Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Completing the Circuit of Silliness: The Baghdad Battery - Ep 148
1.3k Plays2 months ago
Were you hoping that the Dendera Light from the last episode was the last you would hear of “ancient electricity?” Well too bad! Brace yourself for another round of electric foolishness, as we energize ourselves with the Baghdad Battery!
Transcripts
- For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/pseudo/148
Contact
ArchPodNet
- APN Website: https://www.archpodnet.com
- APN on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/archpodnet
- APN on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/archpodnet
- APN on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archpodnet
- Tee Public Store
Affiliates
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast Network
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network.
Welcome to Pseudo-Archaeology: Unveiling Truths and Myths
00:00:05
Speaker
You are now entering the pseudo-archaeology podcast, a show that uncovers what's fact, what's fake, and what's fun in the crazy world of pseudo-archaeology.
The Baghdad Battery: Intrigue and Speculation
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the pseudo archaeology podcast, episode one hundred and forty eight. I'm your host, Dr. Andrew Kinkella, and tonight the shocking story of the Baghdad Battery.
00:00:41
Speaker
OK.
Dr. Kinkella's Quest for a Battery-Powered Light
00:00:42
Speaker
So long time listeners, otherwise known as people who've listened to the last episode, you may remember that I ended on a bit of a downer because I was looking for a replica of the dendro light that you could plug in and put an actual light bulb in and then like turn it on and off. And I totally want one of those for my desk. But I also gave a little Easter egg nugget of what I would talk about this time, because I said for my dendro light, I obviously need it powered by some Baghdad batteries. And so, yes, listeners, today we deal with the Baghdad battery and I do have to claw myself out.
The Fascination with the Baghdad Battery
00:01:33
Speaker
of my depths of depression to tell you that I still have not found a cheap. Dendro light, Baghdad battery powered light. For my desk. The search continues. So.
00:01:52
Speaker
What's the deal with the Baghdad battery side of all this? I have to say this. When I was a kid, I love this kind of stuff and specifically stuff like the Baghdad battery, because not knowing any better, I felt that it was sciency. You know what I mean? So much of pseudo archaeology, you know, is just B.S. like from the beginning. You're like, Oh, God, no, there's no ancient spirits
Understanding the Baghdad Battery's Structure
00:02:15
Speaker
in this. No, there's ain't no ancient aliens. You guys know what I mean? Like so much of this stuff you can just Let go out of hand because, you know, you're you're older than six and you just know that these sort of things are impossible or just like a bunch of BS, you know. But this one to me felt different because it felt like it was a scientific thing because it used two different metals and you could actually make it actually work.
00:02:43
Speaker
as a battery. So I thought this one had like more scientific juice to it, you know what I mean? And so many of these other pseudo archaeological claims, but. As an adult archaeologist, of which I am. Looking into this, it's completely and utterly obvious that the Baghdad battery. Is a storage container for scrolls.
00:03:11
Speaker
The end. I know you want more out of me, I know. And you're like, dude, you're three minutes into your podcast and you've given me the answer. I mean, I do that every time. So how do we figure this out, though? Like, like, what's the what's the give and take here? Because again, it's not. I just started this by saying it's not completely crazy, right, to think of this as a battery. So how do I know for sure that it's not one? OK.
00:03:41
Speaker
First, we want to kind of define our terms of what what are we talking about? What is this Baghdad battery thing? Anyway, so it's basically if you came across it, you know, in the desert or something just sitting there, it's just a ceramic vessel on the outside, right? It's just a clay pot.
00:04:00
Speaker
And I always forget when when I kind of come and revisit the Baghdad Battery, it's a lot smaller than I always think. like Like in your mind, I think if you hear Baghdad Battery, you think of like a big pot, like a pot that's like two feet tall or something.
00:04:14
Speaker
But it's not. It's only like six inches tall. It's really small. It's a ceramic vessel. And inside the ceramic vessel, you have a cylinder which is made out of copper. It's just it's just a a copper sheet that's that's just made into a cylinder. Right. You could do the same kind of thing. If you had tin foil, you could just make it into a cylinder shape and put it in there. And then finally, in the center of that is an iron rod. So that's if you envision it in your mind, you have this this this little jar with a copper sheet that goes start straight up and down, light right? You roll it into a little tube and then you put it put it straight down into the vessel and then inside the cylinder tube, you put an iron rod. Right. And that's it. And then it's all capped off.
00:05:01
Speaker
with what they call bitumen. And I'll get I'll get into that in a second. So that's the setup. It really has four pieces to it. Right. Ceramic vessel, copper cylinder iron rod and capped off by some bitumen to seal it at the top.
Technology and Materials of the Baghdad Battery
00:05:16
Speaker
OK, looking a little closer, though.
00:05:18
Speaker
One thing I think is interesting is ancient technology in the most basic sense, and I'm not talking about batteries. I'm talking about the actual pieces of this and how hard or easy they would be to make. Now, first, when we're looking at the ceramic vessel itself, the jar. When you look at what is made out of, it's made out of terracotta.
00:05:41
Speaker
And terracotta is like low fired ceramic, meaning you don't need super high heat to make it. So ter like today, a flower pot is terracotta. You guys know what I mean? It's just it's it's not really fine. You know, it's low fired. It's easy to make. And because it's low fired, it's not very strong.
00:06:02
Speaker
You know how the plant pots just break, you know, really easily? That's because they're of their sort of low fired nature. The other thing about them are they're kind of weepy. You know what I mean? Like, like you when you put water in it, it kind of soaks in. They're not the most water resistant thing ever.
00:06:21
Speaker
Although in my swim defense, in terms of talking about the Baghdad battery itself, I'm not sure if it was glazed or not. If it had a little glaze on it, it would have made it a little more watertight. I'm not saying all the water would pour out, you know, put some water in a in a plant pot. And and you know how it just gets kind of it kind of discolors on the outside. You can see it kind of soaking the water in anyway.
00:06:47
Speaker
ah you'll You'll see the method to my madness and in a bit. So we have this basic ceramic vessel, easy to make. This is not super high end. Then you have the copper sheet in terms of ancient technology. Copper is the easiest metal to deal with. You can find it naturally and just cold hammer it, which means you don't even have to smelt it or anything like that. The downside of copper is it's not very strong in terms of metals, but the use of it for an ancient culture, it's it's the easiest of the metals to to deal with. So in terms of technology, that is not
00:07:25
Speaker
and over the top thing, many cultures. And I'm not saying this was necessarily cold hammered. I'm not sure about the technology user in terms of the copper. It might have been smelted some probably was. But my point there, very doable. Finally, the iron rod to me, the iron rod is the hardest part of the whole thing because you have to smell iron and iron is a pain. Iron needs a much hotter fire. Right. It needs good smelting technology. That's why iron is so important in ancient history and iron As we all know, it's harder, it's stronger than all this other stuff. So honestly, just finding this knowing nothing else with the culture, if you didn't know anything, you're like, oh, they they did iron like that's pretty good, good for them. And then finally, the whole contraption is sealed with what they call bitumen. What is bitumen?
00:08:16
Speaker
It's asphalt. OK, that's what they use at the sealant on the top of this. It's not tar tar and asphalt are different tar. When you think of tar tar is really more, I guess you say viscous. It's kind of more watery, like it flows better. You know what I mean?
00:08:31
Speaker
But bitumen or asphalt, it's got that kind of dry or more rocky situation going to it. Right. It's more natural, of course, as a petroleum product. And this whole thing, the Baghdad battery was found right near Baghdad in Iraq. So I'm guessing it's shocking to no one that you could find naturally a petroleum product like asphalt in that general area. Right. So that's the setup of what this thing is.
Historical Context and Significance
00:09:00
Speaker
It's very simple, but kind of cool. You know what I mean? Very specific. Now, in terms of. Why or why not? This is a battery to make this a battery. You need to have some sort of substance that you would fill it up with, right? Some sort of electrolyte, which can be a lot of things like you can use citrus juice is a bunch of other stuff you you can use.
00:09:26
Speaker
But you would have to do that. and And one of my first questions is why use terracotta? Like, why not use something else that's not porous? And that's that's really minor, you know, but then and then beyond that. If you're actually using this as a battery, why seal it at the top with asphalt? Because you're going to have to replace the electrolyte. So sealing it at the top makes it like the biggest pain in the ass battery ever made.
00:09:51
Speaker
Maybe that's what they're going for. You know, you know, I think I'm I'm just too close minded. I didn't realize that these ancient people were actually into making pain in the ass batteries that worked terribly when even with their technology of the time, they could have done this better. Well, with that said, I'll see you on the flip side in a minute when we talk about the history of this thing.
00:10:17
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the pseudo archaeology podcast, episode 148. And we have been discussing the Baghdad battery. Now, we kind of gave the little intro there. And by we, I mean, I why do I even say we? i'm I'm here alone, you know, in the quiet. So I gave the intro. But now what is the historic?
00:10:40
Speaker
background to this, right? What's the what's the deal? When does this come into our consciousness? And that part is always has a little bit of interesting twists and turns. Now, first, the clay vessel that we call the Baghdad Battery was found in 1936.
00:10:57
Speaker
probably at the site of Khajut Rabu, which is near Baghdad. So just remember as I go through this, all of this happens kind of in or very near Baghdad in terms of the archaeology sites and all that and the artifacts and all the kind of good stuff. So why I say probably at that site is because they didn't keep the greatest paperwork in 1936. And it was just
Evolution of the Baghdad Battery Theory
00:11:20
Speaker
collected, I believe, along with other artifacts from this site. And Not much happened with it until two years later when this guy will Wilhelm Koenig. Who was, I believe, the director or definitely working very high up in the National Museum of Iraq. Right. So he's there in Baghdad. He's looking through the collections and he writes this up.
00:11:46
Speaker
Good for him, right? At least he's recording some stuff. Even today, we know in archaeology that many things just get kind of thrown in the back room of a lab somewhere and never dealt with. So he's dealing with the stuff. And in terms of.
00:12:02
Speaker
how old the Baghdad battery is. So as Koenig is writing this stuff down, you know, we we ultimately see that the Baghdad battery is from but the call, the Parthian period or the Sarsenian period. and And in terms of time, the Parthian period is from about 250 B.C. to around 225 A.D. or so. And then the one after that, the Sarsenian period is from about 225 to 650 A.D. What we care about here.
00:12:32
Speaker
is that this artifact was constructed sometime around the time of Christ or a little bit after. Right. So it is no matter if it's a battery or not. And it's not. But it is a real artifact. Right. This isn't a fake artifact or something like this. This is a real artifact that is like the better part of 2000 years old. So that's cool. Right. it It does have intrinsic interest. I think.
00:13:02
Speaker
One thing we have to remember when we look at something like this is based on those dates, which I have no reason to refute. I think they're totally fine. We have to realize that this is kind of late in overall Mesopotamian society and culture, right?
00:13:18
Speaker
Mesopotamia is so long lived. It's kind of has that same vibe as Egypt. Right. It's so long lived that when we see an artifact like this, we all of a sudden think like the great cities of Er and Aruch with ziggurats. And we think of like the Akkadian and Babylonian empire and the Assyrians. Right. I just have thrown out all those kind of key terms from ancient Mesopotamia. Realize that the Baghdad battery is way after all that stuff.
00:13:43
Speaker
Right, because it's it's thousands of years newer, basically, than all that stuff. So, you know, the bag, the Baghdad batteries weren't used by the thousands to power a rock or something silly like that. So.
00:13:58
Speaker
It's a mistake, honestly, I made until recently. I thought that the ceramic vessel itself was much larger and I thought it dated way back. Right. But it doesn't. It's a little more more recent. So back to Wilhelm Koenig, though, as Wilhelm Koenig is writing this up in 1938.
00:14:17
Speaker
He also suggests this is this is the first little tick towards a battery thing. He suggests this might have been an ancient battery. It might have been used for electroplating rate that's putting a different kind of metal on top of another metallic object or maybe for pain relief or something. And he's just kind of thrown it out there.
00:14:40
Speaker
You know, I don't fault him necessarily. He's just kind of going, hey, what about this? You know, and it's 1938. What are you going to do? and and And I don't know. I haven't read the actual paper, but I don't know if he was necessarily just force feeding it to us. I think, as is true, a lot of the stuff you probably just sort of suggested it near the end. Oh, it could be this. Oh, it could be this. But then.
00:14:59
Speaker
If you notice that date, 1938, kind of an important year and a thing I like to call world history. So there's other things to worry about in 1938, you know, like the Germans. So this whole idea, this whole thing, it's written up and basically nobody cares and everyone goes on with their life and they have World War two, you know, and then and then actually we have post World War two and still nobody cares.
00:15:28
Speaker
Until, oh, my God, friends, how many times do I have to say this? Oh, good Christ, until Eric Von Dineken notes it in Chariots of the Gods in 1968. Ah, course.
00:15:46
Speaker
So once Von Dine can list, oh, there's a battery from the ancient past, then it's in the public consciousness. That's what shoves it in our mind. That's what makes it, you know, just ah a worm that never goes away. Just like Atlantis, just like all those others, right? It's it's Chariots of the Gods that does it. So after that,
00:16:11
Speaker
You have a resurgence in terms of, oh, the Baghdad battery. And this is what
Refuting the Battery Theory with Evidence
00:16:16
Speaker
just the sort of the fluorescence, I would say, of the idea of the Baghdad battery. And of course, it goes with that late 60s and onward pseudo archaeological ideology, which is now instead of a.
00:16:30
Speaker
fairly neutral report from the 1930s that just sort of posits or suggests a few things. Now it takes on that sort of cynical, onerous aspect where it's like, well, real archeologists are keeping you in the dark because they're so narrow minded. This is obviously a battery, right? That kind of mentality, which is which is the true poison in all this. Right. So now our brains are poisoned once and for all with the Baghdad battery, right? Capital T, capital B, capital B. And now if you Google the Baghdad battery, you know what you're getting, friends, right? It's this is one of those ones just like Stonehenge or or something else, a real archaeological artifact. Again, we can't
00:17:20
Speaker
keep our eyes away from the fact that this is real. this is It's just not a battery, but the artifact itself is real. If you Google it, you just get a world of alternative, otherwise known as pseudo history examples of this. You get those quotes. like They'll start with, the Baghdad battery, a contentious topic in archaeological circles.
00:17:44
Speaker
No, it's not. The Baghdad battery is not contentious in archaeological circles. You could say that two different ways. You could either say the Baghdad battery is completely not contentious in archaeological circles because everyone knows it's a scroll holder. Or you could say the Baghdad battery is a contentious topic in pseudo archaeology circles because they try and keep this thing alive decade after decade.
00:18:13
Speaker
Both ways of saying that are correct. But, you know, in all this, as you listen to my over assured self and you're like, can kill a man, how can you be so sure that it's not a battery or even more honestly can be like, well, hey, was it maybe kind of used for a battery or, you know, maybe it was a secondary use for it or how to how can you really, really know? You know, what's my honest, my am' honest, honest reputation?
00:18:39
Speaker
of this ceramic vessel being used as a battery. Here's, I think, one of the most important facts. Ever since 1930, at least they found a bunch of others of these. Never quite hear that one, do you? Yeah, they've found a bunch of others and you know what's sealed inside of some of them? Remains of scrolls. Yeah.
00:19:07
Speaker
Obvious fiber remains all wrapped up in there. Hey, imagine that. So not only do I say it's not a battery, I can also show you with the thing I love to call facts and evidence that these containers were used for scrolls because we found some with scroll remains in them. I ah believe that defines a slam dunk.
00:19:34
Speaker
in circles of the law, you know what I mean? Like there's that's there you go. That's it now. And when when you look at it with that sort of scientific eye, you can see, oh, right. OK, the iron rod, you'd you'd roll the scroll around it and then the scroll will go inside the copper tube and then you'd put that further into the terracotta vessel. And that all that all makes sense. Then everything goes
True Purpose: A Scroll Holder
00:19:59
Speaker
together. Right. It doesn't have to hold any kind of electrolyte or anything. It just has to hold a scroll. In fact, it's It doesn't have anything wet in there at all. You don't want things wet in there. Hey, maybe that's why you put some why you put some asphalt on the top to seal it. Hey, maybe so. See, that's there you go. But that's what that's what this is. And it has its own interests. Isn't that cool that you like have a 2000 year old scroll holder? I want to find a 2000 year old scroll holder. I think that's awesome. And those other ones, too, it's like.
00:20:28
Speaker
I don't think they can read any of the scrolls in them. I think they're just too far gone, you know, in terms of decomposition. But man, what, you know, what was written on these? Right. What what was the deal with these? Anyway, with that, when we come back, the final bit of this having a little fun with some of the things that they say about the Baghdad battery.
Critique of Persistent Pseudo-Archaeological Claims
00:20:51
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the pseudo archaeology podcast, episode 148. And we have been discussing the Baghdad battery and I have to admit something to you, friends. I have lied to you yet again. And you're like at this point, you're like a good God. What else is new? At my lie, I said at the end of the last section that we would have some fun with the Baghdad battery and oh, we might.
00:21:18
Speaker
But first, you have to take your medicine. See, I forgot that I got to give you your medicine. And the medicine is even more scientific facts to hammer home into your head why it's not a battery. And you're like, come on, man, can it be a little bit of a bad thing? Back to your childhood, Kinkela. You just you wanted to be a battery.
00:21:42
Speaker
Do I still want it to be a battery? You know what's funny? I don't because it's because I just know it because it's not, if that makes sense. I love the idea of it. on the At the same point, I would love to write some sort of like humor fiction or humor science fiction, you know, with the Baghdad battery in there, like like with the premise of like, ah you know, archaeologists have it all wrong and have and have fun with it.
00:22:06
Speaker
But here, you'll probably end up like me just just hearing some of this stuff. So, OK, let's say for a moment, it's not a scroll holder. OK, it's a it's a battery or it uses electricity of some kind. It's it's an electricity maker. Right. OK, so what was it for?
00:22:25
Speaker
Let's take on the idea of electroplating. Was it used for electroplating? Meaning, you know, if you guys have seen this before, you might have seen it in like high school or but done a science experiment or seen it on TV, you know, where you take two different metals in solution and one gets a thin, thin coating of the other metal. Sometimes you see this done with pennies, right? I remember seeing this when I was like 12 and I totally dug it. I remember just watching the electroplating in progress and you need electricity to do that, right? You put the metals in the solution in the electrolyte and then you put some current through it and that's what happens, right? Depending on the metals, that kind of thing. Now, was this used as like an electroplating device of some kind? No. Why not? First reason, you don't find anything electroplated in that culture at all.
00:23:19
Speaker
That's pretty big, right? There's nothing. And again, you know, this is where you'll get people who don't like scientific archaeologists. They'll be like, oh, you're just not looking close enough or you're just not expanding your mind. No, we've looked. There's there's not any. There are other metal plated things, but the plating process is completely different. And you can tell immediately that it's not electroplating right, that it's done through a different way.
00:23:44
Speaker
So we don't have that. Again, if we did, I'd be the first to tell you, I'd be like, check out this electroplating. This is awesome. I would love that. You guys, i I don't think I probably don't touch on this enough, but I love science fiction. Science fiction, they're like my favorite movies, my favorite books. I am a science fiction.
The Baghdad Battery's Theft and Lore
00:24:01
Speaker
like super fan I of my whole life. I mean, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is my favorite book of all time. I've read a lot of the classics. You know, I I'm into it. Like, I love the idea of future technology. I'm a closet astronomy nerd or maybe not so closet, but I just I I love that world, the world of science. And and I would love it if.
00:24:24
Speaker
We found evidence of ancient cultures, you know, knowing this kind of stuff. I i don't know if I would say I look for it, but but my radar is always out for it, if that makes sense, given in my own work, but I don't see any evidence of it. OK, not use electroplating. Why else? Besides that there's nothing, no other artifacts that are indeed electroplated. You have no wires. There's no wires. Think think of any time you've ever seen electroplating.
00:24:48
Speaker
Or in fact, ah use of battery in general, you need to carry the current. You need some wires, no wires, no wires ever been found. Not even once on top of that. No terminals, man. Like, again, think of anything you own that's powered by batteries. There has to be some terminals there again for the wires to go on, which you also don't have. But you know what I mean? Some way to get the electricity in or out of the thing.
00:25:13
Speaker
um Oh, another one that that I thought of why this is not a battery. Never once have found any artistic image showing these used as batteries. Right. And I know that's a harder one, archeologically, because sometimes you just don't have painted images. Right. But don't have don't have them. You know, either way.
00:25:38
Speaker
So, yeah, it's not looking very good. What about the electrolyte? What did they pour in there? Well, again, why did they use terracotta? It's kind of porous and crappy, right? Use use and another form of ceramic that's a little a little little better. That's minor. But I will say, yes, it's pretty easy to get an electrolyte. yeah Again, pour some citrus juice in there and probably work fine. But there's no evidence of that, man.
00:26:02
Speaker
Oh, and the seal, as I brought up before, and then you seal the whole thing with asphalt. That's the ultimate pain in the ass. You can't even like re up the electrolyte. Why? Why make it harder on yourself? You see how this.
00:26:17
Speaker
Like, it's terrible and just makes a really crap battery. Now, if you do pour electrolyte in it, it can work as a battery. It is true because it has two different metals, you know, and you put an electrolyte in it. And yes, you could have a little bit of current in there. Totally. But you can do that with so many things. Right. Again, go back to your sixth grade class or whatever. You did this. You can do it with a potato.
00:26:44
Speaker
You know, you can take a potato, you put like a nail on one side and a penny in the other side and you have a little current coming through. Right. You guys have seen if you haven't seen the potato thing, you've seen some version of this and it just has to do with the two different metals interacting with each other. Right. And in that case, the potato kind of acts as the electrolyte. But. Let's think a little wider.
00:27:09
Speaker
Every time you find a potato in ancient history, are you like, aha battery technology? See, that's what we're doing here. We're making this way too far leap with something just because, yes, they have two separate metals kind of close to each other in a pot. Doesn't then mean and by the way, that was used as a battery.
00:27:38
Speaker
And in fact, it wasn't because we have no evidence the other way. And I know again, I know it ruins your mind. I know you're like, damn it. Because I want this one, you guys, but it's just not, you know, but can we clear our brain of this forever? No, just like you can never clear Atlantis or anything else. It's like it's like an old operating system in a computer. You're like, man, I wish I could just like delete all of this, but you just like kind of can't just there. And it like messes you up every so often. You're like, man, this program isn't running so great anyway.
00:28:13
Speaker
There's a couple other things here in terms of the artifact itself. It was in the museum in Baghdad for years and years and years. It was lost in 2003, you guys. It was stolen during the Iraq war. Isn't that a bummer? Remember when all that stuff in the Iraq museum got stolen? It was one of them and it is.
00:28:32
Speaker
I would say the most well-known artifact from there that still hasn't been returned. So you have all those others that were stolen and the we got, you know, some of them back, which is good. It's still it's still a real big tragedy. But this one, no, this one's still out there, which, of course. Oh, man, the pseudo archaeology writes itself. Aliens finally retrieve battery.
00:28:57
Speaker
You know what I mean? But it is a bummer. I wish, you know, are we going to see it in the future? I don't know,
Dissecting the Mythbusters' Experiment
00:29:04
Speaker
man. I feel like it's lost. There's there's guesses that it might come up because every so often there's these like, you know, top secret sales of this kind of stuff.
00:29:16
Speaker
Sotheby's or whatever. B.S., you know, and and it might come up at some point, but I don't know. I'm feeling it. We'll see. ah Finally, some of you might remember that Mythbusters did a thing on the Baghdad Battery, I believe in 2005, give or take. But it's you know, it's been a while. It's been the better part of 20 years. And I have to say, I love Mythbusters, of course. How could the pseudo archaeology podcast not love miss Mythbusters? I love those guys.
00:29:40
Speaker
I love what they do for did and do for science. You know, they make science cool. They make science fun. they They get people on the page of using science to explain these things instead of foolish pseudo ideas. Right. So good for them. Now, I got one bone of contention with MythBusters, but it's very small. I do have to totally sugarcoat this thing. I love the show. I wish they'd make more. I love like Adam Savage and Jamie and all those dudes. Like I wish them well. I want them to like be hugely successful. They deserve it. They're great.
00:30:11
Speaker
So Mythbusters did the Baghdad battery and they made 10 of them. Right. And it's cool. And if you look back and when I looked back, I'm like, oh, yeah, I see they're small. Like they made them correct size. Whole deal. Quite easy to make, of course, especially versus the other stuff that Mythbusters has done. This was ah it was an easy week.
00:30:30
Speaker
So they put 10 in series, right? And they connected them all together already. You couldn't do that in the past because they didn't have wires. They didn't have connectors. Right. They didn't have any of this stuff. But but they did it just for laughs. And they put 10 in series. They were able to get like four volts out of it. So basically each quote unquote Baghdad battery had about about a third of a volt in it. Right. To give you an idea, ah a double A battery has like one point five volts.
00:30:55
Speaker
So very, very weak, but, you know, they did it. They put them all together and they were able to use it to electroplate some stuff.
00:31:06
Speaker
And they were able to use it. the The idea also in this is not only was it electroplating, was it used for pain relief? Right. That's something that the original coning paper from 1938 talked about. Oh, was this some sort of, you know, used as some sort of soothing pain relief thing through some sort of very low electricity? And they showed that that was like kind of plausible, but yeah but the electrons got like hot over time.
00:31:31
Speaker
but I think they ah they also said it might have been used for torture or something. You know, it's they're just sort of rolling with it. I got no problem with them doing this and I got no problem with them sitting up 10 in a row and stuff, because again, we know that this was not the case in the past. The only thing I touch on in terms of maybe having a problem is that they maybe didn't make it obvious enough that this didn't happen in the past. And when you're watching MythBusters, they kind of have three big stamps at the end where where they say like, I forget the correct one, but they basically say yes. And then they are they say myth busted or the third one is plausible. And they gave this one a plausible. And I get why they would have to because of their experiment and stuff. But the experiment itself was pretty faulty in terms of truth to the past. So the the idea of seeing that stamp come in when you're watching the show and it says plausible
00:32:28
Speaker
You know, it gives it a little more juice than it really has. But again, that's minor. And I don't mind them doing this because it just gets interested in the whole thing. Finally, you know, I'm every time I bring a myth Bester's, I'm so sad that Grant Imahara died. If you guys don't know, I'm sorry to break this to you, but in 2020, Grant Imahara, who was one of the main hosts,
00:32:52
Speaker
He had a brain aneurysm. He died when he was 49. And it just makes me so sad. It's like, you know, why why do good people like him, you know, have to have to not make it? And then I don't mean anything cruel by this, but but but you have other people in the pseudo-archaeology world who just live forever.
00:33:11
Speaker
And again, I'm not wishing ill will on anyone. It's much more of like, damn, I'm just bummed that Grant died.
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:33:19
Speaker
Very sad. But overall, You know, with the appearance on MythBusters, you see that the idea of the Baghdad battery stays with us. It's never going away. But in the end. No, it is absolutely 100 percent sure, not a battery. It is a scroll holder. And even though. I'm ending on kind of a downer like that.
00:33:49
Speaker
I'm still dying to find a dendro light powered by some Baghdad batteries, dude. If you guys can hook me up, that would be fantastic. I'll see you next time.
00:34:02
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the pseudo archeology podcast. Please like and subscribe wherever you'd like and subscribe. And if you have questions for me, Dr. Andrew Kinkella, feel free to reach out using the links below or go to my YouTube channel, Kinkella teaches archeology. See you guys next time.
00:34:24
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his ah RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Culturo Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.