అలెశాండ్రో వోల్టా జీవిత చరిత్ర
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio
Volta (18 February 1745 – 5 March 1827) was an Italian physicist, chemist, and
a pioneer of electricity and power, who is credited as the inventor of the
electric battery and the discoverer of methane.
Volta was born in Como and educated in
the public schools there. In 1774 he became professor of physics at the Royal
School in Como, and in the following year he devised the electrophorus, an
instrument that produced charges of static electricity. In 1776-77 he applied himself
to chemistry, studying atmospheric electricity and devising experiments such as
the ignition of gases by an electric spark in a closed vessel. In 1779 he
became professor of physics at the University of Pavia, a chair he occupied for
25 years. By 1800 he had developed the so-called voltaic pile, a forerunner of
the electric battery, which produced a steady stream of electricity. In honor
of his work in the field of electricity, Napoleon made him a count in 1801. The
electrical unit known as the volt was named in his honor.
Chronology
In 1800, he announced a new electrical
device, the Voltaic Pile, initially presented as an "artificial electric
organ", in controversy with the claimed autonomy of animal electricity.
This device was made of alternating disks of zinc and copper with each pair
separated by brine-soaked cloth. Attaching a wire to either end produces a
continuous current of low intensity. This was the first direct current battery.
This put an end (for a time) to Galvani's theory of animal electricity. It is
interesting to note that Volta described his battery as an electric organ and
likened it to the electric organ of the torpedo fish, which had columnar stacks
of cells.
The importance of the invention and its
applications, which came about in a few months, seemed to prove the Como
scientist right. His fame has since conquered the world. But the idea of animal
electricity did not prove useless. Volta’s invention was to give rise to
electrochemistry, electromagnetism and the modern applications of electricity.
Galvani’s research was soon to develop into electrophysiology and modern
biology. The possibility of producing electric currents was to change science
and technology in the new century. As an experimental physicist and inventor of
instruments, Volta enjoyed unequaled success, but nowadays one must remember
also his notable theoretical contributions (the product of intensive and
extensive quantities, tension, capacity, the law of bimetallic contact,
atmospheric electricity) which, while going against the Newtonian line, were to
prove invaluable for the development of the experimental sciences of the
eighteenth century.
Last Years and Retirement
Volta explains the principle of the
"electric column" to Napoleon in 1801.In 1809 Volta became associated
member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands. In honour of his work, Volta
was made a count by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1810.
Volta retired in 1819 to his estate in
Camnago, a frazione of Como, Italy, now named "Camnago Volta" in his
honour. He died there on 5 March 1827, just after his 82nd birthday.
Honors and Awards
Volta received his greatest honor at the
hands of his fellow scientists. The unit of electromotive force- the driving
force that moves the electric current- is now called the "volt." The
energy of moving charged particles produced by modern atom-smashing machines is
measured in electron-volts. A billion electron-volts is abbreviated
"bev," and when we speak of the particular atom-smasher called the
bevatron, the "v" in the name stands for Volta.
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