Mike Monett wrote: > Re: CS>Answer to Catherine, warning to Mike Monett... > From: Marshall Dudley > Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 09:41:21 > > > This guy is claiming to be a Ray-O-Vac engineer? I have my doubts. > > Boy, posting in html sure garbles things. > > Yes, he is a reliability engineer for batteries, and he knows what > he is talking about. > > > Putting a partially discharged battery in series with good ones > > will not cause a reverse current, but can cause a current to be > > forced through it when it becomes totally dead which might be a > > problem. > > This is exactly the problem. Current flows in the reverse direction > as he described. This causes gas to build up. Batteries that are not > designed for recharging have no way to vent this gas. Eventually the > battery explodes.
How could the current flow backwards when you have cells in series and none are backwards. If it reveresed in one of the cells it would have to reverse in all the cells, and energy would be going into all the cells, which would require an external power source. It is physically impossible. If you find a way, let me know, I could use a free energy machine. > > > > To get a reverse current requires the battery to be installed > > backwards, or in parallel with one or more batteries that are not > > discharged. Out of 3 possibilities, he chose the one that was > > wrong. > > No. When the batteries are in series, the strong batteries charge > the weak one in the reverse direction. This is called cell reversal. > > If the battery is not designed for recharging, gas buildup causes > the battery to explode. > > > Regular batteries are in a steel can also for most types, such as > > a C or D cell. He should know that if he is a battery engineer. > > > Marshall > > As he described, carbon-zinc batteries have a zinc outer shell. Here > is a picture from the Energizer site: > > http://data.energizer.com/batteryinfo/cross_sections_for_manuals/cs1215.pdf Carbon-zinc cells have always had a zinc outer shell which is part of the battery itself and disappears as the cell is used. Cells use to have this as the outer shell until the mid 50's and would always leak after discharge. In the 50's when leakproof batteries were introduced they started putting the entire thing inside a steel shell. If you were alive then, they even advertised "encased in steel" for a while. I have some old leakproof carbon zinc batteries around, and they definitely have a steel case on them. Looking at the pdf file, it seems that they have replaced the steel case with a plastic case. If so, we are both wrong now, it is neither zinc nor steel but plastic. Having not bought carbon zinc batteries for many years I was unaware that some manufacturers have replaced the steel outer case with plastic. I believe the lantern batteries are still using steel though. Marshall -- The silver-list is a moderated forum for discussion of colloidal silver. Instructions for unsubscribing may be found at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver-list archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
