The History Of Battery

.....Although the basics of electricity were established in 600 B.C. by the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus and then refined by scientist .William Gilbert of England in 1600, the first battery actually dates back to the 18th century. 2 Nearly 3,000 years ago, Thales and other Greeks discovered that by rubbing amber with goatskin, the amber could attract some objects. This attraction became known as electricity. Then in 1600, Gilbert performed some additional experiments to learn more about electricity. He is thought to have coined the word "electric" which may have come from the Greek word, "elektron," which means amber. The term "electric" was then applied to materials that behaved like amber.

...The credit for the first battery goes to Count Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist and pioneer in electricity. The electrical unit called the volt is named in his honor. A volt is the unit for measuring the potential difference between two points in an electrical circuit.

Historical Background
...One of Volta's first experiments in 1800 was a battery made from a pile of cardboard disks soaked in acid (possibly sea water) and layered between copper and zinc disks. The experiment resulted in the generation of an electric current that came to be known as the Voltaic cell, the first wet-cell battery. In 1802, Johann Ritter, a German physicist, conducted research on electricity and discovered the possibility of a rechargeable battery. Research continued when in 1859, Raymond Gaston Plant, a French physicist, invented the first practical secondary battery, the lead acid battery. Though of limited use, research continued on the econdary batteries. In 1881, other scientists developed batteries with improved materials and manufacturing rocesses. In 1899, Swedish scientist, Waldmar Jungner, invented the Nickel-Cadmium storage battery. 5 For the next 50 years, rechargeable battery development was very slow. Then in the 1950s, European scientists developed a new form of Nickel- Cadmium battery that allowed them to seal the cell. However, the first rechargeable batteries were expensive, took up to 24 hours to recharge, and did not hold their charge as long as their carbon-zinc or alkaline disposable counterparts. The sealed Nickel-Cadmium cell today performs well, is clean, has high energy, and finds a use in electronics. Now, companies such as Panasonic, SAFT America, SANYO Energy, Sony, and Varta Batteries, offer rechargeable batteries which cost less, recharge faster, and hold the charge longer.

600 B.C. The Greek philosopher and scientist, Thales of Miletus - one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece - depicted the ability of picking up a sheet of paper or small straw with an amber rod made of fossilized resin that had been rubbed with a cloth - a form of static electricity.
1600 The basics of electricity are established by English physician and physicist, William Gilbert, the "Father of Electricity," and printed in a thesis entitled De Magnete.
1745 Ewald von Kleist developed the Leyden Jar.
1746 Pieter van Musschenbroek, Dutch mathematician and physicist, perfected the principle of the Leyden Jar, called the first capacitor, for the storage of electric charge.
1746 Benjamin Franklin experimented with the study of electricity, which led to the development of a practical condenser or capacitor for storage of static electricity.
1752 Franklin used the kite experiment to identify lightening as electricity after having experimented with electricity for several years. He later developed the Conventional Current Theory which assumes that electricity fluidly flows from plus to minus. Actually, electricity stored in a battery flows from negative to positive.
1784 French physicist, Charles Augustin de Coulomb demonstrated Coulomb's Law in which he showed the relationship of the forces between electric charges and that the electrical charge is on the surface of the conductor.
1791 Italian physician and physicist, Luigi Galvani, incorrectly believed
that electricity was present in animals, a theory later corrected by Volta.
1799 - 1800 Count Alessandro Volta, an Italian engineer and physicist and a pioneer in electricity, invents the Voltaic cell, the first "wet primary battery" that could produce electricity through chemical action. The volt is named in his honor.
1802 Johann Ritter, a German physicist, discovered the possibility of a rechargeable battery.
1826 Georg Ohm discovered what is now known as Ohm's Law - the fundamental relationship of electricity.
1831 Michael Faraday from England, an English physicist and chemist, formed what is known as Faraday's Law, the foundation of the scientific study of electricity.
1836 Fellow English physicist and chemist, John Frederic Daniell, invented
Daniell's cell.
1840 William George Armb, an English inventor, built the hydroelectric machine, a steam water-powered generator which produced frictional electricity.
1859 Raymond Gaston Plant¨¦, a French physicist, invented the Lead Acid battery, the first practical secondary battery.
1866 Werner von Siemens of Germany, a member of a scientific family of electrical engineers and industrialists, made innovative improvements to the generator.
1868 Georges Leclanch¨¦, a French chemist, developed a primary cell called the Leclanch¨¦ cell that had anelectromotive force of approximately 1.5 volts.
1888 Gassner from the United States made improvements to the dry-cell battery.
1899 Waldmar Jungner from Sweden, invented the Nickel-Cadmium storage battery.
Timeline of Electricty and Batteries
1901 Thomas Edison, American scientist, invented the Nickel-Alkali storage battery.
1932 The duo of Shlecht- Ackermann from Germany, invented the sintered electrode.
1947 Neumann of France achieved the first successful complete sealing of the Nickel-Cadmium battery.
1960-62 Commercial use of sealed Nickel-Cadmium cells in portable devices begun.
1977-78 Lithium primary cells are commercialized.
1978 Sealed-Lead Acid cells become commercially viable.
1983-84 Solar cells introduced commercially.
1989-90 Nickel Metal Hydride introduced as a substitute for Nickel- Cadmium batteries.
1991-92 Rechargeable Zinc-Air batteries introduced for computers.
1992-93 Rechargeable Alkaline cells available to the consumer. Rechargeable Lithium batteries become commercially viable.
1990-92 Carbon-Zinc batteries no longer contain mercury.
1994 Reusable Alkaline batteries no longer contain mercury.
1996 The Mercury-Containing and Rechargeable Battery Management Act was signed on May 13th by President William Clinton. It established a system for collecting and recycling of Nickel-Cadmium batteries nationally; created a national labeling for these batteries; and phased out the use of mercury in nearly all batteries.
1996 RBRC's Ni-Cd battery recycling program launched in the U.S.
1997 RBRC's Ni-Cd battery recycling program launched in Canada.
2001 RBRC begins collection and recycling of all rechargeable battery.
chemistries.