History of battery

World's first battery
Alessandro Volta's work was carried out pretty much in the same time frame as that of Galvani. However, it was Volta that, back in 1800, created what would be later known as the world's first true battery, which was dubbed the “Voltaic Pile.” The pile consisted of pairs of copper and zinc discs piled on top of each other, separated by a layer of cloth or cardboard covered in brine, which served as the electrolyte.

The main merit of the Voltaic pile was its being able to generate a continuous, stable current, at the same time retaining much of its charge in time. Unfortunately, the earliest Voltaic piles generated a very small amount of power, but things got better with the more evolved models.
After Volta's initial discovery, other scientists continued to study the concept behind batteries, achieving more or less notable results. One such person is John Frederic Daniell, who invented the Daniell cell, which consisted of a copper pot filled with a copper sulphate solution, in which was immersed an unglazed, porous earthenware container filled with sulphuric acid. Within this container was immersed a zinc electrode.

What made the Daniell cell so interesting was the fact that it was actually able to generate a 1.1-volt current that was more reliable and lasted longer than the one created by the Voltaic pile. This was possible due to the fact that the electrolyte deposited copper (a conductor) rather than hydrogen (an insulator) on the cathode. Furthermore, this cell was safer and significantly less corrosive than the Voltaic pile.

The next “cell” developed during this period was the Grove cell, introduced by William Robert Grove in 1844. This particular cell (actually, the world's first fuel cell) consisted of a zinc anode introduced in sulfuric acid and a platinum cathode introduced in nitric acid, both separated by porous earthenware. This setup allowed the Grove cell to develop nearly 2 volts and a pretty high current, but, at the same time, generated poisonous nitric oxide fumes when operated. Another major disadvantage of the Grove cell was that it recorded a sharp drop in voltage as the charge diminished. The Grove cell was used, for a period, by the American telegraph networks, but it was later on replaced by evolved versions, due exactly to the shortcomings listed above.

One of the major drawbacks of all the “cells” and “piles” developed in the first half of the 19th century was that they had a limited lifetime and, once the chemical reactions powering them were depleted, the batteries would become permanently drained. However, things took a turn for the better in 1859, when Gaston Plante invented the lead-acid battery, the first battery capable of recharging itself when a reverse current was passed through it.

The lead-acid battery is formed of a lead anode and a lead oxide cathode, both of which are immersed in sulphuric acid. The electrodes react with the acid to produce lead sulfate. The reaction at the lead anode “generates” or “releases” electrons, while the reaction at the cathode consumes them, creating a difference in electric potential and, thus, a current. However, given their nature, these electrical reactions can actually be reversed when a reverse current is sent through them. This way, the battery is recharged, without requiring users to add supplementary compounds to the mix.

World first rechargeable batteries
And if the processes described above seem somehow familiar, you should know that this is exactly the principle behind modern car batteries, which has suffered very few modifications over time (the chemical compounds used might have changed a bit, and the design of the cell itself has been seriously improved, but the basic way these things work is pretty much the same).

Plante’s first battery was formed of lead sheets separated by rubber strips and rolled into a spiral. It was initially used to power the lights in train carriages while stopped at a station, and then, after being improved in the hands of Camille Alphonse Faure, in 1881, it became quite easy to mass produce and to use within various vehicles (mostly cars).