Georges Leclanché was a French electrical engineer born on October 9, 1839, and died on September 14, 1882. He is best known for inventing the Leclanché cell, which was one of the first modern electrical batteries. This invention was an early version of the modern dry cell battery.
Biography
Georges Leclanché was born in 1839 in Parmain, Seine-et-Oise, France. He was the son of Léopold Leclanché and Eugenie of Villeneuve. Because of political issues in France and his father’s past role as a government official, his family, who were friends with the writer Victor Hugo, decided to leave France and move to the United Kingdom. Leclanché received his early education in England but later completed his studies at École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures (École Centrale Paris), a leading engineering school in France. He graduated in 1860 and began working as an engineer. His first job was with a French railway company, where he managed systems that used electricity to send time signals. His interest in creating better electrical cells came from problems with the existing cells used in railways. Due to political conditions in France, he moved to Brussels, Belgium, where he built a small laboratory. There, he developed a cell using copper carbonate and later created a cell that used zinc as a reducing agent and manganese oxide as an oxidizing agent. His invention was quickly used by the Belgian telegraph system and a Dutch railway company.
After the fall of Napoléon III, Leclanché returned to France and worked with Ernest Barbier to start a factory called "Leclanché-Barbier" that produced electrical cells. He became the main manufacturer of cells in France. Georges Leclanché died of throat cancer on September 14, 1882, in Paris, at about 43 years old. After his death, his brother Maurice took over the business, and his son Max continued to improve and sell his invention.
Leclanché cell
In 1866, he created the Leclanché cell, one of the first electrical batteries and the early version of the modern dry cell battery. This battery used a liquid (electrolyte) made of ammonium chloride. The negative terminal was zinc (anode/oxidation), and the positive terminal was manganese dioxide (cathode/reduction).
Leclanché’s "wet cell" (as it was called) became the early version of the world’s first widely used battery, the zinc–carbon battery.
In 1876, Leclanché made the electrolyte of his cell into a gel by adding starch to the ammonium chloride. This change made his battery easier to carry.
Leclanché company
The Leclanché factory grew and improved until the start of the 20th century when it faced competition from new companies, such as the Wonder cells (founded in 1914). The company changed ownership multiple times, was purchased by the Fulmen battery company, and later by the CGE group.
Today, the name Leclanché is used by a company based in Yverdon, Switzerland, which was founded in 1909. In 2006, this company acquired the German company Bullith, which became "Leclanché Lithium GmbH" and is now located in Willstätt, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.