He called the gear an electrical battery, a play on the military term for weapons functioning together.
It was known as the voltaic pile.
He concluded that this was proof that animals produced electricity and this electric power animated living things.
Alessandro Volta
Luigi Galvani.
Galvanis research inspired many Italian physicists to share and discuss these ideas.
Among them was Eusebio Valli, who wrote how his studies into animal electricity kept him awoke at nights.
Valli used the thighs of frogs, which he carefully skinned, and then chopped into two pieces.
The upper thigh was discarded and only the lower section was kept.
The macabre configuration produced a current, which scientists today call the current of injury or injury potential.
Eusebio Vallis frog battery.
Galvanis research also excited Alessandro Volta.
When a wire was applied at both ends of the pile, an electric current flowed through the wire.
Alessandro Volta’s electric battery at Tempio Voltiano in Como, Italy.
Matteucci’s frog battery was sufficiently powerful to decompose potassium iodide.
Later, Matteucci also created eel batteries, pigeon batteries and rabbit batteries.
Matteucci’s frog battery.
In 1844, for these studies, Matteucci was awarded with the Copley medal by the Royal Society.
Worth mentioning is the Daniell cell, invented in 1836 by British chemist John Frederic Daniell.
Battery technology saw rapid development throughout the 19th century.
The first rechargeable lead-acid battery was invented in 1859.
The first dry cell made of zinc and carbon was invented in 1886.
Next came the rechargeable nickelcadmium battery, which continues to be used today in small appliances.
The 20th and the 21st centuries saw vast improvements in battery capacity, power, reliability and longevity.
Lithium-based batteries were a major breakthrough that revolutionized the way portable appliances are powered today.
