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.

Wassily Kandinsky Biography

Russian-born painter Wassily Kandinsky is credited as a leader in avant-garde art as one of the founders of pure abstraction in painting in the early 20th century.

Synopsis

Born in Moscow in 1866, Wassily Kandinsky took up the study of art in earnest at age 30, moving to Munich to study drawing and painting. A trained musician, Kandinsky approached color with a musician’s sensibility. An obsession with Monet led him to explore his own creative concepts of color on canvas, which were sometimes controversial among his contemporaries and critics, but Kandinsky emerged as a respected leader of the abstract art movement in the early 20th century.