What do smartphones, laptops, flashlights, interactive moving toys for kids and watches have in common? The answer is simple - a battery. It is thanks to inconspicuous circles, cylinders and rectangles that we can use all this.
How many years have passed since the invention of the battery? Most will say that the first options appeared in late XVIII century. It is quite reasonable, because in 1798 the Italian Count Alessandro Volta built the first primitive battery, which received the name "Voltaic Pillar". He stacked zinc and copper discs and separated them with a cloth soaked in alkali or acid. Such a "tower" was half a meter high. But! There is evidence that the origin of the battery is older. The very first primitive specimen was known to people 2000 years before.
In the middle of the 20th century (1938), during excavations in Iraq, Wilhelm Koenig found a clay pot 13 cm high with a copper cylinder, into which a rod made of another metal was inserted. Archaeologists have suggested that this is the oldest battery.
However, we will not know exactly how this jug was used by the inhabitants of ancient Iraq. But much is known about the Italian Luigi Galvani and animal electricity. He noticed that the body of the frog twitched if it came into contact with two metal elements or was located near an electric machine and sparks flying out of it. Luigi suggested that electricity is in the animal's body itself.
It was his experiments with frog legs that inspired Volt to search for a source of electric current. He conducted a series of tests and noticed that if the body of an animal came into contact with objects made of the same metal, then nothing happened, but if the metals were different, then the desired effect appeared. By building his tower of metal plates, he proved that the electric current does not appear in the tissues of animals. Experiments showed that the cause of everything is the chemical reactions between different metals connected by a conductor (Galvani had the body of a frog in his capacity).
Both Italians became famous, and the unit of voltage measurement Volt and the “galvanic cell” itself were named after them.
History of the battery
Very little time has passed since the discovery of the battery, or rather, its great-great-great-grandmother, and in 1836 the Englishman George Frederick Daniel solved the main problem of the "voltaic column" - corrosion.
In 1859, the Frenchman Gaston Plante created the accumulator, that is, his great-great-grandfather. He used sulfuric acid and lead plates. The advantage of the created device was that, after charging from a direct current source, it already gave it away and became a source of electricity.
1868 can be considered a fateful year. French chemist Georges Leclanchet created the "liquid" progenitor of the "dry" battery cell. After 20 years, the German Karl Gassner tried and got the same "dry". It was similar in almost every way to the modern version.
After that, the history of the production of batteries only gained momentum. Galvanic cells have replaced nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries. The main task of scientists was to increase the capacity and service life, as well as reduce the size. The solution to the problem was the emergence of lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries. They hold a charge for a long time without any problems, they are distinguished by a large capacity and small size.
The history of battery development continues. Scientists are looking for an "eternal" battery, and, quite possibly, they will find it soon.
The Italian physicist Alessandro Volta created in 1800 a direct current source capable of constantly producing electricity. This first electric battery, called the voltaic column, was much more efficient and convenient than the then conventional capacitors, which required a long charge before each use.
From the liquid element...
Alessandro Volta did not want to believe in the animal electricity postulated by his countryman Luigi Galvani in 1780 and subjected his experiments with twitching frog legs to a thorough check. Volta discovered that the source of electric current is not in the animal tissues themselves, but in the chemical processes that occur between electrodes made of various metals. As proof, he built an element named after him, where alternating plates of zinc and copper were laid out with cloth soaked hydrochloric acid. A potential difference was created at the outputs, summing the voltage of all connected
in a column of galvanic cells. The solution possessed conductivity, since positively and negatively charged elementary particles (ions) reacted in it. With such an arrangement of the experiment, an electric current arose, capable of making the frog's leg twitch, but with the same success ensuring the glow of the lamp.
To dry battery
However, this battery also had disadvantages: over time, the zinc plates dissolve, and hydrogen accumulates at the cathode, which leads to a decrease in the output voltage. In 1867, the Frenchman Georges Leclanchet eliminated these problems by creating a dry battery. The electrodes in it are a zinc cylinder and a carbon rod. The electrolyte is a dad, consisting mainly of ammonium chloride. In 1912, Thomas Alva Edison received a patent for a sealed nickel-cadmium battery. In 1950, the first sealed button batteries appeared. Launched in 1998, lithium-ion batteries are not only more powerful and durable, but also less polluting. environment than poisonous cadmium batteries.
With renewed energy
Batteries that can be charged repeatedly were invented in 1859 by the French physicist Gaston Planchet. His battery used lead electrodes immersed in sulfuric acid. When both plates were connected to an electric battery, the secondary element was charged after a while and was itself capable of producing an appreciable direct current. With the advent of the battery, it became possible for the first time to store electrical energy.
- 1840: Robert Wilhelm Bunsen invents the zinc-carbon cell.
- 1992: Nickel metal hydride batteries are developed to avoid poisonous cadmium.
- 1999: Daimler-Chrysler introduces the first emission-free fuel cell vehicle.
Today it is very difficult to imagine your life without electrical devices. Moreover, we are talking not even about large household appliances, but about small-sized appliances that make life much more comfortable. Wall clocks, remote controls, flashlights and many other small devices that we are so used to are powered by a portable battery. To ensure their stable operation, you just need to buy rechargeable batteries. But this power source appeared not so long ago!
The history of the battery
The first step towards the appearance of the battery was taken by an Italian scientist, Luigi Galvani, who studied the reactions of living organisms to various influences. The essence of his discovery was that a current passes through the frog's leg when two strips of different types metal. The scientist could not explain what he saw, but the results of his work were very useful to another researcher - Alessandro Volta. 
This Italian was able to unravel the essence of the process and realized that the appearance of current contributes to chemical reaction that occurs between different metals in a particular environment. By placing zinc and copper plate in saline solution, he created the world's first battery of primary cells, which after completion he called the "Voltaic Pillar". This was in 1800.
The first battery appeared much later - in 1859, when the Frenchman Gaston Plante repeated the experiment of his colleague, using a weak solution of sulfuric acid and two plates of lead. The peculiarity of this battery was that it required recharging from a DC source, and then itself gave the received charge to create electricity.
Other Important Dates in Battery History
1865 - French scientist J. L. Leklanshe developed a manganese-zinc element with saline solution.
1880 - F. Lalande improved the invention of his compatriot, using a thickened electrolyte.
40s of the XX century - silver-zinc elements were developed.
50s of the XX century - a manganese-zinc element with an alkaline solution appeared, as well as mercury-zinc elements.
60s of the XX century - the production of air-zinc batteries began.
70s of the XX century - lithium current sources were used for the first time.
Today in our "school of fixies" - a conversation about batteries.
What would we do without these "magic sticks" that allow us to use electricity where there are no sockets and wires! We take a flashlight with us into the forest, listen to music on the beach, we always have a camera at hand on a trip, and the kids take moving toys outside ... And batteries work everywhere!
But where does the electric current come from in these small tubes, which makes all the devices work? Let's try to figure it out.
First, we will once again listen to a fixie about batteries and watch a clip made by director-animator Alexei Budovsky. And then - let's talk about how batteries are arranged, and about the history of their invention.
The usual, "disposable" battery has another name - "galvanic cell". Electricity appears in it due to chemical interaction substances.
For the first time this method of generating electricity was invented by the famous Italian physicist Alessandro Volta. It was in his honor that the unit of measurement of electrical voltage, 1 volt, was named.
And the name "galvanic cell" is given in honor of the Italian physiologist Luigi Galvani from Bologna. Back in 1791, he made an important observation - only he failed to interpret it correctly. Galvani noticed that the body of a dead frog shudders under the influence of electricity - if you put it near electrical machine when sparks fly out. Or if it just touches two metal objects. But Galvani thought that this electricity is in the body of the frog itself. And he called this phenomenon "animal electricity." Volta repeated Galvani's experiments, but with greater accuracy. He noticed that if a dead frog touches objects made of one metal - for example, iron - no effect is observed. For the experiment to be successful, two different metals were always required. And Volta concluded that the appearance of electricity is explained by the interaction of two different metals, between which a chemical reaction is formed (with the help of a conductor, which turned out to be the frog's body in Galvani's experiments).
After many experiments with different metals, Volta designed a column of plates of zinc, copper and felt soaked in a solution of sulfuric acid. He laid zinc, copper and felt on top of each other in this order: at the bottom there was a copper plate, felt on it, then zinc, again copper, felt, zinc, copper, felt, etc.
And as a result, the column turned out to be charged at the lower end with positive electricity, and at the upper end with negative electricity.
Now take an ordinary battery and look: you will see that a plus is drawn on one end of it, and a minus on the other. This is almost the same "Voltaic pillar". In just two hundred years, it has become much smaller. The first one, made by Alessandro Volta, was half a meter high. Imagine such a huge battery!
This invention became a sensation - they said about it that "this is a projectile, more wonderful than which man has never invented, not excluding even a telescope and a steam engine." After all, it was the first chemical current source in history suitable for practical application.
For the most curious
Modern batteries are arranged, of course, a little differently - they no longer have metal discs or felt plates soaked in an acid solution. But the principle is the same - the battery contains chemical reagents, which include two different metals. The battery has two electrodes - positive (anode) and negative (cathode). Between them is an electrolyte liquid: a solution that conducts electricity well and participates in a chemical reaction. When metals begin to interact through this solution, there is a movement of charged particles from the anode to the cathode - and electrical energy is generated.
For experimenters
We make ourselves "Voltaic pillar"
You can try - only with adults! - at home, make your own little likeness of the Voltaic Pillar.
You will need:
1) Coins, always copper (Russian 50 and 10 kopecks, clean!)
2) Vinegar, or citric acid solution, or very salty water (electrolyte)
3) Aluminum foil
4) Paper
5) A device that measures electrical voltage - a multimeter.
We take a piece of paper, and cut it into squares so that they can close the coin. Soak paper squares in electrolyte. Next, we begin to build a battery. We add the components according to the scheme coin - piece of paper - piece of foil - coin - piece of paper - piece of foil - ... etc.
We repeat the operation until patience / foil / coins / electrolyte runs out. When something ends, we take a multimeter and measure the voltage.
Modern life passes under the sign of electricity, which is everywhere. It's scary to even think what will happen if all of a sudden electrical devices disappear or fail at once. Power plants of various types, scattered around the world, regularly supply current to electrical networks that power appliances in production and at home. However, a person is arranged in such a way that he is never satisfied with what he has. Being tied with a wire to an electrical outlet is too inconvenient. Salvation in this situation are devices that supply current to electric flashlights, mobile phones, cameras and other devices that are used at a distance from the source of electricity. Even small children know their name is batteries.
Strictly speaking, the common name "battery" is not entirely correct. It combines several types of electricity sources at once, designed for autonomous power supply of the device. This can be a single galvanic cell, a battery, or a combination of several such cells into a battery to increase the voltage removed. It was this connection that gave rise to the name familiar to our ear.
Batteries and galvanic cells, and accumulators are a chemical source of electric current. The first such source was invented, as is often the case in science, by accident. Italian doctor and physiologist Luigi Galvani at the end of the 18th century.
Although electricity as a phenomenon has been known to mankind since ancient times, for many centuries these observations had no practical application. Only in 1600 did the English physicist William Gilbert publish treatise“On the magnet, magnetic bodies and the large magnet Earth”, where the data known at that time on electricity and magnetism were summarized, and in 1650 Otto von Guericke created an electrostatic machine, which was a sulfur ball mounted on a metal rod. A century later, the Dutchman Pieter van Muschenbroek managed to accumulate for the first time with the help of " Leiden jar» The first capacitor is a small amount of electricity. However, it was too small for serious experiments. Scientists such as Benjamin Franklin, Georg Richman, John Walsh were engaged in research on "natural" electricity. It was the work of the latter on electric rays that interested Galvani.
The real purpose of the famous experiment of Galvani, who revolutionized physiology and forever inscribed his name in science, now no one will remember. Galvani dissected the frog and placed it on the table where the electrostatic machine stood. His assistant accidentally touched the open femoral nerve of the frog with the tip of a scalpel, and the dead muscle suddenly contracted. Another assistant noticed that this only happens when a spark is removed from the machine.
Inspired by the discovery, Galvani began methodically to investigate the discovered phenomenon - the ability of a dead drug to demonstrate vital contractions under the influence of electricity. After a whole series of experiments, Galvani obtained a particularly interesting result by using copper hooks and a silver plate. If the hook holding the foot touched the plate, the foot, touching the plate, immediately contracted and rose. Having lost contact with the plate, the muscles of the foot immediately relaxed, it again fell on the plate, contracted again and rose.
Luigi Galvani. Magazine illustration. France. 1880
So, as a result of a series of painstaking experiments, a new source of electricity was discovered. Galvani himself, however, did not think that the reason for the phenomenon he discovered was the contact of dissimilar metals. In his opinion, the muscle itself served as a source of current, which was excited by the action of the brain transmitted through the nerves. Galvani's discovery caused a sensation and led to many experiments in various branches of science. Among the followers of the Italian physiologist was his compatriot physicist Alessandro Volta.
In 1800, Volta not only gave a correct explanation of the phenomenon discovered by Galvani, but also designed a device that became the world's first artificial chemical source of electric current, the progenitor of all modern batteries. It consisted of two electrodes, an anode containing an oxidizing agent and a cathode containing a reducing agent, in contact with an electrolyte (salt, acid, or alkali solution). The potential difference between the electrodes corresponded in this case to the free energy of the redox reaction (electrolysis), during which electrolyte cations (positively charged ions) are reduced and anions (negatively charged ions) are oxidized at the corresponding electrodes. The reaction can start only if the electrodes are connected by an external circuit (Volta connected them with an ordinary wire), along which free electrons pass from the cathode to the anode, thus creating a discharge current. And although modern batteries have little in common with Volta's device, the principle of their operation remains the same: these are two electrodes immersed in an electrolyte solution and connected by an external circuit.
The invention of Volta gave a significant impetus to research related to electricity. In the same year, scientists William Nicholson and Anthony Carlyle decomposed water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrolysis, a little later Humphry Davy discovered potassium metal in the same way.
Galvani's experiments with a frog. Engraving from 1793
But first of all, galvanic cells are undoubtedly the most important source of electric current. Since the middle of the 19th century, when the first electrical appliances appeared, mass production of chemical elements nutrition.
All these elements can be divided into two main types: primary, in which the chemical reaction is irreversible, and secondary, which can be recharged.
What we used to call a battery is a primary chemical current source, in other words, a non-rechargeable element. The first batteries launched into mass production were manganese-zinc batteries invented in 1865 by the Frenchman Georges Leclanchet with salt, and then with thickened electrolyte. Until the early 1940s, this was practically the only type of galvanic cells used, which, due to its low cost, is still widely used. These batteries are called dry or carbon-zinc cells.
A giant electric battery designed by W. Wollaston for X. Davy's experiments.
Scheme of operation of an artificial chemical current source A. Volta.
In 1803, Vasily Petrov created the most powerful voltaic column in the world using 4200 metal circles. He managed to develop a voltage of 2500 volts, as well as discover such important phenomenon, as an electric arc, which was later used in electric welding, as well as for electric igniters of explosives.
But the real technological breakthrough was the advent of alkaline batteries. Although according to chemical composition they do not differ much from Leclanchet elements, and their nominal voltage is slightly increased compared to dry cells, due to a fundamental change in the design, alkaline cells can last four to five times longer than dry ones, however, subject to certain conditions.
The most important task in the development of batteries is to increase the specific capacity of the cell while reducing its size and weight. To this end, the search for new chemical systems. The most high-tech primary cells today are lithium. Their capacity is twice that of dry cells, and the service life is much longer. In addition, while dry and alkaline batteries discharge gradually, lithium batteries hold voltage for almost their entire life and only then abruptly lose it. But even the best battery cannot match the efficiency of a rechargeable battery, which is based on the reversibility of a chemical reaction.
The possibility of creating such a device began to be thought about in the 19th century. In 1859 the Frenchman Gaston Plante invented the lead-acid battery. The electric current in it arises as a result of the reactions of lead and lead dioxide in a sulfuric acid environment. During current generation, the battery being discharged consumes sulfuric acid, forming lead sulfate and water. To charge it, it is necessary to pass the current received from another source through the circuit in the opposite direction, while the water will be used to form sulfuric acid with the release of lead and lead dioxide.
Despite the fact that the principle of operation of such a battery was described quite a long time ago, its mass production began only in the 20th century, since high voltage current is required to recharge the device, as well as compliance with a number of other conditions. With the development of electrical networks, lead-acid batteries have become indispensable and are still used in cars, trolleybuses, trams and other means of electric transport, as well as for emergency power supply.
Many small household appliances also run on "refillable batteries," rechargeable batteries that are the same shape as non-renewable galvanic cells. The development of electronics directly depends on advances in this area.
Battery J. Leclanchet.
Dry battery.
Mobile phone, digital camera, navigator, mobile computer and other similar devices in the XXI century. you won’t surprise anyone anymore, but their appearance became possible only with the invention of high-quality compact batteries, the capacity and service life of which are being increased every year.
Nickel-cadmium and nickel-metal hydride batteries were the first to replace galvanic cells. Their significant drawback was the "memory effect" - a decrease in capacity, if charging was carried out with an incompletely discharged battery. In addition, they gradually lost their charge even in the absence of a load. These problems have largely been solved in the development of lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries, which are now widely used in mobile devices. Their capacity is much higher, they charge without loss at any time and hold the charge well in the standby state.
A few years ago, rumors leaked to the media that American scientists came close to inventing a "eternal battery" of a betavoltaic cell, the energy source of which is radioactive isotopes that emit beta particles. It is assumed that such an energy source will allow a mobile phone or laptop to work without recharging for up to 30 years. Moreover, at the end of its service life, a non-toxic and non-radioactive battery will remain absolutely safe. The appearance of this miracle device, which would no doubt revolutionize the industry, would hit the pockets of traditional battery manufacturers very hard, perhaps that is why it is still not on the shelves.
Modern device for charging rechargeable AA cells.
