The 'Baghdad Battery'
A clay jar with copper and iron: an ancient battery?
A Parthian or Sasanian jar held a copper cylinder and an iron rod, much like a galvanic cell. Replicas filled with vinegar give a fraction of a volt, but no wires were found, and most scholars think it simply stored scrolls.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 2nd century
Did you know
The 'ancient battery' from Iraq most likely held scrolls. Wilhelm König proposed in 1938 that it was a galvanic cell, but no wires or devices were found with it, and similar jars were used to store papyri. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Asia
- 184 The Yellow Turban Rebellion — 16 years earlier
- 220 Fall of the Han and the Three Kingdoms — 20 years later
Americas
- c. 200 Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan — same year
Alive at the time
- Galen (aged 71)
- Cao Cao (aged 45)
- Zhuge Liang (aged 19)