The Exide — Ironclad Bus Lighting Battery.
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THE SUCCESSFUL operation of an electric-lighting set on a bus or other commercial vehicle is very largely —in fact, mainly—dependent on the battery. This must be of a type that will withstand the most severe service conditions, that is to say, stand op to the continual vibration and jolting due to bad and indifferent road surfaces and the frequent stopping and starting.
These conditions demand special construction of the battery, and we were, therefore, much interested in a recent discussion on the problern which we had with the London manager of the Chloride Electrical Storage Co., at Shaftesbury Avenue.
Every battery problem is studied exhaustively by this company in their research laboratories, and with their great resources and many years Of experience in battery manufacture, they can generally obtain a satisfactory solution of every difficulty. This is notably the case with the bus-lighting problem. They find that only their patented Iron c 1 ad principle of positivep I at a construction will stand up to the work. The type of battery developed for this work is of six volts, carried in trays, and in three sizes and capacities. to meet. require ente.
The Ironclad plate is as nearly an indestructible battery unit as can be obtained. It is entirely different froman ordinary pasted plate.. The !! active material.."—namely, peroxide of lead—is .held in a ser'es .of 'finely slitted ebonite tubes, each provided with a central lead core to conduct the current. These . tubes are assembled, so as to form a' plate,by means of lead bars welded on to the top and bottom of the lead conducting cores. The active material is completely 'protected, and the electrolyte—i.e., the acid----bas perfect aceess through the
slitted ebonite tubes. This plate is proof against expansion, contraction, varying rates of di:charge, and severe vibration, and, of course, the ebonite tubes are quite immune from any chemical action in the cell.
The negative plate of this batte7y is of the standard flat Exide 'construction, hut made of extra thickness So that it has .approximately An equal life to that Of the Ironclad positives.
Between the negatives and positives are fitted the company's well-known prepared woodseparators, and the connector bars and 'terminals are of the very substantial Exicle type.' Tests under the hardest service conditions over several months show that this battery maintains approximately its rated capacity—about as good a criterion of its suitability for the work as could be wished.