The history of the battery

Batteries are so ubiquitous today that they are almost invisible to us. Whether it's AA batteries in a wall clock or the battery in a smartphone, these small energy sources are everywhere. Nevertheless, they are a remarkable invention with a long and storied history and an equally exciting future.

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A battery is essentially a device that stores chemical energy that is converted into electricity. Basically, batteries are small chemical reactors where the reaction produces energetic electrons that are ready to flow through the external device.

Batteries have been with us for a long time. In 1938, the director of the Baghdad Museum found the so-called Baghdad Battery in the basement of the museum. Analysis dated it to around 250 B.C. The American scientist and inventor Benjamin Franklin first used the term battery in 1749, when he conducted experiments with electricity using a set of interconnected capacitors. However, the first real battery was invented in 1800 by the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta. Volta stacked disks of copper and zinc separated by a cloth soaked in salt water. Wires connected to both ends of the stack generated a continuous stable current. Each cell - a set of one copper and one zinc disk and the salt solution) generated 0.76 volts. A multiple of this value results from the number of cells stacked together.

One of the longest-lasting batteries, the lead-acid battery, was invented in 1859 and is still the technology used to start most cars with combustion engines today. It is the oldest example of a rechargeable battery. Nowadays, batteries come in different sizes, from large megawatt sizes that store electricity from solar farms or substations to ensure a stable supply in entire villages or islands, to tiny batteries like those used in electronic watches.

Batteries are based on different chemical properties that generate basic cell voltages typically in the range of 1.0 to 3.6 V. Stacking the cells in series increases the voltage, while connecting them in parallel improves the power supply. This principle is used to add the required voltages and currents up to megawatt sizes. There is now great expectation that battery technology will take another leap forward as new models are developed that have enough capacity to store the electricity generated by domestic solar or wind systems and then power a home for a few days at a more convenient time (usually at night).