We had always believed Gaston Planté invented the first practical lead-acid battery. However, our understanding changed after we came across an article in German Wikipedia, claiming one Wilhelm Sinsteden invented the lead-acid battery first. Although the writer does concede Gaston Planté improved the German doctor’s design considerably.
A Short Bio of Wilhelm Josef Sinsteden
William Josef Sinsteden, to give him his full first names, was a military doctor in a German military regiment, and born in 1803. But he devoted his quiet times to scientific topics including ‘electrophysical matters’. Other areas of interest were optics, electricity, inductors, interrupters, and one of the first electric motors.
Volta’s early dry pile batteries, and wet ‘crowns of cups’ seized Sinsteden’s attention, and he began a series of experiments with dry piles. German Wikipedia explains how, “He noticed a loosening of the lead oxide on the lead electrodes in the diluted sulfuric acid on the negative electrode, and on the positive coating of lead oxide.”
By 1884, Wilhelm Sinsteden had developed a ‘lead-acid accumulator’ with which he was able to produce sparks and melt wires. Plante improved this design, which incorporated two lead sheets in a container of dilute sulfuric acid. However, he never directly claimed to have invented it.
Sounds Like a Good Story. Are You Sure About This?
The internet has numerous articles on the matter with an academic flavor. Science20 provides this intriguing snippet from Planté’s Recherches sur l’électricité, and we quote as follows:
“We remember, however, that Mr. Sinsteden, in a memoire upon the results obtained with a magneto-electric apparatus, having by haphasard sent the current from this apparatus through voltameters with lead, silver, and nickel plates, obtained secondary currents with these metals, sufficiently intense to raise wires to a state of incandescence.”
Alas, we found no contemporary diagram, or description of Wilhelm Sinsteden’s accumulator invention beyond that. We’ll leave it up to you to decide. Although we are inclined to believe the doctor may have built the first lead-acid battery a few years before Gaston Planté.
More Information
Experiment: Make a Voltaic Pile
Was the Jacobi Lead Battery Ahead of Planté?
Preview Image: Wilhelm Josef Sinsteden
