"American Storage Battery Monopoly

After a struggle lasting for about ten years, beginning in the Patent Office and carried successively through the United States Circuit Courts in several states, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, on the 4th inst., handed down a decision sustaining the decree of Judge Coxe rendered in July, 1891, in the suit of the Brush Company against the Electrical Accumulator Company. The sole right to use storage batteries with the active matter mechanically applied is now owned by the Consolidated Electric Storage Company, the licensees of the Brush Electric Company. Consequently, says the Scientific American, this decision gives to the Consolidated Electric Storage Company a monopoly of the storage battery business throughout the United States for a period of over ten years next ensuing." - The Electrical Engineer (1892:418 Biggs & Co.) 

See: http://books.google.com/books?id=cCUAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA418&vq=battery&dq=galvanic+battery

For an overview of storage battery development see:

http://books.google.com/books?id=me8vAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA89&dq=galvanic+battery#PPA91,M1

For a history of Charles F. Brush (his research, inventions & company), see: Journal of Applied Physics (1937:34) published by The American Institute of Physics, American Physical Society.

some pertinent Brush patents:

219,210 - 2 Sep 1879 - "improvement in carbons for electric lamps"
263,758 - 5 Sep 1882 - "process for baking carbon rods"
274, 904 - 3 Apr 1883 - "carbon rod or stick and method for making the same"
276,348 -  filed 13 Jun 1863 - patented 24 Apr 1883 - "element for secondary batteries"


Bob Skiles, RPA
~~~~~~~~
Pleistocene extinctions? Clovis kaput? It was the bolide, stupid!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "McKee, Larry (Nashville,TN-US)" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 10:39 AM
Subject: Carbon electrode rods - ID sources