Re: 1.5 v batteries - to buy ?

[Bernard Cleyet <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>]

" The 1.5 volt version has a rather short shelf life because
the parallel cells tend to discharge each other."

This does puzzle me.  How does one large primary cell differ from two
smaller wired in parallel?  Manufacturing variation, different temp.,
etc. that results in diff. EMF's???

bc   who thinks an experiment is in order. In addition to the obvious,
try heating one end of a large cell -- it'll discharge itself?

Larry Cartwright wrote:

> Frank Gaul wrote:
>
>
> > I am having a difficult time finding 1.5v hobby square batteries with screw
> > terminals.
>
> Oooooo, that's a really old-time product, from the very beginnings of
> the retail battery industry.  Four "E" cells connected in parallel and
> packaged in a rectangular case.  The ubiquitous 6 volt lantern battery
> has the exact same components connected in series, with spring
> terminals.  The 1.5 volt version has a rather short shelf life because
> the parallel cells tend to discharge each other.
>
> Nowadays the primary use of 1.5 volt hobby batteries is for initially
> powering up the glow plugs in model airplane engines, though it is being
cut