Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!ub!kitty!larry
From: larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Car Battery Rechargers
Summary: Advances 1n battery technology...
Message-ID: <4087@kitty.UUCP>
Date: 6 Oct 90 17:21:50 GMT
References: <1990Oct4.222556.20668@athena.mit.edu> <870@wshb.csms.com>
Organization: Recognition Research Corp., Clarence, NY
Lines: 27

In article <870@wshb.csms.com>, damian@wshb.csms.com ( WSHB employee) writes:
> > If your battery is dead, you plug this into your cigarette lighter, and
> > it recharges the battery (enough to start) from a D battery.  It seems
> > like a neat idea.
>
> 	First a D cell is only 1.5 volts all modern cars are 12 Volts DC.  Even
> 	if you did hook up 8 d cells it would not carry enough current to start
> 	your car under perfect conditions.

	As an interesting aside, I have seen a battery not much larger than
two D-cells that *will* start a car with at least 200 amperes of cranking
current.

	Sound far fetched?  Not at all - this represents readily achievable
energy density for a lithium-thionyl chloride battery.  This type of
battery is nothing to trifle with, however, since a short circuit can
readily result in an explosion.

	Lithium-thionyl chloride batteries are used in military and
aerospace applications, along with some limited use for industrial and
implanted medical device applications.  One of the pioneer manufacturers
of lithium-thionyl chloride batteries, Electrochem Industries, is
located not far from my organization in bucolic Clarence, New York.

Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp.  "Have you hugged your cat today?"
VOICE: 716/688-1231   {boulder, rutgers, watmath}!ub!kitty!larry
FAX:   716/741-9635                  {utzoo, uunet}!/      \aerion!larry