The New Student's Reference Work/Volta, Alessandro

Vol'ta, Alessandro, an Italian physicist, the inventor of the Voltaic cell, was born at Como, Feb. 18, 1745, where also he died, on March 5, 1827. From 1779 to 1819 he occupied the chair of physics in the University of Pavia.

His discovery of the electric pile (as the form of battery which he devised was then and is still called) begins with the division of all conductors into two classes, viz., conductors of the first class, which become electrified by contact, but in such a way that equilibrium is at once established without any permanent current; and conductors of the second class — what we now call electrolytes. Volta's discovery is that, whenever two conductors of the first class are joined in series with a conductor of the second class, an electric current flows through the closed circuit. This phenomenon was first reported by letter to Sir Joseph Banks, then president of the Royal Society, on March 20, 1800, and was read before the Royal Society on June 26, 1800. The centennial of this important discovery was recently celebrated by an electrical exposition at Como. Volta is also the inventor of the electrophorus and of an absolute electrometer. See Electricity.