1881.] 



On a New Electrical Storage Battery. 



187 



VI. " On a New Electrical Storage Battery." By Henry 

 Sutton (Ballarat, Victoria). Communicated by The 

 President. Received December 10, 1881. 



The great utility of some thoroughly practical method of con- 

 serving electric force has caused a great deal of attention to be 

 applied to the subject; no system of electric supply can be con- 

 sidered as perfect until some means is used to so store the force 

 generated that it may be drawn off equally and regularly, and this 

 whether the generator be on or off. If we take, as an example of 

 electric supply, the present systems of electric lighting, it is at once 

 seen, should an accident or stoppage take place in the machinery 

 generating the current, the whole of the apparatus such as lamps or 

 motor-machines are influenced ; should there be a reservoir of elec- 

 tricity between the generator and the apparatus of whatever sort for 

 utilising the force this inconvenience would not occur. 



All the present systems of storing electricity depend on certain 

 chemical changes produced by electrolysis. 



I have gone through a long series of experiments on storing elec- 

 tricity and made many forms of cells, one being a porous pot con- 

 taining dilute hydric sulphate and a sheet of lead, in an outer 

 vessel containing a sheet of lead in solution of acetate of lead, the 

 plate in the porous pot being made the positive electrode ; this cell 

 had the power of storing electricity, by peroxidising the positive 

 electrode, and depositing from the acetate of lead solution metallic 

 lead on the negative electrode, the hydrogen having combined to form 

 acetic acid. On discharging the peroxide is reduced, and the oxide 

 formed during discharge on the other plate dissolves in the acetic 

 .acid, forming the original solution of acetate of lead ; by this means I 

 eliminated the injurious effects of the hydrogen on charging. 



During my experiments I found that red oxide of lead is a very bad 

 conductor of electricity, and the peroxide a good conductor. I also 

 discovered that by amalgamating lead plates with mercury a marked 

 increase was immediately manifest in polarisation effects, the plates 

 becoming more uniformly and rapidly peroxidised when used as 

 positive electrodes, and local action entirely disappearing. These 

 mercury amalgamated plates at once gave me an advance of other 

 cells. I used them in many ways, constructing cells in which the 

 positive plate was amalgamated, and the negative coated with red 

 oxide, or with peroxide, produced by treating red oxide with dilute 

 hydric nitrate till the brown precipitate of peroxide fell, the pre- 

 cipitate being washed and painted on the electrode. I also amal- 

 gamated the negative electrode simply. I found that in every way 

 positive electrodes amalgamated produced the best results. I also 



