Researched
Voltaic Pile (First Battery)
Volta stacks metal discs with brine-soaked cloth in 1800 and gets a steady electric current for the first time.
Open in the interactive tree →Luigi Galvani's twitching frog legs (1791) led Alessandro Volta to argue that contact between different metals makes electricity. His pile, announced in March 1800, was the first source of continuous current. Within weeks it split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and without a steady current Ørsted (1820) and Faraday could not have found the link between electricity and magnetism.
Prerequisites
- Metallurgy (Bronze, Iron)~2500 BC
- Electric Charge & Coulomb1785Volta's pile grew from the study of static electricity and Galvani's experiments
- Nerves run on electricity1791
Unlocks
- Electrolysis (Davy, Faraday)1807
- Dynamo & Electric Motor1831-1866
- Electromagnetism1831-1865Oersted and Faraday needed a steady current from a battery
- Fuel Cell1839
- Electric Telegraph1844
- Rechargeable Battery1859Plante's rechargeable lead cell is a descendant of Volta's pile
Sources
More in Energy · Industrial Age
- Wood, Charcoal & Coal~1709
- Steam Engine1712
- Water Turbine1827
- Dynamo & Electric Motor1831-1866
- Fuel Cell1839
- Oil & Natural Gas1859
- Rechargeable Battery1859
- Incandescent Light Bulb1879