AN IMPROVEMENT IN SECONDARY BATTERIES
Year: 1884

page_text: I SALOMON KALISCHER of Berlin in the Kingdom of Prussia and German
Empire do hereby declare the nature of said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
SECONDARY BATTERIES" 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 an improved electric accumulator, secondary battery, or
storage-battery, and the object of my Invention is to produce, at a comparatively
low cost, a secondary battery, or accuinulator whose elements are relatively light as
compared with the elements hitherto used in secondary, or storage-batteries and
thus facilitate the transportation of such batteries, while, at the same time, I obtain
by my improved battery a current of great power and constancy. My Invention
comprises the employment, for the anode, of iron or steel of any convenient form or
nature in combination with a solution of suitable salts of lead the latter being
subjected to the process of electrolysis to produce a dense and solid coating of
peroxide of lead upon the iron, the said coating, on being metallically connected
with n kathode of lead in the liquid remaining after the process of electrolysis, will
constitute a secondary battery of high electromotive force from which a constant
current of long duration can be obtained.
The principles upon which my Invention is based, differ entirely from those
generally adopted in preparing secondary batteries inasmuch as in the said
batteries as heretofore employed, lead, or a combination of lead, such as red lead, or
sulphuret of lead, were used for the anode and the latter was changed or
transformed into peroxide of lead by means of dilute sulphuric acid, or some
suitable sulphate, such as sulphate of zinc subjected to the action of the galvanic
current. Now according to the principles of my present Invention, the peroxide of
lead is precipitated upon the anode by electrolysis and by means of secondary
action respectively while the iron which as above stated is employed for the anode,
remains unchanged.
With the secondary batteries as heretofore prepared the elements are soon
destroyed by reason of the local action of the current causing a chemical reaction
to take place between the peroxide of lead and the lead, but such injurious action
does not take place with the iron anodes of my improved battery the iron
remaining uninjured also during the discharge of the battery since the peroxide
coating produced upon the iron by precipitation, is in every respect dense and
solid, and adheres firmly to the iron, completely enclosing the same. By reason of
this adhesive property of the precipitate, the iron may be provided with a coating
of peroxide of lead of any desired thickness, depending on the quantity and
concentration of the solution of the salts of lead employed, and on the length of

page_text: time during which the galvanic current is passed through the said solution. The
anode, as well as the kathode may, therefore, be of small volume and the elements
constituting my improved secondary battery, will thus have far less weight than
those hitherto used in secondary batteries.
The principles of my Invention are based upon the well established fact
according to which iron will readily assume and, under proper conditions, maintain
what is termed in the art the "passive" state, and therefore, among all the base
metals, iron alone will enable me to accomplish the new and useful results
herein before referred to.
In preparing the secondary elements forming my improved secondary or
storage-battery I proceed as follows, that is to say-Iron of any desired nature,
such as cast iron, wrought iron, malleable iron or steel, and of any desirable and
convenient shape for example in the form of plates, or cylinders, either in an active
or passive state, is placed in a bath consisting of a solution of nitrate of lead, or
acetate of lead, or other suitable salt of lead, and subjected to the action of the
galvanic current, lead being preferably employed for the kathode. Under the
action of the said current, peroxide of lead either in a pure or hydrated state is
formed upon the anode in the shape of a dense and solid layer or coating, of a jet-
black, a shining silky black or a velvety black color, adhering firmly to the iron
and completely enclosing the same on all sides, while, at the kathode, metallic lead
is separated from the solution and precipitated upon the said kathode. It will be
readily understood that I can coat the said iron anode with a solid layer of
peroxide of lead of any desired and convenient thickness depending on the
quantity and concentration of the solution of the salt of lead used for the bath,
and on the length of time during which the said solution is subjected to the action
of the galvanic current.
After the charge is completed, the two electrodes are metallically connected and
will then produce a current which is constant and whose duration will be
dependent only on the thickness of the coating of peroxile of lead produced upon
the iron anode during the charging operation. In discharging the elements, the
peroxide of lead on the anode is reduced to protoxide of lead, while the metallic
Jead on the other electrode is oxidized and dissolved in the acid solution. The
discharge being finished the elements may at once be charged again by moans of a
galvanic current, and thus the operations of charging and discharging the battery
may be repeated over and over again in continuous succession without thereby
corroding or otherwise injuring the iron used for the anode.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is,
First. In an electric accumulator, secondary battery, or storage battery, an
anode of iron or steel having a coating of peroxide of lead produced thereon either
in a pure or hydrated state by electrolysis, substantially as, and for the
specified.
purpose,
Second. In the production of electric accumulators or secondary or storage
batteries, the employment of iron or steel in an active or passive state for the
anode, and of a solution of some suitable salt of lead for the electrolyte, substantially
as, and for the purpose, specified.
PTV
ค
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
For the Applicant.