IMPROVEMENTS IN VOLTAIC BATTERIES
Year: 1885

page_text: I, FREDERICK HERBERT WILLIAM HIGGINS of 17 Cornhill in the City of
London, Electrical Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN VOLTAIC BATTERIES" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in voltaic batteries.
I employ in voltaic batteries. compound lead plates; they are formed with a
series of rectangular or other perforations which taper and are larger on the inner
face of the plate than on the outer; the partitions between the perforations being
reduced to a knife edge on the inner face of the plate. The perforations in the
plates are filled with oxide of lead paste. The plates are fixed together face to face
and on account of the tapering form of the perforations the composition cannot
escape from them-the plates are then further prepared by exposing them to the
current of a battery or of a dynamo-electric machine.
These negative plates are employed in conjunction with positive plates or bars of
pure zinc cast upon a wire of galvanised iron which should extend to the end of
the zinc. The zincs are amalgamated and placed within porous cells. The negative
plates are on the exterior of the porous cells and one or more may be contained in
the same outer cell or vessel. The liquid made use of is such that the lead does
not pass into solution.

page_text: Improvements in Voltaic Batteries.
I, FREDERICK HERBERT WILLIAM HIGGINS of 17 Cornhill in the City of
London, Electrical Engineer, 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 has for its object improvements in voltaic batteries.
I employ in voltaic batteries compound lead plates; they are formed with a
series of rectangular or other perforations which taper and are larger on the inner
face of the plate than on the outer; the partitions between the perforations being
reduced to a knife edge on the inner face of the plate. The perforations in the
plates are filled with oxide of lead paste. The plates are fixed together face to face
and on account of the tapering form of the perforations the composition cannot
escape from them-the plates are then further prepared by exposing them to the
current of a battery or of a dynamo-electric machine.
These negative plates are employed in conjunction with positive plates or bars of
pure zinc cast upon a wire of galvanised iron which should extend to the end of
the zinc. The zincs are amalgamated and placed within porous cells. The negative
plates are on the exterior of the porous cells and one or more may be contained in
the same outer cell or vessel. The liquid made use of is such that the lead does
not pass into solution.
In order that my said invention may be most fully understood and readily
carried into effect I will proceed to describe the drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is an elevation of a negative plate such as I employ. Figure 2 is a
transverse section of the same on the line 1, 1, in Figure 1.
The plate is in two parts held together by rivets a a at the corners.
In each part or section there are small rectangular cavities wider on the inner
side of the plate than on the outer. Before the two parts are put together the
cavities are filled with litharge mixed to a stiff dough with a little sulphuric acid
& water. The section to be charged with the paste or dough is laid on a plane
surface with the larger ends of the cavities upwards and the dough or paste is then
pressed in by pressure with a suitable press.
When the sections have been fixed together the plates are treated in the manner
usual in "forming" the plates of a secondary battery that is to say they are placed
in a vessel containing dilute sulphuric acid and the current of a dynamo-machine is
passed through them. The plates are coupled with the dynamo in the usual
manner and in accordance with the requirements of the machine. Instead of
employing a dynamo a battery current may be used. In this way the oxide
carried by one half of the number of plates is reduced whilst that carried by the
other half is raised to a higher stage of oxidation. The latter plates are then
removed and replaced by others. The direction of the current is then reversed and
other plates are raised to the higher stage of oxidation and removed and so on.

page_text: These plates are now ready for use in the battery where they are employed
together with plates of amalgamated zinc. Negative plates such as represented in
the drawing I find it convenient to use with zines three inches wide by seven and
a half long. I place the zinc within a flat cell of porous earthenware and on either
side of it outside the porous cell I suspend a negative plate such as described but
this arrangement of course may be varied.
The liquid which I employ both within and without the porous cell is sulphuric
acid diluted with twenty times its bulk of water. Hydrochloric acid should not be
present in the cell. I couple up the battery in the usual manner..
When the negative plates become spent they are removed and again submitted
to the dynamo current as in the first preparation of the plate. The zinc plates are
replaced as they are consumed. In place of zinc plates I sometimes use bars of
zinc cast upon wires of galvanised iron.
These battery cells yield a very constant current and are inexpensive to
maintain.
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:-
.
(1.) A voltaic battery having zinc positive elements and for negative elements
plates of lead charged with oxide of lead paste raised to a higher stage of oxidation
by the aid of an electric current and immersed in the battery cell in a liquid such
that lead does not pass into solution, all substantially as described.
(2.) A voltaic battery having for negative elements plates of lead perforated
with tapering holes filled with oxide of lead and fixed together in pairs and then
treated by the aid of an electric current to bring the lead oxide to a higher stage
of oxidation all substantially as described.