The first descendant of Volta’s invention is the lead battery.
But how was it born?
The first lead-acid battery (known as lead battery) was built by French physicist Gaston Planté in 1859. It was initially two sheets of lead wrapped in a spiral and separated by a rubber strip, immersed in an electrolyte of sulfuric acid, contained in a glass jar.
Over time, with the intervention of Camille Alphonse Feure, the lead battery, has been modified and improved in a significant way to allow the industrial manufacture. Feure patented a method of coating the lead plates with a paste of lead oxides, sulphuric acid and water, which through a process became a mixture of lead sulphates adhering to the lead plate; during charging, the treated paste converted into electro-chemically active material and the battery capacity increased compared to the lead batteries of Planté’s first creation. This type of battery has been successful not for its capabilities but for the low cost of realization and the materials of which it is composed, lead and sulfuric acid.
Going on over the years, they have been modified further improving performance while remaining true to the principle of the original prototype.
Mainly it was - and still is - mounted on cars, motorcycles or other motor vehicles to allow the accension of the thermal engine and power the electric part of the car.
In fact, they are still used in many industrial cars and typical cars, although lead batteries are now an obsolete choice given the technological developments of recent years. Among the limits of the lead battery, we count:
- low energy density
- long charging times
- weight
- maintenance costs - which must be continuous
We at Galvani Power actively participate in the technological development in question, with the creation of our batteries!
To deepen the world of electrification try reading our other texts!
Image by Pixabay.com
