Fact of the Day More Information The battery consists of a clay jar with a copper cylinder encased iron rod inside. The device would have been filled with an electrolytic liquid (grape juice, etc.) and topped with asphalt. Tests have proven that this device could produce about 2 volts of electricity. Because there was such a severe absence of electronic devices 2000 years ago, many assume the batter was used to melt gold onto silver. Another theory suggests that the battery was used as a magic power. The fact that this combination could produce a small electric shock might have astonished the people of the time to the point where it seemed out of this world. As far as medicine is concerned, small shocks may have been able to relieve pains in an acupunctural fashion.
On a more bizarre note, there is a science fiction approach to determining the inventors of these batteries. There are many people convinced that aliens came from another planet with this technology. What I don’t understand is why these people give so much credit to otherworldly creatures. In actuality, if we are ever to find live on other planets it will most likely not be autonomous, let alone intelligent, beings. If anything is probable, it is that humans (who eventually did come across electricity again, and have harnessed it as so) discovered these principles on a whim. Maybe this was just one person experimenting in his own backyard with these materials, maybe he showed it to no one. View All Facts View Images View Maps Blog
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