Lewis Urry, 77; Invented Alkaline Battery
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Lewis Urry, the man credited with inventing the small, long-lasting alkaline batteries that power everything from flashlights to smoke detectors to Walkmans, died Tuesday in the Cleveland suburb of Middleburg Heights, age 77.
“He took special pride around Christmas, when there was a rush for batteries,” said Steven Urry, his son.
Urry retired in May from Energizer, the successor to Union Carbide’s National Carbon Co., where he developed the first practical long-life battery in the 1950s. An estimated 80 percent of the dry-cell batteries in the world today are based on the work of Urry, who held 51 patents.
“Here at Energizer, we refer to Lew as the ‘father of alkaline,'” said Dan Carpenter, Energizer’s technology chief.
National Carbon, which made Eveready batteries, transferred Urry in 1955 to its Cleveland laboratory to work on ways to improve carbon zinc batteries that didn’t last very long.
Urry came up with a practical, long-lasting alkaline battery using powdered zinc as the electrolyte.
