biography
| name: |
Volta, Alessandro (Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio)
|
pronunciation:
[volta]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1745–1827)
|
| biography:
| Physicist, born in Como, N Italy. He invented the electrophorus, a device to generate static electricity (1775), discovered methane gas (1778), and was appointed professor of natural philosophy at Pavia (1778–1804). Inspired by the work of his friend Luigi Galvani, Volta found that electric current is generated when two dissimilar metals come into contact, and developed the first electric battery (1800), providing future researchers with a constant source of current electricity. His name is given to the unit of electric potential, the volt. |
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