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(Source:

"Report of the Committee on Battery Additives

of the National Academy of Sciences," Oct.30, 1953, pp.6,7)


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An arrogance attends this scientific verdict which has
led to many abuses of power and authority. One of the
dangers well known to technocratic societies is the eager
extension of a limited scientific conclusion to wider
applications where the information available is not
authoritative. Both scientists and laymen fall victim to
this particular illogic. The frequent marshalling of social
statistics to underwrite a particular policy initiative by
one interest group and its exact opposite by another is one
aspect of this dialectical violence to which we have grown
most accustomed.

The AD-X2 controversy experienced this warfare of

appropriated authority. The Bureau, in their most

comprehensive test, expended a great amount of effort to
design tests which would actually have meaning in
determining whether AD-X2 extends battery life. It is not
useful to simply ascertain a change in the physical
properties of a battery which in some cases coincide with an
increased electrical capacity or efficiency, such as raising
the specific gravity of the electrolyte, or a cooler battery
temperature during charging. Almost anything added to a
battery will result in a physical change. Neither is it
significant that a treated battery take a charge under
extreme conditions not related to normal usage. The
treatment must produce a measurable increase in storage

capacity under normal conditions which fall above the range

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Appendix A


battery was mechanically unsound (e.g. broken or shorted
plates inside the battery) which the additive was not
supposed ta remedy. The question of customer satisfaction
was very differnt from the question the Bureau had thought
it was to answer.

The misuse of scientific authority also comes in
another variety, essentially the converse of the above
situation. This consists of first determining the desirable
conclusion, and then altering scientific evidence to fit
that conclusion, by selectively publicizing some results and
ignoring or covering up others. The scientific community was
most concerned that the Bureau was being forced to perjure
itself in this manner. It is cause for reflection to
consider why it was so upsetting to Commerce and certain

legislators that the Bureau would not ‘come into line' on

this issue. Perhaps the protesting scientists heard the
tones of power brokers in bygone days, of clerics who could
not gain the acquiescence of dissenters, or monarchs unable
to gain the sanction of their clerics.

Throughout this essay there has been a heavy reliance
on the popular press. This is necessary as for many items
newspaper articles constitue the primary - or only - source.
It. is also important because to a very great extent the
principal players expressed themselves (and tried to gain
advantage) through the press, rather than speaking to each

other.


of variability of given test cells. The problems of
significance, variability, normal usage and randomness were
difficult, but essential, aspects of the final verdict being
demanded of the Bureau scientists, and a great burden fell
on the division of Statistical Engineering to model
significant tests.

For those parties who wished AD-X2 to be vindicated,
they found their validation in those laboratory observations
which saw some effects which could be associated with
increased electrical capacity, though there was little
concern for control cells, randomness, and normal operating
parameters. This, coupled with many thousands of satisfied
(or at least not complaining) customers was proof enough. In

reality, there was ample reason why customers were not

complaining. In the first place, the investment was small.
(Astin pointed out in the hearings that a typical three
dollar treatment packet contained about five cents worth of
raw materials at wholesale prices. This was a tremendous
profit for Ritchie, but still the price of the additive
compared to the price of a new battery was very small.)
Secondly, the instructions with the additive told the user
to clean the battery terminals, and other tips of battery
maintenance which would improve the performance of any
battery. Finally, the typical user would have great
difficulty determining significant change if the battery

were already functional, or knowing whether or not his


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Perhaps the only real lesson learned was that captured
in a talk by Mervin Kelly to the American Physical Society
in 1957. He could have addressed himself to all scientists
when he said, "the ivory towered existence is no more and,
like it or not, the physicist is in the midst of the fast
moving currents of the day..."(103) But, of course, the

audience already knew that.

103. Cited by Paul Forman in "Behind Quantum Mechanics:
U.S. National Security and Postwar Physical Research,"
unpublished typescript, pp.7,8.

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“I Think The Battery Is Dead”

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Post Office Department, should lead to prompt modifications
in the practice of the National Bureau of Standards of
condemning products marketed by small businessmen solely on

the basis of mere laboratory data without proper weight

being given to how the products perform in actual use." On
May 16, 1956, the FTC ruled 4 - 0 to drop its case, finding
that "overwhelming" user testimony outweighed the divided
but predominantly adverse scientific test results. (97)

When word reached Astin in 1961 that the Government had
dismissed Ritchie's damage suit, and that the case could not
be reopened, his response was one of understandable relief.
In a short memo to the Bureau staff he noted that it was
finally over, and now they could get on with their work. (98)
Astin could not have guessed that battery additives would
bubble to the surface again six years later. The Director
would again be called to present evidence to a Senate
committee, on an additive known as "Higgins 10 Year Battery

Life" in 1967. This time judgement was rendered that the

97. The New York Times, May 17, 1956. Sparkman's
comments appear in Senate Small Business Committee press
release, Nov.18, 1955, NBS Archives, box 202.

98. Recalled by Walter Weinstein in Astin interview,
1983, op.cit., p.16. Astin also made a short statement to
the press, saying that the action added "further to the
record of the National Bureau of Standards for excellent
scientific and technical work applied to the public
interest." Dept. of Commerce press release, Dec.15, 1961.
NBS Archives, box 682.

<Ii6i=


can store this energy and release it at some future time.
The electrochemical energy of the battery is stored until
allowed to flow through a lamp or motor and perform work. In
theory, the charge/discharge cycling of a storage battery
has no limits, but in practice a lead acid battery can lose
its ability to accept and deliver electrical energy.

Improvements came to batter design in the late
nineteenth century. Electrodes made of lead grids, into
which was pressed an active paste, proved superior to solid
lead plates. Studies showed it useful to add certain
materials such as barium sulfate and lignin derivatives to
the negative grid paste. The mechanical aspect of the
battery was also important. For a battery to work well ina
demanding environment (such as an automobile) the pasted
grids must withstand shock and vibration, and the plate
separators, case, and terminals must withstand
deterioration. Even the normal release of gas during
electrical cycling can loosen material from a grid and cause
a sediment (mud) to accumulate at the bottom of a battery.
The loss of grid paste material decreases battery capacity,
and can render a cell inoperative if it forms an electrical
bridge (short) between positive an negative plates.

As already pointed out, in the normal operation of a
lead acid battery, lead sulfate forms on both plates during
discharge. In regular usage, this lead sulfate has a very
fine crystal structure. If a battery stands idle for a long

period, however, the lead sulfate can form a large crystal


Storage Battery Processes

The lead acid battery is a simple device, and its state
of development by 1953 was not greatly different from its
original design in the mid-nineteenth century. At that time,
lead plates were first processed by placing them in various
solutions (electrolytes) and successively charging and
discharging the arrangement from an outside electrical
source. This processing would leave sponge lead on the
surface of the plates which would serve as the negative
electrodes, and lead peroxide on the surface of the plates
which would constitute positive electrodes.

The processed plates would then be immersed in an
electrolyte of dilute sulfuric acid and connected to
external electrical terminals to make a functional storage
cell. When connected to an electrical load (a circuit
through which current can flow), both the sponge lead and
the lead peroxide are converted to lead sulfate as the
electrochemical energy of the battery is used in the
circuit. If an outside charging current is applied to the
battery, the chemical process is reversed. The surface of
the negative plate is restored to sponge lead, and the
surface of the positive plate once again becomes lead
peroxide. This is the normal action of such a storage cell.
It is analogous to compressing and relaxing a mechanical
spring. To "charge" the spring, work must be done on the

spring from an outside agent. Once compressed, the spring

A-1


It is in this context that Astin's call for scientists
to exercise their social responsibility has reached a
curious, if not disturbing, fruition. The scientific issues
about which the voting public must be informed in the years
since the second world war have loomed ever larger. Whether
it is matters in health science, industrial policy,
environmental problems, or the arms race, the public must
needs be provided the very benevolent service Astin sought.
But as the stakes grew higher, each vested interest has
taken the initiative of supplying the public with its own
"official" view, explaining why its stock-in-trade was
essential to the public weal. The public relations divisions
of major contractors manufacture , what must now be
considered, a very large fraction of the company's product.
In defense-related matters in particular, the public is held

hostage by opinions which the lay person finds impossible to

reconcile. To be sure, the scientists have extended a
helping-hand to assist the poor benighted citizen understand
the "real issue," while the other hand has a firm grip on

his wallet.

=83=


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dealings with itself.(102)

In this paper I have tried to resist the temptation of

immediately ‘setting the record straight' for the reader
about the functional efficacy of AD-X2. Of course, such
discussion is unavoidable, but I have tried to reveal the
various evaluations of the additive in somewhat the same
manner as they would have appeared to the legislators and
other players in this drama, and leave the final analysis to
the appropriate appendix. It is a most telling aspect of our
citizenship in a republic of technology that even in
considering an historical episode there is a powerful urge
to know the scientific verdict from the outset, and then
read backward. Though we might promise ourselves to remain
unbiased as we go back and consider the events in their
context, we want some assurance that we will not be taken in

as well and be shown the fool.

102. This point really needs little elaboration when
one considers the intensely competitive positioning for
facilities, staff, and government contracts since W.W.II.
But the AD-X2 affair is also a case in point. Astin later
recalled how inadequate and sloppy the MIT tests had been,
and how the National Academy of Sciences representatives

reacted. _"Well, the Jeffries Committee...completely
vindicated our work and in a mild, polite way slapped MIT. I
remember talking to someone...'we can't afford to offend MIT

too much.' They made no bones about [it] that they didn't
want to embarrass MIT anymore than they had to. That was the
general attitude of the Jeffries Committee and that's why
their reprimand of the Weber report was so mild. I think
most of the members who looked at it didn't think any more
of it than Walter Hamer (chemist who worked with Vinal) or I
did." (Astin interview, op.cit., p.26)

-75-


Appendix B


TWO OBSERVATIONS ON THE BUREAU OF STANDARDS CASE

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Recently, the Bureau was asked to judge the merits of a
device which its inventor claims able to generate 'free'
electrical energy. A patent application was denied under a
clause long in effect at the Patent Office which allows it
to categorically reject claims for perpetual motion devices.
The inventor successfully petitioned to have a
model of his device tested, and that responsibility devolved
to the Bureau of Standards. The initial publicity which
attended the petition, as well as the small army of
technical professionals who attested that the device
actually produced more energy than it consumed seemed a
disturbing echo from the past.(101)

On the larger issue of science and politics, the
remonstrations of many scientists in 1953 that politics
should be kept out of science cannot be taken seriously,
except as evidence of willful denial in professionals
uncomfortable with the post-war landscape. After all, the

scientific community was already highly politicized in

101. The case of Joseph Newman's generator discussed by
Jacob Rabinow, in interview, op.cit.

=13=


product was without merit simply by chemical analysis.
"Based upon that chemical analysis, the expected
performance of the product as a material to promote
the effectiveness or useful life of lead-acid
storage batteries was estimated. Our conclusion was
that the product would perform no differently than
{sic] many other battery additives examined by the
Bureau in previous years, all of which were without
merit."(99)

Astin reported this conclusion while allowing that the

composition of the present additive was "Similar but not

identical to" other additives tested. Apparently, such

testimony was now sufficient evidence to prompt the Senate

committee and a separate House committee scurrying to
uncover the guilty party which which authorized the
Government purchase and shipment of such a product. (100)

And the Bureau is still called upon to act as
scientific arbiter in cases which seem remote to standards,
but which fall under the broader mission of providing

technical advisement to Government when requested to do so.

99. "Statement of A.V.Astin, Director of the National
Bureau of Standards Before the Permanent Investigations
Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Government
Operations on Higgins 10 Year Battery Life and White Magic
Motor Conditioner," April 25, 1967. NBS Archives, Astin
Files, box 2.

100. The New York Times, April 26, 1967.

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structure which is difficult to convert back to active
material, though successive low-current cycling
(charge/discharge) may restore the plates. It is this
condition (large lead sulfate crystal structure) which was
commonly referred to (by Ritchie and others) as sulfation.

Many additive combinations had been introduced over the
years to try to restore capacity to storage batteries. Some
were essentially inert (colored water) and others were
extremely harmful (copper and iron salts). Sodium and
magnesium sulfates, the primary constituents of AD-X2, were
quite common additives. Prof. Merle Randall, Ritchie's
collaborator in developing AD-X2, tried to argue that this
additive behaved differently than others with similar
ingredients once in solution in the battery electrolyte.
Among the effects he reported were an enhanced dissolving of
plate sulfation, reduced shedding of plate material, and
less evolution of gas during charging. (Hearings pp.72-75,
92-99). The Bureau found AD-X2 to slightly lower charging
efficiency in batteries nearly discharged, and slightly less
energy delivered at high rates of discharge. On the whole,
the additive had little effect and was not very harmful.

In 1947 the Willard Storage Battery Co. analyzed nearly
a thousand batteries to determine the common causes for
battery failure. Corrosion in positive plates accounted for
40 percent of the failures. Cracked partitions between cells
caused 28 percent of the failures. Among the other failures
(buckled plates, shorted separators, shedding, leaking

cases, and others) sulfation was not mentioned by name.

A-3


~~ —"“Go Away, Boy — You Bother Me”. --——

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