Improvements in Electrodes for Secondary Batteries or Accumulators.
Year: 1898

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Electrodes for Secondary Batteries or
Accumulators.
I, HENRI PIEPER FILS, of Rue de Bajards, Liege, in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to electrodes for secondary batteries or accumulators
and has for its object to so construct the electrodes that they present an enormous
working surface without having their weight increased and can be rapidly
discharged without being thereby subjected to considerable or violent deformation.
According to my invention to obtain such an electrode I build up the electrode
with annular corrugated plates placed alternately with annular plates which are
non-corrugated or plain, so that the corrugated plates are enclosed, each, between
two plain plates, the plates being piled up in a horizontal position.
This method of building up electrodes results in a structure which is regularly
and uniformly traversed by numerous uniform channels open on both sides to
the liquid so that the structure can uniformly fill with liquid. I make the walls
of the channels the working surface of the electrode by employing thin lead
plates both sides of which are prepared or will be prepared according to Plante's
method or I may use thin plates provided on both sides with the active material
in any known manner, or thin grids filled with active material or other known
descriptions of electrode-plates.
In this manner I obtain an immensely extended working surface without
increasing the weight of the electrode, and, moreover, I reduce the liability to
deformation to a minimum so that the discharge can be operated rapidly without
injury to the electrode. On the other hand, as the plates are easily made the
cost of manufacture is reduced accordingly.
The plates having been built up, electrical communication between them is
established by soldering one or more lead strips to their edges.
I prefer to provide the corrugated plates of the said electrode with corrugations
arranged radially. As the electrodes built up with such annular plates form
columns to which the liquid has access all around it follows that one electrode
should encompass or encircle the other, so that the size of the central opening of
the plates depends upon their use for building up an enclosing electrode or the
enclosed one. Obviously the enclosed electrode may be the positive one or the
negative one, but I prefer to make the enclosed the positive one.
Dated this 8th day of March 1898.
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.

page_text: Improvements in Electrodes for Secondary Batteries or
Accumulators.
I, HENRI PIEPER FILS, of Rue de Bajards, Liege, in the Kingdom of Belgium,
Electrician, 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:
This invention relates to electrodes for secondary batteries or accumulators
and has for its object to so construct the electrodes that they present an enormous
working surface without having their weight increased and can be rapidly
discharged without being thereby subjected to considerable or violent deformation.
According to my invention to obtain such an electrode I build up the electrode
with radially corrugated annular plates placed alternately with annular plates which
are non-corrugated or plain, so that the corrugated plates are enclosed, each, between
two plain plates, the plates being piled up in a horizontal position.
This method of building up electrodes results in a structure which is regularly
and uniformly traversed by numerous uniform channels open on both sides to
the liquid so that the structure can uniformly fill with liquid. I make the walls
of the channels the working surface of the electrodo by employing thin lead
plates both sides of which are prepared or will be prepared according to Planté's
method or I may use thin plates provided on both sides with the active material
in any known manner, or thin grids filled with active material or other known
descriptions of electrode plates.
In this manner I obtain an immensely extended working surface without
increasing the weight of the electrode, and, moreover, I reduce the liability to
deformation to a minimum so that the discharge can be operated rapidly without
injury to the electrode. On the other hand, as the plates are easily made the
cost of manufacture is reduced accordingly.
The plates having been built up, electrical communication between them is
established by one or more lead strips which are preferably soldered to their
edges.
As the electrodes built up with such annular plates form columns to which
the liquid has access all around it follows that one electrode should encompass
or encircle the other, so that the size of the central opening of the plates depends
upon their use for building up an enclosing electrode or the enclosed one.
Obviously the enclosed electrode may be the positive one or the negative one,
but I prefer to make the enclosed the positive one.
On the annexed sheet of drawings I have represented two electrodes built up
with annular plates as described, differing by the width of the central opening,
so that one of them can serve as the enclosing electrode for the other.
Fig. 1 is an elevation partly in section of an electrode intended to be used as
the enclosed electrode, and
Fig. 3 an elevation partly in section, of an electrode intended for use as the
enclosing electrode.
Fig. 2 and 4 are the respective plans.
a are the corrugated plates, b the not corrugated or even interposed plates,
c the channels formed by the corrugations, d the lead strip for establishing
electrical communication between the plates, and e grooves for the insertion of
glass rods or tubes f the office of which is to maintain the proper distance
between the two electrodes. Figs. 3 and 4 show the radial arrangement of the
corrugations. If the electrode is to serve as the enclosed one the strips d are

page_text: preferably soldered to the inner peripheries of the plates, as in Fig. 1, whilst in
the case of its use as the enclosing electrode, it is preferred to solder said strips
to the outer periphery of the plates, as in Fig. 3.
Figs. 5 and 6 are respectively an elevation, partly in section, and the plan of a
secondary battery in which both electrodes are built up in the manner described,
the enclosed electrode being supposed to serve as the anode, and the enclosing
electrode being supposed to serve as the cathode.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said in-
vention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is:.
1. An electrode for use in electricity accumulators built up with radially
corrugated annular plates with interposition of not corrugated annular plates,
the corrugations forming open channels extending from the outer side to the
inner side, and the plates being in electrical connection with each other, substan-
tially as and for the purpose described.
2. Electricity accumulators in which one or both of the electrodes are built up
with radially corrugated plates alternating with not corrugated annular plates,
the corrugations forming open channels extending from the outer side to the
inner side, and the plates of each electrode being in electrical connection with
each other, substantially as described.
Dated this 30th day of November 1898
JOHNSONS & WILLCOX,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C., Agents.