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Copper-Oxide and Zinc Cell in Caustic Soda: 10 Hours at over an Ampere (Boy Mechanic, 1913)
A strong, steady wet cell for experiments: black copper oxide with a little manganese oxide and iron filings in a tin can at the bottom of a jar, a zinc hung above it, and 10 per cent caustic soda under a film of oil; it gives over an ampere for about 10 hours.
Intermediate
An hour
Instructions
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Recipe in metric
Recipe in metric
Loading Jupyter Notebook...
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Read the Boy Mechanic
Read the Boy Mechanic
"A cell of battery that will run 10 hours with an output of over 1 ampere can be made as follows."
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Bottom electrode
Bottom electrode
Solder a connecting wire to the lower half of a tin can and set it in the bottom of a jar about 4 in across and 8 in high. Fill the can with 2 oz black copper oxide, 1 oz black manganese oxide and some iron filings.
Materials for this step:
Glass Jar1 piece
Tin Can1 piece
Copper Wire1 piece
Tin-Lead Solder1 piece
Copper Oxide1 piece
Manganese Dioxide (Pyrolusite)1 piece
Iron Filings1 pieceTools needed:
Soldering Iron4
4
Zinc
Zinc
Hang a small zinc (he used a crowfoot zinc) about 1 in above the half can, its wire led out of the jar.
Materials for this step:
Zinc Sheet1 pieceCopper Wire1 piece5
5
Electrolyte
Electrolyte
Wearing goggles and gloves, fill the jar to within 1 in of the top with 10 per cent caustic soda solution, then float a thin layer of kerosene or paraffin oil on top to keep out the air.
Materials for this step:
Sodium Hydroxide - 10% solution1 piece
Kerosene1 pieceTools needed:
Chemical Splash Goggles
Chemical-Resistant Gloves6
6
Renew
Renew
When exhausted, siphon off the oil first, then renew the solution and the oxide.
Materials for this step:
Sodium Hydroxide - 10% solution1 pieceCopper Oxide1 pieceTools needed:
Siphon Tube7
7
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Cell troubleshooting.
Flow
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History and honest limits
History and honest limits
From **The Boy Mechanic, Book 1** (Popular Mechanics, 1913), pp. 150-151, by Robert Canfield (checked on the archive.org scan boymechanic0000unse_n5a8). Metric figures, the Lalande-type note and safety gear are ours.
Materials
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Tools Required
4- 2 vendors sell this, none ship to you yetPlaceholder
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