All About Batteries

Batteries To Make Your Day

A web site about batteries may not be the most exciting until you realise that life could get pretty dull without batteries to power toys, gadgets, phones, iPods, notebooks, flashlight, pacemaker and the car. Christmas morning and the kids unwrap their presents to delighted squeals, laughter and excited chatter. Imagine if you did not buy the batteries to go with the talking doll or radio controlled car. The giggles could soon turn to tears or even tantrums. You never knew that batteries could make my day. Detective Harry Callahan (Dirty Harry aka Clint Eastwood) had his Magnum to make his day I have batteries. They come in all shapes and sizes to power hearing aides (tiny) to heavy duty storage batteries used in wind and solar energy technology.

Definition – Boring

Checking on the Wikipedia definitions and data it tells us that an electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy (1). Perhaps we do not need to go into the physics or chemical aspects; you only have to know what size the battery is required to power the appliance. Just by way of interest since the invention of the first battery (or “voltaic pile“) in 1800 by Alessandro Volta, batteries have become a common power source for many household and industrial applications. These little babies account for almost $50 billion of sales annually world wide. A market that continues to grow by 6% each year. If only I had got in early and started my own battery factory. Missed the boat again.

Battery Evolution

The battery went through an evolution process – the invention of dry cell batteries, which replaced the liquid electrolyte with a paste, made portable electrical devices practical. Since then, batteries have gained popularity as they became portable and useful for a variety of purposes.

Batteries may be classified into two broad categories, each type with advantages and disadvantages:-

  • Primary batteries irreversibly (within limits of practicality) transform chemical energy to electrical energy. When the initial supply of reactants is exhausted, energy cannot be readily restored to the battery by electrical means. These are those that you buy for the iPod, radio or even some portable smoke alarms.
  • Secondary batteries can be recharged; that is, they can have their chemical reactions reversed by supplying electrical energy to the cell, restoring their original composition. These are handy and I have one in my digital camera and most would be aware of this type of battery in the cell phone.

Site Purpose

This site then is all about batteries. The type of batteries  available, latest innovations in battery design and the many applications they can be used for. You can even make money by reconditioning batteries. How good is that!!

(1) I am indebted to Wikipedia for the definition and many of the facts in this article. Wikipedia can be visited at en.wikipedia.org

Try it it is a great site for all sorts of information. Don’t forget to come back here.

Arnold Vee