Abstract
MR. W. R. COOPER'S book directs attention to a subject which will always be of great historical interest on account of the remarkable stimulus given to electrical science by the discoveries of Galvani and Volta. At the present time, it is true, the primary battery has yielded to cheaper and more convenient sources of electrical energy, and the position which it holds in electrical engineering is comparatively insignificant. It is not improbable that before long it will be displaced from almost all practical applications of electricity and will only be found where the dynamo and accumulator are unavailable. It may, however, be some consolation to those who have not other means at hand to reflect that in the research by which Faraday laid down the fundamental laws of electrolysis he obtained current from a primary battery of the most elementary form. The advantage of amalgamating the zinc had been shown five years earlier (1828) by Kemp, but it was not until 1836 that the first effective depolarising cell, that of Daniell, was described; the invention of the Grove cell followed in 1839. The Leclanché cell, which did not appear until 1868, marks the only other development of the first importance.
Primary Batteries: their Theory, Construction and Use.
By W. R. Cooper. Pp. 4 + 324. (London: The Electrician Printing and Publishing Co., Ltd., on date.) Price 10s. 6d. net.
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S., M. Primary Batteries: their Theory, Construction and use . Nature 65, 362 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/065362a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/065362a0