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SCIENCE 



LEalered at the Posi-Offlue of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Malter.J 



A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Sevknth Year. 

 Vol. XIV. No. 354. 



NEW YORK, November 15, if 



Single Copies, Ten Cents. 

 ^3.50 Per Year, in Advance. 



ELECTRIC ACCUMULATORS. 



The world moves slowly, — faster, perhaps, than formerly, — but 

 still the movement is well ordered and regular, new things not 

 jumping into existence fully developed and ready for their most 

 advantageous use. 



All this is true of the accumulators or storage-batteries for 

 electricity, about which the public has heard for a number of years. 

 The principle on which they are based is an old one. That an 

 electric current, in passing through many chemical solutions, would 

 decompose them, is a fact shown in every school in the land. That 



store up its electricity ? The answer to these questions is well 

 given in a paper by George B. Prescott, jun., read at a meeting 

 of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on Oct. 29. 



There are in use electrical systems for lighting purposes ; and, as 

 every one knows, these are mainly of service after the sun goes 

 down, and then they are called on for a maximum service for a 

 short time, which is followed by a smaller demand during the rest 

 of the night. It is patent that such a method of production can- 

 not be economical, for the plant must be idle, or working to but a 

 fraction of its capacity, most of the time. The accumulator comes 

 in as a storehouse ; so that the dynamos may be run at an even 



FIG. I. — ELECTRICAL ACCUMULATOR COMPANY'S STORAGE-BATTERY. 



when the batteiy sending the current is removed, and the wires 

 entering the solution joined, a current can be detected in these 

 wires opposite in direction to the original current, is also known. 

 The decomposing apparatus shows itself as a storage-battery from 

 which, to all intents and purposes, electricity runs out again when 

 the experiment of electrolysis is over. What those interested in 

 storage-batteries have been doing is to make this effect of com- 

 mercial value. 



But why should this effect be of commercial value at all ? Why 

 not use the current from the primary battery itself, and not first 



rate of production, and any spare electricity stored till the extra 

 demand has to be met. 



There is a field, then, in which accumulators may play an impor- 

 tant part, not in competition with the direct application of the cur- 

 rent from the dynamo, but standing to the electric-light systems 

 very much as gasometers do to gas-works. The demand for light 

 during the day is not ;///, yet it is so small that few electric-light 

 companies are justified in running their dynamos the twenty-four 

 hours through. But it is calculated that there will be ample sur- 

 plus of current to charge the necessary storage-batteries if the 



