Francis, T. Bacon

Dr. William W. Jacques further explored the carbon approach in 1896. His fuel cells had a carbon rod central anode in the electrolyte of molten potassium hydroxide. He made a fuel cell system of 100 cylindrical cells, which produced as much as 1500 W. Francis T. Bacon worked on fuel cells to produce alkaline systems that did not use noble metal catalysts in the 1930s. He developed and built a 6 kW alkaline hydrogen-oxygen system in 1959. In the same year, Dr. Harry Ihrig introduced... 

The history of fuel cells is lengthy. The first fuel cell, indeed, was produced in 1839 by a British judge, Sir William Grove. It was not until 1959 that Tom Bacon, a member of the family of Francis T. Bacon (who first enunciated the scientific method of experimentation and communication) made practical a 5-kW fuel cell. Tom Bacon,... 

Professor Francis T. Bacon of Cambridge University in England builds the first hydrogen-air fuel cell, which powers a welding machine. 

Interest in hydrogen picked up again around 1950 in the context of fuel cells. Francis T. Bacon, a British scientist, developed the first practical hydrogen-air fuel cell (a development that was to be of great significance later in the American space program). 

The modern-day fuel cell technology that led directly to the machines used to provide electric power on the Space Shuttle began in 1932 with work done by Francis T. Bacon (1904-1992), an engineer associated with Cambridge University in England and a descendant of the renowned seventeenth-century philosopher-scientist Francis Bacon. 

In 1937, Francis T. Bacon, an Englishman, started to work on practical fuel cells. By the end of the 1950s [1] he had developed a 40-cell stack capable of 5 kW. The stack was able to power a welding machine, circular saw, and foiklilt. 

The development of fuel cells gained momentum in the mid-20 Century under the leadership of Francis T. Bacon, who created the first powerful prototypes (1 kW in 1953 and 5 kW in 1959). This work enabled modnles to be included on board the marmed space flights in the Gemini program, followed by the Apollo program. 

Francis T. Bacon constructs the first fuel cell with an alkaline electrolyte (200 °C hot caustic potash solution and pressurized hydrogen). 

Caulfield, T. "Francis Bacon and the Hermetic tradition." MSc thesis, Manchester Univ, 1974. 

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