Harper's Electricity Book for BoysAdams, Joseph H. (Joseph Henry)
Science
Harper's Electricity Book for Boys
Adams, Joseph H. (Joseph Henry)
Electricity -- Juvenile literature
A simpler plunge-battery is shown in Fig. 10. A cell-rack is made of
wood and given two or three coats of shellac. The narrow board (to the
under side of which the battery-poles are attached, as explained in Fig.
9) is hung on chains or flexible wires, which in turn are made fast to
an iron shaft running the entire length of the cell-rack. This shaft is
of half-inch round iron, and is held in place, at one end, by a pin and
washer; while at the other the end is filed with a square shoulder, and
a handle and crank is fitted to it, so that the shaft may be turned. A
small hole, made at the side of the crank when it is hanging down, will
receive a hard-wood peg, or a steel nail, and this will prevent the
crank from slipping when the board holding the poles is raised. If a
gear-wheel and tongue can be had to fit on the shaft, it will then be
possible to check the shaft securely at any part of a turn of the crank.
The battery-poles are to be connected in series along the top of the
portable board, as explained for Fig. 6. When two or more of these
plunge-batteries are used at one time, the wire from the carbon of one
is to be connected with the zinc pole of the next, and so on. The wire
from the zinc of the first battery, and the wire from the carbon of the
last battery, will be the ones available for use.
A Storage-battery
When more current is desired than the simple batteries will give, a
storage-battery should be employed as an accumulator. This result can be
secured by coupling primary cells in series, so that they will be
constantly generating and feeding the battery. Storage-batteries are too
heavy to be shifted about, like single cells or small plunge-batteries;
they should be placed in a cellar, where the charging or primary cells
can be located close by, and, unless positively necessary, the battery
of cells and the accumulator should not be moved.
With sufficiently large insulated wires (Nos. 12, 14, or 16 copper), the
current may be carried to any part of the house for use in various
ways--such as running a light motor or a fan, lighting a lamp-circuit,
or fusing metals and chemicals for experimental purposes. While the
battery to be described is not a light one in weight, nor as economical
as the improved new Edison storage-battery, it is a good and constant
one, and, if not overcharged or abused, will last for several years.
The component parts of a storage-battery are lead in metallic and
chemical form, the electrolyte, or fluid, in which the plates are
immersed, and the water-tight and chemical-proof cell or container. From
a plumber, a supply-house, or a lead-works, obtain a quantity of
three-eighth by one-quarter-inch strip-lead of the kind called chemical,
or desilverized; also a larger quantity of lead-tape, one-sixty-fourth
of an inch thick and three-eighths of an inch wide. This last is also
known as torpedo-lead, and is kept by electrical supply-houses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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