E. G. L. Co. Samson Battery No. 2, 1883-1900

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people used batteries to power telegraph and telephone systems, ring bells and alarms, or spark gasoline engines. The Electric Gas Lighting Company in Boston Massachusetts made this wet cell battery called the Samson. Its glass jar held a conductive solution surrounding the carbon and zinc elements that produced an electrochemical reaction.