Although the first portable dry-cell (zinc-carbon) battery was invented by the German independent scientist Dr. Carl Gassner in 1888, the National Carbon Company used Dr. Gassner’s discoveries to produce the world’s first mobile electricity source and make it a commercial success. Not too many consumer devices operated on battery power in 1888; zero, to be precise.
The invention of commercial production of dry-cell batteries is somewhat of a chicken-and-egg story. Just prior to Dr. Gassner’s discoveries, the National Carbon Company had invented the flashlight (or “hand torch” as it was termed at the time) that we know and use today. But they had a problem: how were consumers to power the device in a way that promoted the longevity of the light? Their answer was the disposable battery.
In 1898, the National Carbon Company developed the D-cell battery and, shortly thereafter, the C-cell—the same size batteries we still use today. The size and shape of these batteries is the direct result of the hand-held flashlight. Both the C and D size batteries were demonstrated at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. In 1917, the National Carbon Company became The American Every Ready Company (a name quickly shortened to “Eveready”), and, by the 1960s, the company was known as the Energizer Battery Company— the inventors of the alkaline battery.
An early zinc-carbon C-cell battery recovered from a small trash pit in the backyard of the Mann-Simons site.
Recovered from a small trash pit in the backyard of the Mann-Simons site was an excellent example of an early zinc-carbon C-cell battery. Wrapped in paper, the printing is gone, but, because of other artifacts found in association, we know it dates to the first decade of the 20th century and was manufactured by the National Carbon Company. The carbon rod is visible at the top, which would have had a copper “cap” originally. By the early 20th century, C-cell batteries were used in hand-held flashlights as well as bicycle headlamps, doorbells, radios, and, like this Christmas past, toys.
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