In the past century, excavations of ancient ruins near Baghdad have unearthed vases of unusual origin.
They were made of yellow clay, and inside each was a cylinder of a sheet of copper.
The edges of the copper cylinder were soldered with a lead-tin alloy, similar to the alloy of today. The bottom of the cylinder was bonded with bitumen.
Another insulating layer of bitumen, or asphalt, sealed the cylinder and held in place an iron bar set in the center.
The rods showed signs of corrosion after contact with an acidic reagent. The find itself was accidentally discovered by a worker leveling the ground.
In 1938, Wilhelm Koenig, a German archaeologist who headed the laboratory of the Baghdad Museum, discovered in the basement some objects that resembled a galvanic element of our times.
In 1971, a copy of an ancient battery was made by Arne Eggbrecht. It was filled with juice from grapes, according to the Egyptologist, the Parthians used this particular liquid. What a surprise the researcher was when he saw how his battery gave a charge of 0.87V. He used current from a battery to galvanize the silver figurines with gold.
Thus, it was established that electric batteries were in use about 1800 years ago, before their modern prototypes appeared, as a result of the development of Alessandro Volta in 1799. In addition, it was hypothesized that these batteries were used on a much larger scale, for example, in ancient Egypt, where objects with traces of galvanic precious metals were found. In addition, there are several other finds from other regions.
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There are many opinions on where the batteries were used. Some say they could have been used for medicinal purposes. The ancient Greeks described the effect of electric fish on the soles of the feet. The Chinese, by then, had developed acupuncture, and they still use acupuncture in combination with electric shock.
But the tension is too little to relieve the pain, whereas opium and wine did much better at this problem. But most scientists believe that the batteries were used for the electroplating process. The most efficient and economical process of gilding was metal electrodeposition.