THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EDISON STORAGE BATTERY
IT is more than a hundred years since the elementary principle of the
storage battery or "accumulator" was detected by a Frenchman named
Gautherot; it is just fifty years since another Frenchman, named Plante,
discovered that on taking two thin plates of sheet lead, immersing them
in dilute sulphuric acid, and passing an electric current through the
cell, the combination exhibited the ability to give back part of the
original charging current, owing to the chemical changes and reactions
set up. Plante coiled up his sheets into a very handy cell like a little
roll of carpet or pastry; but the trouble was that the battery took a
long time to "form." One sheet becoming coated with lead peroxide
and the other with finely divided or spongy metallic lead, they would
receive current, and then, even after a long period of inaction, furnish
or return an electromotive force of from 1.85 to 2.2 volts. This ability
to store up electrical energy produced by dynamos in hours otherwise
idle, whether driven by steam, wind, or water, was a distinct advance
in the art; but the sensational step was taken about 1880, when Faure in
France and Brush in America broke away from the slow and weary process
of "forming" the plates, and hit on clever methods of furnishing them
"ready made," so to speak, by dabbing red lead onto lead-grid plates,
just as butter is spread on a slice of home-made bread. This brought the
storage battery at once into use as a practical, manufactured piece of
apparatus; and the world was captivated with the idea. The great English
scientist, Sir William Thomson, went wild with enthusiasm when a
Faure "box of electricity" was brought over from Paris to him in 1881
containing a million foot-pounds of stored energy. His biographer, Dr.
Sylvanus P. Thompson, describes him as lying ill in bed with a wounded
leg, and watching results with an incandescent lamp fastened to his bed
curtain by a safety-pin, and lit up by current from the little Faure
cell. Said Sir William: "It is going to be a most valuable, practical
affair--as valuable as water-cisterns to people whether they had or had
not systems of water-pipes and water-supply." Indeed, in one outburst of
panegyric the shrewd physicist remarked that he saw in it "a realization
of the most ardently and increasingly felt scientific aspiration of his
life--an aspiration which he hardly dared to expect or to see realized."
A little later, however, Sir William, always cautious and canny,
began to discover the inherent defects of the primitive battery, as
to disintegration, inefficiency, costliness, etc., and though offered
tempting inducements, declined to lend his name to its financial
introduction. Nevertheless, he accepted the principle as valuable, and
put the battery to actual use.
For many years after this episode, the modern lead-lead type of battery
thus brought forward with so great a flourish of trumpets had a hard
time of it. Edison's attitude toward it, even as a useful supplement
to his lighting system, was always one of scepticism, and he remarked
contemptuously that the best storage battery he knew was a ton of coal.
The financial fortunes of the battery, on both sides of the Atlantic,
were as varied and as disastrous as its industrial; but it did at last
emerge, and "made good." By 1905, the production of lead-lead storage
batteries in the United States alone had reached a value for the year
of nearly $3,000,000, and it has increased greatly since that time.
The storage battery is now regarded as an important and indispensable
adjunct in nearly all modern electric-lighting and electric-railway
systems of any magnitude; and in 1909, in spite of its weight, it had
found adoption in over ten thousand automobiles of the truck, delivery
wagon, pleasure carriage, and runabout types in America.
Edison watched closely all this earlier development for about fifteen
years, not changing his mind as to what he regarded as the incurable
defects of the lead-lead type, but coming gradually to the conclusion
that if a storage battery of some other and better type could be brought
forward, it would fulfil all the early hopes, however extravagant, of
such men as Kelvin (Sir William Thomson), and would become as necessary
and as universal as the incandescent lamp or the electric motor.
The beginning of the present century found him at his point of new
departure.
Generally speaking, non-technical and uninitiated persons have a
tendency to regard an invention as being more or less the ultimate
result of some happy inspiration. And, indeed, there is no doubt that
such may be the fact in some instances; but in most cases the inventor
has intentionally set out to accomplish a definite and desired
result--mostly through the application of the known laws of the art in
which he happens to be working. It is rarely, however, that a man will
start out deliberately, as Edison did, to evolve a radically new type of
such an intricate device as the storage battery, with only a meagre clew
and a vague starting-point.
In view of the successful outcome of the problem which, in 1900, he
undertook to solve, it will be interesting to review his mental attitude
at that period. It has already been noted at the end of a previous
chapter that on closing the magnetic iron-ore concentrating plant
at Edison, New Jersey, he resolved to work on a new type of storage
battery. It was about this time that, in the course of a conversation
with Mr. R. H. Beach, then of the street-railway department of the
General Electric Company, he said: "Beach, I don't think Nature would be
so unkind as to withhold the secret of a GOOD storage battery if a real
earnest hunt for it is made. I'm going to hunt."
Frequently Edison has been asked what he considers the secret of
achievement. To this query he has invariably replied: "Hard work, based
on hard thinking." The laboratory records bear the fullest witness that
he has consistently followed out this prescription to the utmost. The
perfection of all his great inventions has been signalized by patient,
persistent, and incessant effort which, recognizing nothing short of
success, has resulted in the ultimate accomplishment of his ideas.
Optimistic and hopeful to a high degree, Edison has the happy faculty of
beginning the day as open-minded as a child--yesterday's disappointments
and failures discarded and discounted by the alluring possibilities of
to-morrow.
Of all his inventions, it is doubtful whether any one of them has
called forth more original thought, work, perseverance, ingenuity, and
monumental patience than the one we are now dealing with. One of his
associates who has been through the many years of the storage-battery
drudgery with him said: "If Edison's experiments, investigations, and
work on this storage battery were all that he had ever done, I should
say that he was not only a notable inventor, but also a great man. It is
almost impossible to appreciate the enormous difficulties that have been
overcome."
From a beginning which was made practically in the dark, it was not
until he had completed more than ten thousand experiments that he
obtained any positive preliminary results whatever. Through all
this vast amount of research there had been no previous signs of the
electrical action he was looking for. These experiments had extended
over many months of constant work by day and night, but there was no
breakdown of Edison's faith in ultimate success--no diminution of his
sanguine and confident expectations. The failure of an experiment simply
meant to him that he had found something else that would not work, thus
bringing the possible goal a little nearer by a process of painstaking
elimination.
Now, however, after these many months of arduous toil, in which he
had examined and tested practically all the known elements in numerous
chemical combinations, the electric action he sought for had been
obtained, thus affording him the first inkling of the secret that he
had industriously tried to wrest from Nature. It should be borne in
mind that from the very outset Edison had disdained any intention of
following in the only tracks then known by employing lead and sulphuric
acid as the components of a successful storage battery. Impressed with
what he considered the serious inherent defects of batteries made of
these materials, and the tremendously complex nature of the chemical
reactions taking place in all types of such cells, he determined boldly
at the start that he would devise a battery without lead, and one in
which an alkaline solution could be used--a form which would, he firmly
believed, be inherently less subject to decay and dissolution than the
standard type, which after many setbacks had finally won its way to an
annual production of many thousands of cells, worth millions of dollars.
Two or three thousand of the first experiments followed the line of his
well-known primary battery in the attempted employment of copper oxide
as an element in a new type of storage cell; but its use offered no
advantages, and the hunt was continued in other directions and pursued
until Edison satisfied himself by a vast number of experiments that
nickel and iron possessed the desirable qualifications he was in search
of.
This immense amount of investigation which had consumed so many months
of time, and which had culminated in the discovery of a series of
reactions between nickel and iron that bore great promise, brought
Edison merely within sight of a strange and hitherto unexplored
country. Slowly but surely the results of the last few thousands of his
preliminary experiments had pointed inevitably to a new and fruitful
region ahead. He had discovered the hidden passage and held the clew
which he had so industriously sought. And now, having outlined a
definite path, Edison was all afire to push ahead vigorously in order
that he might enter in and possess the land.
It is a trite saying that "history repeats itself," and certainly no
axiom carries more truth than this when applied to the history of each
of Edison's important inventions. The development of the storage battery
has been no exception; indeed, far from otherwise, for in the ten years
that have elapsed since the time he set himself and his mechanics,
chemists, machinists, and experimenters at work to develop a practical
commercial cell, the old story of incessant and persistent efforts so
manifest in the working out of other inventions was fully repeated.
Very soon after he had decided upon the use of nickel and iron as the
elemental metals for his storage battery, Edison established a
chemical plant at Silver Lake, New Jersey, a few miles from the Orange
laboratory, on land purchased some time previously. This place was the
scene of the further experiments to develop the various chemical forms
of nickel and iron, and to determine by tests what would be best adapted
for use in cells manufactured on a commercial scale. With a little
handful of selected experimenters gathered about him, Edison settled
down to one of his characteristic struggles for supremacy. To some
extent it was a revival of the old Menlo Park days (or, rather, nights).
Some of these who had worked on the preliminary experiments, with the
addition of a few new-comers, toiled together regardless of passing
time and often under most discouraging circumstances, but with that
remarkable esprit de corps that has ever marked Edison's relations with
his co-workers, and that has contributed so largely to the successful
carrying out of his ideas.
The group that took part in these early years of Edison's arduous labors
included his old-time assistant, Fred Ott, together with his chemist,
J. W. Aylsworth, as well as E. J. Ross, Jr., W. E. Holland, and Ralph
Arbogast, and a little later W. G. Bee, all of whom have grown up
with the battery and still devote their energies to its commercial
development. One of these workers, relating the strenuous experiences of
these few years, says: "It was hard work and long hours, but still
there were some things that made life pleasant. One of them was the
supper-hour we enjoyed when we worked nights. Mr. Edison would have
supper sent in about midnight, and we all sat down together, including
himself. Work was forgotten for the time, and all hands were ready for
fun. I have very pleasant recollections of Mr. Edison at these times. He
would always relax and help to make a good time, and on some occasions
I have seen him fairly overflow with animal spirits, just like a boy
let out from school. After the supper-hour was over, however, he again
became the serious, energetic inventor, deeply immersed in the work at
hand.
"He was very fond of telling and hearing stories, and always appreciated
a joke. I remember one that he liked to get off on us once in a while.
Our lighting plant was in duplicate, and about 12.30 or 1 o'clock in the
morning, at the close of the supper-hour, a change would be made from
one plant to the other, involving the gradual extinction of the electric
lights and their slowly coming up to candle-power again, the whole
change requiring probably about thirty seconds. Sometimes, as this was
taking place, Edison would fold his hands, compose himself as if he were
in sound sleep, and when the lights were full again would apparently
wake up, with the remark, 'Well, boys, we've had a fine rest; now let's
pitch into work again.'"
Another interesting and amusing reminiscence of this period of
activity has been gathered from another of the family of experimenters:
"Sometimes, when Mr. Edison had been working long hours, he would
want to have a short sleep. It was one of the funniest things I ever
witnessed to see him crawl into an ordinary roll-top desk and curl up
and take a nap. If there was a sight that was still more funny, it was
to see him turn over on his other side, all the time remaining in the
desk. He would use several volumes of Watts's Dictionary of Chemistry
for a pillow, and we fellows used to say that he absorbed the contents
during his sleep, judging from the flow of new ideas he had on waking."
Such incidents as these serve merely to illustrate the lighter moments
that stand out in relief against the more sombre background of the
strenuous years, for, of all the absorbingly busy periods of Edison's
inventive life, the first five years of the storage-battery era was
one of the very busiest of them all. It was not that there remained any
basic principle to be discovered or simplified, for that had already
been done; but it was in the effort to carry these principles into
practice that there arose the numerous difficulties that at times seemed
insurmountable. But, according to another co-worker, "Edison seemed
pleased when he used to run up against a serious difficulty. It would
seem to stiffen his backbone and make him more prolific of new ideas.
For a time I thought I was foolish to imagine such a thing, but I could
never get away from the impression that he really appeared happy when
he ran up against a serious snag. That was in my green days, and I soon
learned that the failure of an experiment never discourages him unless
it is by reason of the carelessness of the man making it. Then Edison
gets disgusted. If it fails on its merits, he doesn't worry or fret
about it, but, on the contrary, regards it as a useful fact learned;
remains cheerful and tries something else. I have known him to reverse
an unsuccessful experiment and come out all right."
To follow Edison's trail in detail through the innumerable twists and
turns of his experimentation and research on the storage battery, during
the past ten years, would not be in keeping with the scope of this
narrative, nor would it serve any useful purpose. Besides, such details
would fill a big volume. The narrative, however, would not be complete
without some mention of the general outline of his work, and reference
may be made briefly to a few of the chief items. And lest the reader
think that the word "innumerable" may have been carelessly or hastily
used above, we would quote the reply of one of the laboratory assistants
when asked how many experiments had been made on the Edison storage
battery since the year 1900: "Goodness only knows! We used to number our
experiments consecutively from 1 to 10,000, and when we got up to
10,000 we turned back to 1 and ran up to 10,000 again, and so on. We ran
through several series--I don't know how many, and have lost track of
them now, but it was not far from fifty thousand."
From the very first, Edison's broad idea of his storage battery was to
make perforated metallic containers having the active materials packed
therein; nickel hydrate for the positive and iron oxide for the negative
plate. This plan has been adhered to throughout, and has found its
consummation in the present form of the completed commercial cell, but
in the middle ground which stands between the early crude beginnings
and the perfected type of to-day there lies a world of original thought,
patient plodding, and achievement.
The first necessity was naturally to obtain the best and purest
compounds for active materials. Edison found that comparatively little
was known by manufacturing chemists about nickel and iron oxides of the
high grade and purity he required. Hence it became necessary for him to
establish his own chemical works and put them in charge of men specially
trained by himself, with whom he worked. This was the plant at Silver
Lake, above referred to. Here, for several years, there was ceaseless
activity in the preparation of these chemical compounds by every
imaginable process and subsequent testing. Edison's chief chemist says:
"We left no stone unturned to find a way of making those chemicals so
that they would give the highest results. We carried on the experiments
with the two chemicals together. Sometimes the nickel would be ahead
in the tests, and then again it would fall behind. To stimulate us to
greater improvement, Edison hung up a card which showed the results
of tests in milliampere-hours given by the experimental elements as we
tried them with the various grades of nickel and iron we had made. This
stirred up a great deal of ambition among the boys to push the figures
up. Some of our earliest tests showed around 300, but as we improved
the material, they gradually crept up to over 500. Just about that time
Edison made a trip to Canada, and when he came back we had made such
good progress that the figures had crept up to about 1000. I well
remember how greatly he was pleased."
In speaking of the development of the negative element of the battery,
Mr. Aylsworth said: "In like manner the iron element had to be developed
and improved; and finally the iron, which had generally enjoyed
superiority in capacity over its companion, the nickel element, had to
go in training in order to retain its lead, which was imperative, in
order to produce a uniform and constant voltage curve. In talking
with me one day about the difficulties under which we were working and
contrasting them with the phonograph experimentation, Edison said: 'In
phonographic work we can use our ears and our eyes, aided with powerful
microscopes; but in the battery our difficulties cannot be seen or
heard, but must be observed by our mind's eye!' And by reason of the
employment of such vision in the past, Edison is now able to see quite
clearly through the forest of difficulties after eliminating them one by
one."
The size and shape of the containing pockets in the battery plates or
elements and the degree of their perforation were matters that received
many years of close study and experiment; indeed, there is still to-day
constant work expended on their perfection, although their present
general form was decided upon several years ago. The mechanical
construction of the battery, as a whole, in its present form, compels
instant admiration on account of its beauty and completeness. Mr. Edison
has spared neither thought, ingenuity, labor, nor money in the effort to
make it the most complete and efficient storage cell obtainable, and the
results show that his skill, judgment, and foresight have lost nothing
of the power that laid the foundation of, and built up, other great arts
at each earlier stage of his career.
Among the complex and numerous problems that presented themselves in
the evolution of the battery was the one concerning the internal
conductivity of the positive unit. The nickel hydrate was a poor
electrical conductor, and although a metallic nickel pocket might be
filled with it, there would not be the desired electrical action unless
a conducting substance were mixed with it, and so incorporated and
packed that there would be good electrical contact throughout.
This proved to be a most knotty and intricate puzzle--tricky and
evasive--always leading on and promising something, and at the last
slipping away leaving the work undone. Edison's remarkable patience and
persistence in dealing with this trying problem and in finally solving
it successfully won for him more than ordinary admiration from his
associates. One of them, in speaking of the seemingly interminable
experiments to overcome this trouble, said: "I guess that question of
conductivity of the positive pocket brought lots of gray hairs to his
head. I never dreamed a man could have such patience and perseverance.
Any other man than Edison would have given the whole thing up a thousand
times, but not he! Things looked awfully blue to the whole bunch of
us many a time, but he was always hopeful. I remember one time things
looked so dark to me that I had just about made up my mind to throw up
my job, but some good turn came just then and I didn't. Now I'm glad I
held on, for we've got a great future."
The difficulty of obtaining good electrical contact in the positive
element was indeed Edison's chief trouble for many years. After a great
amount of work and experimentation he decided upon a certain form
of graphite, which seemed to be suitable for the purpose, and then
proceeded to the commercial manufacture of the battery at a special
factory in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, installed for the purpose. There was
no lack of buyers, but, on the contrary, the factory was unable to turn
out batteries enough. The newspapers had previously published articles
showing the unusual capacity and performance of the battery, and public
interest had thus been greatly awakened.
Notwithstanding the establishment of a regular routine of manufacture
and sale, Edison did not cease to experiment for improvement. Although
the graphite apparently did the work desired of it, he was not
altogether satisfied with its performance and made extended trials
of other substances, but at that time found nothing that on the whole
served the purpose better. Continuous tests of the commercial cells were
carried on at the laboratory, as well as more practical and heavy tests
in automobiles, which were constantly kept running around the adjoining
country over all kinds of roads. All these tests were very closely
watched by Edison, who demanded rigorously that the various trials of
the battery should be carried on with all strenuousness so as to get the
utmost results and develop any possible weakness. So insistent was he on
this, that if any automobile should run several days without bursting a
tire or breaking some part of the machine, he would accuse the chauffeur
of picking out easy roads.
After these tests had been going on for some time, and some thousands
of cells had been sold and were giving satisfactory results to the
purchasers, the test sheets and experience gathered from various sources
pointed to the fact that occasionally a cell here and there would show
up as being short in capacity. Inasmuch as the factory processes were
very exact and carefully guarded, and every cell was made as uniform as
human skill and care could provide, there thus arose a serious problem.
Edison concentrated his powers on the investigation of this trouble, and
found that the chief cause lay in the graphite. Some other minor matters
also attracted his attention. What to do, was the important question
that confronted him. To shut down the factory meant great loss and
apparent failure. He realized this fully, but he also knew that to go
on would simply be to increase the number of defective batteries in
circulation, which would ultimately result in a permanent closure
and real failure. Hence he took the course which one would expect of
Edison's common sense and directness of action. He was not satisfied
that the battery was a complete success, so he shut down and went to
experimenting once more.
"And then," says one of the laboratory men, "we started on another
series of record-breaking experiments that lasted over five years.
I might almost say heart-breaking, too, for of all the elusive,
disappointing things one ever hunted for that was the worst. But secrets
have to be long-winded and roost high if they want to get away when the
'Old Man' goes hunting for them. He doesn't get mad when he misses them,
but just keeps on smiling and firing, and usually brings them into camp.
That's what he did on the battery, for after a whole lot of work he
perfected the nickel-flake idea and process, besides making the great
improvement of using tubes instead of flat pockets for the positive. He
also added a minor improvement here and there, and now we have a finer
battery than we ever expected."
In the interim, while the experimentation of these last five years was
in progress, many customers who had purchased batteries of the original
type came knocking at the door with orders in their hands for additional
outfits wherewith to equip more wagons and trucks. Edison expressed
his regrets, but said he was not satisfied with the old cells and was
engaged in improving them. To which the customers replied that THEY were
entirely satisfied and ready and willing to pay for more batteries of
the same kind; but Edison could not be moved from his determination,
although considerable pressure was at times brought to bear to sway his
decision.
Experiment was continued beyond the point of peradventure, and after
some new machinery had been built, the manufacture of the new type of
cell was begun in the early summer of 1909, and at the present writing
is being extended as fast as the necessary additional machinery can be
made. The product is shipped out as soon as it is completed.
The nickel flake, which is Edison's ingenious solution of the
conductivity problem, is of itself a most interesting product, intensely
practical in its application and fascinating in its manufacture. The
flake of nickel is obtained by electroplating upon a metallic cylinder
alternate layers of copper and nickel, one hundred of each, after which
the combined sheet is stripped from the cylinder. So thin are the layers
that this sheet is only about the thickness of a visiting-card, and yet
it is composed of two hundred layers of metal. The sheet is cut into
tiny squares, each about one-sixteenth of an inch, and these squares
are put into a bath where the copper is dissolved out. This releases
the layers of nickel, so that each of these small squares becomes one
hundred tiny sheets, or flakes, of pure metallic nickel, so thin that
when they are dried they will float in the air, like thistle-down.
In their application to the manufacture of batteries, the flakes are
used through the medium of a special machine, so arranged that small
charges of nickel hydrate and nickel flake are alternately fed into the
pockets intended for positives, and tamped down with a pressure equal
to about four tons per square inch. This insures complete and perfect
contact and consequent electrical conductivity throughout the entire
unit.
The development of the nickel flake contains in itself a history of
patient investigation, labor, and achievement, but we have not space for
it, nor for tracing the great work that has been done in developing
and perfecting the numerous other parts and adjuncts of this remarkable
battery. Suffice it to say that when Edison went boldly out into new
territory, after something entirely unknown, he was quite prepared for
hard work and exploration. He encountered both in unstinted measure, but
kept on going forward until, after long travel, he had found all that he
expected and accomplished something more beside. Nature DID respond to
his whole-hearted appeal, and, by the time the hunt was ended, revealed
a good storage battery of entirely new type. Edison not only recognized
and took advantage of the principles he had discovered, but in
adapting them for commercial use developed most ingenious processes
and mechanical appliances for carrying his discoveries into practical
effect. Indeed, it may be said that the invention of an enormous variety
of new machines and mechanical appliances rendered necessary by each
change during the various stages of development of the battery, from
first to last, stands as a lasting tribute to the range and versatility
of his powers.
It is not within the scope of this narrative to enter into any
description of the relative merits of the Edison storage battery, that
being the province of a commercial catalogue. It does, however, seem
entirely allowable to say that while at the present writing the tests
that have been made extend over a few years only, their results and the
intrinsic value of this characteristic Edison invention are of such a
substantial nature as to point to the inevitable growth of another
great industry arising from its manufacture, and to its wide-spread
application to many uses.
The principal use that Edison has had in mind for his battery is
transportation of freight and passengers by truck, automobile, and
street-car. The greatly increased capacity in proportion to weight of
the Edison cell makes it particularly adaptable for this class of work
on account of the much greater radius of travel that is possible by its
use. The latter point of advantage is the one that appeals most to the
automobilist, as he is thus enabled to travel, it is asserted, more than
three times farther than ever before on a single charge of the battery.
Edison believes that there are important advantages possible in the
employment of his storage battery for street-car propulsion. Under the
present system of operation, a plant furnishing the electric power for
street railways must be large enough to supply current for the maximum
load during "rush hours," although much of the machinery may be lying
idle and unproductive in the hours of minimum load. By the use of
storage-battery cars, this immense and uneconomical maximum investment
in plant can be cut down to proportions of true commercial economy, as
the charging of the batteries can be conducted at a uniform rate with a
reasonable expenditure for generating machinery. Not only this, but each
car becomes an independently moving unit, not subject to delay by reason
of a general breakdown of the power plant or of the line. In addition
to these advantages, the streets would be freed from their burden of
trolley wires or conduits. To put his ideas into practice, Edison built
a short railway line at the Orange works in the winter of 1909-10, and,
in co-operation with Mr. R. H. Beach, constructed a special type of
street-car, and equipped it with motor, storage battery, and other
necessary operating devices. This car was subsequently put upon the
street-car lines in New York City, and demonstrated its efficiency so
completely that it was purchased by one of the street-car companies,
which has since ordered additional cars for its lines. The demonstration
of this initial car has been watched with interest by many railroad
officials, and its performance has been of so successful a nature that
at the present writing (the summer of 1910) it has been necessary to
organize and equip a preliminary factory in which to construct
many other cars of a similar type that have been ordered by other
street-railway companies. This enterprise will be conducted by a
corporation which has been specially organized for the purpose. Thus,
there has been initiated the development of a new and important industry
whose possible ultimate proportions are beyond the range of present
calculation. Extensive as this industry may become, however, Edison is
firmly convinced that the greatest field for his storage battery lies
in its adaptation to commercial trucking and hauling, and to pleasure
vehicles, in comparison with which the street-car business even with its
great possibilities--will not amount to more than 1 per cent.
Edison has pithily summed up his work and his views in an article on
"The To-Morrows of Electricity and Invention" in Popular Electricity
for June, 1910, in which he says: "For years past I have been trying to
perfect a storage battery, and have now rendered it entirely suitable
to automobile and other work. There is absolutely no reason why horses
should be allowed within city limits; for between the gasoline and the
electric car, no room is left for them. They are not needed. The cow
and the pig have gone, and the horse is still more undesirable. A higher
public ideal of health and cleanliness is working toward such banishment
very swiftly; and then we shall have decent streets, instead of stables
made out of strips of cobblestones bordered by sidewalks. The worst
use of money is to make a fine thoroughfare, and then turn it over to
horses. Besides that, the change will put the humane societies out of
business. Many people now charge their own batteries because of lack of
facilities; but I believe central stations will find in this work very
soon the largest part of their load. The New York Edison Company, or
the Chicago Edison Company, should have as much current going out for
storage batteries as for power motors; and it will be so some near day."