He asked whether the bulb burns brighter with a big battery than with a small one. We decided that the Voltage produced by the battery determined how brightly the bulb would burn, whereas the size of the battery might determine its capacity, and thus determine how long the light would burn before the battery was discharged. The same voltage is produced in all dry cell batteries because they all are driven by the same chemical reactions. A 6 Volt dry cell battery contains four independent 1.5 Volt dry cell batteries that are hooked in series. Several states have instituted legislative controls on the manufacture, sale, use, recycling and disposal of batteries.
Batteries are the principal source of certain heavy metals found in municipal solid waste.
There are opportunities to reduce and recycle the metals of concern. We suspended the wire coil over the magnet so that it rotated freely about the axis formed by its straightened ends, using the paper clips. The plastic coating was scraped from one side of the wire, so that, as the wire loop rotated it alternately made and broke electrical contact with the paper clips. The paper clips were attached to the battery electrodes using the two wire leads and rubber bands. The purpose of the half-stripped wire was for the current in the wire to be shut alternately on and off as the loop rotated, serving as a commutator.