Camille Alphonse Faure
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Camille Alphonse Faure (1840–1898) was a French chemical engineer who in 1881 significantly improved the design of the Lead-acid battery, which had been invented by Gaston Planté in 1865. Faure's improvements greatly increased the capacity of such batteries and led directly to their manufacture on an industrial scale.[1]
[edit] Biography
He was born at Vizille on 21 May 1840 and trained at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers at Aix [2]. From 1874 till about 1880 he worked as a chemist at the new factory of the Cotton Powder Company at Uplees, Faversham, Kent, England [3]. While there, he and the factory manager, George Trench, took out patents for Tonite (a new high explosive) (1874) and an improved dynamite detonator (1878) [4].
In 1880 Faure patented a method of coating lead plates with a paste of lead oxides, sulphuric acid and water, which was then cured by being gently warmed in a humid atmosphere. The curing process caused the paste to change to a mixture of lead sulphates which adhered to the lead plate. During charging the cured paste was converted into electrochemically active material (the "active mass") and gave a substantial increase in capacity compared with Planté's battery.[5]. This was a significant breakthrough that led to the industrial manufacture of lead-acid batteries, as now used for starting motor cars.
Towards the end of his life Faure was granted further patents[6], among them ones for the manufacture of aluminium alloys and improvements to hot air engines and motor vehicle steering mechanisms.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Battery History". Europulse.com. http://www.europulse.com/battery_history/battery_history.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-22.
- ^ Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology / ed. by Lance Day and Ian McNeil. London; New York: Routledge, 1996
- ^ Breeze, John (2008), Faversham Explosives Personnel Register 1841-1934, Part 1, Faversham Society, ISBN 9-200214-55-5
- ^ Patent Nos 106148 and 125752: copies in Bibliotheque Nationale de France
- ^ Dell, Ronald; David Anthony, James Rand (2001). Understanding Batteries. Royal Society of Chemistry. ISBN 0854046054.
- ^ Swiss Patent Nos 3698 (1891) and 3855 (1891) and UK Patent Nos 15152 (1894), 11341 (1896), 11342 (1896), and 21587 (1896)
