No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
But who shall say that the ideal battery for such service has yet made its appearance ? The battery now almost universally used is of an old familiar type, somewhat improved in detail and really a wonderfully good article for its price, but it is essentially a battery strictly for temporary use and deteriorating on open circuit. The resources of the chemical engineer ought to be able to give us a source of electricity combining compactness, comparative freedom from polarization, and reliability.
Of course, the cheaper the better, other things being equal, but it need not attempt to compete with the common type in the mere matter of first cost. Of chief importance is that it should hold up its voltage well and be free from serious deterioration when not in use. Surely the resources of invention at the present time ought to give us a battery much more suitable for hard service than the Leclanche type of cell, which has heretofore had the field practically to itself. Nothing has been able to compete with this old-timer for general use, but its limitations are such as to point the need for a successor.
The thanks of the men in the trenches and no smalf monetary reward are likely to come to him who first produces the battery required.
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