Heard a podcast claiming ancient civilizations had electricity, I think it's just bad history

Ngl, I was listening to some Joe Rogan episode on the drive to work yesterday and the guest was talking about Baghdad batteries like it was proof. But I looked it up later - those clay jars could barely power a lightbulb for a second, and there's zero evidence they were used for anything beyond electroplating. Has anyone else actually checked the science on these old tech claims?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin69225d ago

Yeah electroplating is actually the one thing that makes those Baghdad jars kinda plausible.

reese_nelson25d ago

The Baghdad jars only produce like 0.5 volts each though. You'd need a whole bunch of them in series just to get enough power to plate anything, and there's no proof they were ever wired together like that.

mark_price25d ago

You know, I used to think those jars were just some old battery theory that sounded cool but didn't really work. Your point about electroplating makes a lot more sense though - never thought about it that way before.