Exploding battery

[CrackBadger]

One day I attempted to build an electrical circuit and I attached only a length of wire to both terminals of the battery holder (12V altogether) but I didn't think of the fact that all the batteries were in it and current was running through the wire.

Anyway for some reason one of the batteries popped and started oozing out its chemicals. This was an alkaline battery. Does anyone know why this happened? The whole battery holder was hot afterwards. Is it basically because there was such a low resistance in the wire that the current was too high and caused the battery to overhead?

 

[Andy1845c]

If you short a batterys terminals together, the current is only limited but the resistance of the wire (not much) and the internal resistance of the battery. This will cause a battery to get hot, as the current demand is much greater then what its designed for.

Not really a smart thing to do, and not really a practical circuit either.

 

[audioguru]

Does anybody remember a "#6 dry cell" that was huge and heavy and was used to heat the glow plug on model airplane engines?
It was too big to get hot but it could make a paper-clip red hot.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Yep, big cell that was my dad had a couple around the house.
**broken link removed**

 

[Krumlink]

Buncha old batteries:

https://images.google.com/imgres?im...num=10&um=1&hl=en&rls=com.netscape:en-US&sa=N

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Eh those wee things hard to describe how large a #6 cell is. (those are screw terminals on top)

 

[audioguru]

Remember little 45V batteries?
When I was a kid I made blinking chasers with neon bulbs, resistors, capacitors and two 45V batteries. I potted the circuit with batteries in clear plastic.
The first one blew up because I had no vent for the batteries.

 

[Leftyretro]

Remember little 45V batteries?
When I was a kid I made blinking chasers with neon bulbs, resistors, capacitors and two 45V batteries. I potted the circuit with batteries in clear plastic.
The first one blew up because I had no vent for the batteries.

And I seem to recall a 67 1/2 volt battery and I think even a 90 v one. They were called 'B' batteries and powered the anodes of the early portable tubed radios. Not much capacity in them and I'm sure it was a somewhat costly keeping those radios running in those days.

Lefty

 

[sam2]

Does anybody remember a "#6 dry cell" that was huge and heavy and was used to heat the glow plug on model airplane engines?
It was too big to get hot but it could make a paper-clip red hot.

I would save my allowance for a month, and then go buy one from the hobby store. More often than not they would be almost dead.

 

[Marks256]

I have two of those 45v batteries. They are obviously dead, but they are still fun to look at. I don't know where there are at the moment, but i uploaded a picture of one them somewhere on the forum here a while back