Duracell Batteries

The story of Duracell begins in the early 1920s with an inventive scientist named Samuel Ruben and an eager manufacturer of tungsten filament wire named Philip Rogers Mallory. Ruben came to the P.R. Mallory Company seeking a piece of equipment he needed for an experiment. But Ruben and Mallory saw an opportunity: Uniting Ruben’s inventive genius with Mallory’s manufacturing muscle. Their partnership, which would last until Mallory's death in 1975, was the bedrock of Duracell International.

In the 1950s, Samuel Ruben went on to improve the alkaline manganese battery, making it more compact, durable, and longer lasting than anything before it. At about the same time, Eastman Kodak introduced cameras with a built-in flash unit that required more power than zinc carbon cells could provide. The cameras needed alkaline manganese cells but in a new size, the AAA, and Mallory made them. The new photography-related demand for power put alkaline cells on the map, and in 1964 t Duracell was introduced.

As a brand, Duracell realized that there were (and still are) many uses for batteries. And as technology advanced, the uses for batteries only increased. The company quickly became the world's leading producer of high-performance alkaline batteries. And while some people needed to power their child’s new toy, others needed to make sure their smoke detectors worked. But whether you were making your children smile or ensuring their safety at home, Duracell knew that the battery just had to work. Establishing that reliable and consistent performance launched them as the brand that was, and is, trusted everywhere.