4 Biogra2)hical Sketch of Professor Volta, 



small portions of electricity liberated by the mutual action of 

 the metals. He found that the nerve was the organ on which 

 the Galvanic influence immediately acted, but that, if a part of 

 a muscle be laid upon two different metals, and a communica- 

 tion established between them, a contraction is produced. He 

 then explains all the phenomena on the principle, that when 

 two metals are brought into contact a destruction of the electrical 

 equilibrium takes place; and the one of them gives to the other 

 a portion of its natural electricity, the one becoming positive 

 and the other negative. He regards this as a new law of elec- 

 tricity, and he lays claim to the merit of its discovery. 



The great discovery of Volta, and that upon which his re- 

 putation will always rest, is that of the pile, which is now 

 known by the name of the Voltaic pile. This grand invention 

 was made previous to 1800, and having been elected a Fellow 

 of the Royal Society of London in 1791? he communicated an 

 account of it in two letters to Sir Joseph Banks, which ap- 

 peared in the Philosophical Transactions for that year. In 

 consequence of the war, however, which then raged between 

 England and France, one portion of the paper reached Sir 

 Joseph several months before an opportunity occurred of send- 

 ing the remainder. Hence the publication of the invention 

 was delayed ; but the apparatus was constructed in London, 

 and very curious experiments were made with it by different 

 gentlemen in that city before the original paper of Volta was 

 laid before the public. This instrument consisted of two per- 

 fect and one imperfect conductor of electricity, viz. silver and 

 zinc, or copper and zinc, which were the perfect conductors, 

 and a piece of card or leather soaked in salt water and a little 

 smaller than the metal plates, which formed the imperfect con- 

 ductor. When one hand was placed on the uppermost con- 

 ductor, and the other on the lowest, a shock was felt similar to 

 that of the Leyden phial. Its chemical actions were still more 

 important, and are too well known to require any notice in 

 this sketch. 



In 1821 Volta was invited to Paris. He repeated in the 

 presence of the First Consul, and before the Institute, his ex- 

 periments \|i^h the pile. These experiments were highly suc- 

 cessful ; and in order to mark an epoch so remarkable in the 



