The first voltaic pile was invented in 1800 by Alessandro Volta. Born in Como, Italy in 1745, Alessandro Volta was appointed as a physics professor at the Royal School. While teaching basic physics to his students, Alessandro Volta designed his first invention in 1774: the electrophorus, a device producing static electricity. In 1800, Alessandro Volta, then professor at the University of Pavia, conceptualized and created his most famous invention, the voltaic pile.
The pile consisted of alternated discs of zinc and copper with pieces of cardboard soaked in brine and produced an electrical current. The voltaic pile was the first ever-known battery to produce a reliable and steady current of electricity.
Although the invention is accredited as Alessandro Volta’s, counterarguments point Luigi Galvani’s as the inventor of the voltaic pile. Working together on the creation of a pile that could produce a steady electrical current, the two associates, however, separated soon before Alessandro Volta finalized the voltaic pile. In fact, a disagreement concerning Galvani’s theory of galvanic responses (based on the idea that animal tissue contained a form of electricity) led Alessandro Volta to build the voltaic pile.
Nowadays, several scientific words such as “volt” and “photovoltaic” come from Alessandro Volta. In fact, a volt is a unit of electromotive force or difference potential named in honor of the man who first created an electrical current from different metals in a moist environment. On the other hand, photovoltaic are systems converting light energy into electricity; another idea which proves that electricity can be made from even the simplest things around us.
Laurie Le Roux
Worldwide 