Battery Facts

Did you know?

• Gaston Plante invented the lead-acid battery a century ago.
  
  
• Originally lead batteries powered electric lights on railroad cars parked in the station and provided standby power for utilities. Today lead batteries have countless uses ranging from 8 ounces in radio guided missles to the 1,400-ton system in Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority's Battery Engery Storage System.
  
  
• In 1927 a car battery cost $70, while a typical car cost $700. Today a car battery still cost $70 while car prices have skyrocketed by comparision.
  
  
• More than 75% of lead produced in the US is used in lead-acid batteries.
• For the 10th consecutive year lead batteries topped the list of recycled consumer products with a recycling rate of 98%.
  
  
• Thomas Edison's first central electric generating station built in New York City in 1882 suffered many mechanical failures from sudden fluctuations of the load on the generating machines. Lead-acid batteries, able to quickly deliver large amounts of electricity for short periods of time were used as a remedy.
  
  
• Because of the efforts of the battery industry 38 states have adopted battery-recycling laws and five others have disposal bans.
  
  
• A new lead battery contains almost 100 percent-recycled lead and plastic.
  
  
• Sodium sulfate crystals separated from old battery acid are recycled and sold for use in textiles, glass and detergent.
  
  
• The battery is the most recycled product in the nation.