On March 5, 1827, the Italian physicist Volta died at the age of 82, and he invented the earliest battery, the Volta stack.
Prior to this, electricity was studied with static electricity, which obtained the charge by friction of the starting motor, and collected the electricity obtained so hard in the Leyden bottle.
current? Then there is no way to do it.
A wet rag containing salt water is sandwiched between circular plates of silver and zinc and stacked into a cylindrical shape to produce a relatively stable current. As long as different metal sheets are inserted into the electrolyte aqueous solution, the current is obtained, commonly known as the volt battery.
There is a big gap between this battery and what we call a battery now, but this is already the most advanced power generation device of that era.
In order to commemorate the contribution of volta, the International System of Units of Voltage used his name: Volts.
Portrait of Volta: Volta and Volta are the difference in transliteration and are the same person.
Volta was able to invent the battery for two very important reasons, one was the influence of Galvani, and the other was the results of electrical research at that time.
First, let's talk about Galvani's "Dead Frog Movement."
In 1780, when Galvani dissected a frog, he found that when the scalpel touched the frog in the metal plate, the frog's leg twitched, just as the Leyton battery would twitch when the frog's leg was shocked, indicating that there was an electric current. A few years later, someone brought back electric eels from South America, and he confirmed the existence of "bioelectricity" in animals, which can be excitated by metal.
Writer Mary Shelley thus speculated that bioelectricity would affect life and death, and wrote the world's first science fiction novel, Frankenstein: the protagonist was resurrected after multiple electric shocks by scientists and became a monster.
Galvani's discovery of "bioelectricity" has aroused great interest: there is bioelectricity! Then just find the right way to generate an electric current! Volta was also one of them, refining galvani experiments and presenting his own insights.
Galvani Portrait: No frog leaves his palm alive
Second, look at the results of electricity at that time.
As early as the 17th century, Gilbert distinguished between electricity and magnetism, officially naming electricity. In 1745, Kleist discovered that putting a charged body in a glass bottle could preserve electricity, so he invented the Leyden bottle. People used this bottle for all kinds of experiments and performances, electric shock rats, sparks, and at the same time electric shock seven hundred monks to show King Louis XV. In those days, scientists liked to perform for the nobility and gain support.
In 1752, Franklin flew a kite on a thunderstorm and realized that the essence of lightning was the same as the charge generated by friction. The secrets of the gods were revealed, and both the nobles and the poor were more enthusiastic about electricity.
The battery invented by Volta allows electricity to step directly from static research to current research, and everyone no longer has to painstakingly rub amber, rub leather, rub glass, and risk finding thunder.
Franklin, who looked for lightning, was also important during the American Revolutionary War
The leader is one of the "three founding masters"
When the study of electricity ushered in a new era, Italy, the motherland of Volta, was also in great change, and the fate of Volta and many sciences was sinking and falling in the great waves of the times.
Napoleon led the French army to invade Italy.
At this time France was undergoing a great revolution to break the anti-French alliance of other countries, especially Austria, which had been opposing France and ruled northern Italy, but eventually France's Great Patriotic War turned into aggression, because rich Italy could be used as a source of food and funds.
The volta battery piqued Napoleon's interest. In 1801, Napoleon summoned Volta to give a demonstration in Paris, and happily presented Volta with a gold medal and a count.
Napoleon himself loved science and proposed the laws of mathematics: Napoleon's laws, and loved to deal with scientists, and the mathematician Laplace was his teacher, although he also drove Fulton, who invented the steamboat, away as a liar.
Fulton suggested that Napoleon replace the sailboat with a steam engine ship, but was refused
As a result, Napoleon's sailing fleet was destroyed by a storm during its expedition to England
Before the regime and the change of the times, even if scientists had great inventions and achievements, they were just a small wave wrapped up in the times.
Volta was fortunate to be close to Napoleon, to obtain knighthoods and wealth, fame, and after napoleon's fall, Austria regained rule over Italy, and Volta and the Austrian royal family also maintained good relations, enjoying good treatment in the university and enjoying their old age.
Galvani, on the other hand, refused to swear an oath to the invaders when France demanded that scholars swear allegiance, was stripped of his position, had no pension, and died in poverty.
The most tragic is the father of modern chemistry: Lavoisier, he also did experiments with Volta, and the foundation of the middle school chemistry you have studied comes from him: naming hydrogen, oxygen, silicon, publishing the first list of modern elements, proposing oxidation theory, etc. But because he was a French tax collector, he was falsely accused of execution during the Revolution and became one of the victims of the overthrow of royal rule in France.
In modern times, scientists' choices in war and politics are more critical, not only related to their own life and death, but also related to the lives of millions of people, such as in World War II, scientists led by Einstein in the United States and scientists led by Heisenberg in Germany, their competition affects the fate of all mankind.
Einstein (left) and Heisenberg (right) were actually Germans
Voodoo was fortunate to have escaped the wind and waves on the European continent at that time, and its volta stack was smoothly inherited and developed, and for more than two hundred years, people have been improving.
The development of batteries also has the characteristics of the times.
When Volta first invented the Volta stack, the Industrial Revolution and the British and French hegemony led to the emergence of a system dedicated to the training of scientists.
If There is a Royal Society in Britain, then France must have a more professional and government-supported French Academy of Sciences; Italy, which has always been a rich land, has always been a gathering place for scholars.
Volta's research career has studied and worked in all three places, and every major improvement and development of the battery is basically a scientist in these countries.
In addition to the institutionalization of science, war will also promote the development of batteries.
After the emergence of dry batteries in 1887, battery theory and technology did not develop much, but after World War II, in order to achieve heavy-duty use, alkaline manganese-zinc batteries and sealed nickel-cadmium batteries were born.
In the 1970s, the Middle East war broke out, the Arab world in order to attack Israel and its supporters, let the oil price increase triggered the oil crisis, so the battery was improved again, lithium batteries appeared, in 1985 created the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery, which can be recharged repeatedly.
Because lithium is easy to produce chemical reactions, lithium batteries are easy to explode, with the improvement of technology, more and more safe, we often hear that mobile phone explosions, is the problem of lithium batteries, so now mobile phones are not allowed to disassemble the back cover, to prevent lithium batteries from reacting and exploding.
From the pile of copper, silver and rags in Fuda to the current small mobile phone battery that can be recharged repeatedly, it has been more than 200 years. After reading this article, do you see how much battery the phone still has?
In the great waves of the times, scientists carry their different destinies to death, but the spirit of science is eternal and is with all mankind.
Historical evaluation
"The curtain before the great and mysterious world of nature has been lifted by genius."
―Napoleon I