Improvements in Secondary Batteries or Electrical Accumulators.
Year: 1898

page_text: Improvements in Secondary Batteries or Electrical Accumulators.
I, OSKAR BEHREND, of 67, Unterlindau, Frankfort on Main, in the Empire of
Germany, Threatrical-Illumination Inspector, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to provide a secondary battery or electric
accumulator in which the plates are prevented from buckling or bending and the
active material or paste is retained in position on or in the plates, in addition to which
the battery can be used as a dry accumulator if so desired.
According to this invention after the plates have been put in place in the cell,
powdered glass is introduced in sufficient quantity to cover the plates and the
electrolyte is then poured in.
The plates are held by the powdered glass so that they cannot buckle, or bend,
whilst the particles of glass will not allow the active material or paste to come off the
plates and also I prevent the channels or grooves which occur in certain materials
which have been suggested by others as media for filling, or charging, accumulators
result in short circuiting by active material bridging between the plates.
The glass powder will not settle or sag as when the accumulators are re-charged the
gas bubbles which rise through the mass of powdered glass will efficiently stir it up.
When the accumulator is charged, the electrolyte above the plates may be decanted
without detriment to the charge, and the battery can then be utilized as a dry
accumulator. Before re-charging, however, as much acid as is necessary to cover over.
both the plates and powdered glass should be added.
The glass should be reduced to the state of an actual fine-grained powder, but the
division should not be carried to such a degree of fineness as to cause the powder and
paste to mix into a viscous mud.
1
L 1000
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.
Improvements in Secondary Batteries or Electrical Accumulators.
I, OSKAR BEHREND, of 67, Unterlindau, Frankfort-on-Main, in the Empire of
Germany, Theatrical Illumination Inspector, 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:-
The object of this invention is to provide a secondary battery, or electric accumu
lator, in which the plates are prevented from buckling, or bending, and the active

page_text: material, or paste, is retained in position, on, or in, the plates; in addition to which
the battery can be used as a dry accumulator if so desired.
According to this invention, after the plates have been put in place in the cell,
powdered glass is introduced in sufficient quantity to cover the plates, and the
electrolyte is then poured in.
The plates are held by the powdered glass so that they cannot buckle, or bend, whilst
the particles of glass will not allow the active material, or paste, to come off the
plates, and also I prevent the channels, or grooves, which occur in certain materials
which have been suggested by others as media for filling, or charging, accumulators,
resulting in short circuiting by active material bridging between the plates.
The glass powder will not settle, or sag, as, when the accumulators are re-charged,
the gas bubbles which rise through the mass of powdered glass will efficiently
stir it up.
The plates are fitted in the vessel, or cell, at predetermined distances apart and
the cell is then filled with glass powder, so that such glass serves both as an insu-
lator and holder for both the plates and the active material, and entirely covers
over the plates at the top. The electrolyte, say properly diluted sulphuric acid, is
then poured in over the whole, to a level of say 5 millimetres above the powdered
glass, so that both the plates and powder are entirely covered by the electrolyte.
When the accumulator is charged, the electrolyte above the plates may be decanted
without detriment to the charge, and the battery can then be utilized as a dry
accumulator. Before re-charging, however, as much electrolyte as is necessary to
cover over both the plates and powdered glass, should be added.
In practice, a number of accumulators constructed on this system have been found
perfectly serviceable even after having been in use for a year and a half, there never
occurring either a self-discharge, or any short-circuiting, through the formation of
channels in the active material; nor was the inner resistance ever increased through
any collapse of the glass-powder, as it was loosened at each fresh charging
operation.
The glass should be reduced to the state of a fine-grained powder, but the division
should not be carried to such a degree of fineness as to cause the formation of a
viscous mud in the battery.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
An electric accumulator, or secondary battery, wherein the space between the
electrodes is filled with glass in such a state of division that, while it is not
sufficiently fine to cause the formation of a viscous mud in the battery, it is capable,
if some of the liquid be drained off after charging, of retaining such an amount of
such liquid as will permit of the proper action of the battery.
Dated this Oth day of May 1900