50 Fun Facts About Batteries

Which Italian physicist built and described the first electrochemical battery, the voltaic pile, in 1800?

He thought his cells were an inexhaustible source of energy and dismissed the corrosion at the electrodes as a nuisance; Faraday showed otherwise in 1834.

Which two metals did Volta stack, separated by brine-soaked paper, in his original pile?

A working pile can be made today from a nickel, a penny and salt-water paper towel, though many are needed in series to do anything useful.

Who first used the word 'battery' for electrical apparatus, in 1749, borrowing a military term?

He was describing a set of linked Leyden jar capacitors that, like guns in a battery, worked together to store a bigger charge.

Whose experiments on frogs' legs in the 1780s sparked the argument that led Volta to his invention?

Volta showed in 1794 that two metals and brine-soaked cloth produced current with no frog required.

When a battery is supplying power, which terminal is the anode?

The negative terminal is the source of electrons, which flow through the external circuit to the positive cathode.

What is the term for a single-use battery whose electrode materials are irreversibly changed during discharge?

Rechargeables are called secondary batteries; the oldest kind is the lead-acid battery in cars.

What is the approximate nominal voltage of both alkaline and zinc-carbon cells?

NiCd and NiMH cells give about 1.2 volts and lithium cells 3 volts or more, because their chemistries release different amounts of energy.

Which 1836 cell, invented by a British chemist, was the first practical electricity source and powered the telegraph?

A copper pot of copper sulphate held an earthenware container of sulphuric acid and a zinc electrode; the gravity-cell variant served telegraphs into the 1950s.

Who invented the lead-acid battery in 1859, the first that could be recharged by reversing the current?

His first model was two lead sheets rolled in a spiral with rubber strips, used to light train carriages at stations; the principle is unchanged today.

What gas does a lead-acid battery give off during overcharging, which is why it needs ventilation?

The battery is heavy for its energy but delivers huge surge currents, which is why it still starts almost every petrol car.

Which 1839 cell by a Welsh scientist doubled telegraph-cell voltage but gave off nitric oxide fumes?

American telegraph companies favoured it for a time despite the fumes; its inventor is better known for the fuel cell.

Which French engineer's 1866 zinc-manganese dioxide cell led to the modern dry cell?

It gave 1.4 volts and was a hit for telegraphs, bells and early telephones, though it ran down during long calls.

What did Carl Gassner mix with the ammonium chloride electrolyte in his 1886 dry cell to stop spills?

The National Carbon Company later swapped the plaster for coiled cardboard in its first mass-produced cell of 1896.

What was the first mass-produced dry cell, marketed by the National Carbon Company in 1896?

The company's Cleveland labs would later produce the alkaline battery, and its brand later became Eveready.

Which Swedish scientist invented the nickel-cadmium battery in 1899?

He patented a nickel-iron battery the same year but thought it inferior; Thomas Edison patented his own nickel-iron version in 1901.

Which decrease in capacity can NiCd cells show if repeatedly recharged in the same pattern?

NiMH cells suffer far less from it, and the EU has largely banned consumer NiCd cells since its 2006 Batteries Directive.

What electrolyte gives the alkaline battery its name?

It is not consumed in the reaction; only the zinc and manganese dioxide electrodes are used up.

Which Canadian engineer at Eveready invented the modern alkaline dry battery in the 1950s?

He had been asked to extend the life of zinc-carbon cells and decided alkaline chemistry was the better bet, building on Edison's earlier work.

In which year did Sony and Asahi Kasei put the first commercial lithium-ion battery on sale?

Since then volumetric energy density has tripled and prices per kWh have fallen about 99 percent.

Which cathode material did John Goodenough introduce in 1980, the key to later commercial cells?

Stanley Whittingham's earlier titanium disulphide cell had safety problems and was never sold; Yoshino added the carbon anode in 1985.

In which year did Whittingham, Goodenough and Yoshino win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry?

Goodenough was 97, making him the oldest Nobel laureate ever; he died in 2023 a month short of 101.

How old was John Goodenough when he received his Nobel Prize, making him the oldest laureate in history?

He was still running a lab at the University of Texas at Austin, where he announced a solid-state battery in 2017.

What is the typical nominal voltage of a single lithium-ion cell?

Unlike AA-style cells, lithium-ion sizes are mostly not standardised and vary by device and vendor.

What process, in which lithium ions slip reversibly into a host like graphite, underlies the lithium-ion battery?

Stanley Whittingham conceived intercalation electrodes in the 1970s while working at Exxon.

What fraction of their charge do unused disposable batteries lose per year at room temperature?

This self-discharge comes from side reactions inside the cell; keeping them in the fridge does not meaningfully help and risks condensation damage.

Because of vibration, heat and sulphation, few car lead-acid batteries last how long in regular use?

Starting batteries have many thin plates for maximum current, whereas deep-cycle batteries use thicker plates for a longer life.

What does the initialism SLI stand for on a car battery?

Such batteries are discharged only slightly before being recharged by the alternator.

The Baghdad Battery, a clay pot with copper tube and iron rod, was found in 1936 near which capital?

Wilhelm König suggested it was a galvanic cell for electroplating, but archaeologists reject the idea; no electroplated object from the period exists.

What does the brand name Duracell derive from?

The company grew out of P. R. Mallory, whose mercury batteries served the military; the batteries also carried the Mallory name until 1980.

Which conglomerate has owned Duracell outright since 2016, after trading its P&G shares for it?

P&G agreed the deal with Warren Buffett's company in November 2014.

Which pair founded the company that became Duracell after meeting in the 1920s?

The P. R. Mallory Company moved its headquarters to Indianapolis in 1924 and made mercury batteries for military equipment.

In 1980 the Eveready Battery Company renamed its alkaline power cell to what?

Union Carbide sold Eveready to Ralston Purina in 1986, and the business was spun off as Energizer Holdings in 2000.

Why has Duracell added a bitter coating to its button cells?

Swallowed button cells can cause severe internal burns; mercuric oxide button cells have been withdrawn altogether for toxicity.

What did William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle discover with a voltaic pile in 1800?

Volta had written to the Royal Society in London on 20 March 1800 describing his device.

Which emperor admired Volta's invention and invited him to demonstrate it at the Institute of France?

Volta, born in Como in 1745, held the physics chair at Pavia for nearly forty years.

Besides the battery, which gas is Volta credited with discovering in 1776?

He read Franklin's paper on 'flammable air', isolated the gas by 1778 and ignited it with an electric spark in a closed vessel.

In old valve radios, which battery heated the tube filaments?

The 'A' was usually a wet cell while a dry-cell 'B' battery supplied the plate voltage.

Which company built the 129 MWh battery in South Australia, the world's largest in 2017?

Hornsdale Power Reserve opened in December 2017 and has since been surpassed; a 1,300-tonne NiCd battery bigger than a football pitch provides blackout backup in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Below about what capacity are EV batteries typically retired to second-life uses like home storage?

That usually happens after five to eight years of driving.

How much did global battery demand grow annually between 2010 and 2018, reaching 180 GWh?

Forecasts put demand at 2,600 GWh or more by 2030, driven by electric transport and grid storage.

What everyday demonstration shows that almost any moist, ion-rich object can be an electrolyte?

The fruit produces only a small voltage, but it is a genuine voltaic cell.

In which century did paste-electrolyte dry-cell batteries make portable electrical devices practical?

Wet cells in glass jars leaked and broke, so they never suited portable appliances.

Which physicist showed in 1834 that battery electrode corrosion was unavoidable, not a nuisance as Volta believed?

Volta had thought his pile was an inexhaustible source of energy.

What improvement did Camille Alphonse Faure make to Planté's rechargeable battery in 1881?

Stacking his plates gave more power and made the battery far easier to mass-produce; gel electrolytes came in the 1930s and sealed cells in the 1970s.

What is the main advantage of a dry cell's paste electrolyte over a wet cell's liquid one?

Wet cells often sat in fragile glass jars and had to stay upright; the paste made portable electrical devices practical.

Which Scotsman fixed Volta's leaky pile by laying the elements flat in a box, the 'trough' design?

Volta himself devised another fix, the Crown of Cups, a chain of salt-solution cups linked by arcs of two soldered metals.

Which 1836 invention served as the first working standard for defining the volt?

John Frederic Daniell's 1836 design solved the hydrogen-bubble problem with a second electrolyte and gave a longer, steadier current than Volta's pile.

Which Japanese inventor's 1887 dry battery drew wide attention at the 1893 Chicago world's fair?

He patented it in 1892, in the same era that Carl Gassner and Wilhelm Hellesen were developing rival dry cells in Europe.

Thomas Edison hoped his 1901 nickel-iron battery would make which technology the standard?

His first model leaked and barely beat lead-acid; by the time a better version arrived seven years later, the cheap Model T had settled the matter for petrol.

Which simplified Callaud design of the 1860s powered US and British telegraphs into the 1950s?

Dropping the porous barrier cut internal resistance and gave a stronger current, which is why the telegraph networks adopted it.