The following 1895 article discusses the possibility that the Ark of the Covenant was actually a battery or an early form of the leyden jar.
Secret of the Ark
There is nothing new on the face of the earth, and there is no doubt that electricity was well known to the Israelites and probably to the Phoenicians. The first record of electrical phenomena is as old as the Ten Commandments. Moses, when he received the stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written the second time, built a box out of fir – not the common cedar or any other native woods, but fir wood, which had to be imported by Phoenician merchants from the southern part of Europe. Was this choice accidental on account of the great value of the resinous wood, or was it the choice of the best known nonconductor among the great number of various timbers?
Moses had the fir box lined inside and outside with beaten gold, which converted the ark of the covenant into a very expensive but very perfect leyden jar or storage battery for electricity. As gold is by 50 percent a better conductor of electricity than copper, was the choice of gold again on account of its value, or was it an inspiration or revelation? So much is certain – that if Edison or Tesla had lived in those days they could not have improved on the choice of material, and the result was a powerful leyden jar.
How was this leyden jar charged, was the next problem. A fire of material rich in carbon was kept burning on top of the ark of the covenant, and during daytime a tall column of smoke guided the 12 tribes of Israel through their wanderings, and at night a tall flame was equally well seen by them. Now carbon is a good conductor of electricity, and the particles of carbon floating in the smoke would conduct sufficient electricity to highly charge the leyden jar. At least the current of electricity would be amply strong, so that if a hand were held toward the ark of the covenant, sparks would result. That this was done by Moses at different times is a matter of record, and that he could always depend that his faithful Levites would obey his instructions to the letter and have the jar always charged.
After Moses’ death his brother Aaron took the matter in hand and greatly improved the electrical power of the strange battery. He had the ark of the covenant placed in the temple and had it surrounded by poles 50 ells high, or 150 feet. These poles were covered with beaten gold, and gold chains were hung from poles to the ark of the covenant, which made a very expensive but very complete and powerful electrical connection. In a country where electrical storms are as frequent and as powerful as in Palestine at an elevation of 600 feet and a reach of 150 feet of the best conductor an abundant supply of Franklin’s electricity would necessarily always be on hand.
It is very likely that Aaron knew nothing of amperes, ohms, or volts; otherwise his two sons never would have monkeyed with this powerful apparatus, and they would not have been killed by fire breaking out of the ark of the covenant and killing them without any wounds or burns appearing on their bodies.
Any coroner’s jury of today, if it were to sit on an inquest over the body of Aaron’s sons, would at once bring a verdict or death by a discharge of electricity.
Aaron knew this power, and to make it effective all he had to do to deal death from his apparatus was to remove the costly camel’s hair carpets, which are almost perfect nonconductors of electricity, and make the culprit stand on terra firma. Death would result instantly by fire breaking out and leave no wounds or burns to account for his death. That several members of revolting tribes of Israelites were thus electrocuted is also a matter of record in the Bible.
Solomon in building his temple advanced one step further. He found that copper would do as well as gold. He had the temple covered with copper, and copper water pipes led into the cisterns inside the temple.
On the temple, or rather on its roof, a number of gilt spears placed in vertical positions, ostensibly to scare off the birds and to keep them from defiling the temple, but these spears were several cords high, or from 16 to 24 feet. Such a height would hardly be necessary for scarecrows, but it was ample to load the roof, water pipes, etc., with a powerful current of electricity.
Franklin, the electric chair in the state of New York, and the discovery of the leyden jar itself in Leyden, Germany, are all back numbers. History only repeats itself, whether recorded or not.
Source: The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.), 04 Jan. 1895.
