[2][3] He entered military service and served during World War II, becoming an aviation chief radioman before receiving an honorable discharge in 1945.
This patented innovation led to the Medtronic company of Minneapolis commencing manufacture and further development of artificial cardiac pacemakers.
The cell used two elements at near ends of the electrochemical scale, causing a high voltage of 2.8V and an energy density near the physical maximum.
The early work was conducted in a rented area of the former Wurlitzer Organ Factory in North Tonawanda, New York.
In the cell as developed for cardiac pacemaker application, the anode is lithium and the cathode a proprietary composition of iodine and poly-2-vinylpyridine, neither of which is electrically conductive.
As the cell is discharged by the current load of the pacemaker, the reaction between the lithium anode and iodine cathode forms a growing barrier of lithium iodide, This is resistive, and causes the terminal voltage of the cell to decrease approximately as an inverse function of the volume of the barrier.