This is a past event
Volta’s battery (the “Voltaic pile”, announced in 1800) was very easily replicated even by amateurs working at home, but the explanation of its workings remained a matter of great controversy for many years even among the leading experts. It will come as a surprise to many people that even today the theoretical understanding of the Voltaic battery is still not straightforward.
The standard explanation of battery action given in modern chemistry textbooks concerns the Daniell cell, invented in the 1830s. Volta’s and Daniell’s cells are very different, and they were at the core of two competing systems of practice, which I call the “contact–electrostatic system” and the “chemical imbalance system” of battery science. What is also curious is the fact that the workings of our simple everyday batteries (“dry cells”) are also very difficult to explain. Dry cells were invented through ad hoc processes of aim-oriented adjustment not fitting easily into any of the standard systems of battery science (of which I have identified four in the 19th century). This history has many interesting implications concerning the interactions of science, technology and daily life.
- Speaker
- Hasok Chang (University of Cambridge)
- Venue
- via Teams