LeSueur diaphragm cell

Castner had set the stage for the chlor-alkali industry in Europe with his invention of the mercury cell. The only competition then was the Billiter diaphragm cell. Unlike LeSueur s diaphragm, Billiter s was a poorer diaphragm in performance, being much less uniform than the asbestos paper used by LeSueur. So that in Europe the mercury cell reigned from the outset. 

Vorce and Townsend in North America all had developed cells for producing caustic as well as chlorine ahead of Dow. LeSueur s impact needs to be remembered for more than just his seminal work on the asbestos diaphragm, but for sending forth from Rumford Falls the apostles who would preach the gospel of the diaphragm cell to the world. 

The latter process may have been an example of simultaneous invention. Ernest L. LeSueur (1869-1953) was born in Ottawa. While enrolled in M.I.T. s Electrical Engineering course, he invented a diaphragm cell for the electrolysis of salt, which was widely used. 

And what of the original LeSueur cells The Brown Company, successor to Burgess Fibre, operated them, and others like them, for more than fify years — in competition with later designs of diaphragm cells, such as, the Townsend-Hooker (first used in 1906), the Billiter (1907) and the Gibbs. Of the last named more anon. 

The LeSueur cell was made of iron and divided into two compartments separated by a diaphragm, which was deposited on an iron-gauze cathode. The anode was graphite, and the anode compartment was sealed to avoid the release of chlorine. The liquid level in the anode compartment was higher than the level in the cathode compartment, and the caustic flowed out of the cell continuously. This was the first cell to use the percolation method for caustic withdrawal. 

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