Replica ebike - 1881

Lock

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Curious about putting together a project to build this:
file.php


Call it a 130th Anniversary of the ebike thing...

I know this so far:
On 1 August 1881 Trouve made his benchmark report to the French Academy of Sciences, stating: “I had the honour to submit to this Academy, in the session of 7th July 1880, a new electric motor based on the eccentricity of the Siemens coil flange. By suggestive studies, which have allowed me to reduce the weight of all the components of the motor, I have succeeded in obtaining an output which to me appears quite remarkable.

A motor weighing 5kg [11lb], powered by 6el of Plante producing an effective work of 7kgm per second, was placed, on the 8th April, on a tricycle whose weight, including the rider and the batteries rose to 160kg [352lb] and recorded a speed of 12km/h.

Here's another line drawing of the trike before conversion:
Rudge_Coventry_Rotary.jpg

So it's easy to see that Gustave added a platform to mount the cells behind him.

I can cheat a lot on the build... These folks in Alameda, CA can make the trike for me:
http://www.hiwheel.com/

It's watt they do:
courting4.jpg


I also know watt his motor looked like `cause he used the same motor to power a boat that same year:
Trouve_Motor.png

From the line drawing of the trike it appears that the chain from the pedals turned the axle to turn the large wheel. I'm guessing that Gustave mounted his motor on the same platform as the cells, and added another sprocket to the axle of the large wheel.

Make sense?

The steering on this thing looks pretty crappy. Ya twist the handle on the right and a pinion and rack slides a bar fwd/back to turn the two small wheels in unison. The left lever appears to be the brake, operating on the large wheel only.

Thoughts?

locK
 
bobc said:
Thank goodness it only did 12.5kph.... ;^)

Hehe... yah. Gets better maybe (or worse...) Found this:
Another point of difference consisted in the application of the lever gearing ; the pedals were fixed on oscillating levers, the motions of which were communicated by crank and connecting-rods to the driving-wheel.
The 'Coventry' bicycle was at first made with lever gearing, but chain gearing was very soon afterwards applied to it. The "Coventry Rotary" was the most successful of the early single-driving tricycles. It may be interesting to note that this type has been revived recently, the Princess of Wales having selected a tricycle of this type.
from the book "Bicycles and Tricycles" A.Sharp 1896

The pic of Gustave's trike is an "artists impression" maybe, but the pedals look "wrong" somehow. I'm thinkin' he had one of the early Coventrys that still had treadles and levers and not pedals with sprockets and chain...

LocK
 
Lock said:
The pic of Gustave's trike is an "artists impression" maybe, but the pedals look "wrong" somehow. I'm thinkin' he had one of the early Coventrys that still had treadles and levers and not pedals with sprockets and chain...

A stepper in modern parlance...?
 

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If you're trying to go scale with power, I converted 7kg/m/s into watts. It's 68watts.
 
TylerDurden said:
A stepper in modern parlance...?

Ya, exactly TD. I have some pics of other vintage bikes and trikes set up like this...

liveforphysics said:
If you're trying to go scale with power, I converted 7kg/m/s into watts. It's 68watts.

Ouch :( Might improve on that a bit :wink: Tks LFP. I was wondering...

Gustave said himself he was still using Planté cells... There was a lot of controversy at the time `cause Faure had just come out with his new, improved cells. Folks were making wild claims about how much better they were than the Planté. So the Journal Nature did some testing of the Planté cells as a baseline (google translation from the French):
We did, with the assistance of Mr. Frank Geraldy, a series of experiments on piles graciously provided to us by Mr. Plante, and the numbers that we found merit some consideration.
The weight of the battery plants under experiment was distributed as follows:

Weight 1540 grams of lead
Weight of the glass and water acidulated 1810 grams
Total weight 3550 grams

The constants of this cell were:
Internal resistance 0.04 ohm.
Electromotive force at the beginning 2.15 volts.
In discharging it on a circuit whose surface resistance was 0.21 Ohm, it provided an amount of energy equal to 4186-pounds, that is to say 1250 kilogrammetres per kilogram of gross weight.

So looks like Gustave was running 47lbs of LA and in series would have been about 12.9V at a full charge...(LFP? Not sure of the Ahs!)

68W mighta been practical to get any range at all!

LocK
 
Here's a better pic of his motor BTW:
Trouve_motor1.jpg

Wouldya believe the guys professional training was as a clock maker? :D
 
Lock said:
TylerDurden said:
A stepper in modern parlance...?

Ya, exactly TD. I have some pics of other vintage bikes and trikes set up like this...

liveforphysics said:
If you're trying to go scale with power, I converted 7kg/m/s into watts. It's 68watts.

Ouch :( Might improve on that a bit :wink: Tks LFP. I was wondering...

Gustave said himself he was still using Planté cells... There was a lot of controversy at the time `cause Faure had just come out with his new, improved cells. Folks were making wild claims about how much better they were than the Planté. So the Journal Nature did some testing of the Planté cells as a baseline (google translation from the French):
We did, with the assistance of Mr. Frank Geraldy, a series of experiments on piles graciously provided to us by Mr. Plante, and the numbers that we found merit some consideration.
The weight of the battery plants under experiment was distributed as follows:

Weight 1540 grams of lead
Weight of the glass and water acidulated 1810 grams
Total weight 3550 grams

The constants of this cell were:
Internal resistance 0.04 ohm.
Electromotive force at the beginning 2.15 volts.
In discharging it on a circuit whose surface resistance was 0.21 Ohm, it provided an amount of energy equal to 4186-pounds, that is to say 1250 kilogrammetres per kilogram of gross weight.

So looks like Gustave was running 47lbs of LA and in series would have been about 12.9V at a full charge...(LFP? Not sure of the Ahs!)

68W mighta been practical to get any range at all!

LocK


They tested the lead cell at a 1.43C rate (8.6amps), and measured 6Ah out. Compensating for Peukert effect (which they didn't give a value for because the formula had not yet been created), I think you can safely call it at least a 10-12Ah cell.

It would be safe to call it a ~120watt-hour lead pack that has ~55-60usable watt-hours.

If that 68watt-output motor is 50% efficient, that would give ~30mins of runtime at 12km/h, or about a 6km range.

Just to see how far battery tech as come, you could replace that 47lbs lead battery with a LiPo pack the size of a pack of gum.
 
That is going to be one awesome project, my friend!
 
very unique project,ive often thought of using a hub motor on the rear of a high wheel,keep from going over the bars.ow i just thought about the new 5404 in the front 54 inch wheel theres plenty of room,lipo in rear gutted hub.fun....40 mph 44.4v highwheel yickes.
 
Been trying to understand how Gustave configured his motor. He described it as an improvement on the Siemens type... The pics show four posts. Two labeled as P and P+ and two as S and S+. Sepex? I'm not sure folks understood this concept then... I suspect his only motor control was an on-off blade switch.

A larger Siemens motor of about the same time looked like this:
Siemens_motor.jpg

View attachment 2

Dynamo-electric machines
The Siemens Machine, Figs. 1123, 1124, and 1125. This consists of an induction coil, with the convolutions of the copper wire wound lengthwise with the cylinder, in the form known as the modified Siemens armature. Fig. 1125. This coil is made to revolve by mechanical means between curved iron bars, which are the prolongation of the cores of large flat electro-magnets placed on either side of the induction coil ; the north pole of the system being midway between the two upper electro-magnets and directly over the axis of the coil, and the south pole in a similar position below the axis upon the bar between the lower magnets. The portion of the coil which during its revolution is traveling downward has (with the above arrangement) positive currents induced in it; while the ascending half of the coil is subjected to negative currents, but both in the same direction as regards circuit. The arrangement of the poles may, however, be exactly the reverse of the above. Sections of a machine of about 6,000 candle-power are given in Figs. 1123 and 1124.
APPLETONS CYCLOPEDIA OF APPLIED MECHANICS 1880

And I found this (really bad google translation from the French):
Trouve motors. - Trouve combined at one time a number of models of electric motors, many of which are now fairly widely traded in one form or another, to run some physical devices including tubes Geisseler.

The simplest type of these engines is an iron ring fitted inside with two bulges shaped ratchet teeth, and inside which rotates an electro magnetic composed of two electromagnets placed right in the extension One of the other. A current is introduced through the (he of the two electro-magnets when they approach the swollen parts of the ring, and being then interrupted when they exceed the summit of the bulge, the camera continues its march exactly as if the two bulges constitute separate frames.

By making the mobile iron ring itself, can produce two opposing movements, one from the action, another reaction, and can prove this law of mechanics that the reaction is equal action. Holding fixed the electromagnetic system, the ring alone with a running speed that can be estimated by the number of rounds it carries in one minute. However, stopping the ring and leaving free the electro-magnetic, it rotates with a speed that agrees to be the same as that of the ring, if the two masses are equal in inertia.

Other Electric motors Trouve resemble those we have described on page 59 and 60. In one, the electro-magnetic system consists of a large number of electromagnets, and forms a kind of magnetic wheel, as in the MM engine. Wheatstone and Froment, is supported by the center to crank the engine, and rolled inside a ring of soft iron under the influence of closures and power outages, made about through the different electro- magnets. These closures and power outages are performed by a smart switch which we must say a few words, because it is extremely simple. It consists of an insulating disc through which pass all the ends of the son of electromagnets, which ends there are arranged circularly, these ends being mechanically connected at one point on the crank of the engine, the drive can describe a gyratory motion conical. Below this disc insulator, is another platinum supported by a coil spring, which is still in contact with one or other of the son of the first disc, regardless of the position ^ ilo it. However, he resuit of this provision that, if the platinum and electromagnets are used in connection with the battery, the hard ivory, under the influence of the movement of the magnet system, will turn the ends of the wire electro-magnets in contact with various points on the surface of platinum, and electro-magnets will thus animated sequence.

In another model, the electro magnetic action is normally done on the plates, and a long rod that is suited to them who, reacting to a crank, starts the engine. However, the electro magnetic action is not applied to these frames in ordinary conditions, these frames are not in fact articulated in an adjoining electromagnets, they are maintained only by a pin inserted freely in a rigid placed between two magnetic poles, and each magnet acts on them under the influence of a coil, that is to say how electromagnets lame. Sometimes while under the influence of movement of the rod, these frames are raised, sometimes above the north pole of the electro-magnets, sometimes above the south pole, and function as if they were operated by two separate electromagnets. Ordinarily Trouve n'adapte these engines that two magnetic systems of this kind, but he has the motor system and the connecting rods so that they can be moved at will, with respect to the electromagnets that are stationary, and may in this way to find the length of rods conditions most favorable to provide the maximum effect. We will see later that Trouve combined system of another electric motor that can be applied to the gyroscope.

And this:
After the previous engines, comes, chronologically, that of Trouve. It approaches the engine Ladd-Deprez we described above, as shown in Figure 72, so it's a dynamo engine. However, it has interesting modifications. From one to which Mr. attaches the greatest importance is a given strain to the coil.

Siemens coil, used by Mr. Marcel Deprez, is cylindrical and it is therefore always the same distance from the poles, that of Trouve offers a cross-section showing two half-spirals, so that in its rotation, the iron s approach gradually the magnetic pole to move away then suddenly when the reversal of currents. It's still a provision similar to one he had already combined and that we described on page 109. Trouve think thus avoid a particular disadvantage. It is necessary in previous engines to run the coil or at least move it so that the movement should arise, or else the poles are located exactly opposite each other, the device is, as they say, "so death "and not starting. The asymmetrical arrangement Trouve mitigates this defect. The helical coil is also a very pale, and a distortion of 1 mm. sufficient to obtain the desired effect. It may be noted also that the winding of electromagnets has a particular shape, instead of winding the wire around the two branches, as in the machine Ladd-Deprez, there is only one winding on the yoke soft iron, which met '* these two branches. The size of the device is reduced.
Experiences d'Arsonval lead to the conclusion that the performance of this device is smaller than that of magnetic motor Deprez, that is to say that the kilogrammetre force is obtained at a higher price. In exchange, it is fair to recognize that under the same weight this device can provide more work than the previous one.


One more horrible translation:
Trouve has mainly sought to apply his small motor vehicles. It was built before the Electrical Exhibition of 1881 which gave a bicycle electrical results, it was less interesting than the boat he had put on the Seine and has worked in the pelvis of the Exhibition. For this latter application, it made use of a small double engine (Fig. 83), that is to say two coils juxtaposed, placed on the head of the rudder movement was transmitted by a chain of Galle to small rudder propeller placed in the same advantageous to maneuver. Electricity was produced by batteries chromed placed in the middle of the small boat and taken to the engine by two flexible cables which simultaneously act as ropes to handle the rudder. The set was light and maneuvered properly. The general appearance is shown in Figure 85. It was with this boat up the Seine with tune rate of about 1 meter per second and a half: it was used. why a battery electric chromed zinc where the blades are attached to a winch so small, so that it can be lowered at will in the trough containing the liquid exciter. The battery does not work and when willing, and is preserved when it has
not to provide energy. The ligure 84 shows the layout of the stack. Trouve built different models from the rest of his motor system applied to navigation, and when the boat requires some driving force, it places the motor in the same boat so do act directly on the axis of the propeller. Another application of this same engine was at the Exhibition of 1881. He had been working to put in action a pianist. The pianist is a kind of mechanical keyboard, put into play by the compressed air is placed before a regular piano. By introducing the pianista cardboard sheets with holes as cartons of a jacquard scroll and these sheets by the rotation of a crank, the device lowers the notes on the piano a series of levers and perform a tune. The electric motor was used to rotate the crank whose handling is a bit tedious. Whoever had been applied to the pianist's Fair and we represent is 86 dimensions were so small they could fit it on the side of the device without causing any obstruction, and his adaptation was made of a very happy by II. Newspapers that the rest still applied to its engine From sewing machines. The pianist was working under the influence of six Faure accumulators and a small stack for additional large effects. It's an application on which it is useless to insist, and it is understandable that whenever we shall produce a regular rotation without much work, small electric motors will be used very easily. One might imagine many of those whose enumeration would have no interest.

Trouve gave his little engine another application rather singular. In agricultural countries, especially in those where they grow in pastures, it makes great use of running water for watering. These waters are then divided and furnished with great care. Each of the residents of a stream, for example, his day of watering during which he has water. To bring it on land for irrigation it is necessary to establish small work consisting of ditches, especially in small dams to raise the clean water level at a point to bring it to the floor level that it must be watered. These works are quite expensive to establish and maintain especially: Trouve used his small motor to act in a chain that lifts water buckets and replace the dams. All told, it does not seem that way can be cheaper than installing a small valve, mainly due to the high cost of the battery, however it is original enough to make it worthwhile to be city. Moreover, it could apply in the absence of work done in advance or in one case a hurry, if the work are established decommissioned.

I like this guy... music in his soul!
Pianista_à_moteur_électrique.png

So for his piano he *was* already using those fancy new Faure batteries...maybe on his trike too?

Incidently on the water he did have some motor control... by raising and lowering the plates in his bichromate battery:
Trouve_bichromate_1891.gif

Anywhooo... I'm having difficulty understanding how Gustave wound and connected his motor, and the reference to "... a cross-section showing two half-spirals..."

Anybuddy?
Tks
LocK
 
It sounds like he introduced a little rotor skew to make it self starting.
Interestging that he appears to take the magnetic circuit round the ends of the motor instead of around it "equatorially" as we tend to today (exception - who remembers the old scalextric/trainset motors with the permanent magnet at one end..)
 
Nice reply from Lee Hart via the EVDL:
Re: [EVDL] Replica ebike - 1881
Monday, February 21, 2011 12:53 AM
From: "Lee Hart" <le eah art@ear thlink.n et>
To: "Electric Vehicle Discussion List" <e v@li sts.sj su.edu>
On 2/20/2011 9:19 PM, Lock wrote:
> http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=25295
> ... how did Gustave build and wind his rotor?

I think it worked like two 2-pole motors sharing one field. Each rotor was an iron cylinder, with two lengthwise slots in it, shaped like this in cross section (view with a fixed width font).

/|_|\
| _ |
\| |/

A single wire coil was wound around these slots. This forms an electromagnet, with its North and South poles on the left and right sides of the above illustration.

A commutator with only two segments (one per wire) was placed at one end. Two brushes ride on this commutator, one + and one -.

Two of these rotors were used, side by side. They are geared together, with one rotated 90 degrees from the other, like this.
___
/|_|\ /_ _\
| _ | _| |_
\| |/ \___/

The field is the outer square iron box, with a coil on the left and right sides of the rotor.

If a motor has one such rotor, it only generates torque when the rotor is about 90 degrees from the field. It generates zero torque when the rotor is aligned with the field; so it can't start itself. The single rotor generates two pulses of torque per revolution.

By using two rotors, offset by 90 degrees, the motor generates four torque pulses per revolution, and is self-starting.

To smooth out the torque pulsations (called cogging), he also skewed the slot in each rotor slightly.
--
Lee A. Hart
 
From ELEMENTARY TREATISE
ELECTRIC BATTERIES
ALFRED NIAUDET
COPYRIGHT 1880

As early as 1859 Mr. Plante showed that lead was the most favorable metal for use in secondary batteries, and he has since that time accumulated many proofs of this
superiority. Figs. 52 and 53 show the element as constructed to-day.

Fig52.jpg

Fig53.jpg

In a tall vessel made of glass, of rubber, or of ebonite are placed two sheets of lead rolled together parallel to each other, and kept apart by two strips of rubber rolled with them; these two sheets are immersed in a solution containing one tenth of sulphuric acid. The vessel is closed by a sealed stopper in which there is a hole through which the liquid is introduced and extracted, and through which the gases evolved during the charging may pass off. The apparatus is capped by an ebonite cover furnished with two clamp screws
which communicate with the two electrodes; there are also two clamps, which hold metallic wires to be heated and melted by the secondary current.

To charge this secondary element to its maximum, two of Bunsen's cells or three of Daniell's must be used. During the charging, one of the electrodes becomes oxidized, a brownish layer of peroxide of lead is soon seen, and the metallic aspect completely disappears; the other electrode only changes in appearance, its surface becoming covered with a grayish matter.

When it is charged to its maximum that is, when oxygen begins to free itself from the brown electrode it is well to separate the secondary cell from the active battery, as the polarizing current is no longer useful and is wasted.

The secondary element thus charged and left to itself can preserve a part of its charge several days, and at the end of a week it is still far from being exhausted.

The secondary cell when charged to its maximum has an electro-motive force equal to one and a half that of Bunsen's cell; it can bring to a glowing red heat a platinum wire large or small according to the dimensions of the cell, or, better, according to the size of its electrodes.

It can be easily understood, indeed, that the quantity of electricity furnished by the apparatus is in proportion to the extent of surface of the lead submitted to the action
of the polarizing current and covered with an active electro-chemical deposit.

It should be noted that the peculiar form of the electrodes offers a large surface and a small resistance under a small volume; so that one of Plante's secondary cells is equal to an active or ordinary cell of extraordinary dimensions; the small model has a surface of eight square decimetres, the large one a surface of four square decimetres.

The current furnished by a secondary element can produce chemical decompositions, act upon an electro-magnet, etc.; but if its intensity be measured in one way or another, with a galvanometer for instance, it is seen to diminish from the maximum of which we have spoken
above. This decrease is very slow if the circuit offers a great resistance, and if, as a consequence, there is a very small flow of electricity; it is on the contrary very rapid
if the circuit offers but a slight resistance, because the electricity flows in a large quantity.

A very curious and interesting fact is noticed during the discharge of the cell; it is apparently completely discharged, but if the circuit be left open several minutes, it has been ascertained that it recovers a certain energy and that it can still furnish a certain quantity of electricity.

The battery thus delivered of its first residue and left to itself for some time will furnish a second residue, less, of course, than the first. And this is not the last one, for several more can be obtained. Mr. Plante has very clearly explained this peculiarity. The secondary element, when it becomes active, discharges itself and at the same time polarizes, as all single-liquid batteries. This polarization attains in a certain time a force almost equal to
that of the already weakened secondary element, and the action ceases or is reduced to very little. If the battery then be left to rest, it depolarizes as do all single-liquid batteries polarized by their own action. As soon as the battery is depolarized it is again ready to furnish a current, but during this new discharge it again polarizes, and so on.

If we consider the secondary cell as completely or almost completely discharged, it may be recharged with two of Bunsen's elements, as in the first instance; but it is well to note that the more immediately after the discharge the new charge be given, the more rapidly it may
be given.

Moreover, the greater number of times a secondary element is charged and discharged, the better it is. In the beginning, when it is nearly new, there is an advantage in polarizing the electrodes, first in one direction and then in the other, and in reversing several times the
direction of the charge; but when the element is formed, great care must be taken to always charge it in the same direction. If this precaution be neglected it will take a much longer time to charge it, for the oxide of lead, which may still remain upon one of the electrodes, must be reduced and the previously negative plate oxidized. But after this operation the secondary cell will have recovered all its qualities: it may indeed be said to have gained some.

Fig. 54 shows a peculiar form given to the secondary element by Mr. Plante, and which he has called Saturn's tinder-box.
Fig54.jpg

At the top are seen two clamps which hold a platinum wire stretched between them; each time that, by pressing with the finger, the two springs at the bottom are brought into contact the battery sends a current through the platinum wire, which is thereby brought to a glowing red heat, whence follows an almost instantaneous lighting of the candle. With one of these contrivances the candle may be lighted one hundred times, and it is only after these frequent lightings that it has to be recharged with three of Daniel's cells. That is a means 'of obtaining fire and a very economical means too, for the secondary element
spends nothing and the charging battery consumes but a few grammes of sulphate of copper for a prolonged working of the tinder-box.

This same apparatus can be used to touch off mines either in civil or military service; the experiment shows that with fine platinum-wire fuses (1/500 of an inch) combustion may be obtained through a copper wire 1000 yards long.

With a contrivance of this kind surgeons may cauterize a wound, and it has frequently been applied in that way. A secondary element is much more easily transported into a hospital or to the house of a sick person than active cells which it may replace.

Finally, secondary cells can be joined in quantity or in intensity and constitute batteries capable of producing all the effects of the most powerful ordinary batteries. Fig. 55 represents the secondary battery as disposed by Mr.Plante.


The number and dimensions of the cells can be varied according to the tension and quantity desired. Here there are twenty elements arranged in two rows. At the top there is a very conveniently disposed commutator, which, in one position, joins the cells in quantity; in another position, at right angles with the first, it joins them in intensity. In the first position all the outer electrodes are joined to one metallic strip, and all the inner electrodes to another metallic strip, so that the whole arrangement represents a single cell with a large surface. It is in this condition that the charge is made; two of Bunsen's cells are sufficient, and they complete the charge in a longer or shorter time, according to the dimensions of the cells and to the extent of the surface of the lead to be polarized. In the second position the outer electrode of each cell is put into communication with the inner one of the following cell, and the apparatus becomes a real battery of twenty cells. It is in this condition that the battery is discharged, and it is equal, at first starting, to 30 of Bunsen's very large cells.

As the battery is being discharged the tension diminishes, as we explained when speaking of the single secondary element. If it takes one minute to charge the battery of secondary cells in quantity, it cannot be expected that the discharge of the cells in intensity will furnish the same effects as 30 of Bunsen's of the same size during a longer period than four seconds, for the apparatus furnishes no electricity and can only transform that which
has been given to it. Mr. Plante has made some exact experiments in this direction, and has found that in this transformation about one tenth is lost, or, in other words, the machine returns nine tenths of that which was given to it.

It is clearly seen that the secondary battery can only produce effects of very short duration, but in most cases this is all that is necessary.

If, for instance, a large number of mines are to be simultaneously exploded by means of fuses of fine wire, it may be done by placing all the fuses in divided circuits and by causing the current of the secondary battery to pass through them all at once. This manner of preceding is very economical, and it is certainly less laborious and costly to mount two of Bunsen's cells and to charge a secondary battery than to charge 20 or 30 of Bunsen's
elements, especially when the battery is only worked a few seconds and only four or five times during a day.

Makes me wonder whether Gustave had implemented series-parallel switching for discharging too...

tks
10cK
 
Otago Witness , Issue 1558, 17 September 1881
An Electric Velocipede.
The electric light has been applied to the bicycle before now to light up the road in front of it, but M.Trouve, of Paris, is the first to do away with personal exertion and drive the vehicle itself by the electric current. He effects this by connecting each axle to a small electric motor of his own construction, in such a manner that the rotation of the motor turns the wheels. The motors are themselves driven by the current stored up in secondary batteries, carried by the velocipede. Recent trials with an English tricycle made in the Rue de Valois, an asphalted thoroughfare in Paris showed that the vehicle, which with its occupant weighed nearly four hundred-weight could be maintained by the current at the speed of an ordinary cab for the space of an hour. M.Trouve is now at work on an improved motor, which he hopes will suffice to drive the tricycle at a speed of twelve or fifteen miles an hour; and this motor, combined with Faure's secondary battery, ought to make the electric tricycle a practical invention, highly useful to the invalided or the weakly.
 
Found a bit more about the motor, in Gustaves own words 8)

The Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review
October 1, 1880
Trouve's Electric Motor.

By M.TROUVE.

If the dynamic diagram of a Siemens armature is traced out, on making the armature turn a complete revolution between the magnetic poles which react upon it, it will be observed that the work is almost nil during two periods forming a considerable portion of the revolution. These two periods correspond to the times during which the cylindrical poles of the armature, having reached the poles of the magnet, move in front of them. During these two portions of the revolution, which are each about 30°, the magnetic surfaces destined to react one on the other remain at the same distance, and the armature has no turning force given it.

I have suppressed these periods of indifference and increased the useful effect of the machine, by modifying the shape of the bobbin; the polar faces, instead of being portions of a cylinder of which the axis coincides with that of the system, are of a snail form, so that on turning they gradually approach their surfaces towards those of the magnet, up to the moment when the hinder edge leaves the pole of the magnet. The action of repulsion then commences, so that the dead point is practically got rid of.

Fig. 1 shows a general perspective view of a motor constructed on these principles; fig. 2 is a vertical section of the same, with a horizontal projection.
Trouve_motor_1880.jpg
Fig. 1 is drawn to half size. A A c c is a fixed electro-magnet or inductor; B a Siemens armature on the new principle mounted on pivots, I J.

This motor is capable of working a sewing machine with a few Bunsen or Reynier cells.

As matters exist at present, it is doubtful if this motor can be employed by a working mechanic, as the expense to him would be comparatively considerable; it would be, however, very useful to dentists or clockmakers, &c., or to amateurs, and for numerous special purposes. The success of this motor, and the different results arrived at, are easily explained by the following enumeration of the peculiarities which it presents: 1st, it gives in a comparatively small space a considerable power; 2nd, the electro-magnetic effects are utilised under the best possible conditions, as the inductor is very close to the induced armature, and since it almost entirely envelopes the latter. Fig. 2 shows a vertical section with a horizontal projection of the motor, a a l> is an electro-magnet with two branches, and which forms the inductor; ffe e is the movable armature. 3rd, the complete suppression of dead points, with a single movable electro-magnet, a fact very rare in mechanism, which would have produced an immense effect in science if it had been applied to the steam engine instead of to an electric motor; 4th, the direct reaction of two magnets, the one on the other, placed in the same circuit, allows of the augmentation of the power indefinitely by an increase in the current strength—this power is only limited by the strength of the machine; 5th, a considerable velocity can be attained even up to 200 turns a second and beyond; 6th, no sparking at the commutator, the current being never interrupted (it changes only as in the ordinary Siemens armature, at each revolution); 7th, it may be added that this motor is reversible, and can, by slight modifications, be employed as a generator of electricity; 8th, it is not expensive, costing from 100 francs upwards.

Figs. 3, 4, 5, are varieties of the motor, in which M. Trouve has arrived at good results by making the inductor excentric, instead of the armature.

Trouve_motor_1880a.jpg

Fig. 6 represents an ingenious application of the Trouve motor to the propulsion of light boats. The arrangement is in effect so simple that it does not require any change in the construction of the boat to be made.

The rudder carries on itself all the mechanical elements; the motor, the propeller, and the conductors are easily added.

The screw and its axis occupy the lower part of the rudder, and receive the movement of the motor placed on the top of the rudder by means of a connecting band or by some other means.

The electro-motive force furnished by the generator which is placed in the boat is conducted to the motor by flexible metallic cords.

The power given out by the motor is transmitted to the axis of the screw by means of a band, as explained above.

The rudder is fitted to the boat in the ordinary manner, by a hook and loop.

It keeps in every respect its movability as an ordinary rudder; it allows besides the use of oars to increase the speed of the boat.

When it is required to use the oars alone, the screw not being acted upon by the motor can turn freely.

For several months numerous experiments have been made on the river Seine, with this motor arranged in the manner indicated, and fitted to a pair-oared yawl, the Telephone belonging to M.Ed.Schlesinger. In the experiment the yawl attained a speed of 1.20 metres per second. After certain modifications of details, this speed was successfully increased to 2 metres per second, with the stream against the boat.

These results were obtained with the small motor, of which fig. 1 is a half-size representation, presented to the Academic des Sciences; the battery power was 6 Reynier elements.

Hmmm... only one "bobbin" illustrated in his 1880 letter... confusing! :)

locK
 
Hey, the US Army Corps of Engineers attended the 1881 Exposition in Paris... Major David Porter Heap reported:
THE TROUVE MOTOR.

The system adopted by M. Trouve consists in the production of the current by means of a secondary Plante battery or a Trouve bichromate battery, which will be found under the head of batteries.

The Trouve motor was explained by the inventor for the first time before the Academy of Science of Paris, France, on the 28th of June, 1880.

The following is a summary of his remarks:

If the dynamic diagram of a Siemens coil, making a complete revolution between the magnetic poles reacting on it, is traced out, it will be seen that the work is almost nil during two very sensible portions of the revolution. These correspond to the time during which the cylindrical poles of the coil, having arrived at thejpoles of the magnet, pass before them.

During these two portions of the revolutions, which are each about 30°, the magnetic surfaces which react, one on the other, remain at the same distance; the coil is not therefore induced to revolve, and a loss of work takes place.

In the Trouve motor these idle periods are removed, and the useful effeet of the apparatus is increased by modifying the coil; the polar faces, instead of being parts of a cylinder, the axis of which coincides with that of the whole system, are made spiral, so that in turning they approach gradually to the surface of the magnet, up to the moment when the rear edge passes the pole of the magnet. The action of repulsion then commences and the dead points are practically suppressed.

Fig. 81 represents the motor as actually made; A A are the poles of the fixed electro-magnet; B is the iron core of the modified Siemens coil; C is the coil of the electro-magnet; I is the axis of the coil; F H are the poles of the actuating battery; D is a copper frame, and E an independent cast iron frame.

The vertical section (Fig. 82) shows the spiral form of the coil. The fixed electro-magnet is marked aab and the movable coil e e ff. In one of M. Trouve's arrangements the magnet tube is oval and the coil circular; in another the magnet is circular and the coil is spiral, as shown in Figs. 83 and 84.

M. Trouve has obtained remarkable results compared with the weight of the apparatus. A tricycle weighing 120 pounds was driven by means of a motor and six Plante secondary batteries. The total weight of vehicle, rider, batteries, and motor was 350 pounds. The motor, weighing 11 pounds, propelled the vehicle at the rate of 7 1/2 miles an hour.

Copper frame? Really?

The Major illustrated his report using the same illustrations (of a single rotor version motor w/same lettering to label parts) that Gustave enclosed with his letter in 1880.

He also enclosed a drawing of the Trouve outboard motor setup:
Trouve_Outboard.jpg

...and I've NEVER seen a pic of his outboard illustrated with only one rotor. *Always* a two rotor version... Hmmmm...

locK
 
Here we go... from The Popular Science Monthly 1881 May to October:
NOTES
M.G.Trouve has applied two of his electric motors to an English tricycle, with a gratifying success in making it go. The machines were each fed by three of the accumulators which he uses in his polyscope. The tricycle ran for an hour and a half at the speed of a good carriage. M.Trouve intends to construct another motor, with which he expects to attain a speed of twelve or sixteen miles an hour.

Beginning to look like ol' Gustave constructed several motors... He went on to sell over 100 motors eventually. Mostly for electric boats... He'd been dabbling in motors and batteries of all sorts for more than a decade already before he got around to boats and trikes. In 1868 his motorized scarf-pins got a lot of press:

Boston Journal of Chemistry March 1, 1868
A curious application of electricity has been made by a jeweller in the Rue Therese, M.Trouve. He makes scarf-pins, etc., with heads upon them, which, at the will of the wearer, move their eyes. They are delighting fashionable Paris. The electro-motor is usually carried in the waistcoat pocket. It is formed of one couple, either zinc and carbon, or zinc and platinum. The carbon is fixed in the vessel which holds the exciting liquid, — a saturated solution of sulphate of mercury,— there being an outer case in which this vessel is placed. The zinc is fixed to the lid of the case, and does not plunge into the liquid, which only fills the lower half ol the vessel. So long, therefore, as the apparatus is in an erect position, there is no action; but when placed horizontally, the current is formed. The whole apparatus makes a little case of the most trifling size.—Chem. News.

:lol:
LocK
 
machines were each fed by three of the accumulators which he uses in his polyscope.

When Gustave exhibited his Polyscope in 1878 he was using Plante cells... and charging those with a "Gravity" primary battery... actually a zinc-copper cell with sulphate of copper on the bottom and sulphate of zinc floating on top. But I assume the reference here to "accumulators" is to the Plante lead-acid cells `cause they were the only really "practical" secondary (rechargeable) cells invented up to that point... None of the other cell chemistries could "accumulate" a charge of electricity. They pretty much all just ate zinc etc. to made the DC flow.

The problem with the Plante cells was mostly that they took many, many weeks to make. Which is watt made Faures cells so much of an improvement. Haven't found his French patent yet but he applied for his US patent in 1881:
Faure_1882.jpg

...and his US patent says he got his French patent on October 20, 1880.

So it was in that first year that Gustave started motorizing boats and trikes that the Faure battery became known. He might have bought some cells off of Faure but he was quite capable of making them himself... That one mention of his player piano at the 1881 Exhibition mentioned Faure batteries so I'm pretty sure he was riding Faure cells by then.

After a couple of frustrating decades of folks struggling with the Plante cells, in 1881 the new Faures attracted a huge amount of attention:
The Electrician May 7, 1881

FAURE'S SECONDARY BATTERY.

The importance of secondary batteries as a means of storing electricity is beginning to be recognised by practical electricians, and M. Emile Reynier, the inventor of a successful electric lamp, is at present engaged in studying the subject.

The beautiful researches of M. Gaston Plante on the polarisation of voltameters have led that skilful electrician to the invention of very powerful lead plate secondary batteries, which can be used for storing the electric current. He has succeeded in giving them a great capacity by means of successive charges and discharges regularly produced, which develop on the surface of the lead 9, coating of oxide and reduced metal in a divided state, favourable to the production of the secondary current.

A Plante couple of half a square metre surface, properly made, can store a quantity of electro chemical energy capable of reddening during ten minutes a platinum wire of 1 millimetre diameter for 8 centimetres of its length.

M. Plante has chiefly applied these resultsto pure experiment. By the discharge in tension of a large number of secondary couples, originally charged in quantity, be has obtained very high electric tension.

The Plante battery has already taken an important place in laboratories; it is likely also to be useful in distributing the electric current, and, therefore, mechanical work, or, indeed, all forms of energy, light, heat and chemical action. But in order to attain this end it is necessary to give the apparatus a greater capacity, combined with a smaller bulk. These improvements appear to have been made by M. Camille Faure.

His secondary battery is derived from that of M. Plante. The electrodes are of lead, plunged in water, acidulated by sulphuric acid; but it can be more easily constructed. In Plante's battery the formation is limited by the thickness of the lead plates; but M. Faure gives to his couples an almost limitless power of accumulation by covering the electrodes with a layer of spongy lead, formed and retained in the following manner :—

The two lead plates of the couple are each covered with minium (red lead) or another insoluble oxide of lead, then enclosed in felt, kept in place by lead rivets. These two electrodes are then put side by side m a vessel of acidulated water. If they are very long they are rolled up like those of M. Plante. Thus constructed', the couple is formed by causing an electric current to traverse it, when the red lead is reduced to the state of peroxide on the positive electrode and lead npon the negative electrode. When the whole mass has been thus electrolised the couple is ready for charging.

On being discharged again, the reduced lead is oxidised, and the peroxide is reduced until the couple becomes inert. It is then ready for a new charge of electricity.

Practically one can store in this way a quantity of energy capable ofperforming a horse-power of external work during an hour in a Faure battery of 75 kilograms in weight.

The yield of the secondary battery of M. Faure can, under certain conditions, amount to 80 percent, of the energy expended in charging it, a result which is in perfect accord with the theory.

Nature 1881 May 19
STORING OF ELECTRICITY

SECONDARY batteries to store up currents of electricity in the form of chemical work promise to play so important a part in the ultimate adoption of the electric light, that improvements in their contraction are of peculiar interest. The latest innovation is due to M.Faure, who has modified with great success the secondary battery of Gaston Plante by covering the surfaces of the lead plates with a coating of minium, thereby increasing their capacity manifold. This device possesses the additional advantage that it obviates the necessity of "forming" the cell; by the tedious process of charging and discharging them for many days, as in Plante's batteries. Two sheets of lead are separately coated with minium and are rolled together in a spiral, being kept apart by a layer of felt, and are then placed in a

vessel containing dilute acid. When a current is passed into this cell the minium on one plate is reduced to metallic lead that on the other is oxidised to the state of peroxide. These actions are reversed while the charged cell is discharging itself. According to M.Reynier one of these cells made large enough to weigh 75 kilograms may store up energy sufficient to furnish afterwards one-horse power of work for an hour.

A correspondent of the Times of Monday gave an interesting account of an experiment he witnessed in Paris of storing electrical energy by the method adopted by M.Faure.

"A Faure battery, or pile secondaire," he states, "was charged with the electric fluid direct from the ordinary Grove battery and in my presence. It may be more economically done from a Gramme or Siemens machine. The receptacle consisted of four Faure batteries, each about five inches diameter and ten inches high, forming a cylindrical leaden vessel, and containing alternate sheets of metallic lead and minium wrapped in felt and rolled into a spiral wetted with acidulated water, and the whole placed in a square wooden box measuring about one cubic foot and weighing some seventy-five pounds. This was protected by a loose wooden cover, through which the electrodes (in lead) protruded, and were flattened down for convenience of transport. This box of "electric energy" was handed to me by M. Faure at my request, with the object of submitting it for examination and measurement to our eminent electrician, Sir William Thomson, F.R.S., at the University of Glasgow. I had the box by me all through the journey from Paris on Tuesday night (last week), including a five hours delay at Calais. I arrived at Charing Cross at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, after running the gauntlet of customs and police authorities, who suspiciously looked askance and seemed to doubt my statement that my box only held "condensed lightning," and contained no infernal machine or new explosive destined to illustrate some diabolical socialistic tragedy. From time to time on the journey I tested the force of the discharge and found it to have well maintained its energy. From London to Glasgow required only another ten hours, and finally, in about seventy-two hours from the time of charging in Paris, I had the satisfaction of presenting to Sir William Thomson M.Faure's rare offering of a "box of electricity," intact and potent, holding by measurement within that small space of one cubic foot a power equivalent to nearly one million of foot pounds! This wonderful box is now deposited in the laboratory of the Glasgow University, under the vigilant eye of its director, and being submitted to a series of tests and measurements, the results of some of which made Sir William exclaim, "Why, it's a little witch." With reference to this Sir Wm.Thomson writes to us under date May 17: — "I had the marvellous box under trial for seventy-two hours before I left Glasgow yesterday, giving it successive charges, and discharging to various decrees, measuring approximately the whole quantity sent in during the charge, and taken out in the discharge. Thus I shall be able to calculate the amount of energy spent, and the amount recovered under various conditions. Mr. J.T.Bottomley continues the trial in my absence. A considerable time must pass before I have results to publish."

Nature 1881 June 2
THE STORAGE OF ELECTRIC CURRENTS

PRACTICAL electricians seem to have made up their minds that a system for the distribution of electricity for the purposes of electric lighting or for driving electric motors will be incomplete unless it comprises a means of storage of the currents to provide against the risk of any temporary derangement or inconstancy in the generating apparatus. An accumulator of currents would in fact render the same service in an electrical system as do gasometers in systems for distributing gas, or the hydraulic accumulators in a system of hydraulic machinery.

At the present time much attention is directed to such accumulators, or, as they have been hitherto called, secondary batteries.

The principle of the secondary battery dates back to the very early days of Voltaic electricity, when in 1801, one year after Volta's "pile" had made its appearance, Gautherot, a French savant, observed that wires of platinum or of silver which had served as electrodes for the decomposition of water containing a little salt or sal ammoniac acquired the property of giving a brief current after being detached from the pile. This phenomenon, familiar to every electrician under the name of "polarisation of the electrodes," was observed again by Ritter of Jena, in 1803, with electrodes of gold wire; and the observation immediately led him to devise a battery from which these secondary currents could be readily obtained, and which constituted the first of all secondary batteries. He tried many different arrangements, using various metals — platinum, silver, iron, &c., but with lead he obtained no result. He attributed this secondary action to a soaking or accumulating of the two opposite kinds of electricity into the surfaces of the plates or into the intervening liquid. The true explanation was given by Volta and Marianini, and later by Becquerel, when they showed that the action arose from the deposits of oxygen and hydrogen, or of acid and of base upon the two electrodes, whose surfaces thus became chemically changed and capable of acting towards one another like the zinc and copper plates of an ordinary battery. Grove, in 1843, brought the matter to a decisive proof by constructing his curious gas battery, in which the positive and negative poles were both platinum plates, the one surrounded by oxygen gas, the other by hydrogen. Ritter's failure to obtain any effect from electrodes of lead arose from his employment of solutions of chlorides as the liquid, the chloride of lead which resulted on the passing of the current being a non-conductor, which at once stopped the current. M.Gaston Plante, who, in 1859, took up the study of the subject, found, after ecperimenting with many metals, that electrodes of lead, when immersed in dilute sulphuric acid, gave rise to very marked polarization-effects; for after passing through lead electrodes the current from two Bunsen's cells, the secondary currents were extremely strong and of considerable duration. He therefore constructed large secondary batteries, using for this purpose two sheets of lead immersed in dilute acid. In order to reduce the internal resistance by bringing the opposite surfaces as nearly as possible together the two sheets were of large size and were rolled together in a spiral form, being kept from touching by the interposition of sheets of coarse canvas, or in later forms by means of bands of india-rubber. The general form of Plante's secondary battery is shown in Fig.1. Such cells weighed over twenty pounds, and when properly prepared had an electromotive force 2 1/2 times that of a Daniell's cell; their internal resistance was also very small, being from one-eighth to one-twentieth of an ohm. These cells improved with use; the liberated gases attacking the surface of the lead electrodes, so that they gradually became of a spongy texture, while the surface of the plate at which oxygen was liberated became covered with a film of brown peroxide of lead. When both electrodes were thus "formed" by charging the cell at intervals of a few days in opposite directions, the Plants cell became a veritable accumulator of electric currents, and was able to store up from a comparatively feeble source a supply which could yield vastly stronger effects for a short time. In fact the secondary battery became in Planters hands a kind of Leyden-jar for storing currents of electricity; the essential point of difference between the two being that while the Leydenjar accumulates a charge, and can be charged of discharged in an instant — or in other words possesses only an "instantaneous capacity " — the secondary battery accumulates currents which may flow into it for many hours, and which may take also a considerable time for their discharge, its "continuous capacity" being very great as compared with its instantaneous capacity. The currents stored up in the secondary battery are however not stored up as accumulations of electricity. They are stored up in the form of chemical work done in the cell, this chemical work being capable of being retransformed at will into the energy of electric currents. When the charging current from an independent battery or from a dynamo-electric machine (see Fig. 2) is passed through a Plante cell, the electrode by which the current enters becomes more highly peroxidised than before, while a corresponding amount of deoxidisation takes place at the electrode by which the current leaves the cell. When the cell thus charged is used as a battery it gives back a current which flows out from the electrode, by which it formerly flowed in; passing through the cell from the deoxidised to the peroxidised electrode, until they are both reduced to a state of chemical similarity. If the cell is joined to the dynamo-machine which charged it, in order to drive it round as an electro-magnetic engine or motor, it will cause it to rotate in the same direction as that in which it was driven when used as a generator; the principle of reversibility applying both to the cell and to the machine.

Several forms of secondary battery adapted for storage of currents have been suggested in recent years. In Philadelphia Professors Houston and E.Thomson have tried a modification of the Daniell's cell, in which sulphate of zinc was electrolysed between electrodes of copper, the metallic zinc so deposited afterwards serving as the negative pole of the cell. Another suggestion, due to M. d'Arsonval, was to use an electrode of lead along with one of zinc, dipping into a solution of sulphate of zinc. The charging currents deposited metallic zinc upon the latter and liberated oxygen at the former, which, as in the Plante cell, became coated with spongy peroxide of lead. As this latter is not a very good conductor M.d'Arsonval further proposed to increase the effective surface by laying the sheet of lead horizontal and covering it with leaden shot, which should also become peroxidised.

The latest form of secondary battery is that of M.Camille Faure, described in Nature, vol. xxiv. p. 68, of which there has been so much talk in the semi-scientific press, and which is now being made the central point of a great financial "operation" in Paris. There can be no doubt that this instrument, though the accounts of its performances have been grossly exaggerated, is an improvement upon that of Plante, of which it is a slight modification. The labour and difficulty of "forming" the Plants cell, that is to say of charging and recharging it until a sufficient film of peroxide of lead should be produced, led M.Faure to try the effect of coating the lead plates at first with a film of red lead or minium, a lower oxide than the dark brown peroxide. The two sheets, after having been covered with minium, are rolled together precisely as in the Plante cells, as shown in Fig. 3, a sheet of felt being interposed to prevent internal contact. It was stated by M. Reynier that the capacity of such cells was forty times that of the Plante cell; but four times would have been nearer the mark if cells of equal size were compared. M. Faure's cells are made of large size and weigh 75 kilogrammes, or nearly 200 lbs. It is stated that one such cell would store a sufficient amount of current as to be able afterwards to yield in an hour an amount of work equal to one horsepower. Confirmatory observations are yet needed. Meantime let us just remind the enthusiast who brought over to England the "million foot-pounds" of energy stored up in a Faure cell, that he would have imported a dozen times as much stored energy if he had brought over instead a lump of coal of the same weight.

The uses for such secondary batteries may be of three kinds :—1. They may serve as portable supplies of electricity to be left and called for to recharge when exhausted. 2. They may serve to accumulate supplies of electricity from dynamo-electric machines, and store them until required for furnishing electric light or motive power on a small scale. 3. They may serve as equalisers of electric currents in a system in which the supply is liable to fluctuations. Suppose, for example, a dynamo-electric machine is employed to produce electric light. Any least thing which alters the speed of the machine, even for an instant, makes the light flicker and change in intensity; while the breakage of the engine-strap would at once cause total darkness. But if a secondary battery of suitable dimensions and power were inserted across the circuit between the dynamo-machine and the lamp, the inequalities of the current would be greatly modified. When the light was not in use the battery would store up the current. If the engine failed the battery would at once put forth its power. It is probably in this direction that the secondary battery will find no unimportant field of usefulness.

STORAGE OF ELECTRIC ENERGY

THE following correspondence on this subject has appeared in the Times. By help of this and the communication in our issue of to-day from Sir W.Thomson, the reader will be able to understand the present position of this important question.

The marvellous "box of electricity" described in a letter to you, which was published in the Times of May 16, has been subjected to a variety of trials and measurements in my laboratory for now three weeks, and I think it may interest your readers to learn that the results show your correspondent to have been by no means too enthusiastic as to its great practical value. I am continuing my experiments to learn the behaviour of the Faure battery in varied circumstances, and to do what I can towards finding the best way of arranging it for the different kinds of service to which it is to be applied. At the request of the Conseil d'Administration of the Societe de la Force et la Lumiere, I have gladly undertaken this work, because the subject is one in which I feel intensely interested, seeing in it a realisation of the most ardently and unceasingly felt scientific aspiration of my life — an aspiration which I scarcely dared to expect or to hope to live to see realised.

The problem of converting energy into a preservable and storable form, and of laying it up in store conveniently for allowing it to be used at any time when wanted, is one of the most interesting and important in the whole range of science. It is solved on a small scale in winding up a watch, in drawing a bow, in compressing air into the receiver of an air-gun or of a Whitehead torpedo, in winding up the weights of a clock or other machine driven by weights, and in pumping up water to a height by a windmill (or otherwise, as in Sir William Armstrong's hydraulic accumulator) for the purpose of using it afterwards to do work by a waterwheel or water pressure on a piston. It is solved on a large scale by the application of burning fuel to smelt zinc, to be afterwards used to give electric light or to drive an electro-magnetic engine by becoming, as it were un-melted in a voltaic battery. Ever since Joule, forty years ago, founded the thermodynamic theory of the voltaic battery and the electromagnetic engine, the idea of applying the engine to work the battery backwards and thus restore the chemical energy to the materials so that they may again act voltaically, and again and again, has been familiar in science. But with all ordinary forms of voltaic battery the realisation of the idea to any purpose seemed hopelessly distant. By Plante's admirable discovery of the lead and peroxide of lead voltaic battery, alluded to by your correspondent, an important advance towards the desired object was made twenty years ago; and now by M.Faure's improvement practical fruition is attained.

The "million of foot pounds" kept in the box during its seventy-two hours' journey from Paris to Glasgow was no exaggeration. One of the four cells, after being discharged, was recharged again by my own laboratory battery, and then left to itself absolutely undisturbed for ten days. After that it yielded to me 260,000 foot pounds (or a little more than a quarter of a million). This not only confirms M.Reynier's measurements, on the faith of which your correspondent's statement was made; it seems further to show that the waste of the stored energy by time is not great, and that for days or weeks, at all events, it may not be of practical moment. This, however, is a question which can only be answered by careful observations and measurements carried on for a much longer time than I have hitherto had for investigating the Faure battery. I have already ascertained enough regarding its qualities to make it quite certain that it solves the problem of storing electric energy in a manner and on a scale useful for many important practical applications. It has already had in this country one interesting application, of the smallest in respect to dynamical energy used, but not of the smallest in respect to beneficience, of all that may be expected of it. A few days ago my colleague, Prof. George Buchanan, carried away from my laboratory one of the lead cells (weighing about 18 lbs.) in his carriage, and by it ignited the thick platinum wire of a galvanic ecraseur and bloodlessly removed a naevoid tumour from the tongue of a young boy in about a minute of time. The operation would have occupied over ten minutes if performed by the ordinary chain ecraseur, as it must have been had the Faure cell not been available, because in the circumstances the surgical electrician, with his pharaphernalia of voltaic battery to be set up beforehand, would not have been practically admissible.

The largest useful application waiting just now for the Faure battery — and it is to be hoped that the very minimum of time will be allowed to pass till the battery is supplied for this application — is to do for the electric light what a water cistern in a house does for an inconstant water supply. A little battery of seven of the boxes described by your correspondent suffices to give the incandescence in Swan or Edison lights to the extent of 100 candles for six hours, without any perceptible diminution of brilliancy. Thus, instead of needing a gas engine or steam engine to be kept at work as long as the light is wanted, with the liability of the light failing at any moment through the slipping of a belt — an accident of too frequent occurrence - or any other breakdown or stoppage of the machinery, and instead of the wasteful inactivity during the hours of day or night when the light is not required, the engine may be kept going all day and stopped at night, or it may be kept going day and night, which will undoubtedly be the most economical plan when the electric light comes into general enough use. The Faure accumulator, always kept charged from the engine by the house supply wire, with a proper automatic stop to check the supply when the accumulator is full, will be always ready at any hour of the day or night to give whatever light is required. Precisely the same advantages in respect of force will be gained by the accumulator when the electric town supply is, as it surely will be before many years pass, regularly used for turning lathes and other machinery in workshops and sewing-machines in private houses.

Another very important application of the accumulator is for the electric lighting of steam-ships. A dynamo-electric machine of very moderate magnitude and expense, driven by a belt from a drum on the main shaft, working through the twenty-four hours, will keep a Faure accumulator full, and thus, notwithstanding irregularities of the speed of the engine at sea or occasional stoppages, the supply of electricity will always be ready to feed Swan or Edison lamps in the engine-room and cabins, or arc lights for mast-head and red and green side lamps, with more certainty and regularity than have yet been achieved in the gas supply for any house on terra firma.

I must apologise for trespassing so largely on your space. My apology is that the subject is exciting great interest among the public, and that even so slight an instalment of information and suggestions as I venture to offer in this letter may be acceptable to some of your readers.
William Thomson.
The University, Glasgow, June 6.


Although agreeing with every word of Sir William Thomson's letter in the Times of to-day, and entirely sympathising with his enthusiasm as regards the marvellous box of electricity, still I feel that it would have been desirable if in pointing out the importance of this new discovery Sir William Thomson had guarded against a very probable misconstruction of the purport of his letter.

The means of storing and re-storing mechanical energy form the aspiration not only of Sir William, but of every educated mechanic. It is, however, a question of degree — of the amount of energy stored as compared with the weight of the reservoir, the standard of comparison being coal and corn. Looked at in this way one cannot but ask whether, if this form of storage is to be the realisation of our aspirations, it is not completely disappointing. Large numbers are apt to create a wrong impression until we inquire what is the unit. Eleven million foot pounds if energy is what is stored in 1 lb. of ordinary coal. So that in this box, weighing 75 lb., there was just as much energy as in 1 1/2 oz. of coal, which might have been brought from Paris or anywhere else in a waitcoat pocket, or have been sent by letter.

When we come to the question of the actual conveyance of energy for mechanical purposes, this view is of fundamental importance. The weight of the same amount of energy in the new form is 800 times greater than the equivalent amount of coal; and as a matter of economy, supposing that energy in this form might be had at a certain spot and no capital were required for its conversion or storage, and that the energy were directly applicable it could not be carried ten miles — that is to say, such energy cannot be economically useful ten miles from its source, although coal had to be carried 100 miles to the spot. This limit, in truth, falls far short of what has been already attained by other means. By wire ropes and by compressed air or steam energy may be economically transmitted from ten to twenty miles. So that if this is the utmost of what is to be done by means of the storage of electricity this discovery adds another door to those which are hopelessly closed against the possibility of finding in Niagara or other water power a substitute for our coal, even when the object is motive power, and much more for that purpose for which five-sixths of our coal is used — the production of heat.

It is very important that the people of this country should not shut their eyes to the fact that, so far from there being a greater prospect of the solution of the problem than when, about twenty rears ago, Prof.Jevons raised the alarm, the prospect is now much smaller. In the meantime the capabilities of steel ropes, fluids in pipes, and electricity along conductors have been not only investigated, but practically tested, and found altogether wanting. And now it would seem that the storage of electricity must be added to the list.
Osborne Reynolds
Owens College, June 9

Your leading article in the Times of yesterday, on the storage of electricity, alludes to my having spoken of Niagara as the natural and proper chief motor for the whole of the North American Continent. I value the allusion too much to let it pass without pointing out that the credit of originating the idea and teaching how it is to be practically realised by the electric transmission of energy is due to Mr.C.W.Siemens, who spoke first, I believe, on the subject in his presidential address to the Iron and Steel Institute in March, 1877. I myself spoke on the subject in support of Mr.Siemens's views at the Institution of Civil Engineers a year later. In May, 1879, in answer to questions put to me by the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Electric Lighting, I gave an estimate of the quantity of copper conductor that would be suitable for the economical transmission of power by electricity to any stated distance; and, taking Niagara as example, I pointed out that, under practically realisable conditions of intensity, a copper wire of half an inch diameter would suffice to take 26,250 horse-power from waterwheels driven by the Fall, and (losing only 20 per cent, on the way) to yield 21,000 horse-power at a distance of 300 British statute miles; the prime cost of the copper amounting to 60,000l., or less than 3l. per horse-power actually yielded at the distant station.
William Thomson
The University, Glasgow, June 9


IF you do me the honour to publish a letter which I wrote to you yesterday regarding the electric transmission of energy it will be seen that I thoroughly sympathise with Prof.Osborne Reynolds in his aspirations for the utilisation of Niagara as a motor, but that neither Mr.Siemens nor I agree with him in the conclusion which he asserts in his letter to you, published in the Times of to-day, that electricity has been tried and found wanting as a means for attaining such objects. The transmission of power was not the subject of my letter to you published in the Times of the 9th inst., and Prof.Reynolds' disappointment with M.Faure's practical realisation of electric storage, because it does not provide a method of porterage superior to conduction through a wire, is like being disappointed with an invention of improvements in water cans and water reservoirs because the best that can be done in the way of movable water cans and fixed water reservoirs will never let the water-carrier supersede water-pipes wherever water-pipes can be laid.

The 1 1/2 oz. of coal cited by Prof.Osborne Reynolds as containing a million of foot-pounds stored in it is no analogy to the Faure accumulator containing the same amount of energy. The accumulator can be re-charged with energy when it is exhausted, and the fresh store drawn upon when needed, without losing more than to or 15 per cent, with arrangements suited for practical purposes. If coal could be unburned — that is to say, if carbon could be extracted from carbonic acid by any economic process of chemical or electric action, as it is in nature by the growth of plants drawing on sunlight for the requisite energy — the result would be analogous to what is done in Faure's accumulator.
William Thomson
The University, Glasgow, June 11


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Electric Railway in Paris

I have within the last few days received a letter from a friend in Paris, who writes that he had last week travelled on the electric railway in that city. There is still much, he adds, to be done before it can be brought into general use; but nevertheless the train moved satisfactorily. There were fifty-four passengers in the carriage, which was propelled by a large Gramme machine and 160 cells of Faure's battery. The experiments are to be recommenced very shortly with a new motor by M.de Meritens, and a Faure's battery.
W.Spottiswoode
41, Grosvenor Place, S.W., June 16


CONVERSAZIONE AT KING'S COLLEGE
ON Saturday, July 2, a brilliant and successful conversazione, given by the Council and the Academical Staff of King's College, brought to a conclusion the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the College. In the afternoon H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, accompanied by H.R.H. the Princess of Wales, distributed the College prizes to successful students, and the College rooms were converted into tastefully decorated drawing-rooms and picture galleries, in which were exhibited many very choice pictures and works of art.

The library was furnished with microscopes which had been lent by members of the Microscopic Society. The large entrance hall and the front of the College were brilliantly lighted by three Crompton electric lights, which burnt with remarkable steadiness throughout the evening. In the scientific department, the museum of King George III contains an unrivalled collection of mechanical and physical apparatus, and is especially rich in apparatus of historic interest. The nucleus of the collection was presented to the College by Her Majesty the Queen in 1843, when the museum was opened by Prince Albert, who then witnessed some of the experiments of Sir Charles Wheatstone on the electric telegraph. Important additions have been made to the collection of apparatus by the Professors of Natural Philosophy, and at his death Sir Charles Wheatstone's valuable collection was bequeathed to the museum. Among the interesting features in the museum are: calculating machines of Cavendish and others, Appoldie centrifugal pump, Newcomen's model of his steam-engine, original forms of Daniell's battery, Siberian loadstone used for his induction spark by Faraday, original Wheatstone's bridge, early forms of stereoscope, early forms of electrical machines, polar clocks and shadow clocks, De Kempelen's talking machine.

From its foundation in 1868 the Physical Laboratory, now called the Wheatstone Laboratory, has been under the direction of Prof. W. Grylls Adams. Among the interesting apparatus exhibited in this department were the Wheatstone Collection of electrical apparatus for exhibition in Paris, dynamo-electric machines, diffraction spectra, an optical bench, showing interference of light, measuring polariscopes, with universal motions for the exact measurement of crystals, and vacuum tubes in great variety, including a very beautiful coronet. The great event of the evening in the Physical Department was the exhibition for the first time in England of the Faure's secondary battery or reservoir of electricity. Two boxes of this battery, which had been previously charged from a dynamo-electric machine, and had then been brought to the College, were capable of heating and keeping heated to bright redness a platinum wire 2 metres long and 1 millimetre in diameter. Six boxes were found to be sufficient to cause Swan electric lamps to glow brilliantly. Twelve of these boxes supplied a pedestal of Lane-Fox lamps, supplied by the British Electric Light Company, and during the evening the Physical Lecture Theatre was brilliantly illuminated by twenty Swan lamps of the latest type with the current from twelve other boxes of Faure's secondary battery. It was shown that by means of these boxes of electricity the lighting of private houses by electricity was already an accomplished fact.


Faure's Secondary Battery

In your issue of last week you gave an account of the soiree held at King's College, London, on the evening of July 2, and in this account it is stated that "the great event of the evening was the exhibition for the first time in England of M. Faure's secondary battery."

At the soiree given by the Mayor of Nottingham on the evenings of June 30 and July 3 in connection with the opening of the College by H.R.H. Prince Leopold, I had the pleasure of exhibiting to large audiences one of M. Faure's new batteries. Sheets of lead were bent up into the form of shallow trays, one foot square and one inch deep; in each of these was placed a layer of red lead, then a layer of flannel, then a layer of red lead, and lastly another lead plate. These trays to the number of six were then piled one above the other, after being filled with dilute acid. The cells being connected in series, were polarised by a 10-cell battery of Grove's cells, and after twenty minutes' charging, had taken up a very large quantity of electricity. At a short lecture given during the evening the charged Faure battery was connected with a Gramme machine, and drove it round with considerable velocity for some minutes. After thus employing part of the charge the remainder was used for heating several inches of platinum wire, and for driving for a few seconds a simple form of magneto-electric engine. These experiments amply convinced those present of the practical character of M. Faure's invention. As I have not had the opportunity of examining one of the original batteries of the inventor, I was obliged to make up this experimental form. It is however a convenient form for lecture-room demonstration, as it permits the structure of the battery to be exhibited to an audience. The enormous superiority of M. Faure's cell over the old form of Plante cell is evident at once on experimenting with it.
J. A. Fleming
The University College, Nottingham, July 10


JOURNAL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE
JULY 1881,
STORED-UP ELECTRICITY: FAURE'S SECONDARY

BATTERY.

A few weeks since the scientific world in Paris was deeply interested by a paper read before the Societe d'Encouragement de l'Industrie Nationale by M. Reynier, upon a new form of battery invented by M.Camille Fauve, who, following in the steps of M.Gaston Plante, had succeeded — according to M. Reynier — in devising a battery in which forty times as much electric energy may be stored up as could be done by the Plante pile, the result being that a large amount of force easily convertible into mechanical work, or adaptable for electric lighting, could be stored up in small and easily portable cells, could be transported from place to place, delivered from house to house, and that the great problem of a domestic electric lighting and power supply was thus solved.

M. Faure's secondary battery is an application of a new discovery to the very beautiful and well-known secondary pile of M. Gaston Plante, which our readers will remember consists of two plates of sheet lead separated from one another and immersed in a glass jar of diluted sulphuric acid; if these two plates are connected for a time with the terminals of a source of electricity such a dynamo-electric machine or a voltaic battery, oxidation and deoxidation take place on the two plates respectively, and after the exciting battery has been removed, the lead cell continues to give off a polarization current of electricity as long as the deoxidation and oxidation of the lead plates continue by their returning to their normal condition. It was from the first observed that secondary piles of this construction produced better results after having been charged and discharged a great many times, a fact due no doubt partly to the increase of surface produced by the roughening of the lead plates under the decomposition, but chiefly to the formation of lead peroxide in increasing quantities, which was alternately deposited and decomposed as the cell was charged by the battery and discharged by the polarization current.

M. Faure (whose name is well known in the scientific world as the inventor of the battery which bears his name, and in which the carbon element in a Bunsen's cell is made in the form of a bottle which contains the nitric acid) has recently introduced an important improvement to the Plante cell, by which its capacity is largely increased, so that an apparatus constructed upon his principle is capable of producing a much greater current than that given off by a secondary battery of the old construction and of the same size. As the capacity of a secondary battery, other things being equal, is due to the thickness of the layer of lead peroxide formed upon one of the lead plates, M.Faure conceived the idea of coating each of the plates with a thickness of red lead maintained in its place by a sheet of felt attached to the plate by means of lead rivets. Both plates having been similarly treated they are rolled together into a spiral, the felt performing the two-fold duty of separating the plates and holding on the coating of read lead. This couple is then immersed in acid contained in a cylindrical cell of lead and connected by its electrode to the poles of a dynamo-electric machine or voltaic battery, and after having been charged and discharged two or three times, the red lead coatings of the plates are found to have undergone a change, the one having been entirely transformed into peroxide of lead, while the other has been reduced to the metallic state, and as this result must be due to the oxidation of the red lead on the one plate and the deoxidation of that on the other, it would appear that what may be called the storage capacity of the apparatus depends upon the quantity of red lead carried by the plates.

There can be no doubt that in this way electricity may be "bottled up" and "stored" to an almost unlimited extent, and in this bottled up condition can be carried in reservoirs to a distance, there to be utilized until it is exhausted, just as a reservoir of compressed air, or a coiled up spring, may be carried for any number of miles, and can be made to give out power whenever required at a distant station. All this is true enough and physically feasible, but the whole commercial success or failure of such a scheme must depend, as all commercial schemes must depend, upon its practical utility.

If electrical energy has to be conveyed from one place to another, it is a matter of small commercial importance in the abstract whether it is conveyed by means of metallic conductors or stored up in reservoirs and carried by road or rail; in this the commercial question involved being very much the same as that of the supplying of water by pipes or by water carts. There can be no doubt, however, about which system is, save in exceptional cases, the most convenient, and unless it can be shown that the charging and transmission of storage reservoirs offers advantages upon economical grounds, or very substantial conveniences of application over the system of transmission by conductors, we cannot see that its commercial application upon a large scale can be as remunerative to its proprietors as its promoters would wish to make the public believe.

That M. Reynier should have infused an undue amount of enthusiasm into his paper read before the Societe d'Encouragement was natural, considering that he was describing for the first time results far in advance of anything of the same nature than had been achieved before, and it was perhaps pardonable that he should, for the greater glory of the Faure battery have depreciated the rapacity of that of Plante. But in justice to the latter gentleman, and also to arrive at a just appreciation of the real value of the new discovery, careful investigation and comparison between the two have to be instituted. This has been partially done by M. E. Hospitallier since M. Reynier read his paper, and the last number of our excellent conpemporary L'Eleciricien the results obtained are referred to, and the details of the experiments made are to be published in a succeeding number of the same periodical.

Criticising M. Reynier's paper, M. Hospitallier challenges several statements made in that communication. M. Reynier maintained that the Faure battery would give out 80 per cent, of the total power used in charging it. But as M. Hospitallier points out, under the best conditions not more than 90 per cent, of actual work can be transformed from mechanical into electrical energy by a dynamo-electric machine. M.Plante clearly demonstrated that his secondary battery could only give out 88 or 89 per cent, of the power charged into it, and as the difference between it and the Faure battery is one of degree and not of principle, it is not probable that a greater percentage than this could be obtained; possibly it would be less. Finally, a loss of 20 per cent, at least must be allowed for in converting the electrical power in the battery into mechanical force. Making allowances for all these losses it follows that the utmost useful work that can be got from the battery is 52.5 per cent, of the energy employed in charging it, while at the present time it is easy with the ordinary system of conductors to obtain 60 per cent. Passing on to the question of the power which can be stored up in the Faure battery, M. Hospitallier makes an important statement in reply to the assertion of M. Reynier, that this battery can store up forty times as much force as the Plants battery. In conjunction with M. Frank Geraldy, M. Hospitallier has conducted a series of experiments on the Plante battery. The details of these experiments will be published shortly, but the results are given as follows in J.Electrician: "Admitting on the one hand as correct the figures given by M. Reynier, that is to say, that a Faure battery, weighing 165 lbs., can give out one horse power during one hour, and on the other hand our experiments on the Plante batteries, the storage power of the Faure batteries varies from one and a half to three times the power of the Plante, according to conditions which we shall shortly publish. This result is very far from the forty-fold result given by M. Reynier, who obtained it no doubt from imperfect or badly-proportioned Plante batteries, and these results cannot consequently be accepted."
— Engineering.


Nature 1881 September 8
THE Jubilee Meeting of the British Association has come to a close, and whether we take the test of work done, or of the numbers present as members or associates, it must be admitted that it has been a great success.
SECTION G
MECHANICAL SCIENCE
Opening Address By Sir W. Armstrong, C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., F. K.S., President Of The Section
"...It would greatly add to the utility of the Faure battery if its weight and size could be considerably reduced, for in that case it might be applicable to many purposes of locomotion. We may easily conceive its becoming available in a lighter form for all sorts of carriages on common roads, thereby saving to a vast extent the labour of horses. Even the nobler animal that strides a bicycle, or the one of fainter courage that prefers the safer seat of a tricycle, may ere long be spared the labour of propulsion, and the time may not be distant when an electric horse, far more amenable to discipline than the living one, may be added to the bounteous gifts which science has bestowed on civilised man."

Nature 1881 September 22
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION REPORTS
On some Uses of Faure's Accumulator in connection with Lighting by Electricity, by Sir W.Thomson. — The largest use of Faure's accumulator in electric lighting was to allow steam or other motive power and dynamos to work economically all day, or throughout the twenty-four hours where the crcumstances were such as to render this economical, and storing up energy to be drawn upon when the light was required. There was also a very valuable use of the accumulator in its application as an adjunct to the dynamo, regulating the light-giving current and storing up an irregular surplus in such a manner that stoppage of the engine would not stop the light, but only reduce it slightly, and that there would always be a good residue of two or three hours' supply of full lighting power, or a supply for eight or ten hours of light for a diminished number of lamps. He showed an automatic instrument which he had designed and constructed to break and make the circuit between the Faure battery and the dynamo, so as automatically to fulfil the conditions described in the paper. This instrument also guarded the coils of the dynamo from damage, and the accumulator battery from loss, by the current flowing back, if at any moment the electro-motive force of the dynamo flagged so much as to be overpowered by the battery.


Journal of the Society of Arts 1881 November 25
Proceedings of the Society.
SECOND ORDINARY MEETING.
Wednesday, 23rd of November, 1881
The Paper read was—

THE STORAGE OF ELECTRICITY. By Sylvanus P. Thompson, B.A., D.Sc,

Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, Bristol.



Faure's Accumulator.

In 1880, M.Camille Faure conceived the idea of constructing a secondary battery, in which, though the tedious process of "formation" by Plante's process is modified and shortened, the ultimate result is the same, namely, to produce upon lead plates, immersed in dilute sulphuric acid, a coating of peroxide of lead, that can readily be reduced to the loosely crystalline metallic condition. This M.Faure accomplishes by the device of giving to his leaden plates a preliminary coating of red lead (minium), made up into a paste with dilute acid, and painted upon the surface. At first he adopted the spiral form of cell, the two plates being separated by felt or leather. More recently the rectangular form has been reverted to. The present mode of construction is as follows: — Eleven sheets of lead of such thickness as to weigh about 2 lbs. to the square foot are cut to the size of 12 inches by 10 inches, an ear-piece being burned on at one corner. Or six sheets are taken; five of them being twice the above size, and folded double, in the way shown in Fig. 4.

These are painted thickly with red lead on both sides, and against each side is pressed a piece of felt, the face of which is also thickly coated with red lead; there being about 17 lbs. of lead and 25 lbs. of red lead altogether. These sheets are placed side by side in a water-tight case, alternate sheets being connected together by the projecting flaps. The general aspect of the cell is shown in Fig. 5. The cell is filled up with dilute acid; the total weight being about 50 lbs. When thus prepared, the cells are "formed" by a process of charging by means of the current of a dynamo-electric machine, the current being sent through them for six or seven days without intermission before they are ready for use. The red lead is reduced gradually on one side to the metallic state, and on the other assumes the condition of peroxide: but the cell does not attain its best condition for some weeks. As it is important that the electromotive force of the charging current should not much exceed that of the cells (2.38 volts), it is usual to charge a number of cells in series. The internal resistance of such cells is stated as being less than .01 ohm. The advantage of this system of construction is not confined to the savings in time of formation: there is a further advantage of thus obtaining a much thicker film of the working substance than in the Plante accumulator: though with the difference that the deposit of peroxide is not so regular in its structure. According to Sir William Thomson, a single cell of the spiral form weighing 75 kilogrammes (165 lbs.) can store 2,000,000 foot-pounds of energy, or one-horse power for one hour. Their action is more economical, however, when the charge is not drawn upon at this rapid rate. Economy in working is found to accompany slow and regular discharge. Five or six hours is a more economical time for discharge, and then the waste is believed not to amount to more than ten per cent. Sir William Thomson states, that the probable loss of energy in charging is 10 per cent., and in discharging 15 per cent.; but he thinks it will be advisable in practice to be satisfied with less perfect economy than this. According to Reynier, a Faure cell, containing 56 kilogrammes of lead, can store 210,000 kilogrammetres of electro-chemical energy; or at the rate of 375 kilogrammetres per kilogramme of lead, or 12.85 foot-pounds per pound of lead. According to M. Geraldy, the figure is slightly less, being only 3.28 kilogrammetres per kilogramme, or 10.76 footpounds per lb. Such a cell, when on short circuit can, I am informed, furnish for ten hours a current of 10 to 14 webers continuously.

M. Faure is now constructing larger cells, of which, by the kindness of Major Ricarde-Seaver, I am enabled to give the following details: — The leaden plates are about 17 inches long by 12 1/2 wide. About 50 pounds of red lead are used; and the sixteen sheets of lead themselves weigh about 20 lbs. The sheets which are to serve as positive electrodes are eight hundredths of an inch thick; those which are to serve as negative electrodes are four hundredths of an inch thick. After being painted with red lead they are folded up, first in parchment paper, and then in felt, and placed in a rectangular box, with narrow strips of indiarubber to prevent contact. Such a cell requires about 16 lbs. of dilute sulphuric acid to charge it. The total weight is about 135 lbs. for each cell. One of these cells, when placed on a circuit of small resistance, in which one of Ayrton and Perry's galvanometers was included, gave the following values of current: —

For 8 hours 22 webers = 176 weber-hours.
4 " 21 " = 84 "
1 " 20 " = 20
1 " 19 " = 19

Total 14 hours. 229

or on an average over 20 webers continuously for 14 hours. The discharge went on after this for seven hours more, when it had stopped to five webers.
 
Knowledge 1881 Dec23
THE FAURE ACCUMULATOR.
By W. Lynd.


THANKS to Professor Sylvanns Thompson, who has just sent me the results of his latest experiments with secondary batteries, I am able to give a brief sketch of the Faure accumulator.

So far back as 1860 M. Plante constructed a secondary battery, consisting of nine cells, iu each of which two long and wide strips of lead, separated by coarse cloth, were rolled together in a Bpiral form and immersed in dilute sulphuric acid. A few months later ho modified this form by placing side by side in a rectangular box two series of lead plates, alternately connected together, each plate being about eight inches high. He recurred afterwards to the spiral form as being more convenient, but replacing the coarse cloth by narrow strips of gutta-percha. But the cells thus constructed were not ready for immediate action. Two clean lead plates give no current of their own; they are only intended to receive and store up what is sent into them from somo external source; and at first, while the lead is bright, whon a current is sent through the cell from some suitable source, such as three or four Grove or Bunsen cells, the separated oxygen and hydrogen gases bubble up to the surface, for the most part leaving only a very small percentage as an adherent film, and, in consequence, yielding only very transient secondary currents. The plato of lead by which the current enters is, however, attacked by the oxygen, and becomes covered by a thin layer of brown peroxide of lead, and this film, though thin, is powerfully electro-negative towards metallic lead" and towards the film of hydrogen on the Kathode plate. The cell in this condition will thereforo produce a current, and in so doing, the peroxide is partially reduced to tho metallic condition, and assumes in its reduction a spongy or loosely crystalline texture. If now the cell be again charged, and charged in the opposite direction, tho other plate of lead becomes in like manner peroxidised, while the hydrogen bubbles are less freely evolvod, for tho atoms of gas unite as fast as they are liberated with the oxygen of the peroxide and reduce it to the metallic condition; every time the chargingjeurrent is thus reversed, the films of peroxide, as of spongy metal, become thicker, until the lead to a considerable depth is bitten into. And every such operation increases, thereforo, the power of the cell to store up in this electro-chemical fashion the energy of the currents Bent into it. M. Plants ascribes the process of "forming" to a sort of electro-chemical tanning. Tho first day the alternate charging should be done at intervals of a quarter to half an hour, the cell being discharged between each operation. The next day the duration of the alternate charges may be increased from a quarter of an hour to a whole hour; the day after to two hours. After repose for a week or a fortnight, the charges may last several hours; and by the end of several months, the cell will bo well "formed;" after which, it shonld, when used, be charged in one direction only, otherwise the whole thickness of the lead plates will be bitten into, and transformed into peroxide. These magnificentresearches were carried on by Plantc through more than twenty years, and it seems remarkable that even in the scientific world, that gentleman's claim to the discovery of the accumulator are not duly acknowledged.

M. Camille Faure, who has been awarded by tho public press the lion's Bhare of the glory, conceived the idea of constructing a secondary battery, in which, though the tedious process of "formation " is modified and shortened, the ultimate result is the same; namely, to produce upon lead plates, immersed in dilute sulphuric acid, a coating of peroxide of lead that can readily be reduced to the loosely crystallino metallic condition.

Tho Faure accumulator, of which wo have heard so much lately, is >imply a modification of the Plante secondary battery, and is constructed as follows :—Eleven sheets of lead, of "such thickness as to weigh about 2 lb. to the square foot, are cut to the size of 12 in. by 10 in., an ear-piece being burnt on at one corner. Or six sheets are taken, five of them being twice the above size, and folded double. These are painted thickly with red lead on both sides, and against each side is pressed a piece of felt, the face of which is also thickly coated with red lead, there being about 17 lb. of lead and 23 lb. of red lead altogether. These sheets are placed side by side in a water-tight case, alternate sheets being connected together by the projecting flaps. The cell is filled up with dilute acid, the total weight boing about 501b.

When thus prepared, the cells are formed by a process of charging by means of the current of a dynamo-electric machine,

the current being sent through them for six or seven days withou intermission before they are ready for use. The red lead is reduced gradually on one side to the metallic state, and on the other assumes the condition of peroxide; but the cell does not attain its fast condition for some weeks. Such is a brief resume of the wonderful accumulators which are destined to work a revolution in electrical science. Those who desire to gain a thorough knowledge of the theory of the secondary batteries cannot do better than purchase a copy of Professor Thompson's work on electricity and magnetism. It is published by Macmillan & Co. j the price is only 4s. 6d.

Reminds me of the excitement over 100C LiPo :lol:
LocK
 
This is the best image I have found so far for Gustaves single-rotor machine:
Trouve_motor_single.jpg

It clearly shows his motors as series-wound. Plus the "brushes" that were not carbon brushes at all but his "springs" as in conductive spring-metal or spring-loaded commutator connections as they were made/applied as termed... "back in the day"...

I was curious why Gustaves' commutator connections look like "combs"... F.Krohn writes two/three years later:
Electro-Motors by F.Krohn;
and specially edited, with many additions, by
Paget Higgs, LL.D., D.Sc.
1884
"Constructional Laws" section:
The collectors and commutators of electric generators are the parts which perhaps require most care in their construction. If they are badly constructed they wear out quickly in consequence of friction and the formation of sparks, and badly constructed collectors or commutators are the cause that a large amount of the working power of a generator is spent uselessly.

The loss of energy through the friction of the rubbing parts of a generator is proportional to the number of revolutions of the shaft and to the diameter of the rubbing surfaces. For these reasons the surfaces ought to be diminished as much as possible, not only in the journals of the generators but also, as Professor Perry suggests, in the conducting brushes and commutators. But, besides, we must diminish the destructive action in these parts caused by sparking. This can be done by distributing the sparking over various portions of the collector, so that only small sparks can be formed, which are unable to melt or oxidize.
View attachment 1
In order to reduce the sparking on the collectors of large generator's to a minimum, Edison increases the width of the insulation a1, a2, a3 (fig. 50), between the segments of the collector. He makes the conducting sectors b1, b2, b3, narrower at one end of the collector-cylinder A, and on each side of this portion of the cylinder, he places a single brush e which he calls the insulated brush, the contact point of which is not in a line with the principal brushes. The insulated brush is not directly connected with the principal brushes, d d, but first with an interruption cylinder B by means of the brushes h1, h2. This cylinder has conducting and insulating sectors which correspond with those on which the insulated brush e bears, and it can be attached separately to one end of the shaft of the generator, or may form a continuation of the collector-cylinder A, as shewn in the figure, in which case its conducting strips c1, c2 must be insulated from those of the collector-cylinder A. In working the generator the local current and part of the principal current continue to flow through each of the insulated brushes, and across each commutator segment, after having ceased traversing the principal brushes, so that no sparks are generated at the ends of the latter. When an insulated brush quits a strip of the collector, the current traversing it is interrupted on the interruption-cylinder B, and as the same thing occurs simultaneously on the collector-cylinder A, through the insulated brush e, the spark is thus greatly subdivided and much weakened.

EDIT: Interesting to see that almost 20 years later Edison was manufacturing fans still using brass (?) brushes:
EdisonFan_c1898.jpg
 
Lock said:
This is the best image I have found so far for Gustaves single-rotor machine:

From here:
Electro-Motors
A Treatise
ON THE MEANS AND APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN THE TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY AND ITS CONVERSION INTO MOTIVE POWER.
FOR THE USE OF ENGINEERS AND OTHERS.
By J. W. URQUHART, Electrician.
1882

M.Trouve employs small electro-motors in the propulsion of light pleasure boats, the source of electricity being carried by the boat itself. M.Trouve has also made experiments in the use of motors for propelling tricycles. He applied the power of a small motor to each wheel of the tricycle, and was enabled to propel the machine through the streets of Paris, at a speed of ten miles an hour. In this case the current was obtained from a Faure accumulator, carried by the machine itself. The Faure cells were previously filled or charged by being connected to a dynamo-electric machine.

So that's cool. Urquhart confirms(?) that Gustave was riding Faure cells on his trike... Gustave probably started with Plantes (as he reported to the Académie in 1880) then had switched to Faure cells as they has become known by the time of the 1881 Exposition...

Works for me as I can still buy Minium (aka Red Lead aka Pb3O4) today as "pigment" for painters of fine arts:
http://www.naturalpigments.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=457-10S

The engraving in the lower portion of the opening page of the work is of M.Trouve's electro-motor, employed by him for the propulsion of light pleasure boats, tricycles, etc. It is also furnished with an electro-magnetic field, which is created between the inductors a a. The armature revolves in this chamber. b is a portion of the electro-magnet, which is excited by the wire coil c, wound around its rectangular or U bend. The current enters at +, thence passes by the commutator around the armature coil, and from this by the lower commutator spring to the field magnet, after exciting which it flows back to the electric source by the terminal marked -. The useful motive power of the machine is taken off from a pulley by the band. When the pulley is small, this band is crossed to afford a better bearing upon the circumference.

In these machines, when large, a bundle or spring of hard-drawn copper wires will usually be found to make a more satisfactory commutator spring than a single piece of brass or copper. Copper suffers less by sparks than brass or steel. Platinum suffers less than most metals, but it is usually too soft to stand the necessary friction. Iridium, which is not much affected by the sparks, and is exceedingly hard, would probably answer best, but it is at present too costly, and is not readily obtainable in the required form. Hard-rolled thin sheet copper may be used in some cases, in numerous laminae, arranged so that the bearing ends shall form an angle against the commutator.

The brushes must in all cases be so set as to reverse the current at the instant when the armature poles are passing through the medial line of the magnetic field. When the velocity of rotation is very great, it will be found that the theoretical line of reversal must be departed from. The brushes must then be adjusted so as to compensate for the time necessary to magnetise and demagnetise the armature. In most cases the reversal of the current must be effected in advance of the theoretical point. When it can be effected, both contact brushes should be fixed in a bracket with two branches, capable of motion on the axis. By these means any movement of one brash is communicated to the other, and the brushes are maintained at diametrically opposite points of the commutator.

I'll guess that Gustave was using brass springs for his "brushes"...

In the construction of the machines, insulation, where insulation is necessary, must be complete and unmistakable. This refers to magnetic as well as electrical insulation. The insulating covering of the wires may be silk or cotton for small machines, preferably after being run through melted solid paraffin. The sizes of wire for small machines vary from No. 12 to No. 18. For the larger machines the wires may be covered with cotton or hemp, and treated either with varnish or paraffin. Shellac varnish is however preferable in cases where heat is likely to be involved. The sizes of wire may vary from No. 6 to No. 16. In most cases where wire is wound upon iron direct, the surface should first be freed from roughnesses likely to chafe the insulating covering, and the angles should be rounded. The surface should also be treated with a coating of Japan varnish, baked on, or applied while the iron is hot. Guttapercha, wood, and ebonite should be used to insure insulation. Ebonite should not be used in the construction of commutator cylinders, because the heat developed by friction softens it. When a wire is attached to another wire, or to the commutator, and in every case of effecting circuit junctions, care must be taken to insure that the connection is metallic and clean. The surfaces must also be pressed closely together, otherwise oxidation may be set up and the junction destroyed. In many cases the ends of wires should not only be twisted together, but soldered also. The resistance offered by bad joints may reduce the efficiency of the machine enormously.

So yah, will probably want to use shellac and involve heat under way... :twisted: Hope not to harm any female lac bugs in this process... :wink:

Seems I should write my Alberta cousins too for a sample of asphaltum to thin with turps to make some Japan Black...

Thinking I should cheat the process and laminate the rotor(s?)... Seems like Gustave was still using solid cast "Siemens" rotors without regard for Foucault currents...

Magnetic insulation is more easily effected than electrical insulation — that is, it is only necessary to use either wood or other non-metallic substance, or those metals not affected by magnetism, such as brass and copper. Magnetic continuity is less easily effected. When two surfaces come in contact, and when it is desired to pass magnetic polarity through the junction, as in the case of field magnets and polar inductors, the surfaces should be planed or otherwise rendered level to insure their touching all over the area. The parts must also be firmly secured together by mechanical means, iron screws and bolts being used in preference to copper or brass.

So if I understand correctly (and if Major Heap was correct in his report) Gustave was wrong to be using copper for the frame? Or was the frame not part of the magnetic circuit? ...bit confused...

In the case of the Siemens machines employed in the propulsion of railway carriages, the velocity is reduced to one-third, by means of a chain connection. In most cases, where these and other machines are used it is advisable to reduce the velocity; but this may be done in many instances without any reducing gear on the machine itself. The velocity of the armature is necessarily very great, and care should be taken to provide means by which the maximum speed may be freely developed, otherwise the effective power of the machine may be reduced.

Nice that Urquhart added a note about efficiency (heat and waste.)

L0cK
 
Lock said:
Journal of the Society of Arts 1881 November 25
Proceedings of the Society.
SECOND ORDINARY MEETING.
Wednesday, 23rd of November, 1881
The Paper read was—
THE STORAGE OF ELECTRICITY. By Sylvanus P. Thompson, B.A., D.Sc,
Professor of Experimental Physics in University College, Bristol.
Faure's Accumulator.

SNIP

One of these cells, when placed on a circuit of small resistance, in which one of Ayrton and Perry's galvanometers was included, gave the following values of current: —

For 8 hours 22 webers = 176 weber-hours.
4 " 21 " = 84 "
1 " 20 " = 20
1 " 19 " = 19

Total 14 hours. 229

or on an average over 20 webers continuously for 14 hours. The discharge went on after this for seven hours more, when it had stopped to five webers.


Nobuddy's curious watt the heck was a "weber-hour"?

Found this:

From the book Menlo Park Reminiscences by Frances Jehl (1937-1941)
In 1882 a weber-hour was often designated as the equivalent of 20.48 standard candles; that is, a current of one ampere for an hour would produce that number of candles of illumination. This manner of expression, of course, changed as the economy of the lamp was increased and improved. Companies had different ways of billing the consumption of current to their customers. Some used the term milligrammes, some lamp hours, some candle hours and some weber hours.
It seems paradoxical that a force like electricity which has no weight should have been sold by weight!
All these unit terms were of course calculated from the gain that the plates in the Edison meter showed, and those companies that employed the milligramme unit chose, no doubt, the most accurate one.

So just looks like when the electricians got together at the Paris Exposition in 1881 to establish their naming conventions Wilhelm Weber lost out to André-Marie Ampère...
locK
 
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