Volta, Alessandro Giuseppe Anastasio, Count 1745-1827
Italian physicist and inventor

Born in Como, he was appointed Professor of Physics at the university there (1775) and at Pavia (1778). In 1795 he became Rector of Pavia University; he was dismissed in 1799 for political reasons and later reinstated by the French. He invented the electrophorus (1775, the precursor of the induction machine), the condenser (1778), the candle flame collector of atmospheric electricity (1787) and the electrochemical battery, or 'voltaic pile' (1800), which was the first source of continuous or current electricity. It was inspired by a controversy he had with Luigi Galvani concerning the nature of animal electricity. He also invented an 'inflammable air' (hydrogen) electric pistol (1777). Antoine Lavoisier followed Volta's suggestion that the mixtures of air and hydrogen should be sparked over mercury (and not water), and identified the resultant to be water (1782). His name is given to the SI unit of electrical potential difference, the volt.

Bibliography: Bern Dobner, Alessandro Volta and the Electric Battery (1964)