[Illustration:  FIG. 2.]

If it is wished to lift the accumulator from its chest for any verification, hooks passing between the plates seize hold of the rods, and thanks to the rigidity of the antimony lead, they effect the removal of the apparatus without bending the rods in the least.  All the parts of the plates must be kept at exactly the same reciprocal distances, and a difference of only 0.001 meter between two points is sufficient to affect the yield considerably.  For an insulating material, wood, when plunged in dilute acid, is preferred by the inventor.  He makes a comb of wood, the teeth of which vary according to the thickness of the plates to be lodged between them.  Fig. 3 represents a comb having 15/10 of a millimeter for the negative plates and 25/10 for the positive plates.

[Illustration:  FIG. 3.]

This appliance, which is 0.01 meter in thickness and 0.02 meter in width in the back, is made very cheaply by machinery.  The weight of the accumulator bears entirely upon the back of the combs, which are all placed back downward, and the number of which varies according to the size of the plates.  Small combs of wood clasp the plates at their extremities, and make the entire accumulator quite compact and manageable.  The entire accumulator is shut up in a wooden chest, which the outer teeth of the comb serve to insulate from the leaden chest, and to prevent any loss of electricity along the sides.

Fig. 4 shows the arrangement of the side combs.  A single glance at this figure shows that it would be difficult to have more surface without having recourse to curved, undulated, or folded plates, in which the distances are variable, and consequently defective.  In the Montaud accumulator, the weight is simply proportional to the intended duration.  For the notion, “So much capacity and so much yield per kilo.,” Montaud substitutes the notion, “So much capacity or yield per square meter, the weight not being taken into consideration.”  These Montaud accumulators are classified as follows:  They have from 1 to 12 square meters of surface, and the number corresponding to the surface indicates its weight of useful lead, its manner of charging, its capacity, and its manner of discharge.

[Illustration:  FIG. 4.]

According to the inventor’s experiments, the square meter of active surface can receive a charging current of 10 amperes, and furnish on discharging a current of the intensity of 20 amperes.  For a “No. 10” accumulator we have an active surface of 10 square meters, a charging current of 100 amperes, and on discharging a current of 200 amperes.  A square meter of lead of the thickness of 0.001 meter weighs about 11 kilos.