What is the mystery of the battery that has been powering the bell in the Oxford laboratory for 175 years

Hello dear guests and subscribers of my channel. Today I want to tell you about a unique call stored in the Clarendon Laboratory of the University of Oxford. It operates continuously and is powered by only one battery, which was installed in 1840. Let's find out more about this unique design.

Who created the "everlasting call"

The call known by the name Oxford Electric Bell works incessantly, and its hammer (according to the calculations of researchers) has already rang more than 10 billion times over the entire time.

The whole structure is powered by one single battery - the so-called dry battery. It is in fact the very first type of electric battery in the history of mankind.

This battery was created by Giuseppe Zamboni in 1812. It is not known exactly what materials the battery for the Oxford call is made of, but the classic version is called zambonium pillar is made of discs of silver and zinc foil, which are separated by a layer paper.

Also, instead of metal foil, the so-called "silver paper" can be used, in which one side is coated with zinc and the other with gilding.

At the same time, this type of battery is necessarily isolated from the outside world in a glass flask sealed with sulfur or bitumen.

The bell itself was made in Watkin and Hill's workshop. Then it was acquired by professor of physics R. Walker and thus he fell into the walls of Oxford.

How Perpetual Calling Works»

The bell's principle of operation is based on the use of electrostatic forces of attraction, due to which the hammer oscillates between two bowls alternately touching them with a frequency of 2 Hz.

The use of electrostatic forces ensures extremely low current consumption from the battery.

Of course, there is nothing unique in the design of the device itself; the whole mystery lies in the zambonium pillars. After all, it is still not known for certain exactly what materials this battery is made of and due to what chemical processes, to this day, all working and working calls are being fed.

Despite the great desire to open the battery, no one will do this until the mechanism itself stops. And after how many tens, and maybe hundreds of years, this will happen, no one can say. Therefore, the mystery of such a long-lasting power source remains unsolved.

The Oxford Bell is a vivid example of the fact that, despite the fact that perpetual motion machines are impossible, a well-thought-out and competently implemented mechanism can work for many years.

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