Improvements in Electric Accumulators or Storage Batteries, applicable also as a Constant Primary Element.
Year: 1893

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Electric Accumulators or Storage Batteries,
applicable also as a Constant Primary Element.
I, HEINRICH LEHMANN, of Halle on the Saal, in the Empire of Germany,
Royal Councillor of Commerce, 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 :-
My invention relates to electric accumulators or storage batteries, in which the
electrodes consist, as heretofore, both of two similar or of different metals or
substances, but in which an active mass and an exciting liquid different from those
used in storage batteries as heretofore, are employed.
As the active mass there is employed according to my invention the commercial
peroxide of barium, which always contains oxide of barium, and as the exciting
liquid there is employed a solution of chloride of barium in water.
The active mass may be applied to the plate or be pressed into the same in the
condition of a stiff paste made by stirring up with water. But the peroxide of
barium may however also be charged into a perforated plate of hollow form.
The electro-chemical action which takes place when the storage battery is being
charged, is as follows:-
The electric charging current decomposes the water of the solution of chloride
of barium into hydrogen and oxygen, and at the same time decomposes the barium
salt into oxide of barium and free hydrochloric acid. The oxide of barium becomes
decomposed again into metallic barium and oxygen; the nascent oxygen combining
with the also nascent hydrogen to form water, so that only metallic barium
becomes deposited as a positive component upon the negative electrode.
The remaining oxygen passes to the positive electrode and is taken up by the
active mass; the oxide contained therein being converted into peroxide. A portion
of the oxygen may also become combined by contact action with the fine mud
produced in the formation of the plate, and offering a very large surface.
The discharging process is based, as in accumulators or storage batteries hereto-
fore employed, on the re-formation or re-constitution of the combinations or
compounds produced by the charging operation into the combinations or compounds
existing before the charging operation and after the formation of the plate. The
oxygen accumulated in the active mass at the positive electrode, passes to the
barium of the negative electrode, thus forming oxide of barium which combines
with the hydrochloric acid to form chloride of barium.
So long as there remains any free barium, the active mass gives up all its excess
of oxygen, and there is left a lower grade of oxidation of barium, viz. oxide, in the
form of a hydrate. This is also the condition of the storage battery after formation;
the active mass is then capable when again charged, of taking up considerable
quantities of oxygen.
It is to be particularly noted, that the formation of these storage elements
necessitates much less time than is the case with storage batteries heretofore
employed, and that a higher electro motive force and a greater strength of current
are obtained than heretofore.
This new secondary element is characterized by the fact that after discharging,
it can further act as a constant primary element, which is very important for
telegraphic purposes. The negative electrode is in such case scarcely appreciably
attacked, when the vessel containing the electrodes remains
open.
The exciting
barium mass gives off sufficient oxygen to convert into water the hydrogen which
would otherwise have a polarizing action, and it continues uninterruptedly to absorb

page_text: the oxygen of the atmosphere, and thus become capable of renewed production of
energy.
The storage element may also be constructed as a dry element, in which case,
instead of the liquid solution of chloride of barium, asbestos powder worked up
with a solution of chloride of barium, is packed between the two electrode plates.
A further advantage of the new storage battery consists in the fact that no
special vessels are required for containing the plates and the liquid. On the
contrary, one electrode may have the form of a trough in which are located the
other electrode with the active mass and the exciting liquid.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed 1 declare that what I
claim is:-
:-
In electric accumulators or storage batteries, the coating or filling of one of the
two electrodes with an active mass consisting of peroxide of barium, while the
exciting liquid is constituted by a solution of chloride of barium whereby a rapid
formation and production of a high electro motive force and greater current
strength are obtained than heretofore, while after discharging, the secondary
element can further act as a constant primary element, all substantially as herein-
before described.
D.
2 1
L
1000
BREWER & SON,
Agents.