The Baghdad jars

The Baghdad Jar, a Copper Tube and an Iron Rod

A small clay jar from Khujut Rabu'a, near Baghdad, held a copper tube sealed with asphalt and a corroded iron rod. In 1938 Wilhelm Koenig of the Iraq Museum asked whether it was a galvanic cell, and replicas have made electricity ever since. This is the record of the jar, the case for a battery, the case for a scroll holder, and the questions the lost original still holds.