IMPROVEMENTS IN OR CONNECTED WITH ELECTRIC CELLS OR BATTERIES
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Norman Charles Cookson and
James Swinburne at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
9th May 1883.
NORMAN CHARLES COOKSON of Newcastle on Tyne in the County of
Northumberland and JAMES SWINBURNE of Gateshead in the County of Durham
"IMPROVEMENTS IN OR CONNECTED WITH ELECTRIC CELLS OR BATTERIES"
The Invention relates to secondary cells or apparatus for storing electrical
energy; to apparatus connected with the charging and discharging of the same
and to primary or ordinary cells which are not necessarily recharged by
electricity.
is
In cells of the Planté or Faure type loss results from local action in the negative
element and difficulties arise from the formation of Sulphate of Lead and from
" element "
disintegration of the coatings and corrosion of the supports. By
here meant the support or conductor together with the coating or active material;
and by "negative" element" is meant that whose coating becomes more oxidized
or electro negative on charging The object of part of this Invention is to lessen or
overcome the difficulties arising from local action. With this object we use a lead
support with peroxide of lead or other suitable oxidizing Agent; but we reduce
the affinity of lead for oxygen by combining it wholly or partly with an electro-
negative radicle such as Sulphur. Thus we melt the lead with galena in a closed
vessel, and cast it at a red heat or we combine the surface of the lead with Sulphur
chemically with or without the aid of Electrolysis or we may deposit a closely
adbering film of any Sulphide chemically as by the action of thiocarbarnide on a
suitable solution of lead or other substance whose sulphide we wish to deposit.
We may use other metals than lead either alone or in combination, or we may
make a still more saturated compound by combining a suitable Sulphur-base and
Sulphur Acid wholly or partially. We may coat the supports with a higher
Sulphide in many cases-We may also combine or alloy the metal for the supports
with arsenic by any suitable process or may merely coat the support with Arsenic
or may use arsenic or antimony in conjunction with Sulphur. We may use Oxygen
itself as the electronegative radicle by coating a support of suitable construction
with an Oxide not easily attacked by the solution in the cell Thus we may coat

page_text: "
a support with closely adherent peroxide of lead by Electrolysis of a suitable lead
solution such as Litharge in Sodium Hydrate and water; porous peroxide or other
active material may then be put in contact with it. Other Oxides such as
peroxide of Manganese or silver may be used similarly-We may use with the
same object a support protected by gilding or electro deposition of platinum Silver
or oxides, Thus we may gild iron getting a non porous coating by frequent
alternations of heating and gilding or by burnishing. We may deposit gold alone
or otherwise on another metal alone such as lead or on a metal already partly
protected, as lead combined with Arsenic-Or we may use Arsenic or Carbon gilt.
In ordinary secondary cells dilute Sulphuric Acid is used as liquid, and there are
very few substances not liable to corrosion when used as negative supports such
metals as gold and platinum and their alloys being expensive for commercial use
Not only may we meet the difficulties arising from Local action as hereinbefore
described, but we also do so by the use of other solutions with suitable elements-
Thus we use solutions of Potassium Sodium or Ammonium Hydrates or any of the
Carbonates or Borates of Potassium Sodium or Ammonium or Potassium Sodium
or Ammonium with any weak Acid Radicle. These solutions may be used
separately or together-In such solutions we use Iron Nickel Cobalt or even
silver as negative support-Such support is of course used in conjunction with
Peroxide of lead or equivalent substance. The iron, Nickel, cobalt, or silver may
be used separately or together, thus Iron may be nickeled, or another metal such
as lead or copper may be coated with one of these metals to protect it. The metal
such as iron or Steel may be used in the form of a plate and the peroxide applied
mechanically or lead or red lead or other suitable compound may be applied and
oxidized if necessary or peroxide may be deposited by Electrolysis of a solution of
lead or other metal or any other suitable oxidizing substance may be used
such as peroxide of Silver. The supporting metal may be in the form of
a woven fabric or gauze, or it may be made into a sort of cage or
basket or it may be made into any corrugated, gridiron, lattice work, or
sin.ilar support, or it may be perforated or honey combed the lead or equivalent
compounds being placed in the Cells or hollows; or it may be made into
perforated Sheets and then worked into suitable containing vessels; or it may
be made into plates with undercut recesses corrugations cavities or holes or
with double counter sunk or webbed holes or recesses to retain the active material
Two or more perforated or other plates may be connected with active matter
between The Alkaline solutions before mentioned may contain oxides of any
metal soluble in them such as tin zinc Aluminium in solution or combination.
Instead of solutions of Hydrates or Carbonates with or without other oxides
described above solutions of Sulphides may be used such for instance, as Potassium
disulphide The solution of Sulphide may be used alone or mixed with one or
more of the other solutions In this case, with lead, a disulphide may be formed
instead of Peroxide and monosulphide, which is a Conductor instead of a non
conducting lead compound, and while there is excess of Sulphide no lead can be
dissolved from one element and carried to the other-To make Peroxide of lead
or equivalent substance sufficiently porous We make it by oxidizing a bulky salt
or mix it by any convenient means with a fibrous substance which may be then
dissolved or removed or left in-Thus we may rub a suitable compound into velvet
velveteen cotton Velvet, plush or similar fabric and place the fabric against the
support and then oxidize if necessary-Or we may mix the compound with flock,
paper pulp, or even with flour, or starch, or any thing which will eventually become
a conductor by osmotic absorption of the electrolyte-Or we may mix the com-
pound with an inert powder, such as oxide of zinc-We may then dissolve the
fibre or other matter out. We may on the other hand use an element of very
large surface and coat it thinly with active material Thus we may use fine wire,
of iron for instance coated thinly with peroxide of lead by electrolysis-Or we
may use very fine lead wire protected by any of the hereinbefore described methods
thus fiue lead wire may be put in an iron gauze receptacle and the whole nickeled

page_text: and then coated with active material or we may make an element by depositing a
metal or other Conductor on a mass of Organic fibre of any form, or on Carbon,
glass, asbestos, slag, or other similar fibre,-If necessary this metal may be
protected by nickel, Silver iron or cobalt gold or platinum. Active material is
then put in contact with it. We may also obtain a large surface of peroxide of
lead by using fine lead fibres partially or wholly oxidized by any of the hereinafter
described forming processes, or otherwise oxidized-Such fibres may be used in
conjunction with any of the supports already described by us For instance a
perforated or Cellular iron or nickeled plate may have its interstices filled with
lead fibre already .oxidized or not. We may also make the negative element
entirely of a suitable compound. For instance we may use coherent peroxide of
lead as a support for porous peroxide of lead or other substance.
The second subdivision of our Invention relates to the positive element. In the
ordinary solutions such as dilute Sulphuric Acid lead is obtained in a porous and
active state by alternately oxidizing and reducing the surface of the lead until
sufficient spongy lead is obtained or by reducing a suitable lead compound applied
mechanically. By our Invention we form Planté plates much more rapidly-
Instead of oxidizing the lead in dilute Sulphuric Acid or equivalent solution.we
use a solution that attacks lead readily without dissolving the resulting compound
-Thus we make lead the Anode in a solution of a Chloride or an Alkaline
Carbonate or Sulphide or mixture of any or all of these, and when the lead is
sufficiently acted upon we reverse the current and reduce the compound to spongy
lead-If the element is to be used in an ordinary solution it is washed if necessary
and transferred With any of the solutions described by us above we may use zinc
Copper or tin, alone or together or with lead or other metal. A zinc element for
instance may be formed in the same way as lead, as above described, or zinc or tin
Carbonate or oxide or other compound may be applied mechanically and reduced
electrically or chemically. The metal previously made spongy may then be applied
to a suitably support. The oxidizable metal may be mixed with a less oxidizable
metal or it may be used without previous formation. The spongy metal, metals,
or compounds may be held in contact with their supports by being placed in a cage
of metallic or non metallic gauze or by any of the methods suitable hereinbefore
described in relation to negative elements,-Felt, flannel Silk, asbestos, slagwool
or glass wool or porous non conductors or parchment may be used to keep the
coatings in contact with the supports.
-
For primary batteries we use any of the hereinbefore described methods of
making elements, and any of the Solutions. Thus we may use a negative element
consisting of a piece of iron gauze coated with Peroxide of lead and a zinc positive
element in a solution of Sodium Hydrate closed in from the air-In this Case the
solution di-solves the substance from both elements when the cell is being used-
We may also use lead deposited on a support by reducing red Lead or other suitable
compound of lead for the positive element and we may use Coherent or pressed
peroxide of lead manganese or silver for the negative element, We may make
such coherent Peroxide of lead, for instance, by electric deposition from a suitable
solution, such as Litharge in Caustic Soda. We may mix glycerine, alcohol, or
methyl Alcohol with any of the herein before mentioned solutions. When secondary
cells are fully charged the opposing electromotive force rises and gases come off
-We take advantage of this to cut a cell or cells out of circuit, or to call.
attention When many cells are charged in series by a constant current such as
that used for series are lighting, it is not difficult to tell when they are fully
charged, as any suitable potential measuring instrument or arrangement may be
used. If the electromotive force is kept constant, as by such a machine as the
compound dynamo-introduced by James Swinburn a suitable current measuring
instrument may be used―This is, of course provided the resistance of the cells is
sensibly the same-But if both the Electro motive force and the current vary
there is more difficulty. To overcome this we compare one of the cells being
charged with a standard cell consisting of plates in an electrolyte so chosen that

page_text: its counter electro motive force is equal to that of the cell of the battery. The
currents flowing through the main battery and the Standard Cell, which has a
resistance in its circuit and is in derivation to the Cell it is compared with,
are passed in opposite directions through coils of a suitable magnet or galvano-
meter or otherwise compared-The counter electro motive force may also be got 5
'from relation of the main current to the current through a resistance in derivation
'to all or part of the battery and the main current itself by any suitable automatic
arrangement.