In 1965 while in Da-Nang @ Marble Mountain with the Seabees 0f MCB-9 I ran the Electric shop for starters, Gen, & the battery shop as an E-3. (CMCN) While having very few new if any new batterys, we had many,many 10 gallon glass jars of PURE Acid.. My crusty old Chief seeing we were out of new ones and had a lot of dead ones, and many with melted posts.. He sent me to the cooks tent and was told to get two boxes of Baking Soda & a box of Black Pepper ??.. 1st Drain & flush battery two or three times while tapping the sides & bottom with a rubber mallet. Then add water to the top of plates & dump in a big load of Baking Sold & let it sit a couple of days.. ( FLUSH VERY WELL). Then repeat the whole thing one more time.. Again ( FLUSH ) .. Set upside down to drain & dry.. Add acid slowly & charge on the lowest setting you can.. In 1970 when I went back with MCB-1, I went to see my old shop now as a CM-2 and there were still some of my old re-done ones still in use as I marked each one I did.. Oh, The pepper, Chief said go get my Jeep & dump the pepper in the radiator it has a bad leak. Then go for a ride over to Da-Nang & back.. I did just that ( I thought he was nuts ) but found no leak when I got back and it never did again.. Never Question a Chief !!! I retired as one, CMC..