Witte Kat (white cat) batteries from NL (plus labels)

[Alex728]

I found this Dutch site, although its all in Dutch if you follow the link downloads/labels you can get many battery labels for printing (including the old style valve radio HT batteries).

Although I'd never heard of the brand until recently, some of the 1960s examples (including HT batteries for valve radios) show labels in English as well as other languages hinting that these may have once been found in the UK - maybe in East Anglia and other coastal areas with strong trade links to NL?

http://www.witte-kat-batterijen.nl/index.html

[Michael Watterson]

Thanks.

I knew of White Cat batteries (US Eveready/UC/NCC had the Black Cat / 9 lives / bounces back). But not that interesting site.

Some of the labels are wrong size. The "Winner 120" seems to have been shrunk to fit A4. The solution for all batteries (except small labels to cover existing cells) is to make a one or two part heavy card box, with 80gm or 90gm quality printout stuck to card before cut and fold (Pritt or Spray mount). Then each panel can be printed separately. The largest two I did are the B137 for Sky Prince and the Zenith pack for a Transoceanic.

I can now create covers from just a photo as long as I have the dimensions and connector. So let me know folks if you need anything.

[Alex728]

not 100% which one Michael refers to but if its the big anode battery from 1956 (with the older cat design, he lets a mouse run by his tail) there is a note that its indeed been rescaled as 1:2.3 - the top of the picture contains text with the full size dimensions and what DPI setting to use to preserve them even if the picture has to be split into more than 1 sheet (though it might not be so uncommon for a Dutch hobbyist to have access to a large format printer via their workplace!)

if it is split into A4 pages I expect its done in the same way Michael suggest.

I did add a couple of cat labels to some catless everready 996 batteries (after removing the original labels) and they printed at exactly the right size.

A few years back my family actually had a white cat (I used to meow with him to try and distract him from pulling out telecoms and network wiring) - he knocked out the analogue phone as a kitten (and I got a belt from ringing voltage whilst repairing it) and did similar to a splice in a LAN cable as a grown cat! He also let an entire nest of mice get away as it was apparently my job to get them (he'd indicate where they were ) - they were in fact using the old Rediffusion tunnels as entry and exit points) but they never entered the house and turned out to be yellow necked mice which apparently were a rare species to be encouraged across Europe - so the witte kat always reminds me of him.

I used to use his name with the surname Kot added (cat in many East European languages but also a common surname) on mailing lists for electronics companies and his job title as "Test Manager, wiring and installations "