According to modern history, the electric battery was invented in 1800 by Alassandro Volta. The scientist noticed that when two dissimilar metal probes are placed in the frog's tissue, a weak electric current is generated. Moreover, the current flowed even when the electrodes were placed not in a living environment, but in some chemical solutions. Actually, this is how the work on electricity began. However, the discovery of the Baghdad battery suggests that the electric battery was not invented by Volta
The Baghdad Battery was first described by the German archaeologist Wilhelm Konig in 1938. Today it is not known for sure whether he excavated the battery on his own or found it in the storerooms of a museum, but it is known that it was found in the place of Khujut Rabu outside Baghdad.
The Baghdad bank is about 2,000 years old and consists of an earthen vessel with a bitumen cork pierced with iron rods. Inside the can, the rods are surrounded by a copper cylinder. Koenig decided that such a design might be characteristic of an electric battery and published an article about this discovery in 1940.
The study of the Baghdad bank ceased with the outbreak of World War II. After graduation, Willard FM Gray of the General Electric High Voltage Laboratory in Massachusetts replicated the work of the Baghdad Bank. He poured the analog of a can with grape juice, which is an electrolyte. It turned out that the Baghdad bank can provide voltage up to two volts.
Sectional view of the Baghdad battery
Not all scientists agree that the Baghdad bank can be called electric and believe that it could be used to store papyri.
Kujut Rabu is a place of an ancient settlement of the Parthians, who were excellent warriors, but did not differ in special development, therefore archaeologists believe that the Baghdad banks could belong to other peoples.
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Apart from its functions, the bank does not stand out in anything special; it is made of materials common for that time and using conventional technologies. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine that someone could correctly connect the correct components to generate electricity. Most likely, the Baghdad bank is an accidental result of someone's efforts.
If the Baghdad find could produce electricity, what could it be used for? In particular, for electroplating. If this is the case, then some of the gold museum exhibits may be only gilded. However, so far no statements about the discovery of such finds have been reported to the press.
"Baghdad Battery" - was created presumably 2000 years ago (Parthian period between 250 BC and 250 AD). The "jar" was found in Khujut Rabu near Baghdad and consists of an earthen vessel with a bitumen stopper. An iron rod surrounded by a copper cylinder is passed through the plug. If the jar is filled with wine vinegar, the "battery" develops a voltage of approx. 1.1 volts. Reliable evidence of the use of the "can" has not survived, but scientists are inclined to believe that the device (if it really was a battery!) Could be used in the technological process of applying gilding.
The famous Baghdad battery is believed to have been made about 2000 years ago. a strange vessel found in the vicinity of Baghdad is made of an earthen container with a stopper made of asphalt. a copper cylinder is stuck into the asphalt, and an iron rod is in the middle of the cylinder. if the vessel is filled with vinegar or some kind of juice, you get a current source with a voltage of the order of 1.1 V. there is no written evidence regarding the use of such devices in antiquity. scientists believe that batteries, if they were batteries, were used to electroplate copper or silver objects with gold.
The structure of the Baghdad battery
A few years after the discovery, Koenig published an unexpected hypothesis. The jug could serve as a galvanic cell - in other words, a battery. Experiments have also confirmed this. Scientists made the same jug, filled it with wine vinegar, connected a voltmeter and made sure that a voltage of 0.5 volts was created between the iron and copper. a little, but still!
This means that the Parthians - the eternal rivals of the Romans in the East, whose culture we know relatively little - could generate electric current by the most primitive means. But for what? Indeed, in Parthia, as in ancient Rome - we know this for sure! - did not use electric lamps, did not equip the carts with electric motors, did not erect power lines.
What if not? what if the "dark ages" are to blame for everything, depriving Europeans of their historical memory? and the "age of electricity" did not come in the days of Faraday and Yablochkov, but in the pre-Christian era?
"Electric lighting was available in ancient Egypt," say Peter Crassa and Reinhard Habek, who have devoted their book to proving this idea. Their main argument is the relief from the temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera, created in 50 BC, during the time of Queen Cleopatra. This relief shows an Egyptian priest holding an oblong object in his hands, reminiscent of the bulb of an electric lamp. a snake wriggles inside the flask; her head is turned towards the sky.
For Crassa and Habek, everything is clear. this relief is a technical drawing; a strange object is a lamp, and a snake allegorically represents a filament. With the help of such lamps, the Egyptians illuminated dark corridors and rooms. for example, why there is no soot on the walls of the rooms where the artists worked, which would have remained if they had used oil lamps. it's all about energy!
A funny hypothesis, but not a volt of truth in it. The capacity of the "Baghdad battery" is very small. even if in ancient times rooms were illuminated with one-watt bulbs - what is this power? light flare, not a ray of light in the dark kingdom! - would have to put together forty "Baghdad batteries". This design weighs tens of kilograms. "To illuminate all Egyptian buildings, 116 million batteries with a total weight of 233,600 tons would be needed," physicist Frank Dernenburg meticulously calculated. There is no particular faith in these figures either, but the meaning is clear: the galvanic elements of antiquity must come across scientists at every step. But this is not the case!
Electricians were surprised too. Even today, there is no such gigantic incandescent lamp as depicted in this relief. And it's good that it isn't. Such colossi are dangerous: after all, the force of destruction of the lamp under the influence of atmospheric pressure increases as its volume increases.
Egyptologists, however, interpret this relief in a completely different way than those who love sensations, masters of confusing centuries and discoveries. the relief is full of symbolism. The very hieroglyphic way of writing prompted the Egyptians to see behind the images something else - what is meant. reality and its image did not coincide. the elements of Egyptian reliefs were, rather, words and phrases to be understood.
So, according to experts, on the relief in the dendera, the heavenly barge of the sun god Ra is depicted. according to the beliefs of the Egyptians, the sun dies every day in the evening and rises at dawn. here it is symbolized by a snake, which, as was believed in the land of the pharaohs, is reborn every time it sheds its skin. the most controversial element of the image is the notorious "bulb". even Egyptologists don't know how to interpret it. perhaps it stands for horizon.
As for the setting in which the relief was created, the workers probably carved it under the light of ordinary lamps filled with, for example, olive oil. In the Valley of the Kings, archaeologists came across images in which workers with similar lamps are visible, you can see how they are given wicks and how in the evening the workers return them. Why then are there no traces of soot on the walls and ceilings? And here is your lie! they are. archaeologists have found similar spots more than once. They even had to restore some of the too smoky tombs.
But if “Baghdad batteries” were not used to illuminate dwellings and tombs, what were they for? the only acceptable explanation was given by the German Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht. in his collection there was a small statuette of the Egyptian god Osiris, covered with the finest layer of gold. Its age is approximately 2,400 years.
After making a copy of the figurine, Egebrecht immersed it in a bath of gold salt solution. Then I connected ten earthenware jars, similar to the "Baghdad battery", and connected this power source to the bath. A few hours later, an even layer of gold settled on the statuette. The ancient masters were obviously capable of such a technical trick. Indeed, for the application of galvanic coatings, a current of low strength and low voltage is needed.
And yet, mysteries remain. How did the Parthians discover the electric current? After all, a voltage of 0.5 volts cannot be detected without instruments. Luigi Galvani in 1790 discovered "animal electricity" by pure chance. he noticed that the muscles of a frog involuntarily contract if plates of different metals are simultaneously applied to its leg.
Perhaps the ancients also accidentally discovered electricity? And how did they guess that with the help of an electric current it is possible to precipitate the gold contained in the solution? and where was this discovery made, in Parthia or, judging by the statuette, in Egypt? and in other countries knew about it? after all, "batteries" have probably been used for more than one century. alas, we do not know anything about this. no written records have survived.
Was the battery really used for electroplating? from the fact that "it was possible," it does not follow: "it was so." And why do archaeologists find the same "batteries" in which a copper rod is placed inside a copper cylinder? they cannot generate current. You need a rod from a different metal. was it possible that the earthenware jars with metal inserts were intended for a different purpose?
On the other hand, ancestors should not be underestimated either. everything is forgotten. and some of the highest achievements of this or that culture, amazing secrets are lost after several centuries. wars, fires, destruction of written monuments only multiply oblivion. The ruins of ruined metropolises least of all resemble a solid archive or patent office, in which all the inventions of antiquity are carefully preserved. much has disappeared without a trace. it is possible that whole areas of science, the fruits of the activities of large scientific schools, the techniques of dynasties of artisans, which were passed on in secret, have been lost. and now, when archaeologists find an unusual artifact, they do not know how to explain its appearance. it becomes an insoluble riddle, a phrase from a book that has long been burned.