Science Dateline: February 18
Physicist Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery
Alessandro (Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio) Volta was an Italian physicist known for the invention of the battery. He was born on February 18, 1745, in Como, a town in present-day northern Italy near the Swiss border.
In 1774, he became a professor of physics at the Royal School in Como. He improved and popularized the electrophorus, a device that produced static electricity. He is often credited with its invention although a machine operating on the same principle was described in 1762 by Johan Wilcke, a Swedish experimenter.Volta's Works
Volta studied the chemistry of gases between the years 1776-78. He discovered methane after reading a paper by Benjamin Franklin on "flammable air." In November, 1776, he found methane at Lake Maggiore. After two years he isolated it.