My father wore a hearing air starting in the late 30's. I recall him having a 45 volt and 1.5 volt battery that he would put in his right rear pocket. These powered the vacuum tubes in the aid. When he had pants hemmed, that leg was always cut 2" shorter to compensate for the weight of the batteries. He did have a charger I recall as a big black object with perforated metal encasing the whole thing. Because his hearing loss was 93 dB, it took until the 60's to transition to a transistor based aid.
Dan Kahn
On Friday, February 28, 2025 at 08:17:47 PM EST, Andy via groups.io <ai.egrps@...> wrote:
On Fri, Feb 28, 2025 at 08:50 AM, wn4isx wrote:
B Battery, for the plate. Typically 22.5 or 40V
My vague recollection was around 45 V.? But you might have two in series, for 90 V.? I am not sure but I think that was what our AC/DC radio had.
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Or maybe if you used 22.5 batteries, then two made 45 and four got you to 90 V.
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The Wikipedia page suggests that the old B-size battery was 45 V.
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In the good old days, 1960~1970, US lantern batteries consisted of 4 "F" cells. A "F" cell was the same diameter as a "D" but longer.
All the lanterns I saw in that time period had the big 6 V battery with square cross-section and rounded corners, significant height (maybe 1.5 times as tall as they were across), and springs on the top for contacts.? As of a few years ago, you could still purchase them.
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Andy
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