Battery Charger

Hello there. My name is Battery Charger, and I have a very important job. Have you ever been playing with your favorite toy car or tablet when it suddenly stops working? That’s because its battery ran out of energy. It’s all tired out. Well, that’s where I come in. I’m like a special resting spot for batteries. When you plug them into me, I give them a big meal of electricity to fill them back up with energy. Instead of throwing the tired battery away, I help it get ready for more playtime. It makes me happy to keep the fun going.

But I wasn’t always around to help. A very long time ago, all batteries were a one-time thing. Imagine your favorite race car slowing down and stopping forever until you got a brand new battery. Once its power was gone, poof. It was thrown in the trash. It made a lot of waste and was sad for the toys. But then, way back in the year 1859, a very clever man in France named Gaston Planté had a brilliant idea. He was my very first friend. Gaston had a laboratory that probably smelled like metal and zappy air, filled with bubbling glass jars and tangles of copper wires. He spent his days wondering about electricity. He thought, 'It seems so wasteful to throw a battery away. What if a battery could rest and get strong again, just like people do? What if I could give it its energy back, like feeding it a good meal?'. He worked and worked, trying different things. He discovered that if he used special plates made of a heavy metal called lead and dipped them in a special liquid, he could make a battery that could be born again and again. After the battery worked hard and got all tired, Gaston would connect it with wires and send a little bit of electricity back into it. It was like giving it a superpower drink that made it hum with energy again. Presto. The battery was ready to go. That amazing battery was my great-great-grandfather, the very first rechargeable one. And Gaston's invention of feeding it electricity was the moment I, the charger, was truly imagined. I was the special kitchen that would cook up the energy meal for all the batteries to come.

Back when Gaston Planté first thought of me, I was very big and clumsy. I was a huge machine that stayed in a laboratory. But over the years, I got smaller and smarter. Now, you can find me everywhere. I am the little block you plug into the wall for your tablet, the stand your video game controller rests on, and the special plug for your family’s electric car. I help power so many things that make your life fun and easy. Every time you plug a battery into me, you’re not just getting ready for more fun. You are also helping our planet. By giving batteries their energy back, we don't have to throw as many away. I help keep the world a little cleaner and your toys running a lot longer, making everything brighter.