Electricity Generated From 2 Wires Stuck Into the Ground or Dirt

by crrdlx

40K167

Intro: Electricity Generated From 2 Wires Stuck Into the Ground or Dirt

There simply must be a better way to generate electricity. Or, to produce energy in any form for that matter.

I stuck two wires into the ground and they generated 0.8 volts (1/2 a normal battery). Why can't this be used on a practical level?


Electricity was generated:
1. with poles
2. - 4. with an aluminum soda can and a copper wire
3. with two wires stuck into the ground
6. with two wires stuck into an earth box
7. with two wires stuck into a flower pot

STEP 1: Details

7 Comments

AndyGadget 13 years ago


As Kelsey says - No mystery, just a simple battery.
Drive a Joule Thief from your 0.8V as it sounds like the tree people are doing and you'll be able to light an LED.
It's a rather large step from that to charging and electric car, though.

JoeB225 7 years ago

you can't charge a Tesla with that but its still a cool thing.

sdickens1 11 years ago

If you want to make a long lasting home made water battery with no salts, acids nor chemicals, one that can last years and even power wall clocks or led lights visit my webpage in my profile.

sdickens1 12 years ago

Back in the day of the telegraph,,they used what your using to power the telegraph. Its called an earth battery,,,ever so far down the wire an earth battery was used,,the many of them added up enough power to actually power the telegraph itself. The catch is from 30 to 100 years the metals dissolve and then your earth battery must be replaced. There has been reports of earth batteries lasting longer!!! The more batteries and metal surface in the earth, using the right metals as electrodes, the more power you can produce,

kelseymh 13 years ago

There is no enigma here, just some very basic electrochemistry.

1) In all cases you used two dissimilar metals, copper and galvanized (zinc-plated) steel.

2) Moist dirt is conductive, with some salt (not necessarily sodium chloride) content.

What you've built is a galvanic cell, equivalent to the elementary school lemon battery and potato battery projects.

Scott_Tx 13 years ago

yup and eventually your rods will disolve