Electricity In Antiquity: Facts And Speculation

Video: Electricity In Antiquity: Facts And Speculation

Video: Electricity In Antiquity: Facts And Speculation
Video: The Big Misconception About Electricity 2024, March
Electricity In Antiquity: Facts And Speculation
Electricity In Antiquity: Facts And Speculation
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Ancient Electricity: Facts and Speculation - Electricity, Egypt
Ancient Electricity: Facts and Speculation - Electricity, Egypt

By a strange coincidence, archaeologists sometimes discover mysterious objects that do not fit into our understanding of ancient cultures. Their existence could not have been assumed by any historian, and yet they exist. Scientists have dubbed them "Out of Place Artefacts" - "artificial objects of strange origin."

Judging by them, the ancient Greeks knew how to create analogs of a computer (Antikythera mechanism), the inhabitants of Parthia used galvanic cells, and the Egyptians used incandescent lamps.

What are we dealing with? With clever falsifications? Or should the history of the development of technology be rewritten anew?

One of the finds, found out of place, is the famous "Baghdad battery" … In 1936, during excavations near Baghdad, the Austrian archaeologist Wilhelm König discovered a jug made two thousand years ago by a Parthian potter.

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Inside a nondescript light yellow vessel, 15 centimeters high, there was a copper cylinder. Its diameter was 26 millimeters and its height was 9 centimeters. An iron rod was inserted inside the cylinder, completely rusted. All parts were covered with asphalt, which held them together.

In his book In Paradise Lost, Wilhelm König meticulously described the find:

“The top end of the rod protruded about a centimeter above the cylinder and was covered with a thin, light yellow, completely oxidized layer of metal that looked like lead. The lower end of the iron rod did not reach the bottom of the cylinder, on which there was a layer of asphalt about three millimeters thick."

But what was this vessel for? One could only guess.

“An earthenware jug with a copper element was found in a house outside the village; three earthenware bowls with magical inscriptions lay near him; similar copper elements were found in the ruins of Seleucia on the Tigris.

For some reason they were needed! And one must not forget that the IIl-II centuries BC, according to historians, were one of the most fruitful periods in the development of science and technology.

A few years later, Koenig published an unexpected hypothesis. The jug could serve as a galvanic cell - in other words, a battery. “It was only necessary to pour acid or alkali there,” the researcher suggested.

Experiments have also confirmed this. Professor J. B. Perchinski from the University of North Carolina made a similar jug, filled it with 5% wine vinegar, connected a voltmeter and made sure that a voltage of 0.5 volts was created between the iron and copper.

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A little, but still! This antique battery lasted 18 days.

This means that the Parthians - the eternal rivals of the Romans in the East, whose culture we know relatively little - could generate electric current by the most primitive means. But for what? Indeed, in Parthia, as well as in Ancient Rome - we know that for sure! - did not use electric lamps, did not equip carts with electric motors, did not erect power lines.

What if not? What if the "dark ages" are to blame for everything, depriving Europeans of their historical memory? And the "age of electricity" did not come in the time of Faraday and Yablochkov, but in the pre-Christian era?

"Electric lighting was available in ancient Egypt," say Peter Crassa and Reinhard Habek, who have devoted their book to proving this idea.

Their main argument: relief from the temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera, created in 50 BC, during the time of Queen Cleopatra. This relief shows an Egyptian priest holding an oblong object in his hands, reminiscent of the bulb of an electric lamp. A snake wriggles inside the flask; her head is turned towards the sky.

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For Crassa and Habek, everything is clear. This relief is a technical drawing; a strange object is a lamp, and a snake allegorically represents a filament. With the help of such lamps, the Egyptians illuminated dark corridors and rooms. For example, why there is no soot on the walls of the rooms where the artists worked, which would have remained if they had used oil lamps. It's all about energy!

A funny hypothesis, but not a single volt of truth in it. The capacity of the "Baghdad battery" is very small. Even if in ancient times rooms were illuminated with one-watt bulbs - what is this power? light flare, not a ray of light in the dark kingdom! - would have to put together forty Baghdad batteries. This design weighs tens of kilograms.

“To illuminate all the Egyptian buildings, 116 million batteries with a total weight of 233,600 tons would be needed,” physicist Frank Dörnenburg meticulously calculated. There is no particular faith in these figures either, but the meaning is clear: the galvanic elements of antiquity should come across to scientists at every step. But this is not the case!

Electricians were also surprised. Even today, there is no such gigantic incandescent lamp as depicted in this relief. And it's good that not. Such colossi are dangerous: after all, the force of destruction of the lamp under the influence of atmospheric pressure increases as its volume increases.

Egyptologists, on the other hand, interpret this relief in a completely different way than those who like sensations, masters of confusing centuries and discoveries. The relief is full of symbolism. The very hieroglyphic way of writing prompted the Egyptians to see something different behind the images - that which is implied. Reality and its image did not match. The elements of Egyptian reliefs were rather words and phrases to be understood.

So, according to experts, the relief in Dendera depicts the heavenly barge of the sun god Ra. According to the beliefs of the Egyptians, the Sun dies every day in the evening and is resurrected at dawn. Here he is symbolized by a snake, which, as was believed in the land of the pharaohs, is reborn every time it sheds its skin. The most controversial element of the image is the notorious "flask". Even Egyptologists don't know how to interpret it. Perhaps it means "horizon".

As for the setting in which the relief was created, the workers probably carved it under the light of ordinary lamps filled with, for example, olive oil. In the Valley of the Kings, archaeologists came across images in which workers with similar lamps are visible, it is seen how they are given wicks and how in the evening the workers return them.

Why then are there no traces of soot on the walls and ceilings? And here is your lie! There they are. Archaeologists have found similar spots more than once. They even had to restore some of the too smoky tombs.

But if “Baghdad batteries” were not used to illuminate dwellings and tombs, what were they for? The only acceptable explanation was given by the German Egyptologist Arne Eggebrecht. In his collection there was a small statuette of the Egyptian god Osiris, covered with the finest layer of gold. Its age is approximately 2,400 years.

After making a copy of the figurine, Egebrecht immersed it in a bath of gold brine. Then I connected ten earthenware jars, similar to the "Baghdad battery", and connected this power source to the bath. A few hours later, an even layer of gold settled on the statuette. The ancient masters were obviously capable of such a technical trick. Indeed, for the application of galvanic coatings, a current of low strength and low voltage is needed.

And yet, mysteries remain.

How did the Parthians discover the electric current? After all, a voltage equal to 0.5 volts cannot be detected without instruments. Luigi Galvani discovered "animal electricity" in 1790 by pure chance. He noticed that the muscles of a frog involuntarily contract if plates of different metals are simultaneously applied to its leg.

Perhaps the ancients also accidentally discovered electricity? And how did they guess that with the help of an electric current it is possible to precipitate the gold contained in the solution? And where was this discovery made, in Parthia or, judging by the statuette, in Egypt? Did they know about him in other countries? After all, "batteries" have probably been used for more than one century.

Alas, we do not know anything about this. No written records have survived. The famous German historian Burchard Brentjes assumed, for example, that this mysterious invention was used only in Babylon and its environs. But how was it really?

Was the battery really used for electroplating? From the fact that "it was possible," it does not follow: "It was so." And why do archaeologists find the same "batteries" in which a copper rod is placed inside a copper cylinder? They cannot generate current. You need a rod from a different metal. Was the metal-inlaid earthenware jugs intended for a different purpose?

On the other hand, you shouldn't underestimate your ancestors either. Everything is forgotten. And some of the highest achievements of a particular culture, amazing secrets are lost after several centuries. Wars, fires, destruction of written monuments only increase oblivion. The ruins of the destroyed metropolises least of all resemble a solid archive or patent office, in which all the inventions of antiquity are carefully preserved.

Much has disappeared without a trace. Perhaps, whole areas of science, the fruits of the activities of large scientific schools, the techniques of the dynasties of artisans, which were passed on in secret, have been lost. And now, when archaeologists find an unusual artifact, they do not know how to explain its appearance. It becomes an unsolvable riddle, a phrase from a book that has long been burned.

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