Improvements in Electrical Storage Batteries or Accumulators.
Year: 1890

page_text: COMPLETE DIEULTIVATION.
[Communicated from abroad by GEORGE ELWYN HATCH, of 54. Sacramento Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America, Electrician.]
Improvements in Electrical Storage Batteries or Accumulators.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agen's,
45 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 :-
As is well known to those skilled in the art, storage batteries such as are now
commonly used, consist of plates of lead set parallel to each other, or substantially
so, in a receiver or vessel containing dilute sulphuric acid. These places of lead or
electrodes are either smooth and coated with the active agent of the battery which
is generally what is known commercially as red lead and which is the peroxide of
lead, or either face of the plate is pierced with holes or has a number of small
recesses or depressions in which the red lead is placed as a paste or pigment, and
these holes or recesses assist in retaining the rel lead in place. In such batteries
layers of porous material such as felt, paper, etc. have been located between the coated
leaden plates.
The object of my invention is to construct a storage battery which shall have all
the advantages of these. old batteries and in which the thickness and consequent
cost of the lead plates may be considerably reduced, and my invention consists in
using stiff. porous material, boneycombed or provided with holes, pits. grooves or
depressions, as separators and supporters of the metal plates and in applying the
active material to the porous plates instead of the lead plates as has heretofore been
the practice.
In the accompanying drawings,
Fig. 1 is a horizontal section showing a battery of one call.
Fig. 2 is a perspective of the intermediate plate of porous material.
Fig. 3 is an elevation showing a cell in different proportions from those of the
other figures, a portion of the receiver being broken away to show the binding rods
or strips which secure the plates together.
Fig. 4 is a perspective of part of an intermediate plate similar to chat shown
Fig. 2 but having tho depressions for the active material in the form of grooves.
The receiver or jar is shown at a and may be of any desired shape and of any
suitable material. are the lead conducting plates, fifteen of which are shown, that
being a desirable number for a single coll. These plates may be very thin-almost
lead foil. The alternate plates are connected by a bar c at either side of the cell,
eight plates being connected to one bar and seven to the other, or in any other usual
way. A suitable lug d on each bar serves to connect either series of the plates with
a wire. Between the lead plates I place a series of porous plates fof earthenware
or similar suitable acid-resisting material. These plates are provided on either side,
if both sides be used as will commonly be the case with a number of recesses h,
or pits, or the depressions may be in the form of grooves, as shown Fig. 4, the
recesses on one side alternating preferably with those on the other and in these
recesses I place the active agent of the battery filling the recesses, and preferably
coating the whole surface of the intermediate porous plate so as to insure the
contact of the active agent with the lead plate. If red lead be used may be applied
either as a paste or in a dry state. If the active material is applied in a dry state
it becomes moist or pasty when the plate is immersed in the liquid of the cell. After
the plates are laid together they are preferably bound or clamped so as to hold them
securely in position by passing around them bands k of rubber or they may be
secured together by clamps or in any well-known. manner.
As the lead conducting

page_text: plates or electrodes are securely held in place by the intermediate plates they
cannot warp or twist or come in contact with each other and as they are not
required to support the active agent, they may have smooth surfaces and may be
comparatively thin. As the active agent is supported in recesses in the intermediate
plates directly against which the lead plates are placed, the red lead cannot scale or
drop off and get out of position, so that while the efficiency of the battery is preserved.
its durability, compactness and cheapness are greatly increased. For the best results
the intermediate plates should be of stiff, porous material. The porosity of the
plates permits the liquid of the cell to thoroughly permeate then and their stiffness
enables them to support the red lead and also to maintain their form when several
of the intermediate plates and lead plates are bound or clamped together. As will be
clear, the intermediate porous plates need not be absolutely rigid but they should
have sufficient rigidity to prevent the grooves or pits or recesses from being eliminated
under pressure and maintain their porosity under some degree of compression. The
liquid employed in the cell is that commonly used.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, 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 having intermediate plates of stiff, porous material alternating
with its conducting plates, substantially as shown and described.
2. A storage battery consisting of alternate conducting plates of metal and inter-
mediate plates of earthenware or similar material, to which intermediate plates the
active material or agent of the battery is directly applied.
3. A storage battery consisting of alternate conducting plates of metal and inter-
mediate plates of earthenware or similar porous material, provided with recesses on
either side thereof to receive the active material of the battery, substantially as shown
and described.
4. A separating and supporting plate for storage batteries composed of earthen ware
or similar material and provided on one or both sides with grooves, pits or depressions
for the reception of the active material, substantially as shown and described.
Duted this 25th day of November 1890.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London. Agents for the Applicant.