Could ancient technology be the answer to sustainable energy production?

[corra]

<link deleted>
It details the discovery of a 2300 year old battery found in Iraq.

basically it is a pot with some wiring and a copper rod in the middle add some grape wine and you have have a battery capable of generating 0.8 volts.

so here is my question: if this would be cheap to maintain once you have the battery constructed. why can't this be done on a massive scale?
thousands of pots generating 0.8 volts of energy continously.

 

[russ_watters]

It would require an awful lot of wine that I'd rather drink...

 

[chroot]

so here is my question: if this would be cheap to maintain once you have the battery constructed. why can't this be done on a massive scale?
thousands of pots generating 0.8 volts of energy continously.

Um, I don't know... maybe, economics? Consider how much such an apparatus would cost to operate, per MeV of production, compared to say, a nuclear plant.

- Warren

 

[chemisttree]

What this really proves is that Allessandro Volta had a time machine and taught the Iraquis how to build a battery... How come no one is talking about the real story here!

 

[baywax]

<link deleted>
It details the discovery of a 2300 year old battery found in Iraq.

basically it is a pot with some wiring and a copper rod in the middle add some grape wine and you have have a battery capable of generating 0.8 volts.

so here is my question: if this would be cheap to maintain once you have the battery constructed. why can't this be done on a massive scale?
thousands of pots generating 0.8 volts of energy continously.

Did they mention how they dated this apparatus?

 

[Chris Hillman]

A source of reliable information? Alas, not!

I think someone should point out that <link deleted> is a fringe site which offers material on "pyramidology", "ancient-astronauts", and so on, so it is not a good place to go for information which corresponds to mainstream knowledge. (I'd like to think this will be obvious at a glance, experience has taught me that young students are sometimes fooled until they gain more experience--- it's not really a question of intelligence, but a matter of knowledge and experience.)

The WP http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Baghdad_Battery&oldid=130381089 has been the subject of controversy at Wikpedia due to apparent pushing of fringe points of view. For example, IIRC, some fringe websites have claimed that this alleged device provides "proof of time travel"! In fact, it is by no means universally accepted in archaeology that this artefact even functioned as a battery, and if so, what use it was intended for. Although electroplating seems a reasonable guess, to the best of my knowledge no objects have been found from that time and place which appear to have electroplated, so there are good grounds for scepticism. It's also possible that the object belongs to a later time but has been misdated by having been buried in a hole at some much later date that 2300 BC. Baywax, it's not so easy to date ceramics or metals--- the putative date of the alleged "battery" is based upon dating items found in the same stratum of dirt. The version of the WP article I cited seems pretty decent (apart from referring readers to fringe sites without comment) and addresses your question. (Previous versions have suffered from POV-pushing.)

IMO, further discussion of such controversies should definitely move to the Scepticism and Debunking forum.

 

[berkeman]

so here is my question: if this wou... of energy, if that is what you are implying.

 

[Tosh]

What this really proves is that Allessandro Volta had a time machine and taught the Iraquis how to build a battery... How come no one is talking about the real story here!

Even though that is a joke, it reflects quite a presumption.
What do we know about the history of Iraqi science? Not a lot...

 

[chemisttree]

Even though that is a joke, it reflects quite a presumption.
What do we know about the history of Iraqi science? Not a lot...

What joke? I think it is pretty clear cut... A development as important as the first electroplating shop would result in the kingdom being filled up with battery jars! Think of the money that could have been made! These battery jars should be lying around like cobblestones! We find only a few 'prototypes' obviously provided by the time traveller.

What presumption? That the ancient denizens of the Middle East couldn't invent something that would be utterly useless to them? And that they couldn't carefully bury their mistake? I'm sure the next thing we'll find is buckyballs and carbon nanotubes in the soot of their ancient cooking fires! (proving the truly advanced nature of their composites industry!)

 

[Moonbear]

Considering the website in the original post is NOT a reliable source of information, and that we prohibit "free energy" discussions here, and that this is turning into nothing more than jokes since being shown to be completely implausible, I'm locking this thread to further discussion. The link to the questionable website will shortly be deleted from all posts here.