Ernst Waldemar Jungner (19 June 1869 – 30 August 1924) was a Swedish inventor and engineer. In 1898 he invented the nickel-iron electric storage battery (NiFe), the nickel-cadmium battery (NiCd), and the rechargeable alkaline silver-cadmium battery (AgCd). As an inventor, he also fabricated a fire alarm based on different

dilution Dilution may refer to: * Reducing the concentration of a chemical * Serial dilution, a common way of going about this reduction of concentration * Homeopathic dilution * Dilution (equation), an equation to calculate the rate a gas dilutes *Tradema ...

s of metals. He also worked on the electrolytic production of

sodium carbonate Sodium carbonate, , (also known as washing soda, soda ash and soda crystals) is the inorganic compound with the formula Na2CO3 and its various hydrates. All forms are white, odourless, water-soluble salts that yield moderately alkaline solutions ...

and patented a rock drilling device.google books link
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Early life

Ernst Waldemar Jungner was born on 19 June 1869 in

Västra Götaland County Västra Götaland County ( sv, Västra Götalands län) is a county or '' län'' on the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties and it comprises 49 municipalities (''kommuner''). Its population of 1 ...

, Sweden. His parents were ministers, and his father died when Waldemar was 13 years old. In 1869, the year he was born, failed harvests caused

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, Demographic trap, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. Th ...

throughout Sweden, which affected Jungner's health. He also contracted

measles Measles is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by measles virus. Symptoms usually develop 10–12 days after exposure to an infected person and last 7–10 days. Initial symptoms typically include fever, often greater than , cough, ...

and

scarlet fever Scarlet fever, also known as Scarlatina, is an infectious disease caused by ''Streptococcus pyogenes'' a Group A streptococcus (GAS). The infection is a type of Group A streptococcal infection (Group A strep). It most commonly affects childr ...

Education

Jungner attended Skara upper secondary school, and studied chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, botany, geology and Latin at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

. He went on to carry out further studies at the

Royal Institute of Technology The KTH Royal Institute of Technology ( sv, Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit=Royal Institute of Technology), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden. KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technolo ...

(KTH) in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

Business

In 1900 he started the firm "Ackumulator Aktiebolaget Jungner". There was a long patent dispute with

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

which was won by Edison in the end because he had larger financial resources. This caused serious problems for Jungner's firm. The company managed to survive by using a slightly different name "Nya Ackumulator Aktiebolaget Jungner" in 1904. Jungner left the management of the company at this time but remained a consultant to the new firm. This company was wound up in 1910, and a new company "Ackumulator Aktiebolaget Jungner" was created, which profitably used new technology developments. A descendant company "NiFe Junger" in 1991 became part of

Saft Groupe S.A. Saft is a French company involved in the design, the development and the manufacturing of batteries used in transport, industry and defense. Headquartered in France, it has an international presence. The company was established in 1918 and was pu ...

Battery use

Nickel-cadmium batteries were commonly used in the power systems of rockets and artificial satellites through t the 1960s and 1970s, as well as in terrestrial portable electrical devices. On the rescue mission for Umberto Nobile and his companions on the North pole expedition in 1928, several batteries were dropped from an airplane to supply electricity to the radio of the expedition. Only the Jungner NiFe battery worked.Hanson SA (1963) Waldemar Jungner and Jungner Ackumulatorn. Dædalus,

, pp 77-99

Later life

Jungner patented designs for a

fuel cell A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...

in 1907. Kevin Desmond, ''Innovators in Battery Technology: Profiles of 95 Influential Electrochemists'' McFarland, 2016, , pages 114-118 He carried out investigations into the production of

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

, and the extraction of

radium Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rather t ...

from ores. Jungner joined the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in 1922 and in 1924 he received the Swedish Chemical Society's Oscar Carlson Medal. Jungner died on 30 August 1924 of pneumonia at the age of 55.

References