Batteries Are A Pain Human beings are susceptible to getting addicted to many different things, not only drugs. One of these addictions is batteries. One of the reasons for this is the fact many objects which used to work fine manually now come in a form which needs them. Let me give you an example. I owned a label maker, it operated on four triple A batteries. It used to drive me crazy since I only need a label once in a while and it seemed when I did the batteries were always dead. Guess what I finally did? I threw the blasted thing out and purchased a label maker which needs no batteries at all. It just works on the pressure you apply on the switch on the handle and it works fine. This has completely eliminated the aggravation I used to have with the other label maker. Have you ever needed a battery in a critical situation such as a power outage because the radio or flashlight you were using had a dead or dying battery? I eliminated the chance of this happening to me by buying a crank powered radio and flashlight as backups for my battery powered ones. Let me ask you this, why in the world does anyone need an electric pencil sharpener when the manual ones work perfect? One thing you can be sure of is the manual pencil sharpener will never fail you because of battery failure. They are both about the same size so the manual one doesn’t take up any more room, so that is not a problem. The next thing I want to mention is the electric bicycle. It puzzles me why anyone would want one. I can understand wanting a motorcycle, but wanting a bicycle with such a limited range which offers hardly any exercise benefit makes no sense to me. I read an article the other day how someone broke their back on one because he had never ridden one and didn’t know some of them had incredible acceleration and it threw him off. I know not everyone will agree with me on this because there is a certain amount of fun involved. Scientists have looked at the problem of battery use in robots. They don’t want their robots dying after a couple of hours of use. How does one solve a problem like this, after all a robot in a battle situation would not only be worthless if it drained all its power, but could be prone to being captured and examined? They came up with a unique solution, let the robot find metal and eat it. The metal could work as a fuel they say. The idea of eating does make them sound a little more human, but if they start eating enemy robots would they be considered cannibals? I have seen people who were in the middle of doing something which required a battery powered device get very angry when the device died just when they needed it the most. The next step is usually to scour the house or office for another battery or batteries and when none is found it only makes the person more aggravated. I am sure many of you have gone through something like this, I know I have. This is why I always make sure I have a box of double A and triple A batteries in reserve in case. There was one time when I had a power outage which lasted six weeks and I had used a lot of batteries since I had a portable television I was using along with everything else. After that I had decided to purchase the crank powered radio and flashlight. I also have one of those power banks which can not only start a car, but charge cell phones and other devices like tablets. If someone wants a wrist watch they usually purchase a battery operated one. The truth is a self-winding watch will last far longer than the battery in a watch. When self-winding watches came into ordinary use they were hailed as a great invention and you can still buy one. Of course, if you want a smart watch that is different. One of the things that annoys me is the fob for the new cars. It is fine when it works, but one would think a key would also be supplies for an emergency if the fob battery died. This happened to me once and my car was supposed to be able to start by taking the dead fob and placing it near the start button and pushing that button. When I did this, it didn’t work. The fob came with a key, but that key only opened the car door, there was no keyhole on the dash. I finally had to call a tow truck. The battery in the fob was only about a year and a half old. The smart thing for me to do is keep an extra battery in the glove compartment since I can get into the car even with a dead battery. One thing which really made me laugh was when I realized there was a manual device which could either beat or tie an electronic calculator in calculations. I had watched a speed test between two people. One was using a calculator the other an abacus, an ancient calculating device. For ordinary calculations the abacus in the hands of a knowledgeable person was just as fast as the calculator and even beat it many times. Batteries are being replaced in some devices. Hearing aid batteries usually have to be either changed every day or charge every day. One manufacturer has had enough of this and has designed a hearing aid without a battery. Before you get too excited, let me explain. It is still going to have a power source. The company received permission to install a tiny fuel cell instead of a battery in their devices. The advantage of the fuel cell is it only takes twenty seconds to reenergize. In the future there will be some devices which will not require any standard power source. You are probably wondering how they can operate electrically without one aren’t you? Well, you would be correct because they can’t. What is being suggested is a little ironic. The human body generates electricity. A human adult generates between ten and one hundred millivolts. Its not much but some manufactures think as today’s electronics shrink in size and power requirements, they will find a way to tap into our natural electrical output. There is a good chance of this happening.
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