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Limits RegistryWelsh scientist William Grove demonstrated the first fuel cell in 1838–1839, generating electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen over platinum electrodes in dilute acid, and published his results in the Philosophical Magazine in 1839. He later called the device a 'gas voltaic battery'. Practical fuel cells came almost a century later with Francis Thomas Bacon's hydrogen–oxygen cell of 1932.
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Welsh scientist William Grove demonstrated the first fuel cell in 1838–1839, generating electricity by combining hydrogen and oxygen over platinum electrodes in dilute acid, and published his results in the Philosophical Magazine in 1839. He later called the device a 'gas voltaic battery'. Practical fuel cells came almost a century later with Francis Thomas Bacon's hydrogen–oxygen cell of 1932.
The earliest year in which a device generating electricity by electrochemically combining hydrogen and oxygen was demonstrated.
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Limits Registry. LR-FIRST-FUEL-CELL. First fuel cell. 2026.