History of The Fuel cell

Francis Thomas Bacon, was the British engineer who developed the first practical hydrogen - oxygen fuel cells, which convert air and fuel directly into electricity through electrochemical processes. In 1932, the inventions by engineer Francis Bacon resulted in the first successful fuel cell devices. He improved on the expensive platinum catalysts employed by Mond and Langer with a hydrogen-oxygen cell using a less corrosive alkaline electrolyte and inexpensive nickel electrodes. In 1959, a quarter of a century later, Bacon and his coworkers were able to demonstrate a practical five-kilowatt system capable of powering a welding machine.Francis Thomas Bacon was born at Ramsden Hall, Billericay, Essex, UK, on 21 December 1904, as a direct descendant of Sir Francis Bacon. He was educated at Eton College 1918-1922, specializing in science and winning the Moseley Physics Prize in 1922 and at Trinity College, Cambridge obtaining a third class in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 1925.

Although Bacon hoped to see the adoption of a high efficiency/low pollution fuel cell in everyday applications such as transport, it was in the unforeseen application of space exploration that the Bacon cell achieved its most notable success in his lifetime. In the USA the Pratt and Whitney Division of United Aircraft took out a license on the Bacon patents and used the concept of the Bacon cell in a successful bid to provide electrical power for the Apollo moonshot. The fuel cells operated successfully in the manned moon flights and subsequent space applications, providing electricity for the functioning of systems and the production of drinking water. Thus Bacon's pioneering work may be considered essential to the Apollo program. By the end of the century,

the technology was being developed internationally.