Storage Battery Hints.

Progress, Volume III, Issue 7, 1 May 1908, Page 230

Storage Battery Hints.

By Petjr Hoyt

The usefulness of the storage battery m automobiles depends almost entirely upon its reliability of action Anything which tends to interfere with the action of the battery directly affects the running of the machine The exercise of a little ordinary care will often prevent exasperating delays on the road. One of the chief requisites to the satisfactory operation of the ordinary sparking battery is clean contacts Clean contacts are comparatively easy w ith most batteries, as nearly all the leading manufacturers are connecting the several cells together by means of lead straps instead of the old method of binding posts and copper strips Tin's method of assembling leaves but two binding posts exposed, iipou which verdigris can form, and these can easily^ be kept clean and bright by occasional scraping. Much unsatisfactory service was caused formerly by the high resistance oflered to the current by the verdigris and dirt that accumulated on the various contact points when the coppei strips and binding posts were vised. The lead connections are not acted upon by the acid and by keeping the contact clean, resistance can be reduced to a minimum. In a spaikmg battery it is not advantageous to discharge to too low a point. Sulphate forms while the cells are discharging at the low rate required by the coils/and.'after the surfaces of the plates have been covered with this sulphate it is difficult for the acid to get action and the discharge suddenly diops off and the battery fails. The aveiage six volt sixty ampere hour battery will run a four-cylinder car from 1000 to 1200 miles on one charge. It will be found advantageous to re-charge after 1000 miles The battery should be re-charged once a month, whether the thousand miles are covered or not. If the batteiy has not been used much during the

month, it will give better action if discharged, down to I.? volts per cell before re-charging. The recharge should be carried on slowly. There are some garages where sparkers are charged overnight. Longer and more satisfactory discharges will be obtained if the charge is continued at a lo^rato for from 24 to 3fi hours In a six volt sixty this rate should be about three amperes ; other sizes in proportion ; it must be remembered that during the entire time the battery has been in the machine sulphate has been forming on the plates, 'and it is absohitely impossible to remove it in an charge at a high rate Ihe low rate dissolves the sulphate and allows the plates to receive the acid. In the electric automobile, batteries receive much more severe usage than in a sparter, although on the other hand, they are not so liable to be neglected It is absolutely necessary to the satisfactory action of a battery in an electric for frequent inspection to be made At least once in ten days the batteries should be " equalised "