Volta, Alessandro 1745 - 1827

Alessandro Volta was a physicist, chemist and a pioneer of electrical science. Born on 18 February 1745, he is most famous for his invention of the electric battery. Many of his discoveries were instrumental to the work of future scientists. These include:

- Inventing the first electric battery – which people then called the “voltaic pile” – in 1800. Using his invention, scientists were able to produce steady flows of electric current for the first time, unleashing a wave of new discoveries and technologies

- Being the first person to isolate methane

- Discovering that methane mixed with air could be exploded using an electric spark. This is the basis of the internal combustion engine

- Discovering “contact electricity” resulting from contact between different metals.

- Recognized two types of electric conduction

- Writing the first electromotive series. This showed, from highest to lowest, the voltages that different metals can produce in a battery (We now talk of standard electrode potentials, meaning roughly the same thing)

- Discovering that electric potential in a capacitor is directly proportional to electric charge.

Volta was married and had three children. He died in his home town of Como on 5 March 1827. In 1881, scientists decided that the unit of electric potential would be called the volt in recognition of Volta's great contributions to electrical science.