History of common battery sizes

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Big_Ed

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So, what's the history behind the common battery sizes we know and use? The ones I'm interested in are AAA, AA, C, D, 9-volt, 6-volt lantern, 12 volt lantern, 123,CR2,and N cell.
I'm curious about who (what company) invented each, why (specifically designed for a certain product or general use?), and when.
 
Excellent thread, Big_Ed !


Often wondered about this, myself.



Here are some facts which i "saved", from various sources:

-- according to CPF'ers, in 1898, the "D" cell battery was invented .​


-- "AA" cell, 1947 (wikipedia) "AAA" cell, 1954

[edited to add: Seems like the AA cell has been around at least 30 years earlier than this !]​



-- 1956: Eveready Battery Company develops the 9-volt battery​


-- 1959: Eveready Battery Company introduces the first commercially available alkaline battery.
(but, i can tell you, it wasn't widely-available for nearly a decade.)​



I'd like to know:​

-- When did Lithium coin cells (CR2032, et al) come out ?
(believe they were for digital watches, etc.)​

-- When did CR123A cells come out ?
(yes, i know they were for camera use)​


Let's keep this thread going !​

:thumbsup:
_​
 
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I have a couple of CR123A batteries from 1997. They say "LITHUIM PHOTO" on the side and they still work!
So, they have been around for at least 12 years, probably much longer.
 
It would be interesting to see a chronology of the capacities of these various battery sizes over time. I'm fairly certain that the capacity of the D battery has changed significantly due to changes in chemistry as well as the ability to pack more capacity into the same chemistry over time. It may well be that today's AA batteries have a high fraction or perhaps more capacity than the original D batteries, and, of course, far superior chemistries.

Perhaps for another posting, but I'm thinking that the quality of the incandescent bulb has improved substantially along with the battery changes. [A number of the older D cell flashlights during the 1920s and earlier had walleye/fisheye lenses. I wonder if part of the reason for this was the quality of the early screw based bulbs. Maybe the quality and brightness impeded significant throw, so flood was more feasible, boosting the apparent local brightness of the flashlight.]

Edited Addition:
It might also be interesting to note whether the development of a certain type of battery was based on its use in a certain type of product. It would seem obvious, but probably wrong, that the D battery was created to power the early flashlights since the date coincides with the early eveready flashlight. Apparently, the 9-volt battery was developed to power early transistor radios -- probably read this in a posting here. Someone mentioned watched batteries for the flat and coin cell batteries. Presumably the lead acid battery was tied to the automobile industry, etc.
 
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I'll have a stab. If anyone can correct my facts or dates, please post evidence and I'll amend this post.
Note for the uninitiated - in the below discussion, please don't confuse the term "B cell" with "B battery" The former is a cell size, whilst the latter denotes radio HT usage.

#6 ("Flag" cell in UK) The first Zinc-carbon cell. 1890. Originally intended for telephone relay use, saw some use in large industrial lanterns. The king of runtime - later heavy duty version still unsurpassed for capacity by any primary cell ever since. Sadly discontinued in 1979.

"4 inch" Early 1890s. Industrial use. Saw domestic use as a gas-lighter battery. Discontinued about 1975.

F cell: The first consumer-sized dry cell. 1896. Extensively use in lanterns to this day. Single cells (e.g. the X71) no longer sold. Also used in console radio "B" (HT) batteries and portable radio "A" (LT) batteries.

D cell: Introduced in 1898 to power Conrad Hubert's first "electric hand torch". Still very much with us. Mostly a flashlight battery, but also used extensively in radio.

C cell: Introduced in 1899 or 1900 to power the first "baby" torches. Mostly for "baby" flashlights, but saw a lot of use in solid state radios, tape recorders etc. Still current.

B cell:
This has two meanings.
What was called the "BF" cell in Australia was called the "B" cell in US and was introduced there in 1900 to power electric candles! Used in pairs in the British Commonwealth countries to power "Bijou" sized torches (like a 2D or 2C in proportions but scaled down). Sold in a 2-unit cell as the "No.8" in UK and Europe until 2001.
What was called the "B" cell in Australia was introduced in 1903 to power vest pocket lights. In 3B form, this cell is still in production, mostly for test equipment use.

E cell: Introduced in about 1905 to power box lanterns (in three cell form) and cycle lamps (in 2 cell form). Discontinued circa 1980. Seems mainly to have been used for cycle lamps and hobby use.

AA cell: 2-unit side-by-side batteries were introduced in about 1907 for "pocket" lights. The first "penlights" appeared during WW1 as a spy tool, and individual AA cells were sold from 1915 for the first 1 and 2 cell penlights. To this day, people still describe AA cells as "penlight batteries".

AAA cell: Mallory put these out in alkaline form in 1954. The AAA was developed for Kodak or Polaroid to make a smaller camera. The first 2AAA penlight I can see at the Flashlight Museum is dated circa 1976. Possibly not common until then, as I can easily remember a time without them.

AAAA cell: An offshoot of the 9V alkaline battery. Sold separately some time in the 1990s for "professional" ultra-slim penlights.

9V (PP3/216) battery: Introduced in 1956 to power the first (vest-pocket sized) transistor radios. Basically a miniaturization of the existing layer-built portable radio A and B batteries.

The developments in battery chemistry went like this:

1898: LeClanche zinc-carbon D cells

1912: The "tungsten" battery. A misleading marketing name (cashing in on the then-new tungsten-filament bulbs) masking a real, but now-forgotten, improvement. Remains in production as the "General purpose" Zinc-Carbon battery to this day (but no longer available in USA, I gather from this forum)

1945: MiniMax or Layer-Built batteries (for radio use)

1945-ish: Heavy-Duty Zinc-Carbon battery. Same (Le Clanche) construction as General Purpose batteries but longer shelf life, less internal resistance and (slightly) greater capacity.

1954-1959: Alkaline Battery

1969: Super-Heavy Duty Zinc-Chloride battery. See here for details. A superbly written, must-read article.
 
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Nice job, lctorana. :thumbsup:


In my prior post, i quoted Wikipedia as stating
the AA cells came out in 1947.

Well, that was obviously incorrect, since (as you wrote)
there were 2xAA penlights during World War 1.

Here is one i found, at FlashlightMuseum:

http://www.flashlightmuseum.com/Eveready-Flashlight-2681-Nickel-Penlight-2AA-1916


Gee, i wonder which bulb it uses ?

Did they really have those GE #222 "Lens End" bulbs back then ?


Very interesting thread !

:twothumbs

_
 
Great work, Ictorana!! Lots of great info I've always been curious about. I knew about the D cell, and thought the 9-volt was probably introduced for transistor radios. I really had no idea about the others. Thanks for filling in some info gaps!
 
Ictorana or anyone else: do you know what size cell was used in the MN1203/3R12/1289 4.5 V battery? Was it an A or a B cell by any chance?
 
Mr Happy said:
Ictorana or anyone else: do you know what size cell was used in the MN1203/3R12/1289 4.5 V battery? Was it an A or a B cell by any chance?
Click to expand...

You've asked me that before, and I've answered you, but probably not quickly enough for you to notice the answer. Here's a link to that discussion, with appropriate photos.

Short answer is yes.

The R12 cell was indeed known as a B cell in Australia. No ifs, buts or maybes.

BUT - when you look in the Flashlight Museum at the old "Candle" lights, you can infer that what was called a "B" cell in USA must have been the shorter cell (known as a "BF" in Australia) of the same 13/16" diameter.
 
lctorana said:
You've asked me that before, and I've answered you, but probably not quickly enough for you to notice the answer. Here's a link to that discussion, with appropriate photos.
Click to expand...
Thank you for answering, and you are right I hadn't noticed.

Since that thread I did some more historical research and found some interesting information.

The British Ever Ready company I remembered from the past was a quite separate and independent company from the American Eveready company, in spite of the similar sounding names.

During my childhood in the 60's and 70's Ever Ready had a near monopoly in the UK market. Every corner shop, bicycle shop, radio shop and department store sold their batteries. Since the company has vanished today, I wondered what ever happened to them? It makes for a sobering story.

Ever Ready made and sold only zinc carbon batteries. At the time, alkaline batteries were much more expensive and rarely found. It seems the management of Ever Ready believed that alkaline batteries would always be an expensive curiosity and that zinc carbon would last for ever. They therefore spent all their research efforts developing and refining the zinc carbon chemistry and completely ignored alkaline batteries, neither making them nor researching them. For the occasional customer that wanted alkaline they bought the batteries from Mallory for resale.

Well time didn't stand still, and by the 80's Duracell had started pushing their alkaline batteries in the UK market and Ever Ready started to lose market share. Their share price dropped and Hanson Trust bought them out. Hanson proceeded to asset strip the company, downsize the workforce, close all the research facilities and ruthlessly squeeze profits out of the remaining part of the company until it was a husk of its former self. In the early 90's Hanson sold Ever Ready to the parent company of Eveready in America and the Ever Ready brand disappeared.

It just goes to show, you have to keep ahead of the game and be prepared to adapt to future technologies.
 
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I remember seeing the B battery, it was 6v about the size of a pop can, used for powering 6v vacume tubes.

The AAA was intruduced for kodack or poloroid to make a smaller camera.
 
Mr Happy said:
Ever Ready made and sold only zinc carbon batteries. At the time, alkaline batteries were much more expensive and rarely found. It seems the management of Ever Ready believed that alkaline batteries would always be an expensive curiosity and that zinc carbon would last for ever. They therefore spent all their research efforts developing and refining the zinc carbon chemistry and completely ignored alkaline batteries, neither making them nor researching them. For the occasional customer that wanted alkaline they bought the batteries from Mallory for resale.
Click to expand...
I remember the Ever Ready (or everready) batteries with the 9 and the cat. They seemed to leak quite a bit. And I haven't heard of Mallory for years. As a kid I had many a ruined cheap flashlight found with leaky batteries.

I wonder what type of batteries were used in those old Polaroid instant film packs that had the battery built into the pack?
 
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