Did you know that the lead-acid battery was the first commercially viable cell, and that its market is still growing? We can’t think of another success like that off hand. Could you? Today we launch a new series of posts into the history of lead-acid batteries. It begins on a dry, dusty desert plain in Iraq, although controversy still shrouds our story.
Is This How the History of Lead-Acid Batteries Began?
Picture this in your mind. An unknown archaeologist is exploring ancient ruins near the capital of the Parthian Empire, Ctesiphon in 1936. This flourished from 150 BC to 223 AD. So everything he finds ends up in the local museum.
Director of the National Museum of Iraq Wilhelm König sifts through his archives one morning when his mind is fresh. He makes a discovery that some scientists believe marks the beginning of the history of lead-acid batteries.
Wilhelm König had stumbled over a tiny terracotta clay pot all of six inches tall. But what’s weird is there’s a copper tube inside containing an iron rod. Now this could have had the making of a half-decent electroplating cell with electrolyte added. Except for the fact there is no evidence of electroplating from that period.
However This Intriguing Story Did Not Stop There
When the museum director looks closer, he finds bitumen plugs in the copper tube at top and bottom, separating it from the iron rod to prevent a galvanic reaction. Therefore, if the tiny terracotta clay pot once contained a liquid electrolyte it could, in theory had held an electrical charge.
However, there is also an alternative theory the Baghdad Battery was nothing of that kind. Its adherents insist there was once a tiny parchment rolled up inside, that rotted away. Unfortunately the artifact vanished during the 2003 Iraq invasion. So we’ll never know for sure whether the history of lead-acid batteries began this way.
Recent Posts
A Bréguet Electric Car Out of Necessity
