Trough battery

The trough battery was a variant of Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile and was designed by the Scottish professor of chemistry William Cruickshank in 1800.

[1] Volta's battery consisted of brine-soaked pieces of cloth sandwiched between zinc and copper discs, piled in a stack.

[2] Cruickshank devised a solution to the problem by placing the battery horizontally inside a rectangular box.

The gaps between the plates, known as troughs, were filled with a diluted sulfuric acid.

As long as the box remained undisturbed, there was no danger of the electrolyte spilling.