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Inkwell Battery Update 2023: Progress
2023 has been a big year for the inkwell battery. Book writing continues, and I’ve been steadily improving my construction techniques to increase total battery output. I believe I should be able to improve output enough in the next few months to reliably power a solar light in place of a lithium cell. Please consider joining my mailing list for more news and information.
What is the Inkwell?
The inkwell battery is something I created with a good friend a few years ago. It’s based on the ancient recipe for iron-gall ink, used in manuscripts for the last thousand years or so. By playing with the formula, and a lot of construction techniques we were able to create a battery that runs between 1.04v and 1.2v depending on several factors. Typical output is 5–15Wh/Liter. It can go much higher but is hard to maintain. This doesn’t make it good candidate for running motors or compressors, but it does make a great power source for cell phones and LED lighting. My goal is to create a battery that people can use all over the world to make their own lighting from scrap materials, and to remove the burden of kerosene lighting. If you’d like to read more about this goal, see my article Together We Shine: Helping one billion people rise above light poverty.
What needs to be done?
