FORVM`s Classical Numismatics Discussion Board
Numismatic and History Discussion Forums => History and Archeology => Topic started by: cliff_marsland on January 02, 2010, 04:31:56 pm
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I happened upon the episode of Mythbusters where they recreate the medieval Baghdad battery. My main question is; any ideas what it was used for? Their theories included electroplating, invoking a religious experience through electric shock, etc.
By the way, theirs averaged about 0.4 volts per battery.
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Can't have been electric shock then, unless they had some sort of capacitor to go with it.
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Connecting more than one battery in series would increase the voltage, i.e. two batteries would provide 0.8v, three 1.2v and so on. Connecting batteries in parallel would increase the current but the voltage would remain at 0.4v. Connecting batteries in a combination of series and parallel would increase both the voltage and the current.
It is therefore perfectly feasible to obtain enough power for a small electric shock, whether or not this was actually done in ancient times though is a moot point.
Alex.
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Reminds me of school one time. Someone had got hold of a small hand-cranked generator. Everyone stood in a circle, hands held, while someone turned the handle....
Not a religious experience, but shocking, all the same!
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My main question is; any ideas what it was used for?
I think the only correct answer is: We don't know! That it was used as battery seems to be impossible.
Best regards
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Hello Jochen,
I agree that it's hard to believe that it was used as a power supply, but I can't exclude it, either. Can you name a reason why it seems impossible?
Stefan
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Hi quisquam!
Only Wilhelm König, who has found this Object in 1936, has examined it and has published in 1938 his suggestion that it is an ancient battery. After his examinations nobody has examined this object again!
It is said that this object provides a voltage of about 0.5 V. But the found object doesn't provide any voltage. Only reproductions were used. That should we have in mind. And all these reproductions were modified in details.
The original vessel was made from unglazed clay. This clay is not able to keep the electrolyte longer than some minutes.
The original vessel was closed airtight by an bitumen bung. Reproductions with the same airtight bung could provide their voltage only for a short time.
These are only two arguments. Now I'm not a specialist of this mystery object. I have these informations from sceptical articles. In the discussion of the German Wikipedia article one collaborator has said: May be that this object was on the way to a battery but the suggested inventor seems to have died before he was ready or he has lost his interest because it has not worked.
Best regards
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Thanks a lot, Jochen.
I should have consulted wikipedia and the weblinks myself before asking.
Best regards
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Is it not a characteristics of these times that when I read "Baghdad Battery" in the headline I was expecting a discussion on late Medieval siege engines, or somesuch..?
//Auto
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Is it not a characteristics of these times that when I read "Baghdad Battery" in the headline I was expecting a discussion on late Medieval siege engines, or somesuch..?
//Auto
Same here.
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The "Baghdad battery" is what they called it on Mythbusters, a U.S. television program on the Discovery Channel.
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I don't see why, If it existed as a battery, we wouldn't have loads of evedence proving it.
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Mythbusters could not prove anything with a small battery, the Battery they had and archeologist are finding, are nothing more than a Religious artifact. The full size battery (s) King Solomon made for the Temple. Read more about it in the book.
"Tables of the Moneychangers "
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/tables-of-the-moneychangers/4767013
The author describes in this book, a new method of Bible study, which he developed, to reveal ancient technologies. By combining several different versions of the Bible, the author developed his theory. For the past ten years, he researched these technologies to validate his theory. The book reveals methods of gold and silver refining, performed in Solomon's Temple. The author also discloses how King Solomon's gold mine operated. The operation of the Baghdad battery, and where it was first used, for the purpose of refining silver, in order to recover gold is also described. In addition, the process of recovering metals, from animal sacrifices, is revealed. The book describes the tables of the moneychangers, how they were operated and why Jesus was so quick to destroy them.
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If, be 'versions' he means translations, then that's no way to study the text. If he's serious, he needs to go back to the original languages. All translation is paraphrase, after all.
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Table of the Money Changers combines pseudohistory with pseudoscience. Read with caution.
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I read somewhere that those jars were just containers to keep parchment scrolls. The scroll would have been rolled around the iron pin and kept safe inside the copper cilinder, which was inside the hermetically sealed jar.
If the battery theory would be correct, it was only an experiment. There are only very few remains, there's no litterary source for a power which could resemble electricity and they had no use for it (although I do remember a show a couple of years ago on some "alien light bulbs" *lol*). So the technology behind it wasn't widespread.