Egyptian battery. Baghdad Battery

Human civilization received the first knowledge of electric current and voltage in the second half of the 18th century. The founder of this field was the Italian physicist and physiologist Luigi Galvani (1737-1798). His work was corrected and developed by the Italian physicist Alexander Volta (1745-1827). He practically became the inventor of the electric battery. It is a source of electrical energy and generates direct current. Thanks to him, the engines of electric trains are spinning, light bulbs and flashlights are on, computers, mobile phones, electric drills and vacuum cleaners work.

Electric current began its victorious march across the planet in the 19th century. Nowadays, life without it is unthinkable. Even a power outage for just an hour and a half can completely paralyze the life of any of us. This is the situation today. Electricity entered everyday life completely and irrevocably. We can't even start the car if it doesn't have a battery.

Looking at all these achievements of scientific and technological progress, you involuntarily wonder how humanity existed for thousands of years without electric current and voltage. What did people do in the evenings without TV and light? After all, there were no incandescent bulbs at all. The streets were lit with gas lamps, and candles burned in the houses. Try living by candlelight these days. Although a person gets used to everything, and very quickly.

No matter how surprising it sounds, but today there is a theory that in ancient times people successfully used peculiar electrical elements and did not light candles at night, did not have oil lamps, but spent the evenings by the light of lamps. With these lamps they also illuminated spacious temples, caves, tombs and other places where sunlight did not reach. A similar statement was born in the 30s of the XX century. And the reason was an amazing find, called Baghdad battery.

Mankind owes this discovery to the Austrian archaeologist Wilhelm Köning. She was discovered by him in 1936 on the outskirts of Baghdad. It is not known for sure whether the Austrian carried out archaeological excavations, or received this valuable item from one of the local residents. Most likely, there were no excavations, since in this case the archaeologist could find many more interesting things. However, the scientific world knows only about this amazing artifact, which is a unique value.

So what is a Baghdad battery? This is an ancient vessel of light yellow color. Its height is only 15 cm. Age is estimated at 2000 years. The neck was filled with resin, from which the tip of an iron rod protruded. Almost all of it was “eaten” by corrosion, which is not surprising, given its age.

When the neck was freed from the resin plug, they found a copper tube inside - a folded copper sheet. Its diameter was 25 mm, and the length barely reached 9 cm. It was through this tube that the iron rod passed. He did not reach the bottom of the vessel. There was still a couple of centimeters of free space. The very bottom was covered with mountain resin. That is, the whole small metal structure hung in the air. The resin, which was smeared with the neck, kept her in this position.

Judging by the ceramics, the vessel belonged to the period of the Sassanid dynasty. This is the period from 224 to 651. That is, the mysterious artifact was not even 2000 years old, as determined at the beginning. But what was the purpose of all this construction? Wilhelm Köning did not have an unequivocal answer here. After much thought, an almost unbelievable thought occurred to him. This device could be nothing more than an ancient battery for generating electric current.

Yes indeed. If you pour the same lemon, grape juice or vinegar into a vessel, then it will completely surround both the copper cylinder and the iron rod. The liquid in this case will act as an acidic electrolyte. Consequently, a potential difference will arise between copper and iron and an electric current will appear. The matter remains small: connect conductive wires to the vessel and close them to some consumer of electricity. It could be a light bulb.

In the future, other researchers measured the voltage that this small design can produce. The voltmeter showed a value of 1.1 volts. Very little. But if you take several tens or hundreds of such vessels and connect them in series, then as a result you can get 100 volts, and 200, and even 380. Of course, there was no talk of 3-phase alternating current, but the direct current voltage could be, basically, anyone.

But could ancient people create incandescent lamps? At least there were no problems with glass. In accordance with official science, it appeared in ancient Egypt at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. e. That is, this material is older than the Egyptian pyramids by about 500 years. People began to mix sand, soda ash, lime, heat this mixture to very high temperatures and get a vitreous mass. At first, it did not differ in good transparency, but the process went on, improved, and gradually the glass acquired the form that is familiar to modern man.

As for the filament, which should emit light, here you can look at an ancient drawing created by an unknown Egyptian master. A long-dead artist brought to us from the darkness of centuries a peculiar object, very reminiscent of a modern light bulb in shape. Inside there is some kind of thick long strip. It is quite possible that it is she who emits light. That's just what kind of material - is unknown.

Mysterious Egyptian wall art

So was the Baghdad battery a source of electricity? Judging by the ancient drawing, a definite answer cannot be given. Many researchers tend to see on it not a lamp at all, but some kind of large vegetable grown by hardworking farmers. In this case, the rule works: you see what you want to see.

The battery is defended by the fact that ancient wall paintings were made indoors, into which sunlight did not enter. However, there are no traces of ingrained soot from torches and oil lamps on the ceilings and vaults. But the masters did not work in the dark. They naturally had a source of light. He did not smoke, "did not give out" black smoke, but the lighting was perfect.

The Baghdad battery could also be used for other purposes. In ancient Iran, copper utensils covered with a thin layer of silver were very often used. Silver has healing properties. It kills harmful microbes, and from a purely aesthetic point of view, the same goblet or vessel looks much more impressive if it is covered with noble metal.

A uniform thin layer of silver or gold can be applied to the surface using an electrolytic method. In this case, the product looks perfect. It is possible that the ancient masters perfected kitchen utensils in a similar way. But the proponents of this theory also have opponents.

These people claim that the Baghdad battery has nothing to do with a galvanic cell. The first argument sounds pretty weighty. How was electrolyte added to a fully sealed battery? The neck of the vessel is filled with resin. And to use this device for a short period of time, then to throw it away - too much luxury.

The second argument: where is the related equipment. If such devices were used in large quantities, then some wires, conductors that ensure the operation of batteries should have been preserved. There is nothing of this at all.

Third argument: no drawings and records of the use of electrical elements have been found. There is only one Egyptian drawing, which was mentioned above. If the Baghdad battery were used everywhere, then a long time ago they would have found massive deposits of these batteries, and the annals would have mentioned them quite often. There is nothing of this at all. After the first battery, similar artifacts were found in the amount of 20 pieces, but that was all.

So what was the mysterious find for? Supporters of the non-electric theory argue that this artifact was a place to store a papyrus or parchment scroll. In the old days, sacred manuscripts were packed in just such vessels. Their necks, however, were not sealed with a resin cork, and the scrolls were not wound on a metal rod. In all other respects, the vessels were absolutely identical to those found. But then where did the scroll with the records go? Decayed, leaving behind only slightly acidic organic components.

Today, the mystery of the mysterious Iranian find has not been solved. It has been experimentally proven that a battery designed in this way is capable of delivering a voltage of 1.5 volts. She is not capable of more. But whether this design was used for purposes related to electricity - there is no clear and precise answer here. We probably will not get it for a long time, since the version of the electrification of the Ancient World contradicts official science. This is equivalent to the fact that at one time the church rejected the history of mankind before the creation of the world, which, as you know, came in 5508 BC. e.

The article was written by ridar-shakin

I, and maybe you, immediately remembered such an interesting topic and such an ancient object. Today, this amazing archaeological find is in the National Museum of Iraq (National Museum of Iraq), and is a clay vessel, the size of a man's fist.

According to modern history, the electric battery was invented in 1800 by Alexander Volta. The scientist noticed that when two dissimilar metal probes are placed in the tissues of a frog, a weak electric current appears. Moreover, the current also flowed when the electrodes were placed not in a living environment, but in some chemical solutions. Actually, with this, work on electricity began. However, the discovery of the Baghdad battery suggests that it was not Volta who invented the electric battery.

An object to be called a 2000-year-old electric battery (Baghdad Battery), in 1936. was found by workers leveling the ground for a new railway in the Kujut Rabu area, southeast of Baghdad. It turned out that the battery was located in an underground tomb of the Parthian period (247 BC - 228 AD).

Let's find out the details...

The find was an oval jug of bright yellow clay 13cm high with a rolled sheet of copper, an iron rod and several pieces of bitumen inside. The upper and lower edges of the copper cylinder were sealed with bitumen. The presence of bituminous seals suggests that liquid was once stored in the vessel. This is also confirmed by traces of corrosion on copper, which apparently appeared as a result of the action of an acid, presumably vinegar or wine. Similar artifacts were found near the cities of Seleucia (where a papyrus scroll was found in a similar jar) and Ctesiphon (where twisted sheets of bronze were found in a vessel).

In 1938 German archaeologist Wilhelm Koenig, who later headed the laboratory of the Baghdad Museum, discovered a strange object or several objects in the basement of the museum (the data does not match in different sources). Having made a thorough analysis, he came to the conclusion that the artifact is very similar to a galvanic cell, that is, it is the prototype of a modern electric battery. Koenig soon published an article in which he claimed that it was an ancient battery that was used to galvanize (transfer a thin layer of gold or silver from one surface to another) gold onto copper and silver objects. He also suggested that several batteries could be tied together to increase power.

Kujut-Rabu, where the artifact was found, is the site of an ancient settlement of the Parthians, who were excellent warriors, but did not differ in special development, so it was suggested that the Baghdad batteries could belong to other peoples. In addition to its functions, the bank does not stand out in anything special; it is made of materials common for that time and using conventional technologies. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine that someone could connect the right components in the right way to produce electricity. It is most likely that the Baghdad jar is an accidental result of someone's efforts. Willard F. M. Gray, an engineer at the main laboratory for high-voltage electricity in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, after reading Koenig's article, decided to create and test an exact copy of the ancient battery. Filling an earthenware jug with grape juice, vinegar, or copper sulfate solution, he obtained a voltage of 1.5-2V.

In 1999 students of Smith College (Massachusetts), under the guidance of professor of mathematics and history of science, Dr. Marjorie Seneschal, made several exact copies of the Baghdad artifact. They filled one of the jars with vinegar, and it gave a voltage of 1.1V. This experiment allows us to conclude that the Baghdad battery could produce a low power current, but what was it used for? It is generally accepted that the first known electric battery, the Voltaic column, was invented by the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta only in 1800, while the Baghdad battery dates back to 250 BC. BC. - 640g. AD So, if this was a primitive battery, where did the ancient Parthians get their knowledge of its design and how it works? Let us suppose that the Parthians, the eternal rivals of the Romans in the east, whose culture we know relatively poorly, could generate electricity by the most primitive means. But for what? Indeed, in Parthia, as in ancient Rome, we know this for sure! - did not use electric lamps, did not equip wagons with electric motors, did not build power lines.

And what if not? What if the “dark ages” are to blame for everything, depriving Europeans of historical memory? and the "age of electricity" did not come in the time of Faraday and Yablochkov, but in the pre-Christian era? “Electric lighting existed in ancient Egypt,” say Peter Krassa and Reinhard Habek, who dedicated their book to proving this idea. Their main argument is a relief from the temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera, created in 50 BC, during the time of Queen Cleopatra. This relief shows an Egyptian priest holding an oblong object in his hands, resembling the bulb of an electric lamp, a snake wriggling inside the bulb; her head is turned to the sky.

For Crassa and Habek, everything is clear, this relief is a technical drawing; the strange object is the lamp, and the snake allegorically represents the filament. With the help of such lamps, the Egyptians illuminated dark corridors and rooms. Here, for example, is why there is no soot on the walls of the rooms where the artists worked, which would have remained if they had used oil lamps. It's all about energy!

Look how beautiful it looks: while in the palace of the pharaoh, you watch Queen Cleopatra lead her friend Julius Caesar through a dark underground tunnel, in which bright electric lights suddenly flash.

Caesar is amazed and even a little scared. And Cleopatra, with an intonation of slight disdain, explains: “It is you, the enlightened Romans, who do not yet know this, but we have known this since ancient times!”

"Incredible!" you think. However, on the Internet you can find such statements.

The mysterious bright unquenchable sources of light have been known since ancient times. Plutarch wrote about the lamp that burned at the entrance to the temple of Jupiter-Ammon for several centuries. About the same bright
the source of light that burned in the head of the statue of Hera in the city of Herapolis (Syria) was written by the Greek satyr Lucian (120-180 AD). Pausanias (II century AD) spoke about an amazing golden lamp in the temple of Minerva,
burned unquenchably for a century.

In his writings, he described the same lamp that was in the temple of Isis (Egypt) St. Augustine (364-450 AD), which neither water nor wind could put out. The same lamp worked properly in Edessa during
reign of Justinian of Byzantium (VI century AD). The inscription on this lamp indicated that it had been burning for 500 years!

In the early Middle Ages, a lamp was discovered in England that had been burning since the 3rd century AD. Near Rome in 1401, a Pollant lantern was discovered, which burned in the tomb of his son for as long as this
unbelievable, for 2000 years! In 1550, on the island of Nesida, in the Gulf of Naples, during the opening of a well-preserved marble tomb, a brightly burning lamp was found, lit even before the beginning of our
era. On the famous Appian Way during the papacy of Paul III, a tomb was opened with the buried daughter of Cicero Tulliola. In this tomb, among the many extinguished ones, another eternal lamp on
over 1600 years.

But even if we discard the evidence of these ancient sources, as not very reliable, we can recall that the book Oedipus Egypticus, published in 1652 in Rome by the Jesuit Kircher, also speaks of
a real lighting lamp found in the dungeons of Memphis.

Among the famous persons who were direct or indirect witnesses of the work of these lamps were also: Clement of Alexandria, Paracelsus, Pliny, Solinus, and Albert Magnus. Interestingly, when opened
120 years after his death, the crypt of the founder of the Order of H. Rosicrucian was illuminated by a lamp hanging from the ceiling.

The modern scholar Andrew Thomas, who has studied the East for many years and has not been to India many times, writes: “During my stay in India, I got acquainted with an ancient document,
stored in the library of Ujjain - "Adastiya Samhita". Incredibly, there I found instructions on how to make an electric battery!

It looks like this: “... put a well-cleaned copper plate into a clay pot. Cover it first with copper sulfate, and then with wet sawdust. Next, put a zinc plate on top,
amalgamated with mercury. The contact of these plates will give energy, which is known as Mitra-Varuna.

This energy splits water into Pranavaya and Udanavaya - oxygen and hydrogen. A battery made from hundreds of these pots provides a very active and efficient power." Today we call Mitra-Varuna the anode and
cathode. It is known that in ancient India they also knew about electrical conductivity.

E.Thomas also tells about one godforsaken settlement located in the jungle near Mount Wilhelm in New Guinea. Almost completely isolated from modern civilization, this village has
an artificial lighting system that is in no way inferior to modern urban ones. Random hunters who were lucky enough to visit this village say that they were simply stunned when they happened to see many small moons burning brightly throughout the night.

These artificial lanterns were large balls mounted on poles. When the sun went down, these lamps began to shine with a light similar to neon lamps.

Funny hypotheses, but the truth in them all the same, not a volt. The power of the "Baghdad battery" is very small. Even if in ancient times rooms were illuminated with one-watt light bulbs - what kind of power is this, a glare of light, and not a ray of light in a dark kingdom! - would have to put together forty "Baghdad batteries". Such a design weighs tens of kilograms. “It would take 116 million batteries with a total weight of 233,600 tons to light all the Egyptian buildings,” physicist Frank Dernenburg meticulously calculated. There is no special faith in these figures either, but the meaning is clear: the galvanic elements of antiquity must come across to scientists at every turn. But it's not!

Electricians were also surprised. Even today, there is no gigantic incandescent lamp as depicted in this relief. And it's good that it doesn't. Such colossi are dangerous: after all, the force of destruction of the lamp under the action of atmospheric pressure increases as its volume increases. Egyptologists, on the other hand, interpret this relief in a completely different way than sensation lovers, masters of confusing centuries and discoveries. The relief is full of symbolism. The very hieroglyphic way of writing encouraged the Egyptians to see something else behind the images - what is meant. Reality and her image did not match. The elements of the Egyptian reliefs were rather words and phrases to be understood.

So, according to experts, the celestial barque of the sun god Ra is depicted on the relief in the Dendera. According to the Egyptians, the sun dies every day in the evening and rises at dawn. Here it is symbolized by a snake, which, as they believed in the country of the pharaohs, is reborn every time it sheds its skin. The most controversial element of the image is the notorious "flask". Even Egyptologists do not know how to interpret it. Perhaps it means "horizon". As for the environment in which the relief was created, the workers probably carved it by the light of ordinary lamps filled with, for example, olive oil. In the Valley of the Kings, archaeologists have come across images that show workers with similar lamps, you can see how they are given wicks and how workers return them in the evening. And why then are there no traces of soot on the walls and ceilings? And here is your lie! There are they. Archaeologists have found similar spots more than once.

I even had to restore some too smoky tombs. But if "Baghdad batteries" were not used to light dwellings and tombs, what were they for? Let us recall the hypothesis of the German archaeologist König, who believed that the electricity generated by the battery of Baghdad cans should have been sufficient for the galvanization of metals. Koenig discovered a Sumerian copper vase from 2500g. BC, covered with silver. According to him, the coating was applied using a device similar to the one found in Kujut Rabu, but there is no evidence of the existence of batteries in Sumer. Koenig argued that the artisans of modern Iraq still use primitive electrical techniques to cover copper jewelry with a thin layer of silver, as this method has been passed down from generation to generation since the time of the Parthian kingdom.

In 1978 Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht (at that time the director of the Romer-Pelizaes Museum in Hildesheim) tried to experimentally test Koenig's hypothesis. Using ten vessels, similar to the Baghdad battery, and a saline solution of gold, in a few hours the scientist covered the statuette of Osiris with an even layer of gold. The ancient masters were obviously capable of such a technical trick. Indeed, for the application of galvanic coatings, a current of small strength and low voltage is needed. Referring to the results of the experiment, Eggebrecht stated that many ancient museum exhibits, which are now considered gold, are actually made of gilded silver. Skeptical archaeologists point out that the mere demonstration of the possibility of using the find as a source of electric current does not prove that it was actually used that way. In addition, a layer of asphalt covers the copper cylinder completely, which eliminates the connection of wires from the outside.

Asphalt is also well suited for sealing vessels to preserve the contents, however, for this type of galvanic cells, sealing is not only unnecessary, but also counterproductive, as it prevents the possibility of adding or replacing electrolyte. According to another theory, the electricity generated by the battery was used in medicine. In the writings of ancient Greek and Roman authors, they found a lot of evidence for the existence of a rather complex system of knowledge about electricity in the ancient world.

The Greeks knew that pain could be relieved by applying an electric eel until the inflamed limb became numb. Gnus, or an electric stingray, which has an organ near its eyes that generates an electric current with a power of 50A and a voltage of 50 to 200V, was used as a weapon: it was used to jam small fish swimming by. The Roman writer Claudian describes the story of how a gnus was caught on a bronze hook and he hit the fisherman with an electric current that went through the water and tench. Information has also been preserved on the treatment of a number of diseases, from headaches to gout, by applying a pair of such electric rays to the patient's temples. It is known that the healers of Ancient Babylon used electric rays for local anesthesia. In addition, even the ancient Greeks discovered the static properties of electricity: by rubbing amber (in Greek “electron”) with a piece of fur, they found that the fur then attracted feathers, dust particles and straws. However, although the Greeks drew attention to such a strange phenomenon, they could not figure out why this was happening and probably considered it simply something surprising.

However, the claim that an electric battery was used to relieve pain has many opponents. The main shortcoming of the medical theory is the very low voltage of the battery, which hardly made it possible to effectively act on the patient's body, except for mild pain, although several such batteries connected together could give a more powerful electrical discharge. Agreeing in general with the version about the medical purpose of the Baghdad battery, Paul Keizer from the Canadian University of Alberta proposed a new hypothesis. His idea was prompted by bronze and iron needles discovered during excavations in Seleucia, not far from Babylon, next to battery-like devices. According to his version, the gist of which was published in a 1993 article, these needles could be used for a kind of electroacupuncture, a treatment method already known in China at that time.

Some researchers tend to believe in the ritual purpose of the Baghdad battery. An expert on the history of metallurgy from the British Museum's Research Department, Dr. Paul Craddock, suggested that a bunch of several ancient galvanic cells were placed inside a metal statue, and the worshipers, touching the idol, received a small shock, similar to the action of static electricity. This probably happened when they gave the wrong answer to a question asked by the priest. This amazing tingling effect was apparently perceived by believers as proof that the priest had magical powers, was the chosen one, so his temple was visited more than others.

Unfortunately, until such statues are found, the ritual use of galvanic cells remains just another curious theory. Tests of copies of the Baghdad battery were carried out repeatedly, but skeptics say: today there is no evidence that it ever functioned as an electric battery, and they note that the Parthians, the ancient creators of this device, were spoken of as great warriors, but nothing is said in the sources about their scientific achievements. And the fact that none of the surviving historical documents from that period mentions the use of electricity confirms their skepticism.

There are no electrolytically gilded statues among the archaeological finds of the Parthian period (they are all gilded by the well-known amalgamation process), nor wires, cables, or more complex examples of ancient batteries. Some researchers dispute the results of experiments with replica batteries, arguing that it is impossible to recreate the same conditions. In particular, the experiments of Dr. Arne Eggebrecht were carried out on fire. According to Dr. Bettina Schmitz, an employee of the Romer-Pelizaes Museum (where Eggebrecht conducted his experiments with a copy of the battery in 1978), no photographs or reports of Eggebrecht's experiments have survived.

At the same time, skeptics offer an alternative explanation for the electric battery theory. It is known that archaeologists have found similar “batteries” in which a copper rod was placed inside a copper cylinder; such devices clearly cannot generate current. Need a rod made of another metal. According to skeptics, the jugs were vessels for storing sacred scrolls made of materials of organic origin - parchment or papyrus, on which some ritual texts were written. As they decomposed, organic acids were released, which explains the presence of traces of corrosion on the copper cylinder, and the bituminous seal found near the Baghdad battery was not part of a galvanic cell, but a sealed lid that allowed the contents of the jug to be stored for a long time. Note that the "Baghdad battery" is almost identical to the vessels found from nearby Seleucia with a known function - they were used to store scrolls. Still, it cannot be denied that the device could serve as an electrical element. It is possible that the creator of this item did not fully understand the principles of what he used, as in the case of ancient Greek amber. And this case is not isolated. Many discoveries, such as gunpowder and the medicinal properties of herbs, were made before their usefulness could be determined.

However, even if it is proved that the Baghdad artifact is an ancient electric battery, there will be doubts that the ancient people of 2000 years ago were really aware of the phenomenon of electricity. Was the Baghdad battery the only find of its kind, and its creators the only representatives of the ancient world, who discovered (perhaps by accident) electricity? Obviously, it is necessary to look for new written or archaeological data confirming its uniqueness. Unfortunately, in 2003 During the Iraq War, the Baghdad battery, along with thousands of other valuable artifacts, was stolen from the National Museum. Today her whereabouts are unknown.

If a modern city is disconnected from the electricity supply for at least an hour, then a situation will inevitably arise in it, for which the mildest word would be collapse. And this is inevitable, to such an extent electricity has entered into everyday life. The question involuntarily arises - how did our ancestors manage without this type of energy for thousands of years? Were they completely devoid of her potential? Researchers do not have a clear answer to this question.

A find made on the outskirts of Baghdad

It is generally accepted that mankind became acquainted with electric current only in the second half of the 18th century, and this happened thanks to two irrepressible Italians who devoted their lives to the study of physical phenomena - Luigi Galvani and his successor Alexander Volta. It is thanks to these people that today electric trains are running along the rails, the lights are on in our houses, and the puncher starts to rumble at the neighbors at a late hour.

However, this undeniable truth was shaken by a discovery made in 1936 by the Austrian archaeologist Wilhelm Köning in the vicinity of Baghdad and called the Baghdad battery. History is silent about whether the researcher himself dug into the ground, or simply bought an artifact from local "black archaeologists". The latter even seems more likely, because otherwise some more curious things could have been discovered, but the world learned about only one unique find.

Thanks to Wilhelm Köning, humanity acquired an amazing artifact that outwardly resembled an ancient sand-colored one, whose height did not exceed fifteen centimeters, and, apparently, was two millennia old. The neck of the find was sealed with a resin plug, above which were visible the remains of a metal rod protruding from it, almost completely destroyed by corrosion over a long time.

After removing the resin plug and looking inside, the researchers found a thin copper sheet rolled up with a tube. Its length was nine centimeters, and its diameter was twenty-five millimeters. It was through it that a metal rod was passed, the lower end not reaching the bottom, but the upper end going out. But the strangest thing was that this whole structure was held in the air, reliably insulated with resin that covered the bottom of the vessel and clogged the neck.

How could this thing work?

Now a question to all those who conscientiously attended physics classes: what does it look like? Wilhelm Köning found an answer to it, because he was not one of the truants - this is to get electricity, or, more simply, the Baghdad battery!

As crazy as this idea seemed, it was hard to challenge. It is enough to conduct a simple experiment. It is necessary to fill the vessel with an electrolyte, which may well be grape or lemon juice, as well as vinegar, well known in antiquity.

Since the solution will completely cover the metal rod and the copper tube that are not in contact with each other, a potential difference will arise between them and an electric current will certainly appear. We refer all doubters to the textbook of physics for the eighth grade.

The current really goes, well, what's next?

After that, the ancient electrician had only to make sure that the Baghdad battery was connected by wires to some suitable consumer of energy - say, a floor lamp made from papyrus leaves. However, it could be a simple street lamp.

Anticipating the objections of skeptics about the fact that any lighting device needs at least one light bulb, let's give the arguments of the supporters of this, at first glance, a fantastic idea, and find out if people who lived long before our era could create an incandescent lamp, without which the ancient did the Baghdad battery lose all meaning?

What could a light bulb made in ancient Egypt look like?

It turns out that this is not excluded, at least they should not have had problems with glass, because, according to science, it was invented five thousand years ago by the ancient Egyptians. It is known that long before the appearance of the pyramids, on the banks of the Nile, by heating a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime to high temperatures, they began to obtain a vitreous mass. Despite the fact that at first its transparency left much to be desired, over time, and it was enough before our era, the process was improved, and as a result glass began to be obtained, close to its modern form.

The situation is more complicated with the incandescent filament, but even here the optimists do not give up. As their main argument, they cite a mysterious drawing found on the wall of an Egyptian tomb (a photo from it is given in our article). On it, the ancient artist depicted an object very similar to a modern lamp, inside which something resembling this very thread is clearly visible. The image of the cord connected to the lamp gives even more persuasiveness to the picture.

If not a lamp, then what?

To the objections of skeptics, optimists answer: “We agree that the picture may not depict a light bulb at all, but some kind of fruit grown by the ancient Michurinists, but how then to explain why no traces of soot from or torches were found on the ceilings of the rooms where the masters painted the walls? After all, there were no windows in the pyramids, and sunlight did not penetrate them, and it was impossible to work in complete darkness.

So, there was some kind of light source unknown to us. However, even if the ancients did not have any light bulbs, this does not mean at all that the Baghdad battery, described above, could not be used for some other purpose.

Another interesting hypothesis

In ancient Iran, on whose territory a sensational discovery was made, copper utensils covered with a thin layer of silver or gold were often used. From this, she benefited from an aesthetic point of view and became more environmentally friendly, since noble metals tend to kill microbes. But such a coating can only be applied by the electrolytic method. Only he gives the product a perfect look.

This hypothesis undertook to prove the German Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht. Having made ten vessels, exactly the same as the Baghdad battery, and filling them with a saline solution of gold, he managed in a few hours to cover a copper figurine of Osiris specially designed for the experiment with an even layer of noble metal.

Arguments of skeptics

However, in fairness, it is necessary to listen to the arguments of the opposite side - those who consider the electrification of the Ancient World an invention of idle dreamers. In their arsenal, there are mainly three weighty arguments.

First of all, they quite reasonably notice that if the Baghdad battery were really a galvanic cell, then it would be necessary to periodically add electrolyte to it, and the design, in which the neck is filled with resin, did not allow this. Thus, the battery became a disposable device, which in itself is unlikely.

In addition, skeptics point out that if the Baghdad battery is really a device for generating electricity, then among the finds of archaeologists, all kinds of related attributes, such as wires, conductors, and so on, must inevitably have been found. In fact, nothing of the sort could be found.

And, finally, the strongest argument can be considered an indication that so far the use of any electrical devices has not been mentioned in the monuments of ancient writing, which would be inevitable in their mass use. There are also no pictures of them. The only exception is the ancient Egyptian drawing, which was described above, but it does not have an unambiguous interpretation.

So what is it?

So for what purpose was the Baghdad battery created? The purpose of this intriguing artifact is explained by opponents of the electrical theory in an extremely prosaic way. In their opinion, it served only as a storage place for ancient papyrus or parchment scrolls.

In their statement, they rely on the fact that in ancient times it was really customary to store the scrolls in clay or ceramic vessels similar to this one, however, without sealing the neck with resin and not winding them on metal rods. They are not at all able to explain the purpose of the copper tube. The fate of the scroll itself, allegedly kept inside, is also unclear. He could not have rotted so much that he left no traces behind him.

An artifact that did not want to reveal its secret

Alas, the secrets of the Baghdad battery remain unsolved to this day. As a result of experiments, it was possible to establish that a device of this design is indeed capable of generating a current of one and a half volts, but this does not at all prove that Wilhelm Köning's find was used in this way. There are very few supporters of the electrical theory, because it contradicts the official data of science, and anyone who encroaches on them runs the risk of being branded as an ignoramus and a charlatan.

In 1936, a strange object came to the German researcher Wilhelm Koenig, who worked in the Archaeological Museum of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

It was found among the ruins of an ancient Parthian settlement near Baghdad. (The Parthians ruled here, in the territory of ancient Mesopotamia, in 250 BC - 224 AD)

It was a nondescript clay vase about 15 cm high. It contained a cylinder of sheet copper with a rusted iron rod inserted into it.

All these details were filled with resin, gluing them together - asphalt deposits existed in that area.

Koenig examined a strange object and suddenly realized what had fallen into his hands. It was the remains of an electric battery! It follows that the Parthians already used electric current at that time - almost two thousand years before the discoveries of Luigi Galvani (1737-1798) and Alessandro Volta (1745-1827). But it is these scientists who are considered the inventors of the electric battery. Koenig's conclusion seemed incredible.

And that's when the Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht got down to business. He made exactly the same "vase", rod, cylinder. He filled the "vase" with wine vinegar and connected a measuring device to it. The sensor recorded a voltage of 0.5 V.

Eggebrecht suggested why the Parthians might need electricity. In his collection was a small silver figurine of the Egyptian god Osiris, created around 400 BC. It is covered with an unusually thin layer of gilding. Eggebrecht has long been trying to understand how the ancient master managed to evenly cover the figurine with gold.

The scientist took a silver copy of the figurine and immersed it in a salt solution of gold. Then he connected 10 batteries in series, that is, clay "vases", and connected this power source to the solution. In just a few hours, the figurine was covered with a thin layer of gold.

And yet questions remain. How did the Parthians discover electricity? Indeed, without measuring instruments, a voltage of 0.5 V cannot be detected. Even the tiny battery we put in an electric flashlight generates three times the voltage.

After 18 centuries, Galvani made his discovery by pure chance. He noticed that if plates of different metals are attached to the frog's foot, then its muscles will involuntarily contract from an electric shock.

Perhaps the ancients also accidentally discovered electricity? And how did they understand that wires must be connected to the battery? How did you guess that with the help of current it is possible to precipitate the gold contained in the solution? I wonder if other countries knew about this discovery? After all, batteries have probably been used for centuries. Alas, we know nothing about this.

An electric battery, or the term "battery" most common in everyday life, is one of the most widely used sources of electricity in the modern world. They are used in electrical appliances.

An electric battery is very convenient to use, as it allows you to generate electric current anywhere and anytime. An electric battery powers various electrical appliances, flashlights, alarm clocks, watches, cameras and more. However, the life of the battery is not long because the chemical components it contains are gradually consumed.

Electric batteries come in many shapes, capacities and sizes, from the head of a pin to several hundred square meters. Very powerful lead and nickel-cadmium batteries are found in power systems, used as backup power sources or for leveling electrical loads.
The largest such battery was commissioned in 2003 in Fairbanks (Fairbanks, Alaska, USA); it consists of 13,760 nickel-cadmium cells and is connected via an inverter and a transformer to a 138 kV network. The rated voltage of the battery is 5230 V and the energy capacity is 9 MWh; the service life of the elements is from 20 to 30 years. 99% of the time it works as a reactive power compensator, but if necessary, it can supply 46 MW power to the network for three minutes (or 27 MW power for 15 min). The total mass of the battery is 1500 t, and its manufacture cost 35 million dollars. In the event of an emergency, it will be able to supply electricity to a city of 12,000 within 7 minutes. Batteries with even greater storage capacity are available; one such battery (with an energy capacity of 60 MWh) is installed as a backup power source in California (California, USA) and can supply 6 MW power to the network for 6 hours.

When did the first electric batteries appear?

The first batteries appeared as early as 250 BC. The Parthians who lived in the Baghdad region made primitive batteries. An earthenware jug was filled with vinegar (electrolyte), then a copper cylinder and an iron rod were placed, the ends of which rose above the surface. Such batteries were used for electroplating silver.

However, until the late 1700s, scientists did not conduct serious experiments with the generation, storage and transmission of electricity. Attempts to create a continuous and controlled electric current did not lead to success.

In 1800, the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta created the first modern battery, which is known as the voltaic column.

This device was a cylinder, with copper and zinc plates placed inside, surrounded by an electrolyte consisting of vinegar and brine. The plates were stacked alternately and did not touch each other. As a result of a chemical reaction, electricity began to be generated. The most important advantage of his invention was that, unlike previous experiments, the current in the column was low and its strength could be controlled.

Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom Volta presented his invention, was impressed by the physicist's invention and bestowed on him the title of Count. In addition, to emphasize the importance of this discovery, the unit of electromotive force was named after Volt. Despite the fact that the invention of A. Volta did not at all resemble the electric battery that we are well aware of, the principle of its operation remains the same to this day.