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As Promised in, “About the author,” Here are your plans to build an alkaline battery charger. First we can discuss a little history about the alkaline charger. Ever since the alkaline battery has been on the market there had been no way to recharge them, use them up and throw them away. For years this writer had attempted to recharge alkaline batteries, all to no avail. Finally in the spring of 1994 the puzzle was solved. First a little discussion on basic methods used to charge batteries. When you apply a charger to a battery you must always have your polarities correct, that is you must hook-up the plus sign +, to the plus and the negative sign -, to the negative sign. Another important thing is to only connect to similar voltages. If you connect a 12-volt battery charger to a 6-volt battery your charger will operate at its maximum and then overheat. You never want to reverse your polarities because this will short your battery charger out and probably blow a fuse. Electronic technicians, when working with a power supply, to prevent it from short circuiting and damaging the system, will open one leg of the power supply line and put a load in there, using a light bulb or some other type of device. If you should accidentally short the circuit, the light bulb will light up and prevent damage to your electronic circuit. Using the above method is how I uncovered a method to charge an alkaline battery. This goes against previously known methods to charge a battery. Using a 12-volt battery hook a line to say a 1.5-volt alkaline battery, yet reverse the polarities and install something in the line to accept a shorted load. So you can see right away this is exactly opposite of the ordinary way to charge a battery. In about 20 minutes or less the battery will heat up, take the power off of it, and check the voltage. It 142 Build You Own Alkaline Battery Charger