How come you never see any B batteries?http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_005b.html
The letters A, B, C, and D were used to describe the batteries in old RCA radio sets, which had 4 independent circuits. One for the tuner, one for the speaker, etc.
They were named in order of size, but A and B were too close to C to be popular and a smaller size was needed, hence AA, then AAA.
Wrong! B-batteries were high-voltage batteries (100 - 500 volts), used in the days of portable TUBE radios-yes Virginia, there were tubes before transistors. I can remember them-they were large and very expensive-if you wanted to play your radio at the beach, it would cost you quite a bit! (they were not rechargable).
I dunno, I buy into Cecil’s explanation more than the separate supplies one. If I remember correctly, the supplies broke down like this:
A - filament supply, about 1-12 volts maybe
B - plate supply, abt. 40-200 volts
C - grid bias supply. Negative and small valued, maybe -1 to -10 volts?
D - never seen that, and since filament, plate and grid supplies pretty much cover all the bases, I don’t know what it would power.
Somehow, I don’t think they would label the B-supply battery a “B battery” on the shelf, since not all receivers would use the same B supply voltage. I built a one-tube regenerative radio once, and its “B battery” was simply labelled a 45 volt battery (the A supply was a C cell, oddly enough).
I thought B batteries were those that we used in jr high science class. A little larger than a large water glass. 1 1/2 volts dry cell brown paper cover .Mine was the only dead one.