Battery charger
First Claim
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1. A device for charging rechargeable batteries comprising:
- a housing sized and dimensioned to contain a stack of batteries, said stack having a top and a bottom;
means for advancing the batteries from the top of the stack to the bottom of the stack;
means for parallely charging at least one of the batteries in the stack; and
means for causing at least one position to discharge and another position to charge the batteries such that the batteries are discharged and then subsequently charged as a result of passing from one of the positions to another in the housing.
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Abstract
A device and method for storing and charging rechargeable batteries which are stacked within a charger housing, preferably with batteries being added to the top of the stack and removed from the bottom of the stack. Batteries advance from the top of the stack to the bottom of the stack under the force of gravity. Batteries towards the top of the stack are discharged through resistances, and those towards the bottom of the stack are parallely charged. Switches control which batteries are charged and which are discharged.
16 Citations
10 Claims
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1. A device for charging rechargeable batteries comprising:
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a housing sized and dimensioned to contain a stack of batteries, said stack having a top and a bottom; means for advancing the batteries from the top of the stack to the bottom of the stack; means for parallely charging at least one of the batteries in the stack; and means for causing at least one position to discharge and another position to charge the batteries such that the batteries are discharged and then subsequently charged as a result of passing from one of the positions to another in the housing. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method for charging rechargeable batteries comprising the following steps:
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stacking the batteries to form a battery stack having a plurality of positions which can be successively occupied by the batteries, including a bottom position; advancing the batteries towards the bottom position; and causing at least one of the positions within the stack to be a discharging position and at least one of the positions within the stack to be a charging position such that the degree of discharging or charging experienced by each battery as it advances towards the bottom of the stack is determined in part by the position occupied by the battery. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9)
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10. An improved battery charger having a housing with a plurality of battery positions and a means for parallely charging batteries occupying at least one of the positions, the improvement comprising:
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means for automatically moving the batteries sequentially from one of the positions to another; means for causing at least one position to discharge and another position to charge the batteries such that the batteries are discharged and then subsequently charged as a result of passing from one of the positions to another in the housing.
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Specification