The absence of steel in step three leads one to believe that the multi-ply insulation was more or less steel-free.

This was a big national brand, fighting it out - then and now - with Eveready. Since I grew up with the latter, and was intrigued by the cat arcing across the cylinder, Ray-O-Vac was consigned to the parallel world of brand preferences, the sort of thing you'd find in the home of your best friend. He was a great guy but his parents were just weird. They had Hunt's Catsup, RC Cola, Hydrox cookies, and shelves of hardbound Horizon magazines instead of a nice yellow row of National Geographics. Their house smelled funny, too, but you never mentioned it, because you suspected your friend wouldn't know what you were talking about. So you talked about hobbits.

D cells were called 2LPs in those days, and they were as heavy as a brick. Great design, though: looks like a superhero battery.

How did he lose his keys, anyway? What's the matter with his wife? She looks wrong. And the car appears to be edging close, an inch at a time, desperate to feel the soft wet crunch of her body in the mouth of his rapacious grill. He had waited so long for a night just like this.

(Popular Science, 1950)