Home > Sections > Famous Scientists > Alessandro Volta
Alessandro Volta
Life Details
Born: February 18th, 1745. Died: March 2th, 1827.
Introduction
Alessandro Volta was an Italian physicist that invented the electric battery. He had many different inventions, all based around static and electrical current. His name has been given to a unit of current - Volts.
Early Life
Born in Como, Lombardy (now Italy), Volta became a professor of physics at the Royal School of Como in 1774. His interest in electricity led him to improve a device used to generate static electricity. He discovered and isolated methane gas in 1776. He was later appointed chair of physics at the University of Pavia.
The first paper published by Volta was in 1769, and although it contained no new evidence, it was of some interest, and his subsequent ones were devoted almost exclusively to the presentation of specific experimental discoveries.
Inventions
The elctrophorus, a device that provided a source of electric potential using electrostatic induction. This was an easily replenishable source of static electricity. It was in 1782 that Volta announce the application of the electrophorus to the detection of minute electrical charges.
Volta received a copy of Luigi Galvani's paper published in 1791 on the basis that a frog's legs would move through manipulation of metals such as copper and iron, to create a loop that was deemed electrical. Although Volta agreed with the findings, he later went on to say that the two metals were not just conductors, but that they generated the electricity themselves.
The announcement of Volta's experiments and interpretation of this touched off one of the great controversies in the history of science. Between the physiologists and anatomists supporting Galvani's view that electricity was made by the animals themselves, physicists and chemists aligned with Volta's view that it was produced by the external bimetallic contacts. After over a decade of constant rivalry between the two views, Volta took an active role to pursue his research and prove it.
Electric Battery
Volta discovered that metals would react with certain liquids, as well as other metals to create a similar effect. When two dissimilar metals were held in contact and joined by a moist third body, it would "complete a circuit" and allow for energy to be made. This led to the construction of the electric battery in 1800, or "pile", as Volta called it.
His invention caused a instant sensation, and it was the first device that could sustain a steady, continuous flow of electricity. Others had only created a short burst of static electricity.
Retirement
After initial acclaim for his discovery, Volta actually did not apply his battery concept to any of the uses it is used for in modern days, or what other scientists were doing with them when he first invented it. He in fact retired in 1819, to his family home near Como, and died there on March 5th, 1827.
