Battery Invention American, enough usa bashing

You know this happened a year ago, don't you?

 

And your point is...?

 

The fist batteries were created over 2000 Years ago. Americans improved on them and ade them practicle.

250 B.C. The Baghdad Battery - In 1936 several unusual earthenware jars, dating from about 250 B.C., were unearthed during archeological excavations at Khujut Rabu near Baghdad. A typical jar was 130 mm (5-1/2 inches) high and contained a copper cylinder, the bottom of which was capped by a copper disk and sealed with bitumen or asphalt. An iron rod was suspended from an asphalt stopper at the top of the copper cylinder into the centre of the cylinder. The rod showed evidence of having been corroded with an acidic agent such as wine or vinegar. 250 BC corresponds to the Parthian occupation of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) and the the jars were held in Iraq's State Museum in Baghdad. In 1938 they were examined by German archeologist Wilhelm König who concluded that they were Galvanic cells or batteries supposedly used for gilding silver by electroplating. A mysterious anachronism. Backing up his claim, König also found copper vases plated with silver dating from earlier periods in the Baghdad Museum and other evidence of (electro?)plated articles from Egypt. Since then, several replica batteries have been made using various electrolytes including copper sulphate and grape juice generating voltages from half a Volt to over one Volt and they have successfully been used to demonstrate the electroplating of silver with gold. No other compelling explanation of the purpose of these artifacts has been proposed and the enigma still remains.



1748 - Benjamin Franklin first coined the term "battery" to describe an array of charged glass plates.
1780 to 1786 - Luigi Galvani demonstrated what we now understand to be the electrical basis of nerve impulses and provided the cornerstone of research for later inventors like Volta.
1800 - Alessandro Volta invented the voltaic pile and discovered the first practical method of generating electricity. Constructed of alternating discs of zinc and copper with pieces of cardboard soaked in brine between the metals, the voltic pile produced electrical current. The metallic conducting arc was used to carry the electricity over a greater distance. Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile was the first "wet cell battery" that produced a reliable, steady current of electricity.
1836 - Englishman, John F. Daniel invented the Daniel Cell that used two electrolytes: copper sulfate and zinc sulfate. The Daniel Cell was somewhat safer and less corrosive then the Volta cell.
1839 - William Robert Grove developed the first fuel cell, which produced electrical by combining hydrogen and oxygen.
1839 to 1842 - Inventors created improvements to batteries that used liquid electrodes to produce electricity. Bunsen (1842) and Grove (1839) invented the most successful.
1859 - French inventor, Gaston Plante developed the first practical storage lead-acid battery that could be recharged (secondary battery). This type of battery is primarily used in cars today.
1866 - French engineer, Georges Leclanche patented the carbon-zinc wet cell battery called the Leclanche cell. According to The History of Batteries: "George Leclanche's original cell was assembled in a porous pot. The positive electrode consisted of crushed manganese dioxide with a little carbon mixed in. The negative pole was a zinc rod. The cathode was packed into the pot, and a carbon rod was inserted to act as a currency collector. The anode or zinc rod and the pot were then immersed in an ammonium chloride solution. The liquid acted as the electrolyte, readily seeping through the porous cup and making contact with the cathode material. The liquid acted as the electrolyte, readily seeping through the porous cup and making contact with the cathode material."
1868 - Twenty thousand of Georges Leclanche's cells were now being used with telegraph equipment.
1881 - J.A. Thiebaut patented the first battery with both the negative electrode and porous pot placed in a zinc cup.
1881 - Carl Gassner invented the first commercially successful dry cell battery (zinc-carbon cell).
1899 - Waldmar Jungner invented the first nickel-cadmium rechargeable battery.
1901 - Thomas Alva Edison invented the alkaline storage battery.
1949 - Lew Urry invented the small alkaline battery.
1954 - Gerald Pearson, Calvin Fuller and Daryl Chapin invented the first solar battery.

 

Honda and Toyota have allowed us to be patriotic when choosing to pollute the air and waste gas, or to buy a hybrid. I don't bash America, but do believe that if our "American" auto manufacturers wanted to be more patriotic, they could have solved this dilemma before the Japanese or Chinese (i.e. they could have kept their hybrid, EV program going, and not abandoned it in favor of bigger more expensive SUVs, pickup trucks, and land barges, bowing to political pressures and greed of their CEO's)...now look where their foolishness got them. Bash America? No, I bash GM, Ford, and Chrysler, they're the ones that are too pig headed and stupid to realize their shortcomings. Now, a company from America wants to capitalize on an idea that they didn't have the foresight to make a reality or to make feasible and functional? Sorry, but my opinion is, if you snooze, you lose.

 

Dang thread got out of hand. All I posted was the GM dealers were telling people how bad my Prius was and not how good GM cars are and why people should buy them.
I was hoping other people had the same experial with GM sales and could add to the topic. It was not a bash on the USA.

Close this thread and delete it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Blue-Adept\";p=\"102945)</div>

I'm a dual citizen and love the USA. I really love Utah, especially the St. George and Park City area. I'm also a University of Utah alumnus.

I guess you missed my post around 4-6 months back about all the problems I had with my 2000 GMC Sierra that I special ordered? When it worked, it seemed to work well, but it rarely worked at 100%

Within 5,000km that Vortec 5.3 V8 developed the dreaded "Piston Slap" noise that only got louder. GM claimed "carbon deposits." Explain to me how the h*** I had "carbon deposits" after only 5,000km? Then I found this site:

http://www.pistonslap.com

Though mine "only" used 1 litre of oil every 5,000km, so I guess I had it good. They started to claim that 1 litre every 1,000km was "normal" oil consumption. Why even bother changing the oil, just keep adding?

The 4 wheel disk brakes were anemic at the best of times. When towing I had to have the trailer electric brake controller cranked up so high my trailer brakes wore early. GM really touted the "advantages" of four wheel disk brakes, which leads me to ...

Their absolutely awful "drum in hat" parking brake system. If I didn't get mine adjusted every 4-6 months, the parking brake wouldn't hold the empty truck, let alone a load. GM enthusiests think it's perfectly acceptable to replace that assembly, at a cost of at least $400, every 2-3 years.

Oh, but GM very quietly went back to rear drum brakes for 2005. They claimed "better pedal feel, stronger brakes, better parking brakes ..." Funny thing is I recall the GMC sales creature telling me how pathetically obsolete the Toyota Tundra was for retaining rear drum brakes.

The AutoTrak automatic transfer case was a neat feature when it worked. When it quit on me, the driver display showed "Service 4WD" in scary amber letters and the system was stuck in 2WD. So was I on the hill at my old cabin.

How about the rough lopey idle that took them 3 PCM reflash to fix, and it still wasn't right?

Since I want to relax for this long weekend, I really don't want to think of the money I lost on that expensive piece of s*** GMC truck.

As far as the issue of buying all that "cheap plastic crap" at Wally World, last time I checked the United States was a free country, Canada somewhat less so.

Nobody points a military weapon to your head and forces you to march into Wally World to buy anything. You have Free Agency in the matter.

Anyhoo, before I leave for the weekend to enjoy at the hobby farm, can somebody please explain to me the point of this topic?? Thanks.

 

Umm, I thought it was a GOOD thing to use an idea and improve on it.

Apparently sharing and collaborating ideas is BAD.

And if that's the case, science should be outlawed. Because that's all I do- take others' preliminary work and expand upon the knowledge that has already been published (giving credit where credit is due, of course). There's always more to learn and better ways of doing things....

So the Japanese beat us to it. We're getting beaten to almost every scientific advance to be made by other countries that actually fund research...

 

Well, I'm stuck in the city for the long weekend. Thanks to all the record-breaking rainfall recently, the low part of the gravel sideroad to my hobby farm has almost 3 ft of water over it. Even ducks are swimming over it. So I'm in a sour mood.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee\";p=\"102999)</div>

You bet it is. It's called "progress" but apparently some folks think "progress" is a dirty word.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee\";p=\"102999)</div>

No it's not. Sharing GOOD. All but p****** away good ideas and innovations is BAD. Then complaining when somebody else picks up the idea/innovation that was discarded, VERY BAD.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee\";p=\"102999)</div>

Read up on the Dr. W.E. Deming story and you'll rip your hair out by the roots and scream at the top of your lungs until you have a serious aneurysim:

http://www.deming.org

The Big Three laughed off poor Dr. Deming, then later on heaped plenty of verbal abuse upon him for "conspiring" to bankrupt the Big Three.

Just like how the Big Three laughed off hybrids, then along came the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius ... nope no sympathy from me at all. Not one ounce.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jayman\";p=\"103139)</div>

No it's not. Sharing GOOD. All but p****** away good ideas and innovations is BAD. Then complaining when somebody else picks up the idea/innovation that was discarded, VERY BAD.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee\";p=\"102999)</div>

Read up on the Dr. W.E. Deming story and you'll rip your hair out by the roots and scream at the top of your lungs until you have a serious aneurysim:

http://www.deming.org

The Big Three laughed off poor Dr. Deming, then later on heaped plenty of verbal abuse upon him for "conspiring" to bankrupt the Big Three.

Just like how the Big Three laughed off hybrids, then along came the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius ... nope no sympathy from me at all. Not one ounce.[/b][/quote]

Jayman, i was being sarcastic on that "sharing is bad" thing. I think you were returning the sarcasm... but just to drive the point home.

About the Deming story- wow. Leave it to the US automakers.

 

Yep I was reinforcing your sarcasm as I was in the proper mood to do so. That Deming story is something else, isn't it? Some execs here have even called him Unpatriotic!

 

Well people call foreign car owners unpatriotic too. 40+ mpg is very patriotic. So screw them!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee\";p=\"103156)</div>

Opinions are like sphincters: everybody has one and they usually stink.