Volta and his pile: the father of Electrochemistry

Electrochemistry deals with

  • chemical changes produced by electricity - as in electrolysis.
  • electrical changes produced by chemistry - as in electric cells or batteries

The Life of Volta

Count Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio Volta was born in Como, Lombardy, Italy on February 18, 1745. He was born to family that were in the past well off but they had now fallen on hard times.

Volta did not talk until he was 4 years old, and his family was convinced that he was retarded. However, at the age of seven when his father died, he was at the level of other children and then began to march ahead. By the age of fourteen, he made up his mind to be a physicist.

Volta became fascinated electricity and he began to study it intensively. In 1774 at the age of 29, he was appointed professor of physics in the Como high school and the next year he invented the electrophorous, a charge- accumulating machine.

Volta's fame spread as result. In 1778, Volta was the first to isolate the compound methane, the major constituent of natural gas.

In 1779, he joined the University of Pavia,where he continued his work with electricity.The major feat of his life involved the electric current. Following the experiments of his friend Galvani, Volta tried to find out if the electric current produced when a muscle was in contact with two different metals came from the tissue or from the two differing metals.

To check this he decided in 1794 to make use of the metals alone, without the tissue.He found that an electric current was produced and it was now clear that production of electricity had nothing to do with the tissue. This sparked a controversy between the Volta and Galvani. The weight of the evidence, however, leaned more and more heavily toward Volta, and Galvani died an embittered man.

In 1800 Volta constructed a device that would produce a large flow of electricity. His "electric battery"- was the first in history. The invention of the "electric battery" ensured Volta's fame. Napoleon in 1801 sent for him so that he could give a "command performance"of his experiments. He received many medals and decorations, including the Legion of Honour, was made a count and, in 1810, became a senator of the kingdom of Lombardy.

Throughout his life, though, Volta was able to cope with the intricacies of European polotics and he received many posts of high prestige. His greatest honour, however, was to have the unit of electromotive force- the driving force that moves the electric current - the "volt" named after him.

Inventions

Of Volta's numerous inventions, his most important invention was the Voltaic pile.

Initially, he used bowls of salt solution that were connected by means of arcsof metal dipping from one bowl into the next, one end of the arc being copper and the other tin or zinc.

Volta made matters more compact and less watery by using small round plates of copper and zinc, plus discs of cardboard moistened in salt solution.

Starting with copper at the bottom, the discs, reading upward, were in the pattern copper, zinc, cardboard. If a wire was attached to the top and bottom of this "Voltaic pile": an electric current would pass through it if the circuit was closed.

The voltaic pile was the first electric battery