gratings, and I press the whole between flat surfaces, the grating bars operating to
squeeze the materials of the plate and cause cohesion. The lead gratings are
secured together by lead rivets. Or, otherwise, lead plates without openings
through them are placed on the wires, and the whole is squeezed between surfaces
having projecting pins or studs which puncture the plates under compression. In
cases where the external plates are not used, I introduce between the wires strips
of lead to establish thorough electrical conduction. In constructing secondary
batteries on a large scale, I superpose on one another a number of perforated lead
trays in cach of which I place a layer of lead wires, covered by peroxide of lead or

page_text: a mixture thereof with finely subdivided lead, and I secure the whole together by
bolts, which may be of iron sheathed with lead. The battery thus constructed is
immersed in exciting liquid contained in a tank of non-conducting material such as
brick work, cement, slate or the like.
For the purpose of regulating the charge and discharge of secondary batteries, I
connect one pole of the secondary cell or series of cells to the conductor leading
from one electrode of the dynamo machine or other source of electricity to the
lamps or other objects to which the electricity is applied, and I connect the other
pole of the cell or series of cells through a galvanoscope apparatus to the other
electrode of the electric producer. I also connect the return conductor from the
lamps or other objects through a bridge to the last mentioned electrode of the
producer, the galvanoscope apparatus being situated within the bridge. The
galvanoscope apparatus may have a needle or solenoid core or may be of the kind
of a magneto motor, so that the moving part has its movement reversed by change
of current. This moving part is arranged to make contact with a number of
succes-ive points, so that, according to the extent which it moves, it brings into
circuit or cuts ont of circuit a greater or less number of cells of the secondary
battery, or a greater or less number of resistances. Thus, according as the
electricity of the secondary battery exceeds or falls short of that from the
producer, the number of cells brought into circuit is lessened or increased by the
movement of the galvanoscope, or a greater or less number of resistances are
introduced in the circuit of the battery, the effect being to maintain regularity in
the lamps or other objects to which the electricity is applied, notwithstanding
considerable variations in the electrical production or storage.
Instead of connecting through a bridge as above described, I sometimes employ
n galvanoscope apparatus having differential or opposite coils, one of these being in
the circuit of the secondary battery, and the other in the circuit of the lamps or
other objects to which the electricity is applied.