Part 6

The paste on the lead plates is now found to have changed its chemical nature, the paste on the positive plate having been transformed into peroxide of lead, and that on the negative plate into spongy lead. On arriving at this condition, the paste on the plates is called "active material."

This process of "formation" is absolutely essential before the lead storage battery is ready to be used for actual work. So, when the plates have been fully "formed," the storage battery may be again connected with a source of electric current which again enters by the positive plate and leaves by the negative. This current so acts on the active material that it combines with the acid solution and, through the energy of the charging current, forms other chemical compounds which may for convenience be called "sulphates." When the charging current has flowed through the battery long enough to produce these changes in the active material the battery is said to be "charged," and is ready for useful work.

If the two wires attached to the plates are now connected with electric lamps, or a motor, or other device, the active material will develop energy in the effort to again change its nature. This energy takes the form of an electric current, which leaves the battery and passes through the conductors and operates the lamps, motors, or other devices in its passage.

In this way the battery is said to be "discharged," and at the end of its discharge it can again be charged and discharged in a similar manner for a long time, until the active material is either used up or drops off the plates.

So far as the actual details of construction are concerned, lead storage batteries are made in a great many different ways, but the materials are, in general, of the same nature as those we have mentioned above.

THE ALKALINE STORAGE BATTERY

We shall now describe an entirely different type of storage battery, which contains neither lead nor acid. It is one of the many inventions of Thomas A. Edison.

In the alkaline storage battery the gas called oxygen plays a very important part, and we will try to make it clear to you what this part is.

You are well aware of the fact that if you leave your pocket-knife out in the air it will get rusty. The reason for this is that iron or steel quickly tends to combine with the oxygen of the air, and this combination of oxygen and iron is rust, otherwise called oxide of iron, or iron oxide.

This iron oxide, or rust, is therefore the result of a chemical action between the iron and the oxygen.

Now as all chemical actions require the expenditure of energy, there has been developed either heat or electricity in the process. The oxygen may be taken away from the iron oxide, chemically; but here again would be another chemical action which would require energy to be once more expended.

Iron oxide may be made chemically in many different ways. It is frequently made in the form of a powder. Therefore, we do not have to depend upon iron rust for a supply of this material.

Before going further we must consider another oxide--namely, nickel oxide. It is characteristic of nickel that when it is combined with oxygen to a certain degree so as to form the compound known as nickel oxide, it will receive still more oxygen.

Now, if under proper conditions we compel iron oxide to give up its oxygen to some other kind of chemical compound, such as nickel oxide, we must expend energy. But, on the other hand, if this nickel oxide gives back the oxygen to the iron--which it will do if opportunity is given--there is energy produced again in receiving the oxygen. In other words, the energy previously expended, or part of it, is now returned.

This action and reaction are practically those that take place in the Edison alkaline storage battery. For simplicity of illustration we will consider a cell containing only two plates, one positive and one negative.

The negative plate is made up of a number of small, flat, perforated pockets containing iron oxide in the form of a fine powder. The positive plate is made up of small, perforated tubes containing nickel oxide mixed with very thin flakes of metallic nickel. (Fig. 37 illustrates these plates, the positive being in front.)

These two elements, positive and negative, having wires or conductors attached, are placed in a nickeled-steel can containing the electrolyte, which consists of a potash solution. You will see that this differs from a lead storage battery, in which the electrolyte is sulphuric acid and water. If we were to put this acid solution into a metallic can (except one made of lead) the can would not last long, as the acid would quickly eat holes through it.

Now let us see what takes place in the Edison alkaline storage battery. If an electric current from a dynamo or other source of electricity is caused to pass through the positive to the negative plate the oxygen present in the iron oxide passes to and remains with the nickel oxide. During all the time this is going on the battery is said to be "charging," and when all the oxygen has been removed from the iron oxide and is taken up by the nickel oxide, then the battery is said to be "charged," and the flow of current into the battery is stopped.

A change has now taken place. The powder in the negative plate is no longer iron oxide, but has been reduced to metallic iron, because the oxygen has been removed. The powder in the positive plate is now raised to a higher or super oxide of nickel, because it has taken the oxygen that was in the iron.

But the nickel oxide will readily give up its excess of oxygen, and the iron will receive it back freely if permitted. If the proper conditions are established, this transfer of oxygen will take place, but the iron cannot receive it without delivering energy.

The proper conditions are established by providing a conducting circuit between the two elements, in which lamps, motors, or other electrical devices are placed. As soon as this circuit is provided, the opportunity is given to the iron to receive the oxygen. This it does, and in so doing develops electrical energy.

This energy is in the form of electric current which is then delivered by the battery on what is called the "discharge," and this current may be used for lighting lamps or for operating motors or other electrical devices.

The battery is said to be discharging as long as the iron is receiving oxygen from the nickel oxide. As soon as it becomes iron oxide once more, the giving out of energy ceases and the battery is said to be "discharged," and must again be charged to obtain further work from it. Such a battery can be charged and discharged an indefinite number of times.

This type of battery is very rugged, and its combinations are not self-destructive. It is very simple, as it provides chiefly for the movement of the oxygen back and forth; besides, it gives much more current for its weight than the lead type of storage battery. (Fig. 38 shows the plates of a standard Edison cell removed from container.)

CONNECTING STORAGE BATTERIES

On the discharge, one cell of a lead storage battery gives an average of about 2 volts, and a cell of alkaline storage battery about 1.2 volts, no matter what its size or the number of plates may be. When there are more than two plates in one cell, all the positives in that cell are connected together by metallic strips or bands, and all negatives in the cell are connected together in a similar way.

Although we cannot obtain more than the above-named electromotive force from one cell of either type of storage battery, we can obtain a greater ampère capacity by using large plates instead of small ones, or by using a larger number of small size.

The same effects are produced by connecting the cells in series, or multiple, or multiple series, as we showed you in regard to primary batteries; and the storage batteries may be charged as well as discharged when connected in any one of these ways.

CHARGING CURRENT

The current which is used for charging must always be greater in pressure than that of the storage batteries which are being charged. If it is not, the storage batteries will be the stronger of the two and will overpower the charging current and so discharge themselves.

X

CONCLUSION

We will now bring this little volume to a close, having given you a brief outline of the simplest rudiments of that wonderful power of nature, Electricity.

We may compare this subject to a beautiful house the inside of which you would like to examine from top to bottom. We have opened the door for you; now walk in and examine everything. There may be a great many stairs to climb, but what you see and learn will repay for all the trouble.

THE END

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The filaments in modern "Mazda" lamps, as made at the Edison Lamp Works, are strips of metallic tungsten.

[2] The batteries we will now describe are for closed-circuit work _only_, and they are never used for open-circuit work. But there is a type of battery made that is available for either open or closed circuit operation. This is the Edison Primary Battery, which will be described later on.

[3] Practically, there is always one more negative plate than positive plates in a _regular_ storage-battery cell. Consequently, a standard cell always contains an odd number of plates.

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

-Plain print and punctuation errors fixed.

End of Project Gutenberg's ABC of Electricity, by William Henry Meadowcroft