THE BAGHDAD BATTERY

In 1938 the Director of the National Museum of Iraq, Wilhelm König, discovered a number of curious terracotta pots in the archives. Each one was approximately 13 cm in height with a capped 3.3 cm opening at the top. Each pot contained an open-ended copper cylinder and inside this was a small iron rod. These artefacts strongly resembled simple galvanic batteries and in 1940 König published a scientific paper proposing that these objects may well have been used to generate electrical current which could have been used for electroplating objects with either gold or silver. Mainstream archaeologists continue to doubt this theory even though reproductions using lemon juice as an electrolyte have been proven to work and no other sensible explanation exists for the iron and copper contents. The pots are likely to have been created during the Sassanid Period (224 AD - 640 AD). The debate continues.

(pic-"EXAMPLE OF A BAGHDAD BATTERY"----Discovered in the archives of the National Museum of Iraq in 1938. Believed to have been originally excavated in 1936 in the village of Khuyut Rabbou'a. Capable of generating between 0.75 and 1.1 volts. )





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