Yes, this is really shocking!
When was electricity used thousands of years before we switched it on? Because,
when we think of electricity, most of us recall back to a time in school where
we learned about Benjamin Franklin, a metal key, and a kite. The year of
Franklin’s fateful discovery was 1752.
Thus, the existence of the
Baghdad batteries recommends the possibility of far more shocking scientific
advances in the field a mind-blowing 2,000 years earlier. Therefore, this was
discovered in 1936, and believed to have been made in the Mesopotamian region,
these clay pots contain galvanized iron nails wrapped with copper sheeting, and
some archaeologists theories that an acidic liquid was used to generate an
electric current inside the jar.
Furthermore if correct, these
artefacts would predate the currently accepted timeline for the invention of
the electrochemical cell, attributed to Alessandro Volta, by more than two
millennia. Whether or not the artefacts were in fact used as batteries is
highly contested by archaeologists, and what the resulting electrical current
was used for is also a comprehensive mystery, as we have no historical records
from that time. Moreover some people theories that they might have been used
for electroplating objects, but such proof of their use for that purpose is yet
to be found. What we do identify, though, is that the batteries would in fact
work, at least in theory.
Hence, at least twice,
experiments were conducted to test replica constructions of the batteries,
including once on the show Myth busters, and both experiments showed that the
batteries were indeed capable of producing electricity when filled with an
acidic solution. But for now, the true purpose of these artefacts remains
unidentified.
