Happy New Year Museum-Lers,

Here is a post from TARIKH-L list. Any ideas? Does any of you know
about the German museum mentioned in this posting?

> From: Stan Sandler <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: ane Parthian batteries
> Date: Friday, January 03, 1997 11:58 AM
>
> Hello All:
>
> I am a new member to this list.  I am not an academic;  I
>am a dairy farmer and commercial beekeeper in Prince Edward Island,
>Canada.
> My interest and reason for writing is that a few years ago
>my son did a science fair project asking the question of whether the
>Parthians might have made dry cell batteries as some evidence
>indicates, and what they might have used them for.  This topic made
>for a lot of interesting discussion and speculation in our farmhouse
>and now that we can post a question using this wonderful tool to
>experts in the field I am making use of it. My son made batteries
>of the type that were found (iron  and copper) and then did several
>experiments using them for electroplating with substances that he
>found listed in books that the Parthians would probably have had.
>
> For example, he found that there was a recipe for glass which had
>been found on a Mesopotamian tablet and that verdigris (copper
>acetate) was used to colour the glass.  So he made copper acetate by
>pickling copper (pennies) in vineagar and then electroplated with it.
> He tried a few other substances and we also speculated that maybe
>electricity was used to separate the gold and silver from electrum.
>
> The references he found were: Al-Haik, Albert;  "The Rabbou'a
>Galvanic Cell";  Sumer  Vol 20; 103-104; 1964
>
> Winton, W.;  "Baghdad Batteries B.C"  Sumer  Vol 18;  87-89;  1964
>
> Since the "batteries" were found in 1936, and apparently are housed in a
> museum in Germany now, I assume that the lack of interest in this matter
> means that the academic community either thinks they are a fraud or
thinks they are not "batteries".

> Please could someone comment on this.
> Has anyone ever found any "plated" artifacts?  Electroplating leaves a
>very thin layer than is not nearly as durable as dip plating so the
>absence of this does not necessarily rule out the possibility.
>
> We had a lot of fun thinking about how the discovery might have occurred.
> It is not all that improbable.  Thales of Miletus had already
>experimented with static electricity.  One would actually think that
>electroplating would be one of the first things that electricity
>would be noticed to "do".  If a metalworker was cleaning different
>metals in a container of vineagar (which works, try dropping a penny
>in some) and the two metals touch outside the container (say a
>bronze and an iron sword standing up with the hilts touching) then a
>battery has been created.  And inside the container the metalworker
>might notice that one metal cleaned better when it was in contact
>with another metal that is lower in the electrochemical series.
> I originally posted this letter to ancien-l which I also joined with
>little response.
> I have looked a bit at the archives of ane (where I was directed) and
>found the reference to Paul Keysers paper : The Purpose of the
>Parthian Galvanic Cells: A first Century A.D. Electric Battery used
>for Analgesia.  It will take some time for me to get it but I
>thought I might still post the question as I would need quite a bit
>of convincing that the batteries were not used for metallurgy.
>
> Finally, I see from your archives that you are very sparing of bandwidth,
> and so I apologize for the length of this post.
>
> Thanks, and Happy New Year
> Stan
>
Ali Parsa
Director
Zirakzadeh Science Foundation

email: [log in to unmask]          Tel: +98 21 878-9270
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