Daily Dedroidify: 2000 year old Babylon Battery (more pics on site)When filled with vinegar - or any other electrolytic solution - the jar produces about 1.1 volts. It was found in Khujut Rabu just outside Baghdad, composed of a clay jar with a stopper made of asphalt. Sticking through the asphalt is an iron rod surrounded by a copper cylinder.
There is no written record as to the exact function of the jar, but the best guess is that it was a type of battery. Scientists believe the batteries (if that is their correct function) were used to electroplate items such as putting a layer of one metal (gold) onto the surface of another (silver), a method still practiced in Iraq today.
World Mysteries article
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