And yet another, another weird corrosion story (not synth related)

[IXQY at aol.com]

>  >From: IXQY at aol.com
>  >To: synth-diy at node12b53.a2000.nl
>  >Subject: And yet another, another weird corrosion story (not synth 
related)
>  >Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 04:19:11 EDT
>  >
>  >
>  >  Well, maybe not a corrosion story but perhaps the beginning of one?
>  >
>  >  Back in the late 70's, my parents kept a metal flashlight on top of the
>  >refrigerator. I reached for it once and found that it was very very hot. 
>  >The
>  >top of the fridge was warm, but the flashlight was "hot", so I don't 
think 
>  >it
>  >had anything to do with the fridge.
>  >
>  >  After taking the flashlight apart, I found that the batteries (two C or 
D
>  >cells) had leaked and were also very hot. I asked my high school 
>  >electronics
>  >teacher about this after it happened and his explanation was that the 
>  >battery
>  >acid probably had a chemical reaction with the ink on the battery label.
>  >
>  >  Would this be a a correct assumption?
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In a message dated 9/26/00 10:41:53 AM Central Daylight Time, 
paia2720 at hotmail.com writes:

> Possible but not likely.
>  
>  Probable is that when the battery acid leaked, it corroded the
>  battery and flashlight shell and made a conductive path
>  shorting out the batteries, and the discharge current made them
>  warm.
>  
>  If the shell of the flashlight was plastic, then same thing, but
>  all conductive material must come out of the battery...
>  
>  This is real intersting stuff. I do a lot of "forensic science"
>  for a living. Like "What killed my machine and how can I make that
>  never happen again". But these usually get much more than "warm"...
>  
>  H^)  harry  


 Hello Harry,
 I've always thought the "ink" explanation was iffy.  Thanks for the thoughts 
on this. 

 Another strange event was with an old Pioneer AM/FM receiver I've bought 
from a friend in the early 80's (one channel out now). I once forgot that I 
had the speakers unplugged and proceeded to turn the volume control way up.  
I could hear the music coming from inside the amp! This sound increased if I 
turned the volume up even more and it sounded very distorted but it was 
definitely intelligible. I've since read that this can happen if there is a 
faulty connection which will act as a rectifier, but I still find it strange 
how a rectifier can cause audio to emanate from a solid state amp. 

 Andrew Sanchez