The invention promoted by soot
In the mid-16th century, Volta in Italy invented the traditional chemical reaction battery. The method is to immerse silver and copper sheets in water, add metal salts to the water, and the wire connecting the two metal sheets generates an electric current.
But this method has many shortcomings. First of all, metal salts will corrode the reaction tank, and the current in the form of adding metal salts is unstable.
By the end of the 1930s, American inventor Bert Adams was determined to innovate and improve this battery. He came up with a bold idea: use only water as a medium to eliminate these shortcomings. He used magnesium as the anode, copper chloride as the cathode, and water as the medium to generate current, but the current was too weak. The pointer on the small ammeter always failed to make a large swing, which made Adams frustrated.
But Adams was a perseverant man, and he still tenaciously continued the experiment. He is a heavy smoker. He always has a cigarette in his hand and the ashes are constantly falling on the ground, even when conducting experiments.
He sat in an old chair at home, staring anxiously at the crucible on the stove. The molten metal was flaming, lighting up the dark room. The mixture in the crucible gave off a pungent smell, and another pot of copper chloride was about to be smelted, but at this moment, the long ash from the cigarette in Adams' hand fell into the crucible. "Oops, dirty!" Adams thought to himself. Reluctantly and with a sense of luck, he made the electrode and packed it into the baby can he found. When he added water to his earthen battery and connected it to the ammeter, the pointer of the ammeter suddenly jumped up, and the long-awaited high current finally appeared. "Got it! Got it!" Adams shook his wife awake so hard that his wife Emma thought he had been burned.
Afterwards, Adams analyzed that the carbon contained in the soot must have played a role. He then experimented by adding various carbonaceous substances to the alloy, including charcoal, hard coal, and even sugar. Every night Emma was periodically awakened by seven or eight light bulbs flickering in the dark and Adams getting up in a hurry. Finally, this water-dielectric battery was finally successful. It can be used for a long time by just adding water, the output current is stable, and it has broad application prospects. Around 1940, Adams applied for and obtained a U.S. patent.
During World War II, the U.S. government used Adams' invention without authorization and signed contracts with many companies to produce at least 1 million of these batteries, which were used in meteorology, reconnaissance balloons, and pilots' batteries. life-saving devices. The impoverished Adams was not only penniless, but also ignorant. When Adams found out about this in 1953, he was furious. In 1960, he filed a lawsuit with the Krem Court, which at that time was specialized in handling cases against the government, accusing the government of infringement. In 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in Adams' favor. The U.S. government paid $2.5 million in compensation to Adams. Nowadays, Adams' inventions follow the balloons to the stratosphere, follow the expedition teams to Antarctica, and follow the submarines sinking and floating in the ocean, making contributions to the cause of human progress.