The "B" battery was a high-voltage battery commonly used for antique tube radios. It was available in various sizes and shapes, with a voltage range of 45 to 90 volts. Unfortunately, B batteries are now scarce to find, as very few vendors still sell them in some African and European countries.
These batteries supply the plate voltage for the tubes and they are typically 67.5 volts and such batteries are no longer needed in consumer electronics. So, instead of paying an exorbitant price for a "B" battery from a specialty battery manufacturer, I
B Battery Takes A 9V Cell. Old American radios (and we mean really old ones) took several kinds of batteries. The A battery powered the filaments (generally 1.5V at a high current draw). The
What Is a B Battery? The b-size battery was still manufactured and packed with 0.8464 inches by 2.36 inches (21.5 mm x 60 mm), offering 8350 mAh for the alkaline types. They used to be high-voltage ones utilized in old tube-powered radios.
The B battery seems to have fallen out of the ANSI standards, which started being formulated in the late 1920s, as did the A battery. So now you know why there''s a letter gap on the drugstore
Why it appears there is no B (or A, F, etc.) anymore is simply because those particular battery sizes never really caught on commercially, at least on the consumer end of things. The ones that were most popular just ended up being the AA, AAA, C, and D.
But what about B batteries? Did they ever exist? If they did, why aren''t they commercially available anymore? According to Mental Floss, they did and do still exist, and they are, in fact,
The B battery''s fade into obscurity really happened because the market for them just simply dried up. With the designation of AA, and later AAA which took place in 1959, the B battery didn''t have a consumer niche to keep them commercially viable.
The "B" battery is used to provide the plate voltage. It is sometimes colloquially referred to as a "dry battery" (although there is no reason why a "wet" battery of suitable voltage could not be utilised for the purpose). The filament is primarily a heat source and therefore the "A" battery supplies significant current and rapidly discharges.
Once upon a time, there used to be B batteries, but they''re not manufactured anymore. Here''s why they disappeared from shelves.