Short Biography of Alessandro Volta

Born on February 18, 1745, Alessandro Volta was a physicist, chemist and a pioneer of electrical science.

He:

• Invented in 1800 the first electrical battery – which people called the “voltaic pile.” With this invention, scientists could produce steady flows of electric current, unleashing a wave of new discoveries and technologies.
• Was the first person to isolate methane.
• Discovered methane mixed with air could be exploded using an electric spark.
• Discovered “contact electricity” resulting from contact between different metals.
• Recognized two types of electric conduction.
• Wrote the first electromotive series. This showed, from highest to lowest, the voltages that metals produce in a voltaic pile. (We now talk of standard electrode potentials, meaning roughly the same thing.) • Discovered that electric potential in a capacitor is directly proportional to electric charge. In recognition of Alessandro Volta’s contributions to electrical science, the unit of electric potential is called the volt.

Early Life and Education

Alessandro Volta was born in Como, Lombardy, Italy, on February 18, 1745. His family was part of the nobility, but not wealthy. Until the age of four, he showed no signs of talking, and his family feared he was not very intelligent or possibly dumb. Fortunately, their fears were misplaced. When he was seven, his father died leaving unpaid debts. The young Alessandro Volta was educated at home by his uncle until he was twelve years old.

He then started studies at a Jesuit boarding school. The Jesuit school charged no fees, but pressurized him to become a priest. His family did not want this, and withdrew him from the school after four years. Volta then studied at the Benzi Seminary until reaching eighteen years of age. Volta’s family wanted him to become a lawyer. Volta had his own ideas! He was interested in the world around him; he wanted to be a scientist.
 

Although as a child he had been slow to speak Italian, Volta now seemed to have a special talent for languages. Before he left school, he had learned Latin, French, English and German. His language talents helped him in later life, when he traveled around Europe, discussing his work with scientists in Europe’s centers of science. Aged 18, Volta was bold enough to begin an exchange of letters about electricity with two leading physicists: Jean-Antoine Nollet in Paris, and Giambatista Beccaria in Turin. Beccaria did not like some of Volta’s ideas and encouraged him to learn more by doing his experiments for himself.

Volta’s List Of Conductors, Highest Electromotive Force First

Zinc Lead Tin Iron Copper Silver Gold Graphite Manganese Ore

This was the first time anyone had listed electrode potentials. It was the first electrochemical series. In modern language, we would say that the farther apart the substances on this list are, the greater the voltage they will produce when brought into contact. By 1797, Volta had completely proved his “contact theory” of electricity. He now knew that the key to producing what today we call a voltage was two metals connected by something moist, like frogs’ legs. The moist connection between the metals did NOT have to be an animal.

Connecting the metals by placing them in a cup of dilute acid was a very effective way of producing electricity. He formally split electrical conductors into those of the first kind: these were metals, graphite and pure charcoal; and the second kind: these were substances we would now call electrolytes, such as salt water or dilute acids. An electric current would result when a circuit was built using two conductors of the first kind combined with one of the second kind.

     

Alternatively, connecting the metals with paper soaked in dilute acid or salt water also worked. Volta said that in Galvani’s work, the frogs’ legs had served two functions:

• They conducted electricity as conductors of the second kind.
• They acted as a very sensitive electroscope. (An electroscope is a device used to detect electricity.)Volta found that by connecting up lots of pairs of metals connected with moist card, he could produce significant electrical currents.And so the electrical battery was born.Volta used alternating zinc and silver discs linked by card or cloth soaked in salt water.In 1800, Volta described his results in a letter to Joseph Banks, at the Royal Society in London.Banks showed the letter to other scientists, and arranged for Volta’s description of his discovery to be read out at a meeting of the Society and published.
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Volta’s Battery Unleashed a Wave of New Scientific Discoveries

The battery that Volta had invented gave chemists a very powerful new method to study substances. The beauty of Volta’s device was that almost anyone could make one – silver and copper coins were available to many people, as were other metals such as iron, tin and zinc. Within weeks of Volta’s invention of the battery, William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle built and used a battery to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen. Within just six years, Humphry Davy had built a powerful battery. With it, he isolated new chemical elements, and deduced that chemical bonds were electrical in nature.