Volta, Conte Alessandro

Volta, Conte Alessandro

▪ Italian scientist
in full  Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta 
born February 18, 1745, Como, Lombardy [Italy]
died March 5, 1827, Como
 Italian physicist whose invention of the electric battery provided the first source of continuous current.

      In 1775 Volta's interest in electricity led him to invent the electrophorus, a device used to generate static electricity. He became professor of physics at the Royal School of Como in 1774 and discovered and isolated methane gas in 1778. One year later he was appointed to the chair of physics at the University of Pavia.

      In 1780 Volta's friend Luigi Galvani (Galvani, Luigi) discovered that contact of two different metals with the muscle of a frog resulted in the generation of an electric current. Volta began experimenting in 1794 with metals alone and found that animal tissue was not needed to produce a current. This finding provoked much controversy between the animal-electricity adherents and the metallic-electricity advocates, but, with his demonstration of the first electric battery in 1800, victory was assured for Volta. In 1801 in Paris, he gave a demonstration of his battery's generation of electric current before Napoleon, who made Volta (volt) a count and senator of the kingdom of Lombardy. The emperor of Austria made him director of the philosophical faculty at the University of Padua in 1815. The volt, a unit of the electromotive force that drives current, was named in his honour in 1881.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Conte Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta — noun Italian physicist after whom the volt is named; studied electric currents and invented the voltaic pile (1745 1827) • Syn: ↑Volta, ↑Count Alessandro Volta, ↑Conte Alessandro Volta • Instance Hypernyms: ↑physicist …   Useful english dictionary

  • Conte Alessandro Volta — noun Italian physicist after whom the volt is named; studied electric currents and invented the voltaic pile (1745 1827) • Syn: ↑Volta, ↑Count Alessandro Volta, ↑Conte Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta • Instance Hypernyms: ↑physicist …   Useful english dictionary

  • Conte Alessandro Volta — Alessandro Volta Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Graf von Volta (* 18. Februar 1745 in Como, Italien; † 5. März 1827 in Camnago bei Como) war der Erfinder der Batterie. Er gilt als einer der Begründer des Zeitalters der Elektrizität. Leben… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Volta — noun 1. Italian physicist after whom the volt is named; studied electric currents and invented the voltaic pile (1745 1827) • Syn: ↑Count Alessandro Volta, ↑Conte Alessandro Volta, ↑Conte Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta • Instance… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Volta — Volta1 [vō̂l′tä] Conte Alessandro [ä΄les sän′drō̂] 1745 1827; It. physicist Volta2 [väl′tə, vôl′tə, vōl′tə] 1. river in SE Ghana, flowing south from Lake Volta into the Bight of Benin: c. 300 mi (483 km), including Lake Volta 2. Lake artificial …   English World dictionary

  • Count Alessandro Volta — noun Italian physicist after whom the volt is named; studied electric currents and invented the voltaic pile (1745 1827) • Syn: ↑Volta, ↑Conte Alessandro Volta, ↑Conte Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta • Instance Hypernyms: ↑physicist …   Useful english dictionary

  • Volta — Volta, Alessandro, Graf, der berühmte Physiker, geb. 1745 zu Como, ward Professor der Physik daselbst, dann zu Pavia, machte bedeutende Reisen, ward 1802 Mitglied des franz. Instituts, von Napoleon I. zum Grafen u. von Kaiser Franz 1815 zum… …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • Volta — I. biographical name Alessandro (Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio) Conte Volta 1745 1827 Italian physicist II. geographical name river W Africa flowing from Lake Volta (reservoir area 3275 square miles or 8515 square kilometers receiving the Black… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • electromagnetism — /i lek troh mag ni tiz euhm/, n. 1. the phenomena associated with electric and magnetic fields and their interactions with each other and with electric charges and currents. 2. Also, electromagnetics. the science that deals with these phenomena.… …   Universalium

  • battery — /bat euh ree/, n., pl. batteries. 1. Elect. a. Also called galvanic battery, voltaic battery. a combination of two or more cells electrically connected to work together to produce electric energy. b. cell (def. 7a). 2. any large group or series… …   Universalium

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