It was seen that this cell would afford an excellent means for
the conveyance of electricity from place to place, the great drawback,
however, being that the storing capacity was not sufficient as compared
with the weight and size of the cell. This difficulty has now been
overcome by M. Faure; the cell as he has improved it is made in the
following manner:
The two strips of lead are separately covered with minium or some other
insoluble oxide of lead, then covered with an envelope of felt, firmly
attached by rivets of lead. These two electrodes are then placed near
each other in water acidulated with sulphuric acid, as in the Plante
cell. The cell is then attached to a battery so as to allow a current
of electricity to pass through it, and the minium is thereby reduced to
metallic spongy lead on the negative pole, and oxidized to peroxide of
lead on the positive pole; when the cell is discharged the reduced lead
becomes oxidized, and the peroxide of lead is reduced until the cell
becomes inert.
The improvement consists, as will be seen, in substituting for strips
of lead masses of spongy lead; for, in the Plante cell, the action is
restricted to the surface, while in Faure's modification the action is
almost unlimited. A battery composed of Faure's cells, and weighing 150
lb., is capable of storing up a quantity of electricity equivalent to
one horsepower during one hour, and calculations based on facts in
thermal chemistry show that this weight could be greatly decreased.
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