APPARATUS FOR REFRESHING GALVANIC BATTERIES
Year: 1884

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of the firm of A. M. and Wm. Clark, of
53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Fellow of the Institute of Patent
IMPROVED
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "
APPARATUS FOR REFRESHING GALVANIC BATTERIES a communication to me from .
abroad by Alfred Dun of Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the Empire of Germany, to bo
as follows:-
A Battery which is to be used to any great extent in practice, must besides
possessing great constancy be provided with an effective and simple means of
refreshment whereby the emptying and filling up or adding to the battery may be
effected without causing any interruption of the current. This is accomplished in
the most complete and effectual manner by the arrangement hereinafter described,
which forms the subject of the present invention. Referring to the accompanying
drawing which represents a cross section of one of the cells and the supply troughs,
the outer vesssel B of the cell is preferably of oblong rectangular form in plan but
may be of other form and the cylinder K is placed in this vessel in such a way that
it stands moderately close to one of the short sides of the latter, by which means a
moderately broad free space is left at the opposite end inside the vessel B. At
each side of a row of cells B is a distributing trough G, which troughs are auto-
matically kept filled from a larger reservoir Q at a higher level closed air tight and
from which a dip pipe Z descends into the adjacent trough G the liquid flowing into
the trough only so long as the mouth of the dip pipe Z remains unsealed.
Attached to a common supporting frame R above the battery are a number of
small dipping vessels a u¹ which are simultaneously raised and lowered by means
of a winch. In descending these vessels dip into the liquid contained in the
compartments or vessels immediately below them and are filled therewith. The
vessels a dip into troughs G containing the fresh liquid for filling up the cells
whilst the others a¹ respectively dip the one into the vessel B between the latter
and the cylinder K and the other into the earthenware cylinder T for the purpose
The dipping
of removing an equal quantity of exhausted liquid therefrom.
vessels a a have discharge orifices r at bottom, those of the vessels a a being

page_text: attached to tubes c d by india-rubber tubes b b whilst those of the vessels a¹ a¹ are
in communication by similar flexible tubes 6' with the discharge pipe A leading to
a receptacle for collecting the liquid. When these dipping vessels are lowered and
raised simultaneously as above described the fluid contained in the vessels a a flows
out through pipes b b c d into T and K whilst the liquid in the vessels a' a¹ passes
through the tubes b¹¹ into the discharge pipe A. Instead of the vessels a¹ being
coupled by tubing with the pipe A they can discharge into funnels placed on
pipe A into which the fluid flows when the vessels a¹ are sufficiently raised. The
india-rubber tubes bb b¹ b' are so long that they are not drawn tight when the
vessels are raised to the full height, but a bight of the tube hangs down into
the corresponding vessel as shewn so that the fluid draining from the outside of the
vessels a a' and the tubing 6 b¹ will drop back into the same compartments or
vessels. If the exhausted liquids taken from the vessel B and the earthenware
cylinder T are to be kept separate, two discharge pipes A must be provided to
which the tubes of vessels a¹ are respectively coupled.
The dipping vessels can be made of glass, earthenware, ebonite or any other
material not acted on by acids and in various forms. For instance they may either
be entirely open at top or partly closed and provided with small inlet holes at top
for the entry of the liquid, or in addition to the above they may have an inlet hole
at bottom closed by a ball valve through which in dipping into the liquid the latter
flows into the dipping vessel the said inlet orifice being closed by the ball valve
when the vessel rises. Or when the dipping vessel has not attached outlet tube b
or b¹ the outlet orifice may also be the inlet for the liquid the vessel being narrowed
at top into a long neck closed by a ball valve connected to a lever pivoted to a
support carried by the dipping vessel. When the dipping vessel sinks in the liquid
the latter enters the vessel through the discharge orifice as the enclosed air raises
the valve by its pressure. When the vessel rises, the valve above closes and the
liquid is prevented by atmospheric pressure from flowing out until just before the
vessel has reached the determined height the lever arm of the vessel meets a stop
by which the valve is opened thus allowing the contents of the vessel to flow out
by the discharge orifice.
If several batteries are arranged in stages one above the other, then the several
frames R by which the vessels a a¹ are carried, are connected so that all can be
raised and lowered together by the same arrangement. The system can also be
arranged to work in connection with a clock by which the operation is performed
automatically at certain periods of time, and a record of the number of times it is
performed is kept.
If the emptying and filling are independent of each other the dipping vessels for
filling and emptying must be fixed to separate frames instead of to the same one.
By special working arrangements these frames can be raised and lowered in the
required manner independently of each other.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of the firm of A. M. and Wm. Clark, of
53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Fellow of the Institute of Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
APPARATUS FOR REFRESHING GALVANIC BATTERIES" (a communication to me from
abroad by Alfred Dun of Frankfort-on-the-Main in the Empire of Germany,) and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
A battery which is to be used to any great extent in practice must besides
possessing great constancy be provided with an effective and simple means of
refreshment whereby the emptying and filling up or adding to the battery may be
effected without causing any interruption of the current. This is accomplished in
the most complete and effectual manner by the arrangement hereinafter described
which forms the subject of the prosent Invention.
Referring to the accompanying drawing figures 1 and 2 are sections on x-y
figure 3 of one of the cells of a battery with the dipping vessels in the lowered and
raised positions respectively. Figure 3 is a plau of the battery; Figure 4 sections
of different forms of dipping vessels.
The outer vessel B of the cell is preferably of oblong rectangular form in plan
but may be of other form and the cylinder K is placed in this vessel in such a way
that it stands moderately close to one of the short sides of the latter, by which
means a moderately broad free space is left at the opposite end inside the vessel B.
At each side of a row of cells B is a distributing trough G, which troughs are
automatically kept filled from a larger reservoir Q at a higher level closed air tight
and from which a dip pipe Z descends into the adjacent trough G the liquid
flowing into the trough only so long as the mouth of the dip pipe Z remains
unsealed.
Attached to a common supporting frame R above the battery are a number of
small dipping vessels a a' which are simultaneously raised and lowered by means
of a winch. In descending these vessels dip into the liquid contained in the
compartments or vessels immediately below them and are filled therewith. The
vessels a dip into troughs G containing the fresh liquid for filling up the cells
whilst the others a¹ respectively dip the one into the vessel B between the latter
and the cylinder K and the other into the earthenware cylinder T for the purpose
of removing an equal quantity of exhausted liquid therefrom. The dipping
vessels a a have discharge orifices at bottom, those of the vessels a a being
attached to tubes c d by india-rubber tubes b b whilst those of the vessels a¹ a¹ are
in communication by similar flexible tubes 6' with the discharge pipe A leading to
a receptacle for collecting the liquid.
When these dipping vessels are lowered and raised simultaneously as above
described the fluid contained in the vessels a a flows out through pipes b b c d
into T and K whilst the liquid in the vessels a¹ a¹ passes through the tubes 61 61
into the discharge pipe A. Instead of the vessels a being coupled by tubing with
the pipe & they can discharge into funnels t placed on pipe A see figure 5 into
which the fluid flows when the vessels a' are sufficiently raised. The india-rubber
tubes b b b¹ b¹ are so long that they are not drawn tight when the vessels are

page_text: raised to the full height, but a bight of the tube hangs down into the corresponding
vessel as shown in figure 2 so that the fluid draining from the outside of the
vessels a a¹ and the tubing bbl will drop back into the same compartments or
vessels. If the exhausted liquids taken from the vessel B and the earthenware
cylinder T are to be kept separate, two discharge pipes A must be provided to
which the tubes of vessels a¹are respectively coupled.
The dipping vessels can be made of glass, earthenware, ebonite or any other
material not acted on by acids and in various forms, as shewn in figure 4 For
instance they may either be entirely open at top as at g or partly closed as at h, i
and provided with small inlet holes at top for the entry of the liquid, or in
addition to the above they may have an inlet hole o at bottom closed by a ball
valve v through which in dipping into the liquid the latter flows into the dipping
vessel the said inlet orifice being closed by the ball valve when the vessel rises.
Or when the dipping vessel has not an attached outlet tube b or b¹ the outlet
orifice may also be the inlet for the liquid the vessel being narrowed at top into a
long neck k closed by a ball valve connected to a lever pivoted at 9 to a
support y carried by the dipping vessel. When the dipping vessel sinks in the
liquid the latter enters the vessel through the discharge orifice as the enclosed air
raises the valve by its pressure. When the vessel rises, the valve above closes and
the liquid is prevented by atmospheric pressure from flowing out until, just before
the vessel has reached the determined height, the lever arm of the vessel meets
a stops by which the valve is opened thus allowing the contents of the vessel to
flow out by the discharge orifice.
If several batteries are arranged in stages one above the other, then the several
frames R by which the vessels a a¹ are carried, are connected so that all can be
raised and lowered together by the same arrangement. The system can also be
arranged to work in connection with a clock by which the operation is performed
automatically at certain periods of time, and a record of the number of times it is
performed is kept.
If the emptying and filling are independent of each other the dipping vessels for
filling and emptying must be fixed to separate frames instead of to the same one.
By special working arrangements these frames can be raised and lowered in the
required manner independently of each other.
If only a filling arrangement as described is used, the emptying may be effected
by any means for instance by means of an automatic siphon arrangement as well
known for regulating the level of fluids in a vessel.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what
I claim is
1st In combination with a one or two cell galvanic element, an emptying
arrangement consisting of one or more dipping vessels which when immersed in
the exciting liquid contained in the element become filled with it, and on rising are
emptied into a vessel close by for remanufacture.
•
2nd Instead of or in combination with this emptying arrangement a filling
arrangement consisting of one or more dipping vessels which when immersed in a
reservoir of fresh exciting liquid become filled with it and when raised empty their
contents into the element through an indiarubber tube or in any other suitable
manner substantially as described.