Electricity has fascinated humankind since our ancestors first witnessed lightning. In ancient Greece, Thales observed that an electric charge could be generated by rubbing amber, for which the Greek word is ‘Electron’.
The German physicist Otto von Guericke experimented with generating electricity in 1650. The English physicist Stephen Gray discovered electrical conductivity in 1729. The American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin studied the properties of electricity by conducting his famous experiment of flying a kite with a key attached during electrical storms in 1752.
Luigi Galvani is famous for his experiments concerning “the electrical forces in muscular movements”, leading up to his theory of animal electricity. The theory has been abandoned by scientists on account of later discoveries by Italian inventor Alessandro Volta. Volta proved that the source of the electricity was a reaction caused by the animal’s body fluids being touched by two different types of metal.
Beginning his work in 1794, Volta observed the electrical interaction between two different metals submerged near each other in an acidic solution. Based on this principle, his first battery consisted of a series of alternating copper and zinc rings in an acid solution known as an electrolyte. His device for generating a consistent flow of electricity was invented in 1800. He called his invention a column battery, although it came to be commonly known as the Volta battery. Volta’s discovery of a means of converting chemical energy into electrical energy formed the basis for nearly all modern batteries. Volta researched the effects which different metals produced when exposed to salt water. In 1801, Volta demonstrated the Voltaic cell to Napoleon Bonaparte.
In 1800, William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle used a battery to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen. Sir Humphry Davy researched this chemical effect at the same time. In 1820, the British researcher John Frederic Daniell improved the voltaic cell. The Daniell cell consisted of copper and zinc plates and copper and zinc sulphates. It was used to operate telegraphs and doorbells.
Between 1832 and 1834, Michael Faraday conducted experiments with a ferrite ring, a galvanometer, and a connected battery. When the battery was connected or disconnected, the galvanometer deflected. Faraday also developed the principle of ionic mobility in chemical reactions of batteries. In 1839, William Robert Grove developed the first fuel cell, which produced electrical energy by combining hydrogen and oxygen. Grove developed another form the electric cell using zinc and platinum electrodes. These electrodes were exposed to two acids separated by a diaphragm.
The next step in the evolution of electrical energy storage was the invention of the lead acid storage battery in 1859 by the French physicist Gaston Plante. This chemical battery used a liquid electrolyte, and was not easy to move. Based
on the pioneering work done between 1867 and 1877 by Georges Leclanche in France, the situation showed promise of changing to a more portable battery. Around 1881, Emile Alphonse Faure, with his colleagues, developed batteries using a mixture of lead oxides for the positive plate electrolyte. These had faster reactions and higher efficiency.
Dr. Carl Gassner Jr. produced the first ‘dry’ cell in 1886 with zinc as the container for the other elements as well as for the negative electrode. The electrolyte was absorbed in a porous material and the cell was sealed across the top. During 1886 Dr. Gassner obtained patents throughout Europe. A U.S. patent was issued on November 15, 1887. In the dry cell battery, the electrolyte is a damp paste so that there is no liquid to leak out, and thus quite portable. It became the prototype for the dry battery industry.
The National Carbon Company was founded in 1886 by the then Brush Electric Company executive W.H. Lawrence. The company would supply carbon items needed in electrical devices such as carbon-arc electrodes, motor brushes and rods used in carbon-zinc batteries. That same year the first commercial battery went on sale. It was a carbon-zinc battery introduced by National Carbon Company. In 1898 the National Carbon Company introduces the first D cell battery. In 1905, National Carbon Company which had supplied ‘Eveready’ with materials for their batteries, bought a half interest in the company for $200,000. In 1914, American Ever Ready became part of National Carbon Company.
Since those early days many improvements have been made to the battery. Even today chemist, scientists and inventors are working to find additional improvements and new applications for the electric battery.
