Friday 3 April 2015

A Brief History on the Automotive Battery


Car batteries generate electric power and send it to the car’s ignition and starter in cars with traditional gasoline engines. Despite the long history of the battery as a power source, some of the most important developments in the modern car battery’s life happened over a century ago. Here are some of the most important steps in the evolution.

Earliest Iterations

The first battery is believed to have dated from 250 BC, used by Sumerians in what is now Iraq. These were jars with copper cylinders and a corroded stick of iron. Experts believe these were used for metalwork, jewelry production, and possibly for medicinal purposes.

Modern Battery

The creator of the modern battery is agreed to be Alessandro Volta, an Italian inventor who came up with the first dry-cell version around 1800. He connected two dissimilar metals in order to generate power, calling it the Voltaic Pile. This battery never created much energy, but it was a forerunner for what would come to be the contemporary car battery.

French Contributions

Gaston Plante, a French physicist invented a battery using lead electrodes with sulfuric acid in 1860. This lead acid power source was one of the first uses of wet cell technology. Georges Leclanche, another Frenchman, is also credited with an early type of wet cell battery. In 1866 he used a zinc rod and manganese dioxide/carbon to produce a charge. This was the forerunner of the zinc carbon cell battery, which is now prevalent and popular around the world. Despite continuous and frequent changes and updates, the bare bones of the automotive batteries developed around this time remain as constants.

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