I don’t know much about batteries, but by a relatively tiny amount, are you talking about today’s batteries or those from 100+ years ago when this tip was published?
Those would have been D batteries, most likely. I also don’t know how much zinc was in those, how much zinc is too much to burn, or if the composition of batteries was the same then as now. Rather curious about all this. Also I was taught batteries can explode in fire – was that a myth? Any battery experts in the chat?
As far as I can tell, the zinc itself wouldn’t be particularly harmful (at least, not moreso than inhaling any other metal vapors). The nasty stuff would be manganese dioxide, which is a main component in zinc-carbon, zinc-chloride, and alkaline batteries. Generally, non-rechargable batteries won’t “explode” in a fire, but they will puncture and leak chemicals everywhere, which isn’t great. Lithium batteries, on the other hand, will absolutely explode and should be kept far away from anything that could damage them.
I don’t know much about batteries, but by a relatively tiny amount, are you talking about today’s batteries or those from 100+ years ago when this tip was published?
Those would have been D batteries, most likely. I also don’t know how much zinc was in those, how much zinc is too much to burn, or if the composition of batteries was the same then as now. Rather curious about all this. Also I was taught batteries can explode in fire – was that a myth? Any battery experts in the chat?
As far as I can tell, the zinc itself wouldn’t be particularly harmful (at least, not moreso than inhaling any other metal vapors). The nasty stuff would be manganese dioxide, which is a main component in zinc-carbon, zinc-chloride, and alkaline batteries. Generally, non-rechargable batteries won’t “explode” in a fire, but they will puncture and leak chemicals everywhere, which isn’t great. Lithium batteries, on the other hand, will absolutely explode and should be kept far away from anything that could damage them.