The Baghdad Battery

[Quickleaf]

Has anyone heard of this discovery?
http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/battery2.html

Another good post at wikipedia discusses some counter-points and nonelectrical theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery

If it was indeed an electrical tool, it was probably used for electroplating, as an analgesic (instead of electric eels) and possibly to electrically stimulate iron/copper needles during acupuncture treatments.

Do you think the discovery is valid?
Is the discovery of an electrical cell or of a storage vessel for sacred scrolls?
How would a basic battery like this be used in a fantasy world?
What would it cost? What would a character need to know to make one?
Do you see it being used/abused by players to develop new modern-world technologies?
Is there any way it could be feasibly restricted to medieval fantasy applications?

 

[tarchon]

Has anyone heard of this discovery?

Do you think the discovery is valid?
Is the discovery of an electrical cell or of a storage vessel for sacred scrolls?
How would a basic battery like this be used in a fantasy world?
What would it cost? What would a character need to know to make one?
Do you see it being used/abused by players to develop new modern-world technologies?
Is there any way it could be feasibly restricted to medieval fantasy applications?

Yes
In what sense?
Probably a cell - we know that there were plating technologies, and they could have been electrically assisted
Electroplating is about all it would be good for that I can think of
10 sp? Some kind of alchemy or metallurgy skill
Since we already have electrical magic in D&D (which certainly isn't medieval), I'd say it's no big addition to the milieu
Probably depends on your understanding of medieval fantasy

 

[Shemeska]

Has anyone heard of this discovery?
http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/battery2.html

Another good post at wikipedia discusses some counter-points and nonelectrical theories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery

If it was indeed an electrical tool, it was probably used for electroplating, as an analgesic (instead of electric eels) and possibly to electrically stimulate iron/copper needles during acupuncture treatments.

Do you think the discovery is valid?
Is the discovery of an electrical cell or of a storage vessel for sacred scrolls?
How would a basic battery like this be used in a fantasy world?
What would it cost? What would a character need to know to make one?
Do you see it being used/abused by players to develop new modern-world technologies?
Is there any way it could be feasibly restricted to medieval fantasy applications?

I don't buy the idea that it was ever a battery at all. *chuckle* The scroll vessel idea sounds more realistic to me.

Now as for players abusing such a thing to develop new/modern technologies, I've run into that before. We briefly considered an FR game about 5 years ago in which the DM had the idea to dump the players as PCs onto Toril, effectively playing ourselves in the setting. Too much abuse if we ever managed to introduce even simple explosives, or God forbid, made it to Lantan and used their resources with modern tech knowledge.

As for how to restrict it, simply tell your players that their characters don't know modern ideas of electricity, and unless they want to remove themselves from play to go study it for years or decades, they won't have any chance to go beyond making a tingly feeling curiousity jar to amaze peasants with.

 

[kenobi65]

They covered the Baghdad Battery on an episode of "Mythbusters" on Discovery Channel a few weeks back.

The gist of their investigation:
- Yes, it does create a usable current, for things like electoplating and (maybe) acupuncture / therapy
- However, the current is pretty weak, and certainly not enough to create anything beyond a tingly sensation.

For D&D "use", you're probably looking at Craft (alchemy) to create it. From a cost standpoint, it wouldn't be that expensive; the most expensive part would be the metal (copper and zinc, IIRC) for the wires and connectors.

However...I can't see that much use for it in D&D, unless you *significantly* increased the power output. And, at that point, magic may be a more effective way to deliver that.

Do you have some specific in-game uses in mind? (That might help us opine. )

 

[Dagger75]

Well on Mythbusters on the discovery channel they built the thing, well actually 10 of them.
Iron rod, wrapped in copper and filled with grape juice. Sure enough made a charge and electroplated stuff for them. It was just on.

This thing wasn't powering cars or a computer. Its doesn't take them much voltage to elctroplate something.


**Bah you finished typing before I did apparently***

 

[Quickleaf]

Well, the main use I'm thinking is a trick by corrupt priests...

A metal statue of a god conceals a number of batteries connected in parallel. A supplicant would touch the statue for advice. When wanting to influence the supplicant against a certain course, a priest would wire the statue up. ZAP! A minor static shock and perhaps a flash of blue light. If the supplicant gave the right answer, nothing would occur. Sort of like an oracle.

A character with Knowledge (Architecture & Engineering) should be able to figure out the truth behind the "divine relic." Pay no attention to the priest behind the curtain....

 

[Dagger75]

Well, the main use I'm thinking is a trick by corrupt priests...

A metal statue of a god conceals a number of batteries connected in parallel. A supplicant would touch the statue for advice. When wanting to influence the supplicant against a certain course, a priest would wire the statue up. ZAP! A minor static shock and perhaps a flash of blue light. If the supplicant gave the right answer, nothing would occur. Sort of like an oracle.

I could see that working.

 

[jester47]

Yeah, Arthur C. Clark was talking about how the greeks had steam power technology and understood gears and such at the same time as the "Battery" was around. He pointed out that humanity had many of the ingredients for the industrial revolution and modern technology in the ancient world. Just no one started to put them together. If they had he suspects that we would be 1000 years ahead of where we are now technologicaly. Interesting thought.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Now as for players abusing such a thing to develop new/modern technologies, I've run into that before. We briefly considered an FR game about 5 years ago in which the DM had the idea to dump the players as PCs onto Toril, effectively playing ourselves in the setting. Too much abuse if we ever managed to introduce even simple explosives, or God forbid, made it to Lantan and used their resources with modern tech knowledge.

Yeah. I've run into that myself. Everyone thinks if you take some charcoal, sulfur, and bat guano you can make perfectly effective and safe gunpowder. Drives me nuts. It's a lot harder than it looks and much, much harder if you don't want to blow off a finger or three.

 

[kenobi65]

Well, the main use I'm thinking is a trick by corrupt priests....

Ironically enough, that was another theory they had on Mythbusters...that the Battery was used to cause "religious experiences", exactly as you describe.

There's no reason why it wouldn't work...though, it's possible that RW ancients were a lot more impressed by an electrical tingle than D&D characters would be, in a world where magic can have *much* more impressive effects.

(BTW, on Mythbusters, they decided that the jolt from the Battery wasn't good enough, so they hooked up a generator for an electric cattle fence to the metal idol they were going to have someone touch. Much more impressive. )