Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was born in Como, Italy, and taught in public schools there. In 1774 he became professor of physics at the Royal School in Como. A year later, he improved and popularized the electrophorus, a device that produces a static electric charge. promotion was so extensive that he is often credited with the invention, although the engine operates in the same principles described in 1762 by Swedish professor Johan Wilcke.
Volta was an Italian physicist. He is especially known for developing the battery in 1800. He continued his work of Luigi Galvani Galvani's theory and prove that the shock effect of frog legs is wrong. In fact, this effect appears due to two metal was kind of scalpel Galvani. Based on this opinion, Volta succeeded in creating Battery Volta (Voltac Pile). For his services, a unit called a volt electric potential difference.
In 1776-1777 Volta studied the chemistry of gases. He found by collecting methane gas from the swamps. He designed an experiment such as methane combustion by an electric spark in a closed container. Volta also studied what we now call the electric capacitance, developing separate facilities for studying both the electrical potential (V) and charge (Q), and found that for an object they are proportional. This may be called Volta's Law of capacitance, and the possibility for this work unit of electric potential is called the Volt.
In 1779 he became professor of experimental physics at the University of Pavia, a chair he occupied for nearly 25 years. In 1794, Volta married Teresa Peregrini, who raised three children, Giovanni, Flaminio and Zanino. In honor of his work, Volta created count by Napoleon in 1810. Furthermore, he described at 10,000 Italian Lire (no longer in circulation) along with sketches of famous voltaic pile.
Volta began to learn about 1791, "power" of animals recorded by Luigi Galvani when two dissimilar metals are connected in series with the frog's leg and one another. Volta realized the frog's leg served both as an electrical conductor (electrolyte) and a power detector. He replaced the frog's leg by brine-soaked paper, and detects the flow of electricity in other ways that he knew from previous studies. In this way he discovered the electrochemical series, and the law that the electromotive force (emf) of a galvanic cell, consisting of a pair of metal electrodes separated by an electrolyte, the difference between the two electrodes of their potential. It may be called Volta's Law of the electrochemical series.
In the year 1800, as a result of a professional disagreement over the galvanic response advocated by Galvani, he invented the voltaic pile, early electric battery, which produces an electric current is stable. Volta had determined that the most effective pair dissimilar metals to produce electricity, zinc and silver. Initially he experimented with individual cells in series, each cell becomes wine goblet filled with brine which two different electrodes are dipped. Voltaic pile to replace the glass with cardboard soaked in salt water.
In announcing the discovery of the pile, Volta paid tribute to the influence of William Nicholson, Tiberius Cavallo and Abraham Bennet. An additional invention pioneered by Volta, is a remotely operated gun. He used a Leyden jar to send an electric current from Como to Milan (50 km or 30 miles). Current is sent along the cable which is insulated from the ground with wooden planks. This finding is an important pioneer of the idea of the telegraph, which also make use of to communicate
Battery made by Volta is credited as the first electrochemical cell. It consists of two electrodes: made of zinc, the other of copper. electrolyte is sulfuric acid or a mixture of salt and water brine. electrolyte is in the form 2H + and SO42-. Zinc, which is higher than copper and hydrogen in the electrochemical series, reacts with negatively charged sulfate. (SO42-) ions are positively charged hydrogen (proton) capture electrons from the copper, forming bubbles of hydrogen gas, H2. This makes the zinc rod the negative electrode and the copper rod the positive electrode.
However, these cells have some disadvantages as well. It's not safe to handle, as sulfuric acid, even if dilute, is dangerous. In addition, the strength of the cell decreases with time because hydrogen gas is released, collected only on the zinc electrode surface and form a barrier between the metal and an electrolyte solution. Primitive cells are widely used in schools to demonstrate the laws of electricity and is known as a lemon battery.
Volta retired in 1819 in real in Camnago, a Frazione Como is now called the Volta Camnago after, where he died on March 5, 1827. He was buried in Camnago Volta .. Volta heritage celebrated by Temple on the banks of Lake Como in the city center. A museum in Como, Voltian House, has been built to his honor and exhibits some of the original equipment he used to do experiments. Near Lake Como stands Villa Olmo, which houses Voltian Foundation, an organization which promotes scientific activities. Volta carried out experimental studies and made the first discovery in Como. For his services, a unit called a volt electric potential difference.
