Faure, Camille Alphonse

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity

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b. 21 May 1840 Vizille, France

d. September 1898

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French chemist, inventor of an improved method of preparing the plates for Planté lead-acid secondary cells.

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After technical training at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers at Aix, Faure was employed superintending the erection of factories in France and England. These included the Cotton Powder Company plant in Faversham for the manufacture of the explosive Tonite invented by Faure. He also invented distress signals used by the merchant navy. It was between 1878 and 1880 that he performed his most important work, the improvement of the Planté cell. Faure's invention of coating the lead plates with a paste of lead oxide substantially reduced the time taken to form the plates. Their construction was subsequently further improved by Swan and others. These developments appeared at a particularly opportune time because lead-acid secondary cells found immediate application in telegraphy and later in electric lighting and traction systems, where their use resulted in reduced costs of providing supplies during peak-load periods. In his later years Faure's attention was directed to other electrochemical problems, including the manufacture of aluminium.

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Bibliography

1881, "Sur la pile secondaire de M C.Faure", Comptes rendus 92:951–3 (announcing his cell).

11 January 1881, British patent no. 129 (Faure's improvement of the Planté cell).

Further Reading

Electrician (1882) 7:122–3 (describes the Faure cell).

G.Wood Vinal, 1955, Storage Batteries, 4th edn, London (describes later developments).

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