The voltaic pile was the first electrical battery that could provide a continuous current. It was invented by the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta and consisted of a stack of alternating zinc and copper discs separated by cloth or cardboard soaked in brine or acid. Volta announced it in a letter to the Royal Society of London. It grew out of his debate with Luigi Galvani over animal electricity, the twitching of frogs' legs, in which Volta argued that the electricity came from the contact between different metals and not from the animal tissue. The pile led to rapid advances: the electrolysis of water, Humphry Davy's discovery of new elements such as sodium and potassium, and later the study of electromagnetism. The unit of electric potential, the volt, is named after Volta.
Before and after
- from 18th century to 19th centuryRomanticism
- 18th centuryAgrippina
- c. 1800sRise of nationalism
- 18th centuryLate modern period
- 1800Voltaic pile
- from 1800 to 1863Underground Railroad
- 7 January 1800Birth of Millard Fillmore
- 18 January 1800Founding of Bank of France
- from 20 April 1800 to 4 June 1800Siege of Genoa
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The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.