History
The mercury oxide-zinc battery system was known more than 100 years ago but did not become widely used until 1942, when Samuel Ruben developed a balanced mercury cell which was useful for military applications such as metal detectors, munitions, and walkie-talkies. The battery system had the advantages of long shelf life (to 10 years) and steady voltage output. After the Second World War the battery system was widely applied for small electronic devices such as cardiac pacemakers and hearing aids. Mercury oxide batteries were made in a range of sizes from miniature button cells used for hearing aids and electric wrist watches, cylindrical types used for portable electronic apparatus, rectangular batteries used for transistor radios, and large multicell packs used for industrial applications such as radio remote control for overhead crane systems. In the United States, mercury oxide batteries were manufactured by companies including P. R. Mallory and Co Inc, (now Duracell), Union Carbide Corporation (whose former battery division is now called Energizer Holdings), RCA Corporation, and Burgess Battery Company.
Read more about this topic: Mercury Battery
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Boys forget what their country means by just reading “the land of the free” in history books. Then they get to be men, they forget even more. Liberty’s too precious a thing to be buried in books.”
—Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)
“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)