Batteries have radically changed human culture, and the way we behave several times. The original technology emerged in the 19th Century. This was during the age of enlightenment that culminated in the first industrial revolution. During the second industrial revolution, electric cars helped liberate us from animal power. However, batteries may have stolen a march then, but the combustion engine soon superseded them.
Batteries Fight Back in the Third Industrial Revolution
Batteries were back in force in the nineteen-sixties. Emerging information and communication technology leveraged Ever Ready storage cells. These powered transistor radios and later wearable devices.
Lithium batteries in turn enabled portable computing and smartphones. Can anybody doubt the battery world was a turning point in how we engage our environment?
This new technology enabled us to shoot literally for the stars more than any other technology in space research. For they powered the radio transmitters that beamed back close-up images of the moon, and later the planets. Human eyes gazed in awe at the miracle of batteries in space. We remarked how fragile our earth looked when seen from countless miles away. Then we inadvertently made it even more delicate.
Batteries May Have Stolen a March Then, But …
We are standing on the threshold of batteries’ greatest era. Our progress is under threat from the global warming we may have created. Although powerful vested interests may believe otherwise.
When our children’s children look back on these troublesome times, they may wonder at our foolishness.
We hope they will remark, batteries had the advantage several times before. However, their finest hour was when they enabled battery storage farms to empower renewable energy sources. Also, when they removed humankind’s greatest self-inflicted scar: automotive vehicles running on non-renewable fossil fuel.
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Preview Image: Pony Express
