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KF5JRV > TECH 01.07.16 13:53l 48 Lines 2362 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 5294_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Baghdad Batteries
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<F1OYP<ON0AR<GB7CIP<ZS0MEE<N9PMO<NS2B<N0KFQ<KF5JRV
Sent: 160701/1147Z 5294@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK1.4.65
Baghdad Batteries?
The so called `Baghdad batteries' are clay vases, or jars, inside of
which is a copper cylinder and inside the cylinder is an iron bar
protruding a stopper made of asphalt. They are just 5 inches tall
(13cm). Apparently such a vessel showed signs of corrosion, and
early tests revealed that an acidic agent, such as vinegar or wine
had been present.
Baghdad-BatteryIt turns out that nobody really knows for sure what
their purpose was or even their exact age. Accounts about these
batteries are in fact varied and inconclusive. Some has said they
are from about 250 BC - 225 AD, a period known as Parthian era.
Others have commented, for example, how the artistic nature of
the pots suggests they are from a different and younger era
altogether, the work of the Sassanian People, who lived from
250 AD - 650 AD. Never the less, this would still be an impressive
age in the past at which to be designing batteries.
It was Wilhelm Konig, a German archeologist and director of the
Baghdad museum, who originally put forward the idea that they
were batteries in 1938. It has been thought they may have been
used for electroplating.
Replicas have been produced and experiments have found that a
voltage from 0.8 to nearly two volts can be produced. There are
accounts also of Dr Arne Eggebrecht in the late seventies
connecting several replicas of the `batteries' together using
grape juice as an electrolyte and he claimed to have deposited
a thin layer of silver on to another surface, just one ten
thousandth of a millimetre thick. Other researchers dispute
theses findings on account of a lack of documentation that
ought to have accompanied these experiments but which hasn't
been produced. There are no photographs either to provide
evidence of the work. Anyhow, it is not so much the voltage as
the current produced that is the important, limiting factor in
the process and it is doubted that even several these batteries
together could have produced the power necessary. It has also
been pointed out for comparison that merely sticking a probe
into a lemon provides a greater electrical current than one
of these clay vases, and that would be a much cheaper method
to achieve a result.
So what was there purpose and how might they have worked,
if at all?
Perhaps they were pots containing scrolls?
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