VOLTA, ALESSANDRO, a celebrated Italian physicist, was born at Como, of a noble family, in 1745, and received an excellent education. In 1774, he was appointed profes sor'of natural philosophy at Pavia, and continued to discharge the duties of this chair till 1804, when he retired to his native town, to spend the rest of his days. Volta, while but a youth, had exhibited considerable taste for letters, and had even written two poems, one in Italian, and the other in Latin; but as he grew older, lie abandoned all such pursuits, and devoted himself exclusively to the sciences, especially those connected with electricity. At intervals between 1777 and 1782, lie visited Switezrland, Tuscany, Germany, Holland, France, and England, making the acquaintance of the most eminent philosophers of these countries; and on his return is said to have introduced the culture of the potato into Lombardy. In 1796, he was one of a deputation sent to solicit the forbearance of Napoleon; and was received with distinction by the French general, who afterward invited him to Paris, to exhibit, to the members of the Institute, the action of the " pile" (see GALVANISM),Whith he had invented, enrolled him in the legion of honor, and conferred on him the order of the iron crown, with the titles of count and senator of the kingdom of Italy. He was also elected (1801) a foreign associate of the French institute, ten years after he had been made a fellow of the royal society of London.
He died at Como, Mar. 5, 1826. Volta's contributions to the science of electricity are of great importance, the chief of them being his theory, in opposition to the "animal-elec tricity" doctrine of Galvani, that the electric power resides in the metals; although, in turn, he fell into the error of supposing that the chemical action of the different of metal on each other was only incidental. He also invented an electric battery, con sisting of a series of cups arranged in a circle, each cup containing a saline solution iu which were immersed, edgewise, two plates, one of zinc and the other of silver, the zinc plate in one cup being connected with the silver one in the next by means of a wire. This battery was, however, soon after superseded by his "pile." He also invented, in 1775, the Electrophorus (q.v.); in 1782, the electrical Condenser (q.v.), employing with it an electrometer (see ELECTRICITY), in which two straws were employed instead of the gold-leaf strips now in use; and also (1777) the hydrogen-lamp, and the electrical pistol. Most of his important discoveries were communicated by him directly to the royal society in the form of Memoirs, which were published in the Philosophical Transactions (1782, 1783, 1800); and the Copley medal was awarded to him in 1794. —A collection of Volta's works was published in 1816 at Florence, under the title of Collezione delle Opere, etc., in 5 vols. 8vo.