Although Thomas Edison is well known as one of the greatest inventors of the XIXth century, some of his inventions remain unknown, such as his car battery. Indeed, Edison starts working in 1902 with his coworker Waldemar Jungner on a car battery functioning with Nickel-Iron, these two metals being immersed in an alkaline solution.This battery is quite resistant; unfortunately it cannot deliver much energy in little time. Such a battery still has an advantage over standard lead-acid batteries at the time: Edison’s battery is cheaper.
The famous inventor, who is actually an electric cars lover, decides to test his battery’s autonomy. In 1910, he participates in an endurance automobile race with a Bailey Electric Phaeton car. However, the Bailey cannot keep up with petrol-powered cars’ pace. As a consequence, Bailey withdraws from electric cars and Edison abandons his battery project.
Nonetheless, it seems that Edison battery is not so out of date. The chemistry work of Hongjie Dai from Stanford University (United States) intend to improve Edison’s prototype, by adding carbon and graphene nanotubes. The new battery is still to be tested, but it appears to reach an energetic density a thousand times superior to Edison’s battery. Yet one of the researcher admits that this battery is still not ideal and sufficient to power an electric car by itself.
