Alessandro VoltaAlessandro Volta

Presentation made by Jacopo Alaimo

Early Life Early Life

Alessandro Volta was born the 18th of February 1745 in Como, Italy. When he was in his teens, he decided to be a scientist. So in 1774,at the age of 30, he became a physics professor at the Royal School inComo. Then one year later, he was appointed professor of physics atthe University of Pavia. In the years between 1776-78 he studied the chemistry of gasesand descovered methane by reading a paper written by BenjaminFranklin on “flammable air”. In November, of 1776, he found methaneat Lake Maggiore and then finally, in 1778, he managed to isolatemethane.

Alessandro Volta

Volta and GalvaniVolta and Galvani

In 1780 a friend of Volta’s, a scientist as him called LuigiGalvani, told him about an experiment that he had tried. Galvani explained that he was cutting up frogs and was holding their muscles up on a brass hook. One muscle had come in contact with some iron wire and it had twitched. Galvani thought that the muscle was producing its own electricity but Volta didn’t quite agree. In fact, he showed him that the contact was with the two different metals and not with the muscle and the wire. This contact with the hook and the wire made the muscle twitch.

Luigi Galvani

Volta’s ExperimentVolta’s ExperimentVolta did many experiments to find out about the electricity that could be produced. One of these experiments consisted in taking two piles of coins, each pile made of a different metal, and separated them with card soaked in a salt solution. This produced an electric current and was, in fact, the world’s first battery. Volta became very famous. Even Napoleon rewarded him by givinghim the title of Count. Then at last, in 1827, he died at the age of 82 there in Como.Volta’s legacy is celebrated by a Temple located in the public gardensby the lake. It is also a museum which has been built in his honourand some of his original equipment is shown. The volt was then named after him in 1881. Furthermore, he was depicted upon the italian 10,000 Lire.

Of course, if Alessandro Volta didn’t invent the battery, the electric

objects we have now could have not been used because without a

battery these objects can’t work. So we are so lucky that Alessandro

Volta was brought to light. The museums have immediately major renovations on

thebecentenial of the invention of the battery. To these were

added several temporary exhibitions that have toured Italy,

Europe and the world.