Lantern Battery Salvage

The other day I found a six-volt lantern battery and decided to see what I could salvage from it. After doing some research, I learned that lantern batteries are made of four long F-cells that are individually composed of a carbon core, a large quantity of manganese dioxide mixed with either ammonium chloride or zinc chloride, and lastly a paper sheath. Sometimes each battery will be individually cased in zinc but this was not the case for me.

1. I first cut off the top with a Dremel Tool to reveal the F-cells. They were fit in pretty tightly, so I had to do four more cuts down the sides in order to slip them out.

2. I then pulled out the carbon rods and peeled back the paper cover to reveal the manganese dioxide.

3.  Finally I added water to the manganese dioxide to dissolve the electrolyte and decanted into a filter to dispose of the separate them. You could keep the electrolyte, but I don’t know what it could be used for.

From this I got four black carbon electrodes and a large quantity of manganese dioxide. Any zinc collected might be worth saving as an electrode.

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