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Old Wet Cell Battery

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IrishRover

10-15-2004 16:58:50




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Awhile back I purchased a few boxes of junque at a farm auction. In one of the boxes was an old wet cell battery. A squarish jar with two rods suspended inside by a metal cap with screws on top (for the attachment of wires) and a hole lined with rubber (or something similar). The metal cap has vent holes the entire way around it. I wonder how long ago this was in use and if these were used on old tractors. I would be interested in knowing anything at all about this intriguing item - how it works, etc. Thanks!

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Haas

10-16-2004 17:55:05




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 Re: Old Wet Cell Battery in reply to IrishRover, 10-15-2004 16:58:50  
I'm assuming this is a glass jar. As others said, used with stationary DC plants before folks got AC electricity through the power lines. On the farm where I grew up, there was an "engine house" out back. Never in use while I was around, but was used up until 1939 when my folks got electricity from the REA. The engine house housed a generator set to charge a bank of the glass jar batteries. I think the generator set was probably a hit/miss engine DC generator although it was gone before I can remember. There were however a bunch of the glass jars still there, along with the internal lead plates for the wet cells. All that lead laying around today would cause a major flap I think, but no one was concernec about that back in 1945. Don't know what ever happened to it. May still be there buried in the soil where the engine house was. As a kid, I recall also that the 32 volt DC electrical wiring was still in the attic of the house. It consisted of wire strung on porcelain insulators in the attic. As an added note, the back part of the engine house was a room heavily insulated with thick walls filled with sawdust. In the winter ice was cut off the ponds and stored there for use the rest of the year. Life was a lot different then!!

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Sam#3

10-16-2004 06:30:29




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 Re: Old Wet Cell Battery in reply to IrishRover, 10-15-2004 16:58:50  
The old jar cells were used for stationary plants. The Telephone Company used kazillons of them long time ago. After the rubber cells were developed they were phased out of service.
For information, one is a cell, two or more connected together form a battery.



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Stickler

10-16-2004 16:06:41




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 Re: Old Wet Cell Battery in reply to Sam#3, 10-16-2004 06:30:29  
They still do, or at least a much improved version. Most phone switch offices have 48 volt battery banks. That's how come phones still work in power outages. So do power stations, to power the controls in the event that the generators trip. We have hundreds of them in the stations I operate, they're connected in banks to make up whatever voltage is required. We have numerous 48, 60, 125, 129 and 250 volt banks, each made up of a rack full of huge cells of 1.25 volts each. When I started, they were about a foot square and 18" high, nowadays they're about a foot by six inches by a foot high.

What you found is most likely from a wind generator bank, like someone else said.

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Dave S.

10-15-2004 21:09:08




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 Re: Old Wet Cell Battery in reply to IrishRover, 10-15-2004 16:58:50  
Some of these batteries were used as storage for lighting on farms and in small towns for street lights before rural electric lines were installed. They were charged by a wind powered DC generator. The small town that i live in used to have such a city lighting system,this was before my time. I remember seeing the glass batteries in the cement block building and the generator on a tower outside. On a place where my dad farmed there were some of the batteries in a cave where there used to be a farm house. Iwas told they were used as lighting for the house and charged by a wind generator. Don't know for sure when they were used but probably around 1920 to 1940. (just guessing on the years)

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Allan in NE

10-16-2004 05:36:07




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 Re: Old Wet Cell Battery in reply to Dave S., 10-15-2004 21:09:08  
Darn!

I hate it when I'm old enough to remember all that old stuff. :>(

We used the windcharges to pump up the bank of batteries and they in turn would power an old radio.

Used gas lights and lanterns for the lighting, tho.

Allan



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Allan in NE

10-15-2004 17:20:50




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 Re: Old Wet Cell Battery in reply to IrishRover, 10-15-2004 16:58:50  
ER,

When I was a kid, they used something like that in the schools while teaching science.

Allan



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Harley

10-15-2004 20:06:02




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 Re: Old Wet Cell Battery in reply to Allan in NE, 10-15-2004 17:20:50  
Ya but Allan when you were in school, teaching WAS a science. hahahahaha



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