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[Stan]

Do you remember when batteries looked like this? No fancy gell cells in those days going into the chemist for some diluted sulphuric acid. Then filling each cell no safety clothing in site charging in a open area. Then standing them upright in your model how things have changed.

[jaymac]

used to take one of these on the Tram down to the Bike shop back in 40/50s to get charged regularly. The Ht battery was about 15 bob

[Martin (Admin)]

[chas]

Hi Stan, I had just the same battery, it lasted for many years. A friendly garage mechanic who was also a modeller used to top it up for me occasionally. When I discovered the delights of girls the battery got neglected and died.

[Circlip]

Ever Ready's contradiction in terms, the ubiquitous 4 1/2Volt 'Flat' battery.


  Regards  Ian.

[dougal99]

Martin as that picture was taken this last weekend, is that really an ever ready flat battery or a disguised Nimh?

[Martin (Admin)]

I was a very convincing fake battery, actually a radio box cover!

Vic Smeed boat .... Remora?!

[Martin (Admin)]

 
I remember saving up for these batteries.... then accidentally leaving it on overnight.   

[dougal99]

I left two u2 batteries in a cheapie metal torch for months and months. The whole thing fell apart after the batteries leaked and corroded it. Ah happy days! 

[tonyH]

Or this one from my first radio?

[Mosfets]

I was a very convincing fake battery, actually a radio box cover!


Vic Smeed boat .... Remora?!

Correct designer- Vic Smeed.
Model is his Waterbug design.
 

[tonyH]

used to take one of these on the Tram down to the Bike shop back in 40/50s to get charged regularly. The Ht battery was about 15 bob

 

Bike shops were also the place to go to for the carbide for the acetylene lamps..................Ahhhh that smell

[howie55]

used to take one of these on the Tram down to the Bike shop back in 40/50s to get charged regularly. The Ht battery was about 15 bob
I am in my eighties and my Saturday job was to take one of these to the electric shop to be replaced with a fully charged one, I must have been 7 or eight years old, they would not allow it today, but it was all we had to listen to the radio with,  the set was a redifuusion with just 3 stations, we were poor but happy
Howie55

[Circlip]

And then, Arthur Sallis started to sell 'NiFe' cells, Enamel coated steel cased 2V lumps. Seem to remember you had to fill  these with Silver Nitrate(?) ia a hypo  syringe.


  Regards  Ian.


 Unless the Lead/acid cells were empty (New), only 'filler' needed was distilled water.

[chas]

Yes, the early modelling lead acid batteries by Matsushita were sold empty. You had to find the battery acid for yourself. A right so and so to fill it you hadn't got a syringe. I doubt they could safely import them full of acid.
 I remember a modeller who overfilled one, charged it in the model and nearly had a battery shaped hole in the bottom of the boat.
  Some repairs were needed!

[Dave_S.]

My first RC boat had a battery identical to the Matsushita in the first post, it also had a super regen single push button radio. It worked more often than it didn't, but not by much!

[Geoff]

My very first model boat used a 4.5v Eveready flat battery. The plan came from a very old Eagle annual and was about 9" long, a little speed boat which I made as an MTB. Little did I realise what I had begun 57 years later!!


I remember all the batteries other than the accumulator with the handle albeit we had these at school.


No radio control in those days and I used to sail at Harrow Lodge Park in Hornchurch - they had a small concrete banked model boating pond in front of the old swimming pool. Its long gone but the trees and some of the curbs still exist. I was there a couple of years ago at a family show and it felt strange to walk and touch the trees I touched when I was 10.


Cheers


Geoff

[roycv]

Hi I remember running my model boats on dry batteries, it was along time ago!

There was a theory at the time that if you warmed the batteries and then a gentle charge they were supposed to get a bit more umph!   Well I used to do this and I convinced myself that the batteries did last longer.

Some time later I bought some D cells at about £2.50 each, quite a lot at the time, but they lasted for years, so perhaps a better investment.  Maybe as I could only trickle charge, they did fair better than maybe now.

I have some actual working Deac cells, these were the original NiCad's.  They still take a charge but suspect capacity now.

I could not afford Radio but I still had a bit of fun with an electric motor with a very high ratio gearbox .  At the slow end I made an irregular cam and connected it to the rudder.  What with a bit of wind and the irregular course of the the Carribean Coaster I almost counted myself lucky when she eventually returned!
regards
Roy

[Klunk]

Do you remember when batteries looked like this? No fancy gell cells in those days going into the chemist for some diluted sulphuric acid. Then filling each cell no safety clothing in site charging in a open area. Then standing them upright in your model how things have changed.

Still have one unused in a box!

[JimG]

Plenty of motorbike batteries come dry charged when new, need acid added before using. The acid is generally provided in special bottles whose necks fit in the filling openings so there is no need to touch the acid unless you make a mess of the filling.
Jim

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

Somewhere in my parents garage there is probably a dozen or more 1v lead acid battery cells that
my dad would use to run a CB radio during SAR missions on the local mountain, St Helens, back
before it blew it's top, and there was still a Ranger station, camp and boat ramp at Spirit Lake.