In the world of mobile technology, there is nothing more important than power. It doesn’t matter how feature packed or how innovative your design is, without electricity, it’s no better than a brick. Nothing in the history of technology has accelerated the development of batteries faster than the mobile industry. Companies are researching for new chemicals that can hold more charge, keep it longer, and endure repeated charges.
Batteries were invented by Alessandro Volta in the 1800’s, and at that time it was referred to as the voltaic pile or voltaic cell. The cell then eventually evolved from the antiquated wet cell into the more modern and safer dry cell. The components inside the cell have also changed from the original chemicals to the chemicals that we used today like NiMH and Li-ion batteries.
So how did the cell get to be known as the battery? The proponent of the term battery was Benjamin Franklin. The old Leyden jars were used as a sort of capacitor to hold some amount of charge. Since each jar can only hold a very minute amount of electricity, he chained a few of them together in order to gain a larger capacity. He called it a battery comparing it to a line of cannons which is also called a battery. From then on, the term battery was used whenever a group of cells are linked.
Today, the terms cell and battery are still very prominent. They are for most uses interchangeable and most people don’t even bother to differentiate. In general, a single cell can be called either as a cell or a battery while a group of cells in its entirety is called a battery. Although cell capacities have increased greatly since the days of Volta and Franklin, daisy chaining multiple cells is still very much in practice today. Due largely to the fact that all cells come in standardized voltages and if you want a voltage higher than the standard, you would need to chain two or more together.
Regardless of the terminologies used to name the battery, it is still a very important part of our daily lives. It is found virtually on anything that isn’t tied down. It keeps cars, airplanes, and ships running. It is pretty hard to imagine what life would be without batteries. Even though the name is already fixed, the development in batteries would continue further, especially in the current energy crisis in the world where more people are pushing for electric cars.