So, when I  visited my son (he lives in Downtown Manhattan), I just had to visit my old library haunts. One of them is the main library building in Manhattan- the one in Bryant Park. (This used to be the site of the prime reservoir for New York City; the water supply moved upstate and this site because the library.)  The other was the library that used to be open 24-7, the Mid-Manhattan Library.

While I was there, I looked up information about my erstwhile benefactor, Samuel Ruben, because I really didn’t remember much about him, except for some basic facts.

As I had written a few times, he was instrumental in the development of the dry cell battery. And, that’s why I looked him up. I knew that Duracell was being dumped by Proctor & Gamble and being picked up by Warren Buffett. And, Duracell is the firm that was the new name for Mallory. Oh, and Samuel Ruben is the one behind the innovations of the Mallory batteries.

Samuel Ruben came by his love of tinkering honestly. For those of you who are beyond middle age, you will recall that tinkerers proved their mettle by playing with crystal radios. It was a great, fun project. Well, so did Samuel Ruben.

And, at the ripe old age of 14, Samuel Ruben entered a contest organized by Hugo Gernsback, the publisher of his own periodical and the owner of the Electro Importing Company. Ruben won the contest with his design of a portable optical signalling device (a wooden tripod that supported a flashlight with a switch connected to a telegraph key.) And, that’s what led him on his journey of invention.

Along the way, he invented the trickle charger. You know, the thing y’all use when your car battery is on the fritz. It slowly charges the battery so you car can function for a while longer, without getting a new battery.

He also came up with the battery eliminator in 1926 (by now, he was 26). This rendered it possible for radios to work on household current, via the wall socket. (It also is why battery operated radios at that time began to be called “farm radios”, since it was only on the farm, where there was no electrical power or outlets- that they needed the battery to listen to the radios (only 1 in 9 farms had electricity at the time).

Ruben’s efforts were also critical to the war effort (that’s World War II). Batteries sent to the Pacific and African theaters would arrive DOA (dead on arrival). The conditions of heat and humidity during their transport augmented the natural chemical reactions of the batteries- meaning they would undergo hyperreactive levels and have no power available for use in the war theater. Ruben chose mercuric oxide for the battery’s operations (also known as the mercury cell battery), which had a wider range of resistance to the heat and humidity, so the troops’ radios, telephones, and flashlights would serve their intended purpose. (Moreover, when Ruben recognized that his royalties were aproaching $ 2 million a year, he renegotiated the contracts with the government to lower the payments to $ 150K annually, as his financial part to help the war effort.)

Ruben also came up with the alkaline manganese battery. A really cool battery that those of us who were hooked on rock and roll in the 50’s use to power our teeny tiny radios. Of course, being the tinkerer and chemist I was, I broke open many a battery to garner the manganese dioxide to serve as a catalyst to decompose hydrogen peroxide (to water and oxygen gas). Oh, what fun that was!

Ruben’s batteries even made their way to Sputnik! Because the US government shared Ruben’s technology with the Soviet Union during World War II- and they knew what they needed for their sattelite’s success. (Don’t lament- his batteries were also critical during the Apollo XIII failure- when there was no power, they relied on the light pens he developed for their travels.)

Ruben also developed the AAA sized battery. Who cares, you ask? (Well, for starters, your tv remote control won’t work without them.) How about Kodak? Because Ruben and his associated firm, Mallory, convinced Kodak to specify that only Mallory AAA batteries could be used in their Brownie cameras- the hit sensation of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Mallory provided the batteries free to Kodak (for first use only), knowing that the “razor blade” business- the incessant replacement of their sole-sourced batteries- would be more than extremely lucrative.

Ruben had the perfect relationship with Philip Rogers Mallory. Because in PR Mallory, he could bring his inventions, which they would then manufacture and market. Paying Rubens a lucrative royalty. (When Gilette acquired Mallory, they renamed the venture Duracell- as in durable battery cell.)

Looking back, I now more fully understand why Samuel Rubens took a flyer on me. He noted that I, too, won a widely sought sci-tech prize at the age of 14, and was hard at work on several others. And, my test scores; my ability to work 25 to 30 hours a week at a part-time job and still excel at school, would mean that I would excel during my college career. So, he named me the Samuel Ruben Scholar of Chemical Engineering.

And, it seems that our discussions had a lasting effect, that I actually did not recall. I, too, created my devices for use at other firms. Firms that already had the technological infrastructure to insure the widespread use of my inventions. It wasn’t until one of my clients decided to terminate their venture that I actually took the reins of a manufacturing, marketing, logistics venture. Creating an international presence in the medical arena and one of the largest private trucking firms to supply those medical products to boot.

Here’s to you, Mr. Samuel Ruben. I have been trying to pass it on since you handed me the baton.

Some of the books by Samuel Ruben:
The Evolution of the Electric Battery in Response to Industrial Needs. Dorrance Publishers, 78 pages. 1978. 080592455
Founders of Electrochemistry. Dorrance Publishers, 107 pages. 1975.  0805921079