HUMAN NATURE AND THE STORAGE BATTERY,

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16586, 19 November 1921, Page 9

HUMAN NATURE AND THE STORAGE BATTERY,

The following advice to battery users, regardless of the moke of storage battery he is using, is given by Messrs Watkinson and Kennott, tho local Service Agents : In spite of all that lias been written regarding tho proper care and attention of storage batteries there is an appalling number of these useful little “power-boxes” ruined ev*ery year purely from neglect. However, as long as human nature remains as it is, it is going to be a difficult task to persuade motorists to give their battery tho proper umoMnt of attention. They won’t give it to their own bodies. Doctors will bear out tho statement that everyone should submit to a thorough physical examination periodically in order that, if any serious symptoms are present, they may be detected and checked in their incipient stages. Most of us know this, but we neglect going to the doctor until we are acutely conscious of th© fact that we need his services. How, then, can we—negligent beings that we are—be expected to give proper attention to a little inanimate part of our cars that seem to give satisfaction (at least to a certain degree) whether we take care of it or not. Obviously, the only thing we can do is to keep hammering away at the battery user, bombarding him with facts aboMt his battery until lie begins to realise how much lie can save by heeding the suggestions offered him. Probably no battery was ever installed without attention being called to the fact that it needed distilled water at least once a week in warm weather, and every two weeks in cold weather. And yet, in spite of this, many batteries go for weeks at a time without the slightest addition of water. It’s true, the battery will light your head and tail lights, it will even start your motor, but it’s doing these things at tho expense of your battery’s life. For tho water, having evaporated from tho electrolyte, leaves practically nothing but acid, in which the lower half ol your plates are submerged. This acid is eating constantly at th© active material in vour plates, and in a comparatively' short time the lower half of vour plates.* is stripped to the grid. No amount of good treatment thereafter can remedy this trouble, nothing but new plates. If motorists can only bo impressed witli the savings that can be effected through the use of a little care, they will find that their batteries give them far better service-