On Wed, 25 May 2005 08:42:10 GMT, Ross Herbert
wrote:

On Tue, 24 May 2005 00:34:18 -0500, none wrote:



I miss the days when you could buy a battery that was serviceable.
A heavy glass plate case with bolt on top and removable plates.
They would last forever as long as one was willing to do a bit of
service work.

And before the glass case came the lead-lined wooden box cells. Both
wood and glass boxes were still in use in telephone exchanges I worked
at during the late 1950's but they were all gone by the early 60's. I
even installed some of the wooden cased cells (made up from parts
which had been kept in storage for 20 years or more) because there was
a shortge in supply of the new polycarbonate cell types.

Changing plates in these old cells was not so simple and it was never
done where I was. You would simply re-build the complete cell with all
new plates. The interconnects between plates were lead-burned in place
- which was an art in itself - and it was next to impossible to
simply cut one plate out for replacement.

When I watched my old man rebuild them he always replaced all the
plates. Seemed pretty straight forward, unbolt the box cap then the
retaining bolts for the plates and pull them out.
Dump the electrolite, flush case with a neutralizer, put in new plates
and acid and bolt it all back together.(Of course these units were
designed for ease of service)
I did years back restore an old German motorcycle, prewar, called a
Fluka and it had a glass case battery which we had to have custom
plates made for.