The world in the Age of RevolutionScience and technology
Voltaic pile
In a letter to the Royal Society of London, Alessandro Volta described a “pile” of alternating copper (or silver) and zinc discs separated by cloth soaked in brine, the first chemical source of a continuous electric current.
- Date
- 20 March 1800exact date
- Place
- Comoapproximate locationtoday: Como, Lombardy, Italy · Western and Central Europe
- Participants
- Alessandro Volta
- Threads
- The world in the Age of Revolution
The invention grew out of Volta’s dispute with Luigi Galvani over the nature of “animal electricity”. As early as 1800 William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle used a voltaic pile to split water into oxygen and hydrogen, and in 1807–1808 Humphry Davy isolated sodium, potassium, calcium and other elements by electrolysis.
The letter is dated 20 March 1800 and was published the same year; the place on the map is Volta’s hometown of Como (he was a professor at the university in nearby Pavia).
Connections
Related events
- Suvorov’s Italian campaign3 (14) April 1799 – 31 August (11 September) 1799 · Western and Central Europewhen Austro-Russian troops returned Lombardy to Austria in 1799, the University of Pavia was closed; Volta went back to Como and built the pile at the end of that year
- Battle of Marengo14 June 1800 · Western and Central Europeafter Marengo Bonaparte reopened the University of Pavia and restored Volta to his chair, and in 1801 Volta demonstrated the pile to him at the Institut de France
Same place
- Establishment of the Tetrarchy1 March 293 · Western and Central Europe
- Edict of MilanFebruary 313 · Western and Central Europe
- Division of the Roman Empire17 January 395 · Western and Central Europe
- Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supperc. 1495 – 1498 · Western and Central Europe
Adjacent events in the thread
- White Lotus Rebellionbetween 1794 and 1796 – 1804 · East Asia
- Ranjit Singh proclaimed Maharaja of the Punjab12 April 1801 · South Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within 5 years of this event
Eastern Europe
- Assassination of Paul I12 (24) March 1801
- Death of Catherine the Great6 (17) November 1796
- Third Partition of Poland13 (24) October 1795
- First Russian circumnavigation26 July (7 August) 1803 – 7 (19) August 1806
Balkans and Anatolia
- Siege and capture of Corfu24 October (4 November) 1798 – 20 February (3 March) 1799
- First Serbian Uprising14 February 1804 – 7 October 1813
Middle East and Egypt
- French invasion of Egypt and Syria19 May 1798 – 2 September 1801
- Battle of the Nile1–3 August 1798
- Battle of the Pyramids21 July 1798
Africa
- Mungo Park’s first expedition to the Niger2 December 1795 – 10 June 1797
- Jihad of Usman dan Fodio21 February 1804 – 1808
Central and Northern Asia
- Syrym Datuly’s uprising1783–1797
South Asia
- Fall of Seringapatam and death of Tipu Sultan5 April – 4 May 1799
- Ranjit Singh proclaimed Maharaja of the Punjab12 April 1801
- Battle of Assaye23 September 1803
East Asia
- White Lotus Rebellionbetween 1794 and 1796 – 1804
- Catholic persecution of 1801 in Korea22 February – 10 December 1801
- Abdication of the Qianlong Emperor9 February 1796
- Rezanov’s embassy to Japan26 September (8 October) 1804 – April 1805
Southeast Asia and Oceania
North America
- Louisiana Purchase30 April – 20 December 1803
- Lewis and Clark Expedition14 May 1804 – 23 September 1806
Latin America
- Haitian Revolutionbetween 21 August and 22 August 1791 – 1 January 1804
- Haitian Declaration of Independence1 January 1804
- Balmis Expedition30 November 1803 – 14 August 1806
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Voltaic pile
- Wikipedia (Russian): Вольтов столб
- Wikipedia (Russian): Вольта, Алессандро
- Wikipedia (Italian): Alessandro Volta
- Volta A. On the Electricity Excited by the Mere Contact of Conducting Substances of Different Kinds // Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. — 1800. — Vol. 90. — P. 403–431.
- Wikidata: Q663273