US394638A

US394638A - brevoort

Info

Publication number: US394638A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1888-12-18
Anticipated expiration: 1905-12-18

Description

(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet L.

H. L. BREVOORT & I. L. ROBERTS.

SEPARAT-ING PARTITION FOR GALVANIO BATTERIES.

No. 394,638. Patented Dec. 18", 1888-.

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w w WW 0(\ N. PETERS PfmlbLiI-Ymgnp'wf, Wuhlllglun. I1 (1 (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2'. H. L. BREVOORT & I. L. ROBERTS. SEPARATING PARTITION FOR GALVANIG BATTERIES.

Patented Dec. 18 1888.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY L. BREVOORT ANT) ISAIAH L. ROBERTS, Ol BROOKLYN, ASSIGITORS TO THE ROBERTS-BREVOORT ELECTRIC COMPANY, (LIMITED) OF NEV YORK, N. Y.

SEPARATlNG-PARTITION FOR GALVANIC BATTERIES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 394,638, dated December 18, 1888.

Application filed May 1, 1886. Serial No. 200,847. 1N0 specimens.)

To all whom it may concern.- fow hours, or perhaps in a day, a large por- Be it known that we, HENRY L. HREVOORT tion of the sulphate of copper will have inter and ISAIAH L. ROBERTS, citizens of the United mixed with the sulphate of zinc, and a large States, and residents of the city of Brooklyn, portion of the sulphate of zinc will have passed 5 county of Kings, State of New York, have inthrough the porous cup into the sulphate-0t 55 vented certain Improvements in Galvanic coppersectiou. This intermixing of the fluids Batteries, of which the following is a specifiwill of course ruin thcbattery by occasioning cation. local action."

Heretofore,w11e1-e it has been desired to use e make the diaphragm or partition of the two different liquids in the cells of a galvanic battery of a material which is practically non- 6o battery, porous partitions of earthenware have porous, but with electrolytic properties, so been employed to separate the liquids from that whether the battery be on an open cireach other. To accomplish the separation cuit or closed the liquid, as such, on one side only, a non-porous partition would have been of the partition will not intermix orintermini 5 preferable; but such a partition would have gle with the liquid on the other side of the 65 been useless, because it would have cut off partition, or only to a very limited extent; the electrolytic liquids or solutions from conbut when the circuit is closed and the battery tact with each other. This contact has hereis called upon to give a current of electricity tofore been secured by having the partition chemical action can and will take place porous, so that the liquids penetrating the through the partition. 7o pores of the partition could form lines or In carrying out our invention we construct chains of electrolytic molecules, through the partition or diaphragm either partially or which the electrolytic action or energy could wholly of a gelatinous or jelly-like material be transmitted. The solid portion of the porwhich is non porous, but which contains ous partition of course offers an absolute remoisture as one of its characteristicelements. 75 sistance to the transfer of electric action,which Thus the partition may be made of starch, is transmitted solely by the electrolysis of the preferably boiled in a strong brine of some liquid or liquids held in the pores. To reduce salt of an alkalisuch as chloride of sodium the total resistance of the partition, it was or a salt of zincand the gelatinous or jellytherefore desirable or necessary to have its like mass so produced may be confined be- 80 porosity very great. Any porous body will, tween walls of cloth or other suitable materialhowever, allow or even promote the transto form the diaphragm or partition of the batfusion of liquids through it, and therefore tery-cell. Instead of the starch we may use such transfusion always took place where porboiled floursay rice-flour, wheat-flour, or, in

ous partitions were used and was a necessary in fact, the gelatinous substance obtained 85 though undesirable result of their constitufrom any grain or plant. The materials which I tion and mode of action. In other words, the are the least soluble are to be preferred. The porous partition was itself impotent as a partition may also be made, but not to such means of transmitting the electric force, and great advantage, of dough of flour and water,

only acted as a frame-work to hold the mole- Which may be left unboiled and may be con- 90 cules of the electrolyticliquid or liquidswhich fined between the sustaining-walls. The transmitted the electric force by their sucthickness of the gelatinous or jelly-like mass cessive decompositions and recombinations. forming the partition should be anywhere The electrolytic liquids, however, by reason from a quarter of an inch upward, varying 5 of theirliquid character, tended to diffuse and with the size of the battery used, though 5 mingle, and this tendency was restrained by it may be of more or less thickness. The the porous body only to alimited degree. To gelatinous material may be introduced into illustrate this: If. a solution of sulphate of a thickness of cloth or felt by being caused copper be placed outside an ordinary porous to enter and close the pores thereof to form cup and sulphate of zinc on the inside, in a the non-porous partition, and in this case too Itis intended to usein this battery sulphatethe two retaining-walls of cloth would not stantially-solid homogeneous wall whose particles, while sut'ficiently solid and compact to maintain their own positions and so prevent for practical purposes any transmission of fluids through them, are yet themselves able to act as electrolytes and suffer such decompositions and recombinations as are essential to the electrolytic transmission of electric force. In other words, we have in our partition combined in the one substance the solid properties of the earthenware and the electrolytic properties of the liquid, or we may say that we have made the electrolytes solid and the partition electrolytic.

In an application for a patent filed by us on the 14th of May, 1886, Serial No.'202,198, we have described and claimed another means for carrying out our present invention by the use of gelatinous or jelly-like substances obtained from albuminous material; and in another application for patent filed by Isaiah L. Roberts on the 5th of May, 1887, Serial No. 237,259, he has described another means for carrying out thepresent invention by the use of mineral gelatinous substances, while in still anothenapplication filed by said Roberts May 28, 1887, under Serial No. 239,679, he has described how the diaphragms may be made by the use of a gelatinous or jelly-like substance obtained .by rendering a saponified material insoluble.

When the jelly-like or gelatinous mass is held between walls, it is advantageous to stir up with it a filamentous binding material, such as hair, fur, asbestus, fibers, or cotton.

This binding material. is best added when the mass is being boiled. Enough of this should be nsed to bind the material together and avoid cracks and the like in drying. One pound of starch and six pounds of water, two pounds of chloride of sodium, and two ounces of cotton-fiber may be stirred and boiled together until cooked with satisfactory results. (lookingis accomplished when the starchgranules are broken. \Ve may boil with the starch the salt which is to form the basis of the. solution on the zinc side of the battery. Thus,xif the sulphate of copper is added on one side and the sulphate of zinc-on the other side we may boil with the starch a solution of sulphate of zinc. If sulphate of copper is usedon one side and chloride of sodium on r the other, we. prefer to boil with the substance to form. the-partition chloride of sodium; but to thesewe do not limit ourselves in anyway, as sulphate of zinc would do in the majority of cases, though we prefer chloride of sodium.

of .copper. and a plate. of copper on one side and sulphate of zinc 0n the other of the partition; but other materials may be used. eak acids can also be used on either side to increase the conductivity of the. solution or as an excitant.

' The accompan ying drawings show, as an example, one mode of carrying out our invention.

Figure 1. a plan of a cell complete. Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line :r :r, Fig. l; and Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken at right angles to Fig. 2.

sides facing each other, and the space between the canvas sides is completely filled, as'atD, with any one of the materials herein indicated, such as a mixtureof boiled starch and cotton-fiber, for instance. Care must be taken not to leave any empty spaces between the canvas, so as to positivelyprevent leakage or transfusion of the'liquids used in the cell.-

lVhen the cell and, of course, the frame B are of. considerable size, we prefer to introduce the intermediate cross-bars, b,which form a support for the canvas to prevent it from bulging outward when gelatinous or jelly-like material is being filled in or at any subse quent period.

lVe wish it to be understood that we do not limit ourselves, however, to the form of supports shown, as other constructions may be used, and for small cells supports may be dispensed with.

e do not herein claim, broadly, an electric battery provided with a partition practically non-porous'and adapted to keep separate the battery-liquids, but which will permit elec' trolytic action through it, or, broadly, a partition for an electric battery which is practically non-porous and adapted to separate the battery-liquids, but through which chemical action may take place, because we have made claim to such broad subject-matter in an application just filed, Serial No. 280,955, dated. July 25, 1888, which is a division ofthis.

\Ve claim as our invention- 1. A separating diaphragm or partition for an electric battery, composed of a jelly-like or gelatinous material. I

- 2. A separating partition or diaphragm for an'electric battery, having its pores closed by gelatinous material.

-3. A;t \.*o-fiuid electric battery havinga separatingdiaphragmorpartition of gelatinous or elly likejmaterial obtained from vegetable" growths.

4. A separating diaphragm or partition for. an electric battery, composed partially or Wholly of gelatinous material, combined with a salt, as and for the purpose set forth.

5. A separating diaphragm or partition for an electric battery, having its pores closed by a gelatinous material containing salt, substantially as described.

6. In an electric battery, a separating diaphragm or partition of gelatinous or jellylike material, combined with supporting devices, substantially as described.

7. In an electric battery, a separating dia phragm or partition of gelatinous material, combined with a supporting sheet or sheets of textile material.

8. In an electric battery, a separating diaphragm or partition of gelatinous material