Carno

If you do not know what the Baghdad battery is, here is a good website where you can find information about it.

Anyway, what do yall think it was for if not for electricity? The most credible argument I have heard against it being used for electricity was a shaky argument that it was used for some ritual that we don't know what it was used for. Seriously. That was the only argument I heard against it: well it could have been used in a ritual, but we have no idea what ritual that was. I mean, just the fact that the battery actually works is huge. People back then may not have known why it worked, but so what? I don't know how gravity works, but I know that it does (and that it is a bitch). Anyone have any ideas what the Baghdad battery could have been used for if not for electricity?

Also, we know that ancient peoples knew of the static electric characteristics of amber, but we don't really know what they may have thought about it or if they used it for anything. Well, I don't know if they used it for anything. Anyone have any more information about amber and what it may have been used for?

One more thing now... Anyone know anything about Hero's engine? Was it just a curiosity or did it have a practical use?

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ObieX

I tyhink one of the uses they say it was for is to lay gold plate or something, or to fuse some types of metals together .. something like that. To plate some kind of metal on to another.

There's another type of ancient device that has interested me too and that is the ancient egyptian light bulb.

Here's a carving of itin some temple or something.




And here's some scientists who remade the bulb in 1996, tested it, and found it worked.

http://therev67.tripod.com/capture.mpg

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/chaptera/

the page also talks about that battery a little.

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Cynthetiq

there is plenty of belief that the Ark of the Covenant was a large capacitor or battery.

Technology isn't all that new for the most part... heck the Chinese invented the clock way before the westerners did, but "forgot" that they did due to isolationism and politics until they reopened their borders.

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Carno

Yeah, electroplating is what it is called. A metal object is hooked up to a power source and then dipped into a gold (usually) solution. The gold is attracted to the other metal object and is plated onto it.

I've never heard of the theory that Egyptians had light bulbs. I found some interesting information about that, but it seems unlikely that they were indeed light bulbs. It's a pity that there were not more sites where those carvings were found, or we might know more about. Still, there is always the chance that it really was a light bulb.

Too bad we'll never really know about this stuff. I guess I'll just have to build a time machine and see for myself.

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CoachAlan

Damn those bastards who burned the Libraries at Alexandria! We might only have to browse the card catalog to find the answers to the confounding questions.

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NoSoup

I remember reading about this. If I remember correctly, the most likely reason for the Ark of the Covenant to have an electrical charge is so that when people touched it they would feel as if they have experienced something mystical, perhaps touched God himself.


Anyways, possible uses for the Baghdad Battery? Electroplating is possible, though I think it is unlikely. At the time the batteries were created, Gilding was typically done either via hammer or with a mercury solution. Electroplating is much, much easier and wastes far less precious metal, so I can't imagine it would have been discovered and then so quickly forgotten.


I vaguely remember a Television show that did a special about these batteries, and it implied that they may have possibly been used in acupuncture. If I remember correctly, there were needles found with or near the batteries, which supports this theory.

And of course, the Baghdad battery could also have been used to induce a "mystical" experience if it was hooked up to a statue or idol.

Actually, I don't know a whole lot about electricity, but given the right materials, could the battery have possibly been used to start a fire? If wires were crossed and held to papyrus soaked in oil or something?

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NoSoup

Actually, ancient artifacts that shouldn't really exist according to our scientists have always facinated me.

The Peri Reis Map accurately maps the northern coast of Antarctica - which shouldn't be possible, as the coast has supposedly been covered by icecaps nearly a mile thick for nearly a milliion years. Additionally, it accurately maps portions of North and South America long before they were discovered.

The Antikythera Device is a 2000 year old computer believed to calculate the motions of stars and planets.

There are many, many more questions that are unanswered, and I doubt they ever will. The past will always be surrounded in mystery, but it is amazing to think - even now - how little we know of it. For some of these items to simply exist throws a wrench into modern scientists' view of ancient technology and culture, and makes you wonder what those times were really like - and how advanced they actually were...

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Bill O'Rights

Y'know...I was actually thinking that.

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Carno

Yeah wtf. Those stupid asses.

But seriously, wtf is a card catalog That thing is ancient technology too!

Yeah it is pretty neat to think about it. So much out there we'll never know.

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CoachAlan

I had never heard of the "Piri Reis Map" before, so I decided to look it up. After a google search, I read a few pages written by mystics, and then went to a .edu site for the University of Wisconsin. It was a fascinating read, and clearly the professor put a lot of work in to his analysis. The Piri Map is overlaid with modern maps, complete with notations.

Anybody interested in learning more about the Piri Reis Map should check out this link.

Now, on to the Antikythera Device ...

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clavus

Wasn't it Caesar and his Romans who burned the Library? If I'm totally wrong on this, please be kind. I went to public school.

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Tachion

There is debate on who actually burnt it.

I just saw a documentary that said it was burnt during the dispute between Cleopatra and her brother when Cleopatra was sent into exile.

Carno

There was thinking that Julius Caesar's order to set fire to Alexandria's harbor caused the Library to be burned, but not many people still belive that anymore. There is too much evidence that the Library still existed after the fire.

Many people think that since the Library consisted of several different locations [within the city], different parts of it were destroyed at different times. There is now a thinking that it was finally and completely destroyed by Christians who were ordered to destroy any and all pagan temples, in the fourth century. A lot of people now believe that that was the final end to the Library.

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XeonBAMF

Damn Christians