What is the history of fuel cells?

Answer 1

The principle of the fuel cell was discovered by German scientist Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838. :o

Based on this work, the first fuel cell was developed by Welsh scientist Sir William Robert Grove in 1843. The fuel cell he made used similar materials to today's phosphoric-acid fuel cell. It wasn't until 1959 that British engineer Francis Thomas Bacon successfully developed a 5 kW stationary fuel cell.

In 1959, a team led by Harry Ihrig built a 15 kW fuel cell tractor for Allis-Chalmers which was demonstrated across the US at state fairs. This system used potassium hydroxide as the electrolyte and compressed hydrogen and oxygen as the reactants.

Later in 1959, Bacon and his colleagues demonstrated a practical five-kilowatt unit capable of powering a welding machine.

UTC's Power subsidiary was the first company to manufacture and commercialize a large, stationary fuel cell system for use as a co-generation power plant in hospitals, universities and large office buildings. UTC Power continues to market this fuel cell as the PureCell 200, a 200 kW system *hurray!*

Answer 2

That's way too long to be answered in a Yahoo!Answer. I attach some useful links, but:
Fuel cells were first discovered in 1839 by Sir William Grove.
They were clunky and not widely used until alkali fuel cells were used as power sources in the Apollo space program in the 1960's.
Today substantial research is done on fuel cells, as they produce cleaner power than combustion engines. They are not yet widely commercial because they are costly and it is difficult to make reliable ones.