The Riddle of Baghdad's Battery

Jodrell writes "The BBC has an interesting article about a 2,200 year old battery discovered in Iraq in 1938. It is basically a clay pot containing a copper/iron core immersed in an electrolye solution (probably acidic vinegar). The article talks about how this priceless artifact as well as many others, from the same civilisation that invented writing and the wheel, could be threatened by the impending war."

Comments

Re:Bad Priorities

[phutureboy]

and those people we would call weak-willed moral relativists.

Thank you for the name calling.

There are some of us, thank you very much, who oppose the war on ideological grounds. Some of us believe that the function of the U.S. military should be to defend the citizens of the U.S., not to run around the world "installing" democracies. We should lead by example, not by force.

Unless, of course, you believe that Saddam only poses a threat to his own people, so why should we care?

Um, you really think that Saddam poses a threat to the U.S.? I've followed the administration's incredibly weak attempts to convince us that he does, but I still don't see it.

I don't believe for one second that this is primarily about oil, but it certainly isn't about the national security of the U.S.

RTFA: Did they throw away 11 others too?

[FreeUser]

Under the right circumstances, ordinary pieces of metal (like plumbing) exposed to acid can make "batteries" by chance. More intriguing is the "un batteried" iron obelisk I recall hearing about in India--an iron monument that has resisted rusting for hundreds of years.

That is very interesting in its own right. However,

I think it's likely that the ancients put some vinegar in this metal container, discovered that it corroded badly, and threw it away.

They've found at least 12 such primative batteries, so unless they were throwing away a bunch of defecting jars that all mysteriously resembled batteries far more closely than simple storage jugs, I think the idea that they suffered a little accidental corrosion and threw it away is rather unlikely.

Virtually everyone believes these were primitive batteries, and used as such, but not to drive bronze age equivelent walkmans or the like. Rather, some believe it may have been to imbibe idols with magical "shocking" capabilities to lend credence to local religious cults, an invention that occurred likely by accident, reproduced by trial and error, and then applied (secretively) by the priests of Baal (or whatever cult was popular at the time) as a way to convice people of the divinity of their statue.

That they were batteries designed to deliver a low amperage, fairly low voltage electrical current is pretty widely accepted. Why they were made, and what they were used for, is really anybody's guess at this point ... the secret seems to have died with the makers.

No evidence...

[MosesJones]

Israel ? And what was Donald "lets invade" Rumsfelds job during the 80s... err selling chemicals to Sadam.

We know, beyond any reasonable doubt that the US has helped Israel get WMD, we also know its sold them to Britain as well.

So there are two official cases where it has happened. And officially the US and Britain supplied billions of dollars of arms equipment to Iraq during the Iran v Iraq war.

What else do we know
1) CIA trained Bin Laden and many people in Afghanistan against the USSR, many of these became the Taliban.

2) The US supplied weapons to terrorists in the Iran/Contra scandal.

So yes, apart from these cases and lots more there is no evidence at all to say that the US has potentially the dirtiest hands on the block.