Unplugged: Five batteries that gave the world a jolt
From Benjamin Franklin’s tinkering with glass jars in 1749 to cells so small and flexible they can be integrated within a credit card. The history of the battery has been one of invention and innovation. However, it has not always been this way. Wikipedia defines it as one of ‘successive improvement’ but this is actually misleading.
Technological advances have often been about introducing a chemistry that excelled in a particular aspect rather than creating a battery that was better than all those that had come before. Lithium based batteries made available in 1991 for example, offer the best weight/power ratio and have allowed the progression of ever smaller mobile electronic devices. However, they are unsuited for engine starter applications where lead acid, invented over 150 years ago, still offers more in terms of delivering high currents, taking abuseand low production costs.
The history of the battery is more often than not about advances in certain aspects. Before we look at these events, here is a short summary of what many inventors throughout history were looking to improve on and how some battery chemistries excel over others:
With all these factors to juggle it is not surprising that the history of the battery has not been a non-stop progression of improvements but can perhaps better be described as industry or application specific break throughs.
You may also want to try our interactive timeline of the history of the battery.
Benjamin Franklin used the term ‘battery’ to describe several glass capacitors he had linked together to generate electricity but the technology does not lead anywhere.
While dissecting a frog attached to a brass hook with an iron scalpel Luigi Galvani notices the legs of the frog twitch. He wrongly calls this ‘animal electricity’ but his friend Alessandro Volta believes it has something to do with the differing types of metal.
Volta begins to investigate his theory.
After experimenting with different metals and liquids, Volta produces the first battery which would later become known as the voltaic pile. It is constructed from copper and zinc discs separated by fabric soaked in brine.
Volta’s pile design was messy. Brine leaked from the fabric which caused shorts. William Cruickshank solved this by taking the idea and laying it on its side creating a structure still used by some battery types today.
Various other designs followed and some saw commercial use in the railroad and telecommunication industries, but they were large, heavy and could not be recharged.
Gaston Planté invents the first ever rechargeable battery using lead and lead dioxide plates immersed in a liquid sulfuric acid electrolyte. The basic design is still in use today with two main variants – thin plates for starter batteries that can provide power surges or thick plates for deep cycle (slow constant discharge) applications.
Camille Alphonse Faur improved Planté’s design by giving the plates a grid structure with lead oxide paste pressed into it. This made the batteries more effective and cheaper to produce. Faur’s changes are used in many lead acid based batteries to this day
Carl Gassner invents a zinc-carbon based disposable battery which uses an almost dry paste as electrolyte. This new type did not require maintenance ( e.g. topping up acid that evaporates) and was tougher because the paste held the plates in place and could be used at any angle.
It could also be manufactured in sizes much smaller than lead acid, opening the way for handheld devices such as radios.
Zinc-carbon batteries are still made today, due to their low cost, even though they perform poorly compared to other chemistries.
The National Carbon company, later known as Eveready, begins mass production of Carl Gassner’s dry disposable zinc-carbon cell battery. The invention of the flashlight in 1899 ensures the company’s success.
Thomas Edison patents the rechargeable Nickel-iron battery invented by Waldemar Jungner four years previously. Edison hoped it would become the battery of choice for cars (many of which were electric at the turn of the century), but Ford’s decision to use gasoline engines ended his aspirations.
Tougher than lead acid, it is vibration resistant and still used in the mining industry today. High self discharge, production costs and restrictive operating temperatures dampen its popularity in other fields.
Invented by Swedish scientist Waldemar Jungner in 1899, this battery used nickel and cadmium. It was much lighter than lead acid and unlike zinc-carbon, it was rechargeable, making it instantly popular in a world where mobile devices such as portable radios were flourishing.
However, the cadmium content was toxic and could seep out into the water supply when batteries were disposed of in landfills. From the 1980s,many countries have banned or restricted the sales and usage of nickel cadmium batteries.
It could last up to ten times longer than zinc-carbon, so despite the higher cost, replaced it in many applications.
Alkaline batteries also offered twice the power/weight ratio of Nickel-cadmium, making it popular in the emerging flash photography market.
AGM battery mass production begins with the Enersys Cyclon.
Lead acid batteries were prone to spillage, because the electrolyte was liquid acid. AGM batteries impregnated a glass mat which was placed between the plates instead, meaning the battery could tilt, withstand rougher environments and would not leak if the case was damaged.
In reality, Duracell had been eroding Eveready’s zinc-carbon battery market share since the 1930s, under the Mallory brand. At first, these was were mercury based batteries that were popular with the military, because they could handle greater temperature extremes than zinc-carbon.
In the 1960s, Mallory took even more market share by promoting Alkaline, a technology Eveready had invented, but was reluctant to push over its established zinc-carbon business.
Despite the emergence of flash photography which required something stronger than zinc-carbon, Eveready hesitated, allowing Duracell to become a major competitor and household brand.
AGM batteries (see 1972), made lead acid technology easier to handle and position, but they were not good at handling vibration.
By replacing the liquid electrolyte of flooded lead acid batteries with a silicon gel, lead acid based batteries could survive jarring and jolting, a major factor in power sports.
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