360Volta builds the first electric battery
In a letter dated 20 March 1800, the Italian scientist Alessandro Volta described his 'pile': a stack of zinc and copper discs separated by cloth soaked in salt water. It was the first battery, the first source of a steady electric current. It opened the age of electricity, and the unit of electric potential, the volt, is named after him.
Before 1800, scientists could make electricity only in short sparks, using friction machines or storage jars. They had no way to produce a steady flow of current.
Alessandro Volta, a professor at the University of Pavia, set out to test a rival's claim that electricity came from animal tissue. He found that two different metals, separated by a moist conductor, could produce electricity on their own.
He stacked discs of zinc and copper or silver, with pieces of card or cloth soaked in salt water between them. The taller the pile, the stronger the effect. On 20 March 1800, he described his invention in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society in London.
The voltaic pile was the first battery. Within weeks, scientists in London used it to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and soon chemists used it to discover new elements such as sodium and potassium.
Steady current made possible the later discoveries of electromagnetism, the telegraph and electric motors. In 1881, the unit of electric potential was named the volt in his honour.
- 1792
- Volta begins his experiments on electricity from metals
- 20 March 1800
- Volta describes the pile in a letter to the Royal Society
- 1800
- Electric current is used to split water
- 1881
- The volt is named after him
Sources: Britannica · Royal Society · Smithsonian.