Battery: Voltaic Pile
date: label: Date made
content: 1805
name: label: associated person
content: Volta, Alessandro
notes: label: Description
content: In 1800, Alessandro Volta of Italy announced his invention of a device that produced a small but steady electrical current. His "voltaic pile" operated by placing pieces of cloth soaked in salt water between pairs of zinc and copper discs, as seen in this 1805 pile from Canisius College. Contact between the two metals creates a difference in potential (or pressure, or "voltage"), which in a closed circuit produces electric current. Voltaic piles mark the origin of modern batteries.
label: Description
content: Before Volta's invention, electrical researchers like Benjamin Franklin worked with static charges. They learned much, but were limited by the fact that the electrical discharge was at very high potential and very low current; it also could be produced only in very short spurts. A source of flowing current allowed wider-ranging experiments that resulted in greater understanding of the links between electricity and other natural phenomena, including magnetism and light and heat. Batteries attracted the attention of many scientists and inventors, and by the 1840s were providing current for new electrical devices like Joseph Henry's electromagnets and Samuel Morse's telegraph.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
label: See more items in
content: Energy & Power
label: Exhibition
content: Lighting a Revolution
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Canisius College, Department of Physics thru Rev. J.J. Ruddick, S.J.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.323886
label: catalog number
content: 323886
label: accession number
content: 252896
objectType: label: Object Name
content: battery
label: Other Terms
content: battery; Electrochemical Devices
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
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content: wood (overall material)
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content: metal (overall material)
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content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cotton (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21 1/4 in x 4 1/2 in; 53.975 cm x 11.43 cm