An electric battery, or the most common term “battery” in everyday life, is one of the most widely used sources of electricity in modern world. They are used in electrical appliances.
An electric battery is very convenient to use, as it allows you to generate electric current anywhere and anytime. The electric battery powers a variety of electrical appliances, flashlights, alarm clocks, clocks, cameras and much more. However, the battery does not last long because the chemical components it contains are gradually consumed.
Electric batteries are different forms, capacities and sizes: from a pinhead to several hundred square meters. In power systems there are very powerful lead and nickel-cadmium rechargeable batteries, used as backup power sources or for equalizing electrical loads.
The largest such battery was commissioned in 2003 in Fairbanks (Alaska, USA); it consists of 13,760 nickel-cadmium elements and is connected via an inverter and transformer to a 138 kV network. Rated voltage the battery is 5230 V and the energy capacity is 9 MWh; The service life of the elements is from 20 to 30 years. 99% of the time it works as a compensator reactive power, but can, if necessary, supply a power of 46 MW to the network within three minutes (or a power of 27 MW within 15 min). The total mass of the battery is 1500 t, and its production cost 35 million dollars. When emergency it will be able to supply electricity to a city of 12,000 people within 7 minutes. Batteries with even greater storage capacity are available; one such battery (with an energy capacity of 60 MWh) is installed as a backup power source in California (California, USA) and can supply 6 MW of power to the network for 6 hours.
When did the first electric batteries appear?The first batteries appeared back in 250 BC. The Parthians, who lived in the Baghdad area, made primitive batteries. A clay jug was filled with vinegar (an electrolyte), then a copper cylinder and an iron rod were placed, the ends of which rose above the surface. Such batteries were used to galvanize silver.
However, until the late 1700s, scientists did not conduct serious experiments with the generation, storage and transmission of electricity. Attempts to create a continuous and controlled electric current did not lead to success.
In 1800, Italian physicist Alessandro Volta created the first modern battery, which is known as the voltaic battery.
This device was a cylinder with copper and zinc plates placed inside, surrounded by an electrolyte consisting of vinegar and brine. The plates were laid alternately and did not touch each other. As a result chemical reaction electricity began to be generated. The most important advantage of his invention was that, unlike previous experiments, the current in the column was low and its strength could be controlled.
Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom Volta presented his invention, was impressed by the physicist's invention and granted him the title of count. In addition, to emphasize the importance of this discovery, a unit was named after Volta electromotive force. Despite the fact that A. Volt’s invention was not at all like the electric battery that we know well, the principle of its operation still remains the same.
While excavating the ruins of the 2,000-year-old village of Kujut Rabu near Baghdad in 1936, workers discovered a very strange vessel. Built into the 6-inch (13-centimeter) tall yellow clay pot was a cylinder about 5 inches by 1.5 inches of sheet copper. The top edge of this cylinder was secured to the neck of the vessel with a lead-tin alloy similar to today's solder. The bottom of the copper cylinder was hermetically sealed with a copper disk. Inside the cylinder, in the center, there was an iron rod, hermetically sealed at the top with a resin similar to bitumen or asphalt. The rod was corroded by some acidic electrolyte (such as acidic juice or vinegar).
The Baghdad Battery is sometimes referred to as the Parthian Battery and belongs to a number of artifacts created in Mesopotamia during the Parthian or Sassanid periods (first centuries AD). These artifacts received closer attention when the German historian Wilhelm Koenig found them in the collection of the National Museum of Iraq. He drew the attention of his colleagues to such unusual vases. Koenig carefully examined the object and came to the conclusion that the unusual ceramic vessel was nothing more than a real ancient electric battery. The potential difference between the copper cylinder and the iron rod made it possible for a weak electric current, which was carried out with an electrolyte. Sour juice, vinegar or copper sulfate were used as an electrolyte. In 1940, Koenig published an article in which he suggested that perhaps these vases, as electroplating cells, were used to plate gold on silver objects. If this assumption is correct, then these artifacts prove that people knew about electricity a couple of thousand years before Alessandro Volta invented the battery in 1799.
Photo of the Baghdad battery
The ancient battery in the Baghdad Museum, like others discovered in Iraq, date from the Parthian occupation between 248 BC and 226 AD. Koenig discovered copper vases coated with silver in the Baghdad Museum, excavated in southern Iraq from Sumerian settlements dating back to about 2,500 BC. When the vase was tapped, a blue coating or film was separated from the surface, which is typical for electroplated silver coating on a copper base. Maybe the Parthians inherited batteries from one of the earliest known civilizations, the Sumerians?
In 1940, Willard, an engineer at General Electric's High Volatage Laboratory in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, studied Koenig's theories. Using detailed drawings, he made a replica of the Baghdad battery. Using copper sulfate as an electrolyte, he obtained 0.5 volts of electricity. Later, in the 1970s, a German Egyptologist made an exact replica of the Baghdad battery and filled it with freshly squeezed grape juice. The battery produced a current of 0.87 volts, which was enough to galvanize a silver figurine with gold.
Drawing of the Baghdad battery
These experiments proved that electric batteries could be used 2000 years before Volta's invention. Additionally, in Ancient Egypt, the use of electricity is depicted in wall paintings.
The use of mysterious devices in Ancient Egypt (Temple at Hathor)
Batteries were also probably used there, as evidenced by the finds of items with traces of the galvanic method of depositing precious metals into different places Egypt.
Arran Frouda, who examined the very first batteries, is concerned that important archaeological and technological artifacts are now at risk of destruction due to the war in Iraq. War destroys not only people and armies. Culture, tradition and history also lie in the line of fire. On ancient land Iraq is home to the Garden of Eden and the Tower of Babel. The country in which hostilities were taking place had no time for Koenig's discovery. In 2003, during the war, the Baghdad Battery was stolen from the Iraqi National Museum. Her whereabouts are still unknown.
For about 60 years after its discovery, the Baghdad batteries have been shrouded in myth. Some argue that the batteries were not excavated, but were found in the basement of the Baghdad Museum when Koenig became its director. Their age is also controversial. Although most sources date the batteries to the Parthian period, the evidence for this is unconvincing. The Parthians were warriors and did not engage in science. Although many archaeologists agree that the devices were actual batteries, not everyone supports the hypothesis of what exactly they were used for. Ancient Persian science may not have known about the principles of electricity and did not use batteries as a galvanic cell. The process of electric current flow actually requires two metals with different potentials and an electrolyte to transfer electrons between them. This could have been the case if wires had been found, but no wires were found anywhere near the batteries.
Some believe that the batteries could be used in medicine. The ancient Greeks reduced pain when applied to the soles of their feet. electric fish. The Chinese developed acupuncture and could use acupuncture in combination with electric current. This is confirmed by the discovery of needle-like objects near some of the batteries. Many scientists believe that batteries were used for electroplating. For example, gilding is used to make jewelry - covering jewelry with a thin layer of gold. There are two methods of gilding:
The first method is wasteful, and the second is more economical, which was welcomed in palaces and kingdoms and was the motivation to keep this method secret. In experiments with copies of Baghdad batteries, using grape juice as an electrolyte, a thin layer of silver was applied to the surface with a thickness of only one ten-thousandth of a millimeter. More high voltage could be obtained by connecting several galvanic cells together. A serious shortcoming of the galvanic cell hypothesis was the lack of a large number of found products processed in this way.
If a modern city is disconnected from the power supply for at least an hour, then a situation will inevitably arise in it, for which the mildest word would be collapse. And this is inevitable, to such an extent electricity has entered into daily life. The question inevitably arises: how did our ancestors manage without this type of energy for thousands of years? Were they completely devoid of her potential? Researchers do not have a clear answer to this question.
It is generally accepted that humanity became acquainted with electric current only in the second half of the 18th century, and this happened thanks to two irrepressible Italians who devoted their lives to the study of physical phenomena - Luigi Galvani and his successor Alexander Volta. It is thanks to these people that today electric trains run along the rails, the lights come on in our houses, and the neighbors’ hammer drill starts to rumble at a late hour.
However, this unquestionable truth was shaken by a discovery made in 1936 by the Austrian archaeologist Wilhelm Koening in the vicinity of Baghdad and called the Baghdad battery. History is silent about whether the researcher dug into the ground himself, or simply bought an artifact from local “black archaeologists.” The latter even seems more likely, since otherwise some other interesting things could have been discovered, but the world only learned about one unique find.
Thanks to Wilhelm Koening, humanity acquired an amazing artifact that looked like an ancient one sand color, the height of which did not exceed fifteen centimeters, and the age, apparently, was equal to two thousand years. The neck of the find was sealed with a resin plug, above which the remains of a metal rod protruding from it could be seen, almost completely destroyed by corrosion over a long time.
After removing the resin plug and looking inside, the researchers found a thin copper sheet rolled into a tube. Its length was nine centimeters and its diameter was twenty-five millimeters. It was through it that a metal rod was passed, the lower end not reaching the bottom, but the upper end going out. But the strangest thing was that this entire structure was held in the air, securely insulated with resin that covered the bottom of the vessel and clogged the neck.
Now a question for everyone who has faithfully attended physics classes: what is it like? Wilhelm Koening found the answer to this, because he was not one of the truants - this is to generate electricity, or, more simply, a Baghdad battery!
As crazy as this idea may seem, it was difficult to dispute. It is enough to carry out a simple experiment. It is necessary to fill the vessel with electrolyte, which may well be grape or lemon juice, as well as vinegar, well known in antiquity.
Since the solution will completely cover the metal rod and copper tube that are not in contact with each other, a potential difference will arise between them and an electric current will certainly appear. We refer all doubters to the physics textbook for the eighth grade.
After this, the ancient electrician only had to make sure that the Baghdad battery was connected by wires to some suitable energy consumer - say, a floor lamp made of papyrus leaves. However, it could have been a simple street lamp.
Anticipating the objections of skeptics that for any lighting fixture we need at least one light bulb, let’s present the arguments of the supporters of this, at first glance, fantastic idea, and find out whether people who lived long before our era could have created an incandescent lamp, without which the ancient Baghdad battery would have lost all meaning?
It turns out, and this is not excluded, at least they should not have had any problems with glass, because, according to science, it was invented five thousand years ago by the ancient Egyptians. It is known that long before the appearance of the pyramids, on the banks of the Nile, heating up to high temperatures a mixture of sand, soda ash and lime began to produce a glassy mass. Despite the fact that at first its transparency left much to be desired, over time, and there was enough of it before our era, the process was improved, and as a result they began to obtain glass close to its modern appearance.
The situation is more complicated with an incandescent filament, but even here the optimists do not give up. As their main argument, they cite a mysterious drawing found on the wall. Egyptian tomb(a photo from it is given in our article). On it, the ancient artist depicted an object very similar to modern lamp, inside of which something resembling this very thread is clearly visible. The image of the cord connected to the lamp makes the drawing even more convincing.
To the objections of skeptics, optimists respond: “We agree, the picture may not depict a light bulb at all, but some kind of fruit grown by the ancient Michurin people, but then how can we explain why no traces of soot from or torches were found on the ceilings of the rooms where the craftsmen painted the walls? After all, there were no windows in the pyramids, and sunlight did not penetrate them, and it is impossible to work in complete darkness."
This means that there was some kind of light source unknown to us. However, even if the ancients did not have any light bulbs, this does not mean at all that the Baghdad battery, the description of which is given above, could not be used for some other purpose.
In ancient Iran, on whose territory the sensational discovery was made, copper utensils coated with a thin layer of silver or gold were often used. From this, it benefited from an aesthetic point of view and became more environmentally friendly, since noble metals tend to kill microbes. But such a coating can only be applied using the electrolytic method. Only it gives the product a perfect look.
The German Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht undertook to prove this hypothesis. Having made ten vessels, exactly the same as the Baghdad battery, and filling them with a salt solution of gold, in a few hours he managed to cover a copper figurine of Osiris, specially intended for the experiment, with an even layer of the noble metal.
However, in fairness, it is necessary to listen to the arguments of the other side - those who consider electrification Ancient world an invention of idle dreamers. They have mainly three weighty arguments in their arsenal.
First of all, they quite reasonably note that if the Baghdad battery were really a galvanic cell, then it would be necessary to periodically add electrolyte to it, and the design in which the neck was filled with resin did not allow this. Thus, the battery became a disposable device, which in itself is unlikely.
In addition, skeptics point out that if the Baghdad battery is really a device for generating electricity, then among the finds of archaeologists there inevitably should have been all sorts of accompanying attributes, such as wires, conductors, and so on. In reality, nothing of the kind could be found.
And finally, the strongest argument can be considered the indication that until now in the monuments of ancient writing there was no mention of the use of any electrical appliances, which would be inevitable with their mass use. There are also no images of them. The only exception is the ancient Egyptian drawing, which was described above, but it does not have an unambiguous interpretation.
So for what purpose was the Baghdad battery created? The purpose of this intriguing artifact opponents electrical theory They explain it in an extremely matter-of-fact manner. In their opinion, it served only as a storage place for ancient papyrus or parchment scrolls.
In their assertion they rely on the fact that time immemorial It was indeed customary for scrolls to be stored in clay or ceramic vessels similar to this one, although without sealing the neck with resin or wrapping them around metal rods. The purpose is copper tube they are not able to explain at all. The fate of the scroll itself, which was allegedly kept inside, is also unclear. It couldn’t have rotted so badly that it left no traces behind.
Alas, the secrets of the Baghdad battery remain unsolved to this day. As a result of the experiments, it was possible to establish that a device of such a design is indeed capable of generating a current of one and a half volts, but this does not at all prove that Wilhelm Koening’s discovery was used in this way. There are very few supporters of the electrical theory, because it contradicts the official data of science, and anyone who encroaches on them risks being branded an ignoramus and a charlatan.
According to modern history The electric battery was invented in 1800 by Alassandro Volta. The scientist noticed that when two dissimilar metal probes were placed into the tissue of a frog, a weak electric current appeared. Moreover, current also flowed when the electrodes were placed not in a living environment, but in some chemical solutions. Actually, this is where work on electricity began.
However, the find Baghdad battery says that electric battery Volta did not invent it.
The Baghdad Battery was first described by the German archaeologist Wilhelm Konig in 1938. Today it is not known for sure whether he excavated the battery on his own or discovered it in the storerooms of some museum, but it is known that it was found in the place of Khujut Rabu outside Baghdad.
The Baghdad jar is approximately 2,000 years old and consists of a clay vessel with a bitumen stopper, which is pierced with iron rods. Inside the jar, the rods are surrounded by a copper cylinder. Koenig decided that such a design might be characteristic of an electric battery and published a paper on this discovery in 1940.
The study of the Baghdad jar ceased with the outbreak of World War II. After its completion, Willard F. M. Gray of the General Electric High Voltage Laboratory in Massachusetts reproduced the work of the Baghdad can. He filled an analogue jar with grape juice, which is an electrolyte. It turned out that the Baghdad bank can produce a voltage of up to two volts.
Not all scientists agree that the Baghdad jar can be called electric and believe that it could have been used to store papyri.
Kujut Rabu is a place ancient settlement Parthians, who were excellent warriors, but were not particularly developed, so archaeologists believe that the Baghdad banks could belong to other peoples.
Apart from its functions, the bank does not stand out in anything special; it was made from materials common to that time and using conventional technologies. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine that anyone could in the right way connect the right components to generate electricity. Most likely, the Baghdad bank is an accidental result of someone's efforts.
If the Baghdad find could produce electricity, what could it be used for? In particular for applying metallization by galvanic means. If this is so, then some of the gold museum exhibits may only be gilded. However, so far no statements about the discovery of such finds have been reported to the press.
"Baghdad battery"(Baghdad Battery) - created presumably 2000 years ago (Parthian period between 250 BC and 250 AD). The "Battery" was found in Khujut Rabu in the vicinity of Baghdad and consists of a clay container with a bitumen plug through which an iron rod is passed, surrounded by a copper cylinder.
If the jar is filled with wine vinegar, the “battery” develops a voltage of approx. 1.1 volts. No reliable evidence of the use of the “can” has survived, but scientists are inclined to think that the device (if it really was a battery!) could be used in technological process applying gilding.
The famous Baghdad battery is believed to have been made about 2,000 years ago. A strange vessel found in the vicinity of Baghdad is made of a clay container with a stopper made of asphalt. A copper cylinder is stuck into the asphalt, and in the middle of the cylinder is an iron rod. If the vessel is filled with vinegar or some kind of juice, you will get a current source with a voltage of about 1.1 V. There is no written evidence regarding the use of such devices in ancient times. scientists believe that the batteries, if they were batteries, were used to electroplate copper or silver objects with gold.
A few years after the discovery, Koenig unveiled an unexpected hypothesis. The jug could serve as a galvanic cell - in other words, a battery. This was confirmed by experiments. The scientists made the same jug, filled it with wine vinegar, connected a voltmeter and made sure that a voltage of 0.5 volts was created between the iron and copper. a little, but still!
This means that the Parthians - the eternal rivals of the Romans in the east, whose culture we know relatively little - could generate electric current using the most primitive means. But for what? Indeed, in Parthia, as in ancient Rome, - we know that for sure! - did not use electric lamps, did not equip carts with electric motors, and did not build power lines.
Why not? what if the “dark ages” are to blame for everything, depriving the Europeans historical memory? and the “age of electricity” came not in the times of Faraday and Yablochkov, but in the pre-Christian era?
"Electric lighting was still available in ancient Egypt"say Peter Krassa and Reinhard Habeck, who dedicated their book to proving this idea. Their main argument is a relief from the temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera, created in 50 BC new era, during the time of Queen Cleopatra. This relief shows an Egyptian priest holding in his hands an oblong object resembling the bulb of an electric lamp. a snake wriggles inside the flask; her head is turned to the sky.
For Crassa and Habaek, everything is clear. this relief - technical drawing; the strange object is a lamp, and the snake allegorically represents a filament. With the help of such lamps, the Egyptians illuminated dark corridors and rooms. This, for example, is why there is no soot on the walls of the rooms where artists worked, which would have remained if they had used oil lamps. It's all about energy!
It’s a funny hypothesis, but there’s not a volt of truth in it. The power of the "Baghdad battery" is very small. even if in ancient times rooms were illuminated with one-watt bulbs - what kind of power was that? light glare, not a ray of light in dark kingdom! - we would have to put together forty “Baghdad batteries”.
Such a structure weighs tens of kilograms. “To illuminate all Egyptian buildings, 116 million batteries with a total weight of 233,600 tons would be needed,” physicist Frank Dernenburg pedantically calculated. There is no particular faith in these figures either, but the meaning is clear: galvanic elements of antiquity should come across scientists at every step. But that's not true!
The electricians were also surprised. Even today there is no incandescent lamp as gigantic as the one depicted in this relief. And it’s good that it’s not. Such colossi are dangerous: after all, the force of destruction of a lamp under the influence of atmospheric pressure increases as its volume increases.
Egyptologists interpret this relief completely differently than lovers of sensations, masters of confusing centuries and discoveries. the relief is full of symbolism. The very hieroglyphic way of writing encouraged the Egyptians to see something else behind the images - what was implied. reality and its image did not coincide. the elements of Egyptian reliefs were, rather, words and phrases to be understood.
So, according to experts, the relief in Dendera depicts the heavenly barge of the sun god Ra. According to the beliefs of the Egyptians, the sun dies every day in the evening and is resurrected at dawn. here he is symbolized by a snake, which, as was believed in the land of the pharaohs, is reborn every time it sheds its skin. the most controversial element of the image is the notorious “flask”. even Egyptologists don't know how to interpret it. perhaps it means "horizon".
As for the environment in which the relief was created, the workers probably carved it under the light of ordinary lamps, charged, for example, olive oil. In the Valley of the Kings, archaeologists came across images that show workers with similar lamps, how they are given wicks and how the workers return them in the evening. Why then are there no traces of soot on the walls and ceilings? But this is your lie! there they are. archaeologists have found similar spots more than once. We even had to restore some of the overly smoky tombs.
But if the “Baghdad batteries” were not used to illuminate homes and tombs, what were they needed for? the only acceptable explanation was given by the German Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht. in his collection there was a small figurine of the Egyptian god Osiris, covered with the thinnest layer of gold. Its age is approximately 2400 years.
After making a copy of the figurine, Eggebrecht immersed it in a bath of gold saline solution. Then he connected ten clay jugs, similar to the “Baghdad battery”, and connected this power source to the bath. After a few hours, an even layer of gold settled on the figurine. Obviously, the ancient masters were also capable of such a technical trick. After all, for application galvanic coatings You need a low current and low voltage.
And yet mysteries remain. How did the Parthians discover electric current? After all, a voltage of 0.5 volts cannot be detected without instruments. Luigi Galvani discovered “animal electricity” in 1790 by pure chance. he noticed that the frog's muscles involuntarily contracted if plates of different metals were simultaneously applied to its leg.
Perhaps the ancients also accidentally discovered electricity? How did they guess that with the help of an electric current it is possible to precipitate gold contained in a solution? and where was this discovery made, in Parthia or, judging by the figurine, in Egypt? Did other countries know about it? after all, “batteries” have probably been used for centuries. alas, we know nothing about this. no written references survive.
Was the battery really used for electroplating work? from the fact that “it was possible” it does not follow: “it was so.” and why do archaeologists find the same “batteries”, in which a copper rod is placed inside a copper cylinder? they cannot generate current. You need a rod made of another metal. Perhaps the clay jugs with metal inserts were intended for a different purpose?
On the other hand, one should not underestimate one's ancestors. everything is forgotten. and some of the peak achievements of a particular culture, amazing secrets, are lost after several centuries. wars, fires, and the destruction of written monuments only increase oblivion.
The ruins of destroyed metropolises least of all resemble a solid archive or a patent office, in which all the inventions of antiquity are carefully preserved. much has disappeared without a trace. perhaps entire areas of science, the fruits of the activities of major scientific schools, the techniques of dynasties of artisans, passed down in secret. and now, when archaeologists find an unusual artifact, they do not know how to explain its appearance. it becomes an unsolvable riddle, a phrase from a book that has long been burned.
Based on materials from the network
The Baghdad Battery is a mysterious Mesopotamian artifact from the Parthian and Sasanian periods, which, following Wilhelm Koenig, director of the National Museum of Iraq, is sometimes regarded as an ancient voltaic cell created 2000 years before the birth of Alessandro Volta.According to modern history, the electric battery was invented in 1800 by Alexander Volta. The scientist noticed that when two dissimilar metal probes were placed into the tissue of a frog, a weak electric current appeared. Moreover, current also flowed when the electrodes were placed not in a living environment, but in some chemical solutions. Actually, this is where work on electricity began. However, the discovery of the Baghdad battery suggests that Volta did not invent the electric battery.
The first “battery,” discovered by Koenig near Baghdad in June 1936 (some sources say that in 1938), was a 13-centimeter vessel, the neck of which was filled with bitumen, and an iron rod with traces of corrosion was passed through it. Inside the vessel was a copper cylinder containing an iron rod inside.
Nowadays, the Baghdad battery is located in National Museum Iraq and is a clay vessel the size of a man's fist. Wilhelm Koenig in his book “In Paradise Lost” gives the following description of the Baghdad battery: “The upper end of the rod protruded about a centimeter above the cylinder and was covered with a thin, light yellow, but completely oxidized layer of metal, similar in appearance to lead. The lower end of the iron the rod did not reach the bottom of the cylinder, on which there was a layer of asphalt about three millimeters thick."
Wilhelm Koenig suggested that the Baghdad battery, filled with acid or alkali, could create an electric current of one volt. Koenig reviewed the exhibits of the Baghdad Museum of Antiquities. He was surprised by silver-plated copper vases dating back to 2500 BC. e. As Koenig suggested, the silver on the vases was deposited using the electrolytic method.
Koenig's version that the find is a battery was confirmed by Professor J.B. Perchinski from the University of North Carolina. He created an exact copy of the “battery” and filled it with five percent wine vinegar. A voltage of 0.5 volts was recorded.
German Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht proves through experience that galvanization was known more than 2000 years ago. To confirm this, he used a figurine of Osiris. Using 10 vessels similar to the Baghdad battery and a salt solution of gold, in a few hours the scientist confirmed his guess - the figurine was covered with an even layer of gold.
In 1947, American physicist Willard F. Gray made an exact replica of the Baghdad battery using copper sulfate as an electrolyte. The battery produced an electric current with a voltage of about 2 volts. Afterwards, many similar experiments were carried out, but the voltage turned out to be approximately the same: from 0.8 volts to 2 volts. In the program “MythBusters” the same result was obtained - galvanization occurred, although it was ineffective. To achieve sufficient voltage for galvanization, it was necessary to connect 10 vessels in series. There was also a theory put forward that the battery might have been used for medical purposes.
“Electric lighting was available in ancient Egypt,” say Peter Krassa and Reinhard Habeck, who dedicated their book to proving this idea. Their main argument is a relief from the temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera, created in 50 BC, during the time of Queen Cleopatra. This relief shows an Egyptian priest holding in his hands an oblong object resembling the bulb of an electric lamp. A snake wriggles inside the flask. Her head is turned to the sky.
The strange object is a lamp, and the snake allegorizes the filament. With the help of such lamps, the Egyptians illuminated dark corridors and rooms. This is, for example, why there is no soot on the walls of the rooms where artists worked, which would have remained if they had used oil lamps.
According to Egyptologists, the relief in Dendera depicts the heavenly barge of the sun god Ra. According to Egyptian beliefs, the sun dies every day in the evening and is resurrected at dawn. Here he is symbolized by a snake, which, as was believed in the land of the pharaohs, is reborn every time it sheds its skin. The most controversial element of the image is the notorious “flask”. Even Egyptologists don't know how to interpret it. Perhaps it means "horizon".
Erich von Däniken continues: “The concept that I present here is still based on shaky foundations. Although we have working batteries and separate wires, we also need insulators to manipulate electricity. These insulators are available in various variations. Egyptologists call them "djed pillars." Only initiates could handle them. They were discovered already under the very ancient pyramid- Djoser.
Modern researcher Andrew Thomas, who has studied the East for many years and has visited India several times, writes: “During my stay in India, I became acquainted with an ancient document stored in the library of Ujjain - “Adastya Samhita.” Incredibly, there I found instructions on how to make an electric battery!
It looks like this: “...place a well-cleaned copper plate in a clay pot. Cover it first with copper sulfate and then with wet sawdust. Next, a zinc plate amalgamated with mercury should be placed on top. The contact of these plates will give energy which is known as Mitra-Varuna.
This energy splits water into Pranavaya and Udanavaya - oxygen and hydrogen. A battery made from hundreds of these pots provides a very active and efficient force." Today we call Mitra-Varuna anode and cathode. It is known that in ancient india They also knew about electrical conductivity.
They knew about mysterious bright inextinguishable light sources back in the ancient times. Plutarch wrote about a lamp that burned at the entrance to the temple of Jupiter-Ammon for several centuries. The Greek satyr Lucian (120-180 AD) wrote about the same bright source of light that burned in the head of the statue of Hera in the city of Herapolis (Syria). Pausanias (2nd century AD) spoke about an amazing golden lamp in the temple of Minerva, which burned unquenchably for a century.
On the other hand, skeptical archaeologists note that the very demonstration of the possibility of using a find as a source of electric current does not prove that it was actually used that way. In addition, the asphalt layer completely covers the copper cylinder, which eliminates the possibility of connecting wires from the outside.
No associated electrical equipment was found that could use "batteries", not even current conductors were found. There are also no known examples of this time plated with gold using electricity, all of which were gilded by the well-known process of amalgamation. In addition, the Baghdad battery is almost identical to the found vessels from nearby Seleucia with known function, they were used to store scrolls.
On the other hand, one should not underestimate one's ancestors. Everything is forgotten. And some of the peak achievements of a particular culture, amazing secrets, are lost after several centuries. Wars, fires, and the destruction of written monuments only increase oblivion. And now, when archaeologists find an unusual artifact, they do not know how to explain its appearance. It becomes an unsolvable riddle, a phrase from a book that has long been burned.
