On 4/8/2012 4:37 PM, wrote:
On Apr 8, 2:02 am, Charles wrote:

Still zinc-carbon, I would not like to see what happens if an alkaline
version was short-circuited.

Quite a sight when a zinc carbon type short circuited.

I'm going to add, belatedly, that the pictures of the No. 6 batteries
that I see on Ebay (old batteries, not new stock) all have the word
"igniter" prominently displayed on them.

This naturally leads one to believe that they were intended to be used
as a source for a spark, to ignite gunpowder or some gas fuel or
vaporized liquid fuel.

It rather makes sense, as I seem to recall them mostly in science labs
and science experiment kits of the kind marketed to adolescent boys. I
seem to recall that my brother used one with a practice telegraph key,
which had a flashlight bulb to give feedback in learning Morse Code.
Stuff like that!

Regards,

DAve

On Apr 9, 12:50*am, spsffan wrote:

No. 6 batteries

It rather makes sense, as I seem to recall them mostly in science labs
and science experiment kits of the kind marketed to adolescent boys. I
seem to recall that my brother used one with a practice telegraph key,
which had a flashlight bulb to give feedback in learning Morse Code.
Stuff like that!

The "How & Why Wonder Book on Electricity" had projects for kids using
a No. 6 dry cell. They taught about series and parallel wiring.

I remember wrapping wire around a big nail to make an eloctromagnet,
and turning it off and on to pick up papercliops. But the nail
retained some of its magnetism.

I _think_ a battery cost about $1 back then and it would last
forever. The local store had all the knife switches, light sockets,
1.5V screw maps that I could want for my experiments. Connecting a 6V
lantern battery to a 1.5V burned it out in a flash.

Returning to rail, many places were lit by five bulbs in series off
the 600V traction power. If a bulb burned out they all did. But I
think some fancy trains had special circuits to bypass a dead bulb.

On Mon, 9 Apr 2012 07:19:19 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Apr 9, 12:50*am, spsffan wrote:

No. 6 batteries

It rather makes sense, as I seem to recall them mostly in science labs
and science experiment kits of the kind marketed to adolescent boys. I
seem to recall that my brother used one with a practice telegraph key,
which had a flashlight bulb to give feedback in learning Morse Code.
Stuff like that!

The "How & Why Wonder Book on Electricity" had projects for kids using
a No. 6 dry cell. They taught about series and parallel wiring.

I remember wrapping wire around a big nail to make an eloctromagnet,
and turning it off and on to pick up papercliops. But the nail
retained some of its magnetism.

I _think_ a battery cost about $1 back then and it would last
forever. The local store had all the knife switches, light sockets,
1.5V screw maps that I could want for my experiments. Connecting a 6V
lantern battery to a 1.5V burned it out in a flash.

Returning to rail, many places were lit by five bulbs in series off
the 600V traction power. If a bulb burned out they all did. But I
think some fancy trains had special circuits to bypass a dead bulb.

Parallel each lamp with a resistor that passes just enough current to
allow the surviving lamp filaments to produce a dull glow.

On 4/9/2012 7:19 AM, wrote:
On Apr 9, 12:50 am, wrote:

No. 6 batteries

It rather makes sense, as I seem to recall them mostly in science labs
and science experiment kits of the kind marketed to adolescent boys. I
seem to recall that my brother used one with a practice telegraph key,
which had a flashlight bulb to give feedback in learning Morse Code.
Stuff like that!

The "How& Why Wonder Book on Electricity" had projects for kids using
a No. 6 dry cell. They taught about series and parallel wiring.

I remember wrapping wire around a big nail to make an eloctromagnet,
and turning it off and on to pick up papercliops. But the nail
retained some of its magnetism.

I _think_ a battery cost about $1 back then and it would last
forever. The local store had all the knife switches, light sockets,
1.5V screw maps that I could want for my experiments. Connecting a 6V
lantern battery to a 1.5V burned it out in a flash.

Well, all that seems to jar memories! Yes, we did the electromagnet
trick and a few others.


Returning to rail, many places were lit by five bulbs in series off
the 600V traction power. If a bulb burned out they all did. But I
think some fancy trains had special circuits to bypass a dead bulb.

Oh, shades of tube radios with tubes of various voltages, in series,
adding up to approximately 120 volts. Most small table radios from the
1940s to the end of tubes used this format.

Regards,

DAve

On Apr 10, 12:41*am, spsffan wrote:

Oh, shades of tube radios with tubes of various voltages, in series,
adding up to approximately 120 volts. Most small table radios from the
1940s to the end of tubes used this format.

Physicist Richard Feynman used to repair radios in his youth. In his
memoir, he explains how he diagnosed a problem--the radio had loud
static on start-up, but then was fine--and he solved it by moving
tubes around. (The specific issues of what he fixed escapes me, but
he knew how the radio circuits worked at warm up and at play.)

ob train: He lived in the Rockaways, originally served by the LIRR,
but converted to a NYC subway extension in the early 1950s.