INVESTIGATIONS: The Alchemy of Batteries

How many trace elements can dance on an electrode?

Last week the burning issue of AD-X2, an additive powder supposed to prolong the life of storage batteries, came before the Senate Small Business Committee. The testimony had a curiously speculative, unreal and alchemical quality as if this storage battery* had been invented by Alchemist Zozimus of Panopolis and AD-X2 concocted by Cagliostro.

Last spring Commerce Secretary Sinclair Weeks abruptly dismissed Dr. Allen

Astin, chief of the Bureau of Standards, because, he said, the bureau had not been "sufficiently objective" when it tested AD-X2 and pronounced it worthless. The scientific furor which followed...

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