In Celebration of Gaston Plante's Lead–acid Battery 'The Faithful 150-year-old Retainer of Electrical Energy' - (PPT)

摘要

On 26 March 1860, the French physicist Raymond Louis Gaston Plante presented a set of nine electrochemical cells to the French Academy of Sciences [1]. His device evolved into the first practical rechargeable battery ― it provided a useful means to store and provide electricity. As this year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of the lead–acid battery, the 12th European Lead Battery Conference provides an excellent opportunity to celebrate Plante's seminal, yet humble, discovery. The previous century had witnessed a continuous stream of new ideas, discoveries, and inventions. For example: James Watt had introduced a more efficient version of Thomas Newcomen's steam engine that would transform the industrial world; by introducing the theory that chemical compounds are formed from elements, Antoine Lavoisier in his Traite Elementaire de Chimie (published 1789) had swept away the last vestiges of the secret world of alchemy, and thereby had heralded the beginnings of modern chemistry; Captain James Cook and other navigators had brought back astonishing collections of plants and animals from great ocean voyages. In summary, the 18th century saw the emergence of an 'age of reason', when writers and philosophers began to assert that informed rational thinking would banish mystical belief and superstition, and usher in a new era of political and intellectual freedom, along with material progress. The transition became known as the 'Enlightenment' and the scientific phenomenon that overwhelmingly characterized this era was electricity.