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Mr. Dominic, Madison West High School’s most esteemed Math Physics teacher with the most questionable fashion sense, discovered two envelopes with unknown contents in the storage room, amongst other ‘physics junk’. At first glance, the photographs inside were quite mesmerizing, and I was intrigued to discover the story behind them. The photographs were originally addressed to and belonged to Fredrick William Schuler, a physics teacher for 34 years, some of which he spent at Madison West High School.
They were delivered from RAYOVAC, an international battery supplier; yet, it’s unsure why the photographs were there, what they may have been used for, and whether or not they even had a purpose. In the black and white photographs are magnetic fields, spiraling out from north magnetic poles and south magnetic poles. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a story behind the photographs themselves, and all I discovered was what they are: magnetic fields.
However, with more thought, I’ve come to understand a possible, not so obvious narrative behind these pictures from 1959. Rather, I’ve begun to consider a ‘hidden gem’, if you will, of global technological advancement in the last 100 years, one that often goes unnoticed by teenagers in the current day—the battery.
The battery was invented as a result of an argument between who I can assume to be two stubborn individuals; the first being Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist and chemist, the other Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher, Luigi Galvani. The argument between two friends was to answer the question: where does electricity come from?
Luigi Galvani, after discovering the twitch that occurs in frog legs when in contact with a metal instrument, was certain that electricity came from animal tissue: arguing the theory of ‘animal electricity’. Volta was able to prove him wrong by inventing a source for a constant current electricity, his argument being that the answer lay in the contact of metals in a moist environment.
The first battery looked rather different than the ones we’re used to now, originally consisting of alternating discs of zinc and copper with brine-soaked cardboard between each layer. This was called the “voltaic pile” and some would say, jump-started the evolution of technology in the United States.
RAYOVAC, founded in 1906, is considerable proof of this. By the 1940s, RAYOVAC was supplying the US military with nearly 500,000,000 batteries for their efforts in the second world war. In addition, they were a big help by establishing seven new production facilities, where employment was offered to nearly 14,000 people, including women and the elderly, by powering field telephones, mine detectors, radio communications, flashlights, and other gear.
Not only were the supply of batteries an integral part of global political development, they are the power source of our future. Environmental scientists have noticed the significance of these small power sources, and the role they play in decarbonizing our planet. The transition to sustainable energy is founded on our reliance on electricity. With the ability to maintain a balance between supply and demand within the power system, it is reusable, renewable and now revolutionary.
Mr. Dominic, Madison West High School’s most esteemed Math Physics teacher with the most questionable fashion sense, discovered two envelopes with unknown contents in the storage room, amongst other ‘physics junk’. At first glance, the photographs inside were quite mesmerizing, and I was intrigued to discover the story behind them. The photographs were originally addressed to and belonged to Fredrick William Schuler, a physics teacher for 34 years, some of which he spent at Madison West High School.
They were delivered from RAYOVAC, an international battery supplier; yet, it’s unsure why the photographs were there, what they may have been used for, and whether or not they even had a purpose. In the black and white photographs are magnetic fields, spiraling out from north magnetic poles and south magnetic poles. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a story behind the photographs themselves, and all I discovered was what they are: magnetic fields.
However, with more thought, I’ve come to understand a possible, not so obvious narrative behind these pictures from 1959. Rather, I’ve begun to consider a ‘hidden gem’, if you will, of global technological advancement in the last 100 years, one that often goes unnoticed by teenagers in the current day—the battery.
The battery was invented as a result of an argument between who I can assume to be two stubborn individuals; the first being Alessandro Volta, an Italian physicist and chemist, the other Italian physician, physicist, biologist and philosopher, Luigi Galvani. The argument between two friends was to answer the question: where does electricity come from?
Luigi Galvani, after discovering the twitch that occurs in frog legs when in contact with a metal instrument, was certain that electricity came from animal tissue: arguing the theory of ‘animal electricity’. Volta was able to prove him wrong by inventing a source for a constant current electricity, his argument being that the answer lay in the contact of metals in a moist environment.
The first battery looked rather different than the ones we’re used to now, originally consisting of alternating discs of zinc and copper with brine-soaked cardboard between each layer. This was called the “voltaic pile” and some would say, jump-started the evolution of technology in the United States.
RAYOVAC, founded in 1906, is considerable proof of this. By the 1940s, RAYOVAC was supplying the US military with nearly 500,000,000 batteries for their efforts in the second world war. In addition, they were a big help by establishing seven new production facilities, where employment was offered to nearly 14,000 people, including women and the elderly, by powering field telephones, mine detectors, radio communications, flashlights, and other gear.
Not only were the supply of batteries an integral part of global political development, they are the power source of our future. Environmental scientists have noticed the significance of these small power sources, and the role they play in decarbonizing our planet. The transition to sustainable energy is founded on our reliance on electricity. With the ability to maintain a balance between supply and demand within the power system, it is reusable, renewable and now revolutionary.