The discoveries
Not just the battery: Volta investigated electricity, gases and natural phenomena with rigorous methods and a critical spirit. His research opened up new avenues in physics and chemistry, profoundly influencing modern science.
From the dispute with Galvani arose the experimental path that led Volta to the invention of the battery. By eliminating the concept of animal electricity, the scientist demonstrated the role of contact between metals and inaugurated the era of direct electric current.
Contact electricity, Power generation
Between 1792 and 1796, Volta studied the density and tension of saturated vapors, formulating fundamental laws of their behavior. His results, little known, anticipated those later attributed to Dalton.
Gas physics
Through rigorous experiments, Volta demonstrates the uniform expansion of air and obtains fundamental results on pneumatics and vapour pressure, anticipating laws later attributed to other scientists.
Gas physics
Through electrometry, Volta makes electricity measurable. By improving instruments and defining relationships between charge, capacity and voltage, he laid the foundations for modern electrical metrology and anticipated fundamental laws of electrical attraction.
Electrometry
The Volta effect arises from the study of contact between metals. Through a series of observations and laws, Volta clarified the conditions necessary for the production of a permanent electric current, laying the foundations of electrochemistry.
Contact electricity
During the controversy over animal electricity, Volta discovers and measures the contact voltage between metals. He introduces the concept of electrical voltage, giving rise to contact potential and the unit of measurement that bears his name.
Contact electricity
In 1776, Volta observed and studied a gas emerging from the marshes of Lake Maggiore. By identifying its properties, he discovered methane and intuited its possible applications, contributing decisively to the development of gas chemistry.
Gas physics
