ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM 



beautiful and important discoveries," and regarded it 

 as the germ or foundation upon which other discoveries 

 were to be made. The prediction proved entirely cor- 

 rect, Volta himself being the chief discoverer. 



Working along lines suggested by Galvani's discov- 

 ery, Volta constructed an apparatus made up of a 

 number of disks of two different kinds of metal, such 

 as tin and silver, arranged alternately, a piece of some 

 moist, porous substance, like paper or felt, being inter- 

 posed between each pair of disks. With this "pile," 

 as it was called, electricity was generated, and by link- 

 ing together several such piles an electric battery could 

 be formed. 



This invention took the world by storm. Nothing 

 like the enthusiasm it created in the philosophic world 

 had been known since the invention of the Ley den jar, 

 more than half a century before. Within a few weeks 

 after Volta' s announcement, batteries made according 

 to his plan were being experimented with in every 

 important laboratory in Europe. 



As the century closed, half the philosophic world 

 was speculating as to whether "galvanic influence" 

 were a new imponderable, or only a form of electricity ; 

 and the other half was eagerly seeking to discover 

 what new marvels the battery might reveal. The 

 least imaginative man could see that here was an 

 invention that would be epoch-making, but the most 

 visionary dreamer could not even vaguely adumbrate 

 the real measure of its importance. 



It was evident at once that almost any form of gal- 

 vanic batter ae imperfections, was a more satis- 

 factory instrument for generating electricity than the 



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