Batteries from Everyday Things

By Cy Tymony

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No one can dispute the usefulness of electricity. But what do you do if you’re in a remote area without AC power or batteries? Make sneaky batteries, of course! And once you know how to make sneaky batteries, you’ll never again be totally out of power sources.

December 18, 2012, 10:48 pm PST

Steps

Step #1: Tap into the power of citrus!

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Insert a nail or paper clip into a lemon. Then stick a piece of heavy copper wire into the lemon. Make sure the wire is close to, but does not touch, the nail. The nail has become the battery’s negative electrode and the copper wire is the positive electrode. The lemon juice, which is acidic, acts as the electrolyte. You can use other electrode pairs besides a paper clip and copper wire, as long as they’re made of different metals.
The lemon battery will supply about ¼ to 1/3 of a volt of electricity. To use sneaky batteries to power a small electrical device, like an LED light, you must connect a few of them in a series.