Alessandro Volta (1745 - 1827) was an Italian physicist and chemist who pioneered the study of electricity and is best known for inventing the voltaic pile, the first electrical battery capable of providing a continuous current. [1] His work laid the foundation for the field of electrochemistry, and the volt, the SI unit of electric potential, is named in his honour.
Early life
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was born on 18 February 1745 in Como, in the Duchy of Milan. [1] He showed an early fascination with natural philosophy and, from his youth, devoted himself to the experimental study of electricity, then an emerging science. In 1774 he became a teacher at the state gymnasium in Como.
Scientific career
Volta's early contributions included the invention of the electrophorus, a device used to generate static electricity, and studies of atmospheric electricity and gases. He isolated and studied methane and devised instruments to measure electrical charge and potential. [2] In 1779 he was appointed professor of experimental physics at the University of Pavia, a position he held for decades.
His most celebrated achievement grew out of a scientific dispute with the biologist Luigi Galvani, who had observed that a frog's leg twitched when touched by two different metals and attributed the effect to "animal electricity." Volta argued instead that the electricity originated from the contact between dissimilar metals, with the moist tissue merely completing the circuit. [1]
The voltaic pile
To demonstrate his theory, Volta constructed in 1800 the voltaic pile, a stack of alternating discs of zinc and copper separated by cloth or cardboard soaked in brine. [1] The device produced a steady, continuous electric current, unlike the fleeting discharges available from earlier machines. It was the first practical battery and became an indispensable tool for the rapid advances in electrical and chemical science that followed in the nineteenth century.
Recognition
Volta's discovery brought him international fame. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and awarded its Copley Medal for his electrical researches. [2] Napoleon Bonaparte, an admirer of his work, made him a count and a senator of the Kingdom of Italy, and Volta received the Legion of Honour and the Order of the Iron Crown.
Legacy
Volta retired to his estate near Como and died there on 5 March 1827. In 1881 an international congress of electricians adopted the volt as the unit of electromotive force, permanently associating his name with the science he helped create. [3] His invention of the battery remains one of the foundational developments of modern physics and technology.
