Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio VoltaDied 5 Mar 1827 at age 82 (born 18 Feb 1745). Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was an Italian physicist who invented the electric battery (1800), the first reliable, sustained supply of current. His voltaic pile used plates of two dissimilar metals and an electrolyte, a number of alternated zinc and silver disks, each separated with porous brine-soaked cardboard. Previously, only discharge of static electricity had been available, so his device enabled new uses of electricity. (Soon, with electrolysis, William Nicholson decomposed water, and Humphry Davyisolated potassium and other metals.) Volta also invented the electrophorus, the condenser and the electroscope. He contributed to meteorology, studied gases and discovered methane. The volt, a unit of electrical measurement, is named after him.« |
