Abstract
WHEN the National Grid was established in Great Britain hi 1926 and the Electricity Commissioners adopted alternating current as the standard for distribution, many thought that it would affect adversely the electric accumulator industry. In an address delivered to the Institution of Electrical Engineers by E. C. McKinnon on October 22, it is pointed out that this is not the case. The industry is flourishing, and accumulators have rendered practicable many new electrical applications. For submarines they are essential, and the evolution of the submarine battery in thirty-five years has led to increasing its average life threefold and trebling its capacity for a given volume. Since the first automobile self-starter battery came into service in 1911, numerous current consuming ‘gadgets' have been added to the electrical equipment of the car, but in spite of this the present-day starter battery is much lighter, occupies much less space and gives a long life. Like the submarine, batteries for aircraft have called for much ingenuity in design. The cells for a large submarine may weigh 1J tons each and their number ranges from 100 to more than 300. Each cell has a volume of about 20 cubic feet and has to be lowered intact into the submarine. An aeroplane battery has to be much lighter, its usual weight being about 46 pounds and its volume about 700 cubic inches. To meet the demands of aerobatics it must be absolutely unspillable in the inverted position. This is done by an ingenious hydrostatic device, and not by using a jellified electrolyte. There is a large demand for accumulators for automatic telephone purposes and for train ‘lighting and cooking’. One of the widest applications for batteries nowadays is for emergency and standby purposes. A battery can ensure continuity of illumination for traders during busy periods, when a ‘black-out’ would be serious, and in hospitals. It is interesting to notice also that for many auxiliary services in connexion with the National Grid supply, there is a considerable demand for accumulators.
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The British Accumulator Industry. Nature 137, 63 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137063b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137063b0