Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta (UK:/ˈvɒltə/,US:/ˈvoʊltə/;Italian:[alesˈsandrodʒuˈzɛppeanˈtɔnjoanasˈtaːzjoˈvɔlta]; 18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italianchemist andphysicist who was a pioneer ofelectricity andpower,[1][2][3] and is credited as the inventor of theelectric battery and the discoverer ofmethane. He invented thevoltaic pile in 1799, and reported the results of his experiments in a two-part letter to the president of theRoyal Society,[4][5] which was published in 1800.[6] With this invention, Volta proved that electricity could be generated chemically and debunked the prevalent theory that electricity was generated solely by living beings. Volta's invention sparked a great amount of scientific excitement and led others to conduct similar experiments, which eventually led to the development of the field ofelectrochemistry.[5]
Volta drew admiration fromNapoleon Bonaparte for his invention, and was invited to theInstitute of France to demonstrate his invention to the members of the institute. Throughout his life, Volta enjoyed a certain amount of closeness with the emperor who conferred upon him numerous honours.[7] Volta held the chair of experimental physics at theUniversity of Pavia for nearly 40 years and was widely idolised by his students.[7] Despite his professional success, Volta was inclined towards domestic life and this was more apparent in his later years when he tended to live secluded from public life and more for the sake of his family. He died in 1827 from a series of illnesses which began in 1823.[7] TheSI unit ofelectric potential is named thevolt in his honour.
Volta was born inComo, a town in northernItaly, on 18 February 1745. His father, Filippo Volta, was of noble lineage. His mother, Donna Maddalena, came from the family of the Inzaghis.[8] In 1794, Volta married an aristocratic lady also from Como, Teresa Peregrini, with whom he raised three sons: Zanino, Flaminio, and Luigi.[9]
In 1774, he became a professor of physics at the Royal School in Como. A year later, he improved and popularised theelectrophorus, a device that producedstatic electricity. His promotion of it was so extensive that he is often credited with its invention, even though a machine operating on the same principle was described in 1762 by the Swedish experimenterJohan Wilcke.[1][10] In 1777, he travelled through Switzerland, where he befriended the physicist and mountaineerH. B. de Saussure.
In the years between 1776 and 1778, Volta studied thechemistry of gases. He researched and discoveredmethane after reading a paper byBenjamin Franklin of the United States on "flammable air". In November 1776, he found methane in the marshes ofAngera onLake Maggiore,[11] and by 1778 he managed to isolate it.[12] He devised experiments such as theignition of methane by an electricspark in a closed vessel.
Volta also studied what we now call electricalcapacitance, developing separate means to study both electrical potential difference (V) and charge (Q), and discovering that for a given object, they are proportional.[13] This is called Volta's Law of Capacitance, and for this work, the unit of electrical potential has been named the volt.[13]
In 1779, he became a professor of experimental physics at theUniversity of Pavia, a chair that he occupied for almost 40 years.[7] Volta's lectures were so crowded with students that the subsequent emperorJoseph II ordered the construction (based on a project byLeopold Pollack) of a new "physical theatre", today the "Aula Volta".[14] Furthermore, the emperor granted Volta substantial funding to equip the physics cabinet with instruments, purchased by Volta in England and France. At theUniversity History Museum of the University of Pavia there are 150 of them, used by Alessandro Volta.[15][16]
Luigi Galvani, an Italian physicist, discovered something he named "animal electricity" when two different metals were connected in series with a frog's leg and to one another. Volta realised that the frog's leg served as both a conductor of electricity (what we would now call anelectrolyte) and as a detector of electricity. He also understood that the frog's legs were irrelevant to theelectric current, which was caused by the two differing metals.[17] He replaced the frog's leg with brine-soaked paper and detected the flow of electricity by other means familiar to him from his previous studies. In this way, he discovered theelectrochemical series, and the law that theelectromotive force (emf) of agalvanic cell, consisting of a pair of metalelectrodes separated by electrolyte, is the difference between their two electrode potentials (thus, two identical electrodes and a common electrolyte give zero net emf). This may be called Volta's Law of the electrochemical series.
In 1800, as the result of a professional disagreement over the galvanic response advocated by Galvani, Volta invented thevoltaic pile, an earlyelectric battery, which produced a steady electric current.[18] Volta had determined that the most effective pair of dissimilar metals to produce electricity waszinc andcopper. Initially, he experimented with individual cells in series, each cell being a wine goblet filled withbrine into which the two dissimilar electrodes were dipped. The voltaic pile replaced the goblets with cardboard soaked in brine.
The battery made by Volta is credited as one of the first electrochemical cells. It consists of two electrodes: one made ofzinc, the other ofcopper. Theelectrolyte is eithersulphuric acid mixed with water or a form of saltwaterbrine. The electrolyte exists in the form2 H+ andSO2−4. Zinc metal, which is higher in theelectrochemical series than both copper and hydrogen, is oxidized to zinc cations (Zn2+) and creates electrons that move to the copper electrode. The positively charged hydrogen ions (protons) captureelectrons from the copper electrode, forming bubbles of hydrogen gas, H2. This makes the zinc rod the negative electrode and the copper rod the positive electrode. Thus, there are two terminals, and an electric current will flow if they are connected. Thechemical reactions in this voltaic cell are as follows:
Zinc:
Zn → Zn2+ + 2e−
Sulphuric acid:
2H+ + 2e− → H2
Copper metal does not react, but rather it functions as acatalyst for the hydrogen-gas formation and an electrode for the electric current. The sulphate anion (SO2−4) does not undergo any chemical reaction either, but migrates to the zinc anode to compensate for the charge of the zinc cations formed there. However, this cell also has some disadvantages. It is unsafe to handle, since sulphuric acid, even if diluted, can be hazardous. Also, the power of the cell diminishes over time because the hydrogen gas is not released. Instead, it accumulates on the surface of the copper electrode and forms a barrier between the metal and the electrolyte solution.
Volta retired in 1819 to his estate in Camnago, afrazione ofComo, Italy, now named "Camnago Volta" in his honour. He died there on 5 March 1827, just after his 82nd birthday.[21] Volta's remains were buried in Camnago Volta.[22]
Volta's legacy is celebrated by theTempio Voltiano memorial located in the public gardens by the lake. There is also a museum that was built in his honour, which exhibits some of the equipment that Volta used to conduct experiments.[23] Nearby stands theVilla Olmo, which houses the Voltian Foundation, an organization promoting scientific activities. Volta carried out his experimental studies and produced his first inventions near Como.[24]
Volta was raised as a Catholic and for all of his life continued to maintain his belief.[28] Because he was not ordained a clergyman as his family expected, he was sometimes accused of being irreligious and some people have speculated about his possible unbelief, stressing that "he did not join the Church",[29] or that he virtually "ignored the church's call".[30] Nevertheless, he cast out doubts in a declaration of faith in which he said:
The chair and the blackboard of Alessandro Volta,University History Museum of the University of Pavia
I do not understand how anyone can doubt the sincerity and constancy of my attachment to the religion which I profess, the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic religion in which I was born and brought up, and of which I have always made confession, externally and internally. I have, indeed, and only too often, failed in the performance of those good works which are the mark of a Catholic Christian, and I have been guilty of many sins: but through the special mercy of God I have never, as far as I know, wavered in my faith... In this faith I recognise a pure gift of God, a supernatural grace; but I have not neglected those human means which confirm belief, and overthrow the doubts which at times arise. I studied attentively the grounds and basis of religion, the works of apologists and assailants, the reasons for and against, and I can say that the result of such study is to clothe religion with such a degree of probability, even for the merely natural reason, that every spirit unperverted by sin and passion, every naturally noble spirit must love and accept it. May this confession which has been asked from me and which I willingly give, written and subscribed by my own hand, with authority to show it to whomsoever you will, for I am not ashamed of the Gospel, may it produce some good fruit![31][32]
Briefe über thierische elektricität (1900) (Letters about animal electricity, Available through Worldcat.org libraries, Leipzig, W. Engelmann, publisher)
Untersuchungen über den Galvanismus, 1796 bis 1800 (Studies on Galvanism, Available through Worldcat.org libraries)
Del modo di render sensibilissima la più debole elettricità sia naturale, sia artificiale (Of the method of rendering very sensible the weakest natural or artificial electricity By Alexander Volta, Professor Of Experimental Philosophy In Como, &c. Read at the Royal Society, 14 March 1782, Held in WorldCat libraries)
^"Life and works".Alessandrovolta.info. Como, Italy: Editoriale srl. Archived fromthe original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved18 February 2015.
^R. Cecchini and G. Pelosi, "Alessandro Volta and his battery," in IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 30-37, April 1992, doi: 10.1109/74.134307.
^Joh. Carl Wilcke (1762) "Ytterligare rön och försök omcontraira electriciteterne vid laddningen och därtil hörande delar" (Additional findings and experiments on the opposing electric charges [that are created] during charging, and parts related thereto)Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps Academiens Handlingar (Proceedings of the Royal Swedish Science Academy), vol. 23, pages206–229, 245–266.
^Alessandro Volta,Lettere del Signor Don Alessandro Volta ... Sull' Aria Infiammabile Nativa delle Paludi [Letters of Signor Don Alessandro Volta ... on the flammable native air of the marshes] (Milan, (Italy): Giuseppe Marelli, 1777).
^'Adam-Hart Davis. (2012).Engineers. Penguin. p. 138
^Michael Brian Schiffer (2003),Draw the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in the Age of Enlightenment. University of California Press. p. 55
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