Baghdad Battery

Baghdad Battery

The first battery was invented by Alessandro Volta in 1800. Except for the ones that were used in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) around 250 B.C. Used for what? Google "Baghdad Battery" and you'll find that these are the indisputable facts of the case:
1. The Mesopotamians used devices that consisted of 5-inch-tall ceramic jars, containing copper cylinders that were sheets of copper wrapped around iron cores (!!). 1a. At the top of the jar, the iron is even isolated from the copper by an asphalt-like organic substance, while at the bottom of the copper cylinder, the iron is left open to the copper and to the air. 1b. The ceramic jar is even formed to bulge outward at the center, as (we understand) a modern chemist would design it. 2. When any electrolyte -- such as wine (!) -- is placed in the jar, an effective battery results. With wine inside the pot, electricity would be produced.
What would the Mesopotamians do with electricity?! And who was the Da Vinci of the time who was capable of realizing that all of these elements, brought together, could produce voltage? I mean, Leonardo da Vinci himself did not realize this. Nobody did, until the 1800's. This is one of history's four or five greatest anachronisms. It is in dispute what the Mesopotamians did with these jars -- even under dispute whether they actually filled them with wine to produce voltage. But the facts in the above inset box are not under dispute. And if they did not fill the jars with wine to produce voltage, then why were they going to the trouble to wrap iron in copper in a ceramic casing? . === What they did with the batteries === Did the pre-Iraqis have a set of machines they powered with these batteries? We can probably rule that one out, however open-minded we might be. One must string together ten of these "batteries" to produce four volts. And no archaeology has uncovered any transistors in the area :- ) Electroplating has been suggested as a possible use, but there are major problems with the feasibility of that. For one thing, fire-gilding would have been many orders of magnitude more efficient. Electrostimulation has been suggested -- whether in an acupuncture-type context, or simply because they were fascinated by the tingle. Superstition and/or primitive religion may have found the electricity useful - suppose that you connected the jars to the wings of two metal cherubim. One grasping these wings might have felt pain, tightness in the chest, etc. . === How did they think of the batteries? === Those disposed to believe that UFO's landed and intervened in ancient civilizations would have little trouble imagining a set of semi-technological devices taught the ancients... If one studies the Old Testament, one realizes that the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians were very, very serious about collecting 'scientific' knowledge from around the globe.
Dan 1:3 And the king (Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, ca. 600 BC - jemanji) spoke unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king's seed, and of the princes; Dan 1:4 Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king's palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.
The Babylonians systematically exploited the learnings of every culture they conquered. We still aren't completely sure what those cultures did, and didn't know. Some even posit that such civilizations had entire advanced technolgies that were later erased in war and buried in the sand. ................ Perhaps the simplest explanation of the development of these 'batteries' has been given by Paul Keyser. He imagines an ancient using an iron spatula to stir vinegar around in a copper vessel, feeling an electrical tingle, and then working out the primitive battery from there. The iron-spatula-in-the-copper-vessel idea is of great comfort to those who wish to rule out the amazing, but it's a bit of a reach. If that's what happened, the accomplishment was easily on the level of many of the greatest chemical discoveries of modern (1700-2009) times: a happy accident, followed by intelligent trial-and-error and refinement. Except that nobody ever did anything like that in the subsequent 2,000 years. It's not as if somebody else happened across the same iron-and-copper accident in (say) 850 A.D. ............... Personally, I believe that the Egyptians and Mesopotamians knew a lot more than they are telling. I don't think that they drove Chevys, but I do think that their handbooks of science would hold our attention. :- ) Cheers, jemanji .................. image: http://www.uned.es/geo-1-historia-antigua-universal/new%20website/EGIPTO...