The nickel flake

The nickel flake

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 thistledown.
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 widespread
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."