Volta, Alessandro

(1745–1827)

   Born in Como (Lombardy), Alessandro Volta was the first man to invent a battery capable of storing electricity. Volta was professor of physics at the University of Pavia from 1779 to 1804 and was ennobled by Napoleon for his discoveries. Volta was responsible for a string of crucial scientific breakthroughs. In 1776, he discovered the properties of what was then called swamp gas but is today known as methane. In 1799, he invented the “voltaic pile,” or battery. Volta’s pile consisted of a number of discs of zinc and silver separated by pieces of brine-soaked cloth and arranged in a vertical column. The electric current ran for several hours from the wire joining the upper zinc disc to the silver disc below. For the first time, it was shown to be possible to have an unbroken current of electricity in a circuit. Volta communicated his success in a March 1800 letter to Joseph Banks, the president of the British Royal Society, and an article on his discovery was published in the Royal Society’s Philosophical Transactions in September 1800. Worldwide fame rapidly followed. In 1881, Volta’s research legacy in the field of electricity was honored by the decision to name the unit of measurement of electric potential the “volt” in his honor. Volta died in his native Como in 1827. For many years, he was depicted on the 10,000 lire note.