Electric battery

“ Since the principal item of first cost, as well as depreciation, in a storage battery electric light plant is the storage battery itself, the smallest battery commensurate with needs is selected. Since the amount of current stored by these batteries is relatively small, electric irons and heating devices such as may be used freely on a direct-connected plant without a battery, are rather expensive luxuries. For instance, an electric iron drawing 400 watts an hour while in use, requires as much energy as 20 tungsten lamps of 16 candlepower each burning for the same length of time. ”

“ The great law which regulates these transactions is this: that the sum of the internal and the external heats is a constant quantity; so that when the platinum wire was ignited we had less heat developed in the battery than before. The zinc in the battery is burned as fuel upon a hearth; the heat, however, being developed either upon the hearth itself or at any distance from it.
“As a primary source of electricity here is the combustion of a metal, the voltaic battery is not an economical source of power for producing electric light. ”

“ For the generation of power in the electric telegraph, the gravity batteries (see Voltaic Cell or Battery) are chiefly employed in the United States. Various forms of the Daniell battery are also used, especially in Europe. The number of cells employed varies with the length of the line, the conditions of the wire as regards insulation, and the nature of the instruments used. It is quite common in the United States, especially in cities where many lines centre, to employ dynamos driven by steam engines for generating the current in place of batteries, or to make use of storage batteries. ”

“ Just as the perfection of the gasoline motor spurred on the inventors to adapt the steam-engine for use in automobiles, so the inventors of the storage battery, which is the heart of an electric carriage, were stirred up to make electric propulsion practical.
The storage battery of an electric vehicle is practically a tank that holds electricity; the electrical energy of the dynamo is transformed into chemical energy in the batteries, which in turn is changed into electrical energy again and used to run the motors.
Electric automobiles are the most simple of all the self-propelled vehicles. ”

“ The electrical battery—and experiments performed with it. When a greater degree of electric force is required than a single jar is capable of giving, the electrical battery is made use of as part of the apparatus, which takes its name from the formidable effects it produces. This battery consists of a number of coated jars, placed in such a manner that they may all be charged at the same time, and discharged in an instant; so that the whole force of electricity accumulated in them, may at once be exerted on the substance exposed to the shock. ”

“ Another valuable property of the new battery is pointed out by Sir William Thomson. If it were to be used either at a fixed station to work an electric railway, such as the firm of Siemens have already brought into practical use, or to be carried on an ordinary carriage to drive it, the energy developed by the vehicle in running down-hill would be stored up ready to be used for its propulsion when it again reached a level or an ascending incline. ”

“ Inspect the Battery twice every month in Winter, and once a week in Summer, to make sure that the Electrolyte covers the plates. To do this, remove the vent caps and look down through the vent tube. If a light is necessary to determine the level of the electrolyte, use an electric lamp. Never bring an open flame, such as a match or candle near the vent tubes of a battery. Explosive gases are formed when a battery "gasses," and the flame may ignite them, with painful injury to the face and eyes of the observer as a result. Such an explosion may also ruin the battery. ”

“ Secondary or Storage Batteries The storage battery is a very convenient means of taking energy at one time or place and using it at some other time or place.
Small storage batteries are used in automobiles to supply current for the headlights and spark-coils. Many automobiles are now equipped with "electric starters," consisting of a dynamo-motor and a storage battery. Throwing a switch will cause the current from the storage battery to drive the motor and "crank" the engine. After the engine is started, the motor acts as a dynamo and generates a current for recharging the storage battery. ”

“ A prominent factor in the electrical art is the Storage Battery, Secondary Battery, or Accumulator, as it is variously called. A storage battery acts upon the same general principle as the ordinary galvanic or voltaic battery in giving forth electrical current as the correlated equivalent of the chemical force, but differs from it in this respect, that when the elements of a primary battery are used up, the battery is exhausted beyond repair. With the storage battery, it may be regenerated at will by simply subjecting it to an electric current from a dynamo. ”

“ Some idea of the power that may be put into a small storage battery is to be had from the fact that a storage battery of only 6 volts pressure, such as is used in self-starters on automobiles, will turn a motor and crank a heavy six-cylinder engine; or it will run the automobile, without gasoline, for a mile or more with its own accumulated store of electric current. ”

“ Five dry battery cells would very readily heat a short piece of fine wire to a sufficiently high temperature to explode the mixture, but it is impossible to alternately heat and cool a wire twelve times a second. It is too slow an operation. The only other method known at present is to imitate the lightning and force an electric current against the resistance of the air with sufficient power to produce the required heat. This, however, requires an extremely high voltage—at least 5000 volts, and our battery of five cells has not more than seven and a half volts of pressure. ”

“ For energizing a gas lighting primary coil, the current must be large, but is only required occasionally, the battery standing idle for long periods. In this case the class called open circuit cells are preferable, as they contain no strong acids and do not deteriorate to any extent when not in use. Of such class is the Leclanche-Samson, Monarch, carbon cylinder, and most so-called dry cells. As the resistance in a conductor [Pg 81] affects the current flow, so it does in a battery cell; the internal resistance of a battery is determined by its size, proximity of the elements, etc. ”

“ Such storage batteries are in common use in connection with electric automobiles, as we have seen. But the great difficulty is that they are enormously heavy in proportion to the amount of electricity that they can generate; therefore, their transportation is difficult and expensive. In practice it is cheaper to produce electricity through the operation of a steam engine in a distant city than to transmit the electricity with the aid of a storage battery from Niagara. So the storage battery served as little as compressed air to solve the engineer's problem. ”

“ In handling the lamp while making connections with the battery wires, care must be taken that the lamp wires are not broken off close to the glass by too much twisting. Should this happen, the lamp would be rendered useless, because then we could not get a connection with the carbon filament.
All the connections having been made, everything is ready to charge the battery. Charging means to fill the cells with the proper chemical solutions which, in their action upon the zinc and carbons, produce the electric current. ”

“ With a generator and storage battery, moreover, a reliable source of electricity for ignition was provided, and so we find dry batteries and magnetos being discarded in a great many automobiles and "battery ignition" systems substituted.
The development of electric lighting systems increased the popularity of the automobile, but the motor car still had a great drawback-cranking. Owing to the peculiar features of a gasoline engine, it must first be put in motion by some external power before it will begin to operate under its own power. ”

“ For furnishing current for the propulsion of electric street cars it has proved a disappointment, on account of the vibrations to which it is subjected, and the great weight of the lead, which in batteries of suitable capacity runs up into many thousands of pounds. The storage battery finds a useful place, however, for equalizing the load in lighting and power stations, and is there brought into action to supplement the engine and dynamo during those hours of the day when the tax or load is greatest. It is also used to keep up electrical pressure at the ends of long transmission lines ”

“ The motive power on the electric launch is the electric current; we must decide upon the mode of procuring the current. The mode which first suggested itself to Professor Jacobi, in the year 1838, was the primary battery, or the purely chemical process of generating electricity.
Jacobi employed, in the first instance, a Daniell's battery, and in later experiments with his boat on the river Neva, a Grove's battery. The Daniell's battery consisted of 320 cells containing plates of copper and zinc; the speed attained by the boat with this battery did not reach one mile and a quarter per hour ”

“ On any car that uses an electric lighting and starting system, there are two sources of electricity, the generator and the battery, These must furnish the power for the starting, or "cranking" motor, the ignition, the lights, the horn, and the other devices. The demands made upon the generator are comparatively light and simple, and no severe work is done by it. The battery, on the other hand is called upon to give a much more severe service, that of furnishing the power to crank the engine. ”

“ We are now in a position to examine the apparatus of which a coherer forms part (Fig. 61) . First, we notice the aërial and earth wires, to which are attached other wires from battery A. This battery circuit passes round the relay magnet R and through two choking coils, whose function is to prevent the Hertzian waves entering the battery. The relay, when energized, brings contact D against E and closes the circuit of battery B, which is much more powerful than battery A, and operates the magnet M as well as the tapper, which is practically an electric bell minus the gong. ”

“ A thoroughly good and simple storage battery would mean nearly as much for electric art as the dynamo. From a dynamo it would receive currents derived from wind or water powers, or from engines temporarily laden below their capacity, and use these currents to restore a metal from its solution by a process exactly that of electroplating. Then, on demand, it would yield electricity once more by surrendering this metal to solution, as a common voltaic battery does. ”

“ Battery, Voltaic or Galvanic.
An apparatus for converting chemical energy directly into electric
energy. This is as broad a definition as can well be given. The general
conception of a battery includes the action of electrolysis, a solution
in the battery acting upon one of two conducting electrodes immersed in
such fluid, which dissolves one of them only, or one more than the
other. The best way to obtain a fundamental idea of a battery is to
start with the simplest. Dilute sulphuric acid dissolves neither pure
zinc nor copper. ”

“ No definite rule is given concerning the fusing of low-voltage storage batteries, but it is good practice to insert a double-pole fuse in each branch circuit; the fuse to be small enough to protect the smallest wire fed through it. The capacity of storage batteries is usually given in “ampere hours”. A 60-ampere-hour battery, for instance, can deliver three amperes for twenty hours or ten amperes for six hours. ”

“ The one you have just made is a simple one frequently used for doorbells. Other batteries are more complicated. Some are made with copper and zinc in a solution of copper sulfate; some, even, are made by letting electricity from a dynamo run [pg 206] through a solution from one lead plate to another until a chemical substance is stored on one of them; then, when the two lead plates are connected by a wire, the electrons run from one to the other. This kind of battery is called a storage battery, and it is much used in submarines and automobiles. ”

“ The charging of farm lighting batteries is very much like the charging of automobile batteries on the charging bench, except that the batteries are at all times connected to switches, by means of which they may be put on the charging line.
Some plants are so arranged that the battery and generator do not provide current for the lights at the same time, lights being out while the battery is charging. In others the generator and battery, in emergency, may both provide current. In others the lights may burn while the battery is being charged ”

“ Persons living in the city will find an economical means of lighting lamps by securing exhausted batteries from any garage, where they are glad to have them taken away. A certain number of these, after a rest, can be connected up in series, and will give the proper voltage.
In conclusion, for battery power: Connecting batteries in series increases the voltage, and slightly cuts down the current or amperage, which is the same as that of one battery; while connecting batteries in parallel increases the amperage, but holds the voltage the same as that of one cell. ”

“ The electrolyte enters the air holes, attacks the lead and converts the grid partly into active material. This causes expansion and consequent distortion and buckling.
Buckling will not necessarily cause trouble, and batteries with buckled plates may operate satisfactorily for a long time. If, however, the expansion and twisting has caused much of the active material to break away from the grid, or has loosened the active material from the grids, much of the battery capacity is lost. ”