Ancient Lingam at the Candi Kimpulan Hindu Temple Produced Electrocity?

[MT]

[SiliconWizard]

Did they have electric cars as well?

[Dan123456]

“This is nonsense right?” Why yes, yes it is 

I’m all for accepting that ancient people were definitely not stupid and probably did have a better understanding of some things than what we give them credit for but this looks like jewellery / religious offerings to me (especially if they were found in a temple) 

Precious metals were seen as Devine materials all over the world in ancient world! Think Egypt, South America etc. You always find gold, silver and copper at their religious sites.

[MT]

“This is nonsense right?” Why yes, yes it is 

I’m all for accepting that ancient people were definitely not stupid and probably did have a better understanding of some things than what we give them credit for but this looks like jewellery / religious offerings to me (especially if they were found in a temple) 

Precious metals were seen as Devine materials all over the world in ancient world! Think Egypt, South America etc. You always find gold, silver and copper at their religious sites.

Baghdad battery. Not Baghdad Bob!
https://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/battery2.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery

Did they have electric cars as well?

Yes they had electric cars and scooters, but the had very short range! 

[SiliconWizard]

Yeah, this is similar to the Baghdad battery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery
No proof whatsoever that it was used for generating electricity and making anything useful out of it.
Sure we have no proof of the opposite either, but when something leaves no historical trace and is an alleged lost knowledge that would have been completely forgotten for centuries before being rediscovered again, the probability is very low. Once we figured out how to master fire and the knowledge propagated, we never forgot how to do that, not for a single year that I have heard of in the history of mankind. For instance. Same for pretty much all great discoveries.

Now one could maybe argue that some discoveries didn't find any sufficiently remarkable use for them to stick, and may have been forgotten for a long time due to their lack of usefulness at the time. Maybe. Can we consider them real discoveries in that case? Were people at the time even aware that it was something worth considering a discovery at all?

[SiliconWizard]

Did they have electric cars as well?

Yes they had electric cars and scooters, but the had very short range! 

Looks like things haven't changed all that much then.

[Dan123456]

Baghdad battery. Not Baghdad Bob!
https://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/battery2.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery

Indeed! That one is a bit of a head scratcher 

While I highly doubt it was used as a battery (that said, I have no idea as to what it’s intended use was so guess it isn’t completely outside of the realm of possibility that they unintentionally noticed it did funky stuff due to the electric charge), it makes for a much better argument for ancient electricity than finding a copper ring in a temple 

[CatalinaWOW]

Yeah, this is similar to the Baghdad battery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery
No proof whatsoever that it was used for generating electricity and making anything useful out of it.
Sure we have no proof of the opposite either, but when something leaves no historical trace and is an alleged lost knowledge that would have been completely forgotten for centuries before being rediscovered again, the probability is very low. Once we figured out how to master fire and the knowledge propagated, we never forgot how to do that, not for a single year that I have heard of in the history of mankind. For instance. Same for pretty much all great discoveries.

Now one could maybe argue that some discoveries didn't find any sufficiently remarkable use for them to stick, and may have been forgotten for a long time due to their lack of usefulness at the time. Maybe. Can we consider them real discoveries in that case? Were people at the time even aware that it was something worth considering a discovery at all?

While I agree that the chances of this being a real and intentional battery, there is evidence for lost technologies.  One of the most prominent - Greek Fire.  Roman cement was lost for centuries.  And as I understand it, the technique for applying a bed of minute gold particles to jewelry in Classical times is still not possible to replicate. 

Why good stuff gets lost is complicated.  Your fire example is a cheat in a way.  A simple technology, nearly universally useful and producible with materials available nearly everywhere.

Greek fire was a military secret, so death of a small number of people could explain the loss, or perhaps it was dependent on a unique source.  I know of one widely used technology which works best with material from a specific mine.  The reason is not well understood.  The Roman cement depended on a relatively unique source and a relatively large industrial base.  When that critical mass went away the material wasn't practical so loss of the knowledge is not surprising.   Our semiconductor technology is vulnerable to the same thing.  While the general knowledge of the subject will survive for a while easily, the huge body of expertise necessary to make it work - everything from crystal growth, to clean rooms, mask making and the lot could evaporate overnight.  The jewelry thing is the kind of craft knowledge hoarded as a trade secret.  Again vulnerable to a relatively small number of people dying and small numbers of documents being lost or destroyed.  Combine that with a reduced market in collapsed societies and much stuff could go away.

[Dan123456]

While I agree that the chances of this being a real and intentional battery, there is evidence for lost technologies.  One of the most prominent - Greek Fire.  Roman cement was lost for centuries.  And as I understand it, the technique for applying a bed of minute gold particles to jewelry in Classical times is still not possible to replicate. 

Another good example is the Antikythera mechanism 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

We didn’t think the ancient Greeks could make such complex things out of metal until it was discovered and (I believe) historians are still arguing about how it was constructed!

[Bud]

Yes they also had high voltage lighbulbs back there in Egypt

[Andy Chee]