Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was among the greatest scientists of the modern scientific era. Born in Como, Lombardy, on February 18, 1745, to Filippo and Margherita dé Conti Inzaghi, his parents, however, could not afford to provide him education. His relatives took interest in his education and supported him. Volta though born in a noble family, with time, moved down the ladder in social status.
Volta, as a child was different from other children of his age. Even his brothers and sisters differed from him. He never entered the church, while his brothers and sisters did so fastidiously. However, he was not a born genius. His late development in picking up speech – at the age of four convinced his parents that he was retarded.
When Volta was seven years old, his father died. By that time Volta had begun surpassing other children with his intelligence. Volta’s uncle was entrusted with the responsibility of his education after his father’s death. Till the age of 13, Volta studied at the Jesuit school. When he turned 16, he got transferred to the Benzi seminary in Como. Despite constant efforts by his teacher, Father Gerolamo Bonesi, Volta resisted all efforts to make him into a priest. His uncle too tried in vain, to persuade him to study law. Volta, after finishing grammar school dropped formal studies and started working on the electrical phenomena and by 18, made up his mind to become a physicist. He studied books by Musschenbroek, Nollet and Beccaria, the three leading scientists of that time in the field of electricity. When Volta was 19, his interest in science was disclosed. It was through correspondence with Abbé Nollet that he expressed his interest in the field.
His fascination for electricity was so intense that he penned a poem in Latin on the subject. His works on electricity continued and finally he invented the Electrophorus, a charge-accumulating machine in 1775. The invention came just a year of Volta accepting charge as professor of physics at Como high school.
A workaholic, Volta came across people who had similar work. In 1780, Volta went to Florence and visited the Royal Museum of Physics and Natural Science to carry out naturalistic research. In 1781, he visited Switzerland, West Germany, Holland and Belgium, and finally in December, arrived in Paris.
This invention (the Electrophorus) served as a milestone for Volta, and his fame spread far and wide. With his works still continuing, by 1778, Volta became the first person to isolate the compound methane, a major constituent of natural gas. Nothing seemed to go wrong for Volta as 1779 saw him accepting a proposal as professor at the University of Pavia. Continuing his research in that field, he invented many gadgets based on the principles of static electricity and later won the Copley Medal of the Royal Society, to which he was elected in 1791. He not only discovered static electricity but dynamic electricity too. It was an inspiration from the results of the experiments conducted by Galvani, a friend of Volta. Galvani sent copies of his papers on the subject to Volta. In one of the experiments of Galvani, Volta posed the question, "If a muscle came in contact with two different metals, would electricity arise from the tissue or from the metals?" Conducting experiments, he realized that the electric current had nothing to do with life or tissue.
Life hardly changed for Volta apart from his involvement in experiments. Volta got married to Maria Teresa Peregrini in 1794. Volta had three children out of this marriage. He lost his son Flamino at the age of 18, which was truly a shocking event for him and his family.
Electric Battery
In 1800, he invented the first electric battery. It was after this invention that in 1801, he was conferred with the title of Count by Napoleon Bonaparte. After that, Volta came to be known as Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta.
Volta on November 7, 1801, after being conferred the title, wrote to his wife "Among the many things which indeed give me great pleasure, I do not delight in believing that I am more than what I am : and to a life upset by vainglory, I prefer the peace and sweetness of domestic life."
In 1819, He retired to the family estate in Camnago near Como, until his death on March 5, 1827 following a brief illness at the age of 82.
Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was among the leading scientists during the late 1700s. His works were of the utmost importance to mankind and all his inventions speak of his genius. Having dropped out of studies, he pursued the research of electricity, and achieved great success.
His consistent efforts and beneficial inventions earned him the title of Count, which was conferred upon him by Napoleon himself. The electric battery is one of the greatest inventions of Volta.
The fact that the unit of electricity has been termed Volt in honor of this scientist / inventor, speaks volumes of the deep respect earned by this great achiever of his time.
February 18, 1745 Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was born in Como, northern Italy.
November 1760
For studies in philosophy and the classics got enrolled in the seminary at Como.
1763 He got in touch with Abbe Nollet in Paris and later, with Prof. Beccaria, out of his deep interest for physics and chemistry.
April 18, 1769
His first paper, Devi attractiva ignis electrici attracted attention that secured him his first public appointment.
1771 His second paper Novus ac simplicissimus electrici ac phaenomenis inde pendentibus was published.
October 22, 1774
Appointed director of the Royal School in Como.
1775 Invented the electrophorus.
1776 Applied to study chemistry.
November 3, 1776
His experiments on ‘Marsh Gas’ led to the development of ‘Electric Pistol’, and gas lanterns that were electrically ignited.
1778 Joined as professor at the University of Pavia.
1778 Discovered and isolated methane gas.
1780 Invented the electric condenser.
1782 The electronic condenser was improved.
1786 Started working on electric metereology.
1790 Improves eudometer and eudometric.
1791 Volta and Galvani debates start over animal electricity.
April 3, 1791
Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
1792 First approved the theory of Galvani, but later with his own experiments denied it, thus starting a controversy.
1793 Royal Society awarded him the Copley Medal, the most important prize in chemistry.
1793 Arrived at determining the co-efficient of the dilation of air at constant pressure.
November 22, 1794
Married Teresa Peregrini.
1797 Importance of the contact of dissimilar metals in Electrical Stimulation was understood by him.
March 20, 1800
Discovered source of constant-current generation from a ‘pile’ of dissimilar metals.
1801 Demonstrated battery generated electricity in front of Napoleon.
September 1, 1801
Journeyed to Paris to lecture on his latest discoveries in front of National Institute.
December 2, 1801
Scientists appointed by National Institute approved Volta’s discovery of constant flow of electricity, for which he received the Gold Medal.
1805 Volta was granted annual pension by Napoleon and was appointed as Cavalier of the Legion of Honor.
May 1, 1806
Had bestowed upon him the title of Knight of the Iron Crown.
1809 Appointed as Senator of the Kingdom of Italy.
1810 Installed as the Count of Italy.
1816 Volta’s works were published in five volumes in Florence.
March 5, 1827
Volta died.
1881 The unit of electromotive force was named VOLT in his honor.
Volta had dropped out from studies midway, so that he could concentrate on his research. Thus, he did not have much insight into the subject. Without any university education, in 1763, at the age of 18, Volta used to correspond on issues of electricity with leading figures in the field of electricity of those times. He forwarded his theories to Father Beccaria and Abbot Nollet.
Giulio Cesare Gattoni was a good friend of Volta and around 1765, Volta made frequent visits to Gattoni’s place. Gattoni had built a physics laboratory between 1764 and 1765. Volta took advantage of this opportunity and made the best use of it. His interest in electricity grew with inspiration and encouragement from Gattoni. Besides, his constant efforts and works, Volta gained recognition in Europe.
On April 18, 1769, the world was watching the event that were going to change things for them. It was his scientific debut with the dissertation De vi attractiva ignis electirci as phaenomenis inde pendentibus which means 'On The Forces of Attraction of Electric Fire’. It was dedicated to Beccaria in the form of a letter. Then Volta just 24, had put forward a theory, the Unitary Theory of all electric phenomena on the basis of a universal interaction of attractions. Volta in his work drew away from Newton’s gravitational paradigm of the Principia on one hand and puts the analogies with pneumatics and magnetism on the other.
Volta described a new electrostatic generator in which he studied the properties of metals. This was in 1771, when he dedicated to the renowned Spallanzani, a new epistolary dissertation Novus ac simplicissimus electricorum tentaminum apparatus.
He invented the ‘perpetual electrophorus’ in 1775 and described a new Electrostatic Generator. Earlier, Father Beccaria was quite unnerved by Volta’s efforts that he did not give any credit to him. Now, he declared and provided clinching proof against Father Beccaria’s stance
and confirmed his own views. It was then, that for the first time electric induction was applied to the systematic, abundant and lasting production of electricity.
Volta continued his work and in a new epistolary dissertation on August 20, 1778, which was dedicated to De Saussure, he applied his own theory of atmospheric electricity to the study of electric capacity of isolated conductors. For the first time, the concept of electric tension was used besides the concept of capacity and quantity to understand the intensive properties of electricity. In analogy to the concept of the pressure of gas, Volta perceived tension as electric fluid’s tendency to expand. In 1780, he invented the electric condenser. The electric condenser could sense the faintest electric charges. Meanwhile, since 1778, amidst a good lot of experiments and speculations he started working on the possibility of quantifying the action of atmospheric electricity. On March 4, 1782, in one of his dissertations on the condenser was presented before the Royal Society. In his dissertation, he explicitly established the link between charge, capacity and tension (Q = CT), a law which still has its place in all texts of physics.
Unit of Electric Tension
In 1786, Volta now 40, shifted his focus to electric metrology. In this connection, the quantification and standardization of the measures of electric tension, was the most fundamental problem of those times. The results were out and published between 1788 and 1789, in a series of six dissertations dedicated to Lichtenberg, a German poet and scientist. It set out a solid electrometric program that was founded on the following basis :
Operative definition of a standard unit of tension for construction of electrometers, are capable of giving comparable indications and is in a linear proportion to the applied tensions.
Methane and its Discovery
On November 3, 1776, Volta discovered the inflammable air native to marshy lands, and he began his study. Volta’s study on methane ended in the usual dissertations but with the discovery of methane epistolary dissertations. With respect to these studies, Volta also invented the inflammable air pistol. Though, it did not serve its purpose as a weapon, it certainly carved a path for the future invention of the gas lanterns, internal-combustible engine and the telegraph later.
Eudometer & Breathableness of Air
It was not that the air pistol invented by Volta himself was the precursor of the internal-combustible engine and the telegraph. But the eudometer is just a transformation of the pistol. Eudometer then became the instrument to study the ‘breathableness’ of the air, in other words the percentage of oxygen content in the air.
He now experimented with hydrogen instead of methane and then predicted the ‘breathableness’ with a 20 per cent precision. Volta also could predict in this case, the discovery of the composition of water, which was made by Lavoisier in 1783.
Later, Volta’s repeated efforts improved the eudometer and eudometric measures that even the independent studies of Von Humboldt and Gay-Lussac concluded that the instrument could not be improved further.
Electrophorus
Continuing his array of experiments, he worked further on the theory, De vi attractiva and managed to construct a piece of apparatus. In 1775, this instrument was ready. Unlike the conventional machines of those times, this instrument could produce electricity without having to rub it continuously. This apparatus that Volta turned into a machine, was called the Perpetual Electrophorus, became famous and was used in almost all of the European laboratories.
The Electric Battery : A Great Invention
March 20, 1800, Sir Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society got detailed information on the invention of the pile (battery), from Volta. This device constructed by Volta was the first of its kind. This device produced large and continuous flow of electricity. Volta’s fame spread far and wide with this invention, and in June, the same year, Napoleon to whom Volta had paid his respects reconfirmed him as the scientist from Como, Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Pavia. To demonstrate his invention, Brugnatelli accompanied him to Paris. He read out his dissertation on the identity of electric with galvanic fluid, and for this he received a gold medal.
Napoleon granted him an annual pension in 1805 and Volta was appointed as Cavalier of the Legion of Honor and became the Cavalier of the Italian Royal Order of the Iron Crown in 1806. He was installed as the Senator of Italy in 1809, and became the Count of the Kingdom of Italy in 1810. Besides these, Volta also had held offices as president of the Lario Department General Council, president of Magistrato d’ Acque, Press-censor and Member of the Central Office for the Freedom of the Press, president of the Electoral Board of the Lario Department.
In the final years of his life, Volta seemed to lose all enthusiasm about his works. Volta had practically given up research and most of his teaching work, because of political involvement and partly because of his attachment towards his family. His teaching came to an abrupt end in 1813, when he gave it up. Volta was able to shift his attitude with the changing power during those times. After Napoleon’s downfall, Austria became dominant again in Italy and Volta continued to excel and receive posts of honor.
Voltian Temple, a museum in Como, has been erected in his honor with some of the original instruments he used to conduct experiments with. The Olmo Villa has the Voltian Foundation, an organization that promotes scientific activities. One of the university courtyards still has the statue of Volta holding the pile.
Galvani – Volta Debate
Volta and his works were majorly on dynamic electricity. Galvani’s paper De viribus electiricitatis in motu musculari commentarius was published in 1791. Volta was really excited about it but later on had second thoughts about the conclusions made by Galvani. In his sets of experiments, Volta could not find Galvani’s works and conclusions convincing. Volta with his constant works detected in metals the ‘Motor’ of electricity and in frogs simple but sensitive detectors of electricity. This invention or conclusion of Volta won him awards, and later, Volta published in Annali de Chimica a journal edited by a chemist, a dissertation called Nuora Memoria sull eletricita wherein he explained the electricity phenomenon. Though Galvani did not accept Volta’s idea, this conflict split the European scientific world into Voltaists and Galvanists.
