i really have to thank those that responded and gave me new avenues of research. i was disappointed the 1922 links was dead, but found another good link to it later! This will be my read for awhile.
Project: homemede batteries out of 3/4? copper tubing and 1/2" zinc plated conduit tubing. Each cell consists of 1 copper tube 5" long and one zinz plate tube 5" long inside the copper. Two 1/4" holes are drilled into the copper tubing an inch from each end. This all needs to be deburred and cleaned well. I wrapped a strip of vinyl tape around each end of the zinc tube building up the diameter for a slip fit. Then sealed the ends with RTV silicone. This seemed to the the most effective method of construction. If eventually i choose to go with a bath type cell the RTV won't be needed. The first itteration was to fill the gap between the tubings with a chlorine solution. 10% liquid clorox (a dillution in itself) and filtered water. I then plugged the fill and vent holes with vinyl tape. Not wanting to waste efforts i filled only 6 cells at first and tied them in series to make a 6.5 volt battery.
Results:
Well, i ran a walkman radio for .4 hours. The load was .03amps. That's .195watts.
The voltage drop seemed to be about a volt. The reader may extrapolate amp/hrs.
All evening i thought about an acid reaction and converting, because it seems acid batteries seem to be more readily recharged. But just in reading this morning, alkaline batteries can too be recharged. The problem with my initail design, is there is no vent for when the cell is being charged. I believe i'll try an alkaline bath next.
So far the expense of production hasn't scared me off. Performance, admittedely is not good so far. The way i look at it, we all gather our knowledge each differently, so somebody, sometime, will come up with something great. It's not in me to do nothing, so i proceed. Thanks again for the additional information.
