So the Disposable Battery sub-forum doesn’t get much attention, and I wanted to be sure to share this with everyone.
In a box, buried under a million other things in the warehouse at work, I found the following items. One is an Eico 1A1 multimeter. It is in it’s original box, with original test leads and the original wax-paper manual. It is fully functional.
Along with it was a AA battery. A National Hyper manufactured by Matsushita Electronics, Japan. Some will recognize the significance of this. Matushita later became Panasonic. The National Hyper was the first metal jacketed dry cell in Japan. It was produced from 1954 until the end of 1963. So this is a very very old cell.
The best part, it still retains a FULL charge. I placed it in a single AA flashlight and it produced the same beam and brightness as a brand new AA.
There’s a little bit of history for today. Here is a link to more information:
Here is a pic of my EICO VTVM that I built from a kit in the mid 60’s
Notice the power cord, it had to be plugged into 120VAC. Also it was recommended that it be left on once it warmed up.
Lots of history there. It might get you some decent $$$ should you want to sell it as there are people into collecting this kind of thing, and one in that NIB condition is rarely encountered. It’s a tool, and tools are always bought to be used and almost always are used which is why NIB is so darn rare with any kind of tool.
What I find amazing is, that a ~50 years old battery still shows up in working condition!
Take a normal AA nowadays and leave it for 50 years.
I believe you will just find a corroded “something”…
I have what appears to be the nearly the exact same multimeter, sold by Radio Shack as a Micronta. Only difference I see is a black case instead of white, and mine has a dial for zeroing the resistance measurement. It’s the first multimeter I ever owned, and was a gift when I was a child, sometime in the mid/late 80s.
That’s a cool meter! The Eico I have also has that red dial, but it is on the side of the case, not the front.
I think this AA sized battery might be some sort of metal hydride variant… not sure if the alkaline chemistry we see today is the same. Either way, Panasonic has a long history of making superior products, and this National Hyper cell proves that!
There must have been many clones of similar appearance because I also received something similar in my childhood. Mine also had resistance measurement, which needed a single AA if I remember correctly. As much as I like analog multimeters, these are too small to be really nice to use.
I remember buying my last one at my local R/S, the famous “ten dollar meter” which everybody had in their toolbox for rough work or for loaning out. It must have been discontinued before ’01 as it isn’t in that catalog, but an ungraded 22-218 is. I still have the catalog but the meter is long gone. I think I had an Eico VTVM once, I’ve been through a lot of old gear like that. Probably traded it or gave it away like the rest of the stuff.
