Did you ever wonder how it was that batteries came to ‘conquer the world’? A group of curious people pondered the same question too, and Naked Scientists website published their conclusion. The battery evolution began with lead acid batteries, with lithium-ion technology the current spike on the graph. But that as they say, is not the whole story.
Did Battery Evolution Set the Pace?
Oil and coal were off to a noisy start, when they stormed into our lives. Cell batteries made a less obvious appearance, as they quietly enabled our electronic infrastructure. Their electrochemistry may only provide a relatively low voltage, but it can store the energy and that’s what makes the difference.
Saying battery cells are a minor miracle is more than paying lip service. We take it for granted that we can carry them around in our pockets. Of course that was not always the case. But to get back on topic, we have to ask how come battery evolution was so gradual. It took a century to traverse from lead-acid, to alkaline, to lithium-ion.
Battery Development Followed Technology It Supported
There were few complaints about lead-acid batteries until new technology demanded smaller packaging. Alkaline batteries probably only arrived, because consumers started using flashlights and portable radios. Nickel-cadmium and other varieties followed calls for higher density. Meanwhile, lead-acid continued delivering solid power.
So the story of battery evolution concerns more than the technology it serves. Its roles have evolved from pagers, through space probes, to exploring worlds beyond. Yet humankind is still never satisfied. We complain endlessly about our smartphone batteries, that power messages crossing our planet in nano seconds.
So where to for batteries, you may well ask. The group that Naked Scientists spoke to believes they will continue to be ‘just up to their task’. But that’s what humanity is also about, when we think about it. We coast along until a new need arrives, like coping with global warming. That’s when new innovation starts to sprout!
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