Volta, Alessandro, Count

Volta, Alessandro, Count (1745-1837), Italian scientist.

Count Volta was a professor at the University of Pavia.

His friend, Luigi Galvani, told him a strange story about a frog's leg. Galvani hung the frog's leg on a brass hook and placed the hook over an iron rod. At once the leg twitched. This showed that electricity was passing through it.

Volta guessed this had something to do with the brass and the iron. He placed a piece of brass and a piece of iron in some salty water. Electricity flowed between them. Volta had made an electric cell.

An electric cell makes electricity. The dry cells (or batteries) used in electric flashlights today were developed from Volta's discovery. So was the accumulator, or battery, used in motor cars and for other purposes.

Count Volta's name is remembered in the word volt. A volt is a measure of electricity.

See Volta: Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment ~ Giuliano Pancaldi