Rayovac RP401 Heavy-Duty Mercury Hearing Aid Battery
The Rayovac RP401 1.4 volt heavy duty mercury hearing aid battery
was made by Rayovac Corp of Madison, WI. It largely replaced the
R-401
(regular duty) mercury battery that was in use in transistor body
hearing aids in the 1960s and 1970s.
The RP401 battery weighed 0.4 oz. (11 g) and measured 1⅛" by
7/16" in
diameter (2.8 x 1.2 cm). Mercury batteries of this size were known as "N" batteries.
Mercury batteries
are no longer sold today because of the large quantities of mercury in
them, and the consequent environmental concerns.
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Front view of the Rayovac RP401. This earlier version had black
lettering on a gold background.
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Side view of the Rayovac RP401 showing the polarity arrow showing the
bottom is the positive terminal.
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Top view of the Rayovac RP401 showing the negative terminal.
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Bottom view of the Rayovac RP401 showing the positive terminal.
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The Rayovac RP401 mercury batteries came 2 to a box.
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Top view of the Rayovac RP401 box showing the two holes where you could
test the voltage of the batteries without taking them out of the box.
That way you could be sure you were getting "fresh" batteries.
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Front view of the Rayovac RP401 box showing that these were heavy duty
batteries.
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Right side view of the Rayovac RP401 battery box.
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Left side view of the Rayovac RP401 battery box. Note that at this time
Ray-O-Vac was a division of ESB Incorporated.
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This black battery was a later version of the Rayovac RP401 heavy duty
hearing aid battery.
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Side view of the black Rayovac RP401 mercury battery showing the model number
and voltage.
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End view of the positive terminal of the black Rayovac RP401 mercury battery.
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The black Rayovac RP401 mercury batteries came 2 to a box.
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End view of the black Rayovac RP401 box showing the cutout at one end.
There was a similar cutout on the other end. This made it easy to test
the voltage of the batteries without taking them out of the box. That
way a customer could be sure he was getting "fresh" batteries.
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