The Long and Slightly Gruesome History Behind the Invention of the Battery

Origins of Everything recounted the fascinating and somewhat gruesome history behind the invention of the battery, noting that experiments evolved from using frogs to test efficacy in the 18th century to the long journey that would eventually create the portable modern batteries used in the modern era.

In the video today, we’re looking at how batteries came to be and when humans first started to utilize electricity.

The narrator explained that the early experiments with frogs inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein.

In 1786 Luigi Galvani an Italian physician working at the University of Bologna was conducting dissections of frogs when …he touched a pair of frog’s legs with a steel dissecting tool while they were hanging from a brass hook. The legs twitched as if alive. Further experiments revealed the frog legs and those of other animals also twitched involuntarily when subjected to electrical jolts from electrostatic machines …The electrical experiments of Galvani and others during this period directly influence Mary Shelley’s classic 1818 novel Frankenstein

He also talked about why there are no “B” batteries.

Some of the most popular you’ll find on store shelves including AA AAA C and D batteries. this might all have you wondering why no B batteries. Well there actually are B batteries it just appears there is no B or an F battery simply because those particular battery sizes never really caught on commercially at least on the consumer end of things.

via The Awesomer