The battery consists of a painted wooden box with 18 compartments lined with insulating material. The components are pairs of copper and zinc sheet; the copper is folded around the zinc, which therefore faces the copper on both sides, but is isolated from it by means of small wooden spacers. The copper plate of one such pair is connected to the zinc plate of the next. The pairs are fixed to a crossbar with handles, which allows them to be immersed in the dilute acid or lifted out to stop the battery from functioning.

The battery was designed by the English chemist and physicist William Hyde Wollaston (1766 – 1828) as an improvement on Volta’s cup battery.

Device on display.