I'm hot on the trail of a completed PCB design, which is why I'm flooding the group with questions.
I know that the battery symbol with one long side and one short comes from some long-ago battery construction that looked more or less like that. Does anyone know what the battery type was? It certainly wasn't a
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Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com
On Tue, 25 Nov 2014 17:47:14 -0600, Tim Wescott Gave us:
The key is that it was a symbol for a single cell.
A "battery" is now defined differently than when the term was coined.
It is an amazing argument.
Like the acronym for "LASER" is now OK to say "laser" or "Laser" and be correct, because it is now a thing, instead of the term defining the science of its operation.
I searched images.
"Cell" brings up the original single cell unit symbol you describe, and shows many "battery" symbols within the search.
"battery" immediately brought up proper, multi cell symbology, as well as a few of the single type.
It seems google likes the original definition as well.
I still say AAA Cell, and "C Cell", and "9 Volt Battery".
I was explaining to my roommate the other day that the term "battery" is actually misused when talking about a single cell. It originally meant a stack or other arrangement of multiple cells. But of course that has changed over the years so they are all called batteries now.
Many 9 volt batteries are exactly that. Open several (different brands) u p and you'll find some composed of six 1 1/2 volt cylindrical cells. They'r e useful for one-off projects where you need more current than a coin cell can provide but a AAA won't fit.
I remember many years ago they were made of slices the same shape as the package, but only one sixth the height. They weren't encapsulated like tiny AAAAAA cells. They had a plastic shell and what looked like carbon plates on the top and bottom.
both types are available, if the cell cheimstry runs at a high pressure the cylindrical "AAAA" cells with steel cases will be used, else the stack construction. wrapped in plastic.
The shape of the package suggests that the original design was 6 geometrically parallel cylindrical cells.
For a nine volt? Absolutely not. The case would have had larger corner radius.
The form factor was designed to power transistor radios, and acquire a high enough voltage in a smaller form factor than the aaa 6 cell array would take up.
The tiny 1.5 volt cell they used to make the stack up with were maximized to the case size to get as many ampere/hours out of the battery as was possible. They were also originally rechargeable, carbon zinc type cells.
One did not see very many 'handheld' 'transistor radios' of that era which had 6 cell "battery" compartments in them.
The nine volt form factor we are all familiar with was the result of the industry answering the needs of those other industries who made consumer electronic products at the time. Small devices drove the need. Large items like metal detectors and such of the era were large enough to have a 'battery' of cells in them, and then they too started using the more compact method of getting a higher voltage source into their products.
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