1859,1881

Lead-acid battery

• The oldest and most commmon
• rechargable battery
• is based on the lead-acid cell
• that Gaston Planté
• invented in 1859,
• and that Camille Alphonse Faure
• improved in 1881.
• Planté showed that lead sheets
• immersed in sulfuric acid
• could hold an electric charge,
• and Faure showed
• that a lead-sulfate coating
• worked better
• and was easier to mass-produce.

Other batteries

• The lead-acid battery still dominates the automotive industry
• even after other battery technologies were adopted for other uses.
• The Leclanché cell was used in early telephones.
• The Columbia dry cell was used for flashlights.
• The nickel–cadmium battery was used in portable power tools.
• Today, lithium-ion batteries are used in cell phones and electric cars.
• Early disposable batteries were used elsewhere.
• The Bird’s cell was used in electrometalurgy.
• Callaud’s version of the Daniel cell was used in telegraph networks.
• The Grove cell was used in American telegraph networks.
• Electrotherapy quacks used the Pulvermacher chain.
• More battery types are in development
• or have not been widely adopted:
• molten-salt battery, nickel–metal hydride battery, flow battery,
• zinc-ion battery, lithium-air battery, glass battery,
• paper battery, sugar battery, and thin-film lithium-ion battery.

Everything’s a battery

• If it stores energy
• as, according to Einstein,
• all matter does,
• as any living thing, animal or vegetable,
• retains and expends
• until its useful life is spent,
• let’s tune the parameters,
• try to make everything more efficient,
• lighter, more powerful,
• safer, more durable,
• cheaper, easier to maintain,
• and kinder on the environment.