Volta, Count Alessandro
Volta, Count Alessandro (1745-1827), an Italian physicist and inventor. Among his many important contributions to the development of electric power was the voltaic pile (about 1800), which produced the first continuous electric current. It showed that electricity could be produced by chemical action and was, in effect, the first electric battery. Volta's invention disproved Luigi Galvani's theory that electric current originates in animal tissue and led to the discovery of the process of electrolysis, the decomposition of a substance with an electric current.
Volta became a professor of physics at the Royal School in his native Como in 1774, and at the University of Pavia in 1779. In 1775 he announced his invention of the electrophorus, a device for producing a series of static electrical charges by induction. He also improved the electroscope, making it a more sensitive detector of an electric charge. In recognition of his work, Volta was made a count in 1801. The volt, the unit of electromagnetic force, is named for him.