Components-Batteries: today and tomorrow

Battery systems have enjoyed several important and ongoing technical improvements during recent years, but they tend to go almost unnoticed because they lack the element of surprise often associated with changing technology - such as accompanied the calculator, the digital watch, or space exploration. New battery systems enter the market gradually, often from military and other "price-is-no-object" applications, rather than suddenly appearing "in quantity and inexpensive," pushing older products into obsolescence. And predictions dating from the 1950s - of fuel cells and other "superbatteries" replacing the internal combustion engine - still seem far off. But several new batteries are on the market that give performance far superior to carbon-zinc and "wet" lead-acid designs.