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Page 24
[Illustration: DIAL FACE.]
JEHL AND RUPP.
Br�nn, Sept. 26, 1887.
* * * * *
STORAGE BATTERIES FOR ELECTRIC LOCOMOTION.[1]
[Footnote 1: From a paper read before the National Electric Light
Association, New York, August, 1887.]
By A. RECKENZAUN.
The idea of employing secondary batteries for propelling vehicles is
almost contemporaneous with the discovery of this method of storing
energy. To Mr. Plante, more than to any other investigator, much of
our knowledge in this branch of electrical science is due. He was the
first to take advantage of the action of secondary currents in voltaic
batteries. Plante is a scientist of the first grade, and he is a
wonderfully exact experimenter. He examined the whole question of
polarization of electrodes, using all kinds of metal as electrodes and
many different liquids as electrolytes, and during his endless
researches he found that the greatest useful effect was produced when
dilute sulphuric acid was electrolyzed between electrodes of metallic
lead.
A set of Plante's original cells was exhibited for the first time in
March, 1860, before the Paris Academy of Sciences. Scientists admired
and praised it, but the general public knew nothing of this great
discovery thus brought to notice. Indeed, at that period little
commercial value could be attached to such apparatus, since the
accumulator had to be charged by means of primary batteries, and it
was then well known that electrical energy, when produced by chemical
means in voltaic cells, was far too expensive for any purpose outside
the physical laboratory or the telegraph office.
It was twenty years after this exhibition at the Academy of Sciences
in Paris that public attention was drawn to the importance of storage
batteries, and that Mr. Faure conceived the idea of constructing
plates consisting of lead and oxides of lead. At that time the
advantages accruing through a system of electrical storage could be
fully appreciated, since electrical energy was already being produced
by mechanical means through the medium of dynamo-electric machines.
It was the dynamo machine which created the demand for the storage
battery, and the latter was introduced anew to the public at large
and to the capitalist with great pomp and enthusiasm. One of Faure's
accumulators was sent to Sir William Thomson, and this eminent
scientist in the course of experiments ascertained that a single cell,
weighing 165 lb., can store two million foot-pounds of energy, or one
horse power for one hour, and that the loss of energy in charging did
not exceed 15 per cent. These results appeared highly encouraging.
There we had a method of storing that could give out the greater part
of the energy put in. The immense development which the electric
transmission of energy was even at that early day expected to undergo
pointed to the fact that a convenient method of receiving large
quantities of transmitted energy, and of holding it in readiness until
wanted, must be of the highest importance. Numerous applications of
the Faure battery were at once suggested, and the public jumped to the
conclusion that a thing for which so many uses could be instantly
found must necessarily be a profitable investment, and plenty of money
was provided forthwith, not with the idea of commencing careful
experiments and developing the then crude invention, which would have
been the correct thing, but for manufacturing tons of accumulators in
their first and immature form.
I need not describe the disappointments which followed the first
unfulfilled hopes, nor repeat the criticism that was heaped upon the
heads of the early promoters. Those early hopes were untimely and
unreasonable. A thousand difficulties had to be overcome--scientific
difficulties and manufacturing difficulties. This invention, like most
others, had to go through steady historical developments and
evolution, and follow the recognized laws of nature, which are against
abnormal and instantaneous maturity. The period of maturity has also
been retarded by injudicious treatment, but the ultimate success was
inevitable. Great advances have been made within the last few years,
and I propose now to offer a few facts and figures relating to the
present state of the subject with reference to the application of
storage batteries to locomotive purposes. It is not within the
province of this paper to discuss all the different inventions of
secondary batteries nor to offer any suggestions with regard to
priority, therefore I will confine myself to general statements. I am
aware of the good work that was done in the United States by Kirchhoff
twenty-six years ago, and of the more recent work of Mr. Brush, of
Cleveland, Mr. Julien and others, but I am more particularly
acquainted with the recent achievements of the Electrical Accumulator
Company, who own the rights of the Electrical Power Storage Company,
of London. I have used the batteries of the latter company for
propelling electric boats and electric street cars. The first of the
boats was the Electricity, which was launched in September, 1882, and
which attained a speed of seven miles an hour for six consecutive
hours. Since then a dozen electric boats of various sizes have been
fitted up and worked successfully by means of storage batteries and
motors of my design. The most important of these were the launch Volta
and another similar craft, which is used by the Italian government for
torpedo work in the harbor of Spezia. On the measured mile trial trips
the Italian launch gave an average speed of 8.43 miles an hour with
and against the tide. The hull of this vessel was built by Messrs.
Yarrow & Co., and the motors were manufactured by Messrs. Stephens,
Smith & Co., of London. The Volta, which was entirely fitted by the
latter firm, is 37 feet long and 7 feet beam. She draws 2'6" of water
when carrying 40 persons, for whom there is ample sitting
accommodation. There are 64 cells in this boat. These are placed as
ballast under the floor, and actuate a pair of motors and a screw
coupled direct to the armature shaft running at 700 revolutions a
minute. We crossed the English Channel with this boat in September of
last year, leaving Dover at 10:40 in the morning, arriving at Calais
at 2:30 P.M.; stayed about an hour in the French harbor for luncheon
and floated into Dover docks the same evening, at 6:30, with full
speed. The actual distance traversed without entirely discharging the
cells was 54 miles. The current remained constant at 28 amperes until
5 P.M., and it only dropped to 25 amperes at the completion of the
double voyage between England and France. Several electric launches
are now being constructed in London, and one in New York by the
Electrical Accumulator Company.
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