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Baghdad Battery (II century BC)
The famous Baghdad battery unearthed in Iraq was believed to generate a couple of volts of electricity. The battery looks like a jar with a copper tube wrapped around an iron rod inside it. Apparently, the Baghdad battery worked like modern batteries, just not as efficiently. The acid at the bottom of the jar created electricity, causing electrons to move from one metal to another. Its purpose, however, still remains a mystery. There are two most plausible theories: either the ancients figured out the way to electrically coat different materials with metal molecules, or it was used for religious purposes to zap the non-believers.
