Batteries & Fuel Cells A history in pictures
1771-1800: The Galvani-Volta Controversy Luigi Galvani “Animal Electricity” Alessandro Volta
1800: The First Battery (Voltaic Pile) 1801: Volta presenting his battery to Napoleon.
1800: Fathers of Electrolysis Anthony Carlisle William Nicholson Johann Ritter In 1800, electrolysis was discovered a few months after Volta’s battery. It seems the discovery was simultaneously made by Nicholson & Ritter in England and by Ritter in Silesia (now Poland) .
1821: The First Electric Motor 1835: The First BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) Michael Faraday Sibrandus Stratingh
1836: The Grove Battery and the Daniel Battery John F. Daniel Daniell’s Battery Grove’s Battery Grove’s Battery provided more power than Volta’s battery but leaked poisonous gas. Daniel’s battery was safer and was used in the first telegraphs.
1838: Backwards Electrolysis Christian Friedrich Schönbein
1839: First Fuel Cell (Grove’s “Gas Battery”) Sir William Grove
1859: The Lead battery is invented 1887: The first full-scale electric car Gaston Plante Lead-Acid Battery 1888: Morrison’s electric car ran on 24 lead-acid battery cells. Here it is shown at a Des Moines parade.
1889: Improved Fuel Cell 1897: Electric Taxis 1901: Nickel-Iron Rechargeable Battery (Edison Battery) Mond & Langer’s Fuel Cell 1910: The Edison Battery is tried in a automobile NY Electric Taxi
Edison with a 1912 Detroit Electric 1912: Rechargeable BEV 1939-1958: BEVs off market 1959: The Henney Kilowatt
1959: The Alkali Fuel Cell 1967: First Fuel Cell Vehicle 1965: A U.S. Army soldier operates a portable drill powered by an alkali fuel cell. Francis Thomas Bacon with his Alkali Fuel cell. Karl Kordesch rides his alkali fuel cell motorbike.
1961-1969:The Apollo Project Fuel cells are used to power the spacecraft computers and life-support systems because they are safer than nuclear and smaller than solar. The astronauts drink the water that is produced from the electrolysis.
1975: BEV range to charge is still only 60 miles 1979: The fuel cell golf cart
1994: Fuel cell bus 1996: GM’s EV1
2007: GM Sequel and Tesla Roadster
Why choose cars for our project?
References http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/Gallery/Gallery0.html pictures of scientists http://www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/fuelcells/fc_types.html types of fuel cells http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Biographies/GroveBio.htm sir william grove http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/nicholson.html willliam nicholson http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarselectric2a.htm history of BEVs http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/phos/pafcmain.htm fuel cell history