All About Alessandro Volta, Inventor of the First Battery

If you use computers, or any device powered by electricity, volts are the charge that powers it. According to Indiana University, “ Internally, personal computers utilize +/- 12, 5, 3.3, or 2.8 volts DC.” Volts, and amperage, also power all the different types of motors we rev up today, such as in electric vehicles, and ebikes.

It all started with Alessandro Volta born February 18, 1745. He was an Italian chemist, and physicist known for the invention of the first battery in the 1800s. The term volt was coined after him.

After Alessandro Volta began his discoveries by first improving a device called the electrophorus, which produced static electricity. he went on to study electrolytes, which are conductors of electricity. He then studied electric current, which was caused by a flow of charged particles, moving through an electrical conductor or space.

He developed Volta’s Law, after the discovery of the electrochemical series, and the law of electromotive force (emf) of a galvanic cell. He invented both the voltaic pile, which is an early electric battery, producing a steady electric current, and discovered that pairing two dissimilar metals, will produce an electric charge, or volt.

We owe so much to the discovery of voltage by Alessandro Volta. Next time you rev up that engine, or power up your laptop, remember that it all begins with volts.

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Written by Serafina Benjamin, a freelance writer and content strategist. You can see more of her work here on medium.com, on her blog serafinahikes.com, and published in several magazines.