A dry cell is a type of battery that produces electricity from chemicals sealed inside a metal container. Unlike old-fashioned batteries filled with liquid acid (called wet cells), a dry cell uses a moist paste or gel, making it much safer and easier to carry around.

The batteries in your flashlight, remote control, or portable radio are often dry cells. The most common type is the ordinary AA, AAA, C, or D battery you might buy at the store. Inside each one, chemical reactions between different materials create an electric current that flows out through the positive and negative ends (the terminals).

Inventors in the late 1800s developed early dry cells, but it was the invention of practical, affordable dry cells that really changed everyday life. Suddenly people could have portable electric devices: flashlights for camping, radios for the beach, toys that moved on their own. Before dry cells, most electrical devices had to be plugged into the wall or connected to heavy, liquid-filled batteries.

Today's rechargeable batteries in phones and laptops work on similar principles but use different chemistry. The basic dry cell, though, remains one of the most useful inventions of the modern age, quietly powering many devices we use every day.