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Show AUTOMOBILE OWNERS SHOULD UNDERSTAND CARE OF STORAGE BATTERIES I Wixh. is presented another t instalment of a series of nrti- X cleo designed to give the mo- torist the knowledge necessary t i to enable him to care for aiid I ! repair nny and nil of the elec- f trical features of his car, no I matter what make or model it T may be- oi t.--ic ere re- I printed by special permission from Mr1-" Age, for which pub- lication they have been pre- t pared hy David Penn Moreton f J and Darwin. S. Hatch. jt - In order time a storage Lottery mr.j give tho best service It Is possible for It to give It Is necessary that it receive a reasonable amount of care and attention at-tention rather than to wait until it Is .- 1. . . A ,1 1 IL. A I i- i ciii.tiisieu umure mo motorist Knows there is such a thing r.s a battery on I his car, or how to take enre of It. If the following general rules are followed fol-lowed with reasonable care the operation opera-tion of any good make of lead storage battery should be quite satisfactory: I. Add nothing but pure water or sulphuric acid electrolyte of the proper specific gravity to the cells. Under no condition try to operate your battery by adding a non-freezing solution of any kind. "Water must be added frequently fre-quently enough to ke&p the plates covered, cov-ered, as they may b4 serioitylj damaged dam-aged If allowed to be exroseft ror any length of time. It will be found neces-cary neces-cary to add water more frequently in Tsrxvfrt 7oa.tJier than Jn cool or cold weather, ana for this retuson It Is best to moke it a rui to remove the vent plugs and add tho water once a weqk. In freezing cr rsry cold waatber the K-ater should be added just before the enr is started In order that the water nun uieuiiuiynj ju ujo ceii may oecome thoroughly mixed while the battery Is chnrging. 'The water is lighter than the acid and would remain at the top of tho cell and probably freeze, but if charged Immediately the bubbles of gas formed when the cell is charging charg-ing will servo thoroughly to mix the water and the electrolyte. Be careful not to add too much -water, as the cell will boil over when it starts to gas and some of the electrolyte will be lost, and it should be replaced with new electrolyte electro-lyte rather than water in order that the specific gravity of the electrolyto in the cell may remain practlcallv constant con-stant for a fully charged condition of the cell. Specific Gravity Should Be Watched. II. The specific gravity of the different dif-ferent cells should bo determined at frequent and regular intervals In order to determine if the battery is being properly charged. GDbeso hydrometer readings should be taken before adding add-ing the water to the electrolyte. In eome cases the electrolyte may be bo low in the cell that it is impossible to get enough electrolyte up into the hydrometer syringe to float the hydrometer. hy-drometer. Water must then be added and the cell charged for some time in order that the water and electrolyte may mix thoroughly before a hydrometer hydrom-eter reading is taken. If the cell la completely discharged or exhausted it should be removed from the ear and given a special charge. In some cases it will be impossible to increase the MMcIic trravity of the electrolyte re- I 110 VOLTS . ...... ,.. . 6 32 C.R CAR.BON FILAMENT LAMPS Connections for charging a storage battery from a liO-voU circuit 12 32 CP.,CAKB(WI FILAMENT LAMPS Coueey -Connections-for charging a storage battery ofoKfe? from-a-220-voU circuit gardless of tho time of charge, which is an indication that there probably is a short circuit inside the cell, and in such a case it needs the attention of an experienced ex-perienced battery man. It occasionally happens that the specific spe-cific gravity of the electrolyte tests in the neighborhood of perhaps 1,200, although al-though the battery appears to be almost al-most completely discharged, as determined deter-mined by a voltmeter or dim lights. This condition is due to acid having been added to tne various cells to replace re-place evaporation lualcad of nddlnt Just pure watei, and in addition the.re Is probably some trouble within the cell, such as plates, in partja contact &c. j?ho c-atterv Bhould be iriven a L complete charge that Is, it should be charged until the voltage anc sppclflc gravity of each cell shows no change in value for a period of several hour. At the end of this charge taku thi specific gravity of each cell and if it Is above 1,300 draw off some of the electrolyte and add pure water vntll the specific gravity of all the iiclls test the same, which should be somew -re between 1,270 and 1,300. If the specific gravity of tho electrolyte t,sts low withdraw some of it from tho cell by means of the hydrometer syringe and add electrolyte having a specific gravity grav-ity of about 1,800 until the gra.lty of tho electrolyte in the cell has been raiBaa to the flenfra raVoe. Jteroem- 1 ljg-Bg-; I II l agi-M-. ber that the cell should be charged for a period after water or electrolyte is added In order that the electrolyte may be mixed thoroughlj. III. Care should be exercised in keeping the outside of the battery clean. It should be wiped off occasionally, occa-sionally, and the compartment in which it Is placed should be examined for ex-ceafllvc ex-ceafllvc corrosion due to acid from a leaky coll or perhaps from acid wTiich bis run ou, of the vent hole at the top of the cell. Be careful in cleaning the battery not to get any impurities into the various cells. The counectloiis to the battery should bo examined thoroughly at reg-uVvr reg-uVvr tnterrolB to see that they are not working loose or berom22 corroded. A. rag dampened wll.li r.-vctr ammonia ,oay bo ds.d to counteract tv- acid In (cleaning aJ-.-sit the battery. Bard vase- i line tn.iv be used to prevent excessie rrosici at the terminal. Cl.r.rp,1np: ibo T.v<rz. The best results are ibtalned In charging a storage battery at such a rate that It will be completely charged In about eight liours. The battery companies com-panies usually specify the rate at which their different types and sizes of cells should bo charged, and that rate should, be followed. This charge sho"" "-Tlnue until there Is no in- i crvur Jher the voltage of the cell, as Indicated by a voltmeter, or the specific spe-cific gravity of the electrolyte, as Indicated In-dicated by the hydrometer, for a period of perhaps five hours. The electrolyte in the various cells should be gassing that Is, bubbling freely before the end of the charge. In some cases the temperature of the cell lnity Vecome quite high diulng chanre, Hot", in such cases It Is best cither to reduce the rate of charge or to stop tbe charge entirely until the temperature Is lowered to a safe value. In no conditions should the temperatures tempera-tures of the cell bo allowed to exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit If a bnttcry is completely discharged It may take twenty hours or more to recharge It completely at the normal rate. This time may be reduced where conditions demand that the battery be i i-lifirepil In n shorter time hv charclnc the battery at twice Its normal rate during tho flrot part of the charjo and then reducing this rate to normal value as soon as there are any Indications of gassing. But It Is not recommended as the proper method of procedure to follow in general. The temperature of the cells should be watched cnrcfully and the rate reduced If the temperature tempera-ture rises to the neighborhood of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. " Trouble In Cell. In some cases the temperature may hecome excessive, although there is little lit-tle or no gassing In the cells and the specific gravity is low. This is an Indication In-dication of trouble in tho cell, and it should be examined by a battery man. A storage battery mujt be charged bv sending a direct current through it from the positive to the negative terminals. ter-minals. Under no conditions try to charge it bv using an alternating current, cur-rent, as this will ruin the battery. In some places alternating current only I ( available, and In such cases it will be necessary to convert tne alternatinji current Into direct current If a single 6-volt battery Is to be, charged from a 110-volt D. C circuit connections may be made as shown In1 the accompanying illustration. A resistance re-sistance must be placed, In series with the battery in order to regulcte the value of the current, and a very convenient con-venient resistance Is to use, a number of 11-volt 32 candle power carbon-filament incandescent lamps connected in parallel and the combination In turn connected In series with the battery, as shown in the figure. Each of the 32 candle power lumps will allow approximately approx-imately 1 ampere to pass through the battery, so If the charging rute in amperes am-peres is known the number of lamps required will bQ equal to this rate. "When 10 candle power carbon-filament lamps are used Instead of the 32 caudle cau-dle power ones, twice a many lamps Tvill be rooulrod. as each 18 candU, p'ower cnrbon-fllament lamp will allow approximately only ampere to pass through the battery. If high efficiency lamps, such as tungsten, be used more lamps will be required, as the current rating of the high eff'clency lamps is less than the current rating of carbon-filament carbon-filament lamps. When a 220-volt circuit Is available instead of a 110-volt circuit two 110-volt 110-volt lamps must be connected in series, as shown In the Illustration. When a 550-volt circuit Is available five lamp3 must be connected in series and a sufficient suf-ficient number of these series comblna-tlons comblna-tlons connected In parallel to give the jffrBi desired charging current. tPv Several batteries may be charged In i series more efficiently than 1)3 charging charg-ing each battery alone. If several batteries bat-teries be connected In series in place of the single battery shown in the illustration il-lustration less resistance will be required re-quired In order that the proper charging charg-ing current may pass through the batteries. bat-teries. The reaHon for this is that with an Increase In the number of batteries In series there is a decrease in the value of tho effective pressure acting In the clrcuic, wiiu'u i equal to the difference between the pressure between be-tween the terminals of tho charging circuit and the edinMned pressure of all of the bntlorle Ic series, and hence there must be a dwnmse In the value of the resistance of the circuit In order that the curr.sit ma remain constant There Is a limit however, to the number num-ber of batteries that may be charged in series, and this limit is reached when I the combined pressure of all the bat-I bat-I teries in series at the end of charge i nnri tr-iM-, thn rirrnlf-. rlosed is cxactLv , equal to the pressure between the ter- m ' mlnals of the charging circuit In these , 1 ' conditions there Is no resistance re- I quired in the circuit, and all the energy I drawn from the charging circuit is used 1 within the batteries Instead of part of 1 this energy appearing as heat in the re- It slstance. Care "WueiJ TTot t Scrrle. It may happen that the battery will '1 be out of service for a consider,'' f period, as when the car is put avrw during the winter months, and durluf E this time It should not be allowed tf E stand without attention. If the baU K ' tery Is to be out of service for only S I three or four weeks It should be filled with pure water and be given a com- plete charge the last few days the car m j Is in service by using the lamps and m starting motor very sparingly. The spe- ' elf ic gravity of the electrolyte should j ! test between 1,270 and 1,300. Tho bat- M teries should be entirely disconnected fwm from all circuits, as any slight leak W will In time completely discharge It 1 It should be put in a room the tern- JH? pcraturu of which is fairly uniform IK and, if possible, In the neighborhood of 70 degrees L-'ahrenhelt iW If ie lattery Is to be out of servica jl? fo several months It Is perhaps best l "t to send it to a reliable battery station j for storage, whore it will receive the III necessary attention from time to time. I No matter what procedure Is fol- lowed water should always be added j J and te battery should be fully charged j before it Is put back into service. If l the battery has stood for five or six 1 months without being charged it should VSi be charged for 40 or 50 hours at one-1 jWk half normal rate before being put back 7 into sen-ice. If the battery docs not A charge properly tho plates are dXf J I |