“Columbia” was the name given to a dry cell battery by Nelson C. Cotabish, a sales manager of the National Carbon Company (NCC). It was in 1886 when NCC was founded in Ohio, Cleveland by Washington H. Lawrence. Lawrence was a pioneer of electrical products manufacturing in the United States during the 1890s. During that time, NCC is also known for marketing Leclanché wet cells.
Columbia Dry Cell Battery
Image Source: American Chemical Society Website
Brief History of Development
It was actually E. M. Jewett, a talented young employee of NCC, who developed the Columbia dry cell battery. As part of NCC’s continuous development, Jewett further experimented on dry cells. The result was a sealed, six-inch, 1.5 volt Columbia dry cell battery. With the support of George Little, Jewett’s colleague and NCC’s director in Cleveland, and approval of Lawrence, the mass manufacturing of Columbia dry cell batteries started in 1896. This made NCC the first company in the United States to successfully distribute commercial sealed dry cell batteries.
Basic Features of Columbia
Columbia is zinc-carbon battery with an acid electrolyte. It was an improvement on Carl Gassner’s dry cell. Gassner’s dry cell is a more solid, maintenance-free, spillage-free, and can be oriented in various ways compared to the previous Leclanché wet cell. What NCC did is they replaced the plaster of Paris with cardboard coiled into a tube which then acted as the separator between the anode and cathode. The result was more space for the cathode and it also made the battery easier to assemble. This battery model later became well-known for being convenient when used in portable electrical devices.
More About the National Carbon Company
Columbia dry cell battery served as the basis of all dry cell batteries for the next sixty years for being chemically efficient and economical to produce. In the early 20th century, NCC’s Columbia became popular in the telephone and automobile industries. In 1906, NCC was changed to American Ever Ready Company (with trademark Eveready). NCC was also a predecessor of today’s Energizer. Significantly, on September 27, 2005, the American National Society designated the development of the Columbia dry cell battery as a National Historic Chemical Landmark.
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