Sulphuric acid

[Mal Paso]

Lyden jar batteries, very collectible IF you can find a museum.

A Lyden jar is a capacitor, needs to be charged. What he has are Lead/Acid Batteries. The core is positive and outer tube negative.

It's the perfect collector item for a leadhead. Someone who knows to wash their hands. Positive is Lead Oxide.

[Battis]

This info describes the batteries I have:
"In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people used batteries to power telegraph and telephone systems, ring bells and alarms, or spark gasoline engines. The Samson Electric Company had made wet cell battery like this one for years before moving production to Canton, Massachusetts. The glass jar held a conductive solution surrounding the carbon and zinc elements that produced an electrochemical reaction."

"on front label: PATENTED / THE SAMSON BATTERY/ NO. 2 / Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. / GREAT STRENGTH. / LONG LIFE. / Samson Electric Co. / CANTON, MASS. / QUALITY GUARANTEED on side label: DIRECTIONS / FIRST - Clean out jar and pour in Samson Sal-Ammoniac. / SECOND - See that carbon and zinc are firmly secured to cover and that they are not in contact at any point. / THIRD - Insert elements being careful not to overflow jar. Set the battery in a dry place. See that connections are clean and firmly made. / FOURTH - Keep carbon element covered with solution by adding water when necessary. For best results the solution should be renewed at least once a year. / MANUFACTURED BY / Samson Electric Co. / Canton, Mass. in raised letters on side: SAMSON / ELEC Co / CANTON/ MASS in raised letters on side: THE SAMSON BATTERY/ No 2 on lid: SAMSON BATTERY/ SAMSON ELECTRIC CO/ CANTON MASS"

[DougGuy]

Right after high school I worked at a feed testing lab for a summer, I moved the various chemicals around to the work stations. Sulfuric acid came in 55 gallon drums and was pumped into 5 gallon glass jars to move up to the lab. Caustic soda came the same but that we pumped up via an electric pump. Hydroflouric was kept in small plastic jars at the work stations and only 2 people in the lab were allowed to handle it. Me and the person using it for tests. That person dropped it on her counter an splashed it all over her front side... we stuffed her in the decon shower as we stripped her clothes off and waited for the life flight to land in the parking lot. They moved her immediately to the UofMN medical center. She survived with heart damage and was permanently disabled. It ate a crater in her chest, dissolved part of a rib... nasty stuff when pure! I would move the quart container into a foam lined carrier that could survive bouncing down the steps then carry it up to that workstation. Hated that stuff! Hydrochloric(muratic) acid we got in 1 gallon glass jugs. Used it all over the place for cleaning and testing. Lab had very hard ater and maintenance would run it through the pipes once a month ro clean them followed by a 2 hour water flush. Had other fun stuff there like ether... I found a 20 year old 5 gallon can buried in a closet full of junk. Ether gets VERY unstable with age. Bomb squad moved it to a small raft they made and floated it to the center of the sewage lagoon 1/2 mile behind the lab and detonated it with a rifle shot. It dang near emptied the lagoon. Stuff was a bomb waiting to go off from a hard bump...

Wow I had no idea hydrofluoric by itself was that nasty.

PCS Aurora is a HUGE acid producing plant in coastal North Carolina, it is bigger than many towns. They manufacture almost every acid known to man. I have worked shutdowns and construction projects there many times it's dangerous and nasty. I worked on a project that built a production unit, reaction vessel, compressor station and truck dock that produces Silicon TetraFluoride gas. This stuff eats stainless steel pipe and hastalloy pipe like nothing. It ate the gold off of a monel transducer.

They make it by adding 96% Sulfuric acid to Hydrofluorosilicic acid and it causes a violent reaction, it produces fumes that etch silicon chips. They stencil a design onto a microchip, then expose it to the STF gas which etches the un stenciled part, they then dip this into a metallic bath and it causes microscopic lands to form a circuit and it is actually the conductive traces in a microprocessor, millions of transistors fit in a minute area, this is the gas they use to create these chips with. Pretty fascinating stuff.

The stuff is so corrosive it cannot be stored. It goes directly from the compressors (made out of 100% Monel 400) at high temperature and very high pressure into these special trailers that have long cylinders like 40' long oxygen cylinders on the trailer and it immediately goes directly to the customer, they use it immediately when the trucks arrive. If you're cruising the interstate and you see this plain unadorned unmarked white tractor pulling a white trailer with these long cylinders on it, that's what's in there. I would hate to see the aftermath if one of those trucks crashes.

[Mr_Sheesh]

You could ask local battery shops if they could use the Sulphuric, maybe yes, maybe no. The6y'd know how to dispose of it for sure.

[Battis]

What happens to sulfuric acid over a long time in these types of jars? I don't see any liquid in any of them, none at all. I do see a solid white and yellow chunk that might be the Sal-Ammoniac, "a rare naturally occurring mineral composed of ammonium chloride, NH4Cl. It forms colorless, white, or yellow-brown crystals in the isometric-hexoctahedral class."
I'll get some pics.

[hiram]

I remember from high school chemistry if you mix an acid with a basic (caustic) solution the byproducts are water and a salt.

[Battis]

Apparently, the white substance I'm seeing in the jars is sal-ammoniac. You can buy that stuff online now. They use it to clean the tips of soldering irons, they use it to make certain candy. It's harmless. I removed a cover from one of the jars yesterday and inside smelled like licorice. I emptied it out, cleaned the glass and metal, and plan to do all four. I guess those jars are pretty rare with all of the internals in place. Samson Battery jars.
I guess that was one way to keep "the kids" from playing with your stuff. Tell them over the years that those are batteries - well, batteries have acid so we'll leave them alone.

[Battis]

left - mostly cleaned
right - untouched.
All four were joined by a wire at the top.
I can see why people were wary of what was inside.

[GregLaROCHE]

I remember seeing batteries like that when I was a kid, in the basement of my grandmother’s old house. I think they were once used to power the doorbells etc.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Fun stuff

hiram, I wouldn't be surprised if you also got a bunch of heat when mixing acids and bases?