Decades ago, my Dad had a charger for reinflating carbon zinc cells. The
batteries weren't worth much, and the charger didn't help much either.

To explode a battery, do you need a defibrillator? 400 watt seconds! CLEAR!
Rampart, we have battery explosion. Treating with sterile water rinse. What?
D5W TKO?

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"z" wrote in message
...

yeah, before rechargables became as popular as they are, we nerdy
people used to "recharge" carbon zinc and alkalines fairly often,
either with special gadgets or just homebrew items. unlike
rechargables, when regular batteries "die", they're not usually
exhausted chemically; but hydrogen builds up inside and the bubbles
collect around whichever electrode, and that kind of impedes the
current flow. so you reverse the polarity and drive the hydrogen off
the electrode and you're back in business. a lot of that chemical guck
that's inside the battery is in order to reduce the hydrogen
formation.

As you say, the only downside is that if it overheats from running too
much current too long, the expansion will make it spring a leak. i
can't imagine what you'd have to try to charge it with to cause it to
blow up.