page_title: 1800s (decade)
section_title: Electricity
hierarchical_section_title: 1800s (decade) / Science and technology / Electricity
caption_attribution_description: English: Alessandro Volta's electric battery (Tempio Voltiano in Como, Italy).
context_page_description: The 1800s was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1800, and ended on December 31, 1809. The term "eighteen-hundreds" can also mean the years between 1800 and 1899, and is almost synonymous with the 19th century.
  The 1800s was a decade of drastic change. The advancements of the last three decades over at the 18th century had propelled the Industrial Revolution into a global movement, with entire wars fought with the newly developed technologies – creating an impetus to imperialist campaigns across Africa and Asia, as well as the counter-movement on Latin America later on.
context_section_description: This decade contained some of the earliest experiments in electrochemistry. In 1800 Alessandro Volta constructed a voltaic pile, the first device to produce a large electric current, later known as the electric battery. Napoleon, informed of his works, summoned him in 1801 for a command performance of his experiments. He received many medals and decorations, including the Légion d'honneur.
  Also in 1800, William Nicholson and Johann Wilhelm Ritter succeeded in decomposing water into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis. Soon thereafter Ritter discovered the process of electroplating. He also observed that the amount of metal deposited and the amount of oxygen produced during an electrolytic process depended on the distance between the electrodes. By 1801 Ritter observed thermoelectric currents and anticipated the discovery of thermoelectricity by Thomas Johann Seebeck.
  In 1806, Humphry Davy decomposed potash and soda, employing a voltaic pile of approximately 250 cells, showing that these substances were respectively the oxides of potassium and sodium, which metals previously had been unknown. Employing a battery of 2,000 elements of a voltaic pile and charcoal enclosed in a vacuum, Davy gave the first public demonstration of the electric arc lamp in 1809.
  Steam transportation started to become viable during this decade. In 1803, William Symington's Charlotte Dundas, generally considered to be the world's first practical steamboat, made her first voyage. Later, in 1807, Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat, the world's first commercially successful steamboat, made her maiden voyage.
  In 1801, Richard Trevithick ran a full-sized steam 'road locomotive' on the road in Camborne, England, followed by his 10-seater London Steam Carriage in 1803. In 1804, Trevithick built a prototype steam-powered railway locomotive.
  The first railway began operating during this time. The Surrey Iron Railway in Great Britain was established by the British Parliament in 1801, and began operation on 26 July 1803. The railway relied on horse-drawn haulage than powered locomotives.
  In 1807, Isaac de Rivas made a hydrogen gas-powered vehicle, the first vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine.
  James Watt creates first steam engine based on Newcomen's design.
caption: A voltaic pile on display in the Tempio Voltiano.
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