"Steve Walker" wrote in message
...
On 20/04/2019 15:08, NY wrote:
"Max Demian" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 20/04/2019 08:11, Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes why did we start calling batteries c and d and stopped calling them
U11
and u2?

U11 and U2? Do you mean "Baby Torch" [1] and "Standard Torch"?

[1] Actually 2 U11 size in a cardboard tube.

I've never heard the terms "baby torch" and "standard torch" but I can
vaguely remember U11 (C), U2 (D), U12 (AA). I don't remember U16 (AAA)
but maybe there weren't many devices that used sufficiently little power
that a AAA would last long enough.

I remember them as Ever-Ready products (that's what the local hardware
shop sold) and coloured white and blue, labelled as SP11, SP2 and SP12
(standard zinc carbon) and coloured orange, labelled HP11, HP2 and HP12
(longer lasting).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battery_sizes lists them all -
including ones I'd forgotten about like the flexible-strip terminal
4.5-volt battery 1289

Bike light IIRC.

and the huge 6V spring-terminal Lantern battery.

Got one of those somewhere.

I used those a lot, for those big rectangular torches.
Got the batterys for free from work.

For some reason I'd always thought that the PP3 9-volt battery was called
a PP9 (9 for 9 volts) rather than PP3. I also remember a 4.5V rectangular
battery with screw terminals - the screw part was a stepped conical
shape, IIRC; that's not listed on the Wikipedia page.

If that is the one I remember, my grandparents doorbell ran off one of
those and the battery sat on the wood of the doorframe.

I wonder if the UK started using ANSI names (AA, AAA, C, D) to come into
line with US conventions, realising that they could no longer hold out
with their own UK-specific names, in the same way that film speeds are
now always quoted in ASA (aka ISO) rather than DIN (German standard
logarithmic scale).

I don't know, but it is simpler if everyone uses the same.

Its got much worse now with li ion batterys, 18650 etc.
Those are sort of the dimensions but the protected ones
use the same number and the protection means that
they are no longer the same length. Bizarre.