Can an 18th Century Battery Charge Your Phone?

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What is a battery and how are they made? I explore the history of the battery and recreate the very first one: the voltaic pile, and discover what this new technology unlocks and what it can power!
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[@toddellner5283]

Be very careful about using Better Help. They've already been fined by the FTC for selling personal client data to third parties. That is NOT something your therapist should do

[@MrNeilSherman]

That's pretty fuckin' evil. I'm disappointed but not surprised...

[@twitch7406]

Bro they aint even therapists 😅😅

[@DarkSaber-1111]

This needs to be spoken about more often and social influencers need to do their followers better by researching who they are promoting and getting sponsorships from.

[@DarkSaber-1111]

Yoy have to request that they do not sell your information to hsve it kept private and some of those doctors will sell very personal information about their clients without consent!

[@Axodus]

@@twitch7406 Why are they called therapists then? That's false advertising.

[@ooj316]

Love that the experiment demonstrates the formula for water by giving you 2x as much hydrogen

[@nasonguy]

Isn't that exactly how scientists determined the elemental ratio for water?

[@teslacoil4335]

@@nasonguy they had that figured out along time before electrolysis analysis, electrolysis is just a common proof of it

[@christopheruncapher1863]

Didn't see you making that?

[@antiisocial]

I noticed that as well

[@rso823]

If it’s 2O wouldn’t there be twice as much oxygen

[@jaye1967]

This just goes to show how difficult it actually is to make many common things we can get today.

[@LlibertarianGalt]

Reminds me of Freidmans pencil analogy

[@thanthanasiszamp4707]

I made a 6 volt earth battery (from 6 smaller earth batteries in series and parallel) just to power up a yellow led

[@arfink]

Indeed, especially if you try to avoid learning from others before you build your thing. For example... watching for 3 seconds how jewelers make sprues for lost wax casting so that your cast will work. They were *so* close, a tiny touch on the joint from the sprue to the wax disc with a hot metal tool to melt them together, and it would have been *so* much better.

[@michelhv]

"Partial success" is the motto of this channel.

[@tatertime]

When you only put in partial effort, you can only get partial success

[@lucasrem]

update it, keep updating it, again and again ! he run away, cryin, needs help ? I need to post it, weeeeeeeeeeee

[@nathanbrittin7301]

Great video! I think the issues you were having with the final battery when charging the phone was that your copper layers were touching and shorting out. If you put larger diameter pieces of soaked paper (instead of more pieces) between the layers it should keep the individual layers from touching and give you a more consistent output. Great job as always!

[@godrobot6432]

either that or the capacitance of the sheets is too low to sustain charge.

[@godrobot6432]

probably needs to series plates to get more amps

[@Suzuki_Hiakura]

Unsure about this battery, but I am somewhat familiar with salt water batteries. They produce extremely low voltages per cell, and capacity is also very little, but his should've had a decent capacity (prob close to a cheap AAA) so I assume his had little capacity due to the resistance and inefficiencies. The best, most stable voltage I got for my salt water battery was 0.6v with very little capacity... though the right mixture of table salt and water for the electrolyte is what brought the voltage that high, my capacity for that one was horrible due to it being my first attempt, where I used the only copper I had around (about a foot of scrap christmas light wire for the anode) and aluminum cans (soda can cut into sheets for the cathode). I also had a bunch of resistance since the anode and cathode were loosely suspended in the container, with the can rolled and placed in a makeshift fabric casing (scrap fabric I had lying around as the separator).

he made it right, thats all this battery can do, unless u use strong acids instead of salt water, hacl

[@matthewmccalister5594]

That stack of metal and fiber, doused in salt water lighting up that LED light was a really cool visual of the basic principles of a battery. Mind-blowing!

[@peterjf7723]

I remember back at school in the 1970s we made a voltaic battery from layers of copper, blotting paper and zinc soaked in brine.

[@skepticfucker280]

Penny's after 1983 are zinc with copper plating, sand one side down on the sidewalk and you can do the same. :)

[@peterjf7723]

@@skepticfucker280 Incorrect. The penny was originally minted from bronze, but since 1992 has been minted in copper-plated steel due to increasing copper prices. By May 2006, the intrinsic metal value of a pre-1992 1p coin was about 1.5 pence. Melting coins is illegal in the United Kingdom and is punishable by a fine, or up to two years imprisonment.

[@skepticfucker280]

@@peterjf7723 umm, no. Sry I have a bunch of sanded down penny's from when I was making penny batteries like 6 years ago, also do a bit of coin collecting. Penny's before 1982 are 90%+ pure copper..... after 1982 they started making them from zinc and copper plating them. Just like before dimes and quaters were silver and nickels were mad of nickel. It is the original form of inflation by watering down the money supply with inferior metals. And yeah it's a crime to damage currency but currency isn't money so who cares what happens to fiat..... Either way cheers, hope u have a great week. :)

[@CloverCreates]

Man I love this series, it's everything I loved back in the day about TKOR and Cody's lab. This also got me into Dr stone. Keep up the good work I can't wait to see what you have planned next

[@matsudaindustries2530]

I always think about Cody's lab and the old TKOR when I watch HTME videos, glad to see someone else think the same

[@tarastein6287]

I haven't watched Cody's lab but i have watched tkor

[@tatu77]

You hit the nail on the head. The production quality and easy to understand nature of TKOR and the nerdy scientific projects of CodysLab

[@micahphilson]

Somehow, even though when I think Zinc, I think electrochemistry, since I relate it more to sacrificial anodes I totally missed how Zinc is perfect for batteries, even after you created capacitors! You slipped right into early electricity without me even realizing!

[@ravoniesravenshir3926]

How did you get here 2 days before the rest of us?

[@arbitercay478]

​@@ravoniesravenshir3926 I was about to say the same thing 😂 Little sus

[@KainYusanagi]

@@ravoniesravenshir3926 Patreon.

[@Subbestionix]

The battery pack controller you used in the end might have just realized it's not a lithium cell. The voltage range lithium cells run at is very small. So when yours dropped below it, the controller shut itself off to protect the cells. Aka your battery isn't dead. Just power than lithium. And also: open circuit voltage is bit representative of the load capacity.

[@ThaFedejp]

I love this show. Today I felt that the concept wasn't explained as thoroughly as other times and now that you're reaching more complex topics, maybe it's worth to explain them more thoroughly

[@marcusrobinson1778]

Google oxidation and reduction. The galvanic series. Galvanic cell. All of this makes up about a week of gen chem Ii.

[@bastiboyza]

@@marcusrobinson1778 no thanks lol

[@marcusrobinson1778]

@@bastiboyza wasn't for you lol

[@jennifer255]

It's funny how early electro-chemistry seems to be overlooked when people talk about the industrial age. It's all steam, oil and steel production that get all the hype, but electricity really played a great role in separating the elements. Even the discovered elements came about right after the battery was invented. This is my favorite part about chemistry - at least the history of chemistry. I've been really enjoying this series and I love how crude the "first drafts" of each recreation is - really gives insight into how things progress through trial and error, like with the saw frame a few episodes ago. A "perfect" saw blade would probably have reinforcement and connected to a watermill, but before you can make that, you "need the tool to make the tool" (the whole premise of this series!), and that's the early prototype that gets all bent and contorted with the first tree knot it encounters. Then there's all the other tools that need to support the new tool you're trying to make. Also, I've always wondered (after reading a thread some 15 years ago - It's become one of those things I like to think about when I'm bored - on an AlternateHistory forum with a hypothetical question of "If you dropped a group of people off on several large islands..."), just how quickly could someone recreate, let's say, cell phones and PCs starting from scratch, assuming they knew what they were doing (a speed-run if you will). Would there be a bottleneck for 1 person? a few hundred? Few thousand? How many (at a minimum) are needed for an industrial society? A modern society? Sure, you can make a simple battery, but you need the miners, the glass blowers, builders to construct factories and warehouse, housing for the workers, farmers and ranchers for food, and so on. This series goes a long way in answering these things.

[@chrispatmatbuilds]

Been following your channel for years and was scrolling through your old videos. It is absolutely incredible how far you've taken this all! Despite all the challenges, you keep pushing forward and it's super inspiring! Keep up the great work! ❤❤❤

[@Ryoshi3576]

My mans the irl doctor stone

[@rowanbcapr]

he’s done videos recreating some of the recipes and then doing his own version

[@BruhdudeJX]

Always has been

[@bigbird4481]

Id love if someone did a series dedicated to that show

[@rowanbcapr]

@@bigbird4481 bro look at his videos

[@bigbird4481]

@@rowanbcapr I know he has videos showcasing stuff from doctor stone, but I want to see every invention made irl including medicine

[@athannaelanderson3806]

Best episode in awhile Brother! Really love how you got your hands back on the project and really hit your roots of doing everything yourself! Respect ✊

[@spencersmotorworks2862]

Great work, Ive been watching since the start of the the series and your skills have greatly improved, I love the content you create

[@EMCProton]

Great job. I rebuild batteries for home. NiCd batteries are a bit dirty when they have been used for quite some time. I clean the plates and container. When I am done with the cleaning, I check the battery cell for shorts, then I fill the cell with a new electrolyte. The following is very important to do. I run charge and discharge cycles. All batteries must do this. It helps stabilize the charge and how much current can be used over time. I first discharge then slow charge full. Then I discharge to 40% for NiCds. I finally run this cycle for about 3-4 times. I have batteries that are in over 30 years of service.

[@notCameraMan69]

Damn, that beat @ 5:00 got enlightened, the soundtrack HTME uses is one of many reasons I love this channel.

[@estebanf9282]

can't wait to see how the lead acid variant holds up!

[@chrisdiduch3347]

Next time you cast metal with the lost wax method, build in gas vents from the discs back up to the surface. Or at least a good way from the cavities. That will allow the metal to not have to try and compress the gasses inside the mold. Or you could attach the mold to a string and swing it around employing centripetal forces to push the metal into the cavities. Both are tried and true methods of improving casting results. Also try having a larger funnel shaped hole at the top to allow for more metal in your pour. The increased weight will help push the metal into the cavities, plus the excess metal reservoir will help when the metal starts to shrink when it cools.

[@inserttext2412]

Thank you for bringing this up. First thing I thought when I saw the casting

[@chrisdiduch3347]

@@inserttext2412 20 plus years as a custom goldsmith specializing in casting and repairs. Sometimes small things make huge differences in end results.

[@lcy-es6928]

Curious why you chose to cast the discs instead of working the metal thin and cutting them.

[@linecraftman3907]

He would need to invent (i.e. forge) metal shears

[@admirnaruto]

Probably for historic accuracy. The original voltaic pile used cast metals. But yeah, it would have been much easier to work and cut the metal.

[@chrisdiduch3347]

@@linecraftman3907or better yet, because the metal in question is quite soft, a hole punch. He already had the tech to make iron tubes and to sharpen them.

[@piggybackride89]

Loooved the museum bit

[@T.C.-st8uz]

I love the use of the hand tools ! 🔥

[@yazmeliayzol624]

Glad I stumbled upon this video as it indirectly answers my question about vacuum smelting...

[@Smarfton]

I love that I know that the video was film recently (at least the outside shots), because the weather lines up with the crap we're still dealing with outside. Love from the Twin Cities!

[@ImmortalAbsol]

I always loved the classic TKOR video on penny batteries.

[@linecraftman3907]

Loved the episode and the history as always, another great video HTME team! For casting, maybe it would make sense to put tiny holes in the mold to let air escape as it fills?

[@knuckle12356]

Yup. Vent tubes allow the metal to more completely flow down that tree. Without the venting, the pillow of air that exists in the negative space must be evacuated/displaced to let the metal in. In addition to venting the bottoms of the casting pcs, there's no rule that the metal has to flow into a central pipeline, and then split off from there. You could absolutely add extra passageways from the top pour space, DIRECT to the harder to reach casting spots at the opposite end of the mold. You just have to make sure your 2ndary flow route isn't working as your vent. The pressures will screw everything up. You don't want one flow route to push the air into the second flow route, upsetting that metal's casting path and screwing up the quality of results. ^ Vent | (vent) mtl-->[art]

[@knuckle12356]

I wasn't clear what you meant by 'tiny holes?' But a few simple evac routes would be better than trying to pin cushion the mold with a ton of tiny exit paths. Again, it's all about rapid and decisive flow of the molten metal. The same holds true for evacuating the air from the casting. So, congrats on presuming a way to improve results. It was a wise suggestion based on observations. And you happen to be totally correct.

[@linecraftman3907]

​@@knuckle12356 oh yeah i just meant like a tiny air channel, 3-4mm in diameter extending upwards and away to drain the bubbles of air. You know now that i think about it, since its all just casting disks I get why they switched to open molds and casted them flat

[@skawattle1213]

You make everything thats awesome you got yourself a new sub 😊

[@cryptoalchemist369]

absolutely awesome work here

[@chrisgriffith2955]

I love this stuff! Please more batteries!

[@patri0t1776]

May I make a suggestion? Use plate separators that are at least a 1/4 over each edge of the electrodes. So for 4" sq. plate electrode use 4 1/2" separator. I believe you were shorting around the edges, and even at low voltage there could be added self-current drain with exposed plates. It also leaves you with more electrolyte per sq. inch giving more ion exchange.

[@benstradling7615]

My all time favourite MHA bit has to be the epic battle on the island when decku gives one for all to the kid who's been bullying him his whole life to save the kids and islanders the animation is next level i had to take extra meds after watching it because it triggered my epilepsy was totally worth it .

[@hazel7296]

Haha as teens used to use a car battery to split water and we collected the 02 and hydrogen in milk jugs that we'd throw in the fire

[@DarkPegasus87]

In one of those molds, you had spattering from the liquid metal due to what BigStack D refers to as a steam explosion. The molds had moisture in them when you poured in the metal, and the suddenly heat made the moisture rapidly turn into steam. Thankfully, the reaction was small, but you need to preheat future molds beforehand to prevent that from happening.

[@rodrigobelinchon2982]

always wanted to see one of those in action !

[@Harlem1mentality]

Human creativity and ingenuity is mind blowing. Just wow

[@05Matz]

With a USB supply/discharge controller more suited to the chemistry (that one was intended to cut out anytime it got outside the very narrow safety range of lithium cells) you could probably get a lot more power out of that homemade pile.

[@Azap2124]

I remember years ago when I started watching his channel and wondering why he didn't have many subscribers. Look at him go 👏🏼 I knew this channel deserved and still deserves much more subscribers 🎉

[@GoderikCristobal]

Another amazing experiment!

[@ommsterlitz1805]

In 1801, the First Consul of France no other than Napoleon Bonaparte himself, invited Alessandro Volta the father of the battery to come and present his battery in Paris. On November 7, 1801, Volta began a speech on the theory of galvanism before the National Institute of Sciences and Arts. The presentation lasts three days. Volta demonstrates the efficiency of its electric battery. Bonaparte was impressed by the scientist to whom he gives the gold medal while making him count. Napoleon also established a competition to reward the best research on electricity making the breaking point in electricity research and understanding. He understood it was one of the energy of the future and like in most matter was right.

[@eformance]

I like your window shade in the background.

[@kylemackinnon5696]

Miniminiuteman has a fantastic video with a lead reasearcher that gives the best modern interpretation of the "bagdad battery"

[@gameyord7182]

FINALLY electricity

[@ravoniesravenshir3926]

@How To Make Everything. There is a Sodium something Pile battery in a Museum somewhere, that has been ringing a bell for god knows how long, but no one has tried to re make this battery.

[@eDoc2020]

The Oxford Bell. We don't know what type of battery it is.

[@ultimate_pleb]

have you reinvented the shovel yet, i heard it was ground breaking!

[@HL65536]

I was just gonna comment at 10:00 that's not how to build a battery, you need different metals to be touching at every 2nd gap, but he found out shortly after. Please do a Lead Acid battery, but be careful with the dangerous substances involved.

[@logangraham2956]

I was wondering if it would perform better if you combined the voltaic pile with a leyden jar capacitor , and maybe some old style diode like a pencil and razer diode.

[@Nanobits]

a mud coating over all the container was used to keep the gas from escaping including any steam and that would push all the gases into the water. the entire mud encased was heated, cooking the mud and melting the metal inside. temperature was maintained very high with bellows.

[@ksavage681]

I'll have to remember this when I go back in time, so I can charge my phone. Thanks!

[@Lingu42]

These last two videos felt quite significant. With electric power, the modern age is beginning for HTME. I would like to see hydro power generating current some day. Take your time, the journey is the goal.

[@Elarson222]

Brother you have running like clockwork and so BLING BLING 💪👀🤙

[@NickToland]

Well done!

[@tobiwonkanogy2975]

works really well , tough to design where its submerged all the time but that would be better results as the fluid could recoop and provide the energy through chemical reactions. impressive handiwork

[@RealAndySkibba]

What a shocking video! I'll resist making more puns.

[@TheAsvarduilProject]

You're just saying that currently. If you change your mind, though, feel free to amp up your efforts! Just remember, you ohm all puns you make.

[@bigbird4481]

​@@TheAsvarduilProject I personally keep alternating between what pun I think is better

[@TheAsvarduilProject]

@Big bird IC what you did there. Resistor the impulse to change your mind too frequently!

[@swolff1234]

Great video!

[@patrickhayden7206]

LM7805? Was cool to see you crack the batterybank open to smooth the voltages. I'm curious how much longer it would've charged if the copper&zinc sheets were put in a Rubbermaid basin,for example, so they're constantly submerged in the electrolyte. Cool video.

[@eDoc2020]

Each section of electrolyte needs to be isolated. If not, it acts as one big cell and your series connections become short circuits.

[@patrickhayden7206]

Didn't realize. I thought it would be like a lead cell battery, but I couldn't remember if all the cells had to acid separated from each other.

[@kittyprydekissme]

So did you examine the inside of the blowpipe afterwards? It occured to me that some zinc might've deposited on the inner surface of the pipe.

[@DollyOmegaX]

Thorough and amazing!

[@htme]

Thanks!

[@scottdaniels3033]

Amazing thank you for this video

[@masterimbecile]

When it comes to knowledge about electricity, I like to stay current.

[@bobedwards8896]

thats shocking!

[@Boriscranford8255]

4:36: when she said "BOOP" I enjoyed it!

[@GerstBladeworks]

What's I find most fascinating and the whole thing is that a metal can travel distances as a gas.. wild. Also, if you preheat your overfill molds a bit with a torch before you pour, it won't pop and splatter like that

[@dababyleonis8806]

One of the best KZbinr right now

[@nimeangaming6324]

Can’t wait tell he makes it to the first car he’s slowly getting closer

[@GeneralNickles]

I feel like you might be able to get a bit more charge time out of it if you remove air from the equation. Put the whole stack in an air tight tube or some such, fill it with brine, let it soak for a bit, drain excess brine, seal the whole thing, and _then_ see how long it charges.

[@pick_pick_pick]

Thanks for sharing

[@wubzeez7319]

i found it so cool with the hydrogen and oxygen electrolysis experiment, you can see how there is twice the level of hydrogen, since there are 2 hydrogen atoms to each oxygen in a water molecule

[@swag31556]

I member making one of these after seeing a king of random video about it like a decade ago

[@xenorac]

I feel like I learned something, but I am not sure what it was. Great video, I am not too bright!

[@Anythings_go23]

Question, if you were incase it in a glass tube or in some thing with the salt water would the voltage stay the same longer

[@DisKorruptd]

Hey, I know you already have concrete and such but like... go check out Primitive Technology's iron bacteria concrete, I think that could also be an interesting material for potting with

[@andertenis]

Awesome stuff

[@Myreply59]

At the 9:58 you can see that you are putting it together right. The copper and zinc take a felt separator but the zinc and copper must make contact. copper + felt + zince + copper + felt + zinc etc.

[@Baconguy-rx8zr]

Yes more dr. Stone stuff

[@nopenope1]

this is an important lesson for all those time travelers ;) - try using a 'magical' knowledge device with older technique, I guess devices with PD won't be so 'easily' recharged

[@jakedewey3686]

Not related to this video, but you really should do a video where you make a surface plate and accessories. The surface plate is the single most important tool used in machining and measurement, but is so simple that one can be manufactured from just rocks (though metal or glass might be preferable). You don't really need any other tools to make one, either, just an understanding of some clever geometry.

[@naelblogger7976]

3:39 "Today we do electrolysis...". So, once you have your first battery, you can get the zinc for the next ones quicker :)

[@400yearoldvampire9]

Love how real these episodes are. Instead of 'we asked nasa to laser cut zinc and copper plates for us to be precise'

[@Aquafbody]

What makes the plates "spent"? Are you able to renew them to be used again?

[@KevinSmith-os5yz]

It's not that the battery is discharging quickly. It's that it's internal resistance is high. When you measure without load vs with load you can calculate the internal resistance. Bottom line you need way more surface area to keep the load down on each cell.

[@plum_pie6402]

very cool video great watch

[@6F6G]

The first historic battery mentioned was the Leyden jar which isn't a battery, it's a capacitor, no chemical reactions occur during charging and discharging.

[@lucasrem]

You need to make the same, only on dynamic flutes, revive it active.

[@mtbrocket]

Great video. 😊

[@danchristensen2635]

A mini one made from pennies could work in theory. Using all copper and stripped zinc ones.

[@Dboy21ish]

You just got yourself a subscriber sire.

[@DanSohan]

insulating fabric layers need to be larger to insulate the metal plates better

[@ttherex4397]

Lookin good man

[@matthewmenich4302]

I made zinc disks out of metal jar tops. Way quicker/efficient/ nice disk shape than lost wax.

[@flamethrowex]

you're a brave man to just plug your phone straight into that

[@emils147]

You should make ancient instruments ant maybe in couple videos you can explore vinyl players

[@mktwatcher]

Couldn't you drill holes in the battery plates to increase their area in contact with the electrolyte? Modern ICE auto starter lead acid batteries have grid plates to increase surface area and thus amperage.

[@pg2826]

That looks like a fun museum to visit.

[@TheRealSpiderMew]

How far back in tech time could you make a transistor?

[@DamacusSquared]

I think (don't quote me) that the piles function a bit better when submerged in the solution of either salt water or a weak acid like vinegar or lemon juice

[@pauls5745]

Wow. I had no idea a voltaic pile battery would go flat so fast. Somehow I always just thought they'd probably lasted for a few days.

[@Blu0tuth0ninja]

Im surprised you didnt heat and work the copper and zinc into foils. Much easier to get a larger stack thus higher voltage

[@arlynnecumberbatch1056]

nooo i just watched a document about betterhelp whyyy lmao shouldve done a research man

[@jannepeltonen2036]

This was cool :)

[@Lord_Baphomet_]

It’s a good idea to heat up your mold before pouring… so it doesn’t explode on you like it almost did…

[@dr_they3192]

Really make you appreciate the modern battery