Evening star., 1924-12-14
RADIO GOSSIP AND NEWS

Public attention during the past year
has been focused to such an extent
on improvements in radio receiving
sets and in the art of ,broadcasting
that almost equally important ad-
vances IL the design of radio bat
teries have been largely lost signt OF,
according to g. c. Furness, chair
man of the battery committee Of the
radio section of the Associated Manu-
facturers Of Electrical Supplies.
Mr.. Furness has prepared a COM
prehensiVe report on the battery
situation, which points out that not
only are better batteries being made,
but prices are lower, so that greater
savings in the cost of operating radio
receivers have been made possible.
The responsible manufacturers OF
batteries have made such marked i'm
provements that todays dry 8 battery
operating costs are at least so per
cent lower on the average than those
Of year ago." says Mr.. Furness.
The reduction Is the greatest on
those sets with a heavy B battery
drain. A year ago 1t was sometimes
necessary to renew B batteries after
two or three months use. Today, un-
der the same conditions. they will last
from four to six months.
with the use of the latest types
of batteries it is the exceptional
operator who has to renew his B bat
teries more than three times a year.
These economies, however. are possi-
BILE only If the operator is using the
size of battery best suited for his
particular needs. It Is necessary that
the batteries be adequate to the drain
imposed upon them by the tubes of
the receiver or the resultant over
loading of the battery will defeat all
the efforts at Improvement made by
the manufacturers of batteries. 1t
is also important to use battery
in the circuits in which the need for
negative grid bias is indicated or
the normal life of the batteries
Will be cut in half.
The developments which are re-
sulting in lower operating costs for
the radio public have come about in
several ways. In the first place,
there has been a real improvement in
the design of the regular sizes of bat
teries, which has brought about
greater uniformity and longer life
In the second place. extra large bat
teries' q. e.. those constructed of
extra large size celis) have been de-
veloped for use with the increas-
ingly popular multitude type of sets
and power amplifers. many Of which
impose such a heavy current drain
dS 10 overload even the SO-CalleQ
large-SiZe batteries Chose construct
ed of large-size cells). Finally, the
price of batteries has been reduced
The extent OF this reduction is best
indicated by the fact that the price
of the extra large battery is less
than last years price of the large
size battery
| THE new dry cell B batteries have
not been on the market very long and
have had therefore scarcely time to
demonstrate their superiority over the
old, but radio users ought to begin
soon to realize that their batteries
are giving longer service than they
have received in the past"
Mr.. Furness also took occasion to
report on the Standardization and
simplification work of the battery
| standards committee.
Standardization is particularly de-
sirable in the manufacture of bat
teries," he pointed out. sizes and
shapes must be uniform, so far as
possible, in order that manufactur-
ers of portable and semi-portablc re-
ceiving sets may design compart-
ments that will hold any make of
battery that the user may choose. To
avoid confusion and minimize the
chances of batteries being wrongly
connected, It is essential that mark
fngs and locations Of terminals be
uniform. For best operating results
it is necessary that the amount and
pressure of the current supplied by
various makes OF batteries be uni
form.
ITO date this committee has issued
standards and made recommended
tions covering the following: Types