William Morrison was a Scottish chemist who entered our world on August 23, 1855. He first attended local schools, where he developed an interest in chemistry, electricity, and building batteries. After then after that he went on to study chemistry at a Scottish university. Before relocating to the United States in 1880, where he settled in Des Moines, Iowa.
William Morrison Explores Batteries in His ‘Cave’
William Morrison found employment with a jeweler as a watchmaker, which was high-tech work in those days. However, after business hours he worked in a secret basement he called his ‘Cave’. There, he refined current lead battery technology he hoped would someday propel ‘electric carriages’ to prove its worth.
In 1890, Morrison developed a refinement of the secondary storage lead battery, he later patented in December 1891. This involved adding ‘glass wool’ to the electrode plates which we now call glass fiber. This prevented those plates from shedding material, leading to short circuiting and so prolonged their life.
His batteries were also more efficient, because his innovation reduced battery weight while increasing power output. The patent document (see link below) explains how shredded material previously deposited on the bottom of the cells. And how this formed a conductor between the anodes thus short-circuiting the battery.
Universal Electric Storage Battery Company Follows Through
The Universal Electric Storage Battery Company of Chicago formed in 1905, to commercialize the William Morrison patent. It produced a variety of batteries for lighting, electric cars, railroads and power plants. Ironically, these also powered ignition systems for internal combustion autos, which almost ended the electrical vehicle dream.
Wikipedia describes Morrison as ‘a tall, husky, well-groomed man with dark hair’. He was a vegetarian, the authors add who kept to himself. And as for the locals in Des Moines, Iowa? Well, they apparently regarded him as ‘a bizarre electrical wizard – a self-centered eccentric – who did peculiar experiments’. Such is the nature of the lonely, scientific road.
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Preview Image: Morrison Storage Battery
