Thought it might be a battery pack at first so I wasn’t going to touch it but it appears to be plastic.
Possibly broken at the top? Unsure.
this post was submitted on 01 May 2025
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What is this thing?
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Looks like a PJ996 lantern battery whose top cover broke off. It's probably carbon-zinc, in which case you can recover a decently big graphite rod from each cell.
I'd warn against opening the cells if you don't know how old it is. Modern ones are safe, older ones might contain heavy metals.
I think these have basically always been carbon-zinc, or alkaline.
Technically, zinc is a heavy metal, but basically harmless to humans unless you eat the whole thing. Alkaline batteries contain managous oxide, which is a heavy metal, but you'd need some serious chronic exposure to get into trouble from that.
It's still a good idea not to open random crap that washes ashore, because there are definitely FAR more dangerous things that come in small metal cylinders. Like unexploded ordnance.
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Yeah, also knows as a 4R25 6V battery, or the battery from a "24 hours lamp" (from way back when they still used lightbulbs, they last weeks now on LEDs). Those lanterns are used a lot in marine work and roadworks. Having one land in the sea is entirely common.