In 1748, Benjamin Franklin first used the term “battery” to describe an array of charged glass plates.

In 1800 French scientist Alessandro Volta combined silver, cloth/paper soaked in salt/acid and zinc into what he called “voltaic piles”. This generated an electrical current. Since his first experimentation with electric currents, the word “volt” has been derived from his name.

William Cruickshank was first to design the battery for mass production in 1802. John Daniell is credited with developing a way to reduce corrosion when batteries aren’t being used. In the 1820’s he designed the Daniell Cell, which incorporated mercury, reducing the corrosion.

Constant improvements had been made to the battery over time until 1896 when the National Carbon Company came out with the first commercially available battery. It was two years later the same company introduced the first D sized battery for the first flashlight.