Todays Question

[OfficerResource.com]

How come there aren't B batteries?

[Jenna]

I never realized there weren't.

[Jenna]

Just for you, Reca, I submitted your question to Google and within a few seconds go the answer. Apparently some 3-year-old boys have asked this question before, motivating their aunt to answer on the internet for all others who shared that same childlike curiosity!

"Have I mentioned that my three-year-old nephews are ridiculously bright children, and paragons in every way? Well, they are..l.. Anyway, the boys were shopping with their mother for C batteries, and Peggy went through the battery display with them: AA, AAA, AAAA, C, D, nine-volt. Where, the boys wanted to know, was B?

B batteries are no longer widely available because nothing uses them any more. Old radios used to operate on vacuum tubes that required two different batteries: an "A" battery to heat the vacuum tube, and a "B" battery that ran the rest of the radio. Improvements in technology did away with vacuum tubes in consumer electronics, which ended the need for the "A" and "B" batteries."

http://answergirlnet.blogspot.com/20...batteries.html

Don't thank me, thank Al Gore for inventing the internet!

[Big Al]

Now I will be able to sleep tonight knowing the answer to this extremely puzzling question......

[2 Blue 4 U]

How come there aren't B batteries?

B Cause! there is no need for them anymore!

But there used to B

Phil's Old Radios http://www.antiqueradio.org/bsupply.htm
Rod's Classic & Antique Radios http://tri.net/~rrogers/radio/batt.html
Practical Pointers on the Audion
GISCO Batteries and Battery Packs

To quote Phil, old radios required three different power sources to operate: "the A voltage heats the filament to release electrons; the B voltage gives the plate a positive charge to attract electrons from the filament; and the C voltage lets the grid regulate the flow of electrons from filament to plate." The batteries we use today are based on the old radio batteries, such that the A and C sizes are still low voltage batteries (1.5V); however, to quote A. B. Cole, the high-voltage B batteries "are at best unreliable, from their very nature." As such, they were phased out in favor of using multiple lower-voltage batteries. While I couldn't find any suppliers that still made B cells, there were a handful of companies that made "B eliminators", which could power antique radios using arrays of 9V batteries.

[Just KC]

Jenna...you cheater lol

[smokey703]

I learn something new everyday. Thanks O/R for continuing to increase my knowledge with useless facts.

[Terminator]

Once upon a time, there used to be a B-cell battery. But just like the second sister on the ABC’s Family Matters, the B-cell battery simply found itself written out of the script.
Here’s what happened. Battery letter designations are based on the size of the battery for common sizes. Hence, A is the smallest, and D is the largest. By that same logic, AA batteries are larger than AAA. Unfortunately for B batteries, however, it wasn’t the size that counted.
The fact is, you never see B batteries around because they just aren’t very useful in America. Essentially, the mid-size battery never caught on in products made for consumers, so stores didn’t carry them, and the cycle just fed itself. The truth of the matter is that B-cells, like artsy directors and good jazz musicians, are really only appreciated in Europe, where they’re used primarily for powering bicycle lamps.

[mavriktu]

But just like the second sister on the ABC’s Family Matters,

Let us not forget Ron Howards older brother on "Happy Days"

But thanks to all that replied,you have quite possibly saved Recas life,cause if I didn't finally get to sleep tonight,I would have gone ballistic.

[Autumn2009]

The same reason you get F's in school and not E's

[Shoestring]

The same reason you get F's in school and not E's

What there were no E's? And by the way F is for Fan-Fricken-Tastic