Before we look ahead, let's see where we've come from. In the early 1960s, a Foote Mineral Co. scientist named Dan Boryta was tinkering in his Pennsylvania lab. Using only a beaker, he dissolved a lithium salt in an organic solvent, connected a strip of lithium foil and a graphite bar in an electric circuit, and passed a current through the solution. In a few minutes, he observed yellow coloration appearing on the graphite. This color, of course, was due to lithium ions intercalating between the graphite layers, and the apparatus was a distant ancestor', of lithium-ion batteries.
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