The Baghdad Battery

Today batteries can be found in any grocery, drug, convenience and department store you come across. Well, here's a battery that's 2,000 years old! Known as the Baghdad battery, this curiosity was found in the ruins of a Parthian village believed to date back to between 248 B.C. and 226 A.D. The device consists of a 5-1/2-inch high clay vessel inside of which was a copper cylinder held in place by asphalt, and inside of that was an oxidized iron rod. Experts who examined it concluded that the device needed only to be filled with an acid or alkaline liquid to produce an electric charge. It is believed that this ancient battery might have been used for electroplating objects with gold. If so, how was this technology lost... and the battery not rediscovered for another 1,800 years?

Whats your thoughts on this guys...is it just another fake?

paranormal.about.com...://www.tmeg.com/artifacts/elect/a%5Felect.htm



www.abovetopsecret.com...

I remember hearing about ancient batteries in my jr. high science classes (15 years ago), so I'm inclined to think this isn't a hoax. Or maybe my teacher was a nut.

Its a kinda interesting theroy! And this was held in the museum there,

But as i recall the Baghdad museum was raided when
the war started so i wonder if its even there now?

A battery is one thing but what would they use it for is annother thing?

As I hear it, the battery was rather weak, so they speculate that it was most likely used only for electroplating.

Exactly.... Just because man had the wheel for a long time, it still took a while to make a car

It appears they knew of the tech, but only used it for electroplating....

Originally posted by asala

But as i recall the Baghdad museum was raided when
the war started so i wonder if its even there now?

Didn't we learn that the museum's curator had hidden nearly everything of value (the stuff the media reported was stolen) prior to the invasion and that 99% of the stuff was recovered from this stash once she finally felt it was safe to come forward?

It may also have been used for medicinal purposes. Though the electric output was not great,I think it is possible that they were used for a massage effect.

Some have suggested the batteries may have been used medicinally.

The ancient Greeks wrote of the pain killing effect of electric fish when applied to the soles of the feet.

The Chinese had developed acupuncture by this time, and still use acupuncture combined with an electric current. This may explain the presence of needle-like objects found with some of the batteries.

But this tiny voltage would surely have been ineffective against real pain, considering the well-recorded use of other painkillers in the ancient world like cannabis, opium and wine.
news.bbc.co.uk...

Maybe they used it to chromeplate their chariot wheels.

Maybe they used it to chromeplate their chariot wheels.

yep, you always knew the bad Greeks....they were the ones with the lowered chariots, and a bass drummer, adorned with the fuzzy dice....

I bet they would cruise around the streets at night looking to pick up chicks in revealing gowns.

Good find, Stichen thought the batery was alein inspired.

Some have suggested the batteries may have been used medicinally.

Egypt used them medicinally, or at least that is what the discovery channel said. They had found one in the possions of a anciant doctor

Yeah I agree with the medicinal or massage idea.

These batteries would nto have produced much voltage individually, but many in series could.




A 9 volt battery is realy 6 individual 1.5 volt batteries in series.

Using this you can generate very high voltages with batteries.

You just need a lot of them.....

Earth Battery

Or they could have been filled with earth or animal dung, allowed to rest for a day or 2, and voila, you've got an earth battery.

and we in this time and age think we are so advanced..... we have forgotten more of the ancients secrets than we will ever learn.

Originally posted by lilwolf
and we in this time and age think we are so advanced..... we have forgotten more of the ancients secrets than we will ever learn.

Depends on your criteria. In almost all areas I can think of the present culture is more 'advanced' than the earlier ones. The Baghdad battery - if it was a battery was very weak and may have had no industrial use. Its use in the classical period may have been for religious reasons or it may just have been experimental. My own view is it wasn't a battery.

On it's own, maybe not, but lots of them put together would build the power. Some of our larger commercial batteries are actually just housing lots of smaller batteries inside.

I believe in the Medicinal purpose for this battery.

We use similar devices today, like the tens machine (spelling?) small electrical discharges used by pregnant women, and now used for the control of many Neurological symptoms, I have one I was given by the hospital, after bypass surgery left me with nerves which misfire wildly across my chest, this helps when it becomes really painful, usually gets bad when I wear heavy clothing, the pressure against the skin can be painful.

I could see it being used for the likes of back pain or a lot of other painful symptoms caused by a lot of illnesses.

If your not sure what I mean, the machine is like those body toning gizzmo's, small electric pulses stimulate the muscles and help tone them up, taken to the extreme by some who want the body, but wont do the exercise.

Can be a little shocking at first (pardon pun) but once you get used to it it becomes almost pleasurable.

It would have to give out a constant stimulous though, by the looks of this battery.

However in reality, it was probably used to power up the Baghdad lightbulb, which we haven't found yet.