When you buy a battery, how long do you expect it to last? One month? Six months? How about 177 years and counting?
Officially the “world’s most durable battery” according to Guinness World Records, the Clarendon Dry Pile has been ringing almost continuously at the University of Oxford since 1840.
The pile or piles in question were two of the first electric batteries, connected in series, with a brass bell attached to the bottom of each and a metal sphere clapper suspended between them. For the last 177 years, the clapper has been attracted first to one bell, where it’s charged by the pile above and then electro statically repelled. Attracted to the other bell, it next makes contact with that, only for the process to be repeated. Well over 10 billion times so far!
An example of perpetual motion in action? Apparently not. According to experts, the bell will eventually stop ringing, but only when either the tiny clapper wears out or the electrochemical energy from the piles is exhausted. In the meantime, Oxford’s famous Clarendon Dry Pile will go on delivering “ceaseless tintinnabulation”, much as Jumpstart’s Technical Analysts keep on identifying eligible activity and securing valuable R&D tax credits for clients.
