The Clarendon Dry Pile is also known as the Oxford Electric Bell has the longest-lasting battery to date. The experimental electric bell was built by instrument makers Watkins and Hills in 1840. The electric bell have continuously rung since it was built, but it is currently inaudible due to two layers of glass protecting it. There have been short interruptions due to high humidity, but the bell still rings regardless.
The experiment consists of two brass bells both positioned beneath a dry pile. The pair of piles connect in series giving the bells opposite electric charges. The clapper is a 4mm metal sphere suspended between the bells ringing them. When the clapper touches one bell it is then charged by the pile and repelled due to the same charge and attracted to the other bell. This process repeats and continues. The use of electrostatic forces means that even though it's a high voltage little charge is carried between the bells producing 2 Hertz being the oscillation frequency. This leads the drainage of the battery to drain slowly and may be the reason the bells still ring to this day.
The bell was purchased by clergyman and physicist Robert Walker and resides in the corridor adjacent to the foyer of the Clarendon Laboratory at the University of Oxford in England. Until the bell stops working either by the batteries not working or the clapper breaking the dry pile won't be looked at to see why it's still going.
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