James E. Talmage's Laboratory Parable of the Defective Battery

While conducting laboratory investigations using a twelve-cell voltaic battery, James E. Talmage discovered the system was underperforming due to a single defective 'short-circuited' cell. He examined the cells individually, identified the culprit, removed the corrosion from it, and restored it to working order, drawing a spiritual parallel to sin and repentance.

In the account published as "The Parable of the Defective Battery" in the February 1914 issue of The Millennial Star, James E. Talmage confirms that the experience was a literal laboratory event rather than a fictional story, noting that he was specifically using a twelve-cell voltaic battery to generate a primary electric current of considerable power. Upon identifying the underperformance, he discovered the specific fault lay in 'unit number nine,' which he subsequently cleaned with a knife, file, and rasp, then baptized in a cleansing bath to restore it to usefulness.