Volta Turns 270—the Man who said No to Priesthood and Yes to Electricity -2015

It’s February 18, Alassandro Volta’s birthday! You probably already got an air of who he was when you saw the doodle on Google—the Italian physicist and battery-inventor.  But, for electronics science aficionados, he is a legend who bravely fought against the adversities of his time.

The man’s story goes long before “voltaic pile”—the first original battery and ‘Volts’ the unit of electric current to credit his name. Even before the discovery of methane gas and al that hullaballoo over electrostatics, pneumatics and meteorology. In 1745, Volta was born in the beautiful town of North Italy, Como. Volta had a noble family background.

 

• A Hidden Diamond

Alessandro Volta was thought to be slow-witted and dull in the primal phase of his life. But, the diamond didn’t stay hidden for long, as his father recognised later as Volta began to shine in class. His sudden improvement   left everyone amazed. However, his parents insisted that he should take up priesthood which he kept resisting. 

The man had burning interest in something else! At the age of 18, Volta had the guts to exchange letters on Electricity with two hugely popular physicists of his time: Giambatista Beccaria and Jean-Antoine Nollet.

• Controversy over Frog’s Leg Led to Invention of Battery! 

Alessandro Volta never aspired to invent battery in the beginning. It was his dispute with Galvani that compelled him to explore further on the matter. Galvani was an Anatomy professor. He noticed that contact with different metals make a frog’s leg ‘twitch’ which he referred to as “animal electricity”.  

Alessandro Volta studied Luigi Galvani’s theory and felt something was wrong with it. He ran multiple experiments on this and finally something struck him like a lightening. Two different metals are causing the twitch but similar metal causes no movement in the dead muscle at all. 

Then Alessandro Volta came to know that not only two different metals generate electrical effect, but such metals, when in contact with particular types of fluid create such effect.  Born was the first electric battery from this experiment in 1800. 

Now we understand what Galvani did was to create an electric cell unknowingly.  The frog’s leg acted like an electrolyte that fuelled the flow of electricity. Browse through free electronics video tutorial to dig fun projects as such.