Why are there no B-cell Batteries?

[shadowjk]

I used one of those 3LR12 batteries (cheap and widely available here) to replace a special and rare 4.5V clock battery in a computer. It's about 7 times larger than the battery it replaced, so I expect it to last until the computer has rusted away (it's making good progress on that, but still works).

 

[TorchBoy]

Ictorana, are you saying the LR12 (alkaline), R12 (carbon zinc), FR12 (LiFeS2), ZR12 (NiZn) and HR12 (NiMH) are B cells? Why is the B size not in Wikipedia's List of battery sizes? (Which is pretty much the OP's question.)

 

[Mr Happy]

Here is a picture of one of the R12 cells that make up a 3R12 battery. They must be very old because although I used to buy lots of U2 ('D'), U11 ('C') and U7 ('AA') batteries as a child, I don't ever recall seeing a U10.

I can find no indication that the U10 was known in America as a 'B' size, so I consider this to be unconfirmed. I did wonder if it was the same size as an 18650, but the dimensions predate metric and are in inches (13/16 in dia x 2 5/16 in long).

http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_u10.htm

 

[dudemar]

If I'm not mistaken I believe B-cells are still available in Australia/UK.

I could be wrong, I thought I read it somewhere...:shrug:

 

[Monocrom]

If I'm not mistaken I believe B-cells are still available in Australia/UK.

I could be wrong, I thought I read it somewhere...:shrug:

I've also heard that there are B-cell batteries out there. But as far as America goes, it would involve a small miracle inorder to find anything that takes B-cells.

 

[Mr Happy]

If B cells were ever available in the UK they would not have been called B cells since the letter designations are from North America and were only adopted in Europe relatively recently. In 1978, D size in the UK was some kind of weird exotic name for the standard HP2 (heavy duty) or LR20 (alkaline) cell, only seen on the Radio Shack brand.

The 3R12 or 3LR12 size 4.5 V battery was very common in the UK in those days and is still available today, though I think rare. But as noted above, I can find no confirmation that the single R12 cell was known as a B cell in North America.

If anyone can find a reference to the dimensions of an A cell or a B cell it would be very interesting.