Voltaic pile

The voltaic pile was an early electric battery built from alternating discs of two different metals separated by electrolyte-soaked material. It produced a sustained electric current through chemical reactions.

Electrochemical cell: A device in which chemical reactions transfer electrons between electrodes through an electrolyte. The pile is an early form of this broader device.
Alessandro Volta: An Italian physicist who developed the voltaic pile and investigated electrical phenomena. Volta described and presented the pile in 1800.
Electrolysis: The use of electrical current to drive a chemical reaction that would not occur spontaneously. The pile supplied the continuous current needed to decompose compounds.
Voltaic cell: A single electrochemical unit that produces electrical energy from a spontaneous chemical reaction. Each repeating metal-and-electrolyte unit in a pile acts as a cell.
Galvanic cell: An electrochemical cell that converts energy from a spontaneous chemical reaction into electrical energy. The pile generates current through spontaneous reactions at its metal interfaces.
Luigi Galvani: An Italian physician and physicist whose experiments on frog muscles helped establish the study of bioelectricity. His animal-electricity claims prompted Volta’s competing account of contact between metals.
Electrolysis of water: The electrical decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen gases. This landmark experiment demonstrated that pile current could cause chemical change.
Battery (electricity): One or more electrochemical cells that supply electrical energy to a circuit. The pile established the battery as a source of sustained electrical power.
Electrode potential: The electrical potential difference associated with an electrode in contact with an electrolyte. Differences between the pile’s metals help drive electron flow.
Galvanism: The historical study of electrical effects in animal tissue, named after Luigi Galvani. Debate over galvanism shaped Volta’s search for a nonbiological source of electricity.

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