The Dry Cell Battery
Power leaves the laboratory.
Explore this event on the interactive timeline →German scientist Carl Gassner invented the first commercially successful "dry cell" battery by mixing the liquid electrolyte with plaster of Paris to create a paste.
Verified Facts
- Before the dry cell, batteries were literally open glass jars full of sloshing, highly corrosive liquid acid. If they tipped over, they ruined everything around them.
- By sealing the battery and making it spill-proof, the dry cell allowed electricity to become truly portable for the first time in history.
- This specific invention directly led to the creation of the portable electric "flash-light" in 1899, as well as the boom in portable radios, fundamentally untethering technology from the power grid.