Pocket-Size Power

U.S. troops who use electricity in their work can now carry electric power in their pockets. This has been made possible by a new miniature storage battery, announced last week by the Willard Storage Battery Co.

Electricity in such small packages (one model is no bigger than a man's palm) has heretofore been attainable only in weak, short-lived, dry-cell batteries. The new battery combines the compactness of a dry cell with the greater power of a storage battery. It also works much better than the familiar automobile-type storage battery.

Like the latter, the new battery has an electrolytic fluid (sulfuric acid) and is recharged by passing a current through the fluid to build up the potential of the positive pole. But the new battery is made of new materials that cut weight 20% and improve efficiency. It is made non-spilling and hence portable by an absorbent filling which soaks up the electrolytic fluid. The absorbed fluid still conducts current. Thus the battery works just as well when its container is cracked or shot away. The battery's plastic case does not corrode or absorb acid; this prevents current leakage--an old storage-battery failing. And there are visible markers that show when the battery needs refilling.

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