Baghdad Battery

Sometime in 1939 or soon after, an electrical engineer at the General Electric plant in Pittsfield, Massachusetts called Willard F. M. Gray made a reconstruction of the jar and chose to test it with [[copper (II) sulphate]] solution as the electrolyte. He reported that this “worked quite well for a short time.”<ref name="Galaxy">{{cite journal |last1=Ley |first1=Willy |title=THE ELEMENTS OF KHUJUT RABU'A AND CTESIPHON |journal=Galaxy Science Fiction |date=1954 |issue=December |pages=44-51 |url=https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v09n03_1954-12/page/n49/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=7 July 2025}}</ref> W. Jansen experimented with an electrolyte of diluted acetic acid with some dissolved [[benzoquinone]] in a cell and got "good experimental results".<ref name="Skeptical">{{cite journal |last1=Eggert |first1=Gerhard |title=The Enigmatic 'Battery of Baghdad' |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=1996 |issue=May/June |pages=31-34 |url=https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1996/05/22165042/p31.pdf |access-date=7 July 2025}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=January 2020|reason=Experiments need sources, satisfactory performance is NOT a quantitative property.}}

Sometime in 1939 or soon after, an electrical engineer at the General Electric plant in Pittsfield, Massachusetts called Willard F. M. Gray made a reconstruction of the jar and chose to test it with [[copper (II) sulphate]] solution as the electrolyte. He reported that this “worked quite well for a short time.”<ref name="Galaxy">{{cite journal |last1=Ley |first1=Willy |title=THE ELEMENTS OF KHUJUT RABU'A AND CTESIPHON |journal=Galaxy Science Fiction |date=1954 |issue=December |pages=44-51 |url=https://archive.org/details/Galaxy_v09n03_1954-12/page/n49/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=7 July 2025}}</ref> W. Jansen experimented with an electrolyte of diluted acetic acid with some dissolved [[benzoquinone]] in a cell and got "good experimental results".<ref name="Skeptical">{{cite journal |last1=Eggert |first1=Gerhard |title=The Enigmatic 'Battery of Baghdad' |journal=Skeptical Inquirer |date=1996 |issue=May/June |pages=31-34 |url=https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/1996/05/22165042/p31.pdf |access-date=7 July 2025}}</ref>{{Citation needed|date=January 2020|reason=Experiments need sources, satisfactory performance is NOT a quantitative property.}}

In 1978, Arne Eggebrecht, a past director of the [[Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim]] reportedly reproduced the electroplating of gold onto a small statue. There are no (direct) written or photographic records of this experiment. In an article from the BBC, Dr Bettina Schmitz, a researcher based at the same museum, said, "There does not exist any written documentation of the experiments which took place here in 1978... The experiments weren't even documented by photos, which really is a pity...I have searched through the archives of this museum and I talked to everyone involved in 1978 with no results."<ref name=bbc/>

Arne Eggebrecht, a past director of the [[Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim]], claimed to have electroplated silver onto an unspecified surface. Using many replicas of the jar connected together, with grape juice as the electrolyte, Eggebrecht only produced a layer of silver 100 nanometres thick. Speaking to a reporter for BBC News, Dr Bettina Schmitz, a researcher based at the same museum, said, "There does not exist any written documentation of the experiments which took place here in 1978... The experiments weren't even documented by photos, which really is a pity...I have searched through the archives of this museum and I talked to everyone involved in 1978 with no results."<ref name=bbc/>

== Controversies over use ==

== Controversies over use ==