In the 1790s Alessandro Volta experimented with inanimate systems consisting of metal plates connected by brine-soaked cardboard to produce electric current. To build the first modern electrical battery, Volta stacked disks of zinc and silver in pairs to form a “pile.”
The next major advance came in 1866 when French chemist Georges Leclanché invents prototype of flashlight battery.
The cell named after him, which continues to be the most common battery even today, uses manganese dioxide and is not re-chargeable.
The original cell consisted of a solid Zinc anode with an ammonium chloride solution as the electrolyte immobilized in the form of a paste (hence called a “dry cell”), and an 1:1 mixture of powdered carbon and manganese dioxide packed around a carbon rod acting as a cathode. Leclanche cell provides a voltage of approx. 1.5 V.
Leclanché’s invention represented an advance over previous batteries and it became an immediate success. The Belgian telegraph service adopted Leclanché's battery in 1868, and it soon came into general use.
The invention of dry cell battery
