Batteries have become much cheaper, making energy storage far more affordable.

  • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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    1 month ago

    As it happens, actually I was buying batteries in the 1970’s. They were massive and lasted plenty long enough to play audio cassettes for several days.

    Edit: I’d also point out that three decades is 1996, not 1976, that’s five decades.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Nonono that is outright false, even 6 of the big D batteries, would last only a few hours in even a small ghetto blaster of the late 70’s. Radio yes, tape no. The tapes took massive amounts of power even in a small player for the time.
      But apart from that all other uses of batteries were a pain, like in flashlights that weren’t even very good by today’s standards, or bicycle lights where batteries were a joke so we had to use dynamos.

      Your memory is simply wrong. IDK if they have declined 99%, but for sure batteries today are both 10 times better and only a tenth the price compared to the 70’s.
      Although they are just fake numbers that seem right, it actually fits with the 99%
      Althoug 3 decades only brings us back to the mid 90’s, I think that at least in some cases it is true.

      Batteries are way cheaper and better now, whether it’s 80% or 99% IDK, but for sure iẗ́s more than 80%.

      • Onno (VK6FLAB)@lemmy.radio
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        1 month ago

        Having had a mono radio cassette player in my bedroom in 1976, running off D-cells, that was not my experience.

        The biggest drain was the volume, not the cassette player. You noticed it getting slower and slower, but the drain came from playing it loud.

        My Sony Walkman a few years later ran forever on its batteries.

        • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          Admittedly I never had a walkman. Maybe you were more privileged than I was, because I remember batteries as very expensive.
          But a walkman was way way later than the 70’s.,