Gaston Planté: Difference between revisions

'''Gaston Planté''' (22 April 1834 – 21 May 1889) was the [[France|French]] [[physicist]] who invented the [[lead–acid battery]] in 1859. The lead-acid battery eventually became the first [[rechargeable]] [[electric battery]] marketed for commercial use and is widely used in automobiles.

Planté was born on 22 April 1834 in [[Orthez]], [[France]]. In 1854 he began work as an assistant lecturer in [[physics]] at the [[Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers|Conservatory of Arts and Crafts]] in [[Paris]], and. inIn 1860, rosehe was promoted to the post of Professor of Physics at the Polytechnic Association for the Development of Popular Instruction. An amphitheatre at that institute is named after him.

In 1855, hePlanté discovered the first fossils of the prehistoric [[flightless bird]] ''[[Gastornis|Gastornis parisiensis]]'' (named after him) near [[Paris]]. This gigantic animal was a very close relative of the famous diatrymas<!-- not capitalized, no italics - see Gastronis article --> of North America. At that time, Planté was at the start of his academic career, beingserving justas a teaching assistant to [[A. E. Becquerel]] (father of the [[Nobel laureate]] [[Henri Becquerel]]).<ref>Prévost (1855)</ref> Thus, thisThis early discovery—despite causing considerable furor in 1855—was soon to be overshadowed by Planté's subsequent discoveries.

In 1859, hePlanté invented the [[lead-acid battery|lead-acid cell]], the first rechargeable battery. His early model consisted of a spiral roll of two sheets of pure lead, separated by a linen cloth, and immersed in a glass jar of sulfuric acid solution.<ref>Dell ''et al.'' (2001)</ref> The following year, he presented a nine-cell lead-acid battery to the Academy of Sciences. In 1881, [[Camille Alphonse Faure]] would develop a more efficient and reliable model that saw great success in early [[Battery electric vehicle|electric cars]].

Planté also investigated the differences between [[static electricity]] and dynamic electricity (i.e., from batteries). As part of this investigation, Planté invented a mechanical device that he called the Rheostatic Machine. The Rheostatic Machine used a bank of mica capacitors, a clever rotating commutator, and a series of contacts to alternately charge a bank of [[capacitor]]s in parallel (from a high-voltage battery source) and then connect the capacitors in series. This arrangement multiplied the battery [[voltage]] by the number of capacitor stages to obtain very high voltages. By rapidly rotating the shaft, a series of high-voltage sparks many centimetres long could be generated rapidly generated. This device was a mechanical predecessor of the modern-day [[Marx generator]]. Using this device, Planté explored the [[electrical breakdown]] of air, the formation of [[Lichtenberg figures]], and the behaviour of thin wires when pulsed by high [[electric current]]s.