History of Batteries
A battery, which is actually an electric cell, is a device that produces electricity from a chemical reaction. Strictly speaking, a battery consists of two or more cells connected in series or parallel, but the term is generally used for a single cell. A cell consists of a negative electrode; an electrolyte, which conducts ions; a separator, also an ion conductor; and a positive electrode.
Timeline of Battery History
1748
Benjamin Franklin first coined the term "battery" to describe an array of charged glass plates.
1780 - 1786
Luigi Galvani demonstrated what we now understand to be the electrical basis of nerve impulses and provided the cornerstone of research for later inventors like Volta.
1800
Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile and discovered the first practical method of generating electricity. Constructed of alternating discs of zinc and copper with pieces of cardboard soaked in brine between the metals, the voltic pile produced electrical current. The metallic conducting arc was used to carry the electricity over a greater distance. Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile was the first "wet cell battery" that produced a reliable, steady current of electricity.
1836
Englishman, John F. Daniel invented the Daniel Cell that used two electrolytes: copper sulfate and zinc sulfate. The Daniel Cell was somewhat safer and less corrosive then the Volta cell.
1839
William Robert Grove developed the first fuel cell, which produced electrical by combining hydrogen and oxygen.
1839 - 1842
Inventors created improvements to batteries that used liquid electrodes to produce electricity. Bunsen (1842) and Grove (1839) invented the most successful.
1859
French inventor, Gaston Plante developed the first practical storage lead-acid battery that could be recharged (secondary battery). This type of battery is primarily used in cars today.
1866
French engineer, Ge orges Leclanche patented the carbon-zinc wet cell battery called the Leclanche cell. According to The History of Batteries: "George Leclanche's original cell was assembled in a porous pot. The positive electrode consisted of crushed manganese dioxide with a little carbon mixed in. The negative pole was a zinc rod. The cathode was packed into the pot, and a carbon rod was inserted to act as a currency collector. The anode or zinc rod and the pot were then immersed in an ammonium chloride solution. The liquid acted as the electrolyte, readily seeping through the porous cup and making contact with the cathode material. The liquid acted as the electrolyte, readily seeping through the porous cup and making contact with the cathode material."
1868
Twenty thousand of Georges Leclanche's cells were now being used with telegraph equipment.
1881
J.A. Thiebaut patented the first battery with both the negative electrode and porous pot placed in a zinc cup.
1881
Carl Gassner invented the first commercially successful dry cell battery (zinc-carbon cell).
1899
Waldmar Jungner invented the first nickel-cadmium rechargeable battery.
1901
Thomas Alva Edison invented the alkaline storage battery.
1949
Lew Urry invented the small alkaline battery.
Alessandro Volta
Biography of Alessandro Volta the inventor of the first practical battery in 1880.
Alkaline Battery
Lew Urry developed the small alkaline battery in 1949. The inventor was working for the Eveready Battery Co. at their research laboratory in Parma, Ohio. Alkaline batteries last five to eight times as long as zinc-carbon cells, their predecessors. This was not a patentable invention, since Volta and others long ago created the principles of batteries.
