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# 85 NOVEMBER 21 , 2016
# 85 November 21 2016
electrodes are immersed.
In the electric battery, the
goblets are replaced by
cardboard soaked in brine.
conductors, Volta introduces - next to the concept
of "power capacity" - the
fundamental concept of
"voltage", now replaced
by the term "potential
difference", beginning to
draw a conceptual different path, that is getting
him close to the great idea
of the battery.
In 1795 Volta publishes
important results in the
study of the behavior of
the saturated vapor, very
timely topic raised by the
construction of steam engines then used in industry. At the end of 1799
Alessandro Volta comes
to what he will define "the
great passage": the invention of the battery, which
takes place in his home in
Lazzate, In a communication dated March 20, 1800
and addressed to the President of the Royal Society,
Sir Joseph Banks, Volta announces to the scientific
community the invention
of the battery, or "electric
apparatus" or "column apparatus," which he called
"artificial electric organ."
The so-called "voltaic battery", a predecessor of
the electric battery, would
have produced a constant
electric current. Initially Volta conducts experiments with individual
cells connected in series.
Each cell is essentially a
wine goblet filled with brine, where two dissimilar
Through various experiments, Volta finds that the
most effective pair of dissimilar metals producing
electricity would be made
of zinc and copper. The
phenomenon underlying
the functioning of the
voltaic battery, whereby
between two metallic conductors different places
in contact is established a
small potential difference,
will take the name of Volta up the bottom with the
effect.
help of a stick, Volta watches the rise of bubble
In the fall of 1776, Ales- gases to the surface, and
sandro Volta studies a collects them in a bottle.
phenomenon known from He then gives this gas the
the most distant times: name of "air flammable
in a stagnant bend in the swamp" and discovers the
river Lambro, approa- opportunity to inflame it,
ching a flame to the sur- whether through a lighted
face would flare up bluish candle, or by an electrical
flames. Volta decides to discharge: Volta compristudy deeper this matter. ses that the gas is formed
While he is a guest in his from the decomposition
friend Teresa Castiglio- of animal and vegetable
ni's house in Angera, the substances. It is the discoscientist discovers the in- very of methane.
flammable air in the Isolino Partegora swamp, near In September of 1801,
Varese. Trying to shake Volta has the honor of
pr esenting his invention
to the then First Consul of
France, Napoleon Bonaparte. At the height of enthusiasm and admiration,
Napoleon offers that the
Academy would honor
him with the gold medal
(later awarded in the December 2nd session), the
appointing as a foreign
member of the "Institut de
France" and assigns him a
donation and an annuity.
On March 5 of 1827 Alessandro Volta dies at his
home in Camnago, now
Camnago Volta in his honor, at the age of 82 years.
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