"Don Johnstone" wrote in
message ...
At 02:12 15 November 2005, Marc Ramsey wrote:

There is a cure for that, a fuse.

True, but there is no fuse that can protect from an internal short circuit.
Any type of battery can (at least rarely) do this. I have seen both lead acid
and NIMH batteries burn up this way. (It the case of the NIMH it was an irate
firefighter whose portable radio had nearly caught fire.) Naturally, the more
energy in the cell, the more heat, smoke, and (possibly) flames you can expect.
Lithium batteries have a very high energy density and the innards love to burn,
so internal shorts are a particular concern with them.

How great is the danger as a practical matter? That is the true question
here!

Vaughn