Brief History
First Evidence:
The first evidence of batteries comes from archaelogical digs in Baghdad, Iraq. This first "battery" was dated to around 250 B.C. and was used in simple operations to electroplate objects with a thin layer of metal, much like the process used now to plate inexpensive gold and silver jewlery. One of the first uses for batteries. Batteries were re-discovered much later by a man named Alessandro Volta after which the unit of electical potential was named, the volt.
Alessandro Volta:
Alessandro Volta was born in 1745 and died in 1827, but not before developing what would come to be the most important part of life as we know it. He developed a device made of alternated pieces of electrolyte (sodium chloride, a.k.a. table salt) soaked discs, zinc and copper discs stacked in a column with a wire connected to a copper plate on the top and a wire connected to a zinc plate on the bottom, left. Volta demonstrated his new re-discovery, the Voltaic Cell to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801, right.
Thomas Edison:
Edison was an inventor known for his influence, his intelligence and, most importantly, his perseverance. During his lifetime more than a thousand American patents were granted on work of his own or of teams under his supervision. Three of his inventionsthe phonograph, a practical incandescent light and electric system, and a moving picture camerahelped found giant industries that were to change the life and leisure of the world. In other areas Edison managed to affect over twenty industries including the military, medical fields (with his fluoroscope), the stock market and mining.
