Talk:United States v. Adams

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Dumping these sections here from the main article because I have no idea what to do with them.

Niaudet, Elementary Treatise on Electric Batteries

The Niaudet treatise describes the Marie Davy cell invented in 1860 and De La Rue's variations on it. The battery comprises a zinc anode and a silver chloride cathode. Seemingly capable of working in an electrolyte of pure water, Niaudet says the battery was of little interest until De La Rue used a solution of ammonium chloride as a electrolyte. The capital advantage of this battery consists in the absence of any local or internal action as long as the electric circuit is open.

Wood U.S. Patent No. 1,696,873

The Wood patent is relied upon by the Government as teaching the substitution of magnesium for zinc. Wood's patent states that a relatively high voltage primary cell would be obtained by using magnesium as the positive electrode. However, Wood continues stating that it has been generally accepted that magnesium could not be commercially utilized as a primary cell electrode due to magnesium electrodes susceptibility to chemical corrosion by acid or ammonium chloride electrolytes. Wood's solution was to use a neutral electrolyte to reduce the rate of corrosion of the magnesium electrode. Wood did not indicate that a magnesium battery could be water-activated.

Codd, Practical Primary Cells

The Codd Treatise was also cited by the government as authority for the substitution of magnesium. Codd lists magnesium in an electromotive series table. Codd also refers to magnesium in an example to show that various substances are more electropositive than others. Codd does not teach that magnesium could be combined in a water-activated battery or that a battery using magnesium would have the properties of the Adams device. Nor does Codd suggest that cuprous chloride would be substituted for silver chloride.

Wensky British patent no. 49 of 1891

The Wensky patent relates to the use of cuprous chloride as a depolarizing agent. The specification discloses a batter comprising zinc and copper electrodes, the cuprous chloride being added as a salt in an electrolyte solution containing zinc chloride as well. Wensky recognized that cuprous chloride could be used in a constant-current cell, but no indication that Wensky taught a water-activated system or that magnesium could be incorporated in the battery.

Skrivanoff British patent no. 4,341 (1880)

The Skrivanoff patent relates to a batter designed to give intermittent, as opposed to continuous service. While the patent claims magnesium as a electrode, it specifies that it must be a solution of slcoline, chloro-chromate, or permangante strengthened with sulphuric acid.

--MZMcBride (talk) 15:49, 29 June 2009 (UTC)