In the back of a plastic crate, forgotten for a decade or three, a little cardboard pack holds a few battery holders. A humble package, not containing anything particularly special, yet this is a time capsule from another age, another me from decades ago.
This little package brings back memories… I remember when shelf after shelf of components were packaged this way. The look, the smell, the facination with the fantastic array of parts on display in those little packs, each inspriation for a project or solution. The young teenage me wandering those shelves wondering what I could do with those components.
In the era before DigiKey and eBay stores like Radar Electronics in Portland, or Elliot Electronics in Tucson were my primary source of components for my projects, or later professional work. IC chips, panel meters, switches, connectors, the thousands of little parts needed for anything electronic.
These stores were an education in a critical part of an industry for me, learning how to find and buy the parts I needed. Seeing each part, learning what was available, more immediate and memorable that pages in a catalog. Knowledge that has proven utterly invaluable over the years.
The package is called skin packaging in the industry, a once ubiquitous type of package invented in the early 1970’s that is falling out of use in this era of bubble packs. It is still around, but you see it less and less on store shelves.
Apollo Products of West Covina seems to have dissapeared, leaving no trace on the internet. Likewise a serch on the G&H mentioned on the price tag brings up no likely hits.
I cannot recall where or when I spent $1.99 for a set of battery holders I never used. There must have been some use envisioned for these battery holders, some project never built. At least these are not obsolete, AA cells are still around, or maybe use one of these to hold a modern 10440 lithium cell, it should fit nicely.
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