. The railroad and engineering journal . rless batteriesinvented, the primary object is to destroy the hydrogenas fast as it is evolved. In the Le Clanche battery, shown in tig. i, the copperis replaced by a rod of carbon which is surrounded bypowdered binoxide of manganese, a substance rich inoxygen. The two are enclosed in a porous jar which, withthe zinc rod, stands in a solution of sal-ammoniac. Theoxygen in the attacks the hydrogen, and, if elec-tricity is not generated too fast, it destroys the hydrogenas fast as it is evolved. If. however, electricity—andtherefore hydrogen—is
. The railroad and engineering journal . rless batteriesinvented, the primary object is to destroy the hydrogenas fast as it is evolved. In the Le Clanche battery, shown in tig. i, the copperis replaced by a rod of carbon which is surrounded bypowdered binoxide of manganese, a substance rich inoxygen. The two are enclosed in a porous jar which, withthe zinc rod, stands in a solution of sal-ammoniac. Theoxygen in the attacks the hydrogen, and, if elec-tricity is not generated too fast, it destroys the hydrogenas fast as it is evolved. If. however, electricity—andtherefore hydrogen—is generated beyond a certain rate,the battery will run down, or polarize, and will remain inthat condition until it has been allowed to rest longenough to give the oxygen time to destroy the accumula-tion of hydrogen. This fact of requiring frequent restexplains why we use the Le Clanche battery, thoughcheap, simple and clear, only in such work as ringingbells and operating telephones, where the work is inter-mittent—not For continuous work, such as telegraphing, a battery isevidently required which will not polarize, no matter howlong it is used, and for this purpose the Daniell battery—or some modification of it—is employed all over the this cell, shown in fig. 2, a plate of zinc stands in dilutesulphuric acid, in which stands also a porous pot holdinga plate of copper in a saturated solution of sulphate ofcopper, there being also a sort of shallow cup on the rodof the copper plate which holds a few crystals of sulphateof copper, intended to maintain the saturation of the so-lution. Now, the hydrogen, in passing towards the copperplate, meets the surrounding solution of sulphate of cop-per, which immediately takes it up, giving up an equivalentamount of copper and depositing it, instead of the hydro-gen, at the copper plate—so that hydrogen is destroyed asfast as generated, and polarization is completely the cell shown in fig
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjectrailroa, bookyear1887
