and satisfy all your customers. The
essential thing for the success of your battery business is to learn
the Standard method and use it. Do not rush a battery through your
shop, and leave out some of the steps of the process, even though the
owner may be in a hurry. If you have a good stock of rental batteries
you can put one on his car and keep it there until you have done as
good a job of rebuilding on his battery as you possibly can. Remember
that the Standard method which has been described has not simply been
figured out as being a good method. This method has been worked out in
the actual rebuilding of thousands and thousands of batteries of all
makes and in all conditions, and has produced batteries full of life
and power, ready to give one to two years more of good, reliable
service.

Burning on Plates

When you put new plates into a battery, or find some of the plates
broken from the connecting strap, it will be necessary to burn the
plates to the strap. Frequently you will find plates which are
otherwise in a good condition broken from the connecting straps. This
is most likely to happen when the plates have been cast on to the
connecting strap instead of being burned on. These plates must be
burned on.

New plates are frequently necessary. From pages 339 to 346 you see
that new plates are required under the following conditions:

(a) Positives. Ruined by freezing; weak and brittle from age, large
part of active material shed; badly buckled; rotten and disintegrated
by impurities; reversed. Positives in a reasonably good mechanical
condition can be restored to a good electrical condition by charging.

(b) Negatives. Active material granulated, bulged and disintegrated;
charged while dry; positives disintegrated by impurities; ruined by
overcharging; badly sulphated because allowed to stand idle, or used
while discharged; much active material lost, and that which is left
soft and mushy; negatives reversed by charging battery backwards.

When making plate renewals, never install plates of different design
in the same group. Always use plates of the type intended for the
battery. The battery should first be fully charged, as already
explained. If all the plates in a group are to be discarded, clamp the
post in a vise, being careful not to crack the hard rubber shell if
one is on it, or to damage the threads on Posts such as the Exide or
to draw up the vise so tightly as to crush the post. Then saw off