Literally taken, the art of painting is the process of applying color onto a supported surface - such as paper, wood, glass, or canvas. When taken in an artistic sense, painting is meant to create an image or an expression through this color application, representing and documenting various intentions and subjects according to the artist's desire. Since there are infinite explanations of what painting can be and what it represents to each individual artist, it is worthwhile taking a look at where painting began - thus shedding some light on why the art of painting is such an integral component of human artwork and culture.
The oldest known paintings in the world come from the Grotte Chauvet cave in France, believed to be around 32,000 years old. These paintings began as engraved images into the rock face, with the color being painted on afterward - red ochre and black pigment were carefully placed, creating images of horses, buffalo, lions, mammoth, rhinos, and even some images of humans going on a hunt.
Interestingly enough, the cave in France was not the only place where cave paintings were found - independently of each other, humans came up with this notion of creating colored images to represent things that were important to them, documenting it so that others could learn and understand. Other examples of cave paintings have been found at such diverse locations as Australia, Spain, Portugal, India, and even China!
Of course, there are plenty of ideas as to why humans decided to paint, with one of the most prevalent theories centering around the idea of creating pictures as a means of 'catching' an animal's spirit. In this sense, a hunter or warrior would have painted an image of the animal that they wished to hunt and kill, and by capturing that animal in a picture, they believed they were essentially 'capturing' that animal's spirit and condemning them to their fate - or at least making them easier to catch!
Other ideas focus on the more simplistic notion that early humans simply wished to pay homage to the nature that surrounded them, either as a display of devotion to their nature gods or just in appreciation of the surrounding beauty. This idea also gives way to the scientific speculation that all humans have an innate desire to express themselves in one form or another - and just as modern day society contains people who express themselves through various means, such as painting or architecture or sewing, humans in ancient times probably followed the same basic pattern!
Either way, there is no doubt that there is a human need to create and express one's self, and it certainly appears that this desire - this drive to capture images and display them though modes of expression, using various colors and patterns - comes from the earliest roots of human history. Thus, painting is an innate part of human nature: it is the appreciation of beauty, however it is expressed in visual form.
Actually, believe it or not the oldest known battery dates back over 2,000 years! What the heck would someone have needed a battery for 2,000 years ago? This primitive battery found in the area now known as Iraq was discovered in 1936 and testing showed it could have produced up to two volts of electrical current. It is thought that the battery was used to electroplate gold onto silver.
In the year 1800, Alessandro Volta made a battery using multiple layers of silver, paper, and cloth soaked in salt and zinc. The electrochemical series concept which ranks the potential produced when different metals come in contact with an electrolyte. This is where the term volts comes from.
This primitive battery was not good for delivering currents over long periods time. This led to the British researcher John Frederich Daniell developing a type of battery with a copper plate located at the bottom of a wide mouthed jar. A cast zinc piece commonly referred to as a crowfoot, because of its shape, was located at the top of the plate, hanging on the rim of the jar.
Two electrolytes, or conducting liquids, were employed. A saturated copper sulphate solution covered the copper plate and extended halfway up the remaining distance toward the zinc piece. Then a zinc sulphate solution, a less dense liquid, was carefully poured in to float above the copper sulphate and immerse the zinc. As an alternative to zinc sulphate, magnesium sulphate or dilute sulphuric acid was sometimes used.
The Daniell Cell was also one of the first to incorporate mercury, by amalgamating it with the zinc anode to reduce corrosion when the batteries were not in use. We now know better than to put mercury into batteries. This battery, which produced about 1.1 volts, was used to power telegraphs, telephones, and even to ring doorbells in homes for over 100 years.
In the early 1900's Thomas Edison developed the alkaline cell using iron and nickelic oxide. The electrolyte mixture used was potassium hydroxide which is the same used in nickel cadmium and alkaline batteries today. These batteries did well and lasted through being overcharged as well as remaining uncharged for extended periods of time.
In 1949 the alkaline-manganese battery known now as the alkaline battery was created at the Everyready Battery Company in Ohio. These batteries could supply more energy than its predecessors and further improvements have increased the energy storage capability.
Both Adrian Adams & Gregg Hall are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Gregg Hall has sinced written about articles on various topics from Lingerie, Desserts and Mortgage. Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. See all the