In the Oxford University’s’ Clarendon Laboratory, there is a 175 year old bell that rings without any pause because of a single battery that was installed way back in 1840- And yes! It is still running!
The bell’s clapper oscillates and has approximately rung 10 billion times! It is made with a ‘dry pile’ – alternating discs of silver, zinc, sulfur, and other materials that generate low currents of electricity. Although, the voltage of the battery is so low that it is inaudible to the human ear.
AJ Croft, a former researcher of the Clarendon Laboratory, 1984, wrote that ” What the piles are made of is not known with certainty, but it is clear that the outer coating is of sulphur, and this seal in the cells and the electrolyte. Piles similar to this were made by Zamboni, whose batteries were constituted of about 2,000 pairs of discs of tin foil glued to paper impregnated with zinc sulfhate and coated on the other side with manganese dioxide.”
The bell was made London instrument makers Watkin and Hill, and was set up in 1840.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the “world’s most durable battery.”
By: Archa Dave
