Highest voltage DOMESTIC batteries ?

[60 oldjohn]

Up until buying the photographic flash unit last week the highest voltage batteries I had seen were around 120v for radios. This new (to me) battery was rated at 240v, unfortunately there is more electricity in a lemon. My question is what was the highest voltage available to the public ?


John.

[paulsherwin]

I think that battery was for professional use. It would certainly have been expensive.

[turretslug]

Not specifically "domestic" in intent, but the public might have had access to Zamboni piles of a few kV through the surplus market, anecdotally I hear that image intensifiers were quite popular at one time (for whatever reason....). At least they were of high impedance, much more so than that photo-flood battery which seems quite terrifying! Especially with those connectors.

[G6Tanuki]

120V HT batteries were certainly commonplace for battery radios in the 1920s and 1930s; often with lower-voltage taps (108V springs to mind) to supply screen-grids.

I also remember a 300V dry-battery that was used in laboratory geiger-counters, but that's definitely non-domestic.

[MrBungle]

That's quite some volts. Wonder what the capacity of it is.

[Refugee]

In the 1970s I did see a photo flash that had two of those 240V batteries in series.

[broadgage]

I suggest that 120 volt batteries were the highest voltage in general domestic use.
Much higher voltage batteries existed and could of course be used in the home for some special purpose, but were not primarily intended for domestic equipment.

510 volt batteries for photographic flash units certainly existed, mainly used by professional press photographers, but no doubt a few found their way into the homes of keen and well off amateurs. I think that 510 volt batteries can STILL be obtained to order.

With the exception of Zamboni piles which are a battery of sorts, I suspect that 510 volt batteries were the highest generally available voltage.

The very limited demand for still higher voltages being met by series connection of ordinary HT batteries.

Sometimes, high voltages were obtained by series connections of torch batteries, this approach being used if relatively high capacity was needed, as for a small radio transmitter rather than a receiver.
Or for an audio amplifier for public address purposes away from mains supplies.
This was rather expensive, with HT accumulators or a rotary converter and vehicle battery being preferred when available.

[emeritus]

In the late 1960's I seem to recall reading a review in "Amateur "Photographer" of a Nikon ring flash for shadowless medical photos that was powered either by a mains unit or a special 300V dry battery.

The 1985 Vidor catalogue "Primary Batteries for Industrial & Military Applications" lists a number of high voltage dry batteries that were still being manufactured for professional use, although I understand that they were no longer offered for retail sale, no doubt due to lack of demand. The one in the standard range with the highest voltage was the W120 (Winner) with 120V plus lower voltage tappings (including the 108V mentioned above). However, the catalogue says that they could produce Zinc Carbon batteries up to 500V to special order.

[60 oldjohn]

500v ! wow, imagine Lithium rather than Zinc-Carbon. I wonder if any one would be interested If I do a scan of my 240v battery ?


John.

[Mr Moose]

Hello,
According to a 1939 catalogue I have, Drydex produced a 175V radio battery (166V HT + 9V GB) designed for the Columbia 1006, Marconi 269 and 273 radios.
Yours, Richard

[ParcGwyn]

My father had a photo flash with a battery similar to this in the '70s the battery was flat and he used the flash on mains. I seem to remember him saying that the batteries were difficult to get even then and if you could get one they were very expensive. The battery was not quite the same it was a layer type battery in a metal case similar to pp6 of the period and formed the handle of the flash gun.

Dave

GW7ONS

[Paul_RK]

Originally Posted by Mr Moose

....According to a 1939 catalogue I have, Drydex produced a 175V radio battery (166V HT + 9V GB) designed for the Columbia 1006, Marconi 269 and 273 radios...

That one features in the battery equivalents chart contained in the 1961-2 R+TVS: Drydex H1066, Ever Ready Port.32, Vidor L5008, etc..

I'm fairly sure I remember a 300 volt battery featuring in Ever Ready's retail lists when I ordered my one and only Winner 120 in about 1969: it's the kind of thing a certain sort of ten year old never forgets Presumably it was the one already mentioned for photoflash use.

Paul