Table of contents:
- Self-study of electricity
- How twitching frogs led to the battery
- The “artificial, electrical organ” is invented
- The first stable power source was invented
- Excursus: The "Baghdad Battery"
- Did batteries exist 2000 years ago?
Video: The Development Of The First Battery
2023 Author : Hannah Pearcy | [email protected] . Last modified: 2023-06-05 00:21
Exactly 275 years ago, Alessandro Volta was born, the man to whom we owe a groundbreaking invention: the first battery . Volta, born on February 18, 1745 in Como, Italy, thus paved the way for electrical engineering and electronics and, with the first usable, continuous power source, made it possible to research electricity and numerous inventions from it. But one after the other.
Self-study of electricity
Volta's parents initially wanted him to pursue a legal career. However, his passion was for physics, and so, while still studying law, he became self-educated in the teaching of electricity and made contacts with the greats of physics.
He soon devoted himself entirely to physics: in 1775 he invented electrophoresis - a device that produces and transports static electricity generated by influence (electrostatic induction). He discovered methane and its explosive properties and coined the word "voltage". Finally, in 1778, he became a professor of physics and the chair of experimental physics at the University of Pavia.
How twitching frogs led to the battery
At that time, it emerged that the natural scientist Luigi Galvani made a far-reaching discovery: in experiments with frog legs, he found that the muscles started to twitch as soon as they were touched with interconnected copper and iron.
The doctor and anatomist was certain to have discovered a new form of electricity and called it " animal electricity ". This electricity opened up through the metal and the frog was the capacitor, so Galvani was sure.
Volta knew how to interpret the phenomenon correctly: " Galvanism ", as he called it, was a simple muscle contraction through electrical current, and the twitching frog was rather a kind of detector, a current indicator. Galvani accidentally managed to create a circuit.
What may seem obvious to us today has sparked a year-long argument in the world of science about who was right: Volta or Galvani. One of the consequences of this was that Volta dealt intensively with contact electricity and finally came to his greatest invention: the first battery, or "Volta's column ", as he called it. This disproved Galvani.
The “artificial, electrical organ” is invented
The Volta column is considered the first functioning battery and was developed by Volta around 1800 and introduced to science. The column consists of many stacked copper and zinc flakes, which are separated by pieces of cardboard or leather soaked in electrolyte.
One element of the column thus consists of a copper foil, an electrolyte layer and a zinc foil. Alternatively, silver can be used instead of copper and tin can also be used instead of zinc. A single element provides very little energy , which is why many of these elements were used in a voltaic column.
Alessandro Volta on the “Volta column”
And this is how the Volta column works: The base metal goes into solution at the negative pole, the anode. As the zinc plate dissolves, each zinc atom releases two electrons, resulting in an excess of electrons in the zinc electrode. A reduction takes place in the positive electrode, the cathode, and copper ions discharge. The electrons move from the anode to the cathode, and electrical current flows.
The first stable power source was invented
Of course, the first electric battery was far from mature and had many disadvantages. The constant further development ultimately brought us the invention that today makes many technical achievements possible.
The Volta column had great effects on science: With the first stable power source, electrolysis could be invented and for the first time many base metals could be represented. Electrical telegraphy began, and the first electrical lighting using arc lamps, albeit incredibly ineffective, was invented. Even an electric boat drove for the first time in 1839 - powered by a Volta column.
With this invention and his contribution to the study of electricity, Volta also made his name immortal: when the unit for electrical voltage was established at the end of the 19th century, it was agreed on “volts” . However, Volta no longer receives this honor: he dies in 1827.
Excursus: The "Baghdad Battery"
Did batteries exist 2000 years ago?
When a Parthian settlement was excavated in 1936, scientists came across a remarkable clay pot. Inconspicuous from the outside, there is a cylinder made of sheet copper and an iron rod in the vessel. The former excavation director Wilhelm König put forward the theory that it could be an antique battery. To date, the find is dated to around 300 BC. BC, known as the "Baghdad battery ". In fact, the setup could have produced electricity: in a replica, scientists added a vinegar solution as an electrolyte to the vase, and current flowed at a voltage of 0.5 volts .
However, there is still no confirmation - or refutation - of this theory. Since no accessories such as wires were ever found, and only similar vases with different, non-battery-like contents, scientists today assume that the "Baghdad battery" was more of a cult object .
