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.
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“You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulas exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present.”
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)