How did battery sizes get their names?

In 1924, a group of people from the battery industry, along with several manufacturers and government agencies, met to make a standard system of battery sizes.

They decided to use the letters of the alphabet to designate a standard set of sizes. Thus, from the start, there were “A,” “B,” “C,” “D,” “E,” etc. batteries. This worked fine for a while, but eventually a need for even smaller batteries arose. After World War II, “AA” and “AAA” batteries were created for smaller applications.

Over time, some of the types of batteries simply died out, because they were no longer used in any products. For example, you won’t find any “B” batteries in most stores today. Some manufacturers may still make them for a very limited range of products. They did exist and were popular at one time, though!