# History of common battery sizes



## Big_Ed (Feb 9, 2009)

So, what's the history behind the common battery sizes we know and use? The ones I'm interested in are AAA, AA, C, D, 9-volt, 6-volt lantern, 12 volt lantern, 123,CR2,and N cell.
I'm curious about who (what company) invented each, why (specifically designed for a certain product or general use?), and when.


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## Norm (Feb 9, 2009)

lctorana where are you?
Norm


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## Burgess (Feb 9, 2009)

Excellent thread, Big_Ed !


Often wondered about this, myself. 



Here are some facts which i "saved", from various sources:

-- according to CPF'ers, in 1898, the "D" cell battery was invented .​ 

-- "AA" cell, 1947 (wikipedia) "AAA" cell, 1954

[edited to add: Seems like the AA cell has been around *at least 30 years earlier* than this !]​ 


-- 1956: Eveready Battery Company develops the 9-volt battery​ 

-- 1959: Eveready Battery Company introduces the first commercially available *alkaline* battery.
(but, i can tell you, it wasn't *widely-available* for nearly a decade.)​ 


I'd like to know:​ 
-- When did Lithium coin cells (CR2032, et al) come out ?
(believe they were for digital watches, etc.)​ 
-- When did CR123A cells come out ?
(yes, i know they were for camera use)​ 

Let's keep this thread going !​ 
:thumbsup:
_​


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## Guy's Dropper (Feb 9, 2009)

I have a couple of CR123A batteries from 1997. They say "LITHUIM PHOTO" on the side and they still work!
So, they have been around for at least 12 years, probably much longer.


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## lctorana (Feb 9, 2009)

Here's one I prepared earlier, while I'm researching:

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/posts/2134901&postcount=8


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## thunderlight (Feb 10, 2009)

It would be interesting to see a chronology of the capacities of these various battery sizes over time. I'm fairly certain that the capacity of the D battery has changed significantly due to changes in chemistry as well as the ability to pack more capacity into the same chemistry over time. It may well be that today's AA batteries have a high fraction or perhaps more capacity than the original D batteries, and, of course, far superior chemistries.

Perhaps for another posting, but I'm thinking that the quality of the incandescent bulb has improved substantially along with the battery changes. [A number of the older D cell flashlights during the 1920s and earlier had walleye/fisheye lenses. I wonder if part of the reason for this was the quality of the early screw based bulbs. Maybe the quality and brightness impeded significant throw, so flood was more feasible, boosting the apparent local brightness of the flashlight.]

Edited Addition: 
It might also be interesting to note whether the development of a certain type of battery was based on its use in a certain type of product. It would seem obvious, but probably wrong, that the D battery was created to power the early flashlights since the date coincides with the early eveready flashlight. Apparently, the 9-volt battery was developed to power early transistor radios -- probably read this in a posting here. Someone mentioned watched batteries for the flat and coin cell batteries. Presumably the lead acid battery was tied to the automobile industry, etc.


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## lctorana (Feb 10, 2009)

an earlier post on the bulb subject


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## lctorana (Feb 10, 2009)

I'll have a stab. If anyone can correct my facts or dates, please post evidence and I'll amend this post. 
_Note for the uninitiated - in the below discussion, please don't confuse the term "B cell" with "B battery" The former is a cell size, whilst the latter denotes radio HT usage._

*#6 *("Flag" cell in UK) The first Zinc-carbon cell. 1890. Originally intended for telephone relay use, saw some use in large industrial lanterns. The king of runtime - later heavy duty version still unsurpassed for capacity by any primary cell ever since. Sadly discontinued in 1979.

"4 inch" Early 1890s. Industrial use. Saw domestic use as a gas-lighter battery. Discontinued about 1975.

*F cell: *The first consumer-sized dry cell. 1896. Extensively use in lanterns to this day. Single cells (e.g. the X71) no longer sold. Also used in console radio "B" (HT) batteries and portable radio "A" (LT) batteries.

*D cell: *Introduced in 1898 to power Conrad Hubert's first "electric hand torch". Still very much with us. Mostly a flashlight battery, but also used extensively in radio.

*C cell: *Introduced in 1899 or 1900 to power the first "baby" torches. Mostly for "baby" flashlights, but saw a lot of use in solid state radios, tape recorders etc. Still current.

*B cell:*
This has two meanings.
What was called the "BF" cell in Australia was called the "B" cell in US and was introduced there in 1900 to power electric candles! Used in pairs in the British Commonwealth countries to power "Bijou" sized torches (like a 2D or 2C in proportions but scaled down). Sold in a 2-unit cell as the "No.8" in UK and Europe until 2001.
What was called the "B" cell in Australia was introduced in 1903 to power vest pocket lights. In 3B form, this cell is still in production, mostly for test equipment use.

*E cell: *Introduced in about 1905 to power box lanterns (in three cell form) and cycle lamps (in 2 cell form). Discontinued circa 1980. Seems mainly to have been used for cycle lamps and hobby use.

*AA cell: *2-unit side-by-side batteries were introduced in about 1907 for "pocket" lights. The first "penlights" appeared during WW1 as a spy tool, and individual AA cells were sold from 1915 for the first 1 and 2 cell penlights. To this day, people still describe AA cells as "penlight batteries".

*AAA cell: *Mallory put these out in alkaline form in 1954. The AAA was developed for Kodak or Polaroid to make a smaller camera. The first 2AAA penlight I can see at the Flashlight Museum is dated circa 1976. Possibly not common until then, as I can easily remember a time without them.

*AAAA cell: *An offshoot of the 9V alkaline battery. Sold separately some time in the 1990s for "professional" ultra-slim penlights.

*9V (PP3/216) battery:* Introduced in 1956 to power the first (vest-pocket sized) transistor radios. Basically a miniaturization of the existing layer-built portable radio A and B batteries.

The developments in battery *chemistry* went like this:

1898: LeClanche zinc-carbon D cells

1912: The "tungsten" battery. A misleading marketing name _(cashing in on the then-new tungsten-filament bulbs)_ masking a real, but now-forgotten, improvement. Remains in production as the "General purpose" Zinc-Carbon battery to this day (but no longer available in USA, I gather from this forum)

1945: MiniMax or Layer-Built batteries (for radio use)

1945-ish: Heavy-Duty Zinc-Carbon battery. Same (Le Clanche) construction as General Purpose batteries but longer shelf life, less internal resistance and (slightly) greater capacity.

1954-1959: Alkaline Battery

1969: Super-Heavy Duty Zinc-Chloride battery. See here for details. A superbly written, must-read article.


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## Burgess (Feb 10, 2009)

Nice job, lctorana. :thumbsup:


In my prior post, i quoted Wikipedia as stating
the AA cells came out in 1947.

Well, that was *obviously incorrect*, since (as you wrote)
there were 2xAA penlights during World War 1.

Here is one i found, at FlashlightMuseum:

http://www.flashlightmuseum.com/Eveready-Flashlight-2681-Nickel-Penlight-2AA-1916


Gee, i wonder which bulb it uses ?

Did they really have those GE #222 "Lens End" bulbs back then ?


Very interesting thread !

:twothumbs

_


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## Big_Ed (Feb 10, 2009)

Great work, Ictorana!! Lots of great info I've always been curious about. I knew about the D cell, and thought the 9-volt was probably introduced for transistor radios. I really had no idea about the others. Thanks for filling in some info gaps!


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## Mr Happy (Feb 10, 2009)

Ictorana or anyone else: do you know what size cell was used in the MN1203/3R12/1289 4.5 V battery? Was it an A or a B cell by any chance?


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## Barrie (Feb 11, 2009)

:bow:this is interesting look forward to learning more:bow:


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## Burgess (Feb 11, 2009)

to Barrie --


Welcome to CandlePowerForums !


:welcome:

_


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## Norm (Feb 11, 2009)

All the relevant info needs to be consolidated and put into the CPF Wiki .
Norm


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## lctorana (Feb 11, 2009)

Mr Happy said:


> Ictorana or anyone else: do you know what size cell was used in the MN1203/3R12/1289 4.5 V battery? Was it an A or a B cell by any chance?


 
You've asked me that before, and I've answered you, but probably not quickly enough for you to notice the answer. Here's a link to that discussion, with appropriate photos.

Short answer is yes.

The R12 cell was indeed known as a B cell in Australia. No ifs, buts or maybes.

*BUT* - when you look in the Flashlight Museum at the old "Candle" lights, you can infer that what was called a "B" cell in USA must have been the shorter cell (known as a "BF" in Australia) of the same 13/16" diameter.


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## lctorana (Feb 11, 2009)

Burgess said:


> Here is one i found, at FlashlightMuseum:
> 
> http://www.flashlightmuseum.com/Eveready-Flashlight-2681-Nickel-Penlight-2AA-1916
> 
> ...


I would almost guarantee that as a yes.


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## Mr Happy (Feb 11, 2009)

lctorana said:


> You've asked me that before, and I've answered you, but probably not quickly enough for you to notice the answer. Here's a link to that discussion, with appropriate photos.


Thank you for answering, and you are right I hadn't noticed.

Since that thread I did some more historical research and found some interesting information.

The British *Ever Ready* company I remembered from the past was a quite separate and independent company from the American *Eveready* company, in spite of the similar sounding names.

During my childhood in the 60's and 70's Ever Ready had a near monopoly in the UK market. Every corner shop, bicycle shop, radio shop and department store sold their batteries. Since the company has vanished today, I wondered what ever happened to them? It makes for a sobering story.

Ever Ready made and sold only zinc carbon batteries. At the time, alkaline batteries were much more expensive and rarely found. It seems the management of Ever Ready believed that alkaline batteries would always be an expensive curiosity and that zinc carbon would last for ever. They therefore spent all their research efforts developing and refining the zinc carbon chemistry and completely ignored alkaline batteries, neither making them nor researching them. For the occasional customer that wanted alkaline they bought the batteries from Mallory for resale.

Well time didn't stand still, and by the 80's Duracell had started pushing their alkaline batteries in the UK market and Ever Ready started to lose market share. Their share price dropped and Hanson Trust bought them out. Hanson proceeded to asset strip the company, downsize the workforce, close all the research facilities and ruthlessly squeeze profits out of the remaining part of the company until it was a husk of its former self. In the early 90's Hanson sold Ever Ready to the parent company of Eveready in America and the Ever Ready brand disappeared.

It just goes to show, you have to keep ahead of the game and be prepared to adapt to future technologies.


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## lctorana (Feb 11, 2009)

Ever Ready were also known for suitcase-style portable battery valve radios.


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## Eugene (Feb 11, 2009)

I remember seeing the B battery, it was 6v about the size of a pop can, used for powering 6v vacume tubes.

The AAA was intruduced for kodack or poloroid to make a smaller camera.


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## fireguy (Feb 11, 2009)

Mr Happy said:


> Ever Ready made and sold only zinc carbon batteries. At the time, alkaline batteries were much more expensive and rarely found. It seems the management of Ever Ready believed that alkaline batteries would always be an expensive curiosity and that zinc carbon would last for ever. They therefore spent all their research efforts developing and refining the zinc carbon chemistry and completely ignored alkaline batteries, neither making them nor researching them. For the occasional customer that wanted alkaline they bought the batteries from Mallory for resale.


I remember the Ever Ready (or everready) batteries with the 9 and the cat. They seemed to leak quite a bit. And I haven't heard of Mallory for years. As a kid I had many a ruined cheap flashlight found with leaky batteries.

I wonder what type of batteries were used in those old Polaroid instant film packs that had the battery built into the pack?


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## shadowjk (Feb 11, 2009)

Mr Happy said:


> Ictorana or anyone else: do you know what size cell was used in the MN1203/3R12/1289 4.5 V battery? Was it an A or a B cell by any chance?



Why are you talking in the past tense about the 3R12? They still make them


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## lctorana (Feb 11, 2009)

Eugene said:


> I remember seeing the B battery, it was 6v about the size of a pop can, used for powering 6v vacume tubes.


 
A 6V battery the size and shape of a #6?

More information?


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## lctorana (Feb 11, 2009)

shadowjk said:


> Why are you talking in the past tense about the 3R12? They still make them


As I did in fact say in post #8.


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## Eugene (Feb 11, 2009)

lctorana said:


> A 6V battery the size and shape of a #6?
> 
> More information?




I guess it wasn't 6v http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_battery_(vacuum_tubes)#B_battery

When I was young the old town library had some real old electronics books that showed a B battery.


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## lctorana (Feb 11, 2009)

Eugene said:


> The AAA was developed for Kodak or Polaroid to make a smaller camera.


I can't verify this, but it does ring true. Timing would be about right. I'll take a punt and add that in.


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## Mr Happy (Feb 11, 2009)

shadowjk said:


> Why are you talking in the past tense about the 3R12? They still make them


OK, yes, they do. But they are a special item today, whereas I remember them being commonplace and sold by every shop that sold batteries.


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## Mr Happy (Feb 11, 2009)

fireguy said:


> I remember the Ever Ready (or everready) batteries with the 9 and the cat.


The 9 and the cat was a trademark of the American *Eveready* company. See the pictures in this post. The British *Ever Ready* company had a different logo that can be seen on the red No. 8 battery pictured in this post. Ever Ready batteries were sold mostly in the UK and sometimes in Commonwealth countries, but I don't know if Canada was included in that.


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## Black Rose (Feb 11, 2009)

I used them for years, but for the life of me cannot remember what the Eveready batteries sold in Canada looked like.


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## fireguy (Feb 11, 2009)

Mr Happy said:


> The 9 and the cat was a trademark of the American *Eveready* company. See the pictures in this post. The British *Ever Ready* company had a different logo that can be seen on the red No. 8 battery pictured in this post. Ever Ready batteries were sold mostly in the UK and sometimes in Commonwealth countries, but I don't know if Canada was included in that.


The batteries in the first post are what I remember. The red "D" cells with the cat seem very familiar, unless my memory fails me. The ones below, in silver, I seem to recall those in the 80's?


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## ackbar (Feb 12, 2009)

Black Rose said:


> I used them for years, but for the life of me cannot remember what the Eveready batteries sold in Canada looked like.



I remember buying some. Hell.. i'm sure my grandma may have some lying around somewhere. I'm pretty sure it was red with the 9 and the cat


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## Juggernaut (Feb 13, 2009)

> F cells are the same diameter as D, but about 90mm long. Primary cells used in lantern batteries, rechargeable cells are big enough to use as traction batteries. Oh how I wish they were cheaper.


 
Forget about F cells!, how about M cells those bad boys can have 26 ah!
 
And maybe in this thread we can finally find a light that 12 volt lantern batteries run “if they were used back in the day for house alarms, that makes sense“, but why are they called _lantern_ batteries?!


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## Big_Ed (Mar 8, 2009)

Anyone have any info about coin/button cells or 123's, cr2's or other battery types?


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## C.F.Burgess Battery (Feb 4, 2010)

Juggernaut said:


> And maybe in this thread we can finally find a light that 12 volt lantern batteries run “if they were used back in the day for house alarms, that makes sense“, but why are they called _lantern_ batteries?!



Burgess made a 12v hand lantern ....

used a standard 12v automotive bulb and reflector ...

It was a complement to our 6v Sealed beam Radar Light ..
The 12vlantern was a "flood" light , compared to the sealed beam 1/2 mile spotlight...






Our development of the 6v Krypton bulb/reflector lantern made the 12v floodlight redundant ...
We played around the 12v Halogen version and 12v LED version , but , did not continue the development ...


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## Burgess (Feb 4, 2010)

Great info !

What year is this Burgess advertisement from ?


( i'm gonna' take a guess -- *1963* )


:thinking:
_


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## snakebite (Feb 4, 2010)

lctorana said:


> I would almost guarantee that as a yes.


iirc the first penlite lamps had a smooth base with a groove at the bottom.i have an antique penlite that was my grandfathers with such a lamp.
has the lense end but the filament supports are wide and used to keep it centered.


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## lctorana (Feb 4, 2010)

snakebite said:


> iirc the first penlite lamps had a smooth base with a groove at the bottom.i have an antique penlite that was my grandfathers with such a lamp.
> has the lense end but the filament supports are wide and used to keep it centered.


I can't picture what you're saying.

Can you draw it?


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## C.F.Burgess Battery (Feb 5, 2010)

Burgess said:


> Great info !
> 
> What year is this Burgess advertisement from ?
> 
> ...



That is a copy from a catalog page ... 
Burgess rarely put a year on their print material , and it was printed in house ...

The "3 stripe" design on the 6v lantern battery and the "original" design 12V battery places it in the late 60's , early 70's Gould/Burgess era ...

It'd been nice if Burgess had dated their print material or at least put a copyright date on the pages ...


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## gtc131 (Apr 2, 2011)

lctorana said:


> Short answer is yes.
> 
> The R12 cell was indeed known as a B cell in Australia. No ifs, buts or maybes.
> 
> *BUT* - when you look in the Flashlight Museum at the old "Candle" lights, you can infer that what was called a "B" cell in USA must have been the shorter cell (known as a "BF" in Australia) of the same 13/16" diameter.



Hi Guys,

I came upon this forum and this old thread while Googling around for the small 1.5 volt battery for a Unigor 3P mulitmeter (manufactured in Austria c1967) that I bought at a vintage radio club auction today. As with most, if not all, multimeters the battery is required to power the resistance measurement function.

According to some German posts I have found and translated, the original battery is known in Europe as R10, which is no longer made and was, as far as I can determine, the equivalent of the “B cell" or battery discussed in this thread. But which of the 3 B's: B, BF or BR?

(For the dimensions of each, see Table 1 of this comprehensive ANSI reference on the USA history of dry cells: "A Brief History of the Standardization of Portable Cells and Batteries in the United States by American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards Committee C18 on Portable Cells and Batteries [November 2002]"

http://www.swe.com/admin/FILES/ANSI Battery Standardization History.pdf)

The following UK reference gives these "equivalents" for R10:

#4, 927, BF, R10S, U8

http://highfields-arc.co.uk/beginner/gloss/batts/r10.htm

There's mention of "BF" again!

Now, a 3 volt battery known as the 2R10 (because it contains 2 x R10 batteries in series) is still available in Germany from Varta to name one company. I gather that the 2R10 is for flashlights found in Europe. So, to solve my problem I'll acquire a 2R10 and section it. (Longer term, I'll probably look to manufacture a plastic casing of R10 dimensions and use within it a small modern 1.5 volt battery.)


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## lctorana (May 9, 2011)

Great link.

The BF was sold individually, in Australia at least, as the Eveready 927 until the mid-1970s. Yes the Varta 2R10 3V battery will contain two of these cells (in the bare zinc pot; you'd have to shrinkwrap them if you split one open) glad to know they're still around.

The B cell, 3 of them, can be found inside the 3R12 / 3LR12 / eveready 1289 / Duracell MN1203 / Varta 4912. Would also need shrinkwrapping. You can also pad up an "A" size rechargeable NiMH or NiCd cell if that appeals more.


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## HooNz (May 11, 2011)

Interesting thread Op! 

http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_11.htm 248 BCE and 226 CE

also if i recall correctly , i think in Egypt was found similar types but more cylindrical and they were in series , The Baghdad version i think was called a "Number 3 makejump"  .


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## Burgess (May 11, 2011)

To qtc131 --


Thank you for posting those Links.

That was a very helpful First Post !


Welcome to CandlePowerForums

:welcome:
_


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## jrmcferren (Apr 6, 2016)

Here's another one. The G Cell was introduced in either the 1940s or the 1950s for battery portable radios. The idea was to extend the life of batteries in portable tube radios. The G cell was short lived as it came around just as transistor radios were starting to come around.


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