Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries by Brian Haughton (beginner reading books for adults txt) 📕

upon the strange object, or a series of objects (accounts differ) in a box in the museum basement. After a close examination, he realized that the artifact closely resembles a Galvanic cell, or modern electrical battery. Konig subsequently published a paper suggesting that the object was an ancient battery, possibly used for electroplating (transferring a thin film of gold or silver from one surface to another) gold onto silver objects. He also theorized that several batteries could have been attached to each other to increase their output. The most conservative date for the battery is now thought to be somewhere between 250 B.C. and A.D. 640, but the first known electric battery, the Voltaic pile, was not invented by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta until 1800. So if this was a primitive battery, where did the ancient Parthians acquire the knowledge to assemble it, and how did it work? After reading Konig's paper, Willard F.M. Gray, an engineer at the General Electric High Voltage Laboratory in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, decided to construct and test a replica of the ancient battery. When he filled the clay jar with grape juice, vinegar, or copper sulphate solution, he found that it generated about one and a half to two volts of electricity.

In 1978, Egyptologist Dr. Arne Eggebrecht, at the time director of the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum in Hildesheim, Germany, constructed a replica of the Baghdad Battery and filled it with grape juice. This replica generated 0.87 volts, which he used to electroplate a silver statuette with gold; the layer deposited being a mere 1/10,000 of a millimeter thick. As a result of this experiment, Eggebrecht speculated that many ancient items in museums that are presumed to be manufactured from gold may instead be gold-plated silver. More replicas of the Baghdad artifact were made in 1999 by students under the supervision of Dr. Marjorie Senechal, professor of mathematics and the history of science at Smith College in Massachusetts. The students filled one replica jar with vinegar, and it produced 1.1 volts. Judging by these experiments, the Baghdad Battery was obviously able to produce a small current, but what would it have been used for?

The most popular theory is the one originated by Konig, that when these cells were connected together in a series, the current generated would have been enough for electroplating metals. Konig found Sumerian copper vases plated with silver, dating back to 2500 B.C., which he speculated could have been electroplated using similar batteries to that discovered in Khujut Rabu, though no evidence of Sumerian batteries has ever been found. Konig pointed out that craftsmen in modernday Iraq still use a primitive electroplating technique to coat copper jewelry with a fine layer of silver. He thought it possible that the method was in use in the Parthian period and had been passed on down the years. In a slightly different form, the technique is known today in a process called gilding, where a layer of gold or silver is applied to a piece of jewelry.

Another theory regarding the electrical use of the batteries is that they were used medicinally. Ancient Greek and Roman writings indicate that there was a fairly sophisticated knowledge of electricity in the ancient world. The Greeks mention how pain could be treated by applying electric fish to the feet; sufferers would stand on an electric eel until the inflamed foot became numb. Torpedo or electric rays possess two electric organs behind their eye, and discharge 50 to 200 volts at 50 amps, which they use as a weapon to stun small prey that swim above them. The Roman writer Claudian described how a torpedo was caught on a bronze hook and emitted an effluence which spread through the water and up the line to give the fisherman a shock. It is recorded that Roman doctors would attach a pair of these electric rays onto a patient's temples in order to treat a range of illnesses, from gout to headaches. Ancient Babylonian doctors are also known to have used electric fish as a local anesthetic. The ancient Greeks also discovered one of the earliest examples of static electricity; when they rubbed amber (in Greek, electron) against a piece of fur, they found that the amber would afterward attract feathers, dust particles, and pieces of straw. However, although the Greeks noticed this strange effect, they had no idea what caused it and probably regarded it as a mere curiosity. But not everyone is convinced of the practicality of the battery for the treatment of pain.

The main problem with the theory of medicinal use is the very low voltage the battery produces, which some doubt would have had any noticeable effect on anything other than very minor pain. Again though, if a series of these batteries were connected together, there could have been enough electricity generated. Staying with an medicinal/electrical explanation for the Baghdad Battery, Paul T. Keyser of the University of Alberta in Canada, has postulated another use for the battery based on finds of bronze and iron needles discovered with the other battery-like devices unearthed at Seleucia, not far from Babylon. His suggestion, published in a 1993 paper, is that these needles may have been used for a kind of electro-acupuncture, a treatment already in use in China at the time.

Some researchers favor a ritual use for the Baghdad Battery. Dr. Paul Craddock, an expert in historical metallurgy from the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum, has proposed that a group of these ancient cells connected together may have been concealed inside a metal statue. Worshippers coming into contact with the idol would get a small electric shock, similar to that of static electricity, possibly when giving the wrong answer to a question posed by the priest. Perhaps this mysterious tingling effect would have been thought of by the worshippers as evidence of magic, and the power and mystique of the particular priest and temple would thus be greatly enhanced. Unfortunately, unless such statues are actually recovered, a