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We all need to be reminded that with hard work and persistence, anything is possible.
Christmas morning would not be the same without Lewis Urry. In fact, the entire Consumer Electronics industry would not generate multi-billion dollars in revenue without him and his powerful invention.
Born in 1927 in Pontypool, near Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Urry remained under the radar until his career at Eveready Battery Company. He joined Eveready after spending 3 years in the Canadian military after the Second World War and obtaining his degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto in 1950.
After 5 years working at Eveready in Toronto, he was commissioned to create a longer lasting battery by Union Carbide, Eveready’s American parent company. Eveready had been making batteries since the late 1800’s, but by the mid-1950’s, there had been no innovation and with increased demands from consumers for more power and longer life, the industry was unable to keep up. Toys that ran on standard zinc carbon batteries were not big sellers, as the power would cease after a few minutes’ use.
Urry was moved from his home in Toronto to a lab in Cleveland, Ohio to support the project. While conducting his research, he realized it would be more efficient and cost effective to create a new type of battery from scratch. Not the first to experiment with cells using alkaline electrolytes, Urry tested a variety of materials before using a combination of manganese dioxide for the cathode and solid zinc for the anode. His new discovery was successful in producing a longer life battery, but with an inferior power output compared to existing carbon batteries. Not one to give up, he soon ran a series of experiments, pioneering the use of zinc powder instead of solid zinc as the way to improve the cell’s power output by increasing the reactive surface area of the anode. That was Urry’s “eureka moment” in 1957.
With a prototype, Urry determined that the way to win over senior management was to do a demonstration. He purchased 2 battery-operated model cars and inserted a standard D-cell battery in one, his prototype alkaline battery in the other. The rest is history. With the VP Technology and other scientists watching, Urry’s model car with the alkaline battery zoomed back and forth across the cafeteria floor to cheers, while the car with the standard battery barely moved. This test spawned the famous ad campaign, decades later, of the Energizer bunny that kept going and going and going..
Urry’s battery was an instant success and to this day dominates the market, with an estimated 80% of the dry cell batteries across the globe based on his invention. Urry spent 54 years at Eveready (later renamed Energizer), where he also developed many patents for lithium batteries. In 1999, he presented to the Smithsonian Institute the first prototype of the alkaline battery and the first manufactured cylindrical alkaline cell. An incredible Canadian achievement was given pride of place in the same room as Thomas Edison’s famous prototype lightbulb.
Urry’s discovery did not just change the future for Eveready and other manufacturers, it spurred an entire new industry of portable electronics. Yesterday’s iPod and today’s iPad and iPhone would not have been invented if the Sony Walkman was not able to run on AA’s. “He took special pride around Christmas, when there was a rush for batteries,” his son Steven told reporters in the wake of his father’s death in 2004 at age 77.
Urry was touted in the Globe & Mail’s “Canada 150” series in 2017, on Canadian innovators; people, products and discoveries that changed the world. In that series, the Toronto-based marketing spokesman for Energizer, Shawn Basin, said "Lewis Urry's intelligence and determination revolutionized the battery industry 50 years ago.” He added "We all need to be reminded that with hard work and persistence, anything is possible."
