Batteries, Rechargeable
Created | Updated Mar 22, 2002
Devices for making electricity portable. Safely, in one's pockets, even. Periodic insertion in a charging device plugged into house electrical current allows the same battery to be used repeatedly to power small electrical devices. Rechargeable batteries aid in defraying the cost of those personal electronics; typical uses include tape players and radios, and more exotic forms of rechargeable battery are used in cellular telephones and laptop computers, all devices useful to hitch-hikers. While regular batteries have been around for decades, the rechargeable variety remove the need for regular investment in metals and acid, which can run very high over the lifetime of even a single portable electronic product. There are health risks associated with the use of rechargeable batteries. The traditional form uses a nickel-cadmium combination of metals that, over time, due either to laziness or malevolence, begins refusing to hold a charge. Batteries thus affected do their level best to mix in with still-functioning units, increasing the chances that any given set of batteries pulled out of a drawer will be useless. The risk to health comes from brain-overload suffered in trying to keep track of which battery combinations have been tested, and from the temptation to fling the tiny cylinders of malignance against the nearest wall until they explode and spray corrosive chemicals everywhere. The nine-volt variety, carried in a hip pocket, has a tendency to attract keys, which bridge the leads to form a circuit and rapidly become dangerously hot. There is no truth to the rumour that batteries deteriorating in this fashion led to the end of the Reagan presidency in America.
